here always

chapter ten

Hyunjin was vigorously shoving his right foot into the left shoe. He seemed to notice his fruitless attempt and with a frustrated sigh, put on the correct shoe.

Grabbing some random jacket on the peg, he rushed out into the midnight air.

It was very late, even for college students apparently, since the streets he jogged down were deserted.

With numb hands clutching his phone, he tried searching through it for a certain contact number. After a long time, due to his stiff hands, he found it and pressed hard on 'call'. The other person accepted the call after many many rings.

Hyunjin nearly cried out with relief. "Jungwoo?"

There were some mumbles heard from the other side.

"Jungwoo?" Hyunjin repeated.

The said guy grumbled, "Yes, yes it's me."

He was probably cursing out Hyunjin in his mind but Hyunjin couldn't care less.

He gushed on, "I just wanted to ask you for your address."

Silence was heard and then Jungwoo's high pitched voice came back in. "What do you need my address at the dead of the night?!?"

"Chill, I'm not going to grace your home with my presence right now."

Jungwoo decided that he'd rather ask his own question than answer.

"Then why do you need my address?"

Oh.

Right, Hyunjin didn't prepare that bit.

"Umm, because I know this coffee place beside your house and I was craving some of their signature Americano, so yes I've decided to venture forth to..."

Jungwoo was either too sleepy or too kind to re-question. Because he just cut through Hyunjin's rambling by giving his address.

"Sorry for disrupting your sleep but thanks again!" Hyunjin replied while noting down the street name.

"Try not drinking coffee this late at night again." was the last thing he heard before the line went dead.

Sounded like something Seungmin would say. But thinking about Seungmin made Hyunjin's stomach churn so he decided he'd rather focus on going to that neighborhood before he thought of anything else.

At last, fighting the rough wind, Hyunjin saw the old building come into view. The place where everything started.

But unlike the previous times he had seen this structure, he now looked at it with a sort of fondness, an adoration. He finally realized why Seungmin remembered to glance at this building whenever they went past it. Did he also recollect their encounter all those years back?

The brambles growing around the pavement shuddered and quivered with the breeze, almost as if they shook their heads in disapproval of Hyunjin's poor memory.

Hyunjin could still not wrap his head around the fact that he had forgotten about this building. Despite the number of times he saw it. And that was a personal insult to Hyunjin who was too sentimental to forget anything as important as this.

He was entering through that moldy, heavy door for the third time. And now that he knew how the original, much cleaner and beautiful version of this building looked, Hyunjin was able to properly look around.

The wooden shelves practically wearing down right in front of him, the few bean bag chairs that were now ripped. The creaky stairs leading up the second floor with an open terrace for those who liked to read outside. And past the taller shelves was Hyunjin's favorite spot, a huge armchair beside a large window.

He wore a sweet smile with the corners of his eyes crinkling as he could almost see the 8 year old Hyunjin and Seungmin goofing around the chair and the long table in front.

But that's when a rustle sounded.

Hyunjin jumped at that and realized that there was something placed on the desk.

He neared it with his eyebrows furrowed. It was their drawing! The one with the stars and moon and the perfectly colored periwinkle blue sky.

Hyunjin was confused. He was pretty sure the drawing was with Seungmin.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"What's this for?"

"It's for you!"

"What? But didn't you draw it?" Seungmin sulked.

"Yes but I want you to keep it." Hyunjin replied as he pushed the slippery glasses up Seungmin's nose.

Seungmin seemed skeptical at first, but Hyunjin saw as the boy's face literally glowed under the midday sunshine.

"I shall cherish it forever and ever and ever!" Seungmin announced.

Hyunjin laughed along.

"Of course you will."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Yes, Hyunjin was pretty sure this drawing was with Seungmin. But here it was. Atop of it was the broken crayon, now glued together, to act as a paperweight.

Just as Hyunjin picked up the crayon to take a closer look, the drawing underneath flew off, revealing some photos and a newspaper cutting.

Hyunjin's eyes widened with each word he read off the newspaper headline.

Because not only was the paper published a few 25 years ago, it's flashy heading bore the words "KIM SEUNGMIN, A STUDENT OF THE PRESTIGIOUS JYP SCHOOL OF ARTS HAS ALLEGEDLY GONE MISSING WITHOUT A TRACE."

What in the world?!?