ʟᴜʟʟᴀʙʏ ♪ ʟᴇᴇ ᴅᴏɴɢʜʏᴜᴄᴋ

[59]

The room was warm, cozy and inviting, as it always had been. The blinds were down, restricting the piercing moonlight from coming in. Instead, the artificial light of the basic desk lamp shone dimly onto the space.

Donghyuck was the one sitting at the desk, suffering from insomnia as usual. He surprisingly felt quite pleasant, the silence in the room allowing him to feel calm. Somehow, working at such late hours felt less drawn-out and boring than when he did it during the day.

His ears picked up the subtle movement coming from under the sheets of his bed, but the boy didn't think much of it. After so many nights spent in her company, he figured that she wasn't the type to stay motionless in her sleep. Rather, she would switch position almost every few minutes.

But the more he listened in to the shuffling, the more irregular and strange it seemed. That's what got him to finally turn, seeing the big lump of a human curled up right beside the far-away wall.

Donghyuck hesitated a little at first, but left the thought behind as he prepared himself to speak.

"Soomin...?" He questioned, in a voice so soft and quiet that it could pass as a whisper.

After a few exasperatingly long seconds, he finally heard the typical hum of a response.

"So you're awake." He muttered, crossing his arms as he leaned back in his chair.

Soomin let out a long, exhausted sigh as she turned in the bed to face him. The cover was wrapped around her head, hiding almost the entirety of her hair, and she had shaped it in a way that it made her head seem like a morphed potato.

But what shook Donghyuck a little were the vulnerable, confused eyes that she still had after all of these hours.

Before he could stop himself, the question had already gotten out. "Are you alright?"

Soomin again remained silent for a couple of seconds, snickering afterwards.

"You know, I would've said yeah, but that would be a little hypocritical, wouldn't it?"

Her dry attempt to be humorous made Donghyuck frown. Soomin might be very funny, but she would never joke around in a situation like this one.

His silence told her everything and she sighed once more. "No, I'm not alright. And I don't expect myself to be. I literally just found out that I potentially had a twin sister, that is now dead before I could even meet her."

Donghyuck swallowed hard. He wasn't really sure what Soomin was feeling at the moment. Granted, it was painful to reminisce on his memories of Yuna, but the young girl had never even met her. Damn, Soomin had no idea of her existence until today.

It must've been tough.

"And it's all just..." The girl sucked in a long, shaky breath. "... a tad bit too much."

Donghyuck nodded his head, and he felt stupid for not knowing what to tell her at that very moment.

Soomin then smiled softly. "But don't let me bother you. You can get back to work."

"Do you want to... talk about it a little longer?" Donghyuck suddenly blurted out, catching both of them a little off-guard.

'What a way to comfort someone, wow, go champ. She'll obviously say no you dumbfuck, she doesn't even like you that much.'
He immediately gave himself a mental lashing.

Donghyuck let out an awkward giggle, turning his chair towards the desk. "I'm finishing up anyways, so I'm completely fine with that..." he tried his best to find any sort of excuse, but there didn't seem to be any.

Only silence met him as he began closing down all of his tabs and documents, shutting off his laptop soon after. Not really looking, he got up and had just straightened up when...

Two small arms wrapped around his torso, catching him completely off-guard. A flood of hormones took over his bloodstream, raising his temperature to maybe boiling point. He felt his heart race wildly and his face getting all red, the surprise hug really taking his emotions through the roof.

But all of that seemed to subdue and get completely ignored as soon as he heard the low, muffled stifle followed by a quiet sob.

"Soomin? Soomin what's wrong? Why are you crying?" Donghyuck immediately panicked, hands gripping onto both of her arms desperately.

He didn't have to wait long until Soomin decided to look up, eyes red and cheeks stained with new, salty tears.

"I don't even know." Soomin choked out, sniffing. "I don't think it's just a little too much... It's way too much, Donghyuck. I just can't handle it, I feel as if my mind is completely shutting down and I just... I can't."

Donghyuck's tense face softened as the girl once again shoved her face into his chest, in a desperate attempt to seek the warmth and comfort she needed at that moment.

He could only imagine what she was feeling.

And for once, the boy did not ask any questions. Did not ask what she felt so bothered about, what had happened. Didn't seek for an opportunity to show off his 'more pathetic life'.

No, he silently wrapped his hand around her, pulling her closer with care. He then lowered his head, face landing in her soft, dark hair.

"It's okay Soomin, I get it. You can cry all you want. I'll be here with you for as long as you need me to be." He muttered comfortingly, fingers drawing small circles on her back as he knew how calming it was.

What he did not realize was that this didn't only help her. It helped him as well.

Donghyuck was finally healing. He was finally letting himself worry, care, love. He could finally embrace someone with no remorse, finally be able to whisper sweet words of comfort without being fearful of getting hurt or hurting.

Finally... he felt alive again.

"Thank you, Hyuck." Soomin whispered into his chest.

"You're welcome, Min."

MIN?!??! JDIDDD

Its 4am btw and I wrote this chapter and now my fingers r numb, how yall doing? 🤠