Coming Home

eight.

Time seemed to drag very slowly.

You spent the next month or so cooped up indoors, not going outdoors at all. Jaehyun's parents went round to yours now and then to check up on you and bring over homemade food just for you. Little things like this made you feel so fortunate that you still had them in your life, and that they only lived next door.

You isolated yourself from everyone, ignoring texts and calls from your family and friends.

Your family sent in voicemails and messages, saying that they were absolutely devastated about your parent's death, and that they were here for you if you needed them. Though you didn't feel like replying and felt a bit overwhelmed by all the messages, you were thankful for their love and support during these challenging times. You made a mental note to yourself that you'll contact them whenever you were ready to.

Your friends were starting to get worried about you, because it wasn't like you to not talk in your group chats. Sure, you did leave your phone on silent sometimes while you were studying, so it's not a cause of distraction, but usually, you'd be texting them, complaining to them how this assignment you were working on was a pain in the ass. You'd usually tell them not to distract you because you were busy studying. But for almost 2 months, the only thing you would reply whenever they asked if you were okay, was either an "I'm fine" or "I'm busy", nothing more.

One day, your friends showed up at your house, hoping to get answers from you. They weren't mad at all; they were just extremely worried about you.

You were surprised when you opened the door after hearing several knocks, seeing them in front of you. They let out a huge sigh of relief when you answered but frowned when they looked closely at you. You looked like you hadn't slept for days, and they assumed that you were studying too hard and hadn't been giving yourself breaks from it, but you just looked so... fragile and weak.

Eventually, you sat them down in the living room and explained what had happened. Your friends now understand the pain you went through and are still going through now.

You still had to tell Jaehyun at some point, but you didn't know when.

University would start again 2 weeks later. It was the last few months before your final exams, and boy, were you not ready to go back at all. You didn't want to go back, at least not yet. At one point, you even thought about whether you should continue; whether there was even a point to graduate anymore.

As hard as it may seem though, you wanted to carry on and finish it off. It was going to be a challenging journey ahead, and you knew there would be times where you wanted to drop everything, but you wanted to make it to the end. You needed to pull through the last few months, not just for yourself but for the sake of your parents. You wanted to graduate to make them proud. You didn't want to fail and quit, especially when you were so close towards the end. You knew that your parents would want you to continue to live your life as much as you could. They would never want to see you live the rest of your life unhappy.