When Jisung can see the red string hanging on everyone's pinky, he knows he'll never see his because that's his punishment for being able to see what others don't. Until he meets Minho, a boy who can only see his.
Jisung opened the door and closed it back once I was in the house. He told me to wait real quick and that he was going to look for slippers for me. He came back five minutes later with a pair of black slippers and handed them to me. I thanked him and put them on before entering the living room.
"-Mum, I'm back. -You're home early, said miss Han before coming from the kitchen to greet her son. Oh, hello Minho! -Hello miss Han. -Do you want to stay for dinner? I'm making Nasi Lemak* -Ohh sure! It's been a while since I've eaten your Malaysian food and, to be honest, I've really missed it."
Miss Han laughed and told us to go upstairs and that she'd call us once dinner was ready.
Once we were in Jisung's room, he locked the door and sat on his bed. He told me to sit on the desk chair, and I did. He then stared at me, waiting for me to tell him everything about why I left and why I didn't say goodbye. So I did.
"-I'm going to be honest from the beginning to the end of it. When I came home from school a week before leaving, my mother told me we had to leave as soon as possible because my grandpa wasn't feeling too well and we had to stay with him. My uncle was also getting married some days later, and my dad thought it'd be best to move closer to our family so that when there is this kind of problem, we'd be close enough to stay with them for as long as they need without having to move from our house. Because when we lived with my grandpa, my mum stopped working to be able to stay with him all day long, so even if we didn't move houses, we wouldn't have been able to pay the rent and we would've been expelled anyway. I wasn't happy about it, I didn't want to leave. I had all of my friends here. But then, when I came home from school, my mum put me straight into the car and we left. I couldn't have said goodbye to you even if I wanted to. I tried to ask my mum to turn around so that I'd be able to come and say goodbye, I even begged but she wouldn't because apparently, my grandpa's health was getting worse and it's was urgent. I cried a lot this day, because I knew you'd feel like I left without saying goodbye intentionally. Growing up, I often passed by your house, and I really wanted to come to say hello but I thought that by now you would've moved, I even thought that you could've went back to Malaysia. And when I came back and brought you home last time, I understood that you were mad at me but I didn't know why. I mean, there were plenty of reasons you could've been mad at me. Until Jeongin indirectly told me that it was because I left without saying goodbye. -How could you have thought I'd go back to Malaysia or move house? -I don't know, many years had passed. You could've done anything by now. -But I didn't. You could've tried to knock at the door. If it wasn't us, then you could've apologised and say you got the wrong house, but you chose not to. 10 years, Minho. I thought you abandoned me and I hated you for it for 10 fucking years."
_________ *Nasi Lemak:
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