14 hours | lee felix

4

12 hours before

Despite the insane amount of stuttering and filler words used to try and avoid the compliment he gave me, things weren't awkward.

It just felt so easy to talk to him.

"So why were you in New York Yongbok?" I ask.

He pauses, a sly smile makes its way into his face after a brief moment. "Guess." he finally concludes.

"You seem young still, and you can't be that much older than me." I look over to see his reaction to anything i'm saying. "Maybe studying abroad? Or a rebellious trip to the states to show you're parents you're ready to take on the world?" I theorize. "

"Unfortunately no, though i've moved away from home before. Not to take over the world or anything, but close (stray! kids! world! domination!)" he jokes. "I was just with my friends, we were having a small get together with some other people we know here. They left without me though, so here I am."

I pull my legs up to my chest, sitting slightly curled on the seat waiting for him to actually answer. My head leans against the headrest as he goes on to tell me about the things they saw and did in New York.

"It just blows my mind how different every place is. It's sounds kind of stupid, you'd think 'oh a city is just a city' but it's not. There's so much life and culture here compared to Korea you know?"

I smile, quickly agreeing with him.

"This morning I was watching the sunset and wondering if that's the same sun we see in Korea." I admit to which he burst out in a smile. "I was just on the doorstep of my brothers apartment thinking, 'oh so this is why he left home, I get it now.'"

My mind takes me back to a few years prior. I just graduated high school, and I was so excited to be done with it.

That was the summer he met his soulmate, it's also the same summer he left.

I wanted to be happy for him and cheer his love, but I was also just sad. Back home we only had our small family; me, Sohn, and our dad.

Our mom didn't care enough to stick around, and our dad, god he loved her more than anything. It's a terrible thing to be cursed with a soulmate who doesn't love you back, but he was. No matter how horrible and absent she was, he loved her, still loves her really.

Part of the reason my brother left so quickly was because my dad always taught us to chase the love we had.

I didn't want to chase though. So, while everyone pined over their soulmate and dreamed about love, I stayed indifferent. Love could be great, but it could also hurt.

It's not a choice to love someone, but it's a choice to love them correctly. I just never believed someone would.

"How old we're you when he moved?" Yongbok asks snapping me from my daze.

"I had just turned 17."

"That's how old I was when I moved from Australia." he smiles thinking back at the memory. "God, I was so bad at Korean back then. I only got elim- I mean- in really big trouble cause I couldn't keep up with everyone else's language." I see him internally cringe.

"Wait, you can speak English?"

I dramatically clutch my heart at the sudden realization, so he could understand all my little comments?

His eyes widen as he realizes himself that he admitted it, he tries to flash a cute smile bargaining his way out of me about to be petty.

"And I thought we were friends." I turn to face away from him. "But now here I am, heartbroken, absolutely devastated." I turn slightly to see if he's actually looking at me or not. Sure enough, he is.

"Awh come on, don't be mad." he drags out the last word in a more cutesy voice, deeply contrasting his usual... well deep voice.

"Fine," I quickly give in already wanting to talk to him again. "You just had to use some type of Aussie magic to make me forgive you huh?"

He looks me in the yes before sending a small wink my way.

Witchcraft, definitely nothing other than witchcraft happening here.

Right?