- Two -

When Chorong brought him back home that day, Joonmyun had silently memorised the steps he would have to take back to the bus station. He truly believed that he was going to spend another night (and many more nights) seeking shelter there. As hard as she tried to convince him, he refused himself to be bought over. Who exactly in their right mind, would want to take in a strange young boy, whose background is as vague as life could get.

But much to his surprise, when Chorong rang the doorbell and merrily shouted “We’re here!”, a middle-aged woman came forward to greet them with a wide smile on her face. In that split second, Joonmyun tried to search for any signs of forced smile or hesitance, but found none.

All that he could see was sincerity.

“You must’ve been freezing last night in the wicked weather!” she exclaimed, after planting a kiss on top of Chorong’s head and turning to face him now.

So she had been talking about him.

He gave Chorong a pointed look. She just shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, as if to say “I told you it will all be fine.”

“Well, come on in!” the woman, whom he guessed by now is Chorong’s mother, ushered him inside the stand-alone house, which appeared to be cosy and homely already just by his first step. “Chorong will show you your bedroom and after that you can take a shower. Lunch will be ready soon.”

“Come,” Chorong was already tugging at his hand, ready to pull him along. “You will love your room!”

“W-wait,” he stammered a little, shrinking back and jerked his hand away. “I can’t do this. I can’t let you do this. This...this is all too much.”

He turned around and got ready to leave. “You shouldn’t have gone to all this trouble.”

“Wait, Joonmyun.” He could feel Chorong coming up behind him, and a second later, her hand on his shoulder. “I was going to wait until after lunch to tell you this but since...my father would like you to work with him.”

Joonmyun’s ears perked up with interest. He turned back around slowly. “Work...?”

“Yeah,” Chorong nodded, smiling a little. “At his restaurant - as a kitchen assistant. So if you’re really uncomfortable about staying here for free, we’ll cut your lodging expenses from your salary every month.”

“It’s not that – “

“It gets lonely around here, Joonmyun,” Chorong smiled sadly at him. “It’ll be nice to have a friend to talk to every now and then.”

He was rendered speechless.

~

Joonmyun wasn’t an easy kid to get close to, what more – to understand. Chorong didn’t have it easy for the first few months. Usually, after work, he would come home for dinner before excusing himself to bed early.

Even during the weekends, when he would have his off days, she tried to talk to him and bring him out to places – but he would always give her excuses that he’d rather rest in his room.

Chorong wasn’t angry. She knew that it wouldn’t be so easy for Joonmyun to open up to her just yet.

But she didn’t know why; she couldn’t just give up on him as easily as he pushed her away.

~

But, after about almost six months, Joonmyun started showing signs of improvement. He would start hanging around with her after dinner, watching television shows together. Once or twice, he would laugh – and it was such a beautiful, soothing melody to her ears. When he smiled, she couldn’t help but to smile as well; and she loved it even more when that little dimple would appear on his milky white cheek.

One day, while he was helping her with the dishes in the kitchen, Chorong eyed him carefully and started arranging the words in her mind.

“Joonmyun-ah.”

“Hmm?” he answered, without looking up.

“It’s a nice day, isn’t it?”

“I guess so.”

“Let’s go out.”

Joonmyun stopped wiping the plate he was holding onto, and Chorong held her breath. She couldn’t read the expression written on his face, and she was about to say something else when he finally spoke up.

“Okay. Where to?”

~

“I’ll come here every time I want to be alone, or just simply feeling bored at home,” Chorong told him when they reached a small mountain of rocks by the seaside. She carefully climbed up and set herself down when she reached the peak, and waited for Joonmyun who struggled a bit with his steps.

“Which is most of the time,” she continued when he finally sat down on the space beside her. “I told you, it to be alone honestly.”

“Don’t you have any friends?” he peered at her closely, as the cool evening breeze approached them gently, ruffling his straight short hair.

Chorong let out a small laugh, sweeping back her long wavy locks. “Pretty funny you’d ask. I thought you would’ve already realised that by now.”

“Why?”

“I used to have lots of friends...” she began, staring far across the sea as she hugged her two knees close to her chest.

Just then, Joonmyun reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, causing her to blush a little at the sudden contact.

“Thank you,” she said softly with a smile.

Joonmyun held her gaze for about three seconds long, before he quickly averted his eyes away.

“You were saying?”

“Oh...yeah...I wasn’t this alone before...”

Chorong inhaled deeply.

Joonmyun waited patiently.

“Before my accident...”

Even without looking at him, she could sense the sudden change in his earlier calm composure. He opened his mouth to say something, but she beat him to it.

“...before I lost my memory.”