A New Start || Seventeen

Chapter 78

Joshua walked up to Daena's apartment pulling his cap down low over his eyes in the hope no one would recognise him.

On the drive over he had been thinking about what Jeonghan had said and how it was probably time to move on and decided it was time to stop holding onto the lease for Daena's apartment. Jeonghan was right, it was starting to seem more and more unlikely she would ever come back. He was just throwing away money at this point.

Joshua decided he was going to make the arrangements that week to terminate the lease and actually ship all of her belongings back to her in L.A like he had said in the first place.

A part of him still held out hope his friend would change her mind though. Having her in Korea had felt like having a piece of home and he missed that feeling as well as he just missed her.

Joshua pulled his keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door to the apartment.

As he did he thought he heard a sound from inside so pushed the door open slowly.

When the door was fully opened he dropped the keys, startled from what he found inside.

He bent down to collect them and hurried inside closing the door behind him quickly.

"Wha... What? What are you doing here?" He stammered in confusion.

"Hi to you too" Daena replied grinning at him from her armchair in the corner of the room, her laptop balanced on her knees, the same laptop Joshua had come over to find in the first place.

"You... How?" Joshua mumbled, unable to form complete sentences suddenly.

He crossed the room and sat down on the couch, no longer trusting his legs to hold him up.

"What no hug?" Daena asked, placing her laptop on the coffee table before standing and holding her arms out to him.

Joshua stood immediately and crossed the room wrapping his arms around her. He squeezed tightly just to make sure she was really there.

After a few seconds he released her and sat back down.

"You need to explain. I'm so confused" Joshua demanded, rubbing a hand over his face.

Daena fidgeted uncomfortably.

"I ahhh... I decided to come back" She answered simply.

Joshua blinked at her.

"That's it? That's all you are going to give me?" He asked, exasperated with her lack of information.

"What do you want to know?" Daena asked, leaning forwards in her seat.

"How long have you been back?" Joshua asked.

"Almost a month" Daena replied.

"A month? Why didn't you tell me" Joshua asked, raising his voice slightly.

Daena sank back in her chair a little.

"I thought it would be a nice surprise. I've been waiting for you to come back from tour" She said quietly.

Joshua smiled. She wasn't wrong it was a nice surprise.

"I'm glad you are back. For good?" He questioned.

Daena grinned back at him. "I hope so, at least I plan for it to be for good"

Joshua pulled out his phone. "I need to tell Hoshi".

"No!" Daena almost yelled, stopping Joshua in his tracks. "I don't want anyone else to know yet"

Joshua put his phone back. "Because of Jeonghan?" He said, guessing that was the reason for her secrecy.