Ever since the day he walked through the front door of your cafe hand in hand with his sweet daughter on one gloomy afternoon in the middle of winter, he had captured your heart without him even knowing it. All the time, you had chosen to stay on th...
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chapter iv. mortals
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"Welcome to Cinnamon Bliss."
Nari's cheerful voice continues to fill the whole cafe for almost the entire afternoon. Even the whole vibe within the shop feels heavenly today. Inside, the atmosphere feels so light and warm despite the intense cold weather going on outside. You are pleased to find your co-workers showing their smiles constantly as they tend to the customers, and there doesn't seem to be a sight of unhappy patron sitting in your cafe everywhere you look.
If only you could share all the excitement instead of feeling like you are in a constant slump. It is something that you call your 'holiday mood', where you find yourself constantly in a somber mood that doesn't fade so easily even as the holiday season comes and goes. It had been this way last year, and the year before, and you still have no idea just how much longer this feeling would last. Even the calming scent of baked goods and sweets that have brought all these people together to your cafe does nothing to you when it would have been your remedy against your sorrow. Today, however, they are not doing you any good, except for the fact that they simply make you feel like there is a part of you that is missing and the things that you normally treasure could no longer help elevate your mood.
Sitting behind the counter, you look around the seating area and find something else that is missing from the scene, making the void inside your chest feel cavernous. The booth at the side of the room is currently unoccupied, a sight which shouldn't be so surprising for you to find when you realise what this week entails.
This week marks the first anniversary of Seokjin's wife passing. And it is more than enough to explain their absence for the entire past week. You can understand their need to have some privacy, to share this moment with their family instead of hanging out in public, no matter how much Soojin loves to spend her time here with you and how much she truly loves her favourite desserts.
Because you had done the exact same thing just two weeks ago, locking yourself up in your tiny, lonely home until your family came in to whisk you back out into the real world.
It had only been one year since the day Seokjin had lost his wife and for his daughter, Soojin, to say goodbye to her mother for eternity.
It had been exactly three years and two weeks since your loss.
Sucking a deep breath, you rub a hand over your aching chest, willing the void inside to fade. Everyone had told you that time would heal, but nobody knew just how good you have become to just simply hide everything underneath the facade that you have put up ever since it happened.
Closing your eyes, your fingers drift towards your left forearm, rubbing the skin that has always been hidden beneath your long-sleeved tops. Your breath hitches as you find the long scar that you have always been hiding for years, the remainder of what you had lost and the life that you still have left. Sometimes, you could still hear them—the sound of the metals crashing against metals, the sound of breaking glass, your voice screaming in fear. Sometimes, you could even still feel the pain and the nothingness that had engulfed you right after, how it felt when time stood still while your world was falling apart.
