May 15th, 1994

Baekhyun felt depressed, he drank a little bit too much every day or maybe every time he felt that he had to. His life was kinda different from a year ago, where he was showered by all those happy things and now reality seemed slap him hard, or maybe too hard. He had so many thoughts in his mind, thinking what would actually happen next, about his mum. He went to his parents’ home today, to meet his mum. Again, he poured alcohol into his orange juice and packed his stuff, not to forget a small box of gift for his mum. Baekhyun was actually a sweet little son, he loved his mum so much. When he arrived, his father welcomed him. Baekhyun’s relationship with his father wasn’t that good, they both were awkward to each other. But he pretended to be the cheerful one, be the ice breaker.

“Aye, aye. How are you old, man?”

“Your mother’s upstairs. She’s been waiting all morning for you. Good god, why are you sweating like that?”

“Well, it’s a hot day.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Look, how is she?”

“Well, why don’t you go and see?”

Baekhyun’s mum diagnosed with four-staged cancer, this news made his world crumbled instantly. He almost broke down or maybe already but he played cool in front of his mum. He just didn’t want to be seen as a weak son. When he saw his mum sitting on her chair, staring at her lovely garden with soft eyes and scarf that she fashionably wrapped on her head, made Baekhyun’s heart broke more. His mum looked so pale and thin, she had no hair left. Mrs. Byun was really beautiful and cheerful but lately she was being all gloomy. Baekhyun was holding his tears while staring at his mum and tried not to break even more, he forced a smile and knocked at her door. Mrs. Byun tilted her head and she flashed her lovely smile to him, still as beautiful as always.

“Hello, hello.”

“Hello, stranger.”

“Look, I’ve got a present for you here. It’s not for me, it’s from Jieun.”

“Thank you.”

Jieun knew everything about Baekhyun’s mum. She decided to wrap some books for her since they both loved reading. Mrs. Byun thought that Jieun was really different from other girls. She was ambitious, smart, and lovely. She liked her. When his mother unwrapped the present, Baekhyun really couldn’t hide his sadness. His mum looked really weak but he needed to conceal his sadness in front of her.

“Oh, how lovely. A little ambitious maybe. You might want to push her towards short stories in the future.”

“Mum, don’t.”

“So, what have you been up to?”

Baekhyun watched his show with his mum, he tried so hard to enjoy that yet he really did bad. He didn’t know that his mum wasn’t actually watching that show but watched him instead. After quite long, he realized his mum’s expression and tried to go with the best part but his mum turned off the TV. Mrs. Byun didn’t like the show, she felt a bit disappointed to him because she thought that he could do more since that show just, yeah you can call it “watching girls dancing in cages” show which not so good for kids. They argued a bit but then his mum gave up.

“I’m sorry. The medication makes me ratty. I just need a little lie-down. I’ll be better tonight.”

“Yeah, you know, um…actually I’ve got this premier thingy tonight.  Look, I’m sorry, I can’t miss it, it’s Jurassic Park.”

“I’m afraid I’m going to need some help.”

“Are you alright? Here, put your arm around me.”

Mrs. Byun was too weak to get up from her chair, she thought that Baekhyun would stay until dinner but the fact that he was busy, break her heart. She wanted to sleep and tried not to argue again with him. Baekhyun brought his mum in her room and watched her to sleep. He then went to his own childhood room, staring blankly and drifted away to his little world, dream. He couldn’t sleep well lately but it was quite strange because he slept soundly in his parents’ home.

“What time is it?”

“Quarter past 6:00.”

“Yeah, I must have dozed off.”

“I’m afraid, you’ve missed our day. Your father’s little angry with you.”

“Look, I’ll stay tonight.”

“No. You go. No pleasure for me, watching you and your father snarling at each other. Can I speak frankly?”

“Do you have to?”

“I think it’s my prerogative. I know that you’re going to be a fine man. Decent, loving, and accomplished. But I don’t think you’re there yet. And right now, well, I worry that you’re not very nice anymore.”

“Well, there’s nothing I can say about that.”

“There’s nothing you have to.”

They both shed tears, all the sad look was there in their eyes. Mr. Byun was really mad at him, not a little but quite serious. He just hoped that Baekhyun would actually spend his day together with his mum since he was hella busy but he slept instead. Mr. Byun drove Baekhyun to the nearest train station because he drunk, before went to bed he had his alcohol again. Baekhyun felt like he was a disappointment because of this and his father was right, he shouldn’t had come to see his mother with him being drunk.

–

Jieun had a date with Chanyeol, she wore a long dress plus jacket and boots. Simple yet perfect. Her phone rang right after she closed the door, contemplated to pick it up or left since she was late, but then she chose to leave. It was Baekhyun, he called her from train station.

“You’re not there. I just remembered you’re on a hot date tonight. I’m too late. Okay, can you call me when you get this? It’s just I need to speak to someone. Not someone. You.”

Chanyeol took Jieun to a small cozy restaurant after they done with their movie. The atmosphere was good. They walked side to side, Chanyeol with his bike tried to make jokes as always while Jieun tried to laugh politely. They talked about the movie, commented about the plot and what should be shown or the hidden messages. Chanyeol mumbled all the way with his joke while reading the menu and Jieun just frowned because she actually didn’t understand.

“I’m gonna skip a starter because I had those nachos, but you go ahead. You can have anything you like. Anything up to the value of, say 14,000 won. No, no seriously, no have anything. Well, you know within reason. It’s just so good to see you again. And you’re going to be an amazing teacher. Congratulations.”

“Thanks.”

“I wish I had more teachers like you. Not that I’d have got any work done, Miss Lee.”

On the other side, Baekhyun just got home and checked his voice mail right away but he got nothing. Jieun hadn’t called or replied him yet. He then sat on his sofa with his alcohol, of course. While Baekhyun was waiting for Jieun’s reply, the girl was kinda confused with Chanyeol sudden confessions to her. Chanyeol had prepared this, he asked the waiter to dim the lamp and started to confess his feeling up to Jieun. He held Jieun’s hand, the atmosphere was a bit awkward since Jieun accidentally sighed.

“I’ve been so excited about seeing you. Like nervous. I’m sorry, I….”

“I’m not good at this stuff, either. It’s just I graduated today. I’m finally, actually qualified to do something useful, and I wanted to celebrate with someone.”

“Was Baekhyun busy?”

Jieun really couldn’t say anything more, actually she wanted to celebrate her graduation with Baekhyun and share everything with him but sadly he was unavailable. She tried to distract herself from Baekhyun and calmed herself; she held Chanyeol’s hand to break the awkward atmosphere between them. Baekhyun started to get frustrated; he kept calling Jieun even though he knew that he would only connected with her voice mail.

“Ji, when you hear this, can you just get in a cab? And I’ll pay. Maybe you could even stay over, you know, on the sofa or something? I need just to see you. Please, can you just come over?”

–

Chanyeol and Jieun’s so called date was over, it was quite late and raining. Before left the restaurant, Chanyeol confessed again.

“Lee Jieun, can I say something?”

“Go on.”

“I think you’re absolutely amazing.”

“You and your honeyed words.”

Even though the rain was quite hard, they chose to walk instead of taking a taxi or something. Chanyeol suddenly offered Jieun to stay over at his apartment. Jieun a bit hesitant at first but then agreed, she thought that it would be nice to stay over since he got hot chocolate with marshmallow, Jieun’s favorite. They had arrived at Chanyeol’s place, it was quite messy yet comfortable enough for Jieun. They spent their night with some random topics and Chanyeol thought that it was his chance to know Jieun’s personality deeper. Jieun started to open a bit because she actually wanted to erase her feeling for Baekhyun. This tall and not-so-funny guy wasn’t that bad, no one knew who started first but they cuddled. No lust, just cuddled.