I stayed at the mansion that night. Yonghwa insisted for his best friend to have an ‘official’ sleep over (the first sleepover wasn’t official. I was shamefully drunk) so here I am sitting on a stool crouching at the corner while watching Jung Yonghwa rummaging and tearing the whole storage area apart.

“I’m looking for something!” he said from somewhere. I lost sight of him due to the outrageous number of boxes scattered in the storage. “I found it!” I heard fallen boxes before he made his appearance before me. His hair is covered with dust and spider web.

I stopped him from being too excited. “Clean yourself please. I don’t want you to get sick from all the dust”

While Yonghwa was in the showers, I brought the box he had found earlier to the living room. I was very curious to know the content. But as curious as I was about it I am more curious to know his reasons for leaving his friends so I decide to uncover the dusty box before me.

Inside, I saw a few photo albums. Yonghwa’s old school reports are there too. I laid the things out on the table and immediately I asked for Moonsik to clean the box before bringing it near Yonghwa again.

“Oh?” Yonghwa said as he saw me with a pile of his momento. “You started without me Hyun…” he said with feigned dissappointment.

“I’m only cleaning them for you. Stop babying yourself Jung Yonghwa ssi” I said. He sat next to me grinning playfully. Annoyed, I nudged him on his ribs.

“Ouch! That hurts!” he tittered.

I ignored him and grabbed one of the albums first. But before I could turn to the first page I turned to him for permission. He simply let me. I let my fingers ran through every pictures stuck within the page and the feeling then was as if I have peered into his past. The pictures of little Yonghwa when he was only a few days old, a picture of him a few months old and a few pictures of him reaching into his first birthday.

That was when it struck me. His parent’s divorced when he was only one year old. I turned to the last page of the album. What I have seen made me wonder.

A picture of a family; they were all smiling. Everything looked well and the happiness was apparent. There sitting side by side was Yonghwa’s father and his mother. Little Yonghwa was sitting on their lap.

I turned to him and he wasn’t smiling. He saw me looking at him and forced a smile towards me. I place my hand on his face.

“Are you alright with this? We can put all of these albums away…” I said. Yonghwa shook his head. “Nah…” he smiled. “I’m looking for an old picture of us anyway…” 

I turned to him. Never once he