You're All I Need - Nishimura Riki

Chapter 28 : The Return

I open the door and hear an unusual sound coming from the kitchen.

"Oh... how... going...." I close the door softly and listen in to hear what my mom is saying. I hear a few words, but I don't know what she's talking about or who she's talking to. I walk forward slowly, her voice getting clearer.

Suddenly, I hear another voice. A deeper one, and one that I haven't heard in a while.

I run through the house to the kitchen and I see him standing there with a dark black bag in his hand.

"Jay!" I yell and he looks over at me. He drops the bag when he sees me and opens his arms.

"Hana!" He yells excitedly. I run and hug him tightly, not ever wanting to let him go again. "H-Hana," I hear him mumble by my ear. "I can't breathe," he says and I let go.

"Sorry, Jay. I was just so happy to see you," I say and he laughs, hugging me again.

"I'm happy to see you too, Hana," he says. Someone walks in and I turn to them.

There stands a guy who's a little shorter than Jay with blonde-ish wavy hair. He smiles at me warmly and waves. I wave back.

"Hi, I'm Jay's friend, Jake," he says and holds his hand out to me.

"I'm Hana, Jay's sister..." I reply, shaking his hand.

"I've heard all about you! Jay loves you so much, he can't stop talking about you," he laughs and Jay gives him a death glare, making Jake shut his mouth immediately. I giggle and Jay rolls his eyes.

"Jake, come upstairs with me for a second. I'll show you where the guest bedroom is," Jay says with a threatening tone evident in his voice.

"Okay..." Jake says and they go upstairs. I hear a door close and some faint talking, but it's not loud enough to make out what they're saying.

"Hana, how was school?" My mom asks me.

"Uh... it was fine. I didn't know that Jay was coming home today," I say.

"I didn't either. He said there was a flood in the dorms, so they sent all the students home for about three weeks until they can get everything sorted out. He'll just be doing school from here until they tell him to go back," she explains to me. "Jake seems nice, doesn't he?" She asks me.

"Yeah," I say and smile slightly.

"I don't want to be in your business or anything, but I do want you to know that I'm here if you need to talk. I have no idea what happened yesterday, but it really worried me," she explains to me.

"It was nothing, Mom. I promise. We just-" I'm interrupted by Jay walking back into the kitchen.

"What happened last night?" He asks. Great, now Jay's going to ask me this until he gets an answer.

"Nothing, Jay," I say. He doesn't accept that and his stare gets more intense. "Nothing happened!" I yell. Jake comes back downstairs and sees me yell, so he turns around and goes back into his room.

"That boy better not have stayed over here," he says, shifting his weight to his left leg and puts his hands on his hips.

"Can you just stop? Please? I can't do this right now!" I yell and leave the kitchen, going to my room and slamming the door.

I lay down on my bed and look at my phone. I scroll through my social media and see a post that Ni-ki made the other week. It was from when we were at the arcade and he got me the owl plushie.

I look on my shelf and see that same plushie and the memories from that night all flood into my head again.

*flashback*

"Hana! Let's take some pictures!" I hear Ni-ki say in the midst of the chaos in the arcade.

"Why? I don't like taking pictures..." I pout and look down at the ground.

"Please?" He begs me, using his puppy dog eyes to convince me.

"Fine, but only a few," I say and he smiles victoriously. He pulls his phone  out and angles it above our heads.

"Hold the owl up for the picture," he hands me the plushie and I hold it in between us for the first picture. I smile as brightly as I can, but it must not have been bright enough, so Ni-ki turns to me and kisses my cheek, taking the picture at the right time to capture it.

"Ni-ki!" I say and back up, flustered by his actions.

"What?" he says, holding back his laughter.

"Why did you-"

"You're cute, that's why," he says, making my face even brighter than before. I stay silent and look down, trying to make my face go back to it's normal color.

Ni-ki tilts my head up to look at him and kisses me softly.

"You don't have to be shy when you're with me, Hana," he says as our foreheads are touching.

*end of flashback*

Next thing I know, my face is wet and there are tears on my phone screen.

I stand up, walking to the shelf. Grabbing the owl, I walk to my closet and put it in the corner of the shelf in there so I won't see it and get upset again.

I hear a knock on my door and I wipe my tears quickly before walking to open it.

"Hana, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you..." Jay tells me.

"It's fine, I'm okay..." I reply. He takes a closer look at my face.

"Were you crying?" He asks and tilts my head up to look at my face. "Are you ok? This is unusual for you. You don't just cry for no reason. What's wrong?" He asks me and I hear his tone change from apologetic to concerned.

"I'm okay, Jay," I tell him. "School was just stressful today," I make up an excuse.

"Jay, Hana! It's time for dinner!" I hear my mom yell. Our attention is diverted to her and we walk downstairs and into the kitchen. Jake is already sitting at the table in the seat next to Jay's.

My mom sets our plates on the table and we sit and eat. She asks Jake some questions, but he seems to have trouble answering some of them.

"Sorry, Mom. He isn't completely fluent in Korean," Jay explains. My mom nods and Jay offers to be the translator for Jake and our mom when they need it.

I stay quiet unless a question is directed to me, which is normal for me. I'm not usually super loud, so they don't think anything of it.

"So, Jake, you're from Australia?" My mom asks him while taking a bite of the soup.

"Yes, I am. I was born in Korea, but I grew up in Australia," he says, smiling.

"Oh, that's interesting. How long have you been speaking Korean?" She asks again.

"Uh... I spoke little bits of Korean growing up with my family, but I'm not fluent," he explains.

"I'm glad you came here then. You can learn more Korean in these few weeks," my mom says, basically welcoming Jake into our family.

"Thank you so much, I'm really grateful for Jay taking me here to meet his family," he says politely.

"Of course, you're always welcome!" She says.

We finish eating and my mom says that she didn't make dessert for tonight, so we'll just have dessert another night. My mom tries to have a movie night for us to celebrate Jay coming back, but I'm not really in the mood to join, so I just say that I have homework and go up to my bedroom.

"Sleep well!" My mom tells me as I go upstairs. I just lay there for a while, thinking about whatever comes to my mind until eventually, I fall asleep.

(A/N : Writing this is crushing me 😭 but I have to continue for everyone who is enjoying it. Also... I hope you're all excited for the trip 😏 I wonder what will happen hehe. As always, remember to vote if you enjoyed and have a nice day/night! <3)