Jung Hye's POV

So.

Awkward.

I tried my best to restrain myself from doing the awkward turtle, because knowing outdated Jonghyun, he would not understand a thing and of course make things even awkwarder.

I sighed mentally.

This was not the first time I was awkwardly walking with him.

And of course, he wasn’t talking.

No, he was on his phone, madly texting. I wasn’t... looking, of course! He was just in my peripheral vision. So his smiling was all in my peripheral vision and I wasn’t looking at him at all.

“So... Jonghyun-shi, where are you going?”

He turned to me with a jump, as if he was shocked by me speaking.As Jonghyun looks up, we make eye contact for a split second before he quickly turns back to his phone screen.

“Nowhere,” He mumbles under his breath.

I sigh, nowhere? NOWHERE? HONESTLY!? I try to think up a conversation starter to save us from the awkwardness but this is how he responds? Well fine then Jonghyun, I’ll let you be that way and you can just wallow in your loneliness! “You can’t say I didn’t try.” I mutter before picking up my speeding and walking away from that antisocial gorilla.

Jonghyun POV

I glance up, startled at Jung Hye’s tone of voice and watch her retreating back.

“Jung Hye!” I call as I run after her, oblivious of the looks that the strangers were giving me. I grab her wrist and pull her around to face me.

So if I was in a movie or drama that is what would happen right now. But of course, I do not live in a fictional world and so I will not chase after Jung Hye because I am not some cheesy romantic guy and because to be honest I was quite glad that Jung Hye finally got the hint and will now leave me alone.

I mean, I have nothing against her or anything but you know, I just want to keep my distance since we seem to have gotten a bit too close for comfort in the recent weeks and I really shouldn’t get so attached to her.

Therefore I stay still as I watch her leave so that we would have a bit more distance between us. I suppose I feel slightly bad? Guilty? But really, this is for the best because getting emotionally attached is never a good thing.

Beep beep! Beep beep!

I glanced down at my phone, receiving one new message from Key.

are you sure going to ur dad’s place is a good idea ? :L

I sighed as I started to keypad my answer.

yeh.

I look up to see that Jung Hye has already disappeared from my view, so I begin walking.

---

ding-ding-ding
I smile as I hear the familiar bell sound greet me together with the smell of smoke and metal the moment I pushed open the door. Just as I had remembered, the room inside is dimly lit with the only source of light coming from the glowing fire and the light shining through the windows.A small and cramped room, with no human being in sight.

I chuckled to myself.

Irresponsible, as always. Keeping the door of the store open when there wasn’t even anybody inside. What would customers think?

I scoffed to myself.

If there were customers.

I inhaled deeply, and felt my fists tighten out of nervousness.

“Dad?”

I walked towards the door behind the counter and placed my hands on it, immediately feeling the dust that gathered all over.

“Dad?” I asked again as I cautiously twisted the doorknob and opened it. Instantly I felt sunshine on my eyes and dust flying everywhere. I tried to swat all the dust away with my hand but it just seemed to fly even more! Argh! All the dust flew everywhere, until I finally felt some tingling of dust up my nose and- and-

“A-ACHOO!”

“AHH!” I heard a low-pitched scream and I instantly whipped my head.

To see my father sitting on an armchair in the middle of the room. Suddenly, I recognised the situation – I sneezed loud enough to wake up my father…HOW EMBARRASSING! Thank goodness Jung Hye wasn’t here, or she would’ve-

His eyes met mine – suddenly acknowledging my presence.And instantly, I noticed him wrinkling his forehead. I noticed his large, dark eyebags, the way his mouth seemed to be permanently slanted into a frown and the wrinkles that seemed to never stop lining his face.

Dad, in the month that I hadn’t seen you – why do you look like you’ve aged so much?

“I-I-“ I choked, not knowing what to say. Maybe it wasn’t a good time to visit him. Maybe I should’ve waited- maybe I-

“Jonghyun.” He said, between coughs.

I swallowed my words and breathed in the smell of smoke. For a month, I had not contacted him. Was he possibly still mad? “You – you didn’t lock the door. What if somebody came in?!”

“Does it look like anybody – cough – has?”

I looked around. This room looked so cramped, so small. It looked nearly completely different from the last time I had come. Books, chairs, more furniture, and –

My eyes travelled towards the folded blankets at the corner.

Blankets – this couldn’t be-

“DAD! WHAT HAPPENED TO THE HOUSE?!” I roared out without thinking and stomped towards the blankets. I grabbed it aggressively as I felt my body burning and stared towards Dad. “Is- Is this where you’ve been living since I’ve moved out?”

He looked at me with defeated eyes. “You know why.” His hands travelled towards his cane at the side. With some difficulty grabbing it, he slowly hoisted himself up to stand.

“You – Dad, since when did… you start walking with a cane?” I said slowly, each word lower in volume than the previous.

“Really, you-“ Suddenly his sentence was interrupted by a series of coughs.

Dad... since when did he get so… sick? Was it all my fault?

“Dad!” I let go of the blankets and rushed over to him, who was still coughing. I helped him sit down back on the chair and he rested his head against it, eyes closed.

“You should rest.”

“I was…until you sneezed.” He chuckled lightly, as he stretched out his arm to grab the photo album on the top of the stack which lay on the desk in front of him.

I felt my eyes narrow as I recognised the familiar photo album, I snatched the album from his hands and placed it back onto the desk, “It’s been twelve years already! Why are you still doing this to yourself? I thought we went over this!”

“You don’t understand.” He didn’t spare me a glance as he reached out for another album.

“GET OVER IT!” I felt myself snap as I grabbed the album and tossed it onto the floor, “She’s gone forever, why can’t you just get on with your life?”

“If that’s the only reason why you came here, then get out.” He’s words hit me hard as I was reminded of our rocky relationship.

I stand up from my crouching position and survey the state of the room again. As much as I wanted to get away from the uncomfortable atmosphere here and return to my apartment, I couldn’t just leave him living like this could I? “Just rest okay?”