Deja Vu - parkjisung

ch.27

"Yeah.."

"And?" He urged, completely invested in what might've happened next, and from how his night had gone with her, it wasn't anything to be happy about. Especially because she would've spent the night with the other.

"He didn't say it back," She mumbled, through gritting teeth, her patience thinning with the very thought of the argument, however she couldn't be too mad. I did this to myself She huffed internally.

"Oh, Aeri," There it was, the pity.

"At least I know for sure," She played it off cooley, shrugging as she raised her head in sheer, fake confidence. She felt like utter shit. But her favorite thing in the world was to act like she didn't feel so bad about herself, so she smiled lightly and shook her head— dismissing the boy's scrunched expression.

"I really hate to do this, when I know I can do better at this than him, but I think he's confused," Aeri didn't know why he was suddenly saying this, and Jeno didn't know either. Despite seeing the two drag each other to hell and back, he knew it was always them. It was them in the past, them in present, so why not help to make it them in the future?

It was the least he could do, but Jisung made it very hard to play on his side.

"Are you really reasoning with me about what he did?" Aeri deadpanned, releasing her hold on her spoon, allowing it to slip lower into her half empty cereal bowl. It had gone overwhelmingly soggy, and she couldn't bother to continue eating.

Jeno sighed, debating himself whether or not he was actually committing to helping these two out. It was like adding fire to a house that had already been burning for the past 21 years. "It's not my place, but Aeri, haven't you seen the state he's in?"

"Yeah, but that's been going on for a little while? I don't even know what that is or what's happening," And no one else knew.

"Maybe something more than just Minji happened. He might be dealing with something past all of us, so of course he's gonna be conflicted when a girl he loves so much comes knocking on his door again," Aeri felt herself slouch back down into her defeated state, the slope of her shoulders dropping with the corners of her mouth.

"Are you really excusing his actions?" She groaned in frustration— feeling the sickly clingy emotion building up once again in her stomach.

"Having a hard time doesn't excuse actions, but they do explain them," Jeno spoke, and he stumbled on his words, as if walking on the thinnest and most fragile layer of ice— afraid that he was crossing some sort of boundary that laid invisible in front of him. "Aeri, you've dealt with so much, and it's not your place to think about him, but i mean look at him, have you seen his hands?"

By this point, both of the adults had finished their cereals and completely disregarded their presence on the table in front of them.

Aeri's ears perked up at the mention of the Park's weirdly injured hand. "You've noticed that too?" She gaped, believing that she was the only one to take notice.

"Yeah, he's been saying that he's been doing some work on his house for some time, saying he was trying to repair a wall," Instinctively they leant in closer, like back in high school, gossiping about who kissed who and who did what at the lunch table. It was nostalgic, but unfortunately the flutter in their stomachs was overridden by a terrible feeling of sensitivity.