disappeared. wowkwan

ix

"byeongkwan was acting weird today, mrs. kim," seyoon says, feeling his fingers loosen around the grip of his kitchen knife.

"how so?" mrs. kim looks up from the pot of boiling ramen she said going, preparing a nice lunch for the two to enjoy together. seyoon was currently cutting the chicken for the ramen to go with.

"he seems to avoid me now, since this morning," seyoon answers mrs. kim's question. "i don't know what i did, but he seemed so excited when i came yesterday, now he just..."

mrs. kim looks up from the pot boiling with noodles to seyoon, who seemed pretty upset about byeongkwan ignoring him this morning.

"well, let's forget about byeongkwan and enjoy the presence of each other," mrs. kim reaches over to seyoon's hand and takes the kitchen knife from his hand. "i'll finish the chicken, you can go sweep the back porch if you'd like."

"anything for you," seyoon smiles, moving out of the way for mrs. kim to finish cutting the chicken. seyoon walks out of the kitchen and heads to the bathroom to wash his hands of the chicken germs. when he finishes that, he dries them and walks into the living room.

seyoon notices the photo of byeongkwan's appa on the wall, and how similar the two looked like each other. seyoon wonders what happened to him.

"looking at the photo of my husband?" mrs. kim walks into the living room, wiping her hands on her apron.

"yeah, just remember when byeongkwan and i were younger, and how he was still-"

"alive? yeah," mrs. kim says, looks at the photo from the kitchen doorway.

seyoon rubs the side of his arm, tempted to ask what happened to him, but he didn't want to seem rude, so he left it be.

"where's the broom, mrs. kim?" seyoon turns to look at her.

"should already be on the back porch," mrs. kim answers, walking back into the kitchen to check up on the cooking chicken and the boiling ramen noodles.

seyoon nods, and walks back into the kitchen. he passes mrs. kim and walks up to the white door leading to the back porch. he unlocks the silver lock and twists the knob to open the door. he pushes the screen door open and walks out to the back porch.

the dusty wooden porch had different potted plants growing, and a stairway to the backyard at the end. seyoon remembers when byeongkwan and him use to come out here and play after finishing their homework for school. the old swing set that was set up is now rusted, and looks too broken to use.

seyoon shrugs his shoulders and gets back to his task. he picks up the broom under his feet, the brussels a hay yellow, but not with a tint of brown from the dust. seyoon starts to swipe the dust and leaves on the porch.

mrs. kim watches seyoon from the window, smiling at the kindness of the boy.

he hadn't seemed to change at all, she thinks.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

short filler chapter thingy

-jin

[unedited]