"Fear makes strangers out of people who would
have been friends... but not for you and I."
<Words of My Heart - Kim Yeonji>
"There, I found you."
Taehyung was seated all alone by the window in the hospital lobby, looking outside, when he heard a familiar voice from behind. He really wasn't in a mood to talk, but with a deep sigh, he forced himself to turn around and look up, already knowing who it was.
"What?"
"Hello," Jisoo said carefully as tentatively she took a seat next to him by the window. "What are you looking at...?"
Taehyung turned away. "Nothing."
It was silent for a while.
"Why are you even here?" Taehyung finally asked, after a long and awkward silence. He was clearly in a bad mood, after what had happened earlier with Hyeyoung.
"I'm sorry."
Taehyung turned to look at Jisoo once more, his eyes that were filled with suspicion scanning her cautiously. "About what?"
"I went in at the wrong time earlier-" Jisoo pursed her lips. "And I may have said some things that I shouldn't have said. She's your daughter, yet I kept on interfering - I'm sorry."
"As you had heard... she isn't my real daughter," Taehyung said quietly, staring at the ground for a few seconds. "So I honestly don't have a right to be mad at you either. The reason why I stormed out earlier was..."
"Because you're hurt-" Jisoo completed Taehyung's sentence for him. "You stormed out because you were hurt, and I totally get that."
Taehyung's facial expressions softened.
"I have been taking care of Hyeyoung since she was a little baby," Taehyung explained, smiling fondly amidst the emotional tears that had inevitably formed in his eyes. "She may not be my own... but I really treat her like she is my own daughter. After all... she looks exactly like her dad - a splitting resemblance, in fact. And everyday... I feel like I am fulfilling the promise I made to him, to take care of his family when he's gone."
"So..." Jisoo listened on intently, watching Taehyung carefully. "She's... She's your best friend's kid."
Taehyung nodded slowly. "I lost him - we lost him to a car accident, five years ago. He barely made it alive to the hospital... and the last thing he said to me was to take care of his wife and daughter - how could I not? Even if he hadn't asked me, Jennie and Hyeyoung would naturally be my responsibility."
"Car accident..." Jisoo swallowed hard as she nodded slowly, as if trying to play off the seriousness of what she was about to say. "It was a car accident too, a car accident that took my mom and dad's lives."
Taehyung froze up as he recalled what Jisoo had told Hyeyoung about her parents earlier on in his ward.
"Well, I'm sorry."
"It's okay, that was an incident from decades ago now-" Jisoo smiled and shook her head. "I probably was just slightly older than Hyeyoung when it happened, so I didn't understand the concept of death or loss well yet, either. One moment, my appa and omma were there and the next, they were gone. They didn't even make it to the hospital, like your best friend did. I never even had a chance to say goodbye."
Taehyung didn't know how to respond.
"Correct me if I'm wrong but..." Jisoo glanced at Taehyung, hesitating a little. "Is there a specific reason why you wanted to tell Hyeyoung the truth about her real dad being gone?"
