The Reason? - Yoon Jeonghan

Chapter 16

     "Are we going to tell her, or not?"

      "Don't ask me. Does it look like I know the answer?" There were a few empty seconds before the other answered.

      "Well, yes. Or I wouldn't have asked you."

      "And I tell you that I don't know."

      "That doesn't help much." Another boy voiced.

      "I can't always help you all."

      "Good morning boys." A chirpy voice said as they passed in front of the three tired men in the kitchen. "You seem a bit tired today, would you like me to make some coffee for you all?"

      "Good morning Ophely." They chorused together.

      "No thank you, I still have half of my cup left to drink." Seungcheol smiled at her as he lifted his cup up to illustrate his words.

     The boys were tired, and it wasn't because of their lack of sleep nor the fact that they were still practicing together for their coming stages. But because of the whole 'body-swap' situation going on with Joenghan and Ophely. And Ophely wasn't chirpy because she had slept well, it was because her classes should have started four days ago, and her exams had already passed and she couldn't just tell her school that she had exchanged minds with a Korean idol all the way on the other side of the planet.

     She was chirpy and asking everybody if there was anything to be done to keep her mind away from her problems, which were out of her reach. So making food, arranging again and again the groceries in the cupboards, asking around if anybody needed help for anything, tidying the home and doing the cleaning every day was how Ophely dealt with that stress. It was making the boys worry about her as well as turn their heads in. She was running all around them in circles, each time doing something new.

-

     "And what about today?" Dino asked his elder another time as they, again, drank coffee around the kitchen island in the midst of the morning. "Do you know now?"

     "No." He sighed in his cup, thinking about the young girl in Jeonghan's body walking around their home, making their beds after changing the sheets earlier that day.

     "We're waiting for Jeonghan's green light, Dino. He's talking it out with her parents back in France. They will tell him when is the best time to break the news to her." Mingyu was passing by, just picking snacks up from the pantry when he heard the eighteen years old boy asking about it. "It should be any day now."

     "She's very nice but she's driving me nuts these days." Seungcheol commented, "I really want her to stop stressing about her school, she's been so stressed that she's too scared to contact her parents in fear of crying in front of them."

     "I miss my parents too."

     "That wasn't what the discussion was about."

     "I know, but I miss my parents too. And I am still not used to not having school. Think of it like how I was nervous for my midterms back in June, and the stress I had accumulated for my exams in November."

     "You were dreadful." The taller boy remarked.

     "There you go." Concluded Dino, he stood up and put his cup in the dishwasher before leaving the kitchen to let the older men think about what he had said.

     It was true, that it was like going a few months in the past for the Seventeen members, when Dino was still in school and studying for his exams, stress leaking out of his body in ways. His mannerism was a bit different from usual too. It was like that with Ophely. She was somehow relaxed and calm, but her mind was everywhere, and the boys could see that. They should do something to get her mind off of the bad things in her life, distract her for a moment.