Favourite Crime

Chapter 9

"can i take this off yet?"

my hand goes up to tug at the fabric over my eyes as his hands land on top of mine to pull them away.

"nearly there, love. just a little longer"

he continues to lead me along a pathway, twigs snapping beneath our feet for another 5 minutes before he eventually stops us both. i feel him untie the blindfold from behind me and the fabric falls off my face to reveal on old building, surrounded by a slightly wooded area but not far from the main road as i can still hear cars whizz past in the distance.

"what is this place?"

he looks at me with a sad smile and takes my hand leading me towards the door.

"this is the place where i used to hang out with my friends. i realized you don't know much about my family while i know lots about yours, so i thought i'd tell you"

he pushes on the large door and it swings open. sunlight pools in just enough light to see the room in front of us. things are scattered all across the floor, glasses smashed, curtains ripped and torn. yeonjun walks over to the wall and presses a switch, causing a small bulb to flicker on its dim light.

"what happened here"

i ask into the silence and yeonjun looks at me with sad eyes.

"bad things happened here, but so did good things"

he picks up a broken photo frame and i walk over to him. he shows me the photo, 5 boys and 4 girls.

"this is my family, my best friends"

he points at each in turn, naming them

"me, soobin and his girlfriend luna, taehyun and ariel, hueningkai and his best friend suki, but we all knew they were something more"

he chuckles lightly before pointing at the last 2

"and that's beomgyu and bora, she was my closest friend, the best out of all of us. they were made for eachother, just not in this life"

tears had started running down his cheeks as the memories of his past came flooding back. i crouch down beside him and wrap my arms round him tightly, letting him cry into my chest like he had let me so many times.

"i'm so sorry you had to go thought that junnie, i see they meant a lot to you"

he sniffles before pulling back and looking at the photo in his hand once more

"they would have loved you, you know. you would have loved them too, i wish you could have met them"

he smiles at me before getting up and pulling me along with him.

"come on let me show you the rest of the building"

he showed me the old swimming pool, at the back of the building, with a smaller pool inside it and wooden planks around it, forming a sitting area and makeshift diving board. he told me stories of his friends, how they'd met and how they'd left. his story was a heartbreaking one and i wondered how he'd stayed so strong since. we were about to leave, having seen the sunny afternoon sky turn velvety black, when i noticed something painted onto the wall. the word 'lo$er' sprayed above the door in a bright red paint. yeonjun's eyes follows my gaze before turning his head to look at me.

"ariel painted that."

he points back at the painting, answering the question that never even left my lips.

"i remember all of us piling inside to see her seated on taehyuns shoulders, spraying the walls as he held onto her tightly. she always wanted to be an artist, it was her dream."

he smiles once again and takes my hand.

"thank you for showing me this place yeonjun, even if i wasn't able to meet them in person, i feel as though i got to know them through you stories"

i look up at him and for the first time today i see just happiness in his eyes

"you know, all this time i had never moved on, i'd just pushed it aside to focus on living. but coming back here with you has helped me accept my past and i think i can finally say i've moved on, and the past no longer weighs me down like it once did"

he kisses me gently, so soft like it was barely there. he looks around the room once more before shutting the big doors behind us and heading home, finally content.