Baekhyun drives me to the officetel later that evening along with Taeyeon unnie only to bring over my belongings In all honesty, I had insisted on using cab, but Taeyeon unnie being Taeyeon unnie, she basically rejected my innocent idea and requested her boyfriend to send me over here.

They only went home after transferring all my belongings from Baekhyun’s car to my apartment. I did not forget to sincerely thank them for genuinely lending me a hand. Taeyeon unnie told me before they left that Baekhyun will be moving into the house tomorrow morning. I was like, taken aback for a moment. I mean, I just moved out like, today and her boyfriend will move in right away tomorrow morning. What a hasty boyfriend he is as though he couldn’t stay far from her for too long. Duh.

After I have finally moved things here and there and decorated the place, I decide to go out for grocery shopping. To be completely honest, I can be considered quite lucky because the office is actually fully furnished. I just need to bring my luggage, toiletries and comforter—that’s all. 

I have phoned Dad about me being in a new place, and to be honest, he’s quite worried at first thinking me living on my own is something he needs to worry about. However, I earnestly told him that he needn’t worry because I will be just fine. He just needs to send me weekly allowance. Ha-ha.

Okay, I spent about fifteen minutes at the supermarket across the street. Once I’m done, I exit and go straight home. I don’t have any places to drop by since I’m still new to this area and my wristwatch reads 9:00 PM. I should be just getting home, having instant dinner and going to sleep. I have a class tomorrow morning at 10.

I hear faint sound of footsteps behind me. I actually feel somewhat afraid because not only is it night, the possibility of that person behind me is a guy is actually high.

Out of suspicion, I turn around cautiously and have my eyes wide open at the sight. Yes, just as my hunch told me earlier, it is a guy and he is my new neighbor, Lu Han.

“Lu Han?” I mumble quite audibly, biting the edge of my lower lip.

He seems to have just noticed me ahead of him. He looks up at me and a bewildered look spreads across his face.

///

Lu Han and I settle at the park later on. I have no idea why he wanted to come all the way here—and even asked me to join him. That is so strange of him since he’s famous to be the one who doesn’t like to be surrounded with a group of friends. I wonder if he’s got something to talk to me. Well, I guess I’ll just have to wait.

“So… where’s Jun?” I initiate a conversation only because he’s not saying anything. To tell you the truth, I inwardly cringe in embarrassment because my voice sounded so weird just now. “You, uhm, just returned from the supermarket, didn’t you? Why didn’t he tag along?”

“He’s sleeping,” he says in a low, composed voice. “Just for the record, he tends to sleep right away after dinner.”

I bite my lower lip. “I see.”

“I know what’s on your mind.”

“Sorry?”

“I know what you have on your mind.” He gives me a tiny smile. Okay, that actually creeps me out. This is the first time I see him smiling at me.

“What… do you mean?” I urge myself to stare deep into his eyes. “I don’t get it.”

Lu Han stares back at me. “You must be wondering who Jun is to me, right?”

“Well, what I can say?” I lift a shoulder. “He’s… uhm, your son, right?”

There is a beat of silence before he comes to end it. He looks at me again and nods. “Yes, Jun is my son.” His voice sounds so calm that I have no idea whether he’s bluffing or actually being honest.

“I never knew that. I mean, that’s totally unexpected,” I say. “If you have a son, that means you have actually gotten marr—”

“No,” Lu Han answers almost immediately. “I have never gotten married in my entire life.”

I frown at him, a sign I don’t decipher his remark. “So you’re saying that Jun is not your biological son, but adopted instead?”

“That’s not true, either,” he says. “Jun is indeed my biological son.” He trails off, to my surprise. It seems like he’s got lots of thoughts running inside his head. “With my ex-girlfriend.”

I’m honestly shocked, but I am going to listen attentively to what he’s going to say further.

“She was the first girl I actually had feelings for when I was in high school. I was happy when she liked me too. We then dated out for like two years or so. And… yeah, we slept a few times back then, but I never thought one of the nights would lead to her pregnancy. I was really surprised when she told me about it. She did the pregnancy test before she went to the clinic for further test and it turned out she was really bearing my child in her tummy.” He looks down for a while. “I was really mad at myself.”

“Wait, why were you mad at yourself?” I tilt my head. “Did you, by chance, not like her being pregnant?”

The half-Chinese shakes his head helplessly. “Not exactly. I didn’t mind her being pregnant. I just regretted the fact that I didn’t use protection at all. If I had, I wonder whether things would have changed.”

“So what happened to her?” I question. “I know she was pregnant and obviously gave birth to him, but where is she right now? I don’t recall seeing her this evening.”

“She died.”

The two words give me such a big shock. I never thought such a thing would happen to her because I thought either they had parted ways or she lived somewhere else.

“Why did she die, Lu Han?” I don’t mean to be butting into his business, but he’s the one to start this topic.

“She… died just after giving birth to Jun.” Lu Han tries to smile, but I know he’s hurting inside. The feeling is like to have a jagged knife pierced through your heart.

“I-I’m sorry, Lu Han. I didn’t mean to—”

“It’s okay,” he says. “I’ve moved on long time ago. It’s just that sometimes when I look at Jun, he reminds me of her. The smile on his face is just too similar to her.”

“Jun has such good looks. I wonder whether he got that from you or his mother.”

“I think he resembles me more than his mother. Only the smile resembles her.”

“Did Jun know about this?” A puzzled look swipes across my face. “The fact that her mother died on the day he was born. Did he know that?”

“He knew. I told him when he was at the age of being able to comprehend the reality. He did badger me with questions about his mother a lot beforehand, though. Sometimes, it was irritating, but I just made myself deaf.”

“Lu Han, I may sound like a busybody, but I was told that your parents passed away years ago. Is that true?”

He gives me a brisk nod. “From a car accident when I was twelve. I actually lived in Beijing before this although my mother lived here in Seoul. I’ve been living here since I became an orphan. My mother’s older brother—well, my uncle—was the one who brought me here and has been taking care of me ever since.”

“I only got to live on my own after I graduated from high school. Well, technically, after Jun was born,” Lu Han adds, smiling at the mention of Jun. “You know, my ex-girlfriend’s mother is nice to me. She occasionally comes here to visit Jun and yeah, she gives me some pocket money. I have no choice to take them.” He heaves a sigh. “I know she missed her daughter so much and the only living thing she can reach is Jun. I feel bad for her whenever I look at her face.”

I get what Lu Han feels. For a mother to lose her precious daughter is something terrible that they won’t want to happen.

“You know,” the latter starts again after sinking into silence for a short while. “I’d be more than pleased if you keep things I just told you a secret. Even about Jun. I don’t want the whole campus to know that I actually have a son.”

“Even if you didn’t tell me to do so, I would still seal my lips shut.”

“Thank you,” he says appreciatively, his rare smile appearing again.

“Don’t mention it.” I blush a bit. “That’s what neighbors are for, right?”

“Come to think of it, I was wondering why you ended up being my neighbor.” He raises an eyebrow. “I knew the previous owner had moved out, but I never thought my new neighbor would be you.”

“Well, it just happened that way,” I say, scratching the back of my nape. “I was surprised to know the fact that you’re my neighbor too, Lu Han.”

Lu Han doesn’t reply; he just lets out a smile—a wide, genuine smile I’ve ever seen in my life.

Something hits my heart, but I have no idea what this feels.

///

We both decide to halt the conversation because we didn’t realize that we have spent half an hour at the park. I still haven’t had dinner and Lu Han, on the other hand, has to go up and check up on Jun if he suddenly wakes up or anything.

“I’m sorry for my action the other day at the coffee shop. I was pretty rude back then, didn’t I?” I say.

He flashes me a sideways glance. “No, I should be the one saying sorry. You’re not at fault. It’s just me being overly sensitive over a trivial matter.”

“Oh, really? That’s pleased to hear, then.” I smile at him. “By the way, why were you absent this morning? You know we had English class today, right?”

“I had some stuff to be taken care of, so I had no choice but to skip class.”

Thank God. I emit a sigh of relief. I really thought that he skipped class because of me.

“Do you know why I prefer to be alone?” he asks me as though he’s ready to feed my curiosity in which it was the reason why he stalked off the other day.

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