All My Love || Choi Seungcheol

Part One | Chapter Three

PART ONE : RUN AWAY
CHAPTER THREE
J I W O O

The lights in the dining room were still on when I get in at 10pm on Tuesday night. I finished my shift at the café the Kim's own and spent the next couple of hours at the library trying to find a couple novels for my book report. I settled for 'The Spanish Love Deception' by Elena Hermes and the classic 'Romeo and Juliette'.

Wonwoo was staying at Seungcheol's tonight with Jeonghan and Soonyoung after their soccer practice this afternoon so I knew the light wasn't from him. After taking my shoes off at the front door and throwing my jacket on the rack, I walking further into the house.

There sat at the kitchen table was my mother with her head placed on her folded arms and a half full cup of coffee. She was laying on top of all the paperwork to do with the mortgage, hospital bill, house amities and utilities.

When my father was alive, he was the head surgeon and my mother is a nurse in the emergency room. Since his death, she's picked up extra shifts at work just to help us keep the house and to make sure both Wonwoo and I are set up for a good life. She's still working to pay off the hospital bill for both my father, who was in a coma for a month after the accident and myself who had to undergo surgery.

I asked Mrs. Kim, Mingyu's mother, if I could start coming in to help at the café a few days a week just to help pay some of the bills any way I can. She smiled at me and wrapped me in a tight hug before telling me that I can work as a barista.

No one amongst my family of friends, besides Mingyu and Seungah, know about my part time job. Wonwoo is too caught up with school work and his sports to notice and mum would tell me that she could figure it out and I should enjoy my teenage years.

By the looks of it, she came home from work early to try and pay of some bills and figure out where to put some money. I don't know how long she's been here, but I do know if I wake her up now she won't get back to sleep. I simply take a blanket from the living room and drape it over her shoulders, I take out the cash I got from my pay check and slip it into the envelope on the table.

She's normally too stressed or sleep deprived to notice when money shows up in that envelope, it's not much but it is something that helps her. I grab her half drunk coffee mug and take it to the kitchen, pouring it down the sink and quickly washing it so she can use it again in the morning.

"You don't need to do this alone." I mutter before taking myself upstairs and to bed.

•

My arms fell from Mingyu's waist as he flick the kill switch of his motorcycle, I untied the strap under my chin and handed him his second helmet back. Wednesday morning always consisted of myself and Mingyu arriving almost 40 minutes late to school, we both have study period as our first section and used that opportunity to pick up a morning shift at the café.

"One of the regulars really liked the chicken and Camembert club you made this morning." I say to Mingyu as we start to walk into the school grounds, I took this opportunity to give back his sweatshirt that was tied around my waist so my skirt wouldn't fly up on our ride here. "Said his mouth was bursting with flavours."

"You're exaggerating." He chuckles along with me. "It was just a sandwich."

"Uh yeah, a badass sandwich." I nudge his shoulder as we walk through the front doors and towards his locker. "Did the guidance councillor corner in his office yet?"

"Sure did, was laying out college brochures and everything." He throws both helmets and jacket into his locker and pushes it shut. "What about you?"

"No, not yet." I sigh. "I think if I told him I want to be an artist, he'd give me that look that makes students want to crawl in a hole and hibernate." He laughs at my mentioning of ur guidance councillor certain disappointments look.