hwanami

“That’s what I should do anyway. Now,” Seonghwa took the dirty dishes on the table, “I will wash these first. And you can take a rest. It’s been a rough day for you and you deserve a rest.”

“Alright. Thank you, Seonghwa.”

Your eyes wandered to the watch on your wrist, “oh, God. I didn’t realize it’s this late already.”

“What time is it?” Seonghwa asked from the kitchen sink.

“Half past nine.”

Seonghwa snorted, “Yeeun, you’re not a highschooler with 10 p.m curfew.”

“I’m not,” you huffed as you stood up, “but I haven’t told Yunho about where I am right now.”

You couldn’t see it, but Seonghwa frowned as he furrowed his eyebrows, “he’s not your father or anything. Why is it a big deal if you don’t or late inform it to him?”

You chuckled, “it’s not for me, really. But it is for him.”

He scoffed. ‘A big deal’ for him if his best friend goes home late? Doesn’t he have a girlfriend?

“Uhm, Seonghwa. Is it okay if I charge my phone here? It ran out of battery.”

“Sure,” he nodded his head, “just plug it under the table near the TV.”

You mumbled an alright before walking there. As expected, the moment your phone’s screen lit up, notifications from Yunho started coming in. Numerous missed calls and messages that elicit a sigh from your lips.

Yunho

where are you?

you’re not picking up calls either

just tell me where you are once you see this message

yeeun, it’s getting late

you huffed as you typed your reply.

Yeeun

you sure you’re okay?

I'm alright

And I’m safe and sound, don’t worry about it

My phone ran out of battery

That’s why I didn’t pick up

Sorry for making you worried

Yunho surely didn’t take long to reply.

Yunho

where are you right now?

i’ll pick you up

Yeeun

Noooo

You don’t need to

Seriously

Stop treating me like a toddler???

Yunho

i’m not treating you like a toddler!!

you’re a woman, not at home at this hour

it’s normal for me as your housemate to be worry

Yeeun

*An adult woman

I can take care of myself

Go to sleep if it’s already late for you

Your feet took you to the cushion sofa. The soft material made you heave a sigh once you sat down. Just thinking about what happened the whole day made you tired and you closed your eyes to clear your mind.

You put down your phone and rolled your eyes. Surely, Yunho doesn’t have to worry about you like that when both of you are the same age. And you never bothered him whenever he comes home late. So, why does he have to bother you like that whenever you come home late without telling him first?

“Sorry, I took–” Seonghwa’s words got cut when he saw you already sleeping on the sofa. He walked quietly to you and scrunched to see you clearer.

“It’s been a hard day for you,” he whispered as he tucked your hair. He stood up to take you to his bedroom when your phone vibrated. Knowing you wouldn’t wake up anytime soon, he walked to your phone and furrowed his eyebrows when he saw the name of the caller on the screen.

“Hel–”

“Why do you take so long to pick up?”

“Ah, Yunho.”

The man on the other end went silent for a second, “Seonghwa?”

“Yeah,” he chuckled, “sorry, Yeeun’s sleeping. So, I picked her phone up.”

“She’s with you?”

“Yeah. I picked her up from her office and it seems like she was having a bad day. So I took her to cheer her up.”

“Oh, I see…” Yunho cleared his throat, “sorry if that causes you any inconvenience. If you need me to pick her up, I’ll pick her up now.”

Seonghwa chuckled, “why would taking care of my own girlfriend be an inconvenience for me?” he hummed, “I don’t think you need to pick her up now. She must be tired,” he looked at you, “I don’t have the heart to wake her up.”

“Is it okay with you for her to stay at your place?” Yunho asked (which makes no sense for Seonghwa because didn’t I make it clear already that I’m okay with taking care of her?)

“Of course,” Seonghwa answered.

“Alright then,” Yunho hummed, “can you tell her to call me once she’s up?”

“Sure. Anything else?”

“No, that’s all.”

“Alright. Good evening, Yunho.”

“Good evening.”

Seonghwa put your phone down again and walked towards you, “your housemate is really annoying, you know?” he grunted as he picked you up from the sofa, “‘are you okay with this? Are you okay with that?’ How many times do I have to say that I’m completely okay with having you here? Tsk.”

Seonghwa carefully put you on his bed before sitting next to you on the floor, “I’m surprised his girlfriend lets him being that protective towards you.”

You stirred in your sleep, making you face to face with Seonghwa now (though you were still sleeping). The sight in front of him melted his heart. It was just like that night when he had to take you home because you were too drunk to function. A smile plastered on his lips as he watched you sleep, “it’s been a long day for you, isn’t it? I hope you’re at least having a good dream right now.”

*

How long have you slept? You didn’t even realize when did you fall asleep. Your eyes slowly opened and adjusted with the light. You wanted to look at the clock and that was when you saw Seonghwa, sleeping on the floor next to you. And that was when it hit you that you made him sleep on the floor while you sleep on his bed.

“God, I’m such a terrible person,” you mumbled. Quietly, you stood up then scrunched down to wake him up, “Seonghwa, wake up.”

The man only groaned, making you shook his body, “Seonghwaaa, wake up!”

His half-opened eyes looked at you, “you’re up?”

“Mhm,” you nodded your head. He looked around, “did my alarm wake you up?”

“No,” you said, looking at the clock that said 4:13 AM, “it’s quite too early to wake up anyway.”

He chuckled, “but you’re up.”

“That’s… probably because I went to sleep earlier than I usually do,” you giggled.

“Come on,” you reached his hand, “you should sleep on your bed. Sleeping on the floor will make your body sore.”

Seonghwa hummed as you helped him up to his bed, “you’re not going back to sleep?”

“Nope,” you chuckled, “I’m completely awake already.”

“Then, why should I go back to sleep,” Seonghwa was about to get up when you softly pushed him back down, “no, you sleep.”

“And let my guest walk around my house by herself?”

You scoffed, “whoah, are you scared if I’ll stole anything?”

“That’s not it,” he rolled his eyes, sitting down, “it’s basic manners.”

You chuckled, “I know. But seriously, just go back to sleep. Your body probably already feeling sore for sleeping on the floor. The least you could do is get your remaining sleep hours on your comfy bed.”

“So, it’s comfy?” he raised one of his eyebrows while smirking, making you flicked his forehead lightly, “go back to sleep.”

“What are you going to do anyway?” he asked while covering his body with his blanket.

“Don’t know. Too scared to order an uber at this hour too.”

“Don’t.”

“Okay, okay,” you nodded your head, “do you eat breakfast?”

“Just when I remember to.”

“Then, I’ll cook you some.”

He hummed, “I don’t have much ingredients, though.”

“We’ll see about that,” you walked away from his bed to the door.

“Yeeun.”

“Hm?”

Seonghwa pointed at a piece of shirt on his writing table, “change your clothes. It’s more comfortable to do anything in shirt than in your working blouse.”

Ah, right, you thought to yourself, I’m still in my working clothes. You took the shirt from the table, “okay. Uhm, where is the–”

“It’s the door on the left once you’re out of this room. The bathroom.”

“Right. Okay. Thank you.”

He waved his hand from the bed as you walked out. Once you were in the bathroom, you put on the shirt and looked at yourself in the mirror, “he didn’t even change my clothes…” doesn’t that mean he respected you by not taking your clothes off even when you’re sleeping? You quickly shook your head and hit both of your cheeks lightly, “what are you thinking? It’s the bare minimum for any man to do anyway. It’ll be even weirder if he did!!”

You accidentally slammed the bathroom door once you walked out. Making yourself startled and looked at Seonghwa’s bedroom door. After seeing he wasn’t coming out from his room, you let out a relieved sigh, “I didn’t wake him up, did I?”

“I didn’t” you said to yourself as you walked to the kitchen. First thing you did was opening the fridge. Again, you were surprised by how it’s not empty. There were even some fruits, leftover foods packed in containers and some vegetables. You spotted a slice of strawberry shortcake too which brought a smile on your face, “he even keeps some sweets in his fridge.”

Closing the fridge, you looked around if there were some flours. Though you didn’t find it, you kind of expected he wouldn’t stock some flour (what would he cook with it anyway?). At the end, you took some eggs and vegetables and the leftover fried rice from the night before. You started with washing the vegetable first. Then, started to chopped them before whisked them in the egg. You surely took your time because it was too early to do anything, right?

Once you were done preparing your eggs, you started to took some of the leftover fried rice to heat. You took more than needed for breakfast, thinking you should heat some to pack for Seonghwa’s lunch (because in what way should you repay him other than that?). When you were in the middle of frying your eggs, Seonghwa’s alarm rang in his bedroom. You looked at his bedroom direction to see if he woke up from his alarm. Then you look out to the window. Though it was covered by curtains, you could see that it was still a bit dark outside, which meant it was still early in the morning.

His alarm kept ringing and since you didn’t see any sign of him, you put the stove in low-heat and you walked to his bedroom. Slowly, you opened the door and peeked inside.

The door suddenly opened, making you startled. “What are you doing?” Seonghwa asked before yawning.

“I-I thought you’re still sleeping a-and the alarm–”

He hummed as he rubbed his neck, “I’m awake. Just turned off the alarm just now.”

“Oh,” you blinked your eyes, “okay, then.”

You quickly turned your back and walked back to the kitchen. Seonghwa followed through with a frown on his face, “not even a good morning?”

You snorted, “okay. Good morning, Seonghwa.”

The frown quickly turned into a wide smile, “what are you making?”

“Omelette. But I put spinach in it because you don’t have tomatoes or bell peppers.”

“That’s because I rarely eat them,” he said as he sat down on the dining table, “and this?”

You looked at the fried rice on the table, “fried rice from last night. I re-heated it.”

Seonghwa nodded his head, “do you want some tea?”

“No, I’ll just drink water,” you saw him walked to take a tea bag, “what time is it now?”

He hummed, “I set my alarm at 4:30.”

“That’s quite early,” you mumbled, “do you usually wake up at this hour?”

“No,” the sound of him pouring water into his glass filled your ears, “I set it early for you, to be honest.”

“So, you planned on asking me to cook this all along or something?”

“No,” he sighed, “I need to wake you up earlier so I can take you home. Do you want to go to the office wearing the exact same clothes that you wore the day before?”

You turned down the stove and pouted at him, “I don’t even want to go to work today.”

Both of you walked to the dining table and sat down. Seonghwa sighed, “so do you want to skip work today after yesterday incident?”

“I’m too upset to look at everybody there,” you said in annoyance, “and I’m… too embarrassed to show up after lashing out like that.”

Seonghwa eyed you for a while before digging his food, “the omelette better tastes good, or else I won’t let you take any step to my kitchen ever again.”

You scoffed, “as if I want to step here again.”

He hummed after tasting your egg. You waited until he finished munching it, “how is it?”

“Not bad.”

“See? You shouldn’t underestimate my cooking skill.”

Seonghwa chuckled, “alright, Ma’am.”

His eyes then spotted the lunchbox on the table. He cleared his throat to get your attention, “what’s that?”

“Your lunch!” you beamed, “it’s basically the same thing that you’re eating right now. But,” you opened the lunchbox to show him what was inside, “I added some luncheon too.”

Seeing you proudly showed him what you cooked (plus point that you wore his shirt while doing so), warmed his heart. He looked down to hide his smile before looking at you again, “you seem to be used to do this. Do you cook for Yunho too?”

“No,” you frowned, “I only cook for myself. Though sometimes I do share it with Yunho.”

“Why?” you teased, “are you jealous if I cook for Yunho?”

Yes, Seonghwa answered internally. His lips let out a scoffed, “why would I be jealous?”

“I don’t know,” you shrugged, “I asked Hyunji once if she’s jealous seeing Yunho treats me the way he does. And she admitted that she is jealous at some point. Isn’t it normal for your girlfriend to be jealous for that kind of thing?”

“So you admitted we’re dating?”

“No,” you rolled your eyes, “I just expected you to play along with it.”

Seonghwa hummed, “of course couples would have a slight jealousy seeing their partner cares about their friends too much. At least, I would feel that way.”

“Park Seonghwa can be jealous too? Okay, noted.”

Seonghwa rolled his eyes, “Yunho called you last night, by the way. I answered the call because you were sleeping.”

“Yeah, not surprised that he called.”

“He asked me to tell you to call him once you wake up.”

You nodded your head, “I’ll call him later.”

“Anyways,” Seonghwa sighed, “finish your food. You have to go back to your place to change your clothes before going to work.”

At that, you whined, “I don’t want to go to work,” you frowned.

“I’m not your boss, so whining like that won’t do anything,” he said, eyes focused on his food, “though I think your boss wouldn’t take that as an excuse for you to skip work either.”

Seonghwa looked up when you didn’t respond to him. Still sulking because you really didn’t want to go to work. He sighed, “just bear it for one more day, okay? It’s Saturday tomorrow, you don’t have to meet anyone from your office.”

You nodded your head, “Okay. Anyway, are you coming to my place tomorrow?”

“Do you want me to?” his expression brightened up at your question.

“My mom’s been asking for you, that’s why I asked.”

“I’ll see about that.”

You peeked at him spooning his food before clearing your throat, “there’s a café near my house. They sell a tasty strawberry shortcake.”

Seonghwa raised his eyebrows at you, making you flustered a little, “I mean, we can go there after visiting my place. If you want, of course. it’s okay if you don’t. Or if you–”

“I’m coming.”

You blinked your eyes before mumbling, “if you have any pla–”

“No, I don’t have any plans. Other than meeting your mom.”

“How about the strawberry shortcake?”

“Of course, that too,” Seonghwa smiled at you, “do you think I’d skip that?”

“No,” you smiled, “let me pay for you, okay? You paid for my lunch the other day.”

“So,” Seonghwa smiled cheekily, “it’s a date?”

You rolled your eyes, this time with a smile on your face, “whatever you call it.”

Once you and Seonghwa finished your food, Seonghwa take a shower while you washed the dishes. You scrolled through your phone while waiting for Seonghwa. Replying to Yunho’s messages and saying sorry for making him worried. Seonghwa didn’t take long in the shower (or maybe because he had to take you to your place first), and the two of you walked to his car which always made you wonder,

“How can you own a car at this age, anyway?” you asked as you put your seatbelt on.

Seonghwa looked at you before putting his own seatbelt, “this is an office car.”

“Your office gave you a car?” you widened your eyes, “just what do you do, exactly?”

“To put it simply, my company, which is a foreign company, needs some locals when they expanded their business here. So that it will be easy to communicate and so on. And since I’m a local here, they offered me good facilities when they opened their office here.”

“I see,” you nodded your head, “they probably offer you lots of good things because they need you more than you need them.”

Seonghwa chuckled, “that could be the case.”

“Good for you to be favored like that by your company.”

He looked at you for a moment before fixing his eyes on the road again. His free hand slowly patted yours softly, “I have days when they look down on me too.”

You only nodded your head, “right, everybody has those days.”

“Exactly,” Seonghwa nodded his head, “if everything goes wrong at work today, just call me and I’ll pick you up.”

You chuckled, “no. I troubled you enough last night.”

“What are you saying,” he pouted, “you didn’t. And I will never think you’re troubling me if you come to me when you need a shoulder to lean on.”

It’d be a lie if you say you weren’t thankful for his existence back in your life. It’s like you just found a missing piece of your life that you didn’t realize you lost.

“Here we are,” Seonghwa announced once he parked his car. You frowned, “I haven’t even got to work but I already want to go home again.”

Seonghwa chuckled, “then, don’t work overtime. It’s Friday anyway.”

“Oh my God, it’s Friday already,” you realized by then.

“Why?” Seonghwa furrowed his eyebrows.

“Yunho, Hyunji, and I always have a movie night at our place in Friday.”

“Really? Sounds fun.”

You chuckled, “Not really. We usually just re-watch movies we already watched.”

“It still sounds fun~”

You stopped in front of your apartment door, “anyways, thank you for helping me yesterday.”

“The pleasure’s mine,” Seonghwa eyed your hand on your doorknob, “are you going in?”

You looked at him, confused, “of course. What else should I do?”

“I don’t know,” Seonghwa pouted, “like, something to bid me goodbye before I go.”

“Like, say ‘goodbye’ to you?”

He leaned closer to your face, facing the door and pointing on his cheek, “here.”

You were lucky Seonghwa faced the door so he couldn’t see your face turned red. You cleared your throat and blinked your eyes, “do you want me to slap you?”

Seonghwa looked at you, who was looking at him with your eyes wide. His lips turned into a frown, “I guess just saying goodbye is enough.”

You chuckled, “go home. You need to go to work too.”

“Okay, okay,” he sighed, “don’t be late to work.”

“Okay~”

Seonghwa was about to leave when you opened your door. He already knew you were safely arrived at your place. He had no business left there that morning.

“Ah, Seonghwa.”

He turned around again and his eyes went wide when he felt something soft on his cheek. No, it wasn’t your palm (though maybe he would need you to slap him after that so he knew he wasn’t dreaming). And even without looking, he knew it was a pair of lips. Your lips, on his cheek.

You chuckled seeing him as flustered as you (lucky for you, he was too stunned to even look at your flushed face), “see you tomorrow.”

Yunho furrows his eyebrows. Considering he lives in the East, it would be hard to get to the West. Other than the distance, he still not quite knows the route in the East. Wouldn’t he get lost in the West?

Mrs. Choi smiles as she shakes her head seeing the pout in Yunho’s lips, “young man, if you really want to get a job, couldn’t you at least do that much? Going a little mile to get one.”

“Of course, I can,” Yunho sighs, “I was just… scared of getting lost there.”

“Not all who wanders are lost,” Mrs. Choi smiled at him, “who knows you can find a job when you’re getting lost.”

Hearing that, Yunho laughs. “You’re right, Mrs. Choi. I think I will try to go there today.”

“If you want to go to the West, I suggest you to take the subway instead of the bus. The bus might be faster, but they only come once per hour. While the subway come several times in an hour.”

“Oh, thank you so much for all your help, Mrs. Choi!”

“I hope you’re getting what you need!” said Mrs. Choi as Yunho hurries to walk out from her house.

“I hope so!” Yunho shouts as he walks away.

Once the door closed, Mrs. Choi smiles, “I hope he finds whatever he needs to find.”

Yunho rushes to the station. Thanks to his long legs, he can run fast and reach the station fast. He got in the subway just in time and he heaves a sigh when he gets in. Looking around, he looks at the route and counting how many stations he needs to passed through.

“5 stations…” he mumbles.

Now, here is another flaw about Jeong Yunho. He spaces out even after he passed his destinated station. After realizing it, he quickly gets out and look around for information. He looks at the route board and realizes he missed 2 stations. Yunho sighs but instead of going back, he walks out from the station and looks around. He doesn’t know why his feet decided to do that either.

He wanders around the city his feet never landed on before. His mind wanders even further as he walks. It feels like he’s in a whole another world from the world he grows up at. The buildings aren’t as high as the skyscraper where his father works. The road filled with greener leaves than the ones he walked through when he went home from school. And the air feels lighter to breathe.

For a moment, Yunho stops his step, close his eyes, and breathe in the air as much as he can. He just heaves a long sigh when suddenly someone bumps him hard from the back, making him stumbled and fell to the ground.

“Oh my god!” you gasp as you scrunch down to look at the stranger in pain you just bump, “a-are you okay?”

“No,” Yunho mumbles before screeching in pain.

You look at his hand and see the fresh red liquid coming out from his skin, “oh no, you’re bleeding.”

“Yeah, that’s why I said I’m not okay.”

“I’m so sorry, I was running a-and–”

“Are you late for something?” Yunho asks as he finally looks at you.

No wonder it hurts, you just bump into a beautiful statue, you thought to yourself momentarily. Yunho looks at you, confused as to why are you spacing out seeing him.

“Hello?”

“Yes?” you blink your eyes. Yunho chuckles, “are you late for something? It’s because you were running so I assume you’re late.”

“Right,” you heaved an annoyed sigh, “I was late but look,” you pointed at the book store just a few steps away from where you two are, “I work there. That’s why I ran faster since I’m getting close to where I work. I didn’t see you stood there. I’m so sorry.”

You peeked at his hands, “are you going somewhere? If not, you can come to the bookstore and wash your scar.”

“Yeah, good idea,” you help him standing up and dusting his clothes.

The two of you walk in and you were met by your co-worker glare, “did you miss your alarm again?”

You opened your mouth to answer but the tall stranger beats you to it, “oh, no. She didn’t. I just happened to get into accident and she helped me since I’m not coming from here so I don’t know where to go.”

Your co-worker blinked and notice the fresh untreated scars on the man’s hand, “good lord. Sir, you’re bleeding!”

Yunho chuckles, “yeah, that’s why she took me here. She said I can use the sink to wash my scar.”

“Of course, you can! The toilet is that way,” your co-worker points at the direction and Yunho nods at her before going to the toilet.

“What are you doing?” your co-worker asks you.

You look at her, then to the book shelf, then to her again, “doing my job?”

“Go get first aid kit! That man needs to be treated. Didn’t you see his scars?”

“Ah, yeah,” you nod your head, “may I do that?”

“Why are you even asking? Of course, you may! He’s hurt for god’s sake!”

“Well, I was late. So I thought I should do my task as soon as I–”

“Enough talking. Help that man first. He will scare our customer with his scars.”

“Alright, alright,” you sigh before leaving your co-worker and take the first aid kit. The stranger walks out from the toilet just right at the time you get the first aid kit box.

“Thank you for letting me use the sink,” he says with a smile. You look at his hand and how he covers it with tissues. Looks like he (you) scratched both of his hands with the fall. His clothes also got stained by the blood and you sigh at the sight of that. How could you cause that much damage on a much bigger man than you when you just bumped into him?

“Follow me. We need to treat your scars first.”

“Oh, there’s no need for–”

“Come on. You can get infections if we don’t treat them now.”

Yunho closes his mouth then follows you to the staff room. You pull a chair and ask him to sit, which he complies. Slowly, you take off the tissues and took an alcohol swab.

“It will stink a little,” you warn before gently wiping his scar.

Yunho gritted his teeth while holding the pain. You peek at him before focusing on the scars again, “I’m sorry for causing you… this.”

He smiles, “apology accepted.”

You chuckled as your hands took a betadine from the first aid kit box, “this one will hurt more. So, please bear with it for a little more.”

“You know, I– ACK,” Yunho hisses after that, making you stop moving your hand and look at him worriedly. Yunho chuckles, “I was about to say I know it will hurt so you don’t have to remind me all the time.”

“Well,” you chuckle, “I was just telling you so you’d get ready for the pain.”

“Okay, now the last step,” you mumble as you put the betadine back and take a gauze bandage to cover his scars. Suddenly, a thought crosses your mind, “why were you just standing there in the middle of the sidewalk? You know, it’s quite busy hour. Many people walk by. You can get into this kind of accident even if it wasn’t with me.”

Yunho hums, “I was getting some fresh air.”

You snorted, “you sound like someone who comes from a crowd city and not here.”

He looks at you in silence hearing it. Making you look at him since he’s not answering. Finally noticing he’s looking at you all along, you darted your eyes on his scars again and hoping he doesn’t see your cheeks turn red, “w-well, the air here has always been like this.”

“Lucky,” he mumbles, “the air is heavy where I come from.”

“So you’re not coming from here…”

“Mhm,” Yunho nodded his head.

“So, where do you come from?”

“I’d rather not say…” he answers with a heavy tone. It makes him uncomfortable talking about where he comes from. But at the same time, he feels rude for not answering your question.

“Okay,” you reply with a light tone, “I won’t force you to tell me if you don’t want to.”

He smiles before looking down to the scars that has been treated. The fact that you didn’t push him further to talk makes him feel relieved.

“Mind to tell me why are you here if you’re not from here?”

“I’m looking for a job. I’ve been seeking for a week in this city but,” he sighs, “I haven’t gotten any.”

“You’re looking for a job?” you look at him after you finish wrapping the scars on his other hand.

“Yeah,” he chuckles, “my landlord told me to try looking for one around here. Well, not really ‘here’ here – I actually missed the station and got lost here. But she said the West probably has more offer than jobs at the East.”

You hum, “what a coincidence,” you mumble. Making the man blink his eyes.

“Just two blocks from here, my acquaintance just opened a café. He still needs some help and he’s been asking me if I have friends who’s seeking for a job. But all of my friends who are still talking with me are employed in a bigger and better place already.”

“A café?” he’s making sure, to which you affirm it with a nod.

“If you want, we can go there during lunch. I will introduce you to him. But are you okay staying here for a while? Or would you rather walk around here? Who knows you’ll see another offer.”

“I think, I’ll stay here. There’s not much I can do either with this,” he shows both of his hands that are covered with bandage.

“Right,” you nod your head, feeling guilty for it, “well, then you can look around. Seeing the books here.”

“Okay. And you should get going to work too.”

“Right,” you chuckle.

“Oh, by the way,” the stranger says right before you walk out from the staff room. You look at him, raising one of your eyebrows.

“My name is Yunho,” he says with a bright smile.

You chuckle before telling him your name, “nice to meet you, Yunho.”

Yunho smiles watching you walks out from his sight, “nice to meet you too.”

The universe really works its wonder in its own way. The two strangers being met with an unfortunate event. But the domino effect of the fall somehow leads to better things. When you introduce Yunho to Wooyoung, the two of them clicked just like that. The next thing you know Wooyoung scolding you for giving scars to his new co-worker, Yunho. Yunho insisted to start to work right away with the easy task even when Wooyoung tells him to start 2 days later. And still feeling guilty, you promise him to go to the café after your working hour.

You ended up spending the time there until the café closed and you walk side by side with your new tall friend. You tell him the good place he needs to see, the tasty restaurant around he needs to try, and the way to the station and the fastest route.

“Can you believe we were a total stranger just 10 hours ago?” you giggle.

“Right?” Yunho laughs with you.

“Here,” you point the route map on your hand to him, “don’t space out this time! You need to get out in this station,” your finger moves to point the destined station, “then you can take the bus; you should be able to catch it soon after you’re getting out from the station if we’re seeing the time now. It’s faster that way.”

“Thank you,” Yunho smiles at you, “for everything today.”

“I don’t think you should thank someone who injured you.”

Both of you laugh before he smiles fondly at you, “is it okay for me to call you tomorrow? I’m afraid I’d still get lost.”

“Of course! You have my number already. Just call me if you need anything.”

The subway comes after you’re saying that, “you should get going.”

Yunho nods his head, “careful on your way home.”

“You too, Yunho.”

He runs to the subway and you shouted your last message for him for today, “don’t get lost again!”

"Really?" you frowned, "I never read or heard that before."

Yeosang chuckled, "it's just superstition anyway. At the end of the day, it's just collection of blood vessels near the surface of the skin."

You hummed, still tracing his birthmark, "it is. But I'd still like to believe an angel left this on you."

Yeosang smiled at you. Being your significant other for years, he sure knows how hopeless you can be when it comes to romantic things. And you sure like to romanticize anything in your life.

Nevertheless, he still keeps up with that side of you. "Why do you like to believe that?" he asked.

Your smile widened, "because even before you come to the earth, those angels love you. So they leave a kiss before they're sending you to the world. Because they know you deserve to be loved, and they want the whole world to know that by leaving that mark on you."

You rolled your body so you can see your lover's face better. God, He must be showing off when He decided to create Yeosang. The perfectly sculptured face, the eyes full of innocent love, and the heart as pure as fine gold. How could such a person exist? And oh, boy, how lucky are you to love and to be loved by him?

"And I think, the angels also have another reason to leave that mark on you. They don't let them exist just for other people who sees it, but also for you to see it yourself."

Yeosang furrowed his eyebrows. Remembering how he despised his fresh red birthmark when he was younger, "why?"

"Because," you smiled, tracing his beautiful birthmark once again (you don't think you'd ever get bored of doing that), "they want you to remember that you are loved by them. That you deserve all the love you received. That even on your worst day, you are always loved."

Yeosang hummed. A smile crept on his face again. He expected such answer from you, but it feels nice to hear those words coming straight from your lips.

"You think so?" he asked.

You giggled, "yep!"

“Feel what?”

“The sun,” you giggled, “it’s warm without the heat hurting you. It… feels like a gentle kind of warmth.”

He didn’t quite get you at first. Until you looked him in the eyes, with the shade of golden colored your skin ethereally, and a wide smile on your face while you said, “it feels like us when we’re together.”

“It feels like love,” Yunho whispered into the thin air.

His finger quickly wipes the tears that somehow managed to stream from his eyes. He didn’t even realize when did he started crying. Maybe it’s the fact that after years passed by, he’s still coming back to the same beach at sunset just to reliving that memory. Hoping that way, he could feel what he felt back then. Hoping that you would still feel the same way as you did back then. But you took the warm in his heart along with your departure and  the sun can never melt a frozen heart.

If Yunho had to count the amount of time he comes back to the shore after he parted ways with you, his fingers aren’t enough to count. Where did it go wrong? He always wonders every time he watches the sunset. Was it my fault? Did I not show her enough? Or did I not love her enough? The same thoughts always haunt him again and again like it’s part of the broken record he’s been holding on all these times.

He closes his eyes as a sigh leaves his lips. He lets he warmth of the sun to seep into him, finally actually feeling it on his skin. The sight of you still there in the back of his mind. He smiled, seeing the smile of yours that he would never get enough of. He always comes back to seek for a feeling he can no longer find. But that day, he doesn’t come for that.

For the first time, Yunho doesn’t want to blame himself for something out of his control. He never finds anything you did wrong, neither anything he did wrong. After all, maybe the love you two had is really just a match that runs out of spark at some point. And yours happened to lose its spark faster than his.

Yunho opens his eyes, with a wide smile on his face. He would be lying if he says he already lost his spark for you when it’s still there. He’s just finally letting it to die slowly. He feels the warmth of sun kissing his skin while the seawater sooths his feet. For the first time, he doesn’t come to the shore to seek for the feeling from the warmth of the sun. He doesn’t seek for the feeling of love he used to know, but he seeks for a peace.