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jeonghan had been right to assume that ryun would come back by the end of the weekend. he'd gone back to sleep early saturday morning and had woken up late that evening but she hasn't returned. he didn't worry much as jeonghan's advice was to wait until after the weekend to worry so he decided to wait until sunday.
"you came home." had been his first words to her as she came through the door and locked it back behind her.
"i did. good morning." her reply was short and curt. it lacked the usually warmth he'd grown accustomed to but in recent times had forgotten. realizing it now only made him miss it even more.
"where were you? you didn't call or anything."
she winced internally at how hypocritical his words were but chose to say nothing as she took off her shoes and made her way into the kitchen to grab a drink.
"hyejin-nie and wheein unnie let me sleep on their couch." she responded closing the fridge and popping open a can of soda.
jihoon watched her as she sipped from the can quietly for several minutes. he couldn't tell if she didn't have anything to say or if she just couldn't think of anything to say as he couldn't decipher the blank look on her face or the monotone in her voice when she'd spoken to him. they sat for several minutes in an uncertain and dense silence until ryun broke it.
"so... what did you do yesterday?"
he shrugged, "jeonghan hyung and seungkwan came over and we talked for a while, i slept most of the day after they left."
"about?" she questioned raising a brow.
"bout us, our fight... what i should do." he mumbled and shrugged. the air in room was stale and awkward, it was almost painfully suffocating but he hoped it would lead to something.
"oh." she sipped from her can again, "we talked about the same thing at hye-jin unnie's place. she said we need to have a real conversation with each other and apologize."
he nodded, "hyung said the same thing."
she hummed her reply around her can as she finished it off and got up to throw it away. instead of going back to her seat in the dining room, she passed by the sink, noticing there were still unwashed dishes from days ago. she rolled up her sleeves and put on the cleaning gloves they kept near the sink and began to silently wash the dishes.
there was another long pause of awkward silence between the idols as jihoon had no clue how to even begin his apology and ryun was as silent and stone-faced as when she came in.
it was again several minutes before ryun finished the dishes and turned the water off. once she finished taking off the gloves she headed back to her seat and sat down quietly. it was then jihoon had finally had enough and decided to speak up.
"listen noona ..." he said abruptly unable to stand the stall atmosphere any longer, "i-i'm sorry ..." he trailed off collecting his thoughts and sighing heavily, "....for everything. for every fight we've gotten in the last two weeks, the things i've said and done to upset you, and for making you stress even more because of my stress. i should have just sat down and talked to you about my feelings instead of bottling them up and taking it out on you."
through his speech her face remained blank and stoney until he finished. she only dropped the look when he finished and she sighed softly to herself. "i'm sorry too. it wasn't just you taking out your stress on me, i did the same thing to you, and half of those fights i started. i shouldn't have cursed at you or kept pushing you when you told me you didn't want to fight. i'm sorry for nagging all the time, especially so much lately."
she smiled softly at the last part. she didn't know if it was something she necessarily had to apologize for but she did anyways just to cover all her bases.
"i don't want to fight like this ever again squish. next time either of us are stressed out we need to be honest with our feelings and talk to each other. communication is key in a relationship!" she smiled fully when he smiled warmly back at her.
"i couldn't agree more noona. so tell me what's been eating you lately. you be honest and share, i'll be honest and share. we'll share each other's stress instead of dealing with it alone." he said still smiling brightly and reached across the table to grasp her hand in his own. he didn't understand until that moment just how much he'd missed the warmth of her presence.
happily intertwining her fingers around his, ryun smiled at the heat of his palm against hers and began telling him everything that was in her mind. it was a lot and she didn't know how long they would be there but she didn't care. she was just happy to have her squish smiling with her again.
