Cinderella's Fate | 🤍 seongjoong 🤍

Chapter 27 part 2

Seonghwa's POV 

    Arriving home took a bit of time, but when I got there, I let out a sign of relief. I was home, the makeshift home from my journey that so far had been the evidence that I was making progress and not disappointing my mother, by falling for the prince.

     I mentally scolded myself for the casual admission of my feelings, since now I had to give them up. As I went through the gates, the lights of the house were out , meaning that Yunho and Mingi had fallen asleep. A wave of sadness passed, but I pushed it down. I wasn't the best at feelings after all the years of repressed grief and anger, and I want to join to unpack the feeling of loneliness and the fear of being left behind.

    The thought led me to remember a few things that I had learnt over the years. My father walked in his grief, I had to step up and help him. There were times that he would get out of bed, drink a coffee and then head to the office for them to come back and lock himself in the room, that was the first week of misery. I wasn't attending school since they allowed one week off to sort out anything , but as soon as I started, my dad forgot me on the first day.

    He cried to say the least, I was a reminder that his wife and my mother were gone forever and that it was slowly ripping him apart and whatever we had as a father and son. So he began to change , not steadily and rapidly , be he did with my help however , he decided to drown in work as a way to make up for me and fill the void in the family.

    Searching around the porch of the house, I found the spare key and let myself into the house. Before I could get the lights, they lit up with Yunho coming downstairs rubbing his eyes, asking where I went, still dressed in yesterday's festival's clothes. He mentioned that he was worried and that Mingi had panicked, cried and slept, so Yunho had been staying up to wait for me.

    I apologise deeply. I was feeling guilty right now, but it was my original decision, so I didn't regret it. Besides, I could not explain the puffy eyes that I was sporting just an hour ago, even though they were covered by the hood, my voice had begun to crack. Without saying much of a word, I bid goodbyes after some excuses and made my way to my bed.

    Waking up with your eyes puffy as I cried myself to sleep wasn't comfortable , especially opening my eyes to feel the heaviness of my eyelids. As I got up , I sniffled a bit, the signs of the crying fest clearly affecting me, and decided to contemplate a shower. I wished that I didn't feel so influenced by this situation, but life was unfair, and the curse was worse.

I decided to get washed before heading downstairs.

    Yunho was already in the kitchen, food getting placed on the table, the heat steam coming off the different dishes. Mingi came up to me as soon as my feet were on the floor, hugging me, happy to see that I was doing alright. Another guilt settled on my chest, but I ignored it. He was worried about my slight puffy eyes and the sniffles he kept hearing as I was making my way through the kitchen. He waved him off, telling him it might have been a cold, doing a small sneeze for good measure.

    Breakfast was silent, only getting looks from Yunho and Mingi. I was sure that they wanted to get to know the situation that made me despair when at the festival, but I wasn't in the mood. In fact , as I was devouring the food, I was starting to think that I needed to come to a decision.

    Yunho made the move to talk to me , but I set my spoon down, excusing myself, to then lock the door to the bedroom, collapsing my whole body on the soft bed. A slight sound of crunching alerted my senses and I directed my hand to where the sound could have been .

    My pockets were full of paper , and a realisation crossed my mind. Carefully pulling out the pictures, many of which were fireworks, then one of me and Hongjoong appeared among them, our smiles bright but my eyes in the photo were trainers on the shorter man.

I look so UGH!!

     I was devastated, tears threatened to spill and in an attempt to stop them I buried my face in the covers of the bed.

   It seemed that the day had repeated because I had woken up with puffy eyes again, my voice uncomfortable from sleeping in such a position. As I got up from the bed, my hand was still holding onto the picture. I placed it into my bag, where my journal was, and by refreshing my face and brushing my teeth I went downstairs. It was dark this time , the window displaying the stars that were decorating the pitch black sky.

    However, the house lights were up , and sound from the TV was filling the silence. I headed rather slowly, trying to see if Yunho and Mingi were there, and I was right. They were cuddled up looking at a show, which I did not recognise from the ones they had shown me.

    Just as I made my way to the kitchen, Yunho appeared behind me opening the lights , giving me a mini heart attack. Yunho was worried.

"Hyung, you haven't eaten anything since the morning, and you have that gloomy face every time we speak to you. What's wrong?"

I shook my head and told them that it was complicated, and I couldn't speak about it.

"Okay", Yunho said, still worried, "Let me at least heat up something for you, while you go and enjoy the show with Mingi. Is that okay?"

I nodded and made my way back to the living room. Mingi excitedly waved me to Yunho's previous spot , wrapping his arms around me.

"I know, you don't want to talk about the situation, but please never disappear on us gain, we are here to help you Hyung"

I gave a weak smile, all that I could muster, and trained my eyes back to the screen.

The evening ended on a calm note.