Poison || Hyunho

23 | Stay

The week passed by quick. Even though they only stayed a few feet away from each other, Minho and Hyunjin didn't really see each other. They were just as stubborn as each other.

"Are you and Jinnie fighting?" Hyerin asked whilst Minho sipped his coffee and scrolled through his laptop. He decided to do some work at a local cafe to get his mind off things. The last thing he wanted to think about was Chan or Hyunjin or the trial.

"No," Minho replied completely expressionless, his eyes still focused on his laptop screen.

"But you don't talk anymore,"

"Sometimes grown ups like to be alone, Hyerin. Now please eat your muffin and leave me alone," Minho sighed, coming across a little harsher than he intended.

"I'm bored," Hyerin complained.

"Well, you shouldn't have insisted on tagging along then, should you?" Minho responded, still looking at his laptop.

"You promised to take me swimming because you forgot last time,"

Minho froze then took off his glasses and glanced at his phone, whispering to himself, "That was today..?"

He looked up at the little girl with an apologetic expression and said, "Look, kid, I'm so sorry but I don't think we can-"

"I want to go to JiJi," Hyerin climbed down her seat, "He doesn't break promises."

"Hey, where are you going? Kid, come back!" Minho panicked, shoving his things into his bag and running after her only to get stopped at the door by the workers because he forgot to pay.

Stressed, Minho pulled out his wallet whilst staring out the window to make sure he doesn't lose her and handed the worker a wad of cash before bowing and then running after Hyerin, "You can keep the change. The coffee was good, thank you."

The workers stared at the insane amount of money in shock then watched Minho almost get run over by a bus and a car and a cyclist.

"Sorry!!" He yelled, holding his hand in the air whilst stumbling around, "Hey, Hwang Hyerin, come back here right now!!"

He eventually caught up with the three and a bit foot tall girl and took her out for ice cream as an 'apology' but he was actually just bribing her to come back home so Lina could bathe her, give her dinner and put her to bed. But she was being just as difficult for Lina as she was for Minho.

"What has gotten into you?" Minho scolded as Lina struggled to get her out of the bath and dressed.

"Mr Lee.." Lina tried to intervene, noticing how frustrated Minho was.

"You're almost four years old but a newborn ape behaves better than you! Why are you being like this, huh? Do you like being silly?" Hyerin suddenly went quiet as Minho continued with a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose, "I'm too tired for this. I've got enough on my plate, I don't need this on top of all of it. So stop messing around. I want you out of this bath, dressed, fed and in bed by the time I'm done working. No playing up."

Minho turned around and marched out of the bathroom but stopped in his tracks when he heard sniffles.

"It's okay, Hyerin-ah, don't cry," Lina comforted the little girl in a hushed voice, "Mr Lee is just tired, he's not angry with you."

Minho shut his eyes and took a deep breath before continuing to his study. He had the trial the next day to focus on but all he could think about is this same thing that had been going through his mind the whole week - what did Hyunjin mean when he said he was leaving at the trial?

"Come in," Minho called out when there was a knock on the door.

"Um, Mr Lee?" Lina walked in hesitantly.