Repeated Notice

Please ignore any errors… Once the semester is over, I should be able to go back and fix any errors in my stories XD so be patient!

Present day, second week of December…

“He wasn’t home.” Mingyu said quietly as he was seated with all of his friends. They were currently out getting pizza, but at the moment not everyone was in the mood to eat. The pizza sitting in the middle of their table was getting cold just like the winter weather outside.

It was Friday night.

“Ji Min wasn’t home either.” Seungkwan muttered next.

For the past two days, Won Woo hadn’t come to school. Since Ji Min wasn’t in school yet, it wasn’t abnormal then, but no one had seen her since Wednesday, the day she hung out with all of them, the day she was smiling but her eyes was telling them something.

Only now… did they realize both Won Woo and Ji Min’s expressions were telling them goodbye.

“I don’t understand?” Chan barely said. “I don’t understand why they’d just up and leave us like this…”

“I’m sure they have a reason, and we should already know what that reason is…” Jisoo spoke up, a dejected expression on his face, the same expression everyone had at the table.

“But still…” Soonyoung said with a frown. “They could have told us… we would have understood right?”

Then there was silence as they all sat there, lost in thoughts.

Two days ago…

“Let me drive you.” Jaehwan said softly as he handed his little sister’s jacket to her at the front door, before placing her suitcase to the side as she got ready to leave. It was about midnight, Hongbin was upstairs sleeping as this was all happening, he was completely oblivious to the situation right now.

“That’s okay…” Ji Min kindly rejected his offer. “We’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure? At least let me drive you to his house...” he pressed on, worry dripping in his tone.

Of course he was worried. He was beyond worried… how could he not be. His sister was fleeing the city with her boyfriend Won Woo, all on their own.

“It’s only going to make it harder.” She sighed, a sad smile gracing her lips. “I’m sorry.” She added, opening her arms for a final hug from him.

“Do you have to really do this?” He asked, trying to fight back the tears that threaten to fall. This would probably be the last time he sees her for quite some time, depending on how soon she’d contact him after she leaves.

“With the way our parents are, I feel like it’s the only way, for now.” She hugged him tight. “What difference does it really make, though? If I stay, I’m just going to be sent off to the states anyway. I’m going to be gone anyway, leaving with Won Woo… at least I’ll be with him after being separated for so long. I just can’t bare being separated from him again, I can’t. That’s why I want to leave with him. It’s better this way, even if it might be a stupid move… I know it’s hard but… I promise it won’t be long. We’ll be back.” She parted from the embrace, with a cheery smile this time. “We’ll come back when things calm down.”

“Promise?”

“I promise!” She held her pinky up to make that promise.

They linked their fingers and the promise was made before she slipped her backpack on.

…

Ji Min arrived to Won Woo’s aunt’s house after the short drive, the owner was currently not home… something about going out with friends and don’t wait up for her.

Won Woo came out to fetch her from the taxi she arrived in, it was nearly 1am by now as he helped carry her things inside. He wasn’t exactly done packing just yet, so she was going to help him finish before they’d call up another taxi to finally leave.

“What are you going to bring?” Ji Min frowned, looking around his room, there was a lot of stuff. She felt bad that he’d have to leave most of it behind.

“Just the really important things.” Won Woo mumbled as he was going through his closet.

“Are you going to take your photo albums?” She asked, pulling out some of them to look at, stepping over to sit on his bed.

“I’ll take the ones of our friends, but I want to leave the one of us with Mingyu. So they have something to remember us by.”

“You make it sound like we’re never coming back.” She pouted.

“You know I didn’t mean it like that.” He chuckled, returning to his closet.

For a few minutes she looked through the albums before packing them into Won Woo’s suitcase he designated for his items he wished to take with him like his laptop and other electronics.

“Won Woo?” Ji Min asked as he was zipping up his suitcase full of clothes.

“Yeah?” He answered, checking out his other suitcase before zipping it up as well.

“Are we really doing this?” She said softly, looking down at him from his bed.

He looked up at her to see her slightly nervous expression. He crawled over on the floor to kneel in front of her, reaching up to take her hands into his.

“Ji Min, if you’re having second thoughts… it’s okay.” He assured her, giving a gentle kiss to her hands. “We don’t have to go if you’re that nervous.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to go, I’m just…” her head dropped as tears started to form in her eyes, “I’m just kind of scared and… I’m going to miss everyone.”

“I know, baby, me too.” He squeezed her hands, fighting off any tears that wanted to come after seeing her get emotional.

“But if I stay… who knows what will happen? I don’t want to find out… so we should leave.” She finally collected herself, wiping her tears from her eyes quickly, putting on a brave face.

“Then we’ll leave.” He gave a sad smile, getting up to place a kiss to her forehead before helping her up off his bed. “Ji Min…”

“Yes?”

“You know… I love you right? I’m going to do my best to take care of you from now on, it might be hard at first, but everything is going to be okay.” He said with sincere eyes, holding her hand tight.

“I love you too, Won Woo.” She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight, resting her head against his chest. “I’ll do my best to take care of you as well.”

“I don’t need it.” He chuckled.

“Oh sure!” She giggled, looking up at him.

He leaned down and placed a soft kiss to her lips.

...

“You have everything?” Won Woo asked as Ji Min stood at the front door putting her jacket on. It was 2am by now as Ji Min’s stuff was by the door next to his, ready to be carried out to the taxi they called up, he was definitely not going to be waiting up for his aunt tonight or any other night from now on.

“Yeah, I have everything.” She nodded, buttoning up her snow jacket. He walked up to her and wrapped her scarf around her neck before pulling up the jacket’s hood over her head for her. He wanted to make sure she was all bundled up before they headed out into the winter night.

Just as she was about to bend down to pick up her bag, Won Woo grabbed her into a tight embrace. “Eh? Won Woo?” She asked, curious.

“Are you still nervous?” He asked quietly, holding her tight.

“Just a little…” she admitted, wrapping her arms around him, “but it’ll be okay… because we’ll be together.”

“Right.” He parted from her with a small smile. “I’m a little nervous too, but I promise I will take care of you… I’ll protect you.”

“Of course, I know you will.” She stood on the tips of her toes to give him a sweet kiss to his lips.

With that, they finished getting bundled up before grabbing their packed bags and headed out to the taxi that just arrived.

“Where to?” The ahjussi asked, looking at the young couple in the back seat.

…

The young couple arrived to the train station to buy tickets for Won Woo’s hometown. Though it was probably risky to run back home where his aunt or her parents could easily start to look for them, he at least knew the city since he lived there before coming to Seoul and besides, Changwon is the 8th most populated city in South Korea, it shouldn’t be that easy to find them that quick.

After getting on the train, Won Woo told Ji Min to sleep until they got to the city. She told him to sleep too, but he refused, saying he should be awake for when they arrive so they don’t miss their stop.

For the next four hours, Ji Min slept on his shoulder while he passed time thinking about what he was going to do once they reached Changwon. Jaehwan had helped him out by giving a large sum of money that was saved up for him to take care of Ji Min until he could start making money on his own. He didn’t want to take the money, but in the end he had to if this plan was going to work.

They were going to get a hotel room for a week, during that week they’d be looking for an apartment to stay in and after that, Won Woo was going to look for a job. He was hoping everything will go smoothly once they arrive.

Time passed fairly quick as their stop was coming up. Won Woo gently woke his sleeping girlfriend up to inform her. When the train stopped, they got off after grabbing their stuff. Standing in the train station, Ji Min suddenly got excited, a huge grin on her face as she jumped in her spot.

“What’s with you?” Won Woo chuckled after he checked to make sure they had everything.

“This is so exciting all of a sudden!” She chirped, looking around, doing a little spin while she was at it. He just watched her with an adoring smile as people passed them, making cute comments about them. They left shortly after that.

The sun was starting to rise when they exited the train station, it being about 7am right now. Their first destination would be to get their hotel room. The process didn’t take too long and they were already up in their room setting their suitcases in the closet. They weren’t really going to unpack, finding it too much work for when they needed to leave, they were hoping to leave sooner than a week if possible.

And just like that, the first day passed as they settled down, Won Woo taking a much needed rest as Ji Min thought about her future again. She lied next to her sleeping boyfriend, imagining all the adventures they were going to have on their own now. She was nervous and scared before, but now that it was really happening, those were replaced with excitement and joy. Her busy mind soon put her to sleep, too.

…

By the third day of their stay, Ji Min finally contacted her brother Jaehwan, letting him know they arrived safely and were at the hotel still looking for a place to stay at.

“I’m so glad you called!” Her brother said with a relieved tone. “I got in touch with an old friend from high school, she moved to Changwon shortly after high school and she tells me she runs an apartment complex around there. I told her what was going on and she told me to direct you two to her, she’ll take you two under her wing for a bit until you can afford the rent and everything.”

“Really?”

“I know Won Woo wanted to be the one to take care of you on his own, but he’s just gotta let it slide for now, okay?”

“Alright, I’ll talk to him.” She assured her brother as she heard the shower in the bathroom turn off. Won Woo was currently washing up before they would head out for dinner.

Before they ended the call, Jaehwan gave her all the details on contacting his old friend Ahn Hani. In a sense, she liked the idea of this now, at least her brother could know what’s going on through his friend since Ji Min didn’t want to get caught calling her brother all the time.

Finally, Won Woo emerged out of the bathroom, fully clothed with a towel over his wet hair.

“Hey!” Ji Min waved at him as he came towards the bed.

“Hey,” he took a seat next to her, gently towel drying his hair, “what’s up?”

“I just called my brother and he gave me some information on a place we could stay at… rent free.”

“Rent free?”

“Apparently he has an old friend from high school… she runs an apartment complex around here. He told her what was going on and she wants to take us under her wing until we’re steady on our feet.”

“I see…” she could hear the slight disappointed tone in his voice. “Well, I suppose this is better since we had no luck on finding a place for the past three days.”

“I’m sorry…” she said softly, eyes casted down to the floor.

“No need to be sorry.” He gave a small smile, reaching over to ruffle her hair. “Go wash up.”

“Okay, then we’ll go eat after, right?” She looked up with a cute smile.

“Yes, now that we don’t have to pay rent any time soon, we’ll eat something really good.”

“Yay!” She tackled him with a hug, knocking him back on the bed. “I’ll hurry, then!” She exclaimed, giving him a quick kiss.

After she gathered her things for her shower, she headed into the bathroom, shutting and locking the door. Won Woo was by himself now as he sat on the bed, thinking about what Ji Min had just told them about the apartment situation. He was of course relieved and thankful about her brother’s help but he couldn’t help worry about it.

His logic, basically do stuff on their own so they won’t get caught too soon. If his aunt, which he doubted, had the police come looking for him since he ran away surely they were going to investigate and track down phone calls and contacts…

Thinking about it now, he pulled out his phone and the face camera before positioning it on the nightstand by the hotel bed.

Present day, second week of December...

After saying goodbye to his friends at the pizza place, Mingyu headed home just as it had started to snow. “You couldn’t wait until I got home?!” He muttered behind his scarf. He tried to hurry home but his phone buzzed in his pocket, making him stop to check who was texting him. He almost froze, literally, when he saw it was a kakao message from Won Woo. It was a video.

Rushing home no longer became a priority as he quickly tapped on the video to view it. He stood in the light snowfall while waiting for the video to download before it opened up and he saw Won Woo sitting on a bed in what he assumed to be a hotel room.

“Hey…” Won Woo said quietly, looking into the camera with an apologetic expression. “First off… I’m sorry.” He said.

This was a video for Mingyu, his best friend. He felt he owed him an honest explanation about what was going on, because he didn’t want the guy to hate him for just up and leaving him without a proper explanation just like how that happened with Ji Min. He felt so bitter until he learned the truth, he didn’t want Mingyu to go through that.

“I had thought about telling you what was going on at first, but in the end I thought it’d just be best I didn’t. I’ve troubled you enough all these years and I honestly didn’t want you to stress over it..”

Mingyu frowned, hearing how sorry and guilty he sounded.

“Everyone knows the situation… and as stupid as it sounds, Ji Min and I found this to be a better option for us instead of waiting around to see what happens. It’s obvious her parents were going to send her away, they’re set on it. We were separated before for a stupid reason and I didn’t want to go through that again because…” Won Woo paused for a second, a flicker of emotions flashing across his face.

Mingyu could feel a sting in the back of his eyes… seeing his best friend tearing up on the video really got to him. He could see how much he loved Ji Min and how much he really needed her. He was a total mess when she left the first time, there was no telling what would happen the second time around… even if Mingyu wished things to be a different way, this was a better option for them in the end. At least they’d be together.

“I just wanted you to know what was going on… I didn’t want you to go through what I did when Ji Min left without an explanation, I don’t find that fair to you because you’re my best friend…” there was a few tears that fell down his cheek, his words full of love yet pain, “I hope you’ll understand…”

He did understand… if he didn’t before, he did now.

“Take care of yourself, okay? I’ll be back some day, so do something great. You can brag all about it to me when I return, alright? I hope I can do the same… until then, I love you, man.”

The video ended with a tearful smile on Won Woo’s face.

Mingyu felt like collapsing to his knees as tears fell down his own face… he felt conflicting emotions. He was happy for his friend yet, he felt heartbroken because he left. He left him behind. If he could have it his way, he’d have liked to run away with the two as well because Won Woo was special to him. He cared a lot for him and looked after him all this time…

In the end, he felt incomplete without Won Woo.

“You jerk, you better come back.” Mingyu sobbed, gripping the phone in his hand before bringing it to his chest.

Chapter nine!

Awh, they’ll meet again in time…

Gosh it’s been so long since I posted an update for this fic, I’m sorry!

Took me awhile to piece it together, I hope I did okay, if not… SORRY! XD

I hope the next chapter will be better ><

With a month of school left, finals have been assigned so…

I’ll try to get some writing done between my breaks because there’s no way I’m not going to put writing aside, I’ll go insane if I do!

So just please be patient with me!

Until next time! ^^

BYE~!