𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 | 𝐡𝐲𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐧𝐠

•E L E V E N•

It was days before I heard from hwang again. Days that I spent worrying about him. Days that I spend fearing that I did something wrong.

The days were beginning to get colder, sweater weather was gone and changed into bundle weather. It hadn't snowed yet, the grass just frosting over with frozen morning dew that sparkled beneath the sun that was mostly covered by dark clouds. It was the time of year where everything seemed to slow. The days become shorter but the coldness makes them drag on.

Workdays took forever to pass, the services getting slower since nobody wanted to travel in the cold. In the colder months, we were never busy so there were hours at a time where I was just getting paid to sit there on my phone.

Minho didn't speak to me about the situation again and we both just pretended as if nothing happened. He didn't even ask about why I ran away from him that day and I sure as hell wasn't going to bring it up.

Today as I headed out for work marked the seventh day that I hadn't seen Hwang. That all too familiar overthinking flooded my brain again as I walked out the door. I just genuinely hoped he was alright.

I was dressed in jeans and a heavy green bomber jacket that was zipped all the way up along with a red beanie. I was hoping it was enough to keep me warm.

My breath came from my chapped lips in clouds. It almost taunted me since it was like it illuminating every worry and every sigh in a smoky white.

"Jisung!" Seungmin opened the door just as I was about to climb in my car.

"Yeah?"

"Minho said you guys need some milk,"

A visible sigh (see told you) escaped my lips and I nodded.

"I'll pick some up," I said, trying to hide my annoyance

"Okay," the puppy-like boy said and waved "Good luck at work!"

I thanked him before climbing in my car and starting it. Now, don't take my sighing the wrong way. I knew that I needed to pitch in with the apartment and buy groceries. It just seemed like lately Minho wasn't helping as much.

I pushed the thought away from my mind as I put on soft music and began driving. As I got on the road several raindrops began pelting my windshield.

One thing I hated was driving in the rain.

However, I pushed through and kept driving down the puddled roads. The wipers were doing their best to keep up with the increasing amount of water falling. The skies had long since turned a grey-blue as the rain clouds covered the sun and everything in between.

While I was busy looking at the sky I hadn't realized that the car I was traveling behind had stopped, making me slam on my breaks in hopes I could stop before I rear-ended them.

It seemed like we were waiting for pedestrians to cross the street and so I took this time to change the song.

A honk sounded behind me after a few moments which took my focus from my phone and directed it to the road once again. It wasn't until I was about to drive through the intersection that I noticed that familiar matted brown hair along with three other guys.

Hwang looked nervous as the three guys approached him. I didn't know what was happening but what I did know was that the boy didn't have a jacket on and the weather was near freezing that day.

I didn't spare it a second thought as I turned into the nearest parking lot and climbed out of my car. My jeans got wet on the hems as I ran through the rain puddles and over to my friend.

The look that the boy gave me was one that I could never really forget. The way his eyes went wide and his cheeks in which were already flushed pink from the cold went pale. It was a look that I really couldn't describe the meaning behind.

"Whos this?" One of the guys who I vaguely recognized asked hwang. Though I couldn't place where I knew him from.

The middle-aged man examined me from head to toe, making me uncomfortable. The gaze didn't seem very friendly. The man had deep-set wrinkles on his forehead and permanent smile lines engraved by his mouth. His lips were thin and chapped, eyes glaring as ever. Was this hwangs dad? And if so, why did the boy look so terrified?

"A friend," hwang said, his eyes gazing down at his feet, hands neatly crossed in front of him.

"Why don't you just go and leave me to my son?" His index finger stabbed me in the chest, pushing me back a little.

"Hwang and I had a-"

"Hwang?" The man asked as the two guys behind him laughed and punched each other in the arm "that's the best you could come up with?"

At this point, I was very confused, concerned, and maybe even a little upset and angry. A father should never treat his children like this. Keep their child out in the rain without a jacket and talk down on them like they were a piece of garbage.

Hwang didn't answer him, his eyes still cast down at his worn black converse.

"Listen, uh," the man waved his hand in the air and asked none verbally for my name.

"I don't have any obligation to tell you my name," I said simply, standing my ground against the stranger. He looked at me and scoffed with a bitchy eye roll.

"Why don't you just leave? My son and I have a shopping day ahead of us,"

"Well, hwang and I have plans already,"

The man turned to hwang with a small laugh, pulling a cigarette pack out of his pocket. Menthol cigarettes. Just like the ones I sold to hwang a week and a half ago.

"What will it be, boy? Shopping day or are you gonna hang with this numb nut?"

Hwang's eyes peered up at me as he chewed at his bottom lip.

"Jisung..." He whispered, eyes on the brink of welling with tears. And somehow I understood that small plead.

I made quick work of taking off my bomber jacket, the rain still pouring as I did.

"Here," I said softly as I put it over him

"Do whatever you want, kid. But we will still have our shopping day," the man said as he lit his cigarette, the glow at the tip lighting his eyes up as he took a drag. "Let's go," he said as he shoulder-checked Hwang and began walking.

I was quiet for a moment as I watched the three men disappear into an alleyway, speaking words that I couldn't hear.

Hwang shivering was the only thing that snapped me back to the task at hand.

"Come on," I said softly and began guiding him to my car.

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