[CONTENTID1]CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO[/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]It was a sight to see as YoonGi slowly stepped through the threshold of what used to be Mino’s apartment- a close friend of his whom he managed to talk into renting for MiRan. She was curled in the corner of the living room, lights out almost everywhere apart from the bathroom with its door barely open and the kitchen island that cast big, eerie shadows into the living room, obscuring her from view almost entirely.

He sighed then, plopping himself into the couch and rolling his head to lay on the backrest. He wasn’t surprised of her being that way, not really, or should he say not anymore. Though at the same time he was shocked beyond belief, as well. Hwang MiRan was an enigma that he couldn’t figure out- strong at times and weaker than thin ice at others.

And yet as he watched her shaking in that corner, burying her head into her knees and hiccupping from time to time he wondered just what kind of bastard had made her cry again. The girl of steel and walls and ice- she hid too much and spoke too little for people to get a chance at her friendship. That was one of the reasons why Park JiMin had been one lucky piece of . He had earned her friendship. And yet as she cried her heart out in that room, YoonGi wondered where JiMin was if not at her side, helping her to calm down and embrace her pain, helping her to relieve it completely.

He kept quiet for a while longer, exhausting another heavy sigh before standing up and walking closer to her, crouching and putting an awkward and cold hand onto her back, rubbing it up and down in unusual comfort that he didn’t know he could produce. “What… happened?” he asked with a high voice, his awkwardness too obvious even for him.

She didn’t answer his question, however, at least not vocally, and instead she shifted away from his touch, flinching as he tried to get a little closer to her again. That’s when her voice floated into his hearing range, “Don’t touch me,” she whispered with a broken tongue, hiccups bracing her tone and shudders wrecking her body.

He winced at the defensive streak in her voice and could only wonder for how long she had been sitting there in the darkness, hunched up and alone with no-one to sooth her pain away.

Again, YoonGi only sighed, getting up and leaving her to her own devices. He was no JiMin and his heart didn’t bend and sympathise with the girl on the ground. If she wished to be alone, so be it. He will give her room, for now. An hour or two to let her grip herself back into her hands. Meanwhile he could make her tea and delay the reason for his visit for a bit longer.

He tried, and he tried to make his visit seem like a small deal, not worthy of his time and more a bother over his shoulders than anything else- an errand of sorts. And technically, he wasn’t wrong in thinking so, only that the matter was pressing hot on his heels and the fact that the woman whose help he sought after was crumpled on the floor with distress was not helping his cause at all.

YoonGi’s steps halted in the kitchen as he took a cup for whatever tea the girl had in her cabinets. He could offer at least such condolence to whatever she was feeling at the moment. If she didn’t want any physical comfort, at least he could try to go about things emotionally. Make her open up and stop crying.

Waiting for the water to boil he rested his back against the kitchen counter and closed his eyes, sliding his hands into his jeans pockets and then quickly pulling them out as if he was burnt. The crumpled paper had grazed his hand where it was discarded in a raging movement of a hand that nearly ripped the pape