𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑✓

-15-

Anthea woke up at the faint sound of clawing at the side of her bed. With the sunshine beaming in through the blinds, she soon found herself cuddled up against Hoseok and couldn't help but giggle. His arms wrapped around her comfortably as he rested his chin on her head. Her eyes caught Theo moving around the room, restless for his morning breakfast.

Anthea looked at Hoseok's sleeping face one last time, before she slipped away from his grip and made her way into the kitchen. She quickly made herself a cup of coffee, as she thought about her dream last night. She'd had enough with dealing with the remorse and dread of her injury and wished to move on from it, but the memories got triggered the moment she met Jimin again—even after all this time of avoiding it.

She didn't blame him, not at all. It was just that there would be times where she would play that memory, wondering what if it were actually Jimin in place of Thomas...If she really would've fallen, or would she really would've gotten hurt. Most of all, she wonders if it were had been Jimin, would she broken up with him?

Of course the answer was no, because the only reason she broke up was due to the fact that she had sometime after the incident blamed Jimin for it—but only for a little while. She knew that her past could never change, neither could her injury, and although it gave her a sort of remorse, she tried to find the positive in it.

The biggest one being the fur-ball that rubbed its way onto her leg. If it hadn't been for that incident, Hoseok wouldn't have gotten her baby Theo rescued from the streets. Most of all, she wouldn't have had all these wonderful friends that she has now. And she's really grateful for the man that's sleeping on her bed right now, as he is the reason she is alive.

Because he wouldn't give up on her, she didn't give up on herself either.

Anthea walked towards the balcony in her apartment, taking in the view of the sunrise and the pink clouds. She sipped on her coffee, while she leans over the parapet. Faint noises of clinking metal indicated that Theo was busy eating himself. Life...seemed to have almost stilled in that moment for Anthea.

Just then her phone rang.

"What, so you've become a city-gal and won't even call your own halmeoni?"

Anthea chuckled at the familiar voice. "Hi mémère," she greeted her grandmother. "Sounds like you're doing well."

"Of course I am, I'm sitting alone at home with no one to take care of me! Of course I'm perfectly healthy, huh?" Her grandmother sarcastically commented before laughing. "Oh goodness, you know I'm joking right? You know I'm perfectly happy with you being in Seoul—"

"Mémère, you don't have to explain yourself. I understand." Anthea smiled as she drew invisible patterns on the concrete of the parapet. She then heard her grandmother sigh.

"Is everything alright, mon chou?" Anthea's grandmother asked, noticing the difference in her tone. "Are you okay?"

And that was it. That was all it took for Anthea to tear and wail.

"Aw, mon petite chouchou, what happened?" Her grandma asked, as Anthea struggled to form coherent sentences. "Bébé, you have to speak properly for mémère to know what happened, right?"

Anthea hummed in response but in sounded like an 'ung' because of her clogged nose. "M-Mémère, I can't deal with it! I can't get over my injury, and it hurts!" Anthea wailed, wiling her tears on her sleeve. "I just don't feel like myself anymore! I don't like going to work because I miss dancing, a-and I miss Jimin!"

"Let it out, let it all out." Her grandma consoled as Anthea continued crying. Once Anthea had calmed down, her grandmother continued. "Why is it that you can't move on?"

"I-I don't know?" Anthea sniffled.

"Don't you think it's because you don't accept it has happened to you?" Her grandmother asked. "Annie, it has been months since the incident, yet you can't move over it. Doesn't that mean you have been a coward and have avoided accepting the reality?"

There was a long pause, as Anthea thought about what her grandmother said, before she replied. "Geez, couldn't you have been a bit less harsh about it."

"I'm just telling you the truth that your poor friend Hobi hasn't said yet. I know he wants you to get over the incident as well, but honey, in the end it is you who has to decide whether you really want to leave it behind as a past, or face it head on." Her grandmother later ended the call after explaining that if Anthea was free, she could relax at her place in busan for a few days to clear her head.

And as the wind slowly picked up its pace, Anthea soon knew what she had to do.

And she was going to do it alone.

-x-
TBC