Flowers and Butterflies

Part 8

23~~

'Just a couple of hours...'  Junkyu thought before opening the café doors. He stepped inside and looked around. On the far corner was a Japanese man-- who was younger than him, but looked a couple years older thanks to his masculine face and also was a couple of inches taller. The man seemed to notice him and waved.

Junkyu, quickly recognised the man and made his way towards him. 

"Hey, you must be Junkyu right?" He spoke in his deep voice greeting Junkyu with a smile.

"Hi. You are Haruto right? If I'm not mistaken? I'm sorry for being late." Junkyu replied back feeling a bit of pressure to speak. "It's not a big deal hyung. I just came a couple of minutes ago."

He wasn't even sure what he was supposed to do or what he was even doing there. He might have been wrapped up in his blanket, binge watching a movie or a documentry or something else while drinking his cup of tea right now. But Hyunsuk- hyung and Yoshi HAD to set this blind date for him in this cold winter day with snow everywhere making it hard to even leave his house without stuffing a billion layers of clothing inside.

Honestly, he couldn't even be mad at them. Since they were right. being a twenty-one year old college student and not even have experienced his first kiss, was kind of embarrassing. Maybe... he should just stop hoping... right?

The Day Before--

"But- Hyung!!" Junkyu tried to explain the millions of his excuses about why he would be busy the next day, but Hyunsuk just seemed to ignore it and placed a finger on top of his lips signaling his to stop. "You. Are. Going." He said in his strictest voice possible accompanied by a deadly glare.

Now-- Hyunsuk-hyung is the best. But when he makes these type of expressions, it is better to obey what he says.

"You know me right Yoshi-yah? I don't feel comfortable with people I don't know!" Junkyu switched to Yoshi for help.

"Come on Junkyu-yah. Just try it out! You never know if things are gonna work out between you two. It's just my cousin. Not a monster or anything." Yoshinori, who was watching the two bicker like a mother and her son, interrupted them in the middle.

"I am with Suk-hyung on this one. You need to let go of him Kyu."

~~~~

No matter how much he tried to ignore it-- it was a fact that he can't keep holding on to him anymore.

Ever since Jihoon broke up with Mashiho he had been randomly seeing people. He would break up with them and them start dating someone else a few days after. The relationship would last a few weeks, only to break up again. Even Mr. and Mrs. Park were worried sick about him.

He was a bit in touch with Hyunsuk-hyung and the others. But with Junkyu-- he had started to completely avoid the latter, ignoring his messages and calls, to even pretending like he didn't know him.

Damn it hurt. But Junkyu knows that he has to do it now.

And that is how he ended up here. With Watanabe Haruto who was talking about his life. They were halfway through their conversation when he asked--

"Hyung, can I ask about your neckpiece?"

Junkyu reached out to the butterfly neckpiece resting on his face and pointed towards it, "You mean this one?" he asked as he was not sure why someone would be asking about it. Yes. He was still wearing it after so many years. The bright red color on the wings had faded and turned to a different shade of orange. The chain had broke a couple of months ago so he had replaced it with a new one.

 Haruto nodded a yes, "I happen to like butterflies a lot, and the one on your neck caught my eye." He said in full confidence and eyes filled with curiosity.

"Ah.. I just bought it a few years back. The ajjushi who looked after the shop died last year," Junkyu replied, "I don't think any other shops around here sell similar ones."

"That's sad.." He said taking a sip of his coffee, "but I wasn't asking to buy one"

He then proceeded to put a hand inside his turtleneck and pulled out a similar looking one with blue wings. It looked a bit more new compared to Junkyu's old one, but every single design on the butterfly was exactly the same.

"It's just that I happen to have a similar one." He stated with a huge grin creeping up on his face.

And on went their conversation which included Haruto sharing all the knowledge about butterflies he has accumulated over the past years and a very curious Junkyu keenly listening to him.

Maybe, you could say that they were so engrossed in their conversation that the did not even take notice of the sky darkening outside. So once it was time to part ways, Haruto offered to drop him off to his house in his car which had been parked outside.

Their conversation stretched on until they had finally reached Junkyu's neighborhood. Junkyu happily wished him goodnight, but only after they had exchanged their contacts and a short glimpse of eachother.

And as Junkyu hopped off to open his door, he could see Haruto waiting in his car making sure he entered his house safe and sound.

Maybe... Just maybe.. things could work out with Haruto.

He entered his house and watched Haruto drive off in his car from the window. He then proceeded to take off his padded jacket he had worn to protect himself from the cold winds blowing outside and headed towards his bedroom to change into some comfortable clothing.

But before he could even do anything, he received a call from an unknown number.

Having no clue who it might be from, he picked it up and placed it between his ear.

"Hello, wh--"

"My Kyu.. where are you?"

🦋