The Joyride - A JoyRi fanfic

Chapter 18 - How Joy Fell in Love Again

"Okay, well, I did believe that you would be able to get further into our sessions as soon as you started to open up about yourself more and as soon as you started to express yourself more, but this is amazing progress, Joy!" doctor Kim was astounded once Joy started to talk about her recent dreams and realizations.

"You really think so?" Joy replied happily.

"I think you know by now that it doesn't matter what I think, but what you think" the doctor replied smiling to which Joy replied by smiling back.

"You're taking things into your own hands... Have you had any more walks by the way?"

"Yeah, no, actually, I've been kinda avoiding that."

"How so?" the doctor was surprised.

"Well... The last time I went for a walk, I discovered an old abandonded house... and I went into it. Nothing obviously happened because it was abandonded but... It gave me the creeps, just remembering all the times we broke into other people's houses."

"Okay... So tell me more about that, then."

"About what?"

"Tell me about any random time you, Yeri and everyone else went into a house."

"Oh... Okay"

"I want to know what makes you tick regarding such an activity... Maybe we could explore that situation and find out why you're not comfortable walking around freely anymore. This way we can normalize things like pure walking around town."

"Heh... and I thought I was making progress..." Joy murmured.

"You are, Joy! Don't worry!" the doctor encouraged her. "It just... takes time. And you will fall in your life plenty of times, but the important thing is to know how to get up."

Joy just politely smiled. She was really glad she had doctor Kim to talk to because he seemed like the type of person who really knew what he was talking about.

"Okay... The first time we went into an actual house..." Joy started.

"Yes?"

"It was the whole gang - Yena, Sakura, Yeri and I. Even later on we were joined by Sungmin's friends Eunbi and Hyewon. They are great friends with Yena as well, so it wasn't very surprising to see them there. Yena just called them up, they were already outside somewhere partying so they joined us..."

"Okay"

"Well, basically, Yeri found an old house in some random neighborhood. It had a huge garden, surprisingly no dogs or security. She said she passed that house a couple of times that week and so no one come in or out. She then said she had snuck in closer to see if anyone was currently occupying it and it turned out the house was empty. And that's when she came to the idea that it would be great to party inside that house, maybe take a couple of things."

"Oh... Okay..."

"And yeah... Basically that evening we got drunk, Yeri made convincing arguments and we just went."

"So what were the arguments?" doctor Kim sounded skeptical.

"Honestly, I can't remember. I just knew that by then it didn't even matter to me. I was spiralling so hard at that point - no job, no classes... Just me, the "hamily" and going out."

"Okay... Continue... What happened that night?"

"We went. I was skeptical. I don't know why I was skeptical since I wanted to go, but I was... It was confusing, and so was I... I kept annoying everyone and telling them "we shouldn't be doing this" but everyone was asking me "why did you come in the first place?" and honestly, I think it was just me still not being able to tell myself - "You're in love with Yeri and you're doing this for her"..."