Chapitre Six

>I could watch the world pass by, just as long as it's you and I<

MyungSoo

“Aish this Google map had better give me the right direction otherwise I’ll throw this phone into the drain.” MyungSoo muttered to himself, ready to put the blame on the phone if Google map failed to navigate him to where he wanted to go.

After he received the call from the lady who owned the rice cake stall, he rushed over, without even saying goodbye to his friends who only watched him as he ran in a panic mode. He felt bad about that but he could always apologize later.

What mattered most now was to get to where she was. From the sound of the lady’s voice, it seemed that she was in a big mess, and he had to get there before she was in a bigger mess. It wasn’t like her to get into trouble, and he wondered what had set her off.

Please be okay until he got there. It took a lot of him not to trip or anything as those things would only slow him down. He even avoided running into people as that would mean another problem. He followed the directions on his phone, and was glad that he had arrived unharmed. Deep down, he was also glad that he didn’t have to throw his phone away. Thank the universe.

He arrived at the stall, looked around, and his worried eyes found her straight away. She was at the very back corner of the stall, head slumped against her chest with her hair going everywhere. One glance and she looked completely wasted, with three bottles of soju in front of her, all of which MyungSoo assumed were empty.

MyungSoo sighed and met eyes with the stall owner, who only looked at him sympathetically. “She’s been like that for the past hour.” The lady said. “I called you because your number is first on her speed dial. I think someone needs to take her home. I’m worried that she won’t make it back on her own.”

MyungSoo nodded his head and apologized to the owner, before thanking her for letting the shop stay opened until he arrived. There was no one else there, and MinNeul was her only customer left. He was secretly relieved that there was nobody else around.

He walked towards the table and grabbed a chair before sitting next to her. He pushed the bottles out of the way and cleared some of the mess that she made. MinNeul lifted her head and slammed it on the table, not realizing that MyungSoo was next to her. The boy sighed as he hoped that she did not hurt her forehead.

MyungSoo looked for her bag and searched for a rubber band. MinNeul always carried extra hair bands inside her bag because she tended to lose them and lo and behold, he managed to find one. He gathered her long hair and tied it into a bun, thinking that it might be more comfortable for her if the hair was out of her face.

Feeling like someone was playing with her hair, MinNeul finally looked up, her eyes half closed, and MyungSoo’s heart crashed upon seeing the sadness that was visible on her face. Her cheeks were red, her eyes were swollen, tear stains were all over her cheeks and no doubt, she had been crying throughout the night.

She met his eyes. “You’re MyungSoo, right?” MyungSoo wanted to smile at the question, and he did, barely managing it. "Yes, it is me."

MinNeul giggled at that and her head started to drop again, and MyungSoo's smile faded instantly.  He sighed and immediately asked the only one question on his mind. “What happened, MinNeul? It is so unlike you to be like this. Did something bad happen?”

MinNeul only kept quiet as her lips started trembling, and before he knew it, she broke out into a sob and hugged him almost instantly. Her sudden action came as a bolt from the blue, and MyungSoo froze at first, not knowing what to do. But within a heartbeat, he returned her hug and patted her back.

They had never hugged before, and this had completely surprised him. After finally realizing what she actually meant to him, he tried to focus on her crying more than his racing heart. Whatever it was that happened must’ve hurt her so badly.

“It’s all right.” He said, patting her shoulder. “You’re safe.”

He looked at the lady who only stood at the front part of the stall, and she only smiled at him sadly. “I’ll give you a moment to calm her down. The stall is already empty anyways, so I’ll wait outside.” She said, and MyungSoo only nodded at her gratefully. No wonder MinNeul liked coming here so much and it was because the owner was so kind.

He shifted his attention back to MinNeul, whom, in his opinion, had been holding herself back from crying her heart out. Well, he didn’t want her to hold anything back. He just wanted her to let it all out, cry it all out so that she won’t cry for the same thing again.

“You can cry all you want, you know.” He said. “No one is going to hear and you can just pretend that I am not here.” Somehow, he felt as if that was what she wanted to hear, because right after he said it, she bawled so hard that it pained him to the soul.

He’d never seen her cry before, and to witness her cry like this, it torn him apart for not being able to do anything to make her feel better, other than staying there with her. How he hoped that he could do something to make her tears stop, as hearing how sad she sounded made him want to cry too. She cried as if the world had lost all of its beauty, and he sighed as he rubbed her back.

“He cheated on me. We’re through. No more. It’s all gone.” She mumbled, and it didn’t take too long for MyungSoo to know of whom she meant. There could only be one person who could do such thing to her, and anger seeped into his veins.

If it weren’t for MinNeul needing him there, he would’ve gone to the bastard’s house himself and beat the life out of him. What held him back was just the thought of leaving MinNeul there didn’t sit well with him. He could kill JongIn some other day, he thought, right now he just wanted to make sure that this girl was okay.

“I didn’t expect him to do that to me.” She wept. “After all these years and yet there were no regret whatsoever, and the only thing he could say was sorry, which I don’t think he meant.” She looked at MyungSoo, and his heart broke even more seeing the pain reflecting in her eyes, which usually looked mischievous. “He just threw it all away. None of it meant anything to him anymore.” She sobbed, and MyungSoo sighed as he hugged her, gently soft rocking her to calm her down.

She kept on crying, letting out the anger, disappointment and regret she’d kept inside her heart. She tried to completely erase all those promises JongIn made her, their good and bad times and their dreams. None of it will come true anymore. It turned out that she was the only who’d been holding on to it, and JongIn had let it go long ago. He’d let her go long ago, and it took so long for her to realize.

But it wasn’t easy to let go of someone who used to give you so much to remember, and to remove him totally was not an easy task. He was special, he made her feel special, and now he treated her as if she was nothing. There was no word that could express how painful that actually felt.

Thinking of how JongIn had made her look like a fool angered MinNeul, and that caused her to unintentionally hit MyungSoo’s arm repeatedly. “Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. I should’ve never trusted him so much. I should’ve known. I should’ve seen it coming.” She muttered to herself, and at first MyungSoo was surprised when she hit him, but he knew she didn’t mean it.

It was better for her to vent out her anger, instead of keeping it bottled inside her heart. He didn’t want her to have any resentment towards anything or anyone. He just wanted her to be the MinNeul he knew, smart mouth, passionate about what she was doing, and loved life. He hoped that she wouldn’t mope about this either.

How he wished that he could tell her that it wasn’t her fault, but he chose to just stay quiet. Advice or sweet words was not something she needed right now. What she needed was someone to hear her out, and to assure her that she wasn’t alone, and he was going to do just that.

“I’ll definitely beat him into a pulp the next time I see him.” She said angrily, and MyungSoo couldn’t help but to smile. “He’ll certainly regret doing what he did to you.” He agreed. “Show him that it was wrong to mess with you.”

MinNeul sniffed and extricated herself from the hug, and looked at MyungSoo with a small frown. “I’m sorry I hit you.” She said with a yawn. “I just needed to hit something.”

MyungSoo laughe