MILLY'S POV
I trudged outside the grocery store, grunting at how heavy the bags were and feeling more tired than usual. As I took the usual route to my apartment, I couldn't help but feel nervous as I edged towards the park that Jungkook usually played in, my eyes unconsciously looking for him as they always do. I didn't realize that my feet were taking me in the direction of the park, my mind too distracted looking for a brown haired boy. When I finally spotted him playing with a bunch of little kids sitting on the grass, a girl turned to me behind his back and pointed, "Noona pretty", leaving me panicked and feeling caught red handed. Great, now Jungkook will think I'm a stalker. As he turned to face me, his demeanor seemingly light in comparison to the intimidating Jungkook at school, I stuttered an attempt to explain, "I-I was in the neighborhood grocery shopping a-and," when he spoke up, " You wanna join me?" I stared at him for a second, and nodded, unsure if I would be able to speak again without stuttering. 
As I awkwardly sat beside him on the grass, the girl from earlier came up and hesitantly sat on my lap and smiled up at me. Jungkook told me her name was Jieun. How cute. I couldn't help the smile that was spreading across my own face and the girl poked at my cheeks with her little fingers and squealed with wonder in her eyes, " Dimples. Noona is prettyyyy." 
"Woah I didn't notice those before," Jungkook noted with surprise in his eyes, and added, "You should smile more, Milly." And as if on queue my cheeks blushed a deep red and I had to force myself not to dwell much on how tantalizing my name sounded rolling off his tongue. I looked away shyly, internally embarrassed at how much this boy affected me. 
After half an hour of playing with the kids, Jungkook and I moved to the swings and Jungkook asked,  " So, your family lives in the neighborhood?" I hesitated, " Um, I do, two blocks away." "Alone?", he asked in a surprised tone. I nodded and spoke, my gaze fixed at the sun that was about to set, "Appa transferred to Japan after mom's death and I stayed back. He wanted me to move with him but I didn't want that." 
"May I ask why? Why didn't you escape when you had the chance to?", he said in a serious tone, rendering me speechless for a second before I thought and answered, "I just couldn't, I guess. Even though continuing the same daily life she left off without her and missing her presence in the smallest of daily events was exhausting, I just couldn't walk over the life we had together and run away from it as if it never existed." I could sense his eyes on me and it was a while before he spoke up again, "Well we have more in common than I thought, I live alone too, that too in this neighborhood." He pointed at the second floor of the building in front of the park. I wanted to ask why he lived alone, but I was scared that would scare him off, knowing well he loved the precious wall he has around him way too much. 
"You seem to love kids. And these kids also seem to be at ease around you", I noted and saw his lips curve up with a small smile. "I do. Their innocence gives me hope and playing with them is like therapy to me. Especially little Jieun. She kind of reminds me of my dongsaeng", he spoke in a tone that seemed to be lost in thought, his expression unreadable and his eyes fixated on the sun that was now almost dipped in the horizon, making the skyline drenched in colors of purple and dark orange. 
"Oh, you have a sister? What's her name?", I asked him, happy to know something about his mysterious life. But I regretted instantly, noticing the subtle clenching of his jaw and the hardening of his eyes. "Sohyun", he replied in a cold voice and clenched his jaw again. 
We didn't talk for the rest of the evening and just gazed at the sky, both lost in our own thoughts. Our proximity could fool any stranger hinting at our closeness, but we couldn't be farther apart, with invisible walls and unspoken boundaries that were too strong to be broken easily. 

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That night Milly dreamed of a familiar brown-haired boy in a familiar room, with tears in his eyes and his lips coaxing the same name again and again. The name that seemed to haunt him and make him yearn at the same time. Sohyun. 

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