The Hideout I Need

Chapter 32: There is a reason I kept thinking about our first kiss

Hyeong-jun was lying on his bed just staring into his phone. He only got home from work maybe 20 minutes ago seeing as the clock was nearing 12:30 AM. He had just gotten out of a quick shower and was honestly ready for bed.

Suddenly, he felt the momentary shock of his phone ringing but quickly saw on the caller ID that the call was from Tae-young. Suddenly his face fell to a soft smile. He thought back to the summer when they'd practically spend every night on a phone call. He kind of missed those days and felt glad that they seemed to grow closer again. He hurriedly picked up the phone.

"Hey," Hyeong-jun said softly with a smile on his face. He was just happy to talk with Tae-young again.

However, his smile quickly fell as he noticed the sound of unsteady breathing, pained with tears on the other end of the phone. His eyes widened as Tae-young's whimpered, struggling to get any words to come out, "Hyeong-jun..."

"Tae-young, what's wrong?" Hyeong-jun frantically asked as he shot up from his bed.

There was some silence over the phone, which made Hyeong-jun's heart race with fear. Tae-young quietly spoke as his voice shook, "Can you come over?"

"I'll be right there, Tae-young. Okay? Just wait for me a little bit, I promise I'll be there soon," Hyeong-jun desperately said, feeling more and more nervous for every second he wasn't by Tae-young's side. When he heard the sound of the phone call ending, his eyes widened before he frantically ran out of his room.

His door ended up slamming the wall, startling Hyeon-ah greatly as Hyeong-jun ran out to the entrance immediately.

"I need to go," Hyeong-jun quickly spoke, as if he could read Hyeon-ah's mind. He was already hurriedly putting on his shoes.

"What? Where? Why?" Hyeon-ah frantically asked, incredibly frightened by his frantic behavior.

"Tae-young's place. I can't explain but I'll be back soon, I promise."

Hyeong-jun didn't even listen to her reply before he had already run out of the apartment and down the hallway. All the flights of stairs and out of the building, his only focus was getting to Tae-young's place as soon as possible. It was already nearing October and he didn't even put on a jacket. But the cold wind brushing against him was the least of his concern.

He kept on running as fast as he could manage to the street parallel from his own, picking up the speed as he noticed which of the new buildings was Tae-young's. For the first time in his life, he didn't feel exhausted while running in the slightest. He was too anxious to even pay attention to his legs getting weaker.

As soon as he arrived in front of Tae-young's apartment building he desperately pressed the buzzer. He pressed once, then twice, then thrice. The impatience was beyond anything he had felt before, he was so scared. When nobody answered the buzzer, he desperately attempted to go through his mind for the lock's code. He got more nervous the more time went by, the phone call from Tae-young must've been 5 minutes ago already. It felt as if time was running out, and he slowly felt a little suffocated.

And then it clicked. He remembered the code. He remembered it because the first time he visited he saw Tae-young type it and he found it funny because it happened to be Hyeon-ah's birthday but in reverse order. Hyeong-jun's eyes widened, almost determined, as he typed in the pin and felt a wave of relief as he heard the door click open. He ran up the staircase as quickly as his legs could possibly carry him all the way until he reached Tae-young's apartment.

As soon as he arrived in front of the apartment door, a wave of desperation hit him as he frantically grabbed onto the door handle and barged into the place. He quickly ran in, tears streaming down his face that he hadn't even noticed. His heart was beating rapidly and an overwhelming pain was starting to hit his chest as he looked around to find Tae-young.