Absence (1/1)

Yukwon stared at his white shoes as he sat on the desk in Minhyuk’s classroom, next to Minhyuk’s desk. His legs swung from back to front as he stared at them. It was recess and they took that time, when no one’s in the class, to talk.          “Eunkyung’s a nice girl,” Yukwon started as he pulled his head up and looked at Minhyuk.          Their eyes met.          Minhyuk was sitting on his chair, his leg crossed and his right elbow placed on the head of the chair. He tapped the plastic chair as he said, “And?”          “I can’t date her, Minhyuk,” Yukwon answered apologetically.          Minhyuk sat up straight; he pulled down his right leg from the left and leaned to the front. “Of course you can,” he spoke.          “I let you to be with her.”          Yukwon frowned and shook his head. “It’s not like that. I don’t have any feelings for her,” he explained.          “Well, it can be built overtime,” Minhyuk nodded his head.          “No, Minhyuk. Even if it can, I don’t want to,” Yukwon insisted. “To my eyes, she had become as close as a sister that any romantic feelings can’t be developed.”          Minhyuk stared into Yukwon’s eyes desperately. “I thought I can count on you,” he mumbled.          Yukwon sighed in guilt. “I’m sure you don’t want your sister spending her life with someone she doesn’t like,” he reassured Minhyuk.          Minhyuk pulled back. “I’m sure I want my sister spending her life with someone good enough for her,” he remarked.          Yukwon glanced at Minhyuk with an acknowledging look. “This is about that Jiho guy isn’t it?”           Minhyuk grumbled in annoyance.          Yukwon’s lip formed a small smile when he saw Minhyuk’s reaction. “It is,” Yukwon said.          “He doesn’t look good enough for Eunkyung,” Minhyuk started to protest.          “Looks can be deceiving, you know,” Yukwon replied.          Minhyuk glared at Yukwon. “Obviously, his looks can’t be because his hair explains it all.”          “I heard he changed his hairstyle after he heard your comment about it.”          Minhyuk’s eyes opened wide in surprised but he quickly hide it. “That still doesn’t mean I will go easy to him.”          “So you accept him?”          “I didn’t say I accept him!”          “But you said you’ll go easy on him. Doesn’t that mean you accept him?”          “I don’t!”          “People usually said that way when they accept…”          “I know what I said,” Minhyuk glared at Yukwon.          Yukwon just smiled in amuse as Minhyuk got irritated.          “What if Jiho is the only man good enough for her?”          Minhyuk didn’t reply anything as he looked away. And as if on cue, the school bell rang as a sign recess was over.          “Don’t be too harsh on your sister,” Yukwon said his last word of advice as he jumped off the desk.          Students started to enter the class and noises started to fill it. Yukwon patted Minhyuk’s shoulder before he walked away and exited the class.          Minhyuk just stared at an empty space as thoughts flew through his mind.            Eunkyung stared at her phone under her desk.She kept staring it while keeping her ears open at what the teacher at the front said, keeping aware if he suddenly noticed that she was texting in the middle of the class.          Then, she looked up to check on the teacher. He was still writing on the whiteboard, back facing them. So Eunkyung took the chance to text Jiho again.          To: Jiho :)

          Message: Where are you? Why didn’t you reply me?          She hit the ‘send’ button and tapped lightly on the phone’s screen. Anxiety crawls up as she waited for Jiho’s reply for her third message of the hour. It’s weird how he didn’t reply to her as soon as he usually did.           Even though, her messages started as a way to keep her from getting bored of the class, it became different when Jiho didn’t reply her and only then she realized that he was absent that day.          The teacher dotted the full stop loudly. Eunkyung knew that’s the sign for her to go back to her books and left her phone. So she quickly placed her phone under the desk and acted normal.          The teacher turned around and unaware of Eunkyung’s act, he continued teaching normally.           It’s the second day of Jiho’s mysterious absent and the only answer to it is a simple text reply to Eunkyung.          From: Jiho :)

          Message: I’m sorry. Got things to do.          She got that message late last night and only realized it the next day. When she texted back to find out what is he up to, nothing came back in reply.         In frustration, and concern, Eunkyung walked out of the school building after school was over and head towards the car park. A black car was parked there along with a few other cars. Hara was found with her boyfriend there.          Eunkyung approached them and without any proper greetings, she said, “Do you know what happened to Jiho?”          Hara looked at Eunkyung and asked, “What happened to him?”          Eunkyung grumbled softly. How irritated, she felt, that Hara, the longest friend Jiho ever had, didn’t even know what happened.          “He didn’t come yesterday and today. He only answered my text once. Aren’t you worried if anything happened to him?”          “I bet he’s fine. Don’t be so outrageous,” Jaehyo interrupted. “It’s just two days absent and a text. What’s the big deal?”           Eunkyung glared at him. If no other things need to be settled first, she would be happy to choke him to death. But she had one, so she ignored him and asked, “Do you…wait…” she looked around.          “Minhyuk is not here, right?”          Jaehyo and Hara looked around and shook their heads.          Good. Eunkyung sighed in relief. “Do you know his address?” she asked Hara.          Hara nodded. “Yeah, let me write it down for you,” she said as she pulled out her phone and typed the address then sent it to Eunkyung’s phone.          Eunkyung’s phone beeped. She pulled it out and looked at it. “Thanks,” she said after satisfied.          Then, she walked away and exited the school ground. She kept looking at the address Hara gave as a reference to search for Jiho’s house. After walking around for a few minutes, she finally stopped in front of a small house. It wasn’t that ugly looking but just decent. Good enough for someone to live in.          She pushed the rustic gate away as she stepped inside the house’s area. Creaking sound accompanied her as she walked towards the door. She pushed the doorbell and nervously waited for someone to answer and open the door.          Not long after that, the door creaked opened.    A/N : Happy chinese/lunar new year everyone!! Im glad that im able to post this this week. ^^