Daehyun’s POV

I was out of the house in no time and soon found myself walking on the streets. It wasn’t crowded. In fact, it was empty and deserted. I guess that was because people were at work and were in school. There weren’t many cars on the road either. The neighbourhood was pretty serene and calm at this hour of the day.

I smiled.

“Daehyun ah, wait for me!” Youngjae cried out, panting hard as he tried to catch up with me. “Why are you so fast?! Calm down for a minute!”

I stopped walking in my tracks, giving time for him to catch up with me. And he was quite a distance far from me, like maybe a block? Wow, I did not even realize how fast I was walking. I was too eager to talk to Eun Hae, I guess I kinda got carried away and had forgotten about the fact that Youngjae was following me. I turned and looked plainly at him who was wheezing, glaring at me.

“Do you even know where she lives?” he wanted to know.

I gave a sheepish smile. “Uh . . . I kind of stalk her every now and then,” I admitted. When he raised an eyebrow, I went on defensively, “I wanted to make sure that she was safe after everything that happened between her and hyung and of course I have to keep checking up on her . . . from a distance, though . . .”

Youngjae sighed, nodding, and I fell into his steps. The both of us began to walk to her house together. I wondered what I was going to say to her. It’s been too long since I actually had a conversation with her.

“I heard you tried to tell her that hyung was going to get her suspended,” he murmured next to me.

I nodded. “Yeah I did, but she walked away from me and refused to even let me say something, even when I called after her.” I frowned, having a flashback.

I was turning a corner of the street that day, my hands in my jeans pocket and whistling to a tune, when suddenly I accidentally bumped into two girls, dressed in their uniform, all ready to go to school. I noticed that they each had a cup of take-away coffee in their hands.

“Whoops, sorry!” one of them said.

“It’s okay,” I replied and I looked up, plugging my earphones from my ears and I saw Eun Hae with her best friend, Daeseul, right in front of me.

My heart literally stopped when I saw her.

I remembered Yongguk saying that he was going to show that wretched piece of paper to his teacher the next day and hopefully Eun Hae would get suspended.

So I tried to talk to her. “Eun Hae —”

Eun Hae pulled Daeseul, whose eyes turned wide in confusion at her sudden behaviour by my presence (sigh, that really hurt) by the hand and purposely banged into me as she brushed passed me.

 “Eun Hae, wait!” I called out but she didn’t stop walking, she didn’t turn around to see what I want. I tried to run after her, but she was already running toward school, with Daeseul behind her.

I watched, wishing there was something I could have done, wishing that I had gathered the courage to just spit out the words, “Yongguk hyung is going to get you suspended from school because he’s going to show him the paper you wrote about him during detention one day.”

But, no, I wasted it with, “Eun Hae, wait!”

How pathetic.

Thinking about that memory actually stung. I felt this aching feeling in my heart that left me momentarily difficult to breathe.

I was trying to help her, thinking it might be a chance to redeem myself but of course, that failed when she refused to even take a glance at me and walked right inside the building. I managed to catch a glimpse of her face expression on that day and she did not look happy to have bumped into me.

Next to me, Youngjae clucked sympathetically. “Daehyun ah . . . have you tried to just talk to her? Tell her how you feel and all? Let her know that you’re sorry for abandoning her and apologize for the fact that you weren’t there for her especially during the times when she needed you.”

I looked at him, my expression blank. “Why else would I be doing what I am doing right now?” I asked back. “I know. I have to apologize to her. I feel so bad just thinking about it. I was so stupid!” I mentally slapped myself and picked up my pace not because I want to avoid him, but because I wanted to get to her place faster. I could not wait to see her.

He just grimaced and half-ran to meet my pace.

We turned about the block and I pointed to the tall, apartment building. “There’s where she lives,” I told him.

Youngjae scrutinized the building. It was the kind of grey, apartment buildings, with shabby bushes surrounding it and with an open car park. “This doesn’t look too bad,” he remarked, “a bit run-down, but how does she pay for her rent?” he asked, looking at me as if I knew the answer, since I was the stalker.

And I did.

“She still works at the cafe near the school,” I answered.

“Ah.” He nodded. “They have a good pay, that place.” He used to work there a long time ago, that’s how he knew. But then he frowned. “I quit that job to make it easier for her.”

I nodded. That place was probably the one place where she was able to enjoy (even if the work was sometimes stressful). That was why I avoided going to the cafe. I love the cafe, but with Eun Hae there, it’s not comfortable. For her.

“Probably,” I replied a little bit absentmindedly as we walked up to the building and looked around the place.

There was no reception counter, whatsoever. There was no one we could ask about which resident stays in which block, on which floor and what house number. All that we could see were mailboxes downstairs and then stairs and lifts immediately leading us up to the apartments.

Youngjae turned to me as we stopped in front of an elevator. “So, which floor is she in? Which block? Which apartment number?” he asked me. He always need to know every information about something, specific information, to be exact. It was sometimes annoying.

“I have a confession,” I admitted, shoving my hands into my jeans, and he arched an eyebrow. “I have no idea which floor she stays in, nor do I know what number or block.” I grinned sheepishly at him.

He gave me an exasperated look. “You monkey, Daehyun!” he burst out, flapping his arms out like he normally did whenever he was annoyed. “I cannot believe that this thing would even happen!”

“If I stalked her until I followed her exactly to her apartment, there is a chance that she might have spotted me,” I argued back, stating my points.

“True,” he admitted. “But, Daehyun, now what are we going to do? How are we going to talk to her if we don’t even know where she lives?! If you had thought about it, you would have played it safe, right? You’re an idiot. How could you know have thought about things through?”

“Well, if you’d stop criticizing me and actually think of something,” I snapped, fed up with his nags.

He threw scathing look in my direction before he walked over to the mailboxes and began searching through. For what, I have no idea. All I see there are numbers and a bit of scrawl. With a jolt, I realized that they could tell us which room belonged to Eun Hae.

Anyway, now, Youngjae was looking at each box carefully until he pointed to one with a big grin on his face.

“I found it,” he said.

I went to peer over his shoulders and with a sinking heart, I realized that he was right. He had found it.

There, plainly printed on the box, was J.E.H, B-8-15. I scanned through all the other mailboxes. She was the only one with that initial, so the address definitely had to be hers.

Youngjae is going to be cocky for a long time now that he has prove to someone that he was right in, at least, something. Well, almost everything.

“According to B-8-15, that would mean that she lives in the fifteenth house on the eighth floor at Block B,” Youngjae said smartly, puffing his chest out.

I rolled my eyes, scoffing, and walked passed him, following the arrow that read, Block B.

Whatever, smart .

“The least you could do is say thank you!” he pouted, trying to catch up with my pace once again. “Yah!”

“Thank you, boffin,” I replied sarcastically.

“Boffin means scientist, you idiot,” he replied.

“Whatever. You know I really don’t care.”

We walked into the lift once we were at Block B and its metal doors sprang opened. We both stepped inside and Youngjae pressed on the eighth button. The door shut with a little wheeze and soon we were taken up to the eighth floor. As each floor we passed by, was a floor closer to Eun Hae.

I cannot wait to see her.

Youngjae glanced over at me and saw me practically jumping in my position. “Are you really excited to see her?” he wanted to know.

I nodded. “Of course I’m excited to see her,” I replied. “I haven’t talked to her in so long. I’m just scared that she might not want to talk to us after everything that has happened between us.” I shook my head. “I can’t believe I was such a coward last time. I should have stuck up for her. I promised her I’d always take care of her and now looked what happened.” I was disgusted with myself.

“You’re not the only one,” Youngjae agreed, leaning against the door, watching the screen as the floor levelled up slowly. “I told her that I would never ever betray her and yet betray her was exactly what I did. I didn’t help her, I stood in the background, and I let them bully her. I am just as much to blame about Eun Hae being mad at us as you are, Daehyun ah. What idiots we are, huh?”

I nodded. “Oh, wells,” I sighed. I looked at the screen. We were passing level six now. Only two more floors to go and then we need to search for her house number, fifteen. Hopefully she was home today.

The door dinged softly and the both of us got out once the doors opened. We looked at the nearest door. It was number nine. We looked at another door. It was number ten. Which meant Eun Hae’s apartment were five doors away from where the both of us were standing now.

“That way,” Youngjae said and I followed him.

We stopped at number fifteen. I took a deep breath. Well, this is it.

I rang the doorbell.

Ding dong!

Youngjae and I exchanged glances as the door slowly began to open a few minutes later.

And then our eyes grew wide when we saw that it was a boy who answered the door for us. We exchanged glances with each other again. Did we, by chance, come to the wrong person’s house.

I looked at the address.

B-8-15.

This should be the right one.

“Yes?” the boy asked. He looked at us. “You must be looking for Eun Hae. Hang on for a minute.” He turned his head. “Eun Hae! The door is for you.”

Eun Hae appeared in front of us and the two of us smiled at her.

She froze, pausing in the hall, when she realized who her visitors were. She had an unreadable expression on her face so I wasn’t sure if she was happy to see us here or if she was staring at us in horror that we could even think about coming to visit her.

And then she slammed the door shut in front of our faces.

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ouch~ D: wonder what is going to happen next, hmm?