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

Twenty-Four

YiSeul

I haven't told anyone everything about my life before, surely they have heard bits and pieces of it being spread around, especially those bad moments in my life, about me becoming an orphan and having to take care of my younger brother alone without any adults around to care for our daily needs. I have been through all of that and my life has turned for the better, even though it is not the same as before. It can't be the same as before, it is not like my parents can come back alive once again.

And I'm glad that Lee WonHo was the first one for me to admit that I wasn't as strong as I want others to think that I am, just like any other child in the world, I yearned to receive love from them.

I was jealous of the other children having their parents by their side, I was jealous that they could have homemade lunches packed by their mothers, getting car rides from their fathers. But I couldn't have any of them, SeonHo was the only one that I could depend on but he is still too young to be taking care of me.

So I had to learn to fend for myself, and at the same time, I lost all the time to grow up as a normal student but had to work my way up while fighting to prove my strength to the others that I'm not a pushover.

When I first met WonHo, I was incredibly jealous of him. He had everything in my life that I was jealous about, he had a lot of money and he didn't have to work to pay for the bills. But I didn't realize that he was the same as me, he didn't have the love that he was supposed to receive, he was a very unhappy child despite all the good things that were given to him.

It doesn't matter if you are rich or poor, you are still unhappy if no one cares for you. Loneliness and sadness affect everyone, no matter what background you come from. It doesn't have a difference.

He handed me a drink and I glared at him, how many bottles does he even have? "It is way too early to be drinking alcohol and plus I would prefer soft drinks."

"Buy them yourself, I'm going to drink this." He unscrewed the cap of the Soju bottle and I snatched it away from him before he even let it touch his lips. "It is just one bottle and I'm going to stop after that."

"That is what all the alcoholics say before they would have tons of bottles laying down their feet." I screwed back the cap and he pouted sadly. "Didn't I say that you should stop drinking? I did say that right?"

"You did." I stood up, going to the door. "Where are you going?" He asked me.

"To the supermarket, you didn't have any soft drinks and I'm here to stock it up since I will be visiting this place very often from now on." I declared, being here is better than staying at home now that Yoo Kihyun is occupying that space as well.

He stood up, going to the door as well. "Can I come along?"

"Why not? But don't you dare put any Soju bottles in the cart, I will smack you in the head if you do that." I swing my hand towards his head and he ducked, I was kidding with him but he treated it like the real thing.

"What are you? My mother?" He joked around but I could see that hint of sadness in his eyes, his mother will never do that to him. She is way too busy to be doing anything, she is too busy that she could neglect her only son for her career.

"If you want me to but I will be a very scary mother," I told him and he just laughed, little did he know that his laugh is so captivating, it made my heart flutter and I wanted to hear that laugh again. It is the first time that he ever laughed so genuinely.

"Omma!" He said affectionately and it is cringy to the maximum. I held my hand up and he immediately reacted to it, putting both his hands up to protest. "Fine, I'll stop. You are going to be such a scary mother in the future."

We got out of his apartment and it was all quiet, it is about 10 am and everyone in my house has left including the annoying Yoo Kihyun who moved in yesterday without my permission. The house is so crowded now that he had moved in and I don't want him to be in my house at all. Does he know that I hated him a lot?

I heard a click at the door and it opened, revealing a guy getting out of my apartment in a hoodie and training pants. He was wearing those fake spectacles that you can get them at less than $10 a pair.

"Hey there! Good morning!" He greeted me with me rolling my eyes as usual and his eyes landed on the person next to me. "WonHo, you live here as well? What a coincidence! Why didn't you tell me anything about us being neighbours?"

He said nothing but rolled his eyes, dragging me to the lift lobby but Yoo Kihyun could never let that happen. "Where are you guys going?"

"None of your business." He answered coldly. We got into the lift and he couldn't get in time, WonHo was fast at closing the doors.

We were downstairs but he is still dragging me, his hand hurting my wrist a little as he tugs at it. "Mind if you let go for a second? It hurts." I told him and he let go, letting out a sigh at the same time.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to do that." He apologized. "Why is he even at your place?"

"You know my Aunt YeongAe? She has a son who had been living abroad and recently came back to Korea to finish his last year in high school, it was him. And he moved in last night without my permission, I was so pissed at him for doing that and my aunt didn't even say anything about it, she even told me to let it go."

"I see... So he is your cousin, what a small world..." He is being a little weird and I don't like it, I don't like this side of him. "You know why I hated him? He was that guy who betrayed me way back in middle school, he left for the states without even telling me about it."

That was when my parents passed away and Aunt YeongAe got married, she migrated there with Yoo Kihyun and that was the last time that I ever saw them.