Boundaries

11. Exposition

Five days later, the doctors are satisfied with Minseok's progress. They say he has shown enough resolve to eat that they are confident he'll continue the healing process at home. He is still to journey to the hospital once a week to attend the eating disorder support group he has grown to be a part of, but he is free to return home with you.

The apartment is so untouched when you open the door, it feels like the two of you are disturbing a great sleeping creature. Minseok breathes in the smell of home and sighs happily.

"God, I missed this place. Great to be home, isn't it?" The smile on his face is infectious. You nod in response as he makes his way to the couch and flops down, reaching for the remote.

"You hungry?" you ask, opening up the fridge to see what did and didn't spoil.

"Nope, but I'll eat!" You grin, closing the fridge and grabbing bread and two cans of tuna out of the cabinet. He gets up to make the sandwiches with you and afterward, the two of you curl up together on the couch as he peruses the television's offerings.

He pauses on a music channel when a familiar face fills the screen's frame.

"Hey, would you look at that!" he exclaims in wonder, awed at seeing someone he knows on TV. Clips of music videos flash, layered together under a female reporter's audio. The recorded scenes cease, fading back to Jongdae as he laughs at the woman's question and answers good-naturedly.

"No, there's no special girl that song is about," he replies, smiling. "I'm still waiting for that kind of love." And you are certain that you are the only person in the world who notices that his cheeky, long-lipped smirk falls just short of reaching his eyes.

"Boy, when he finds it, his songs are going to take on a whole new meaning, huh?" Minseok marvels.

"Things will definitely be different..." you agree quietly, picking up the remote that sits between the two of you and changing the channel.

"Hey, did you ever get to say goodbye to him before he went back to Seoul? It seems like you never left the hospital."

"Yeah. We said our goodbyes."

~

You settle back into the normal routine with ease, adding a couple of new steps to your daily life: wake up, make Minseok eggs and toast and sit with him until he picks his way to the end of the meal, go to work, exchange pictures of lunch with him to make sure he's having something, come home, chat with him over a full plate. Food had never seemed so important.

At night, the two of you often cuddle up together on the couch, huddled under an afghan's protection against the cooling weather. Oftentimes, the rhythm of his chest and the frame of his arm are your lullaby and bed. Sometime in the night, the two of you wake back up to make your way to the bedroom, and then a few hours later, you wake up to do it all over again.

There is a certain peaceful contentment you feel, wrapped up in the reality of Minseok, but there is also a monotony you hadn't known before the fantasy of Jongdae. It's not that you mind taking extra care of him—it's rewarding in a sense. But the possibility of seeing the world through your camera with your best friend's hand in yours seems to beat out living in a Busan apartment working at the bottom of the food chain.

You are hanging up your coat after another day of another week spent contemplating who you are, what you want, what you have done, and what you can do to fix it all when the darkness of the apartment strikes you as odd.

Whipping around, you see the table adorned with a white cloth and lit candles, all other lights off to let the fire's glow dully illuminate the room. Your boyfriend's face peeks out from behind one wax pillar's burning flame.