Wallflower: You see things, you keep quiet about them and then you understand.

3^rd August 2021

Good morning sunshine, let me kick away your Monday blues. Are you ready?

Aleyah read the post-it note that was stuck on her counter top, it was clearly Sehun’s handwriting. She shook her head lightly but a contented smile was seen hooking her cherry lips. When she walked over to switch on the lights, she found the second note stuck on the switch.

Quiz #01

What is my favourite food?

“Ddeokbokki.” She said it out as she walked over to the rack of flowers where she needed to change the pails of water.

Ohh, so smart! It’s Ddeokbokki! Now, Quiz #02, What’s the design of my favourite cap?

“A plain black cap that has your name sewn across the label.” She knew because that cap she gave him was kept separately from the other caps. It wasn’t in their walk-in wadrobe at home, it was always in his bag even if he was wearing some other caps. He brings it wherever he goes.

She didn’t have to read the third note to know if it was right, because she had unknowingly memorise everything about him in her head by now. And from where she was, she could see many more post-its stuck around her store. Slowly, she spent this Monday morning answering Sehun’s quiz, scoring a perfect 10 out of 10 points when she ended. He must have secretly came to the store before he left for his Busan photoshoot this morning. People always complained that guys would stop making the effort once a girl becomes theirs but that wasn’t the case for Sehun. He had never stopped creating surprises, be it serving her breakfast in bed or drying her hair for her after a shower, it was all filled with sweetness that it makes her feel so blissful. Probably it was his effort that stitched up her broken heart but days like this were so peaceful that it makes her feel so dreamy and joyful. She hoped that it would just stay like this everyday.

But just when she made her first wish ever since Sehun and her had been together, the bells at the door chimed. And in came a male that she had least expect to appear.

“Kyungsoo?”

“Hey.” The mentioned male approached her slowly, “Free to talk?”

Aleyah swore she hated that sentence because it never fails to give her goosebumps. And together with his arrival now, her sixth sense told her it was definitely not something good. She was starting to get scared.

“What do you want to talk about?” She served him a cup of flower tea and took a seat opposite him. His expression was grave but she could not guess the reason to it even though she was good at reading people and it made her panic.

“How’s your twisted ankle?” Kyungsoo asked her suddenly, causing her to look at him in shock. And from her expression he knew everything he was told was true.

“H…how did you know?”

Rubbing his forehead, Kyungsoo didn’t know what to reply. What Kai had told him was indeed true afterall. For 6 months, 180 days, his silly friend had been sending her home without her knowing whenever Sehun couldn’t come to fetch her. He would drive his car and follow the bus she was in, till she reached home safely before leaving. And he told him, one day during last winter, she slipped and twisted her ankle when she alighted from the bus. She sat at the bus stop in the cold because it hurts too much to move. He was dying to go up to her and help her but he knew he couldn’t anymore. So instead, he paid a female passer-by to help her home. It wasn’t that he doubted his best friends words but deep within him he wished they were all lies, just like how he wished he never saw Kai stepped out of room 398 the morning before his marriage.

“Sehun told me.” He lied as he felt something chewed on his conscious.

“Oh, right.” She nodded but not buying a single thing he said. He wouldn’t patronize her store for the first time to ask her about her twisted ankle that happened almost 5 months ago.

“How’s Sehun and you?”

“We are very happy together.”

The man opposite him nodded his head. “I know is very abrupt for me to be here talking about all these but I think you should know, Kai hasn’t been living well.”

Instinctively, the lady froze at his name mentioned. So this was the purpose of his visit. “Oh.. really… What’s.. wrong?”

“I’m sure you know what is wrong.” He looked into her wavering hazelnut eyes confidently, causing her to look away immediately.

“I don’t know what you mean Kyungsoo.”

“Aleyah, I know about the affair.”

How could he not know when he could read Kai as well as her. Yes he knew about the affair since the world tour but he chose to keep quiet about it. The lies that he was told and the eye contacts that Aleyah and him shared then were all seen by him. Since his best friend didn’t want to talk about it, he didn’t want to press about it either. All he hoped was that he would come to his senses and realize he was straying away from his path but the chain of event that happened after was way out of his expectation.

Kai cheated on Solbi with Aleyah. Then Aleyah got together with Sehun and cheated on him with Kai the day before he marries Solbi. Everything escalated so rapidly and ended so quickly that Kyungsoo could only watch everything unfold before him. But if it wasn’t Kai who had been living like the walking dead ever since, he wouldn’t come here. Because his living form was unbearable for him to watch, he ripped off Kai’s mask. And that was when he saw the real Kim JongIn that disappeared half a year ago, he saw how he cried painfully, pouring his pain into his tears, mourning over the love he had lost. He still loves her and the way he was missing her made Kyungsoo physically sick; he could feel his best friend’s pain.

“How… how did… did you know..” Aleyah mumbled, her hands grasp her cup nervously. Now she knew the reason to the blissful life she had been living, it was to prepare her for this moment; to sweep her off her feet with this piece of news.

“Aleyah, I’m Kai’s best friend. I read him as well as you.” Kyungsoo sighed, “The reason why I’m here today is that I feel that you have the right to know how Kai is living.”

“He’s leading a soulless life, numbing himself with nicotine and alcohol to escape from the pain from losing you. He no longer dances, no longer joins Exo’s gatherings because he’s afraid he would lose control the moment he sees you.”

“Everyday he repeats to himself over and over again that he’s not sad, he’s not sad. As if he might one day convince himself. Or fool himself. Or convince others because the only thing worse than being sad is for others to know that he is sad. He couldn’t afford to let others know either, he can’t let Solbi knows, he can’t let Exo knows so he kept telling himself that he’s not sad anyway, because his life  used to have unlimited potential for happiness and now, it became an empty black room.”

“He still loves you, but he let go.”

“Why are you even telling me all this?” She asked him back, trying to put away the ripping feeling in her heart.

Her question caught Kyungsoo offguard. Why did he tell her all this? He doesn’t know either. Was it because he wanted her to return to Kai so his best friend would come back? Definitely not, because he knew Sehun would not be able to live without her either. He knows that poor boy would suffer as much as Kai when that happens. Then why was he here? All he knew was that she deserved to know how he was suffering, and how he was still in love with her after Kai told him everything about them. Now he truly understands, how is it that when 2 people get married, 2 single people dies.

“Do you even love Sehun?” Kyungsoo asked instead, “I don’t know if you had ever loved him. Maybe I’m wrong but I feel that whatever you’ve done is unfair to Sehun. Your intention to be with him is wrong to begin with; you didn’t love him. All I can say as a hyung, a fellow Exo member is that, stop being nice to him if you don’t love him. You are just hurting yourself, Kai and Sehun. And if you do love him, the least you could do now is to be honest with him. He deserves to know the truth than being kissed with a lie. ”

“But Aleyah, keep this in mind. Sometimes relationship may have ended, but that doesn’t mean that feelings did.”

*******

All I can say is.. nobody saw this coming right? lol.

And I can see how bias you guys are towards Sehun compared to Kai from the amount of comments I received for the previous chapter. :P