❝ hereafter ❞ - park sunghoon ✓

eight

the girl sighed, rolling up her sleeves while cleaning the house. she dusted at the unused ottoman, lifting up the cover to reveal an entire box of treasures.

matcha's jaw dropped. "oh, so this is where my driver's license was! i can drive again." she said, looking at the card. "sure beats having to take the bus for three months straight. this isn't expired, is it?"

she dove back into the furniture, uncovering countless things she thought she lost.

"yo, sunghoon! over here!" she called to the boy who swept the hall, annoyed. "what?" he said, walking over. his prim-white apron was covered in all sorts of dust.

the girl shriveled her nose at sunghoon's dirty outerwear. "come look at this!" she said, making way to the ottoman.

"is that a record player?" the boy said, eyes wide. "that's from like, 1940!"

"i know, right? wouldn't this be great on your little past assessment?"

"heck yeah!" he pumped, leaning down to pick up the device.

matcha dug around in the chest a bit more until her hand touched a flat, rectangular object. "oh, what's this?" she mumbled, pulling it out.

a picture frame.

a picture frame that just happened to contain her father and her laughing happily. the girl looked at it, mouth opened slightly as she gulped.

"i thought i got rid of this." she said.

"what is it?"

matcha didn't respond, instead deeply stared at the photograph.

"yo. you good?" sunghoon said, reaching the girl.

"yeah, uh, it's just i don't really.. see my dad often, you know?" she explained. "back to cleaning?"

"awh." sunghoon cooed. "c'mere."

the girl looked at him and cringed. "hello?" she said, scoffing.

the boy rolled his eyes. "is everyone from the past this stubborn?" he threw himself onto the girl, engulfing her in a big bear hug.

"is everyone from the future this freaking clingy?!" she yelled.

"no, actually, it's normalized to just hug someone if they're feeling down. if someone's serotonin shows up noticeably low on their meter-watch, people just, you know, hug 'em." he explained.

"i thought the future would be corrupt." the girl said, climbing out of his embrace. "distract me. tell me more."

and so then, the two sat in their aprons and talked about the near-present, laughing.