~_____~

“Ow!” Tao jumped back and shrieked when the hot water splattered onto his hand.

Hopping up and down to relieve himself of the pain, he peered into the bowl wondering if the chicken he’d cooked was ready yet. Why was such a simple thing like preparing a meal so difficult? How did Donghae manage to do this?

Thanks to Donghae’s absence Tao had spent the last hour and a half working on boiling water and cutting up chicken s. Straining his eyes on the time strictly he turned the stove off after another half hour and packed the food up.

Namjoo would be surprised, but he knew she wouldn’t turn him away. Chorong should definitely be gone by now, leaving the apartment to just the two of them. This time he’d definitely make her sit down with him at the table willingly and watch her eat his masterpiece. Thinking of it made him anxious and excited.

In hopes of giving her some strength, Tao also hoped to cheer her up.

Minutes later he bounded down the hall with all smiles and rang her doorbell. Namjoo didn’t come to the door even when he rang the bell again and again.  

“Namjoo?” He called out. “It’s me, Tao. Are you in?”

When he received no answer again he grabbed his phone to call her, but was immediately sent to voicemail.

What was this?

Was Namjoo really not in?

~_____~

Suho looked excited. It spread so thoroughly on his face that it made Chorong believed she’d made the right choice.

Suho had seemed hesitant at first, but he looked so much happier now. Total relief sunk through her when she saw him debating over which movie they should watch. He resembled a child, deciding between which candy bar was better.

“This one looks good too,” Suho talked to himself, “but I really want to watch a comedy. Laughing relieves stress. What do you think?”

“I don’t mind,” Chorong replied and watched him cross his arms then tapped a finger against his chin. 

Was it such a difficult decision? She almost wondered how long they’d be standing there in front of the movie posters.

The ringing of her phone stole her attention and she turned to answer.

“Is Namjoo with you?” Tao asked right away.

“No.”

“Then where is she?”

“How would I know?” Chorong shrugged.

“Did she say anything to you last night?”

“No.”

“Are you sure? Think hard.”

Chorong felt a part of her boil inside. What reason was there for Tao to doubt her? He was still insanely annoying to some point.

“Why?”

“I can’t get a hold of her,” Tao answered without holding back the obvious frustration he was experiencing.

“Have you gone to her apartment?”

“Yes,” Tao slightly raised his voice. “She’s not in either.”

Chorong sunk into her thoughts. Namjoo hadn’t said anything to her. They’d ended breakfast peacefully that morning with Namjoo reminding her about Suho and movies.

“What if something happened to her?” Tao went on. “What are we going to do?”

Chorong shook her head and insisted, “Calm down, will you? Namjoo’s not a child. I’m sure she doesn’t stay inside all the time and I don’t think she needs to tell anyone where she is at all times.”

Tao hung up on her almost spitefully before Chorong stared at her phone. She was worried too, but she had to believe Namjoo could look after herself. If she knew they wanted to know about her whereabouts every single minute of the day she’d avoid them forever.

“Who was that?” Suho asked.

“Oh…it was Tao.”

“Really?” Was all Suho asked before looking happily determined. “Well I’ve decided. Lets go buy tickets.”

~_____~

“Are you sure you don’t want lunch?” His sister-in-law poked her head into his room.

“I’ll eat later,” Kris called out without turning around.

She looked at him for a second longer before pressing her lips together and closed the door.

It was afternoon and Kris was still lying in bed. He hadn’t yet found the motivation to get up yet nor did he feel very hungry. Skipping out on breakfast had left him feeling numb, but he decided to worry about it later.

Swinging his phone back and forth between his fingers he unlocked it again to stare at the home screen and locked his phone again. The thoughts were still processing in his head about whether to go see Namjoo or not. Besides, it wasn’t like they weren’t meeting up tomorrow. She had promised him dinner and it would have to happen at any cost.

What he really worried about was if she would be further annoyed with him if he called. Tucking his fat pillow further underneath his arms he hugged it before turning his phone on again.

The ringtone buzzed into his ears for a long while before he was sent to voicemail. Since she hadn’t been feeling well yesterday he thought to just leave a message. Kris believed she’d get back to him later in the day; it was intuition.

“Hey, it’s me,” he started, “um…you haven’t forgotten about dinner, right? I was just wondering if you wanted to meet up or…I can come get you. Either way is fine. I’ll let you decide. Well that’s all. Call me back, ok? Oh…and…I hope you’re feeling better today. Bye.”

Hanging up he shut his eyes and pressed the phone to his forehead. She should have answered his call. Heaving a sigh he turned over onto his back thinking about how bored he was.

~_____~

“This woman…” Donghae muttered underneath his breath as he opened the door and closed it behind him.

Stomping in his steps he looked around his empty apartment before lifting the bag of food up.

“And I was so nice to waste some money on food for you,” Donghae spouted. “Just be that way, I can eat all this by myself. Go eat your sand by the sea.”

He shot forward when the door opened and hit his back. Letting out a moan of pain he turned around to see Tao walking in. Catching sight of the bag in his hand Donghae raised a brow. Quickly zooming his eyes into the kitchen to look for any damage Donghae turned back to Tao.

“What’s this? Where’d you come from?” Donghae wondered.  

Brushing by silently Tao set the food onto the table and made his way into the living room where he sat down. Grabbing the remote he turned the TV on and crossed his arms.

Snorting, baffled by his behavior Donghae followed, “What’s with you? Where did you go? I thought you were still sleeping.”

Tao turned to eye him up and down, “And where were you?”

“I was at Victoria’s.”

His eyes swerved to the kitchen table where both their bags were sitting and the corner of his lips struck up.

“What?” Donghae asked feeling belittled by someone like Tao.

“She packed you food?”

“Well…” Donghae twisted his neck a little before plopping down beside Tao.

He didn’t want to make himself seem like a fool in front of Tao. He couldn’t feel small in front of someone like Tao.

Just no.  

“Whatever.” Tao finished, his eyes completely glued to the TV.

“And what about you? Where did you just go after leaving the dishes in my sink like that?”

“You know where I went, don’t be dumb.”

Donghae’s lips pried themselves apart as if he were shocked by Tao’s crude behavior.

Finally turning toward him Tao asked, “How do you know when someone likes you?”

“The heck?” Donghae muttered. “Why are you asking me something like that?”

“Forget it,” Tao turned away.

Donghae set his eyes on the young boy before standing up, “Lets go.”

Tao’s eyes sprung back onto him.

Gesturing his head toward the door Donghae said, “For some air. I’ll buy you something nice.”

~_____~

Victoria stopped her car at the side of the street. Stepping out she stared at the run down houses built from concrete material. The homes looked neglected and droopy. Even the road was bumpy. Every bit of the way down the road Victoria would come across chunks of rocks that had broken off from somewhere down the road. The gray in color of the homes had faded in color and the roofs looked like they were unable to stand another downpour.

The homes were streaked with a light black color and the gates to the homes were in poor shape. Some of the gates were smudged with paint and to match the mood of the gloomy homes the grass looked like they were dying even in the middle of spring. Nothing looked alive here.

Victoria estimated that it didn’t cost very much to own a home in this neighborhood. These homes were more like poor shacks. The whole neighborhood was brooding in gloom.

She took the area as the worst rundown part of Pohang where the less well off lived. Pausing in the middle of the road to look around she wondered why this part of the city had clouds over it instead of the sun. The drive here had been sunny, but it suddenly seemed dark…even felt dark.

A sudden emotion of sympathy and pity seeped through her.

Donghae didn’t look like he came from a place like this. To her he looked like a rich son, a spoiled son specifically, who had come from a full family of two parents deeply in love with each other. In that way he had been raised with overly attentive care and affection only to become who he was today, but this wasn’t it.

Lifting her phone up she glanced at the address Yoona had sent her through text.

This wasn’t it, she still told herself when she paused in front of the home Donghae grew up in.

The blue on the gate had worn out. From underneath the gate a row of green grass stuck out as if desperately trying to reach out for the sun. The home looked drained of life as if every little bit of happiness had been from it. It looked like a place that had been left to die. Not even a sceneric beauty could bee seen from it. A photo of the home would only promote its ugly, sorry form.  

And she thought again that this wasn’t it.

“Excuse me, are you looking for someone?” A voice belonging to an old woman cut through her thoughts.      

Turning immediately she caught sight of a gray haired woman in a large dull orange vest with a thin flowery farmer’s pants on. The shoes on her feet were red and Victoria spotted white socks that went up above her ankle.

Old fashioned, she thought right away.

There was clearly age in the old woman’s face. The cheekbones that once stood so high during her youth were now sagging slightly down her face coursed with wrinkles.

“The family isn’t home. You’re going to have to come again later,” she told.

Smiling right away Victoria walked toward her, “I’m not looking for the family.”

“Oh? Then why are you here? You don’t look like you’re from around here.”

“About that,” Victoria stopped before her, “you look like you’ve lived here for quite some time, grandma.”

“Of course! I grew up here, got married here, and lived here with my family! Now it’s just me and my oldest daughter.”

Smiling again in order to delight her Victoria went directly to why she was here, “I was wondering if you remember the family that used to live here. They had a son, his name’s Lee Donghae.”

“Ah!” The old woman clapped her hands together, which emanated a loud sound that echoed off the walls. “The Lee family! Of course I remember them!”

She shook her head heavily to emphasize the fact.

“But why are you looking for him? He’s not longer here.”

“Just a few questions, grandma,” Victoria told. “You woudn’t mind talking with me, would you?”

A few minutes later after being led down the road Victoria found herself sitting on the outside table in the yard. The grandma’s home was almost identical to the other homes she’d passed along the way. Even the wooden doors looked like they would break if someone closed them recklessly.

The yard consisted of concrete instead of healthy green grass like Victoria had expected. It was muffled in dirt and weeds springing up from the cracks.

To think that Donghae had grown up here…

“Here, have some watermelon,” the grandma walked out of the house and placed a plate of some slices of the fruit onto the table.

“You didn’t have to.”

“Just eat it,” the grandma urged. “My son brings us so much; we can barely eat them all. We even give them away to the neighbors! The cats eat them sometimes!”

“You sound like you have a big family,” Victoria commented.

The grandma smiled quite broadly and laughed, “They always say the bigger the family, the happier you are. That’s just me.”

Victoria laughed along with her and took a bite of the watermelon she’d picked up.

“Anyway, what did you want to ask about the Lee family’s son? Oh, he was a handsome young fellow, so bright and considerate.”

“I just wanted to know how he was like growing up here,” Victoria answered. “If he got into trouble at all, what kind of a child he was to his parents, and how his family was.”

“His parents loved him so much; they were a beautiful young couple,” the grandma remininsced with a soothing smile, “even from a baby he never cried much, it was as if he was afraid to be a burden on them. He was such a good boy, one of the kindest. I feel so sorry for them now that I think about it.

“I heard his father was laid off from his job, they even ran out of rice to eat. The poor boy didn’t have even a grain of rice for half a year. I pitied them. Even if I wanted to help feed the poor thing, but we were struggling on our own too. In this world, you’re on your own. You know how that is, but he was just a boy. He hardly had any milk, but he never cried. And oh, his parents loved him so much. He was the tiniest boy in the neighborhood, but always so headstrong.”

The grandma shook her head sadly.

“He always beat up the bigger boys when they tried to steal food from his mother. He even brought home two poor kids, who had no home. I don’t know why he did that, he just made it so much more difficult for his parents. They worked so hard day and night. And his father died so suddenly from a heart attack, it was so heartbreaking. And I’m telling you, I’ve never seen a boy cry like that; not one at his age. He wept so hard at the funeral he wouldn’t let them put his father to rest. I watched them drag him away from the burial, he was so sad.

“I’m telling you, that boy’s had the worst of the worst around here. I heard his mother found a job in the cities. I never heard from them again, but I still think of them from time to time. There are always little boys running around here, but no one like him. But why do you want to know about him? Are you a reporter? Or maybe you know him by chance? Are you his girlfriend?”

Victoria pulled on a smile and shook her head, “No.”

But at the back of her head she still repeated the earlier words over.

This wasn’t it. 

***Welp, that's all I have for now. The semester has started and I'm packed with hw and super stressed already! Don't know when I'll be able to update next, but I'll keep writing till this story completes itself!