Your Presence

Someday at the end of May, Sungmin decided to invite himself to Hyukjae’s house in the middle of the week. Of course Hyukjae complied, they were friends and he had nothing against some company. As they walked home from the bus stop, Hyukjae stopped in his tracks, glancing from this special house, to Sungmin and then back to the house.

“Hey, Sungmin,” he called out.

“Hm?” The older boy halted, interest sparked.

“Do you know anything about that house, it’s very…different.”

“No, I’ve seen it before, but I don’t know anything. Why?”

“There’s a guy on the second floor, he’s always in front of the window. Every single day, he’s just, there.” Hyukjae gazed forward, finding his target, the one that never seemed to leave his spot.

“What guy…?” Sungmin questioned, not understanding what his friend was referring to.

“What do you mean what guy? He’s right there, look.” He pointed straight at the boy, but Sungmin just couldn’t see what he was talking about.

“Hyukjae, are you ok? There’s nothing there…..you’re seeing things.”

“Huh?!” Hyukjae’s eyes seemed as if they were about to pop out and his jaw dropped so low it had potential to reach the ground. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing, was he seriously imaging this person? Maybe it was a ghost, yet that seemed too surreal, he could not comprehend what was going on at the moment. That is, until a loud laugh cut through his thoughts. Sungmin was having a laughing fit right there, doubled over, wiping his tears away.

“I can’t believe you fell for that,” he spoke through his calming laughter, “god that was too funny.”

“That wasn’t funny! I thought I went crazy for a moment … but you do see him right?”

“Of course, don’t worry, you’re still sane…or as sane as you can be for staring at a random person, inside of their own house…everyday.” Sungmin’s laughter slowly disappeared, but he still spoke with an unfaltering smile.

“I know, it’s weird, but something is attracting me to it.”

“Something? I think it’s more like someone.” This comment came from Sungmin in a definitely teasing manner.

“What are you trying to say?” Hyukjae narrowed his eyes at the other as they started to head towards his home.

“I’m saying you have a crush on him~” the older boy sang.

“That makes no sense. I do not have a crush on a guy, a guy I don’t know. Did I mention it’s a guy?”

“I’m not necessarily saying you have a crush on him, but maybe just the fact that he’s there, his presence.” What he meant wasn’t exactly clear to Hyukjae, and he didn’t fail to express that feeling.

“Again, that makes no sense, Sungmin.” Can that actually make sense though?

“Whatever you say,” the boy started to speed up, knowing where Hyukjae lived, “besides, there’s nothing wrong with liking a guy.”

~

This same week, on a Friday, although Hyukjae hated to admit it, he started to think that Sungmin’s words had some strange truth to them. That day was the first when he did not see the boy on the other side of the window. Instead, he was greeted by long curtains cast over the glass walls of the structure. Regardless, Hyukjae watched the house anyway, before leaving for school. However this time a foreign, pressing feeling appeared in his chest, it was some sort of mixture between longing and concern. What could this curtain possibly mean? Was it something that covered the windows during the night, yet someone failed to unveil them today? Or maybe there was a reason why they stayed covered.

He couldn’t concentrate much at school that day. Even after class, his concern was not lifted as he found the house to be covered up just the same. This continued through the whole week, and with each day his worry about the house and the person living in it grew, so to spare himself, he tried his best to shorten his glances, because with every look he would feel more and more disappointed.

After a while, one day, the windows were uncovered once more. However, to Hyukjae’s disappointment, the person he looked forward to seeing wasn’t there, nor did he appear in the afternoon or any other day that week.  At this point, Hyukjae realized how crazy he was being, looking forward to seeing some random person, standing on the other side of a glass wall that separated them. It never really made sense, so maybe it was time Hyukjae got over it; perhaps it was time to stop being such an obscure watcher.

~

It was summer already and as Hyukjae had planned, he had stopped associating himself with the neighboring house. He even went out of his way to get off at a stop before his usual one, it required more walking, but it wasn’t something that bothered him. This became his new routine and he hadn’t given much thought to that house and the boy since.

 On a weekend, when the sun shone brightly, he decided to spend his day outside. He walked out alone, trying to enjoy the odd placement of nature and city mixing together. Somehow he ended up walking towards the trees that separated the buildings from the house he admired so much. What he didn’t expect was that the amount of trees was much denser than it seemed, in fact it was almost a full forest. He wandered through the trees for a couple of minutes before he heard a loud sound behind him, that of a cracking tree branch most likely. The sound was so unexpected he jumped just the slightest bit and his heart raced, he turned quickly to find where the sound came from, but what he found made him jump once more. There was a person there, and the person seemed just as taken aback as Hyukjae was. They stood for a moment, that seemed much longer than it actually was, until Hyukjae realized who he was looking at. The guy that stood by the window so often.

~

heeyyy~