The late summer wind blew across his face as he walked out of the shop. The wind felt like tiny soft slaps against his cheeks, snapping him out of his train of thoughts. He wasn’t actually thinking that much; he was merely clutching his brown t-shirt, staring at nothing specific as he thought back of how he felt when he saw Sehun helping Hana out.

Jongin’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, although the feeling was small and almost unnoticeable, he knew it was there; the squeeze.

He looked down at his own shirt that clung to his body. With fingers pinched on the right and left of his shirt where his stomach would be, he pulled it forward and released it. He continued this action for quite a few times before drawing a conclusion that maybe the squeeze was caused by the tightness of his shirt. And to make sure, he repeatedly lifted his shirt from the collars and snuck a peek inside to see if anything was clinging to his body.

Seemingly satisfied with his own answer, Jongin nodded to himself and repeated the conclusion in his head to convince himself.

To passersby, he may look like a dorky idiot, talking and nodding to himself while pulling and lifting his shirt repeatedly. The witnesses shook their heads and laughed to themselves as they took a glimpse at the boy’s actions.

Aware of the looks he was receiving, Jongin immediately smoothen out his shirt and turned to his right to head back home. It was nearing 5.30pm and he was sure that Hyeri would be pissed off with him for going out for so long.

Naww~ she never cared anyways. He jokingly thought as he strolled his way up the slanting pavement that led to his house. The undeniable notion of seeing her sister all snuggled up on the sofa facing the TV with bowls of popcorn made him chuckle.

“I swear, I have the weirdest sister ever.” mumbled Jongin, chuckling and shaking his head.

~.~.~

“I’m home.” Jongin shouted as he trudged into the house, hanging the key on the wooden key holder by his left. It took less than 10 minutes to get back home by foot. Lots of his energy was spent trying to walk up the slope.

He heard the sounds of chopsticks and spoons clinging on plates from the kitchen. Instinctively, he followed the sound to see his sister eating with their parents.

“Mom, dad, you’re home?” He asked, curious of their sudden return. They said that they were supposed to return tomorrow as there were a few things that his father had to settle down in Seoul. His mother, who was a detective at the same office, also had to get some paperwork done as she had to transfer all her files to the Incheon’s office.

“What? You’re not happy?” Hyeri sarcastically replied, stuffing a huge piece of meat into , not caring at all on lady manners.

Jongin just shook his head and replied ‘no’, giving a wide smile to all of them as he sauntered towards the table, sitting beside Hyeri. In front of him laid Mrs. Kim’s favourite dish; grilled beef.

Happily, Jongin instantly cut off a piece of it and gobbled it, savoring the taste of the juicy meat spreading through the insides of his mouth. How he missed his mother’s food.

For one week, he had to survive with Hyeri’s instant ramen every single day. And that was not even satisfying. Sorry to say this, but his sister was a really bad cook. Jongin still remembered that one time when Hyeri wanted to make pancakes for him on his birthday. Because of that, not only did the kitchen was caught on fire, but Jongin had a severe stomach ache from the burnt pancakes he ate.

“Where did you go, Jongin?” Mr. Kim asked, snapping him out of his flashback. Jongin looked up to the curious eyes of his parents.

“I went to the café where Sehun is working at.” said Jongin with his mouth full.

“Did you meet him? What’s he like?” Mrs. Kim continued asking. “I still remember you two boys were inseparable even until the sun was going down.”

“Yeah, remember that one time…” Hyeri continued to tell the embarrassing story of how he fell off his bike in front of the girl he used to like when Sehun and he were racing down the hill.

‘This is going to be a long dinner.’ Jongin thought to himself, shaking his head amusingly while stuffing more meat into his mouth.

~.~.~

“I’m glad that you could join us for dinner, Hana,” Mr. Joonyoung said as he placed plates and bowls full of food on the small table fit for four. “If I had known that you were coming, I’d whip up some delicious food for you. I guess grilled meat will have to do, right?” He sheepishly laughed, causing small wrinkles to be visible under his eyes.

“That’s okay, Uncle Oh. This is more than enough.” Replied Hana humbly. Grabbing the chopsticks on her right, she began stuffing the meat into .

Sehun, who was seating beside Hana, gazed at her, waiting for her reaction towards the meat his uncle cooked. 3, 2, 1…

“O-oh my,” Hana stuttered, her eyes sparkling in awe from the juicy taste of the meat, “This is the best meat I’ve had in, like, forever!” She scooped up another piece of grilled meat and another into , her shoulders relaxing at the deliciousness of the meat.

Turning and leaning towards her right, she pointed her chopsticks towards Sehun and said, “Starting from tomorrow, you need to help me cook my meat because I bet you also know how to cook, right?”

Using his index fingers, Sehun slowly pushed Hana’s head away to face forwards again as he laughed off the comment made by her. Irritated, she puffed up her cheeks and crossed her arms, looking like a frustrated little kid. It didn’t last long though. A few seconds after that, she was laughing along with Sehun and Mr. Joonyoung.

After seconds and thirds of meat, Hana leaned back on her chair, massaging her full stomach. The last time she had ever felt this full was a few years back. Due to her father’s condition, she had to save as much as possible for her to be able to pay the bills, supply food for two or on some occasions three and on a rarer situation, four people.

She’s the type to not accept or ask help from people that easily. Every time Sehun wanted to treat a meal or help with anything, she would come up with excuses to avoid being helped.

The reason that she finally agreed to come to Sehun’s uncle’s place for dinner was because she thought that it was about time she accepted a treat after years of declining him. That and also maybe Sehun’s aegyo finally worked on her for once. It didn’t even cost anything to eat at his place. So why not go for it?

“I guess I better get going,” announced Hana seeing that it was already 9PM, “thank you for the meal, Uncle Oh.”

As she was about to get up from her seat, Sehun grabbed her wrist, preventing her from leaving.

“Before you go, let me show you around the house since this is your first time coming here. I also think that Uncle is preparing a meal for you to bring back to your house.” offered Sehun as he stood up to show her around. He nudged his chin towards the kitchen where Mr. Joonyoung could be seen cooking a meal. Without much denying, Hana decided to just follow Sehun’s offer.

The house unit that they were living in was on the third floor of a four-storey building. Each resident would own an entire floor to themselves.

From the kitchen, Sehun led Hana to the living room which was furnished with a TV, a set of cushion, a coffee table and a shelf of books and pictures. The windows on the left side of the TV and cushion led to a small balcony that was facing where the sun would always set. The other rooms that were in the unit were three bedrooms, each of them having its own bathrooms. One of the bedrooms was Sehun’s and the other was Mr. Joonyoung’s. The other bedroom was a guest’s bedroom.

Sehun ended the tour around the unit at the front door between the dining room and the living room.

“The tour around the unit has finished!” Exclaimed Sehun excitedly, raising his hands into the air.

“Thanks for showing me around the unit, Sehun.” Hana thanked Sehun. “Umm, Sehun?”

“Yeah?”

“Why don’t you have any of your parents’ pictures around here? Of all the pictures I’ve seen in here, not one of them has a picture of your mom or dad.” asked Hana curiously. It was rather strange of Sehun to not have any pictures of his parents since he always mentioned about how he misses his parents in the past.

“I-I…” stuttered Sehun nervously. Just as he was about to pronounce his next word, Mr. Joonyoung came up to them and gave Hana her packed up meal.

“Please come by soon, Hana,” Mr. Joonyoung said, handing her the bag of food. “I hope you enjoyed the small ‘tour’ by Sehun.”

“Yeah, sure. Thank you for the meal, Uncle Oh.” Hana bowed and thanked him before heading out, eyeing Sehun strangely due to his stuttering.

He rarely stutters. Heck, she has never seen him stutter in front of her. Did she ask something wrong? What's up with-

Beep beep

From: Kim Jongin

Dance class tonight at 10.30, kay? ^^ See ya!

To: Hana

"You're so irritating, you know?!" She groaned in annoyance. It would be an accomplishment if she doesn't kill him before they even finish their classes.

~.~

Books, pillows, anything that was reachable were thrown to the floor. Hands covering his face, he could feel droplets of tears dripping one by one. He sat at the far corner of his bed, leaning against the wall as he held a fragile piece of photo.

He didn’t want to worry his uncle. That’s why he excused himself to his room, giving out the excuse of being too tired from work.

He held up the photo to his face, crinkling it in the process as he tightly gripped it.

“Please don’t ask me anything regarding that again, Hana. Please.” He pleaded silently as he wrapped himself in his blue blanket, curling up to hold back the sobs.

Yeah.. I know. Please don't kill me yet TT.TT Sorry guys for not updating. Been into a sticky situation called writer's block for a while. Anyways, TA-DA! Yeah.. It's getting a bit intense at the end. I decided to speed the story a bit coz it's going so slow. Write your opinions in the comments section down below ^^ *crawls into hole before you kill me*