Not Your Lover (2PARK✔️)

Step Thirteen: Returning

okay if you don't understand how districts in sk work, here's a quick rundown;

within korea there are 8 main 'Provinces', today we work within gyeongsang (southeastern most province), specifically in the major metropolitan city called Busan. within busan, there are counties (major districts, aka 'Gun's) and there are 16 mini-districts called 'Gu's, and within those are neighborhoods.

within busan today, we look at a specific gu called busanjin, where woojin attended elementary school. his neighborhood inside of busanjin-gu is called jeonpo. busanjin is in the center of busan, so it will be referred within this chapter as central busan several times, or even busan city, as real life citizens will often call it by the nickname.

another Gu mentioned is jihoon's family Gu called Nam-gu. i'm not giving specific neighborhoods for that one, or this will get too intellectual for my tastes.

if none of that made sense, my bad!

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I don't think either of us want to speak anymore. Most of the ride is spent pretending to be asleep so as not to bother one another, though I can hear Jihoon's restless sighs as often as he can hear mine. I wonder what kind of darkness will rest beside us tonight.

"Where exactly is your sister's grave plot?"

I clear my throat, the smell of the sea stifling as we step off the train in Buk-gu. "It's a cremation plot, in Jeonpo, Busanjin. It's where we both grew up." I glance over at the tired looking man beside me, his coat hanging loosely from his shoulders and his face bare of any makeup. "Where exactly did you grow up?"

We've never much spoken of our childhoods. He for reasons of family troubles. I for reasons of personal troubles. Though now that we're here, neither of us can really avoid the topic.

"Masan, actually." He shrugs at my curious glance, chuckling to himself. "Yeah, I uh, I grew up in Masan, but my family relocated a bit before I moved to Seoul. Since my father had been commuting to Busan every day for work, they just decided to move and make it easier. Now my family is in Nam-gu, so not far from yours I suppose."

I nod my assent, searching the nearby streets for cabs. We're about an hour or so away from central Busan by taxi, and Nam is another forty minutes outside of Busanjin, but with the funds my mother has been steadily transferring into my bank account, I believe I'll be just fine.

The cab is a long ride of idle chat, ignoring the big picture of the day and trying to remain as casual as possible. "How did you manage to get my new phone number?" I ask Jihoon after too long of a talk on favorite comics. "I had to change it when I came back to Korea, and you texted me out of the blue as if I'd given it to you.

He smirks to himself, scratching at his throat as he often does now. "I asked Daehwi for it." He clears his throat now, glancing my way across the stretch of backseat between us. "You know, both times I've gotten your number, I've had to ask that kid for it. Only this time I actually got it from him."

I scratch at the back of my head, wondering now how Daehwi managed to get my number then. I don't doubt Jihoon has an answer to that too, but I don't ask. Instead, I let us sit in silence until we reach the outskirts of central Busan, water-logged farmland flooding the scenery for a small time before breaking for the city.

"Is there a specific address I'm taking you to?" The taxi driver asks us when we've crossed fully into the large city, his speed dropping as we encounter a flood of other cars. "Or a place?"

I think on my answer, unsure now where everything is. It's been a long time since I came down here. Aside from the accident, and the annual visit to the memorials. Even before then, our family had already been living in Seoul for years. Jihoon thankfully speaks up for me, his head resting against the window and his eyes on the city as it blurs gently.