And so it is
The shorter story
No love, no glory
No hero in her sky

***

Jongin’s grandparent’s house isn’t a mansion or a penthouse like theirs; it’s a modest two-story house on the skirts of Seoul. It was something that their grandfather had built with his own two hands for his wife and grandchildren. He refused to accept any charity from the son who he felt could not be any more different from him.

Whilst they were raised in three story mansions and giant penthouses, the Kim siblings loved to visit their grandparents for the tree house they all played in when they were kids. The thing about the Kim siblings was that they genuinely adored their grandparents. Kim Jongsuk and Son Joohyun were Kim Jonghyun’s parents. Their grandparents were the sibling’s voice when they were younger and couldn’t speak against their father. They hated the way their son raised their grandchildren. Sending away one daughter to another country, nurturing their only son to be the heir to a large company without consideration of his desire or wishes were amongst the things they disagreed on and perhaps the reason why they moved so far away from that life - Jongin’s life.

Jongsuk greets them at the front of the house and quickly ushers for them to come inside, it was beginning to rain just lightly. They hear laughter and whispers and Jongin smells hot chocolate when he enters the room. Chorong and Ara had arrived fifteen minutes ahead of Jongin and had already made themselves very much at home. “B-Bae Suzy?” Joohyun asks and adjusts her glasses.

Ara and Chorong exchanged suspicious looks and giggle, “Suzy, what are you doing here?” Ara asks.

“What do you mean what is she doing here? She’s here to visit me,” grandma Joohyun gestures for her to come closer. Suzy approached slowly towards the old woman and when she did Joohyun clasped her hand on her face. “You’re so grown up now, so pretty,” Joohyun compliments Suzy, which makes her blush.

“You’re still as young as ever halmoni,” Suzy exclaims and squeezes her hand.

The two exchange pleasantries whilst the rest looked on fondly. Jongin settled down with his own glass of hot chocolate when his grandmother finally chose to acknowledge him. “And my baby,” Joohyun exclaims and plants a big kiss on his cheek. Jongin kneels down beside her whilst she examines his face. “You’ve lost so much weight, are they not feeding you at home?”

“Halmoni, he eats like a pig, but he also parties a lot which is why he never gains weight,” Chorong says with a victorious grin.

“Ah, a young boy needs to go out and have fun, he can’t be working all the time.” Jongin looks and Chorong and smirks like he had just won, “But you can’t party too much to the point where you’re not gaining weight.”

“Chorong noona is lying, I don’t party as much as she does.”

Chorong huffs and shoots daggers at Jongin with her eyes and they all laugh in unison at the youthful atmosphere.

“What are you kids doing here instead of having fun on the weekend?”

“We wanted to visit you halmoni,” Chorong chirped, cheerful as ever. None of them say it either, but they wanted to escape from their parents.

“Yeah, I…” Jongin reiterated, “Really wanted to see you and these two tagged along.”

“And Suzy?” Joohyun asks.

“I needed a friend and she was kind enough to come with me. These two pick on me halmoni,” Jongin pouts whilst Ara and Chorong gasped indigently.

“Oh my baby,” Joohyun squeezed his cheeks hard, “You’ve got to grow up into a man one day.” She laughs. The thing about grandma Joohyun was that she loved her grandchildren equally. She loved how Chorong was so rebellious; it reminded her of when she was younger. She loved how Ara was so bright and independent and she loved how Jongin was so kind and gentle. In her eyes her grand children grew up fine despite their parent’s upbringing of them. However ask any of them and they would tell you that they consider their grandparents to be responsible for those attributes.

They spend the evening talking over a hearty home cooked meal. Jongin’s grandfather was quite the cook and the children all devoured their meal happily. After helping their grandparents clean up, Chorong and Ara retire to their respective rooms leaving Jongin with a bit of a dilemma. He carries their luggage up into his room and drops it down on the floor. They stare at the single bed and scratch their heads. “You should sleep here,” Jongin says and pats Suzy on the back, “I’ll go grab some blankets and sleep on the couch.”

“That’s not fair, I tagged along last minute I should go sleep down on the couch.”

Jongin frowns, “And what kind of friend would I be if I made you sleep on the couch. Plus you’re a girl-”

“What does being a girl have to do anything with this? If you’re afraid I’d catch a cold or something you’re wrong.”

Jongin smirks and rolls his eyes, “Of course I mean nothing by it. I meant it’s only the gentlemanly thing to do.”

“Yeah, yeah, you know everything about how to sweep a girl off her feet don’t you,” Suzy deadpanned.

“Shut up.”

“Or we could…sleep together,” Suzy looked over at the bed and smirked, wanting to see if Jongin would take up the offer.

“We used to when we were younger after all,” Jongin says and smiles which silences Suzy.

“Actually I think I’ll take the couch, I insist,” Suzy says and grabs a pillow and Jongin’s blanket.

He grabs her by the shoulder and shakes his head, “I’m just kidding. You have a boyfriend and I have a girlfriend. We’re also way too old to be sleeping together and plus you always used to hog the blanket and kick me! Also I don’t want to give grams and gramps the wrong idea about us,” Jongin shakes his head. “I think I’ll take my chances on the couch,” he says and snatches the blankets and pillows from her hand and made his way downstairs.

***

“What’s wrong?” Sehun takes a seat at the chair and slides his phone across the table where it sat in front of Soojung.

Soojung sits in silence at stares at the steam coming from her coffee for a minute before she lifts her head and stares at him for a moment longer. There’s something in her eyes, a thunderstorm of sort in her eyes that looks turbulent. He braces himself mentally but he keeps his stoic expression. “Suzy went with Jongin to his grandparent’s place.”

“Oh,” is the only thing Sehun offers as a response.

“I can trust her right?” Soojung asks nervously, staring at her cup of coffee. “I trust her, I trust them,” she says out loud to herself as if she would magically believe it.

“Good,” Sehun says again with the same tone.

Soojung looks up with a half smirk on her face, “What?”

“You called me out here just to tell me you trust Suzy and Jongin?”

Soojung pressed her lips into a thin line, “I called you out here because…” she contemplates for a moment, she wanted to tell him so badly but Soojung wondered if she was crossing a line.

“Because you wanted to talk?” They hadn’t spoken in a few months, not about anything of substance. Definitely not about the night they slept together which was still a black mark on their records as far as both of them were concerned, regardless of their feelings then and there. Sehun knew that there was no point in pushing the issue, not so long as she was with Jongin. It was like she was in denial, or at least he was. “So talk…”

“It’s not my story to share,” Soojung says hesitantly.

“When has that ever stopped you? Really,” Sehun says with a raised eyebrow.

Soojung digs her hand into her pocket and feels Suzy pill bottle in her hand. She twirls it around for a bit before she fishes it out of her pocket. “I’m worried about Suzy,” she places the bottle in the middle of the table for Sehun to see.

He takes his hand out of his pocket and leans forward, reaching for the bottle to check with his eyes. Pain tablets, ones that Sehun had heard of people taking for highs, something to numb the pain. Sehun places the bottle back down on the table with an apprehensive expression. He had promised that he’d help her but he hadn’t gotten anywhere. Kim Myungsoo had been overseas living it up, sleeping around and getting him to come back to Korea was definitely not easy, bringing him down, getting him to confess wouldn’t be easy either.

“Where did you get this?”

“I found it hidden in the back of her draw.”

“How do you know it’s not old?”

“Sehun…” Soojung says with certainty in her voice, “The first time I found it the pill was half empty, now it’s completely gone. If she’s not taking it who is?” Sehun clenches his fist and Soojung notices how his jaw stiffens sand his eyebrows knit together. “Do you know something?” Soojung asks but Sehun doesn’t reply. “You know something!” she says accusingly.

“No, I don’t.”

“You know something that’s why ever since she came back you two have been two peas in a pod.”

“Maybe the reason why we’re two peas in a pod is because you’re too wrapped up with Jongin to really care about what’s happening to us.”

Sehun doesn’t want this to turn into another childish warfare with her where they’re arguing over stupid things like who started it. “What does that mean?”

Sehun grits his teeth, “I know something but I didn’t know about this. I also know is that it’s not my story to share,” he says the exact same words that she had said to him earlier on.

“Sehun! If this has something to do with my best friend, you need to tell me!”

“I won’t,” Sehun utters in a low tone, “I can’t.”

“When has that ever stopped you?”

Sehun looked up at Soojung with worry etched on his face, maybe it wouldn’t be too bad if he told her. Maybe together they’d be able to help her, maybe… he thought. Soojung’s phone flashed on the table, it was a message from Suzy that read ‘I hope you’re ok,’ and not much else. She’s expecting a reply from Soojung but the girl doesn’t answer, she’s too enamoured with Sehun’s words right now to respond. What did the boy she cared about know about the girl she cared about? What weren’t they telling her?

“Soojung, I can’t,” Sehun says with finality and they sit there in silence. Sehun avoiding her gaze whilst the storm in Soojung’s heart raged on.

“I’ll find out Oh Sehun, whether you tell me or not. She’s my best friend, it’s my right to know and to protect her from whatever is hurting her.”

“If you were her best friend…” Sehun begins “You would talk to her and let her tell you.”

Soojung feels insulted and the fact that those words came from Sehun’s mouth was only adding salt to the wound.

***

Jongin makes a nice bed with what he’s got. He places the pillow down and stretches the blanket across. He goes upstairs to grab his toothbrush and toothpaste when he runs into Suzy. Suzy stands just up to his ear and Jongin beams at how she brushes her teeth and how they looked like they were children who had rabies.

“What’s so funny?” Suzy asks.

“Your face,” Jongin teases and points to the foam around but he grins stupidly when he notices how they look exactly the same.

Suzy laughs and it’s so unruly of her but Jongin doesn’t care, “Does this gross you out?” Suzy asks, “Do I seem very unfeminine?”

Jongin shrugs, “I’ve seen worse.”

Suzy rolls her eyes and wipes her face before she moves aside to allow Jongin to clean himself up. She walks back into his room and settles down on the mattress. It was soft, much softer than the one she had at home, so soft that it swallowed her whole as she sat down. Suzy looked around the room, she hadn’t been in here in a while, not when she barely taller than Jongin’s bed and when his ceiling was still blue with paintings of the stars and rockets. They used to make up stories about travelling, road trips and diners in the middle of nowhere, beach houses and maybe Europe with all four of them. After all these places all sounded amazing in the books that Suzy read to him.

Suzy trotted over carefully to the bookshelf his grandfather had left in his room. Alice in Wonderland, The Little Prince, Pride and Prejudice and How to Kill a Mockingbird were a few of the names she picked out from the shelf. Jongin never read, Suzy knew this much, he liked audio books, he liked her or anyone reading to her but Jongin never cared for reading himself.

“Grandpa installed that so you could have books to read when you were over here.”

“He’s kept this for so many years,” Suzy traces her finger against the wooden shelf and along the spines of the book.

“He also wanted me to be as smart as you,” Jongin laughs and walks in. He picks the first book off the shelf that caught his eye, Dear Mr. Henshaw a book that Suzy had picked up a few years ago and he remembers it because he remembered how tattered it looked on her bookshelf, like she had read it so many times till the cover tore and all the pages were dog-eared.

Suzy looks at his hand and Jongin instantly regrets pulling it off the shelf. She reaches for it slowly, “How?” she asks, skimming through the book.

A few months after she left he found himself in the bookstore where she often visited. He had hoped for some odd reason that he’d find her there in the back corner of the store, hidden away with a small cup of coffee in her hand reading a book. She wasn’t, but on the shelves he found a copy of Dear Mr. Henshaw and remembered the friend who was struggling so much she couldn’t tell him anything.

Suzy takes a seat in his chair and pulls her knees closer to her body with the book resting on her knee.

“Goodnight, Suzy,” Jongin says with a smile and closes the door of his room.

***

“So did you want to tell me why you wanted to come and see your grandmother and I?” Jongsuk lowers his paper and takes off his glasses to greet Jongin who was coming down from Suzy’s room.

Jongin is nearly startled by the old man sitting on the couch that faced away from the stairs. He walks down slowly and takes a seat on the sofa where he had set up his bed. Jongin smiles like a child who had been caught lying, “I wanted to see you and grandma,” he says “That much is true.”

“So what is it this time? Is your father making you do something you don’t want to do? Are you running away from home?” he finishes in a whisper which makes Jongin laugh.

If he was running away from home the last people he’d bring with him were his sisters. If he was running away from home the last place he’d go to was his grandparent’s house. It would be too easy for his parents to find him. Jongin leans forward and laces his fingers together. “I need to borrow some money,” Jongin looks up at his grandfather nervously.

“You don’t have money?”

“None of my own, it’s all my father’s.”

“It’s odd to find children complaining about that,” Jongsuk says and smirks, “But you’re not like other children are you, Kim Jongin?” Jongin looks up at his grandfather is a sheepish grin, “What’s it for?”

Jongin ponders for a second before he answers, “I want to donate to the nursing home for them to get heating.”

Jongsuk raises an eyebrow, “Why?”

Jongin buckles down and smiles to the ground, “Because I thought that if you and grandma were living in a place like that, it would hurt me to know that you were cold without heating. But that’s because I love you guys. There are so many old people there who have probably been abandoned by their families and no one deserves that.”

Jongsuk presses his lips into a thin line and nods. “I thought you’d be here to ask for money, though honestly had you not I would’ve given you a cheque regardless. Ten thousand. Is that enough?” Jongsuk plays it off like he doesn’t care about money, because he doesn’t. It as the principal of it all. Jongin doesn’t dare to meet his grandfather’s eyes, “I’m proud of you, Jongin.”

“Gramps.”

“This is your Christmas present by the way,” Jongsuk says as he forces the cheque into Jongin’s hand but he’s delighted enough he just nods happily.

***

Soojung stares at her phone absent minded with Sehun still sitting opposite her. She had been staring at Suzy’s number for the longest of time, hand hovering over the call button but before she garners enough courage to do so she turns off her phone and Sehun lets out a sigh of frustration. He glances up at the clock and down at his cold cup of coffee and calls the waiter over for a refill.

“Look, if you’re not going to call her I should just drive you home.”

They had  been sitting there for three hours already and it was well past midnight. However, Soojung was persistent enough to not leave until she found out what was wrong with Suzy, or rather until Sehun would spill what he knew. 

“I’m going to call her, I just…” Soojung is trying to justify. “Maybe we should talk in person, I feel like this is a topic we should talk about face to face.”

Sehun chuckles slightly and hangs his head low, breathing in the coffee like it would wake him up by just doing so. “Let’s just go.”

“Sehun!” Soojung shrieks of out frustration which makes him jump in  his seat.

“What?”

“If you’re not going to help me, maybe you should go home.”

“I want to help you, I do.”

“Then you can save me so much time by just telling me what the heck happened to her. What’s so secretive that she couldn’t even tell me?”

Sehun inhaled deeply and exhaled and stared down at the space between them. 

“Are you ever going to tell Soojung and Jongin? They need to know.”

“And then what? I’m already ashamed enough I let this happen to myself, but to bring in more people?”

“Suzy, it’s not your fault. None of this is your fault. It was Kim Myungsoo, he deserves to be locked up.” Sehun said whilst Suzy’s hand dug into her thighs.

“Can you not mention his name, it makes me sick,” Suzy said to which Sehun offers an acknowledging nod. He could feel the emotion caught in his throat as she said that and he could see the fear in her eyes as she gripped onto something solid to stable herself, “My whole life has been on display for the world to see, for once in my life, I really want to keep this to myself.”

“Will you ever tell them?” Sehun asked.

“No.”

“I made her a promise, and I keep my promises,” Sehun said, “But I believe that this is something she can’t deal with herself and I’m at my wit’s end trying to figure out.”

Soojung leans in with a victorious smile on her lips, “Spill it, Oh Sehun!” she says excitedly.

“The night of Jongin’s farewell party, Kim Myungsoo lured Suzy down into the boat shed and her.”

Soojung gripped onto the hem of her dress, “You’re lying,” she said in denial, “You’re lying and this isn’t funny.”

“I wish I was,” Sehun says, “I’ve tracked him down and he’s overseas at the moment and it’s been so hard to get him back...”

“But even if we do he won’t confess,” Soojung says “What do we do, Sehun?” she asks with worry etched in her voice. “We can’t let him get away.”

Soojung looks at the lock screen of her phone of her and her best friend with her bright eyes and wide grin and she feels the emotions crawling up till she couldn’t hold it in anymore. Soojung bent over the table and her shoulders dropped. Sehun sat there opposite her in silence, his hand her head gently, and reassuringly. “He won’t get away, he’s messed with the wrong people.”

***

And so it is
Just like you said it should be
We'll both forget the breeze
Most of the time

Thanks for reading, if you enjoyed it please leave a comment.
For those if you haven't seen I've released another trailer for the next few chapters which you can check out here.
xo