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CHAPTER NINE ( Poppies In Midwinter )
EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED. Even Ahn Suho, who seldom appears in Jaehwa's dreams anymore, and Yeon Si-eun, who becomes a more reoccurring thought in her head, are connected.
She finds out one late night, when Moon Boram is busy picking up another shift at work, and Cha Si-woo is called into work on an emergency. They leave her with Yeon Si-eun, whose father is off on a business trip — Being together is better than being alone, their parents both reasoned.
They are still children, after all, even if their eyes are far too worn and their fingers far too blistered by the hold of a pen instead of a lover.
Boram and Si-woo depart with a goodbye and a kiss to Jaehwa's hair, smoothing it down and Si-eun watches with envy rimming his eyes. He envies Cha Jaehwa, but it is not the same envy he had once had for her. It's different now; Contained, Softer.
Despite the boy being a bundle of hidden anger and sadness, he only nods his head and opens the door for Cha Jaehwa, and something that lingers in his eyes makes her chest tighten.
Pity fills his gaze, and Jaehwa wants to slap it away and make those eyes look at her with something that isn't sorrow — She feels like a porcelain doll with too many cracks to be considered anything to look at.
"Sorry for the intrusion," She murmurs as her eyes scan the floors, laden with a thin sheen of oncoming tears.
Like always, Si-eun frowns but says nothing, and Jaehwa wonders when she had become so sensitive.
Had Ahn Suho finally worn down and stolen her heart from its cage? Had he punctured it so ruthlessly that it bled from her eyes and stung her chest like an insurmountable weight?
The Yeon house is cold, fridge empty and walls too bleak to be anything that resembled father nor son. Perhaps it is the lack of familial presence that twists Jaehwa's stomach, or perhaps it is the look on Si-eun's face.
Jaehwa thinks he looks too small of a person, as though this house is not Home and it never had been. She takes a seat on his bed; It is, at the very least, some reminder of the person that inhabits the room.
"I need to study," Si-eun tells the girl, eyes trailing against her face before falling back to the floor.
He turns and faces away from her, and Jaehwa lets out a small breath. Si-eun's presence is more comforting than she could've imagined.
"Okay," She says breathlessly. The room steals her breath and leaves a small thrum in her chest, and she watches Yeon Si-eun.
"Were we friends, Si-eun?" Jaehwa asks as she takes a piece of her hair and examines it. Her cheeks burn and she feels stupid as the seconds prolong into what feels like minutes.
