Inside | HENDERY WAYV/NCT

10

His love language has always been actions. He doesn't say it out loud but his actions were so loud you can never miss it.

Kelly woke up to the house smelling like burnt eggs. She walked out of her room and bumped into her mother at the door.

"If it's not you. Or me. It's....."

"HENDERY!" Both of them said at the same time. They quickly made their way to the kitchen and saw the stove still on and him on the floor, blowing on his hand.

"What are you doing?" Kelly ran and turned off the stove. "I burnt my hand," he didn't look up and kept blowing on his palm.

"Let me have a look," she crouched down and pulled his hand. "Get up," she pulled him up and dragged him to the sink. "This will hurt," she opened the tap and put his hand under the running water.

Their mother shook her head when she saw him wincing in pain when the water met his palm. Slowly Mrs Wong proceeded to fix the burnt eggs.

"You're a decent cook. How can this happen?" Kelly asked him. She softly put some ointment on his burnt palm. He shrugged. "Accidents happen."

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Luna was chopping some spam when Yun shouted for her. She was startled and accidentally cut her finger.

"FATSO ARE YOU FUCKING DEAF?!" Yun walked into the kitchen and slapped her head. He then saw blood from her finger. He froze.

"I...I didn't do that," he panicked. Luna shook her head. "Nah. I wasn't careful," she turned the tap on and ran her finger under the water.

Yun opened the cabinet and handed her the first aid kit. "Clean them up. And just eat what you already cooked," he said before quickly walking away. Luna chuckled.

Not so mean now, huh?

*************************

Hala looked down on her finger. The ring shone under the sunlight. She could hear Lucas rummaging through his stuff.

"Here!! I know I still have this," he smiled and handed Hala a book. Hala laughed when she saw the yellow covered book.

"You still have this??!"
"Duh... . I told you. I love you," he sat beside her and placed the book on her lap.

They flipped open the book and the first thing they saw was a photo of them back when they were in high school. Hala was almost always bickering with Lucas and in that photo, they were bickering. Then there was Hendery who was laughing at them and DJ who was having second hand embarrassment.

"What's her name?" Lucas pointed to a girl who stood beside Hendery. "That's Wei. She passed away soon after we took this photo," Hala's tone darkened.

Wei was her best friend. She regretted not being there for Wei.

Lucas flipped to the next page. It was a letter. Hala sighed heavily. She remembered the amount of effort she put in making the scrapbook.

"Lucas, why are you showing me this?" Hala turned to him. He smiled. "I want you to remember how it felt like being a kid and not caring about trivial shit," he ruffled her hair and kissed it.

"Hala, I will still love you. No matter what your decision is. Okay? Proceed? Call it off. I'm fine with it."

"Then, can you give me some time to think about it?"

He nodded. "Sure."

*************************

"Welcome to Dumpling Heaven. How many people?" Kelly greeted a customer.

"Just me. Is Hendery here?"
"Oh. You know him?"
"Yes. We went to school together."
"Sure. Take a seat. He'll be with you shortly," Kelly showed Hala to her table.

"Hendery!!!!!" Kelly shouted for him.
"What?!!!" He popped his head from the food window. His hands we're holding a half made dumpling.

"Your friend's here."

He sat in front of Hala, unamused. She slid an invitation card on the table.

"I'm getting married," she smiled. "Do come. Okay?"

He looked up to her and saw her fake smile. "Why are you doing this?"

"Five years. You avoided me for five years, Hendery. You didn't want to listen."
"You broke people's heart, Hala. I don't want to break the same way."

"But you broke mine. I wanted to tell you that I loved you and I still do. I still get butterflies when they mentioned your name. I still think about you. Five long years, Hendery.

Hendery rubbed his face. He felt suffocated. "We're too young back then and still young today. I'm barely 22," he mumbled.

"I know."

****************************

A calm day for the boutique. Luna sew on beads while listening to some music. She hummed to it.

"Fatso. What do you want for lunch?" Yun suddenly asked her. Luna tilted her head in confusion.

"You're asking me what I want for lunch?"
"I know you're fat. But deaf? Hurry."

"Anything is fine," she shrugged. Luna continued to sew the details on the ivory coloured dress.

She sang to the song, " So when you gonna tell her that we did that, too?
She thinks it's special, but it's all reused
That was our place, I found it first
I made the jokes you tell to her when she's with you..."

"Do you get déjà vu when she's with you?" Someone continued her singing. Luna looked up and saw Hala.

"Wu Hala!"
"Hua DeLuna!!"

Hala went behind the desk and pulled a chair.
"I was in the area so I drop by," she said as she sat on the chair.

***************************

He stared at the invitation card. It was pink with white roses on it. Hala's favourite colour and flower. He smiled and chucked it in his duffle bag.

"Who was that?" Kelly asked him.
"Who was what?" He teased her. Kelly rolled her eyes and sat across him.

He smiled. "A friend. She came to invite me to her wedding," he shrugged and continued to fold dumplings.

Kelly also took some dough and helped him. They were quiet.

"Be my plus one?" Hendery broke the silence. Kelly chuckled. "Sure but you owe me makeup and accessories," they made a pact.

~And he swam back into the murky waters, leaving her frozen by it. The ocean is where he belongs. Slowly he disappeared deeper into the water, leaving behind trails of bubbles on the surface. ~

Hendery wished for his story to not end that way but he could felt it in his bones that it would.