"Wake up!" Jihoon yelped when something heavy attacked his abdomen, forcing him away from his dreams: his mother. "You are going to Jeju!" 

"Huh?" Jihoon was still trying to recover from the attack.

"No questions, we're going!" Jihoon was confused as his mother ushered him into long clothes to protect every inch of his skin, rushing him through checking out of the hospital and into her car. The idea had barely sunk in by the time she had started to drive.

"You'll be living in Jeju until you're better." Jihoon's mother smirked at her son's shocked face in the mirror. 

"Why!?!" Jihoon screamed the question. 

"Don't scream, I spent the last 24 hours flying to Jeju and back from Jeju to get to Seoul and this is how you treat my poor ears?" Jihoon huffed and tried to calm himself down. "To answer your question, you will be living with our relatives that live in Jeju, and no complaining! This is for the better." They reached the airport. 

"I don't even get to say bye to anyone? Not even Daniel?" Jihoon whined.

"It's just 6 months, remember the doctor said that you need to spend time away from electronics." Jihoon gasped.

"It wasn't a dream?" Tears formed in Jihoon's eyes, "I won't get to have my phone for 6 months?" 

"Stop crying, this is for the better." Jihoon's mother threw a tissue at his face, eyes focussed on the parking spot.

 They got out of the car. Jihoon looked at the luggage in the back. "Yes, I packed your things, don't go through it right now, I don't want to hear if I missed something." Jihoon looked again at the single, measly luggage. 

"Why is there only one?" His mother shoved the handle of it into his hand, walking away to force him to keep up with her. 

"You only need one, if you want something else, I'm sure you can get it in Jeju." She explained as she walked. 

"What relative lives in Jeju anyways, I thought no one lived in Jeju." Jihoon's mother stopped at the entrance, turning around and giving Jihoon a look. 

"You don't remember who lives in Jeju?" Jihoon shook his head, "Well then I guess you'll find out when we get there." She turned around to check them into their flight. 

~~

Everything seemed too familiar yet unrecognizable to Jihoon when he stepped off the plane and exited the airport in Jeju. The cab ride too, Jihoon guessed vague directions as the cab continued down the roads of Jeju, surprised the majority of turns were correct.   

After a 45 minute drive, they arrived at a regular looking house - other then the fact that there were barely any other houses in its general vicinity - the house seemed well kept. Jihoon felt like he has sat on the rocking chair that was on the front porch before. Even his first steps out of the car felt reminiscent. 

"What are you waiting for? Go knock on the door!" Jihoon's mother urged him. Complying, he reached out to knock on the door.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

He could hear a small ruckus inside the house, someone's voice getting louder before the door opened. A boy that seemed older then Jihoon smiled brightly at him. 

"Hoonie!" Jihoon looked at the features of the boy, everything was slowly piecing itself together in his brain. The ovular face shape and soft gaze could only mean one person. 

*

"Honey look." Jihoon's mother urged the 4-year-old out from hiding behind her skirt. "It's your second cousin, don't you want to say hi?" 

Jihoon slowly approached the 7-year-old waiting for him with a smile. "Hi, Jihoon! I've heard a lot about you, I'm Jacob or Joonyoung if you want." 

"Baecob?" Jihoon poked Jacob's bellybutton and looked up at him in question. "Sure, Baecob works!" 

* 

"Baecob?" Jacob let out a small laugh. 

"You still remember! It's been so long!" Jacob pulled Jihoon into a tight hug. 

"Jigoo!" Someone shot out of nowhere and tackled Jihoon to the ground, he let out a small oof as his body came into contact with the soft earth. 

*

"Look, Haknyeon." Jacob brought Jihoon into a room where another little boy was sitting. "Remember, umma told us about our second cousin, he's here, see?" Haknyeon perked up from his spot on the floor, dropping his little book about the earth and walking over to Jihoon. 

"Jigoo?" Haknyeon tilted his head in question.

"Yeah, it's Jihoon," Jacob spoke for Jihoon, who was still nervous about meeting new people. 

"Jigoo?" Haknyeon peered closer at Jihoon.

"Yeah...." Jihoon answered for himself. Haknyeon's face immediately lit up. 

"Let's go play!" He pulled Jihoon out of the house, their 4-year-old legs tangling clumsily as they set out to play.

*

"Haknyeon!" Jihoon almost wanted to slap himself, having forgotten about his second cousins in Jeju. Yet again, he only did visit meet them twice, when he was 4 and 8. 

"I haven't seen you in forever!" Haknyeon pushed himself off of Jihoon. He helped Jihoon up, laughing with glee. 

"Aren't you forgetting me?" An older woman followed up from behind, the flower in her ear bounced in sync with her long flowery skirt. 

"Aunt Joohyun!" Jihoon gave her a light hug, careful not to snap a bone in her fragile looking body. 

"How come you didn't visit us for 11 years!" Jihoon scratched the top of his head in thought

"You know how it goes, you get busy and time flies by." His mother grabbed his hand after her answer, "Let's go unpack shall we?" 

"Good idea, we'll be preparing lunch as I can assume that you haven't had it yet?" Jihoon nodded his head and let his mother pull him into the house. 

Jihoon soaked in the surrounding's of the house, memories of the few moments he spent in the house when he was younger flooding back into his head. Making a blanket fort in the living room, stealthily snatching the jar of cookies in the kitchen, sliding down the stairs on a makeshift sled. All the memories were pleasant, but they all lacked a common item. 

"I see you already know." Jihoon's mother was looking at him when they reached his temporary room. 

"They have no electronics." She giggled at his blunt, emotionless statement. 

"Of course they don't honey, this is a more rural place in Jeju, the number of electronics diminishes when you step out of the city." Jihoon dumped the luggage onto the suitcase. 

"They don't even have a house phone?" Jihoon looked around his room for any sign of it. 

"Nothing." Jihoon's mother opened the suitcase, taking out all of the clothes, along with a few necessities. 

"No land line means I don't even get to call Daniel? But no calls means no connection and no connections means that we're going to fall out!" Jihoon's mother sat on the bed, folding the mangled clothes neatly again. 

"He can visit you. What is this, just because there's no electronics or landline means that you'll drift apart? That's bull! If that was real, I would never be with your father still." She placed a stack of shirts in one drawer and shut it. 

"And what are these? Ew!" Jihoon threw the books to the side in disgust. 

"Ew? These are some top notch novels right here that I bought for you to enjoy! You know reading is good at relieving stress too? That's exactly what you need, stop worrying about how many people will retweet your instagram posts!" 

"That's not righ-." 

"I don't care if it's wrong." She picked the books off the floor and placed them in a neat row on the dresser. 

"Lunch is ready!" Joohyun's voice called from downstairs. 

"Oh perfect, now go rekindle with your second cousins and I'll see you in 6 months!" Jihoon's mother left the room. 

"This isn't fair!" Jihoon complained as he trailed his mother down the stairs. 

"What isn't fair about it? You get to experience the real world and I don't have to see your face plastered to a screen for 6 months, I think it's a win-win." She waved at Joohyun, climbing into her car. 

"What if I die from a lack of Daniel or my phone? Or even worse.. both!" She rolled her eyes. 

"Don't be silly now, don't break anything, don't complain to them, and certainly don't try to get your hands on any technology! I will see you in 6 months." She sped off before Jihoon could protest again. 

"Let's go Jihoon, we cooked some of your favourites." Jacob stood beside Jihoon, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. Jihoon looked up at Jacob. He had two options ; run after the car and risk immediate death by his mom or proceed with the next 6 months of torture by lack of wifi. 

"Okay." Jihoon chose the latter option.

~~~

It was 8 am, Woojin studying in his living room when he heard someone fall outside his place. Woojin peaked out of the door in curiosity.

"Need help?" Woojin stood at his apartment door, looking at the woman in front of Daniel's apartment, on her knees picking up scattered clothes. 

"Ah! I've seen you a few times, you're a friend of my son right?" Woojin adjusted the glasses on his nose. 

"I guess so." He bent down to help her with the clothes on the ground. 

"Oh thank you, you don't have to." Jihoon's mother took the clothes out of Woojin's hand. 

"It's my pleasure, but why do you have Jihoon's clothes?" Woojin had seen some of the clothes before. 

"I was gathering his things from Daniel's place, Jihoon's going to live in Jeju." Woojin dropped the last shirt in his hand. 

"Going to Jeju?" Jihoon's mother nodded and picked up the fallen shirt. 

"Yes, his flight is in 2 hours so I have to take off, thank you again....." 

"Woojin." 

"Ahh Woojin, thank you Woojin, I'll be seeing you whenever!" She disappeared down the hallway. 

* 

"So Jihoon's gone now?" Kevin, Woojin's best friend, placed the empty pastry wrapper down on their table in the cafe. Eating the whole thing when he listened to the accounts of Woojin's morning. 

"I guess he is." Woojin's head slumped down, stirring his coffee glumly. "I already miss him so much." 

"Told you that you should have confessed." Kevin shook his head.

"But he's dating Daniel." Woojin pouted, turning sour at the thought of Jihoon and Daniel kissing. 

"Okay you have a point," Kevin looked out the window in thought for a minute. Snapping his fingers when a light bulb flickered over his head. "You said he's staying in Jeju now? Why don't you visit him?" 

"That's weird," Woojin twirled his stir stick around, "I don't think he thinks we're close enough."

"Every relationship has to start somewhere, we didn't even start on good terms." Woojin glared at Kevin momentarily. 

"It's because you broke my glasses on the first day of grade 8." He mumbled. 

"What did you say?" Kevin leaned in closer to hear better. 

"Nothing," Woojin waved Kevin back to his side of the table. "I won't visit him." 

"Why not?" Kevin crossed his arms. 

"It feels like a risk." 

"Oh Woojin," Kevin placed a hand on his shoulder, "My one and only, always playing it safe, Woojin. Visiting a crush doesn't mean you're obliged to confess. You can even visit with Daniel and use the excuse of wanting to see Busan, something like that. You don't have to feel forced- " 

"I do." The light bulb flickering above Kevin's head burned out. An employee calling out in the background that they were going to fix it. 

"If you feel forced, don't do it. I'm sure Jihoon isn't going to live there forever, knowing his popularity, there probably would've been a huge moving away party." 

"Maybe I'll wait until he comes back." Kevin sighed. "That wasn't the point." He muttered to himself as he pulled out his phone, the screen shining brighter in their darkened section. 

"You know they have a deal for flights right now. Wow! Only 60000 won for a ticket to Jeju!" There was a flat smile across Woojin's face. "Oh I'm not implying anything, I was only browsing. I'm going to go to the bathroom and I'll leave my phone conveniently right here." Kevin left the phone on its web page and headed off to the bathroom. Woojin glanced at it for a bit. 

He spoke to himself after several seconds of looking, "Maybe."