Echoes of the Past [myungeun] ✔

7

"Man, you look awful,"

The chair in front of him screeched as the man with brown coat sat on it. Shooting a glance to the man, he continued dunking the bitter liquid in a shot.

With a grimace, he said "Shut up, Woohyun," and took another shot.

The said man – Woohyun just chuckled. Woohyun was his friend, the one and only person Myungsoo had in this world that he could rely on and trust to. Woohyun was slightly older than him and he's the one that knew all of his past, his dark history. He had always been there when he needed him the most and Myungsoo was glad that Woohyun got his work transferred here.

Everything happened to Myungsoo, he had told Woohyun – they're like brothers, having each other's back once needed.

"So, what's the problem? Usually you drinking alcohol mean something's wrong," Woohyun said.

Twirling the small glass in his fingers, he heaved a sighed, "Naeun,"

Woohyun arched his eyebrow. "Naeun? Dude, it's been six years since the last time you said her name, why all of the sudden –"

"She's here... Naeun's here,"

For a moment, it felt like the whole stall was in silent. His mouth was left agape as he stared at Myungsoo in disbelief. "You're sure?"

Weakly, Myungsoo nodded. "We've met a few times. She still didn't remember me, though I don't know if it's a good or bad thing. Good because she will never remember the pain of the hurtful past and bad because, well..." he dragged and lastly, he just shrugged, taking another shot of the drink.

Woohyun was silent as he was in deep thought. "Does he knew about this?" he asked and Myungsoo shook his head, knew who's the he he was referring to – heck, he had known him for his whole life.

"I don't know but I doubt he would. They didn't know where I had run off to,"

A sighed leaved Woohyun's lips as he mumbled, "Yet,"

With a grumbled, Woohyun ruffled his hair and said, "Tell me again why he isn't behind bars yet?"

"Cause we didn't have enough proof," Myungsoo casually replied, dunking yet again another shot of the alcoholic drink.

The gentle evening breeze passed by, making the trees swaying and the leaves ruffling. A guy was having a stroll around the island, enjoying the nice weather. He thought that he had made the right decision to move here. This place was really relaxing and the people here were all very nice.

Sound of kids screaming and shouting joyously had made his feet stopped. At the entrance of the playground, he watched the kids playing chase and thought how lucky there were to have such a perfect childhood.

Mine was horrible.

Then, the past memories were played in his head like a slide. Image of the dark mansion, image of drug pills, image of scattering alcohol bottles and cans, image of the man patting his head and his nasty voice saying "Good job, boy."

His hands were curled into a tight fist until his knuckles had turned white. How he despised that man – the man that made him went through the darkness.

"Hey," a tap on his shoulder had made his thoughts flew away as he glanced to his right and was surprised to see her.

She was smiling to him; her long hair was dancing along with the wind – making her look breath-taking.

"Hey," he awkwardly said and gave a short smile to her. Myungsoo and Naeun were in a friendship phase now. He was glad that they had become friends again but at the same time was worried. He was worried that she would suddenly remember about him and that day.

"So, do you want to join them?" she asked and his brows creased in confusion.

"What?"

"Well, since you've been standing here for like 10 minutes and do nothing but stare at them playing so, I assume that you're interested to play with them," she explained, a very long sentences in one breath.

"Are you implying that you've been watching me these whole 10 minutes?" an amused smirk was playing on his lips as he saw the girl's reaction.

Her eyes widen in surprised. "W-What?! N-no, obviously," her eyes were everywhere except to his face. She could feel the heat on both of her cheeks.

Chuckles erupted from him as he saw how cute she was. God, she's still the same – the same adorable Naeun I know.

"Hey, it's not nice to laugh," she mumbled lowly and unconsciously pouted. Her cheeks had turned bright red.

"Sorry but you're just too adorable," the words were spoken by him unknowingly as he was bewildered. Her eyes finally landed on him, startled by his words. For a moment, they were looking into each other eyes.

There it is again – my heart's beating fast and the sense of familiarity around him.

"Do you want to come for dinner?" he suddenly asked, making her snapped back into the world. Blinking a few times, she tried to digest what he just said.

"Dinner?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure Uncle Uhm wouldn't mind. He loves having guest coming over," his hand was already behind his neck, rubbing it awkwardly.

With a smile on her lips, she replied "Sure, why not,"