dysthymia | zhong chenle

스물다섯

❝ no matter how much i hide and conceal
i cant erase it ❞

¤━━━¤

her knuckles tapped lightly against the glass door, her breaths palpitating and her heart impatient from the ambience of the atmosphere. chenle, winwin and hyejin were stood outside the familiar café, restlessly waiting for the owner to appear and open the door for them.

they were in the middle of a blazing snow, and the glass were etched with the frosty ice. there was something about winter that left her shivering yet forced her to light that candle of ambition on her

winwin seemed to be deep in thought, as if he was fighting with himself to say something motioned by the constant tearing of his lips by his teeth.

until another figure had ran, and made his appearance along with the three: jisung. this was the first time he had appeared and contributed in any of nct's recent research's on Stone and Starship in general.

all three of them seemed to be at loss of words as the heaving boy supported himself against the snow painted wall

"jisung what are you..." hyejin was the first to speak because the other two couldn't.

"i want to see him" his voice was small, almost strained. as if i'm cue, the bell jingled and the glass door opened to reveal the warming coffee shop.

the owners ever so dark eyes seemed drained and exhaustion. his shop had indeed closed for a several days.

"come in" he gestured the youngsters in as he too took a seat on the longer table

"we'll jump straight into it" hyejin begun, only to notice that jisung and the man were having a stare off that radiates nostalgia. she couldn't quite pin point it.

"uh" she cleared her throat "do you perhaps recognise this photo?" sliding the ripped photo from the envelope, it was slid towards the old man, jisung also catching sight of it

the youngest and the oldest of the 5 seemed to both lose their breath

"where did you get this..." the owner stammered, eyes shooting to the members opposite him

"sir, do you perhaps have a connection-"

"wu inho...does he still have the- "

"what?" jisung slammed his hand on the table, bolting out of the seat while the rest looked at them in confusion. they didn't expect a 20 year old kid recognise a man in his 70s

"i'm sorry...i'm so sorry, i'm sorry i shouldn't have-" the owners eyes flickered you to jisung's, grasping jisung's hand in his own

"i'm sorry, on behalf of hansol"

hyejin and chenle looked at each other, mouth parting at the sudden realisation that this owner indeed was related to hansol, confirming the fact that this man may very well be hansols father, which then means he's the older male in the family picture.

which could really only lead to one conclusion

if the picture was found in the starship van, and the owner of the coffee shops is the older male in the family picture, then that means this owner was either one of the founders of starship, or has some sort of connection to it

"i told you he's the founder" she clapped her hands together, in which chenle was quick to shake his head "you don't know for sure"

the two didn't even get to argue, before the man's knee hit the ground, clasping jisung's hand. his body trembled, and jisung's eyes trembled along too. they shared a secret, and both shared a pain in their heart