PLAYGROUND [park sunghoon]

4

"are you okay?" jia managed to pull out a handkerchief from the pocket of her book bag and offer it to the person crying in a large gray hoodie.

the person paused their crying for a second and slowly look up to person who offered their handkerchief to the person with their fluffy red eyes.

jia was a bit surprised that it was boy. she didn't know she would unexpectedly meet a boy, mostly thinking that she would meet a younger girl.

the person mumbled a thank you while taking the handkerchief from jia with her hoodie paws.

the person exhaled loudly, trying to get some air and faced towards the ground after wiping his tears to the white tear-stained handkerchief.

"why are you upset? do you wanna talk about it?" jia asked carefully while examining the boy to see if he was comfortable around her presence.

the boy hesitated.

"it's okay if you don't tell me. but if you do tell me, i'm on all ears, ready to listen to you no matter what." jia said, leaning back a bit.

the boy sighed. "it's not a big deal." the boy managed to say, hiccuping between his words. jia noticed that the boy cried a lot, a lot.

his eyes red puffy red, his cheeks were stained in pink and dried tears.

"isn't it best to talk those problems out?" jia asked softly.

"i feel like my parents aren't proud of me." the boy said, licking his dry lips and new tears forming on his eyes, ready to fall out again.

jia lowered her soft smile to a pout.

"i'm trying the best as i could to make them proud of me but i'm losing my skills, i'm losing myself. even if i make a mistake, they tend to point it out but if i do something right, they just stay silent as if i'm the one who has to find out my own mistakes." sunghoon stared at the ground, frowning when he got a memory of that scene occurring.

jia sighed, sympathizing to the boy. she smiled, trying to cheer up the boy.

"i'm proud of you." the boy looked at her as jia spoke gently, looking at him with a proud, soft expression.

"i'm sure your parents are proud of you and is so happy to have a son like you, doing your hardest to be the best." jia spoke. the boy sobbed quietly as he buried his face on the handkerchief after he heard those wanted words coming from someone, anyone, even if it was a stranger.

"what matters is that you're happy and that you did amazing. you probably won't remember it in 10 years , it doesn't matter. i know you're a hard working person. don't let other people be the reason why you suddenly want to run away and hide. just prove to them that you are happiest person doing this." jia spoke and looked at the boy who still kept crying.

jia smiled warmly and patted the boy's back. "i'm jia by the way."

the boy quickly caught his breath saying. "i'm sunghoon."

"well sunghoon i'm so proud of you." jia said. jia remembered the boba she had in her plastic bag. she quickly took it out.

sunghoon stared at her, questioning. jia poked the straw in the hole, mixing it and hand it over to sunghoon.

"this was for my brother but i feel like you deserved it more." jia handed the boba in the plastic bag with the straw inside to sunghoon. he hesitated but slowly got it, mumbling another 'thank you' to jia.

jia sighed and put her hands in her pockets, looking at the empty street.

"you must come around here often?"

sunghoon sighed, getting the boba from the plastic bag. "it's the only comfort i got around me."