𝐧𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬, park sunghoon

034. out of their system

OUT OF THEIR SYSTEM

IMESSAGE
[ riki & kaiden ]

kaiden
hey can you take over my shift
tomorrow? i don't think i can be
at work tomorrow

niki
yeah of course

are you okay

kaiden
yeah i am

it's sunghoon who's not doing
so great

he's at my apartment rn, and i
think i wanna be here with him
for a while to make sure he is
okay

niki
ooh, tell him i said hi and i hope
he feels better soon

kaiden
will do

see you later riki

***

two hours had passed since kaiden sat down next to sunghoon, and since it was cold outside, she offered him to come inside with her. and so the two of them moved from the bench outside to the sofa in her apartment.

while kaiden softly stroked his hair, sunghoon cried out while lying down with his head rested on her upper legs.

apart from his melancholic sobs, it was silent. neither of them said anything. she was just there for him, and honestly that was all he really needed.

for some reason, the way kaiden brushed through his hair with her soft touch made him cry even more. not because he didn't like the feeling, but because nobody had ever cared for him this way.

most of his life, he had been alone. but now, knowing that there was someone who cared about him despite the circumstances, made him realize he didn't want to be alone.

"sorry for pushing you away." he sobbed into the fabric of her clothing.

the way she was so gentle with him made him feel guilty for how he had been acting. he didn't deserve any of this. he deserved to be treated the same way he treated her. at least, that was what he believed.

kaiden on the other hand believed otherwise. she believed he should be treated with care and patience. it was true that sunghoon was a complex character, and not everyone understood that. however, the girl knew that he wasn't as tough as he pretended to be.

"it's not your fault. just promise me you won't isolate yourself when you need help. i literally live two steps away, so please, whenever you feel like it, just knock on the door and i'll be there."

kaiden was never good at comforting people. she never knew what to say or do in situations like thes. but when it came to the ones she cared about, everything just came natural to her and she'd do anything to help them.

however, sunghoon believed that he was a lost cause and that he would always be one. he felt weak and unwanted, which was why he kept screwing around to keep others from getting hurt. only now it was him who got hurt instead.

in response to the girl's kindhearted and sincere words of advice, sunghoon nodded with a trembled sigh. "i don't know what's wrong with me."