Befriending the Gangster // S.W.H (#21)

Twenty-Two

YiSeul

I got out of the shower to have someone staring right back at me with a towel draped over his shoulders, someone unfamiliar but yet familiar at the same time. "Where do you think that you are looking at? It is not free of charge."

"But I'm your cousin." He replied, making me even more annoyed at him. Why is he like this? "Plus you are clothed and there is nothing good to look at."

I got flustered and covered my chest area with my hands frantically as I stared back at him with wide open eyes. "Pervert! I will tell your mother about this."

"She won't care and she won't do anything about it if I don't touch you indecently, it is not against the law either." He told me to step away so that he can use the shower. "Is WonHo home already?"

I shook my head, he is at home resting after having dinner with us. "Nope, I don't know where the hell is he. Even though we are classmates and neighbours, we are not that close, to being honest." I lied.

"Really? He really seems to depend on you a lot." I laughed. "He is that kind of a person who needs a lot of care and attention, he is a very fragile person."

"I don't know and I don't care, I thought that you guys are friends?" I said and he started to frown. "What? Is there any conflict between the two of you?"

It is as if he was going to tell more about them but he decided to smile. "We just didn't meet each other for a long time and that was his way of greeting me, there isn't any bad blood between us."

I shrugged my shoulders and I went back into my room to retrieve my phone from my bed that I shared with my Auntie YeongAe, she is laying down on the bed reading a book that she borrowed from the library in the neighborhood. "Where are you going at this time? It is already 10.30."

"Just the park, I can't stand your son. He is getting way too flirty with me when I am his cousin." I confessed and she laughed, she is that kind of person that I can talk about stuff like that.

"My kid is like that, he loves to be around people and people loved him too. I wished that WonHo was like that as well but he is just too reserved and quiet. Do you know that the two of them were the best of friends?"

I nodded. "I just knew today, I heard that they were friends way back in middle school before he migrated to the states."

I walked out of the room but she called me back. "It is close to that day, right? I'll bring the two of you to visit them." I nodded. It is going to be 5 years ever since SeonHo and I became orphans.

I got out of the house and knocked on the door of the apartment next to mine, he came to answer the door a few seconds later looking rather grouchy. "Did I come at the wrong time? I will see you in school on Monday"

"No, it is okay. Did you bring any alcohol?" He slurred and I instantly frowned at him. He didn't fall asleep, he was drunk. "Did you buy any?"

"How many bottles did you even drink?" I pushed him away and got into his apartment, there were a few bottles of Soju laying around the place and I pointed my finger to count the bottles. "You drank 5 bottles? Didn't I tell you never to drink Soju ever again? It is bad for your health."

"Don't care about me, it would be better if I were to be dead." He came forward and wrapped his arms around me, burying his head in my neck. "No one cares about me anyway, they only care about me when they need to. Other than that, they all just disappear whenever and wherever they want to."

"Lee WonHo..." I called for him while my face is heating up, being flustered at the sudden skinship. In the course of our encounter not more than 3 weeks ago, there is not much skin contact between the two of us since we are not close to me, the most is the supporting of the shoulders as he has to guide me to walk due to me having a broken leg.

"You are the only one that ever cares for me, Yoo YiSeul. I mean it, even if I hated you a lot and you hated me a lot, you care a lot for me. You don't say it but I know." Is this a love confession?

I do care a lot for him who is still considered a stranger for me even though we have become a little closer in the past week, before that we would bicker the second that we meet eyes with each other. We never hit it off from the first time that we have met each other and it is true that we already hated each other from the second that we meet.

I already didn't like him that much when I first saw him in the supermarket, he was so nosy who tried to pay for my groceries when I didn't have enough money to pay for it. He could've been like the others who avoid me as soon as they see me and mind their own business. Right, he is new here and he doesn't know that I am famous in the neighbourhood, that I was a neighbourhood female hooligan who likes to beat up people.

"YiSeul, YiSeul... Your name makes me want to drink even more Soju." He continued to mumble while in my arms. "Seulie, I'll call you Seulie from now on. It makes you cuter this way."

I dragged him to his bed and I laid him down, covering his body with his blanket. He continued to mumble as he sleeps, I kneeled down on the floor with my upper body leaning towards the bed silently looking at his facial features. It is because he is caring that he gets hurt so often... Because he sacrificed his heart to be broken by people who don't appreciate it.

I smiled as he snores. "Then I'll call you Won in return, that makes it fairer." And I promise that I would protect your heart from breaking into pieces ever again...