On the way back home, however, like he had just reasoned to Mark, something came up for Jinyoung to go somewhere.
It was due to a call from the orphanage in Guro-gu, where he had applied for the voluntray teaching last week. They said he could start teaching today, from 2pm to 5pm; every weekend for three months.
It was a good distraction he needed and he changed the direction from home to the orphanage. It was only morning now but he wanted to learn more about the children there before teaching them.
When he arrived there, he informed the receptionist about his arrival, and made a little tour around the orphanage. Some children were playing outside in the yard and some were with the caretakers.
He had always wanted to volunteer in a charity like this but had never thought it would be this soon. But he was desperate to divert his attention from Mark to something else.
Again he shook his head at the images of what had happened last night.
Absently, Jinyoung stood watching a group of children playing football on the playground, especially designed for playing football. They were quite rowdy and fun to watch; often, they took glances at Jinyoung who was watching them the whole time.
After a long while, to Jinyoung's surprise, a boy who looked about eight years old, ran to him, while other boys also stopped playing and looked at them.
"Uncle, uncle, can you play with us?"
Jinyoung's eyes widened and he crouched down to be face-to-face with the boy.
"Why? Uncle is too old to play with you. You have enough friends to play with."
The child looked at him expectantly; all the children's eyes, they were the same. There was sadness and longing, hanging in them. With no parents' love, they were likely to be attached to any adult they met.
"Alright, I won't play but I'll be a referee for you. Is it okay?"
The child nodded eagerly and tugged his hand to take him closer to the playground.
"I'll be here. Go and play. Because I'm a referee now, you can't quarrel without being eliminated. Just like the real football matches."
That day, he managed to interact with a lot of the orphans and to learn a lot more about how the orphanage was run.
At 2pm, he was escorted to a room where teaching materials were, and there were about thirty six-year-old orphans there for him to teach. There were other classrooms as well with other teachers, for the children of different ages.
Little by little, he came to learn that it was not at all easy to teach the orphans. He had to be careful not to hurt them emotionally and at the same time, to help them absorb as much as they could.
Still he was satisfied after a day's work. He was invited to dinner after the teaching section. But he just politely declined it and chose to go back home instead.
After everything had been done at home - showering and having dinner, Jinyoung resigned to his room to have some rest.
There was a missed call from Mark, which had been since the afternoon, probably just to ask him if he was okay. Jinyoung dismissed the idea of calling Mark back as it had been since the afternoon and Mark must have already forgot about the call.
At the end of a day, the same conclusion was that the more he chose to stay by Mark's, the more he was wounded. Yet he was not ready to leave Mark's side if Mark wanted him as a friend.
