Warmth
Epidemic Heartbreak
“Hmm… Hi?” He laughed embarrassedly, using his dirty hands to cover his almost black face, smudging more soot onto it.
“A-are you okay?” I tried to hold back my laughter.
“I… guess so?” He let out a stupid grin. “I… I burned something, haha. Well that’s obvious…” You watched him scratch his head but it was too late to warn him that his hand was… quite dirty. “But I’m okay. So… Please come in?” He invited me into his smoky apartment with a cute, slight bow.
I grinned and walked in. “You scared me. By the way I’ve… baked a cake.” I turned around facing him, held the box up and smiled proudly.
“Wow!” He exclaimed as he closed the door behind me. “You can bake? You should teach me some day!”
“It’s not that hard, and of course I can teach you. So, I’ll put it in the fridge?”
“Yes, thank you! It’s over there.” He pointed. I walked over and put the cake inside the fridge by myself, not wanting to cause the owner of this apartment more trouble.
‘His apartment was basically the same as mine, except the furniture.’ I noticed after the smoke was more or less gone. ‘But then how could he afford such a nice place?’ I couldn’t help but wondered. From what I saw, he packed quickly, and only two boxes were left in the corner of the living room. Compared to my apartment, his was cosier and cuter. You can almost imagine him hugging his blanket, curled into a ball on the couch like a child.
“Do feel like home~” He sang next to me, trying to chop some tomatoes.
“Can I help?” I looked at him over my shoulders with a witty smile. He nodded eagerly and moved a bit so that I could stand beside him. “I’ll blanch the spaghetti.” I suggested and pointed to the pack of spaghetti on the counter, next to the chopping board.
As we cooked together, he introduced himself, much to my surprise to be honest. Like my estimation, he was a little more than a year younger than me. He had a rich father but he died two years ago. He didn’t mention his mother though. His father left him quite a lot of money, as well as this apartment.
“I used to live with my cousin, who was about 10 years older than me,” He said while chopping his vegetables, “but then she was going to get married, so… I decided to move here. It’d be awkward if I live with them, right? Haha.”
“Hmm…” I hummed and nodded. Stealing a glance from his face, I could see sadness in his smiling eyes and it made my heart sting. A little kid like this shouldn’t look like this… There was something strange I felt from him, which made him different from teenagers I met when I was still studying. However, I felt warmth in my heart after realizing that his life was just as complicated as mine.
“You’re entering university anyway, independence is a good thing.” I responded, “Many teenagers beg their parents to let them move out! To them, you’re pretty lucky.”
“Maybe~” Happiness masked his sad face again.
“You… smile a lot.” I turned to him and said seriously. He returned with a big smile. “I’m envious.” I added and started cooking again.
“My friends call me idiot,” He laughed, “for smiling too much.”
“Seriously? Why?”
“I don’t know…” He softly answered. “Perhaps I’m slow at reactions, and I smile even when they hit me. I… I mean the playful kind…”
“I know, I know.” I chuckled.
After some time, I found myself sitting at the table with Jongup, face to face. He had already cleaned his face but there was still some soot on his cheeks and the tip of his nose. He ate like a hungry kid, keeping quiet yet not forgetting to put on that cute smile. ‘How can somebody manage to be this cute…’ I thought as I chewed on the food.
“Can I call you hyung?” He suddenly asked when I was busily munching on the pasta we cooked.
“Of course, but why?” I tossed back my head, trying to swallow all my food, and slurred.
“With you I no longer feel empty…”
I froze. Empty. That was what I was feeling. That was the word – empty. That was what I’ve been feeling all these months. Empty…
“M- Me too…” I slyly murmured.
There was an awkward silence and I could see Jongup trying to break it as he looked up from his plate of pasta from time to time. I was doing the exact same thing, and when our eyes met, we both lowered our heads quickly.
“Ahaha… H-hyung, how do you want me to call you? Daehyunnie hyung? Hyunnie hyung? Dae hyung?” He awkwardly raised a question.
“Whatever you please.” I smiled as I twirled my fork in the spaghetti.
“T-then I’ll go with Hyunnie hyung… Hehe.”
“Why?” I tilted my head slightly and put the spaghetti in my mouth.
“It sounds the cheesiest.” He grinned sheepishly yet dorkily.
I choked at my food and he laughed.
“Hyunnie hyunggggg~ You can call me Jonguppie or guppie, that’s my nickname.” He sang.
“I’ll call you by your name.” I said seriously.
“Nooooooo…”
I leaned forward across the table until we were face-to-face, centimetres apart, and hissed evilly. “Yessssssssss.” He pouted and I patted his head before I leaned back to my seat. “Eat, Moon Jongup,” I smirked and pointed to his plate, “Believe me, you can still grow.”
“Ya!” He shouted and playfully smashed his palm onto the table. Soon, we both finished our food and cleaned up the mess.
“So…What do you want to do after the meal?” I said when I handed Jongup another soapy dish for him to wash clean.
“Movie? I have plenty of them in that box~” He said happily. I nodded.
Our smiles faded when Adam and Lawrence realised the saws were for their feet, not the chains in the movie, Saw. I didn’t even bother to hide my cowardly side because Jongup had already curled up like a ball on the couch and buried his head in the cushion. On the other side of the couch, there was nothing but me hugging my knees and squatting on the couch like a child. Neither of us wanted to turn the TV off, and neither of us wanted admit being afraid.
“Are you okay?” I tried to tease Jongup, but sounded less confident than I intended to.
“You don’t seem alright either.” He said, leaving the two of us giggling.
“So do you want to stop it?” I suggested, still smiling. Instead of saying yes, he challenged me with a competition. The rule was that we must sit properly on the couch and keep our eyes opened for as long as we could manage; the one who gave up first will lose. I agreed with a confident nod.
So there we were, sitting still on the couch next to each other, literally forcing ourselves to look straight into the TV screen. All we exchanged was silence and trembling breaths. At the corner of my eyes, I saw him subconsciously rubbing his palms together on his lap before I realised myself interlacing my fingers together nervously. I sighed hopelessly, wanting all this to end. Throughout the past five minutes we exchanged occasional glances, as if we were checking on each other in case someone cheated, and the air was abounding in towering tension. My heartbeat was racing so much I thought I was going to faint right away, and that’s when the two of us reacted identically to a terrifying scene:
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!” Our high-pitched, girly screams shook the room until we held each other tightly to keep us from falling off the couch. Both of us panted after a moment, another giggling session started.
“That was intense.” Jongup said weakly in-between pant, still clinging on me like a koala even after I loosened my arms.
“I know right.” I chuckled and sat straight, pulling his head onto my chest, his hair.
“Your heart is beating real hard, Hyunnie hyung~” He turned his gaze from the air to my still-terrified face. I pulled him away.
“I’m just…”
“Scared.” I pretended to laugh at his word.
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
“I a-“
“Got ya!” He laughed like a kid and flipped his body quickly before crawling away from me.
I rested the back of my hand on my forehead and sighed, not wanting to chase after him. Instead, I picked up the remote control and turned off the TV after cursing the movie director in my heart.
HIIIIII ^__^ sorry for taking so long >< i know i'm a horribly slow writer sdkfghkldfhgskhdfkg
so here's chapter 2! i hope you liked it<3
i was thinking about shortening the chapters and updating more often, would you prefer more updates or longer updates actually? :O
okay, one important thing:
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
i never thought that i'll get so many subscribers after just one chapter T_____T i love you guys and even this is really cliche, i must swear that your support is my motivation ><
please take a moment to comment! ^__^ i'll tell daehyun you bake you a cheese cake :D
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