Cost Of Its Worth [SHINHWA]

Unbroken

I looked closer and saw myself posing with them with a familiar gesture, just like the one that I saw on his photobook, stretching my hands forward on a steady manner holding an orange balloon. He smiled like he remembered something awesome about it and continued walking to the school library.

I can already see Eric from a distance. His slick figure stands out of the crowd as he sat motionless on one of the tables while reading. Unlike the first time I saw him, his aura is completely different here. His hair was groomed well, mildly lifted upwards showing his forehead and he is wearing a white coat over a black and gray horizontally striped shirt – he looked so radiant even on smart casual attire.

I purposely walked behind Dongwan to hide from him yet the doctor spilled out my presence before we can even get near his friend.

"Hey! Kris came with me!" he screamed silently.

"SShhhh!" Eric replied with a sharp look at Dongwan and stood up to check if what he said was true.

He saw me right away and supressed a smile by biting his lower lip. He signalled Dongwan to go out and he grabbed the pile of books beside him and followed us as we went to exit.

"Here are your books!" and he shoved it all to Dongwans waiting arms. The doctor looked happy with a mocking expression on his face.

Eric scratched his nose multiple times while thinking of what to say and just smiled at me for his loss of words while hiding what seem like a manga of One Piece on his left hand.

"I won't stay long Eric. She has something to ask you and I need to leave now." Dongwan said as if he's doing it on purpose and laughed when his friend stared blankly at him. He didn't care much and left marching quickly down the corridor like his escaping in a hurry.

We watched him disappear from our sight and awkwardly looked at each other.

"My classes finished a while ago and I was just waiting for Dongwan to get the books he reserved for his research." Eric volunteered to start talking.

"Oh yeah. Urhm.. So you don't have anything to do now?" I asked right away.

"None at all, do you want to grab ice cream?" he smiled upon suggesting.

I nodded with a beam. Our conversation went easier now compared before. He seemed to be more light spirited and welcoming today. He started walking and I just followed his lead.

"I sent you lots of messages the other day but you didn't reply. Don't you like the rabbits I sent you?" he asked with a concerned voice.

"The phone's battery was totally drained yesterday and I just found out about your messages today. I didn't hate the rabbits though, they were actually cute." I told him the truth.

He smiled when he heard the word cute and pointed towards a near play ground in front of the cafeteria. There were swings hanging from the tree branches and he asked me to wait there while he gets the ice cream for us.

I sat on the right side of the swing and somebody called me from a distance. I looked back and it was not Eric, an old man is approaching slowly and I recognized his kind face. He was the nice passenger who lent me a snap back on my way here.

"Young lady, we meet again." He said with a smile. He looked like a different person from before, seeing him wearing a suit with a tie made me feel like he is a VIP. His black classic shoes magnified excellence on the way he stands.

"Oh yes, I'm glad to see you here. I haven't returned your snapback. Sorry." I apologized right away. Junjin was able to know that I was left in the bus because this caring old man looked for it.

"Don't bother to return it. It originally belonged to my only son and base from what I can see, you're the person that he calls a special dongsaeng. I'm Haru, call me Uncle Haru." and he looked towards the cafeteria's direction.

"Thanks to you he became a professor like me. He personally chose HISTORY as his major since you are mostly interested with myths when you were just a kid. Eric will always ravage our house library looking for a new story to tell you when he visits the Villa. I can see that he's smiling again as bright as before. You may come and visit me too anytime. Kindly send my regards to Nana; we were best of friends." he squeezed my shoulder gently and left me standing there – full of admiration of what he said.

Eric returned holding two ice creams on both of his hands and looked surprised to realize that his father just spoke to me randomly.

"What did he tell you?" he asked me while giving me one of the ice-creams and took a seat on the other hanging swing.

"He gave me your LA snapback." I said to him with a mischievous smile and he returned a bewildered expression at me.