Pretend Girlfriend [Monsta X Fanfic]

🄲🄷🄰🄿🅃🄴🅁 35

"Where are we going?" Hyunwoo asks Kihyun, pocketing the hot pack they recently bought from a convenience store. The snow had fallen the night before but has stopped now. The temperature is way colder than the days before.

"Hm?" Kihyun asks back a little absentminded, but he clearly heard the question so he answered even before Hyunwoo could repeat himself. "My mom"

"Do you think my mother likes lavenders?" Kihyun asks as they enter a flower shop, taking into account the flowers in his mother's photo. "I had always given her roses whenever Ms. Choi's garden has good blooms, which is rare"

" maybe " Hyunwoo answers, thinking about the withering plants at the orphanage. At first, he assumed it was because of the weather, but later he found out that Ms.Choi is no green thumb. No matter how much she likes gardening, the garden has never liked her back. "I think your mom would love flowers in general"

" I thought so too! " Kihyun replied happily with a bounce on his feet, turning to Hyunwoo "She seems like someone who'd like floral things"

Kihyun considers his choices for a while, before finally deciding to get a few stems of lavender, just enough to fit a small shelf. He insisted on paying for it when Hyunwoo tried to out of habit. The older getting used to paying for all of Kihyun's stuff.

"Oh?" Kihyun touches three white daisies taped on the side of the transparent glass that protects his mother's ashes. It wasn't the first time, he had seen this several times before. He believed it might just be a kind stranger leaving flowers to ones that are not visited often. He didn't expect them to be still around. They must be very dedicated.

Smiling, Kihyun changes his focus to the white marble jar on the shelf protected by glass, the inside decorated with trinkets and a picture of him and Ms. Choi during that time he won a medal. Kihyun had a hard time remembering which exactly, he received many merits growing up, but from the uniform he wears, seems like it was sometime during his middle school years.

"Hello, Eomma" He greeted as he carefully sticks the flowers onto the glass, next to the white daisies.

"Sorry, it took me years to visit. Not that I visit often even then" He took a step back to stand beside Hyunwoo. " This is Hyunwoo, if you're watching over me you probably know who he is"

Hyunwoo felt awkward but honored. Unsure of what to do with himself. He gave an awkward bow. Talking to his own father's grave was awkward. That's why he always just thinks about the things he wanted to say to him. Talking with someone's ashes is as equally awkward, especially someone you never met. But Hyunwoo tried his best to act normal.

Kihyun continued to talk with his mother, unbothered by the older's presence. While Hyunwoo decided to examine what was in front of him. There were many paper stars in a small jar. Kihyun explains that when he was a child he would write his wishes on colored papers and make star origami out of them. An adult had told him his mom can help him make it come true and like most kids his age, he believed it. He stopped sometime in his teenage years.

Kihyun's mother had been cremated and was placed in a nice memorial building. At first, Hyunwoo wondered who was paying for the space, aware that cremation sanctuaries are not for free. But Kihyun mentioned that this side was all dedicated to the people who had been connected to the orphanage. The space was gifted by a wealthy person who had been one of the orphans who grew up there even before Ms.Choi's time. So the whole section was half filled with the old matrons and other people the orphanage lend a hand with. Hyunwoo was surprised to know that the orphanage had been functioning longer than he imagined.

Hyunwoo noticed there was not much written on the marble jar. Only the word Yoo Ki and her date of death.

"Ki?" Hyunwoo voices out in question, pertaining to what was written there.