"Is this your house?" Mikyung asked, trying to hide her shock as they stood outside of a mansion. It was like a Palace, really.
"No, it's Eric's," Haknyeon said casually, typing in the passcode for his friend's house. "My family is living and working abroad."
"May I ask... why are we taking photos in Eric's home?" she asked, cautiously stepping through the threshold of the door and looking around the house with wide eyes. It was huge, and it was gorgeous. She couldn't help feeling a twinge of envy but quickly tried to push that away.
"Well we're supposed to be documenting the story of our life, and I spend most of my time here," he said, opening the door to one of the game rooms.
"That's cheating!" Seolhee screamed from inside the room. Mikyung blinked in surprise, finding Seolhee and Sunwoo in the game room.
"I thought we agreed there weren't any rules?" Sunwoo said cheekily, neither of them seemed to notice Haknyeon and Mikyung standing in the doorway.
Haknyeon cleared his throat loudly, and the couple turned to face him.
"Are you skipping class too?" Seolhee asked brightly, grinning at them.
"You're a bad influence," Haknyeon grumbled, walking over and lightly slapping Sunwoo on the back of the head. "She never used to skip class before, and now look at what you turned her into."
"Hey!" Seolhee protested. "This is the first time. Plus, aren't you supposed to be in photography?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.
Haknyeon held up the camera that was hanging around his neck like a giant necklace. "Yes, that's why I'm here. I'm taking photographs. So you guys play for another minute and let me take some pictures, and then leave. Mikyung and I have work to do. Go to class or something."
Sunwoo and Seolhee nodded, turning their attention back to the game, which they'd paused after Seolhee started complaining to Sunwoo about his cheating.
The two of them were on the game chairs on the floor, so Mikyung went to sit on the sofa behind them. She curled up on the sofa, feeling strangely content as she watched the two of them play together, bickering the whole time. Haknyeon went around, taking pictures, but eventually, she lost track of him because she ended up so focused on the game.
That is until she heard the click of a camera next to her.
She flinched, looking at Haknyeon in surprise. He grinned bashfully at her.
"You looked so pretty sitting here, I had to take a picture of you," he said, sitting on the sofa beside her. "They don't look like they're going to leave anytime soon. Do you want to choose the next site to photograph? You should. We should both take a somewhat equal amount of pictures this week. So, where should we go?"
Mikhyung looked at the floor, unsure of what to tell him.
Where should she go? To the tiny apartment that her family used to live in, before she moved into the college dorms and her mother went to permanently stay in the hospital because her condition worsened so much? She had no idea what the apartment would look like right now since she hadn't been there in weeks. Her father lived there alone now, but he was barely home. He was working himself to the bones, desperately trying to pay for her mom's hospital bones and begging the doctors to give her the best treatment, to save her.
Even if the place was clean, her apartment was so tiny compared to Eric's mansion that she couldn't bring herself to go there.
The hospital was out of the question.
Which left one place for her to go.
