Just Like the Sun || Lee Heeseung

3

Heeseung turned on the basement light, walking down the stairs with the box in his arms. He carefully watched his step, making sure not to fall.

Finally reaching the bottom, he sat down on the last step, opening the box.

Stuff that reminded him too much of Hae, he needed it locked up and gone, just for now. Until he was really over it.

He grabbed the photos first, going through them. The first photo was a photo of them behind their houses, her laying her head on his shoulder, and his head on hers, arm around her waist. In the second photo, it was the both of them trying to cook in her kitchen, a photo taken by her mom. He flipped the photo, on the back, there was written, "H&H♥︎."

A knock disturbed his thoughts, making him come back to reality.

"Hey, " Akino said softly, smiling at the boy, "your mom said you were down here, and I wanted to hang out with my new BFF."

Heeseung quickly placed the photo face down in the box, then averted his attention to Akino.

"BFF?" Heeseung gave her a weird look, "stretching it just a bit."

The smile Akino had, didn't leave her face as she walked down the stairs to him.

She stood there, in front of him, looking around the basement. It was filled with old decorations, old photos, and random things.

She noticed the box behind him, moving towards it, but Heeseung stopping her. "Stop, " he held her back.

She looked at him, "I wanna see, " and she moved his arm to go to the box again.

Heeseung jerked her back once more, "I said stop, " he said sternly.

But Akino didn't budge. She wanted to know what he was hiding, what he didn't want to show her.

He pushed her back, her falling to the ground. Silence filled the room for a moment.

"Why can't I see?" Akino solicited, wondering what was so important that he couldn't show her.

He didn't answer, but rather asked, "why aren't you mad?"

"And why would I be mad?" Akino gave him a look.

She sighed before standing up, "there must be a good reason why I can't see," she wiped off the dust on her legs. "Any on my butt?" she turned around and asked.

Heeseung turned his head, making sure not to look, "you are so strange."

Akino laughed before turning around, "so why can't I see?" she inquired.

"I'm not ready to share my life story with you yet, " he told her truthfully, "after all, I've only known you for a good three days. We're not like that yet."

"Yet, " she emphasized.

Heeseung grinned softly, "we'll get there one day, but for now, we'll just get to know each other."

"Then we'll be BFFs?" she looked up at him, curiosity was written all over her face.

Heeseung let out a chuckle, "and then we'll be BFFs."

Akino nodded her head in satisfaction, fine with going slow with their friendship.

This was what Heeseung needed. A friend, someone to fill in one of the empty holes in his life. And maybe, just maybe, Akino could help with that.

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