Hongki

                After practice I visited The Restaurant and ordered Cookies and Cream iced cream even though I was very hungry. I scooped every last bit of it and munched on the crunched cookies in it. After my ice cream session at The Restaurant. The day that Soojin told me that it was the last time she'll ever step on The Restaurant,  insisted on coming back for more. It is something she's been doing ever since- with Sungmin, that is. I know she's trying to forget Sungmin but I don't want to take away memories that was once theirs. I don't want Soojin to see this place as haunted and freak out one day. I don't want to.

                 I decided to go home and catch the bus before it was too late but it started to rain. I tried going to one waiting shed to another and hugged myself but it was not enough to cover myself from the rain.  My guitar is now wet, too. I don't like my guitar getting wet. Ugh. Once I reached the waiting shed for the bus that I needed, a girl, 25 or so meters away, the same exact spot when I bumped Soojin that one night before she puked on me on stage, caught my attention as I looked to my left. Her head and hair down parallel to the rain. Her shoulders drooping and shaking. She's closing her fists too tight she could hurt herself. Since it's dark I could not see much of her. The time when the bus came in front of me (and the people practically bumped me as they rushed into the door) was exactly the time when she raised her head up and look into the dark, starless sky showing her features. For a moment there, I rushed into her leaving my wet guitar in the waiting shed. Rain fell to my head, then to my shoulders, but I didn't give a damn. Once I was in front of her, I wrapped her inside my arms and I can feel her hair moving backwards from the impact. I rested my chin on her head and closed eyes my eyes. I can feel droplets of rain fall from the sky down to my nose bridge sliding down to my chapped lips, wetting them. I have squeezed her enough for our clothes to release the liquid it once seeped from the rain. She moved her head near my chest. She was sobbing. Crying. Panting. We stood still like that under the rain for moments. I would count the minutes but my mind was not capable of doing anything else besides staying the way we were. I could feel her cheeks in my heart. My arms towering over her, protecting her. I was hoping that we could stay this way forever besides her being in pain.

                "Sungmin-ah." She slipped her arms into my waist, then into my back and grabbed unto it. I did not know why but in that moment, I just let her be.

                "Noona-ya." I hugged her even tighter. I know she can't hear me. I can smell the reek of alcohol. She obviously drank too much.

                Moments passed. The rain stopped and she's still in my arms. I already knew she has slept away all her tears. Once again, I didn't know why, but I just let her be.

                I managed to carry her on my back and find a telephone booth and dialed Jonghun's number. "Jonghun-ah, it's me. Can you give me Nana's number? Yes, the one who accepted our request for a gig in her loft. Yes... uh-huh..." I repeated Nana's number for confirmation and started dialing it.

                "Nana-ssi?"

                "Yehp, who's this?"

                "It's me, Hongki."

                "Oh hey there!"

                "She... hallucinated again."