06/ / unstable

Mon studied her expression for a while longer before he said firmly, “No, it’s not your fault.  You didn’t know any of this.”

“But you said I had a tendency to create gaps,” she said desperately.  “You weren’t there when it happened.  You don’t know for sure.”

Mon stood up from his stool and kneeled in front of her and placed a hand on her shoulder.  “You cannot blame yourself for something you can’t control.  We are here to help, me and Jin.  We will figure all this out.  But you can’t blame yourself for things you cannot control.”

Mon must have seen the colour drain from her face, as he didn’t continue with his explanation and stood up.  When he returned and sat back down on his stool, he held out a glass of water to Soojung.

Soojung took it gratefully and gulped some of the water down.  She then said quietly, “It’s been 3 years.  Is 3 years impossible?”

Mon seemed to understand her question even though she had not been explicit.  But it seemed to pain him to have to give her the slightest hope, only to shoot it down again.

“No one can survive another dimension for that long unfortunately.”  He finally said.  “Do you want to call it a day and I’ll continue explaining tomorrow?”

Soojung shook her head.  She wanted to know more.  Mon noticed she was tense and anxiety was overwhelming her, so leaned over and suddenly enveloped her in a gentle hug.  It wasn’t until Soojung realised that her tears were falling onto someone else’s shoulders, did she notice that Mon was hugging her, his arms wrapped around her and his hand patting her back lightly.

It was a strange yet comforting feeling to have Mon so close to her.  Apart from her own parents or friend Luna, she had not been in such close contact with any other person.  Even though she was making a mess of Mon’s leather jacket, which she knew was a favourite of his, he didn’t budged and continued to calm her down with his firm reassuring pats on her back.

Once he felt she had calmed down, he withdrew himself from her and said quietly, “I’m sorry.”

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