o o 9 ;

After my outburst with that inconsiderate jerk, Nam Woohyun, I felt as though Daniel regarded me with more cautious. He was careful with his words, his actions, his questions – but all of it just made me even more uncomfortable.

Until one day, I simply couldn’t take it anymore.

“You really don’t have to do that, you know,” I told him while he was walking me back home. (Yeah, somehow he’s managed to convince me that I needed an )

“Do what?”

“That,” I said pointedly. When he looked at me blankly, I just let out an exasperated sigh.

“Acting as though you’re trying hard not to piss me off.”

He took a moment to realise it. When he did, he chuckled.

And then he laughed. As in, laughing really hard.

I frowned. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing,” he said, yet his eyes were clearly telling me otherwise as he tried to stifle his laughter.

I shot him a look.

“Chorong-ah, lighten up will you?” he patted me lightly on the head. I ducked away, instinctively.

“Don’t do that,” I mumbled.

“Why?”

“Just...don’t.”

Sighing, he said, “I feel like you’ve seen every side there is to me, but I still can’t seem to figure out...not even a piece of you.”

“No, I don’t.”

“No you don’t what?”

“Seen every side of you,” I look at him through judging eyes. “Everybody has something to hide. Everyone has something that they want to keep only to themselves.”

He thought about it for a moment.

“You’re right,” he said after a few moments. “There are...two things that you don’t know about me. Yet.”

I shrugged. “You don’t have to tell me.”

“But I want to,” he said with a smile. “I don’t want to hide anything from you. Especially you.”

Instead of going back home, we ended up taking a detour towards one of the nearby cafes with was usually filled with high-school students.

After ordering a strawberry milkshake takeaway for me and hot latte for himself, Daniel gestured for us to take a leisure walk down the street.

“I lost both of my parents when I was 7 years old,” he started to say.

I almost choked on my drink when I heard that. I had completely no idea.

“I-I didn’t know...” I said quietly, my gaze softening as he met my eyes. “I’m sorry. I mean, you don’t have to – “

“No, I want to. I want to, Chorong. Just...hear me out, okay?”

I kept quiet.

“They were away...on a business trip. I didn’t even get to say a proper goodbye, you know?”

It sounded as if he was unfolding my story.

“I was still a kid. I can’t quite recall the details. Nobody even bothered to explain anything to me. They just basically told me, ‘Hey kid, you have to toughen up now.’”

“I was close to them...I was an only child, how do you think that made me feel?”

I know exactly how you feel, I wanted to tell him.

“I had nobody there for me. I literally had to cope with everything by myself.”

I had Minhyuk.

I had my best friend, yet I pushed him away.

“My relative took me in. Well, they weren’t bad. But of course it was hard at first, trying to readjust yourself to everything all over again.”

I could totally relate.

“I did what was best for me at that point of time – I turned everything off. I simply shut off my emotions.”

“Because that’s the only way you’ll have control over yourself,” I said it out aloud without realising.

He stopped in his tracks.

I didn’t.

“Chorong, wait.” It was only until he grabbed hold of my wrist, did I realised and stopped.

I had been too caught up with my own life-story.

“I’m sorry...” I whispered to nothing in particular. “I’m sorry...”

“Do you know why I’m telling you this?” he said softly, as he slipped in his fingers between mine and squeezed my hand gently. “I don’t want you to feel as if you’re alone in this world; because you’re not.”

I turned to face him.

“How did you know...?” I asked in a dazed voice.

He gave me a small smile.

“Eunji,” he said simply. “I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t have. But it was bugging me, trying to find what exactly was going on with you. Because I refuse to believe you are this kind of cold, intimidating person. Because you’re not.”

He took my other free hand in his and grasp on to it tightly.

“Because I know that deep inside, you’re a beautiful person with an even bigger, beautiful heart.  Because I believe that...once, long time ago – you were a very happy, cheerful, lively Park Chorong.”

I didn’t know how he did it, but my eyes were swelling with tears. I can’t remember when was the last time I had cried, or felt any other emotion other than...blankness.

“Do you know how I know?” he asked with a teasing smile. Slowly brushing off a tear with his thumb, he said, “Because I was like you too. I was a happy kid, who only worried about things other normal kids would. I played, I joked, and I had friends.”

I had a friend too, I thought to myself. The most wonderful best friend anyone could ever ask for.

“But then I realise, I can’t keep on hurting myself that way. I have to stop punishing myself over something I had no control over.”

“I need to learn...how to live my life once again.”

He bent down slightly to meet my eyes.

“We don’t get many chances in life, Chorong. What say you, we make full use of what we have now?”

My lips quivered, as more tears threatened to fall over. Daniel must be pretty good at these things because he immediately knew what to do.

He pulled me in and wrapped his arms around my shaking figure. He didn’t even seem to mind the fact that I was drenching his uniform with my tears.

It felt good, to be in his embrace. To have someone holding me.

Slowly, I nodded my head.