After a quick goodbye, Seunghyun and Jiyong watched Seungri and Bom retreat down the street and catch a cab to take them home. The two trainees somehow made it home quicker than they had expected. The trees outside their apartment building were starting to shed their leaves and the steps up to the lobby floor were slick with half-frozen dew.

“Night.” After kicking his shoes off at the wall, Jiyong stripped his black jacket off and threw it on the couch. Seunghyun was glad that ‘meeting’ Seungri  put Jiyong in a better mood otherwise he would’ve been in for an earful tonight.

“Night.”

Seunghyun showered quickly. He was never one to enjoy showers, but they had to be done. His hair was still wet when he passed the living room on his way to his room. Unexpectedly, he heard Jiyong talking. Even though it was in a hushed tone, it still caught his ear so he snuck up close to the door and put his ear to eavesdrop.

“Baby, stop crying… take a deep breath and tell me what happened… Seungri, I can’t understand you… c’mon… one deep breath… good… now, tell me what’s wrong. What?! That can’t be… he was fine only today… it can’t be… I’m so sorry… Se-Seungri… please stop crying… I’ll be at the store first thing tomorrow morning… good night… saranghae…” Seunghyun released a long held breath when he finally snuck away and closed the door to his room. He felt around warily in the dark, carefully trying not to trip on anything which would happen to be lying on the floor. He finally reached his bed in the blind darkness of his room and collapsed onto the mattress. He pulled the covers up over his head; so far so that the tips of his toes stuck out the bottom end. Upon feeling the coldness on his feet he drew his legs up into his chest and fell asleep.

When he woke up in the morning, he felt groggy. His alarm was set for 8:00am, but practice was canceled today. Seunghyun stumbled out of his room and into the living room. No sign of Jiyong at all. Even when Seunghyun ventured in and out of all the rooms in the house, he was unable to find Jiyong. Then, he remembered the conversation from last night between him and Seungri, that Jiyong would be at the electronics shop ‘first thing in the morning’ and apparently so would Seunghyun after he got dressed.

Park Bom was sitting static behind the cash register. The shop was empty because the open sign hadn’t been yet, but Seunghyun let himself in because the door was unlocked. He scanned the room with his eyes and was unable to see any sign of the two men we was looking for.

“Bommie” he said quietly. Like before, he watched the honey color return to her dormant black eyes. She blinked twice and looked up at him from her seat.

“Hello, Seunghyun.” She smiled like she had before, “are you looking for Seungri-ssi?”

“Uh, more or less. I’m looking for Jiyong.”

“Jiyong-ssi is with Seungri-ssi.”

“Where are they? He walked up to her.

“Seungri-ssi ordered me not to reveal his whereabouts at this time, but he said he would be back soon.”

“Why don’t we go out then? I’ll take you, do you think Seungri will mind?”

Bom paused for a moment, she was calculating responses, “No, Seungri-ssi will not mind. I will lock the door if we leave.”

“Good, then let’s go.” Seunghyun didn’t know what he was doing. He didn’t like this trend of not knowing what he was doing. He was being unpredictable, even to himself. He was the kind of person who liked to be quiet, calculated, and precise. He liked everything in order and he liked to know when things would happen. In some ways, he might be more of a robot than Bom.

Before he could realize where they were, he had already clasped Bom’s hand in his and they were inside the coffee shop down the street.

“Uhm, Bommie, can you drink things?” he wasn’t sure how she was programmed and built.

“Of course, I like hot chocolate.” She answered gently and before she knew it there was a cup of liquid cocoa in her hands.

The two sat near a window. Remembering what Seunghyun had showed her the night before, she brought the cup up to the windowsill and let the steam roll onto the glass. She drew a little cat in the fog, “it’s a cat.” The café was a warm color and the inside of it was heated. It was comfortable.

“Can it be a tabby cat?” he chuckled. Bom drew lines on its head.

“Sure, but why a tabby cat?” she laughed as she took a sip from the cup and made more steam rise on the glass.

“My friends gave me the nickname Tabi.” He watched her draw a lumpy looking thing in the glass, “Tabby cat and the nickname Tabi aren’t related except for the fact that they sound the same.”

“I see.” She drew lines across the bumpy oval.

“What is that?” he leaned over the table to see more closely what she had drawn.

“A Corn.”

“Corn?” he laughed, “Why corn?”

“I like corn.” She drew a cute face on the little cartoon corn along with little stick arms which stretched out to the cat, “the corn is giving Tabi a hug because the cat doesn’t smile very much.” She sipped at the hot chocolate while narrating the ‘story’ of the corn and the cat.

“You look like a cartoon character.” He stated blatantly.

“You’re not any different.” She smiled, “You’re an alien then.”

“No, you’re the alien,” he countered, “Aliens are the ones who are different!”

“No!” she protested, “Aliens are weird. You are weird.”

“How am I weird?” he cooed, “I’m not weird.” In harsh reality, he really was weird. He didn’t speak often, he wasn’t good in large groups, he always had an intimidating aura around him, he was unapproachable by the common man, and mostly, Jiyong would never let go of his obsession with bananas.

“Jiyong-ssi said you don’t smile.” She put the cup down and wiped with a napkin, “That’s weird because humans smile often when they are with their friends.”

“I suppose I don’t find many occasions to smile.” He smirked.

“I think Jiyong is lying. You smiled quite often yesterday. 24 times to be exact.” She pouted.

“Because living with Jiyong is a pain… we’re like brothers. We usually fight and bicker. I mean, we have our moments, but recently it has been rough, money doesn’t come easily to us, and we get mad at each other a lot easier. I guess these hard times are just what brought us closer together, but sometimes I really feel like Jiyong is getting farther away from me. It’s a bit upsetting.”

She continued to smile despite his rant, but after analyzing Seunghyun’s worried face, her expression also became worried. Her eyebrows pinched upwards and she opened to speak, “Is something wrong?”

“I’m just a bit drained. That’s all.”

“If I ask you a question, are you able to answer it?” Bom’s eyes weren’t directed at Seunghyun, but instead at the edge of the table. She was avoiding eye contact.

“Sure. If I can answer it.” He tried to regain her gaze, but it wasn’t working.

“What does it mean when water drips from one’s eyes? I don’t quite understand this process. It is irrational. I was trying to research it last night, but it makes no sense.”

Seunghyun was finding trouble in answering Bom’s question because this is exactly what Seungri was telling him about the other night.

“Well… this is called sadness, despair, anguish…” Seunghyun tried to explain, “Its not a good emotion. Like when you are presented with a fact, like you’ve lost something, then instead of being level headed and accepting that you’ve lost it, your body wants to deny that you’ve lost this thing and this empty feeling leads to tears. Essentially, it is illogical.” He hadn’t noticed before, but explaining such an emotion seemed hard and at the same time easier than expected. Sadness, to him, was something that came quite often simply because he felt like he was always losing something. As if it wasn’t hard enough to hold on to their flat, keeping up as trainees didn’t provide any comfort to their dithering lifestyle.
“It makes sense, I suppose.” She crossed one leg over the other, “Then why was Seungri-ssi crying?” she leaned forward on the table.

Seunghyun didn’t want to say it. He had a pretty good guess as to why Seungri would be so upset, but he didn’t want to tell Bom; especially if he was wrong in the end, “Beats me, Bommie. Sorry, I can’t answer that question.”

Her lips became a crescent once again, “That is fine. I understand that not all questions have answers. One must take inference from their surroundings to answer questions sometimes.”

“Yes, that’s how a lot of questions are answered.” Seunghyun leaned back in his chair. He didn’t remember the last time he had gone out with a girl. Each time he broke up, he tried to forget everything about her and even if it would take weeks or months he’d try to forget the bubbly personalities and the over zealous happiness of that girl. Park Bom was different. Shewasn’t a girl, she wasn’t human, but being with her made Seunghyun feel more than human himself.

“I sometimes wonder.” She almost whispered.

“Wonder about what?” he was intrigued.

“About many things, but I don’t know why I wonder. Seungri says that only living things know how to wonder and ask and infer, so I’ve grown quite confused.” She frowned, “He says that only living things know sadness, know happiness… So sometimes I question what I am. I know that I am not human, not ‘living’, but I certainly do feel happy.” She paused, “like right now. I think this is happiness.”

“Maybe if you explained a little more, I could provide a better answer.”

“Like this. Just sitting in a quiet café next to a friend and talking softly to each other about random subjects. We are not entirely worried about anything. Nor are we entirely upset about anything. We seem content with just being in each other’s presence and because neither of us has had the urge to leave, then I suppose we are enjoying the act of sitting here. At least I am.” She played with her cup, sliding her nails over the glazed and smooth surface.

“Then you’re right. You are feeling happy.” Seunghyun felt satisfied like he had just overcome something huge. He felt so genuinely peaceful right now no one could ruin it.

“But this is a different feeling than when I’m ‘happy’ at home with Seungri and his grandfather. Though they do laugh a lot, I usually feel left out. Even if I’m in their conversation and the three of us are talking casually, I can’t help but to feel over sheltered, overprotected.” She paused again, “With you it’s different.”

“I’m sorry to hear that I’m causing you trouble.” Seunghyun snickered.

Bom looked up from her cup. The steam had stopped billowing out of its rim and was useless for drawing now, “You’re not causing me trouble. If anything, you have made my existence better.”

As the day passed, Seunghyun and Bom finished their drinks and strode back up the street to the shop. Luckily, they had returned before either Jiyong or Seungri. The white shop was silent and, like before, only their shoes could be heard clacking on the ground.

“What are you doing here?” Jiyong questioned from the door. Seunghyun couldn’t understand how easily his friend could sneak in and out of places so quietly.

“Ah, I just came in, I was looking for you.” Seunghyun lied through his teeth.

“Is he telling the truth?” Jiyong looked at Bom.

After a concise moment of thought, she responded, “Yes. Seunghyun-ssi just came in the door four minutes and thirty-two seconds ago.”

Seunghyun found it odd that she would lie for him. During their previous encounter, Bom could not keep a secret, even for Seungri. Even more so that he didn’t inform her that he was lying or that she should lie.

“Well, you found me.” He released a sigh as a puffy-eyed Seungri sauntered in through the door, “Please don’t say anything rough.” Seunghyun nodded quickly as he watched Bom usher him behind the corner.

“…Hey, Bommie…” he seemed to croak, “…I think you’ll be living with me from now on.”

“Why is that?” she beamed softly. Seunghyun wanted to stop her from questioning, but Jiyong pulled him back by the sleeve.

“Uhm…” he stuttered, choking on every syllable of each word, “because… Bommie… grandpa left last night.” The salty streams dripped from his eyes. Jiyong left Seunghyun to wrap his arms around the tearing young man.

“Seungie, Seungie… c’mon… it’ll be okay.” He rubbed his back.

“What do you mean left? Is he coming back?” she asked with a child-like naivety.

He stopped for a couple seconds, “No… No Bommie… he will never come back. He’s dead.” That was when the fountain started spurting from Seungri’s eyes and when Jiyong started frantically looking around for tissues.

All the while, Bom had frozen. She was completely still. Seunghyun touched her arm and to his surprise it was warm. Without warning she fell to her knees and began to shake, her face scrunched up and her eyes shut tightly as her breathing became irregular. Seunghyun shot down to see what was wrong. Her hands flew up to her face, covering her features.

“Bommie, Bommie, what’s wrong? Are you malfunctioning?” Seungri coughed away some tears.

“No.” Seunghyun responded slowly, “She’s crying.”

===

Thanks for reading!

-Vinni