lost & found

Surprised, Seulgi’s eyes widened slightly. She had no idea at first who it could be, and she really wasn’t sure who else Hun had befriended in the sharehouse other than the tall, rowdy male proclaiming himself to be a cash-strapped, jobless rock star from the sixth floor. Then there was Joohyun, too. At the thought of the tickets coming from the older woman, the smile on Seulgi’s face turned into a curt one. It bothered her, but she tried her best to shrug the feeling off. There wasn’t wrong with the tickets coming from Joohyun, was there? “Ah… I like all days, honestly. Maybe the second or third. There’s one here I feel you might like.” She then described the film to she was referring to to Hun, which distracted her to a slight extent. “What do you think?”

“Were they?” Seulgi, back then, didn’t exactly have anyone to tell those stories to, aside from her parents who pretty much lived those stories with her. She would have been very lonely, and perhaps resentful during her early teens if not for Hun. Now that she thought of it, he had done a lot more for him than she thought, which made standing him up when they were supposed to meet seem even more stupid than it already was. She reminded herself that they had just settled that, though, and returned her attention to their conversation. 

“Of course I did-” He laughs, nodding. He’d always been eager to try making most of the recipes that Seulgi would send him. Unfortunately, for most of them, a lot of the ingredients weren’t indigenous to South Korea, and were either hard to come by, or really expensive. Eventually, he’d attempted using local replacements, but the results ranged from decent to disastrous, so he;d opted out of telling Seulgi about his trials. He'd told himself hell show her pictures once he’s perfected them, but alas, by the time he made his first good tasting Feijoada (and even now he gets confused how to say that), he and Seulgi had already lost contact. “You know, I still have those recipes--I can try and make it for you, if you want?”

“Ah, I want to thank your friend personally,” she laughed. Seulgi was then quick to shake her head at Hun implying that she might want to go with her other friends instead. “Oh no, what makes you think that?” A small chuckle left her lips, the only hint of how thrilled she was that they were going together she was willing to show. She wasn’t sure if Hun would like to go, though. The films Seulgi wanted to catch at the festival were far from popular and she didn’t want him getting bored there, as happy as she was that she could go with him. “Are you sure, though? I mean, I’d… love to go with you.” She swallowed a bit of air before continuing, “but I’m just surprised – pleasantly surprised – that you’re interested in going.”

“Oh, you can if you want--” He comments, too happy to be thinking properly about what’s coming out of his mouth. “She lives right here in the sharehouse with us, actually.” His smile widens, canines showing, to assure her that he really does want to go see the movies with her--never mind that he doesn’t really recognise any of the titles, he can just look them up before the go. At least one is bound to be interesting to him, he thinks.”I’m pretty sure, don’t worry--is there any particular day you want to go?”

She was in the middle of taking a bite when Hun spoke again all of a sudden, saying things she didn’t expect to hear, at least not right then and there, and not after what just transpired. It took her a lot of effort to not drop the fork she was using, and in general, to still appear composed. Truthfully, she wasn’t entirely surprised; she did get the feeling he did back then, and those feelings weren’t one-sided as well. Seulgi had hoped Hun liked her a lot, too.

“Yeah, that’s how it was for me, too,” he admits, agreeing to what the female across him is saying about their written correspondence from the past. He isn’t sure where all this confidence is coming from, but he's sitting up straight, feeling like he’s ready to admit anything and everything he has been feeling for her--both then and now. “You always had very nice stories, and to me, it was exciting knowing about all these foreign places--” He laughs, remembering something she used to do for him. “Remember, sometimes you would even send me local recipes from the towns you lived in?” This didn’t really happen that many times, but still, he’s kept those handful of recipes in store, even perfecting some of them, in the hopes of feeding his cooking to her one day. Luckily, this is an actual possibility now.

“Ah… with–” She felt relieved for an instant when Hun answered he had not waited long, but she also couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. He had been with Joohyun when she saw him at the doorstep, and though she didn’t know how long the older woman had been there, Seulgi couldn’t help but wonder if Hun’s answer had anything to do with her. She tried not to show any of it, though; and she stopped herself from continuing her sentence and instead just gave him a small smile. “It was super cold outside. If you waited too long, you might get sick,” was all she said about it. She thought she should be happy enough to receive a small token from Hun.

“Well--” Hun's laughter is a little awkward, and he cautiously reaches up to ruffle his hair from the back. “I figured yeah, we could go? Unless you want to invite one of your film friends instead--” He’s hoping that isn’t the case, of course. He might not be much of a film enthusiast, at least not in the way Seulgi is, but he doesn’t mind being introduced to that world if she’s the one who’s going to do it. “I saw about the festival online, and, I know a friend involved with the marketing of it.” He shrugs; he’d managed to score the tickets cheap because of Joohyun, whose company was involved in sponsoring the event.

After a short moment of being surprised at his reaction, she laughed softly along with him. “Well, yeah. Fifteen, I think, to be exact…” Seulgi was somehow relieved to see Hun’s response. He didn’t seem to be judging her for it, not with the crooked smile on his face that made her heart seem to beat a little faster. The same crooked smile also made her feel self-conscious, and sent her gaze back to the empty plate in front of her. 

Suddenly, the atmosphere around them seems a tad bit brighter; Hun certainly feels lighter, like some heavy thing has been lifted off his chest. Now that the topic of their past is out in the open and discussed, he’s feeling like all of it from before really is silly. They were youthful misunderstandings, and it’s nice that after all these years, being honest with Seulgi is still something that makes him feel good.

“You were?” Despite the jealousy she felt from seeing him with Joohyun, a small smile forced its way to her lips. There was no way she could stay the slightest bit upset, thinking that Hun must have waited in the cold for her. Before she could say anything else, though, Hun handed her the can of Pringles. She covered her mouth with one hand and let out a laugh as she received it. It was a simple gift, but the fact that Hun remembered that little fact about her was enough of a present already. “Ah, yes, I do indeed. I’m glad you remembered it, thank you.” The small smile she had a few seconds ago turned into a wide, toothy grin.

“Wait--” He starts again, but then he realizes that it would probably be better to give her the rest of his gifts within the warm confines of the sharehouse, rather than outside in the cold. "I haven’t, not really,” he explains as he falls into step with her. The truth is, he had probably been out there for around  half an hour, maybe even more, but it didn’t feel like such a long time to him. This was probably in part due to the welcomed presence of Joohyun, but he doesn’t consciously realize this. “Time flew,” he just adds, smiling. 

Seulgi was quick to shake her head in response to his question. “No, there wasn’t anyone.” It was easier to look him in the eye, now that the conversation had strayed slightly into a different topic. A bit of the embarrassment she felt at what she said just a few minutes ago faded as well. “High school was terrible, I didn’t have a lot of anyone–” She then took a sip of water to cut herself off. That was not the time to bring up her bitterness during that time of her life.

I didn’t have a lot of anyone. These words coming from Seulgi give Hun a lot of mixed feelings. This is why they had initially connected; both of them weren’t good at making friends in school, and somehow, they found comfort in confiding to someone over letters instead of physical conversation. That’s why he had been so excited when they were finally about to meet in person; letters were nice but at some point, having someone to hang out with becomes imperative.

The gesture Joohyun made towards Hun before she left caught Seulgi’s attention. She watched the older woman walk away, wondering what that could mean. On most cases, Seulgi would see it as a sign of friendship, but knowing what kind of relationship Hun and Joohyun had in the past, it was easy to think there was something more to the way she touched his arm. Too easy, in fact, that Seulgi could only muster a half-smile in response to Hun’s greeting.

Hun’s smile slightly falters at the strangely cold response that Seulgi gives him. He wonders if she’s had a bad day, and the thought makes him feel sad--this is her day, after all, and it should be a happy one. She starts to walk right past him, and he’s about to grab her arm to stop her, but instead he remembers to lean down and grab the can of Pringles that he’d left sitting on the steps.

Mid-conversation, something seems to catch Joohyun’s attention, causing Hun to look towards the same direction that the older female is gazing at. His expression brightens up when he sees that it’s her, finally--Seulgi is home. he lifts a hand to wave at her, not even realising what kind of expression the other female has on her face. It certainly isn’t an excited one, especially when one considers that it’s her birthday.

Seulgi took a deep breath. It was hard to remember exactly when. As her anger and dismay over her parents’ split waned over the years, her regret about missed chances with Hun grew. “I’ve always known I did was terrible.”  Her gaze remained directed towards the table top. It would be impossible for her to speak freely if she were to look at him directly. 

True enough, Hun did manage to find a special someone during his years in high school. His ex-girlfriend (his first, and so far only one) was someone that he hadn’t expected to come into his life. In fact, if anything, they were two people pushed together by circumstances--if meddling friends can be referred to in such a way. They’d had good memories, especially after he had convinced himself that Seulgi was a lost cause who was never going to show up in his life again. That last bit bit turned out to not quite be so true, but at that time, it was. Still, as mean as it might be, it does secretly give him a bit of satisfaction knowing that seeing him with another girl had caused the female with him now to add on to her regret of not meeting him.