ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ ʜᴏꜱᴛɪʟɪᴛʏ || ᴄʜᴏɪ ʏᴇᴏɴᴊᴜɴ

Chapter 32: Goodbye, Yeonjun

As soon as I did so, I felt my cheeks get wet. The blurriness in my vision was gone as I closed my eyes and hugged him a bit tighter, clutching the cloth that was keeping his mouth shut harder.

I shook my head as I heard Yeonjun speak again.

"I- I'm so sorry, Haiyu."

The sun was up, children were boarding their buses to school. Adults were leaving for work, the elderly were out to get their morning walks in.

Yet here we were. Still on the same dusted alleyway floor, the narrow space now lighting up with the sun light slowly peeking in, inch by inch. He was still crying. He was still holding me. He was still saying he was sorry.

Sorry for what?

God, how much time had passed? Probably 5 minutes, but it felt so much longer. I could hear commotion coming from the apartments from both the apartment buildings on both sides of the alley.

Reality struck as I quickly wiped my face and spoke, not wanting to make an attempt before it.

"Yeonjun.. we have to go, we can't be caught here. Can you.. can you get up?"

I asked as I could faintly feel him nodding. I sighed as I let him go, slowly pulling back. Once I pulled back completely, I could see his face. Tear-soaked, bloodshot eyes. His nose, cheeks and lips were a rosy tint, face damp and marked with tears. His lashes clumped together from the tears as I saw him wipe his face and sniffling with his sleeve.

I put my hands on his shoulders, gently pulling him up to his feet. Patting and dusting off my clothes, I looked back up at him. He was looking else-where. I tilted my head a few times, trying to grab his attention from motion. He seemed to be purposely avoiding facing me.

"Are you alright?"

I questioned. He finally looks back at me, nodding after a beat.

"Good, we should get out of here then. Come on."

"Wait, Haiyu.."

I turn back to face him from my earlier advances, quirking a brow at him, encouraging him to go on.

I could see how he nervously chewed at his lip, fidgeting with his fingers.

"Are.. are you sure you're fine? Nothing happened when they took me, right?"

Well shit. I wasn't prepared for this. Thankfully I didn't have to answer as we heard the voice of an older woman coming from the other end of the alley. I could hear her approaching the door that opened into the alley as well. I looked at Yeonjun. It seemed like he heard her too, as we both immediately booked it out of there.

As soon as we both turned the corner out of the alley and were at a reasonable distance, there was a faint scream from afar.

"Well" I started, "Guess she found them."

I faced Yeonjun again to see him staring at me with comically wide eyes and a look that screamed 'are you crazy?'