written in the stars | yjw

08 | what is kindred

CHAPTER EIGHT

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"be sure to check everything before you leave. i gotta go now."

the lad's eyes follow his stepsister's running figure from the kitchen until the front door of their house, normally exhaling as he hears the door shut. jungwon had already been awake for an hour in an early morning of thursday. his stern sitting figure once softens when yuna left their home after preparing for her morning class.

being home alone was always a habit for him yet staying at home for too long could be suffocating. it's been three days since he visited the park to brainstorm a poetry piece, also it's been a week since he wrote short poems for strangers who stopped by. he still can't resist the feeling of bleakly anticipating a bowl of cereal each day as he wakes up. it's a total stuck in a fated loop.

however, it's not too boring for him. as he intentionally plays with his food over the table, his lips unconsciously tugs a smile upon flashing a recent memory of her. it's short and ephemeral, and there was nothing special except going out for a walk in her; internally visualizing every aspect of her until he feels weak, kind of melting in lovesickness.

when he realizes what he was actually doing, he blinks himself back to present and groans, pouting after finishing his meal, "why does it have to be like this?" jungwon asks himself as he heads to the sink to wash his bowl.

it's odd and predictively confusing. a moment where he needed to assure himself if he was feeling rationally; to see seoyeon is to leave his little world upside-down to reality. those petty details of her had been engraved to his creative mind, just a glimpse of her would often yank him back to yesterday, and a lot of descriptive situations that are hard to fathom. if these encounters would sum up to a certain conclusion,

nothing has still changed, he concludes to himself.

ah, it's painfully bitter but that's an undeniable reality. he shakes his head in defeat upon admitting the untold truth. two years later, he's still in love with seoyoon. no wonder how he'd manage to ingest his ego after his disappearance just to stand up on his feet and talk to her like he'd woken up from a 12-hour slumber. of course seoyoon didn't like the way how he approached her without looking back yet she had no choice but to follow the rhythym of what's being written in their fate.

jungwon leaves the house with a suitcase to revisit the park and start his late morning in front of the crowded gazebo. he places the typewriter before him and waits for someone to approach him; not too long, he continues to progress his free hobby through a stranger who halts in front of him and asks for a quick poem.

hopping over the aftertime;
shadow spins itself to death.
each tick and tocks are days,
anticipated; sooner forgotten.

in an instant, it was already finished. the stranger gapes her mouth open at the sight of his disguised talent, only to be exchanged with a delightful grin from jungwon. she takes the paper from him and navigates her hand through one of her pockets to reach something deeply in its corner.

eventually, she extends her arm back to give him a brochure that she found on her pocket.

"take it." she says, "it's an unintentional tip i'd like to give it to you."

"what is this?" he asks confusingly, opening a thin brochure with two additional pieces of paper within it.

"there's an annual jubilee to be held downtown in next month and i bought some nocturnal passes for my beau." the stranger states, the glitters in her eyes leisurely fades as she pauses primarily and then continues, "but sadly, we broke up a week ago and decided to give these before i'll return to home."