Youngjae smoothed down Shiro’s furs lovingly receiving a soft, little whine from the puppy. He held him closed and swayed his arms slowly back and forth like what a parent does to a new born baby. Shiro only snuggled closer. Youngjae was having a hard time to understand if the puppy was liking it or hating it. He continued to do so anyway, this time lighter.

It has been four days since he last seen the puppy running around the place, jumping up and down furniture with his tongue and ears flapping about and his cute little tail wagging behind him. Shiro had been found lazily lying down on his dog bed. Only getting up when he needed to do some emergencies, which Yoojin trained him professional a few weeks ago and when he needed to eat his meals.

 Shiro acted like he had given up on life ever since a certain someone left the house, unlike his owner who has been going in and out of places that were unknown and disappearing out of the blue without saying anything.

Mark could be heard rummaging through stuff on the small fridge round the corner of the games room. Youngjae looked behind and watched as Mark took a big gulp of an energy drink and ended it with a satisfied sigh. His eyes smiling and his mouth lopsidedly grinning. He looked drunk.

“Where did you go?” Youngjae questioned, kissing the top of Shiro’s head. Shiro made lonely noises, like he was crying and Youngjae got flustered and tried his best to calm him down. Mark stared at the puppy then shook his head and walked to the pool table. He placed his drink on the wooden sides.

“I went to this place with Sara”

“And you didn’t tell your mum?” Youngjae stood up to seat on the arms of the single seated sofa, facing Mark, “she was worried sick”

It only made the boy shrugged his shoulders, not caring who was worried and what had happened during the two full days he was gone. He brought his hand back and took a strike, aiming at ball nine which went inside the hole. He grinned, feeling proud of his skills.

Mark had left his heart to a place that was so hard to reach so he can never get it back, no one can ever retrieve it for him and shoved it inside his chest once again. He lost his manners, his warmth and emotions, almost transforming into a robot that stroll around the world carelessly without any thought.

Youngjae frowned. He felt like his friend was just at the brink of falling away from his grasp

The TV that Youngjae had was the only thing that took away the silence, even if no one was really watching it. Youngjae was too busy examining his best friend. Mark was too busy playing pool to noticed anything.

Youngjae’s eyes followed Mark as he paced around the pool table to see if there was a better access that can make the only ball remaining to go into the hole within one shot. “Have you heard anything from Yoojin?”

Youngjae’s question made the other boy stiffen and he saw Mark’s shoulders tense and the grip of the cue stick tightened. But he remained silent. Acting like he never heard the previous question.

“Mark –”

“You know what Sara and I was thinking on the way here” Mark twisted his head to face Youngjae. Something in his eyes glistened differently underneath the room’s light. He was pleading him… pleading him to not say anything else about the topic that Youngjae mentioned.

“The room down there” Mark pointed to the left, “I can make that as a gym or something. Buy equipment and machines to make it as my private one. You and the boys could come over and it’ll be free”

 Mark’s voice sounded too loud, the words coming too fast like he was in a hurry. “what do you think?”  

Youngjae didn’t answer and let the puppy fall softly onto the sofa. Shiro looked up at him, his big puppy eyes begging for Youngjae to carry him again.

 Shiro had loved Youngjae’s warmth, he missed being love. His owner barely looked at him. He treated him like he was poison, or some kind of nuclear acid. Youngjae could only pet the puppy’s head apologetically and grabbed his bag that was beneath his feet.

“Forget it” Youngjae snapped. He had enough of Mark’s actions and childishness. He usually was a patient person and lived his life as trying his best to understand others and how they feel. But Youngjae lost his cool. If that was how Mark wanted to live his life then he had already lost Youngjae. He won’t be coming back unless Mark fixes himself.

Youngjae sighed and closed the door behind him, not forgetting to hiss a ‘see you at school’ to Mark who looked at the pool without a thought running through his mind.

“Hey” Sara opened the door, knocking it to get Mark’s attention. The boy swerved his foot so he was facing the girl that had an eco-friendly bag hanging from her right arm, a smile never leaving her face. “Youngjae told me I’d find you here?”

Mark reached over and grabbed his drink, taking a sip as he walked towards Sara. “what’s that?”

She held up the bag, “food. I figured I should do something as an apology. I need to place this inside the fridge”

The boy nodded, he closed the TV and the lights. Afterwards his hand was on Sara’s back, pushing her lightly out of the room and towards the staircase. When Sara asked him where they were going, Mark pointed to the kitchen with his energy drink and Sara nodded and let him lead her.

Sara brought some uncooked food that her chef had passed down to her when she asked him to make something for her. It was needed to place them in the fridge so they won’t go weird. Mark helped her stack them up.

“Apology?” Mark mumbled, repeating what she said earlier when they were upstairs. Sara nodded, bending her knees slightly so Mark could place the container in his hands inside easily without her head being on the way.

“I just picked you up and didn’t even tell your parents we were planning to go somewhere. We were gone for freaking two days Mark. Imagine what your mum would’ve felt”

Mark shrugged one shoulder, “won’t make any difference. It was my decision to go with you, my fault that I left my phone, my fault for not informing others when I should’ve” He pushed one of the container that dared to slid off, “you didn’t need to go this far”

Sara opened , wanting to say that Mark was looking far skinnier than he was before. He looked like he wasn’t eating any proper meals and she knew that Mrs Tuan was far too busy to cook anything up. The other workers were probably with Mr Tuan since he went overseas.

During times like this, Yoojin would’ve made them food every time. Sara wanted to be like Yoojin, the problem was she wasn’t good at cooking food.

Sara closed . She had decided not to speak of Yoojin once again since Mark looked like he wasn’t in the mood to remember the past. Sara was happy about that fact.

“My mum trust you anyways” Mark fixed a strand of hair that fell on his eyes, “since we’re engaged to one another”

The ring that was on his finger glimmered proudly in contrast to the kitchen light that shone above them. Sara looked down on her own hands. The matching ring sparkled when she looked at it from different angles.

The news went around and Mrs Tuan had told the Li’s that Mark had decided to keep the contract going. Luckily she was quick to do so because Mrs Li was about to rip off the contract after seeing her daughter at such a state.

The whole time Mrs Tuan was on the phone informing what had happened to the Li’s, Mark was beside her, egging her on and reassuring him that he was cool with the idea. Mrs Tuan on the other hand was hesitant but passed the sentences on.

The contract remained standing still. They both decided to forget the day when they had believed that it was cancelled. Sara happily implied to the idea, since it almost left a scary scar to her pride.

They both finished loading up the food onto the fridge. Mark sat on one of the stools and Sara was behind him. Her hands immediately went to his shoulders, massaging him after the work.

Mark dropped his head. He had never believed how much weight was on his shoulders. After every massage that Sara was giving him, he felt as if his body was getting lighter.

Then he opened his eyes, he remembered what had happened to the very room they were in. He remembered the stools that were on the ground after being thrown away, he remembered hitting every furniture just to be in control and to be the one that was speaking since they were both stubborn.

Mark instinctively curved his neck to face the certain corner when he said the horrid words, when he cut it all off.

Sara watched him closely, her heart wasn’t feeling happy. She stopped her massaging and Mark looked up to her, his attention being diverted.

“You won’t mind if I stay for dinner right?” Her hands were on his hair now, tangling through the strands. Mark suddenly felt like her touches were so unfamiliar. A zap went through his body. It wasn’t a good zap as well.

He shook his head and Sara beamed. She disappeared to where she could find Hayoung, she was one of the few that stayed with Mrs Tuan.

Mark unconsciously slipped off the ring then slipped it back on as he found himself on the balls of his feet and was walking around the kitchen. He closed his eyes and remembered every step, every move and every word that was said and done. At the end, he was back to the corner. His breathing grew heavy.

‘’

☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺

“Yoojin, table five please” Wonwoo, an older co-worker called out her name, holding the tray out for the girl who took it obediently. Yoojin flicked her pony tail to the side and strode off to where number table five was.

She forced a smile on her face. She needed to make the customers comfortable and happy with the service. That was what she was taught, what was what she had learnt from the older experienced worker of the café.

The group of girls that was sitting at table five fell for the magic and mirrored the smile like they were supposed to. One was happily clapping as their order was right in front of them and the rest were busy clearing out the table to make a place for the food.

Yoojin grinned and accepted their thank you’s before sliding the tray and waited for it to be taken to the kitchen by the person in charged.

Her new job was fairly easy. She had experienced in being a waiter before, and there wasn’t a lot of moment when it was a full house and super busy. The only problem was that it wasn’t enough, well for Yoojin it wasn’t enough.

That’s why she had applied for other jobs and she actually had a interview for a the yogurt place after her shift. The more job means the more income she and her mother gets and the faster the money comes, the faster they can pay off their debt to the Tuans.

The mention of the heart-wincing family made Yoojin looked out the window. She didn’t know why she suddenly felt melancholic. A frown was on her face and her heart dropped.

Yoojin shook her hed, telling herself to snap out of it and Wonwoo gladly helped her.

“Ryemi-ah! Yoojin!” Wonwoo called out, pressing the small golden bell that was beside him to call out the younger workers. Ryemi was another girl, a high-schooler and someone around Yoojin’s age. They haven’t talked before but Yoojin knows that Ryemi was there to independently work off her own money.

 She felt familiar to Yoojin; they were pretty alike in some degrees. Then Yoojin noticed that there was one thing different about the two of them; Ryemi was a high-schooler and she wasn’t. Yoojin cursed herself silently, why did she always make herself remember the past?

“Here” Wonwoo gave a tray to Ryemi who arrived faster. “To the couple over there” He pointed with his lip to the couple that was sitting on one of the outside table. Yoojin realised that they were the couple ordered from her.

The boy reached his long arms and handed another tray to Yoojin with a smile on his face, “to that lonesome boy over there” Ryemi looked behind her and saw a boy also around her age staring off to someplace else.

She took the tray and walked towards him. A smile already forced onto her lips.

“Did you get the job dear?” Ms Baek was smoothing out her short hair that she originally had in a hair tie.

Ms Baek was meant to be working with the café with her daughter, but the boss made a mistake and the workers were already full.

Luckily, he was affiliates with another branch. A restaurant in another place needed some helping hand. Yoojin was about to argue that it was better for the two of them to be together so Yoojin could look out for Ms Baek but Ms Baek had already accepted the offer hearing the higher payment.

In the end Yoojin kept quiet especially when Ms Baek said she even met a new friend, the owner of the place.

Yoojin waited at the bus stop when she knows that Ms Baek’s shift had finished. They then walked home together.

Ms Baek loved the idea of walking home around the time when she finished working, mostly because it’s during sunset and as they walk, the mother and daughter could simply enjoy the beauty of the sun setting and the sky mixing into beautiful colours. Almost like a water colour painting.

Yoojin grinned, taking Ms Baek’s bag from her and held it instead. “Of course mum, I am Yoojin after all”

The owner of the yogurt place was an old man, and the supervisor was his granddaughter. The family seemed really nice and welcoming. The moment Yoojin stepped foot inside the building she felt the love being shared.

The walls were painted in warm happy colours, the interior design was cute and slightly old fashioned. Yoojin loved the yogurt place and luckily the owner loved her and accepted her. It was good news that she had two jobs now.

Ms Baek held her daughter’s hands, swinging it back and forth. Yoojin giggled and looked down on their interlocking fingers. Ms Baek could only watch her silently.

“I’m sorry” she said, her voice soft and sincere.

Yoojin lifted her head up, her mum’s eyes were glassy with tears. The daughter leaned in and kissed her mum on the forehead, feeling bad that her mum was crying over her.

“Don’t be sorry mum” Yoojin brought a hand and forced the right corner of her mother’s lips to pinch them upwards, indicating a smile.

Ms Baek had always said her apologies to Yoojin, especially after they moved out. She kept on saying that Yoojin shouldn’t be living her youth the way that she was currently living it. She said that she should be with her friends, having fun, going out and all the other stuff.

Ms Baek had also said that working was for adults and that it wasn’t good to be cooped up working especially since she was young. Yoojin only laughed at that light-heartedly, saying that it didn’t matter, that maybe she wasn’t fated to have fun.

“I’m alright. I’m having fun and I’m making new friends too” Yoojin told her mother. She actually talked to Ryemi for the first time after their work.

Ryemi was asking her if she was okay since she looked pale before she exited the café. Yoojin informed the girl that she was going to apply for a job. Ryemi gave her advices on how to calm down during interviews. Yoojin actually used some of her advices and she got the job. Yoojin couldn’t wait to thank Ryemi the next day.

Ms Baek felt her insides warmth. Her daughter’s sincere tone and eyes gave her reassurance. Yoojin giggled after a strong wind went past and messed up both of their hair. Ms Baek laughed with her and helped take the stubborn strands of hair that remained sticking onto her daughter’s face away. She was glad that her hair was shorter.

“I love you dear” Ms Baek pinched one of Yoojin’s cheeks making the other pout and rubbed the pinched skin.

“I know” Yoojin sighed and looked upwards. The sky was slowly emerging as one now, dark navy blue was taking in charge pointing out that night time was just around the corner. Her eyes went back to her mum that was still staring at the sky, agape. “I love you too mum”

Author's Note:

OMG I legit screamed when I read your comments, because I didn't mean to make you guys cry I swear. I thought it was some kind of maeterial of work to be cried over and some of you said that you teared up or something. ASDFGHJKL; I'm sorry TT~~~TT

To those people who knows Ryemi, *winks* you derserve one pizza slice and trust me, i don't give out pizza slices to anyone easily

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