Christmas Love || Taejin

Chapter 12

Seokjin was having a shitty day. 

 He was awaken by his parents at 4 in the morning because Hyejin's room was empty and the window was wide open. They were too scared to check under the window so Seokjin, with a raging heartbeat, looked down and to his immense relief, there was nothing. After reassuring his shaky parents that their daughter must have returned to her apartment, Seokjin had to skip his morning shower, and simply brush his teeth and throw on whatever was lying on the top of his suitcase before venturing out to Hyejin's apartment. 

 He was lucky enough to get a Uber in five minutes but the driver had very loud music on which was contributing to Seokjin's growing headache so he politely asked the man to turn it down. The Uber driver kept muttering whimsical phrases in his mother tongue afterwards and Seokjin knew enough Mandarin to understand the vulgar curses he was receiving. 

 When he arrived at the apartment building, which was just a two story building with the landlady living underneath Hyejin, Seokjin rushed up the stairs but was yelled back down by the landlady who, at first, accused him of being a thief and then some good-for-nothing alcoholic who bothered the neighborhood by standing outside people's doors and singing obnoxiously at the ass crack of dawn. Once Seokjin mentioned the magic words, a.k.a. "Hyejin's brother", the family resemblance immediately clicked into the landlady's head and she let him go begrudgingly. 

 Seokjin tried the calling bell and Hyejin, muffled, yelled "Coming!". But she didn't come so Seokjin rang the doorbell again. Another "Coming!". No Hyejin. Seokjin tried the doorbell a third time and there was no response, so naturally, Seokjin imagined the worse. Was it even Hyejin's voice? No, it was so muffled that it only sounded like a feminine voice but not distinguishably Hyejin's. Seokjin decided to try to open the door with force but at that exact moment, Hyejin opened the door and Seokjin painfully landed on the floor.

"What's wrong with you?!"

Seokjin rubbed his shoulder as he stood up to face his sister who looked visibly irritated. She had an apron on, her hair was pulled in an untidy ponytail and she smelled suspicously of flour.

"What are you doing here?"

"This is my house?" Hyejin shot back indignantly, her arms crossed and lips curled in impatience 

"What are you doing here at this hour? Eomma Appa woke me up at 4 saying that you were not in the house and the window in your room was wide open in this cold weather. They had assumed the worst! Do you know how worried we were? When did you even leave the house? At 3 in the morning?" Seokjin felt like he had only expressed the tip of of the iceberg.

"And so what if I did?!" Hyejin snapped loudly. "So what?! Am I not allowed to go out?! Am I not allowed to leave the house and go wherever?! Am I not allowed to live on my own?! You always leave early in the morning and Eomma just says "Stay safe!" and when I go out, I get a thousand missed calls and then you appear at my doorstep- why?!"

"You left the house at three! Do you even hear yourself right now?! You sound insane!" Seokjin yelled back, cussing at himself in his head when he felt his eyes sting.

"You don't understand shit, Seokjin. How would you?! Perfect Little Prince living his golden life without a worry in his life, without a care about others- without a fucking care about his own sister-"

"Shut up." Funny how one little whisper rendered her silent.

Seokjin took a furious yet gentle step towards Hyejin, who glared at him with passion, towering over her easily, and spoke quietly, ""Without a fucking care for his sister" ? Is that what you said?"