“H-HaYeon.” Jimin stuttered as she crouched in the corner beside the main door and sobbed quietly with her face in her knees. It had been 10 minutes but she did not budge. Instead, every time Jimin tried to talk to her she just shook her head and told him to leave her alone for a moment. She’ll be fine, she told him, but Jimin could not find the heart to just leave her as it is.

Soon enough, a sweaty TaeHyung popped into the house too, finally making it home after his friends. “Yoon Ha Yeon, what’s wrong?” He asked calmly, as though he did not know what was going on. When in fact, he knew better than anyone else in that room. The boys soon dispersed to do their own thing again as TaeHyung arrived. He knelt down on one knee in front of her, his face determined. Hesitantly, he took her hand and waited for her to look at him. True enough as soon as he made contact, she looked up at him and tried to pull her hand away. “Listen,” he said, not budging, his eyes a mix of fiery and resolution, “from this moment on, you don’t know who he is. If someone asks you about him, just ignore them. If you see him on the street, just walk away. If he calls your name, don’t turn your head. If he holds on to you, kick him. If he follows you or threatens you, then you call any one of us. But from this moment on,” he reminded again, his voice firm, “you don’t know him. Nothing happened between you two. Do you understand?”

HaYeon remained frozen, her face smeared in tears unglamorously, as she tried to understand what TaeHyung really meant.

“Stop running away, Yoon Ha Yeon. You did nothing wrong.” He concluded.

“Yeah,” Jimin chimed in softly after TaeHyung.

No one other than Mrs Jung had ever told HaYeon that before. As she burst into uncontrollable tears again, her heart felt a strange sense of warmth tingling on it as their words rang in her head. No one had ever told her that she had not done anything wrong at all. For as long as she could remember, the fingers were always pointing at her. For giving in to Kai, for getting pregnant, for wanting to keep the child. She recalled all the looks her father gave her, the judgements her school mates had of her, the look on the face of the police when he dropped by to investigate the matter upon request by her father, and the way the nurses refused to teach her how to feed her child because she was “not ready to be a mother”.

But then she agreed. Ever so weakly, she nodded her head and wiped the tears off her face.

From that moment on, she was going to try to forget about Kai and all the pain it brings to her. It had been 2 years. 2 short years, but also 2 of the longest years of her life thus far. 2 years too long sacrificed being trapped by a single memory that still haunts her. It was not going to be easy she knew, but she wanted to try.

“Okay guys! Enough with the serious mood!” Jin emerged from the kitchen with baby on hand being fed. His face lit up in an excited smile. “Remember to pack your bags for tomorrow!” He announced and the boys cheered as they rushed into the room.

“Come on, let’s pack too.” TaeHyung smiled, releasing his hold of her and stood up. He extended a hand out to HaYeon, to which she hesitantly took and stood up.

“What’s going on tomorrow?” She asked, extremely confused.

“ChuSeok.” Jimin and TaeHyung answered in unison.

HaYeon rolled her eyes and let out a soft laugh as she wiped the tears away from her face with her sleeve messily. “I know it’s ChuSeok, I mean why do you have to pack your bag? Where are you going?”

“Correction. WE are packing our bags because WE are going away for Chuseok. On our yearly holiday to somewhere nice. And you are invited to come.” TaeHyung explained as he headed for the room too, HaYeon tagging behind. “Unless you’re going to go home for ChuSeok.” He added, and HaYeon hung her head low.

It was ChuSeok afterall.

No matter how much she hated her father, an ounce of her still wondered if she should spend the day with him and Mrs Jung. But when she recalled the ordeal both she and her child had gone through, she shook the thought off.

“To where?”

Jimin shook his head solemnly. “You don’t ask. You just come along.”

HaYeon laughed at his quirkiness. “Alright.