“What in the world...” The second the clock hit 5:30, he handed the keys over to a co-worked and tried to track down his friend. While one would think it should be easy to spot a 6-foot pretty boy with bright blond hair in the middle of Korea, Baekhyun struggled to find him. After ten minutes of no luck, Baekhyun gave up and made his way home.
*~*~*~*~*
“Hang a left at the next light.” Sehun said as he stared at the lit up phone. “And then go down a couple miles before veering right at a fork.”
Luhan followed the directions. Yurim barely recognized the area as the newest development of downtown. She only knew because she and Chanyeol once went to visit Baekhyun on the job.
Speaking of the brown-haired shortie, they saw him jogging up the street. Yurim asked Luhan to pull over and caught Baekhyun’s attention. “Baek-Oppa! Have you seen Kris?”
Baekhyun looked surprised. “Yeah. Is something the matter with him? He looked kinda pissed.”
“Do you know where he went?”
“That way,” Baekhyun pointed behind himself, “But I lost track of him so I haven’t the slightest clue where tall, pale, and hot ended up.”
Yurim bit her lip, but she caught the glint in Luhan’s eyes. “Thanks. I’ll see you later.” Luhan and Sehun waved as they continued down the road. “So you know where Kris is?”
Luhan nodded. “I told you, I was willing to put money on this trip. I trust my sources.” Sehun kept rattling off directions, but looked up when Luhan started to ignore his commands.
“Hey babe, uh, I said right. Not left.”
“Trust me on this one.”
Luhan parked the car in a huge lot. Sehun and Yurim followed him out, neither recognized the area and wondered why Luhan picked here of all places to stop. He motioned for Yurim to look off somewhere. She had no idea where his finger was leading her eyes to. All she saw was row after row of boats anchored down at the dock.
“I see Kris!” Sehun cried. Yurim tried to crane her neck and peak around boats until she saw the familiar head of hair seated at the edge of the wooden walkway. Sehun nudged Yurim forward to encourage her to hurry and talk to him. Though she hesitated, Yurim knew she had to.
Kris heard her long before she said anything as her footsteps neared and the creak of old wooden boards brought him out of his daydream. “What do you want?” He asked, not once looking at Yurim but farther still towards the sun setting.
“You know, I could have been a dog or a little kid, but you just knew it was me, didn’t you?”
“I heard Sehun. He wouldn’t be here without you. He worries about you too much like that.” Kris was being so direct it intimidated Yurim and made her hesitate again. It took her a moment to regather the resolve that escaped her.
“Look, Kris, I-”
“I know.” When Yurim didn’t continue - out of shocked Kris assumed - he did. “I overreacted, so I’m sorry, too.” Kris motioned for Yurim to sit next to him. She did, allowing her legs to drape over the edge just inches over the water. It surprised her a bit when Kris leaned his head on her shoulder as he wrapped an arm around her waist. “Forgive me?”
Yurim merely nodded her head as Kris’ breath tickled her neck. She gently pushed away and glared at Kris, knowing she had told him long ago that her neck was a sensitive spot and she could only take so much contact there. “I won’t bring Joonmyun up again.” Yurim added after Kris sent her an apologetic look.
“It’s okay, really. I’m just always worried that if he’s around too much you might...I mean...I sort of know what happened, but at the same time I don’t know what happened.” Kris was looking back out at the water while Yurim concentrated on his words. “All I really know is that after Joonmyun happened, there was the rebound and part of me wonders if you’re really over Joonmyun or if you’re just settling because you can’t have him. And I can’t bring myself to hang out with him because I swear I still see that stupid look in his eyes.”
“What look?”
Kris hid his face in his hands. “That...that look that makes him look like a sick puppy who got ditched by its owner. I don’t know. There’s just a look in his eyes that makes me feel almost guilty about having you. Hearing you call him “oppa” earlier didn’t help.”
Yurim was taken aback. Kris had never shown his insecurities to her before, and it made her head fill with floaty thoughts. If it weren’t for an odd twist she felt in her gut, Yurim would have deemed this be perfect moment.
Also, if she didn’t feel the wood slip out from under her, she would have thought the moment was as close to perfect as anything could get. Yurim gasped for air as she splashed in the water. “What the frick! Kris!” It water wasn’t too deep, but Yurim did have to bounce a bit to keep her head above water.
Her beloved boyfriend was almost doubled over as he laughed. He (not at all) gracefully hoisted himself into the water and grabbed Yurim close to himself. “Sorry but it’s what you get for making me say these things. Jeez...”
“Get off me! Jerk!”
Kris laughed as he (once again, not at all) gracefully swam back to the shore with Yurim at his side. They walked back to Luhan and Sehun and gratefully accepted their jackets - mostly at Luhan’s insistence so they wouldn’t get his car wet. “So where exactly did you park if you walked passed Baekhyun’s job?” Luhan asked.
Kris directed Luhan to his car which was up by a coffee shop Kris was known to frequent. While Yurim asked if she could go home with him, he denied her requests and said he wanted to sleep right away. Deflated, Yurim bid Kris farewell with a simple kiss on the cheek before allowing Luhan to drive her and Sehun home.
“All better?” Sehun asked after walking inside and slipping off his shoes? Yurim nodded before announcing that she was going to shower and sleep.
*~*~*~*~*
It was an early Sunday morning. Yurim had absolutely no reason to be awake at 8:30 in the morning on a Sunday of all days, but Kai had called her, texted her, and even knocked extremely hard on the front door until Sehun threw the door open and glared at Kai for waking him - and half the neighborhood - up.
After much fuss, Yurim found herself at Kai’s house. It wasn’t that odd of a thing. But again. It was 8:30 AM and Yurim’s every attempt to fall back to sleep were thwarted by a swift flick to the forehead. “Will you stop that!” she said for the fourth time as she massaged what she thought was a growing crater in her forehead.
“Fo-cus. Yurim, you told me that you were going to go through with this and Seohyun and Wonjoon are expecting this to be perfect. Just sing along with the music. I know you know how the song goes, we just need to get you comfortable with the thought of singing in front of a crowd” Kai turned to his laptop and pressed play. A series of chimes followed by two light beats of the drum led up to the melody. Yurim closed her eyes and opened to sing.
언젠간 이 눈물이 멈추길
언젠간 이 어둠이 걷히고
따스한 햇살이 이 눈물을 말려주길
I hope these tears will stop running someday.
And someday after this darkness clear up,
I hope the warm sunshine will dry these tears.
The music kept playing but Yurim stopped singing. “What’s wrong? You sounded great!” Kai paused the music
“It sounds weird to me...can it please be a different song?”
“No. It has to be this song.”
“Why?”
“Because...just...just go with me on this, okay? Take it from the top of the verse.” Kai rewound the track before playing it again.
지친 내 모습이조금씩 지겨워지는 걸 느끼면
다 버리고 싶죠힘들게 지켜오던 꿈을
가진 것보다는 부족한 것이 너무나도 많은 게
느껴질 때마다다리에 힘이 풀려서 난 주저앉죠
When I feel tired and look exhausted
I want to give up on all my dreams I’ve fought so hard for
Every time I feel that I lack the power to keep going
I lost strength in my legs and fall to the ground
언젠간 이 눈물이 멈추길
언젠간 이 어둠이 걷히고
따스한 햇살이 이 눈물을 말려주길
I hope these tears will stop running someday.
And someday after this darkness clear up,
I hope the warm sunshine will dry these tears.
Just as Kai had silently hoped, Yurim lost herself in the song. And just like before, Kai could feel everything that Yurim had held onto in the last year.
기다리면 언젠간 오겠지
밤이 길어도 해는 뜨듯이
아픈 내 가슴도 언젠간 다 낫겠지
But wait it’ll come
Although the night is long, the sun will come up
And someday my painful heart will get well
Yurim and Kai kept practicing. Yurim sang and Kai pointed out thing she should try to improve on, or see how something would sound if she sang it differently. Despite the resistance at first, Yurim found that she was really enjoying Kai’s idea. “Maybe you actually had a moment of genius when you thought of this.”
“Please, I am a genius.” Kai looked at his watch before letting a smile creep on his face. “It’s been a few hours, so how about we just relax for the rest of the day?” It came out as more of a statement than a question, really, as Kai retreated to the kitchen before returning with some water.
“I’d like that. My throat is going to be shot if I don’t take a break!” Yurim sat next to Kai and turned the TV on. It was prime time to watch some cartoons. “We have an extra practice tonight, right?”
Kai nodded. “We’ll show Seohyun and Wonjoon what we have so far.”
“We? I’m the one doing all the work!” Yurim smacked Kai in the face with a pillow.
“Oh you did not just go there.”
“I think I did.” Yurim hit Kai again with a second pillow. “And I think I did again. Would you like to try your luck for a third?”
Rather than entertaining Yurim’s challenge with words, Kai grabbed the nearest pillow and returned the favor.
“Hey!”
“You’re such a brat, I can’t believe someone as cool as Kris would actually date a kid like you.” Kai got up to hide before Yurim could hit him again.
But she didn’t. In fact, she made almost no move other than a slight recoiling back into her seat. Kai froze. “Oh sh-sorry I didn’t mean that, Yurim. Uh, uh...” Kai, in all his panicked hurry, tried his best to change the topic. “Oh! Look! Deep Rooted Tree is on!” Kai turned up the volume and prayed for Yurim to forgive him for saying stupid things.
Yurim stood up and grabbed her things. “I’ll see you at practice.” Yurim left before Kai could protest. The door shut loudly behind her and Kai slapping himself for being a brat himself.
“Ugh. Great job Kai...” he said to himself. “and you wonder why things couldn’t work out...”
------
a/n
Derp X.x one of the ongoings I've had for a while. I'll try and update this one more frequently cause I do know how the story should go. It's more finding the time to actually update it and put my thoughts on paper.
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