[CONTENTID1]

THIS CHAPTER IS HEAVILY RELATED TO REACHING FOR YOU SO IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND IT, READ RFY (LINK IN THE FOREWORD)

Do leave comments please~~ I'm a bit disheartened. ^^ At least tell me if it's getting boring ;)

Seungyoon and Seunghoon show Chanwoo the house of the dead cat’s owner. Ringing the doorbell, they wait for the door to open, revealing a middle aged old woman smiling brightly upon seeing them.

“Aigoo, Hoonie and Seungyoonie right?” She greets the boys whom are familiar to her.

“Annyeonghaseyo, halmeoni.” The two greet her. She then notices Chanwoo at the back standing in silence.

“Who is this boy? I’ve never seen you before.” She smiles again. “So good looking. Aigoo, boys nowadays are so handsome.” Hearing her words make Chanwoo blushes. Although he knows he is quite good looking.

“This is our friend, Jung Chanwoo. We come here to visit halmeoni.” Seungyoon said.

“Ah, so kind of you. Come in, make yourself like home.” She invites them in. The grandma lives by herself for so long. Her kids would come to visit on holiday only; at least that’s what Chanwoo hears from the WINNER guys. They’ve lived longer with the old woman. Even before they loved in to this apartment, she already lives here.

“Haelmeoni, you don’t have to make us drinks!” Seungyoon rushes to the small kitchen when he sees her trying to prepare some tea. The interior of the house is almost the same like them thus it’s visible from the living room to see anyone in the kitchen. She insists nonetheless leaving Seungyoon no choice but to help and let her sit. Seunghoon and Chanwoo sit on the couch and that’s when Chanwoo notices some cat’s supplies around the living room. Toys, cat house, small food plate by the TV.

“Haelmeoni, I’m sorry if this is so sudden.” He speaks the moment the old lady and Seungyoon bring the food along with them. “Do you live with your cat?”

“What do you think of all those stuff for?” She points to the small toys and stuff laying around the house. “I lived alone by myself since my husband passed away 6 years ago. Since then, Jiri is the one I have left.” She mentions the name endearingly, her old voice sounds comforting. Seconds later, her face falls down in sadness. The frown bringing more of her wrinkles to light.

“But sadly, Jiri died last night. A car hit her when she was about to cross the road. One of the neighbors brought her body home. Aigoo, poor cat. She was such a good girl, always looking after me.” She sighs heavily as the boys listen to her tentatively. Feeling sorry for her loss.

“We are really sorry to hear about that, halmeoni. We played along with Jiri sometimes too. It’s sad to know she’s gone.” Seunghoon said.

“Yeah I know. You kids were so kind to my Jiri. Especially that boy ummm what is his name again? The one who’s really kind….” She struggles to remember putting a hand under her chin. Her antics get Chanwoo chuckling. She is so adorable like a child.

“Mino. He’s the one who always played with Jiri.” Seungyoon helping her along the track of memory earning a big smile from the old woman.

“Ah, right! Mino. So kind to Jiri. She liked him very much too.”

“Halmeoni.” Chanwoo suddenly closes his distance with the old woman, sitting beside her with a very serious expression on his face. “I know that what I’m about to tell you is a bit weird. But I hope you can be patient with me and go along with it.” His words make the old woman looking at him weirdly. As if Chanwoo has just grown two heads.

“What do you mean by that? Don’t make fun of me. I’m old but not that senile you know.” She attempts to joke about it, her face written fear all over it. As if she is convinced Chanwoo will make a fool out of her.

“Don’t worry, halmeoni. Chanwoo is a good kid. And we are here to ask for your help.” Seunghoon convinces her, making her eyebrows lifted much further in confusion. She has no idea what’s going on.

Meanwhile, Mino with the help of Jinhwan, June and Jinwoo have a hard time tending to the cat-Taehyun that just can’t get down from the counter.

A freaking grown up man sitting on a counter, definitely not a good sight to see.

“Taehyunie~ Come down please~~ We got you some cookies.” Jinwoo tries to woo the cat but Taehyun just won’t come down. He starts to his hands as if there is fur all over his body.

“Eww, that’s so disgusting.” June whispers low but enough for Jinhwan to hear. The older gives him the stare with June acting like he doesn’t care.

“Come down, Jiri~ The cookies is good.” Jinhwan holds the cat’s food in his hand—Mino keeps it as he always feeds the stray cats along the street. But of course, they won’t let Taehyun eats them for real. Chanwoo said to just bait the cat to stay quiet until they get its owner to come. But it has been 30 minutes and none of them are back yet.

Along those 30 hell of minutes, only God knows the hardship they have to endure to keep Taehyun in place.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this right now.” Jinwoo utters. Frustration written all over his face. “It should be a normal day where I’m lazing around watching dramas instead of chasing a big cat.”

Mino standing not far from Taehyun chuckles hearing the oldest. “It’s not every day to see our maknae acting cute like a cat, hyung.” He hears June and Jinwoo gawking at the same time.

“For your information, that is still Taehyun. He doesn’t like to be called cute.” Jinwoo reprimands, and none of them manage to get Taehyun down yet. They can’t even stand close or else he will scratch them.

“Well, as long as Jiri is still inside him, I’m going to call him cute as much as I want!” Mino laughs heavily, but then he is shut up by Taehyun jumping on him, alarming the rest. It’s chaos as Mino tries to keep his balance with Taheyun in his arms and the rest fumbling on their feet to catch them. Luckily, Jinhwan is fast to grab a chair for Mino to sit.

The rapper is about to scold Taehyun but seeing the maknae is fast asleep in all cat position in his arms get his heart melting. Mino’s eyes are all awed and he can’t stop smiling.

“Um, you look like a total creep right now, Mino hyung.” Of course, leave it to June to ruin such a moment.

Mino groans as he looks to the younger. “I know. So shut up. Leave me be.” Then he gives his attention back to Taehyun, he pats on his shoulder to lull him. Well, as much as awkward to see them all cuddling close, at least the hard part is over. Jinwoo returns to the living room and sprawled himself over the couch while June taking his seat on another dining chair with Jinhwan.

“You know, Chanwoo isn’t that cute around us anymore but there are times he surely acts like a child.” Out of sudden Jinhwan claims, he remembers all the time they spend together as a complete member. Such a beautiful moment.

“He’s growing up now. Moreover with the he has gone through.” Mino exclaims looking at Jinhwan. “Must be very hard for the kid.”

“Tell us about it. I mean, we all went through . It was such bad days back then.” June has a solemn face when he said that. Probably remembering those awful memories. Jinhwan agrees with him. If they can trade those moments with anything, they will.

“With Seungri hyung's death, the rest of BIGBANG’s hyungs going on with their life, I thought we all could do the same things too.” Mino’s eyes turn to look at the maknae sleeping on his lap then back to both Jinhwan and June. “But I guess some wishes don’t come true. Chanwoo can’t have his normal life anymore, you guys seem to always fall into trouble, and us; well, things are going well but to be honest with, before the thing that happens today, Taehyun has always acted distant.” Mino wholeheartedly pours his emotion to the two, his face shows frustration and confusion, he seems a bit lost.

“I mean—Taehyun is always gloomy and keeping himself in the studio. Sometimes, we even have a fight with him. I just don’t understand what is wrong. I thought with everything over, we will have our normal life back.”

Jinhwan listens tentatively to Mino as his eyes carefully watching the sleeping Taehyun. He could understand Mino’s feelings. His team once had the same problem. They even have thought that Chanwoo might won’t make it and everything will fall apart.

“What happened if the things that’s happening to Taehyun hyung isn’t because of that app anymore?” June said with eyes not leaving the sleeping man. Mino and Jinhwan turn their heads to him with puzzled faces. “What do you mean, June-yah?”

“Well, think about it hyung.” He sits upright answering the question Jinhwan gives just now. “What happened back then is gone. We heard no more of that stupid app. Chanwoo is saved from death and the reason he’s seeing ghost is because of the side effects. So there’s no more bad luck on us anymore. What I’m trying to say, stop making excuses and try to see it from Taehyun hyung’s perspective. Maybe he’s in his own trouble.”

June’s straightforwardness get them thinking deeply of his words. Mino has never been thinking of that. Could it be his nightmare of all those things hasn’t ended yet? Is he blaming things that already h