𝐁𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐚𝐝 | 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘬

15: Broken.

Kazuha skipped from leg to leg as she walked back home. Mark wouldn't take no for an answer when it came to driving her at least to the convenience store they both called their place.

The whole drive was filled with music and smiles, along with the two holding hands. Mark missed the feeling of pure affection with no judgment and that's exactly what he felt with Kazuha.

The smiley, skipping girl felt her phone vibrate as she walked closer to her apartment. She answered the call from Eunhee immediately. "I have so much to tell you!" Kazuha yelled into the speaker and startled her best friend. "I'll tell you everything when I'm home!" ; "no, to the convenience store." ; "I told you why." ; "Eunhee, I'm embarrassed. I don't want him to see how I live." ; "ok, talk to you soon!"

She got inside her apartment and locked the door behind her. A sigh left her mouth as she slid down against the door, kicking her feet at the thought of her first kiss with Mark.

After awhile, she got off the floor and went to water her favorite plants. After doing so, she wanted to take a shower and relax on the couch, reminiscing about her day with her crush.

"What the?!" she yelled at the sight of her shower being broken, splashing water uncontrollably. She ran and tried to fix it or control it somehow, but she was hopeless, she had none skills of a handyman.

Her apartment was in one of the poorest neighborhoods and it wasn't in a good condition. That's why she felt embarrassed to ever invite Mark. When she was left on thin ice because of her ex, she had to find something quickly and that was her best option with the little money she had.

She decided to leave the broken thing and ran to call Doyoung, honestly doubting he'd know what to do too. The boy wasn't picking up so she cursed underneath her breath. She sighed when she realized she had one more person she could call - Mark. She messed up her hair in frustration at the thought of him seeing how she lived but she really had no other option and no money to call for professional help.

She dialed his number and bit her nail before he answered. She jumped at the sound of his voice. "Hi! Listen, I'm sorry for this but I really have no one else to call, Doyoung isn't answering." Mark kept asking what's wrong "My-!my shower broke and I don't know how to fix it or what to do with it, I don't want to flood the apartment." Kazuha swore she could've hear the sound of his tires making a sharp U-turn and the boy said he'd be right there. The only thing left for her to do was to give him her exact address.

➜

Mark sped as fast as he could towards the girl's neighborhood. He parked by their convenience store to wait until Kazuha sent him her address. He furrowed his eyebrows at the name of the street like he tried to figure out if he knew it. He shrugged and typed it in the GPS even though it was literally only few minutes away but he didn't want to drive around looking for it for too long.

He found the building and parked right outside it. When he got out of the car, he looked around. He found himself being surrounded by older architecture, dirty paint and a lot of trash on the ground but he didn't care at all. He never judged anyone, especially by their financial situation.

Kazuha jumped at the sound of a knock and put her face in her palms in embarrassment. "It's me, Mark." she heard from behind the door and took a deep breath as she grabbed the knob.

"Hi," she smiled shyly and saw a sweet smile in return.

"May I?" he pointed towards the inside and she hesitantly moved out the way. When he walked in he only took a quick glance and saw how much effort she put into making her apartment nice and pleasant and it even smelled nice. "Where's the bathroom?"

"Right here," she ran towards it "I don't know what happened with it, I came back home and it kept doing this."

Mark took one look at the broken shower and began taking his jacket off. "It shouldn't be hard to fix." he grabbed the bottom of his t-shirt and pulled it off of his body, making himself exposed.

Kazuha gulped at the sight of his subtle abs and looked away before he could catch her staring. "I'll make you something warm to drink." she said without looking at the boy and ran out of the bathroom.

Mark chuckled at her reaction and shook his head as he began to examine the broken shower.