Within These Shadows || Park Chanyeol/Do Kyungsoo || Book 1

24

"And that one time, my mum asked me to give my dad his gastric pill. But I was in such a hurry because the advertisement would end and the cartoon would start, that I ended up giving him an antidiarrheal instead." Chanyeol deadpanned at his own childhood story.

On the other hand, Mae couldn't stop laughing. "You did what!?" She was slapping Chanyeol's arm from amusement and laughter, a habit she had picked up from the boy himself. And this action of hers made Chanyeol laugh in turn. "Oh my God, you are an absolute disaster, Park Chanyeol!" Mae tried controlling her laughter after a while.

"I know, Mae. I know," Chanyeol chuckled. "Do you not have any funny stories from your childhood?" He turned to look at her, munching on his chips.

Mae's smile faltered a little, remembering about her childhood. She did have funny stories and good memories from back then, but they all slowly started fading away when Jay's mother had passed away. Most of the things that she remembered from back then, were memories of an unstable Jay, and her tough life, and Mae trying to be there for her.

"You okay, Mae?" Chanyeol noticed that her smile was replaced by a slightly pained expression.

"Yeah," she gave a small smile to Chanyeol.

"Does it remind you of Jay's mother?" Chanyeol's voice softened as he moved a bit closer to Mae while walking.

"Yeah." She smiled at the fond memories she had with Malinda. "There are funny stories from my childhood; our childhood. But I guess over time, they kept fading away from me, until only the painful memories of Jay being broken remained." Thinking about it almost made her choke on her tears that she was holding back strongly.

"Hey, I'm here if you want to let it out," Chanyeol wrapped his left arm around her, pulling her close to him. "You don't need to hold back your tears or feel like you'll suffocate from all this. I'm willing to listen when you're ready to talk. Okay?" Chanyeol lowered his head to look at Mae, who looked up to smile at him.

Mae couldn't express in words how grateful she was to have a guy like Chanyeol in her life. He seemed perfect in every way; even with his flaws. He knew her thoughts without even saying them out loud, knew her pain from her silence. And he never backed out from helping her; be it stopping a man from harassing her on the train or comforting her in the absence of Jay. He was making her fall in love with him in more than just one way.

"Thank you," Mae's smile grew wider; she was very conscious of Chanyeol's arm around her shoulder and it made her blush. She tried curtaining her face with her hair, glad that she chose to leave it untied that day. She didn't want Chanyeol to see her current tomato face.

"There is one funny story, that I do remember, actually." A memory suddenly surfaced in Mae's mind; a memory  from not too long ago. "It's not from our childhood, but it is a crazy one." Mae looked at Chanyeol with a beaming smile.

"Tell me," Chanyeol reciprocated her smiling face.

"It was probably in university first year I think. Every spring break, Jay goes to a certain place, while I stay at Changwon. So, one day, we were texting each other and she was telling me about this new T shirt that she has bought. She liked it a lot because it had pockets! So she sent me a picture of her hand inside the pocket to show it to me. However, the photo was angled in such a way, that I couldn't understand that she was showing me the pocket. A warning beforehand: I'm weird, my brain functions weirdly." Mae looked at Chanyeol while trying to stifle her laughter.

"What did you think it was?" Chanyeol chuckled.

"I asked her where the pocket was because I thought, she sent me an upside-down picture of her shoulder, and her hand coming out of the sleeve." Mae couldn't hold back her laughter.