I Love You But Is It Too Late?

15. Seaside

Kang Chin-hae POV:

My mouth acted on its own and asked "where?" which was followed by "okay."

I was still confused by Han-jae's actions, but I had to admit that his hug mitigated my pain. I wasn't blind, I could see he was genuinely worried about me and was trying to do his best for me. Therefore, maybe it was a good idea to listen to his suggestion.

Two hours later, we were sitting side by side on the bus, going to the seaside. As my mind was occupied with my parents, I had no desire for chit chatting. Luckily, Han-jae didn't need any company as he was very good at one-sided conversations. He was telling me about random stuff which I couldn't focus on and as if it wasn't him who was talking, he was laughing genuinely.

Although in the beginning, I felt a headache was coming due to his never-ending rambling, soon I found myself laughing with him.

Han-jae was one of a kind.

Even when he was too invested in his stories, he didn't forget my medicine time. Without cutting his word, he took out two pills and handed me with a bottle of water.

I was touched.

The rest of the journey passed quickly and we reached our destination after three hours. We must have been crazy to take that trip for half a day, but at the time being it felt so right.

We had a quick lunch and rushed to the seaside. Although the weather was quite chilly, it was refreshing. We sat on the pier and watched the waves dancing.

After a good while, Han-jae turned his face towards me, "is there anything you want to let out?" he asked with a strange glint in his black eyes.

"I don't understand," I said with a frown.

"Okay, then let me be the first," he said and jumped onto his feet. He put his hands around his mouth and started to shout.

"I WISH I WASN'T THAT MEAN TO CHIN-HAE!"

I was taken aback, hearing his words. I tugged his pants to stop him, but he didn't mind me.

"I WANT HIM BACK!"

After he repeated those two sentences a few times with the maximum loudness he could reach, he slumped next to the muddled-minded me. "Now... it is.. your... turn," he said in between his panting.

"My turn?" I was horrified as much as I was shocked, "I am not doing it."

"Why not?" he asked nonchalantly, "it helps a lot, I feel better," he cracked a smile as if he was trying to convince me.

"I..." I started but I couldn't continue because I couldn't come up with a logical reason for not doing it. Other than looking weird, the science proved that shouting was effective to ease the stress.

Han-jae already did it, so maybe I could give it a shot.

Lee Han-jae POV:

Chin-hae was dealing with an inner dilemma, so he didn't notice when his hands acted on their own and took their places around his mouth.

"I wish they would care about me... even a bit," he whispered as though he was giving a secret to the crashing waves.

"Louder," I told him and he seemed hesitant for a second. But only for a second.

He jumped on his feet and shouted "I WISH THEY WOULD CARE ABOUT ME!"

I realized that he bottled up way too much as he kept shouting for a long time and I had to stop him eventually.

"Better?" I asked while helping him to sit down again, and he started to cry all of a sudden. As there was nothing I could do other than hugging him, I did that while whispering "it is okay, you did well," into his ear.

Thank God, he calmed down rather quickly, then I grabbed his cold hand and dragged him to the closest cafe. Quickly I ordered some random hot tea and directed Chin-hae to the table in front of the heater. I did want to help him but I didn't want his sickness to relapse as he wasn't fully recovered yet.

"Do you want to share?" I asked with hope after the waiter brought our drinks.

He shook his head, breaking my illusion into million pieces.

Not even a step I got closer to his heart, really?

We drank the tea in ultimate silence and walked to the bus station in ultimate silence and finished the bus ride in ultimate silence.

However, when we reached the dormitory, I couldn't be silent anymore.