"Miyoung, I don't want you to go back to that silo," Minhyuk told me. He was sending me a piercing stare straight into my eyes. His hands gripped mine tighter.
It was hard for me to hold eye contact with him while we stood on the front porch. He dragged me all the way back to the house after meeting Wonho. There was an obvious tension between the two.
"You don't understand," I whined. "I've known about Wonho since middle school. You wouldn't know what he's like from seeing him only one time."
"You know what I do know, Miyoung?" Minhyuk stepped closer and his hard expression never altered once. "I know that I like you. I'm crazy about you. If anything ever happened to you, I could never forgive myself."
I finally returned a straight, and unchanging face because I was almost frozen in shock.
"I also know that monsters aren't supposed to be real," he added, hushed.
So many different emotions began piling themselves over me. They weighed me down until it felt like I couldn't even breathe.
"Can we talk about all of this later?"
My question seemed to send a shot of hurt to Minhyuk, causing me to feel bad. However, I knew that if we went on any further, everything would continue to build until it broke me.
"Please stay safe, Miyoung," Minhyuk told me, turning to walk off the porch. I watched him leave, seeing the small dot of his car making its way down the driveway then down the road. It was then that I heard the front door open from behind me.
My mother stood there, looking as pissed off as usual when hearing about me seeing Wonho. She must've been listening from the other side of the door.
"I can't believe you showed him," she muttered with her hands on her hips. "This is going too far, I want you to know that."
My head faced the ground while I scuffed my shoes on the porch. "I wanted him to believe me." My words were barely audible to myself.
Gentle arms cradled me against my mother. She left a kiss on the top of my head. "See how I'm not the only one worried about your safety?"
I didn't fight her embrace. I only stayed in her comforting hold, not sure what to do. Should I cry, should I scream, should I run?
But if I were to run, where would I run to?
