chapter eleven
stories!
⊱ ────── .⋅ ❈ ⋅. ────── ⊰
🌌
YUGYEOM ABSENTLY SWIRLS HIS GLASS OF WINE, eyes blank from the seas of flower petals on the floor. The wedding reception seems too dull to his liking, and his Tellus Chardonnay is the one keeping him alleviated from solitude.
He sips on the thin transparent rim, free hand pocketed on his light gray crisp suit, standing soulless behind the smiling people before him.
Everything seems different without her.
A nudge on his shoulder pulled him out from his trance. Kino came into the picture, settling himself beside his taller friend, beaming. "Eyy, my dude looks so down. Penny for your thoughts?"
Yugyeom ducks his head, eyeing his one-day-old derby shoes, hiding a smile. "Now that you're here, I was just thinking about becoming a priest."
"For real?! Holy shit." If only Kino had been drinking wine, he would've already spat it on Yugyeom's face.
"I'm joking." The other chuckles, far from his usual genuine laugh. The bright venue was the contrasting mood of what he currently deemed. "I was trying to see a crazy reaction from you."
"No shit. I was about to knock some sense to you, ya dimwit." Kino returns a smile, head shaking from his friend's tease. He puts his side on Yugyeom's upper arm, leaning against him like how he used to do.
A clattering of utensils were mostly heard, people interchanging verbally, clicks of cameras and the flow of moving water in the nearby fountain—it reminds Yugyeom of most dinner dates he had with Lisa.
"I heard Lisa's no longer staying here. She moved back to Thailand?" Kino inquired, has no clue on what the whole issue was all about.
"Yeah." Yugyeom replied curtly, immediately gulping down the remaining liquid in his glass.
"Why so sudden? I thought she'll be joining your chosen university?" He steps back, waiting for any reaction from Yugyeom—whose now busying himself looking at his brother and his wife slow-dancing.
He wants to dodge the question and never answer.
All his life she was part of him. From the day she called his name from the field to tie her shoelaces when they were still six. All young and reeling with no bound. He wanted her to be there in every success he'll achieve and vice versa. Is it too much to ask?
"She didn't tell you, did she?" Kino carefully asks, eyes following the sight of the ivory pathway near some young grasses, debating whether to push his query more further.
"What happened?"
"I was the first person to know. She just misses home." Yugyeom shifts from his stance, finally looking at his friend beside him, smiling like how he used to do. It makes him feel lighter, somehow accepting the fact that Lisa might never want to see him once more.
But the thought was too self-deprecating, he might be wrong.
"If solitude makes her happy then I will give it to her." he responded truthfully. Yugyeom had no better answer to give.
🌌
"THANK YOU." Yugyeom watches his brother carry his last baggage into his pick-up, pushing the telescopic handle to hide and lay it safely. Yugyeom helps locking the tailgate of his car in one shove.
