mute ; junhao

TWENTY-ONE

A year later.
A lot had happened this year: Joshua and Jeonghan had moved to America together, so they had no contact with the others.
Junhui was pretty lonely and had taken a job at a cafe to at least have some kind of occupation and not get bored.
Minghao had stayed in China all year and now lived there. He had his family with him and had made new friends, he had a completely new life. 
 
Nevertheless, Minghao missed Korean somehow, which is why he decided to spend his holidays there, exactly in the place where he had lived before.  In the place where he had collected so many memories, whether good or bad.
He had met his first real best friend there and had been in love for the first time, but had to separate from the two and had no contact with them.

Now he was sitting in a taxi driving him from the airport to the hotel where he would stay for the night.
All the time he looked outside and realized that nothing had changed there.

As they drove past his old house, he sighed quietly and looked forward.
If he was honest, he had liked life in Korea so much better, but he couldn't move back.

The first weeks in China had really been a horror for him: He didn't know anyone and everything seemed so new to him again, but the worst thing was that he had missed Junhui.
Without him he didn't feel complete and even after all those months he still missed him.

Arriving at the hotel, Minghao got out and thanked the driver before he went in and asked the reception for his room.
In fact, he talked again, not very much, but he talked. This he owed only to Junhui.

He didn't spend much time in his room. He just put his suitcase there and went outside.
It was only in the afternoon and he absolutely wanted to walk through the city and have a look around.

The weather was perfect and so he set off without really knowing where to go.
Here and there he stopped, looked at a few shop windows, entered one or the other shop, until he arrived at exactly the café where he had met Junhui for the first time.
He remembered that day exactly and at that moment he wondered if the older one still lived in that place.

Without hesitation he opened the door to the café and entered. Nothing had changed, really nothing at all.
After looking around, he sat down at one of the tables and looked at the card.

One waiter seemed to have noticed Minghao, because he heard footsteps coming at him.
"Have you decided on anything yet?" a voice asked him, which strangely seemed familiar to him.

Minghao put the card aside and tried to recognize the young man's face, but he only looked at his block, ready to note the order, so he couldn't see anything.
"Not yet," he replied.
Now the waiter lifted his head and nodded slightly, while Minghao briefly held his breath.

"Jun..." he mumbled softly and suddenly the other one seemed to have recognized him too, as you could see from his surprised facial expression.

They hadn't seen each other for a year and now by chance they had met again and neither knew what to say.