Father

 >> 1 Week Later <<

  Jieun stood infront of the mirror, fixing her school uniform. It was the start of a new school year, and Jieun was finally a senior. She struggled to get her tie properly in place; her father would always iron her school uniform on the first day of school and tie her neck-tie tight, but not too tight - just right for her style. It had been so long since she last saw him, and this emptiness was something that even Chanyeol or Myungsoo could fill.

  She slippd her backpack on and headed downstairs, straight to the door. She wasn't in the mood for breakfast, especially on a nervous stomach. Although her panic disorder had gotten better through the army volunteer service, she still had a fear of people. It wasn't going to be easy, especially with the rumors still going around. She knew that it meant she had to avoid Chanyeol a whole lot more.

 "Jieun," Chanyeol chased after her on his bike. "Get on, i'll give you a ride."  he smiled.

"It's.. okay." She continued to speed walk. She was afraid that someone would see her with Chanyeol and that she would get beaten down again. Chanyeol was cycling to her pace, trying to peek into her face hidden under her curtain of hair. He side-stopped and blocked her path. 

"Jieun," he tucked her hair behind her ears and took a good look into her eyes. "What's wrong?"

Jieun peeked around her surroundings, hoping that nobody was secretly flashing any pictures of them. "Nothing," she murmured and walked past him. 

"Jieun," he yanked her wrist and dragged her back. "Did i do something wrong?" 

  She sighed. She didn't know how to explain it in a way that didn't sound offensive. It was obvious that Chanyeol would never understand her and would try and force her to overcome her fear. But a person who hasn't been through Panic disorder couldn't possibly know how scary it is.

"No.. it's just that.." she hesitated. "I'm still getting better Chanyeol. Traumas don't go away that easily." She looked down at her shoes, stained with dirt. And on the opposite side, his shoes with a polished reflection.

  He opened his mouth to talk but refrained. "Alright, until you feel comfortable again." He stuck his hand out to her head but she backed away, checking her surroundings once more. He nodded bitterly and hopped onto his bike, cycling away. The look of disappointment on his face remained vivid in her head, but there was nothing she could about it. She looked to the side and saw a black Lambourgini slowing down to her pace.

The window rolled down and revealed Myungsoo dressed dandily in his school uniform. 

"Get in," he smiled. "I'll give you a ride."

And without any hesitation, Jieun opened the door and took a seat.

.  .  .

Story - Shayne Orok (Flower Boy Ramyun Shop OST)

Jieun walked out of the school gate, dragging her feet each step. None of her friends were in her new class; not that she really had any. If her desk buddies counted as her friends, she wasn't entirely a sore loser at school. Being a senior meant absoulete power over the underclassmens, but it also meant having to study your off and being stuck at school until the moon replaced the sun.

 Jieun glanced at her watch.

9:43pm.

  An unknown sense of bitterness overcame her. She was devoid of happiness, or even neutrality to be exact. Just like every other school day, she felt detached from the society by the end of school. Usually at times like these, she would go home to a welcoming father who would present her with a cheap, but warm meal with the hot steam rising from his weekly stew that he liked to cook for his daughter.

  She slipped out a chocolate bar and peeled the wrapper off, sticking it in . The food at Mr.Kim's residence wasn't bad, but she wasn't used to the meal of affluency served before her everyday. She was the type of person who preferred pig intestines over well-done steaks. She switched her mobile phone and glanced at her wallpaper of she and her father with a mischievous pose.

"Where are you.." she whispered under her breath and continued walking with the chocolate protruding from . "Hm?" Jieun felt her phone vibrate in her hand. Without checking, she picked up and answered, her voice muffled through the piece of chocolate. There was an awkward silence, before Chanyeol spoke over the line.

"Chanyeol..?"

"Where are you?"

"I'm.." she hesitated. "going home."

"Have you had dinner?"

"Y..es." she glanced down at her chocolate bar.

"What did you eat?"

"I ate.. Pork cutlet."

"That doesn't really look like a pork cutlet though," Chanyeol's voice rung in her ears. Startled, she spun around and saw Chanyeol looking down at her with a faint grin. She let the chocolate drop from , checking her surroundings. There weren't any students around except for a few middle aged men and women who probably didn't have a clue as to who Jieun was. 

"How did you know i was here?" she gasped. 

"Isn't stalking my crush a given?" he punched her lightly and hopped on his bike beside him. He pat the seat behind him signalling Jieun to hop on. She sat sideways and waited for Chanyeol to depart. She wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned her face on his back as she felt the cool air caress her skin. For a while, only the silence accompanied them but there was no awkwardness at all.

"How was school?" Chanyeol asked as his cycling speed increased slowly.

"Detaching." Jieun shrugged. She didn't- was embarrassed to tell anyone that she didn't really have any friends at school, especially to Chanyeol who was the captain of the baseball team and was probably the hot topic everywhere he went. 

"First day phoebia?"

"I guess," she grunted. "I mean, i never really liked school. i have better things to do."

The both of them snorted.

"How about you, Chanyeol?" Jieun felt her heart skip at the sound of his name escaping .

"I abdicated my captaincy from the baseball team," he said indifferently. "Guess it's a sign for me to study harder."

'What?" Jieun tightened her grip, nearly suffocating his stomach. "Park Chanyeol, why did you do that?" As if Chanyeol was expecting that reaction, he loosened Jieun's grip and took a corner, cycling uphill with great velocity, soon entering the road edged with thickets surrounding the bike trail. The road was edged with silver lamp posts that lit up one by one as Chanyeol cycled past it. He slowed down and breathed in the cool forest air.

They were alone now.

"I guess.. it's just the first step to my.. reality." Jieun could feel Chanyeol's voice crash down as his words of dejection poured out of his mouth. She felt his stomach rise up and down as he sighed silently. She knew how hard this was for Chanyeol, to give up something that he was entitled to for as long as he could remember. His shoulders were hunched and his posture began to melt down. 

  Baseball was the only thing that Chanyeol actually tried so hard for. He was the epitome of baseball in this small country, only for it to be crushed down just like that. "Father said i'm transferring to the business administration class soon." he murmured, just loud enough for Jieun to hear. He didn't like to repeat things that he never wished for, but if this was going to become his reality it meant he would have to spit it out of his mouth for the next fifty years.

"Chanyeol," Jieun uttered. "How can you just give up like that?"

He only chuckled, nothing more.

"Freshmens were recruited on the team today," he went on, his voice mixed with grief and remorse. "I saw Tae-ho there. Yoon Tae-ho, the baseball freak who always chased me around during middle school as a mere 7th grader trying to get me to teach him something a little more. I guess.. Tae-ho improved alot during the two years."

Jieun only listened silently.

"He.. beat my pitching speed at the try-outs," his voice grew weaker. "110mph. five miles faster than me. Guess he acquired his wish, replacing me." he shrugged and inhaled the fresh air, exhaling as they exited the thickets into the path that led them home. She didn't have to look to know that Chanyeol was silently crying as he biked along the path, trying to dry his tears with the wind.

"Everything will be okay.." she wrapped her hands gently around his waist and pat him soothingly. 

 The sentimental silence brought them to the entrance of the mansion. Chanyeol searched for the keys inside his messy backpack and wiped his eyes, ridding his face of all tears. The knob spun open before Chanyeol could find the key. The housekeeper peeked out with a terrified expression engraved on her face. With swift movements, she hurried Jieun and Chanyeol inside the house, trying to send them upstairs.

"What's wrong?" Jieun gasped.

She pointed to the main study, where she could hear distant arguing leaking from the room. "Mr.Kim seems to be having.. problems with his guest." The housekeeper's words followed a loud shattering of what seemed like glass vase. Chanyeol rushed toward the study and flung the door open. Mr.Kim stood with a face so enraged that he looked as if he could commit murder. 

On the floor was the shattered entitites of a flower vase.

And on the opposite side, stood someone very familiar to Jieun.

It was her father.

"Kim Yong-Ju, how could you do this to me?!" Jieun's father shrilled across the study, trying to spring onto Mr.Kim. Chanyeol restrained Jieun's father, completely unaware of what was happening. He had never seen his own father so mad, let alone see him fighting with such violence. Jieun stood at the side, lost for words. Her father's hand was dripping with blood from what looked like a large glass cut.

"Did anyone tell you to appear before my eyes and ask for such a big price?" Mr.Kim's voice echoed through-out the hallway, eventually summoning the whole family downstairs. Mrs.Kim entered the study, abruptly pushing Jieun as she made her way through. She gasped at the sight of glass shattered everwhere. But she seemed even more startled at the sight of Jieun's father restrained by Chanyeol.

  "Sung-chan.." Mrs.Kim stuttered, standing beside Mr.Kim. 

"Long time, no see.. Jin-Joo." Jieun watched as her father greeted, his voice slurred with disappointment as he stared at Mr. and Mrs.Kim. She had never seen that kind of expression on her father before. The amount of sadness in her father's eyes as he looked at Mrs.Kim never left her head. She didn't understand what could make him look at her the way he looked at her mother before she ran away.

"What are you doing here..?" Mrs.Kim asked in a flustered tone. 

Jieun's father watched in sheer discouragement as Mrs.Kim wrapped her arm around Mr.Kim and checked for any injuries. He nodded in defeat and shook the dry blood off his hand. "I'm going to be back for what's rightfully mine." Jieun's father said indignantly and took a quick glance at Mrs.Kim, before turning to see his daughter standing there. Without any words, Jieun and her father embraced in what seemed like a million years.

"Dad, where were you..?" Jieun croaked, her voice muffled in her father's embrace.

"That doesn't matter, i'm here now." he his daughter's head and took a good look at his daughter. "You're.. already a senior." he smiled through his prominent wrinkles and his unkempt appeareance. His jacket was torn near the sleeves and reeked of trash, as if he hadn't washed it for days. She looked down at his oversized pants that were dark at the ankles because it had been dragged around so much. 

"Come on," he held her wrist with his hand. "Pack all your things."

"What..?" Jieun looked into her father's eyes.

"Let's get out of this house. Like you always wanted, our debt is almost all paid." Jieun's father smiled. Jieun stared into her father's tired eyes. She was supposed to be happy, but the thought of leaving this house only made her grow desperate. She grabbed her father's wrist and looked straight into his eyes. "Dad, if the debt isn't fully paid yet i can still stay here-" "But it's what you always wanted honey," he paused. "We're free now."

"But Dad-"

"Come on honey." Her father dragged Jieun out of the room. She looked back at Chanyeol who chased her out of the study. He split Jieun from her father, gasping for breath. Her father watched as Chanyeol began to tear up. He begged with his two hands silently. "Please.. let Jieun stay here.." he looked into Father's emotionless eyes and pleaded for mercy.  

"Who..?" Jieun's father looked at Chanyeol, not all impressed.

"I'm.. Park Chanyeol, sir." he bowed down ninety degrees. Jieun's father gasped lightly, as if he remembered something that was long lost in his memory. Before Jieun's father could say another word, Chanyeol knelt to the ground and placed his palms on his thighs. Jieun's eyes widened, surprised at Chanyeol's audacious action. But she knew whatever his plan was, it wouldn't work.

Her father was a man of solemn words, and he never went against his morale.

It looked as Chanyeol didn't even know what he was saying, kneeling there. "Please.. i'll be really good to Jieun and i can-" Jieun's father bent down and met eyes with Chanyeol whose eyes were half filled with crystalline tears lining his pretty eyes. 

"I'm sorry." was the only word that escaped Mr.Lee's mouth as he grabbed Jieun's suitcase pre-packed by the housekeeper and walked out of the large door, slamming the door behind him. Chanyeol watched as the door creaked shut, swallowing Jieun into its darkness.

 The house could have never felt so empty.

Oh my gosh, did you guys hear Call me Baby? I was literally listening to it the whole day.. The entire album is so good it is so praise-worthy, although with the music video they just did that one-take thing again.. Chanyeol looked really really good i was so entranced by his good looks.. In this comeback i think Lay and Tao really really stood out! Although i'm curious how Luhan and Kris would have pulled this concept off..

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