The Reason? - Yoon Jeonghan

Chapter 30

"How are you holding up?" Ophely questioned the boy laying in the next bed over, laying on her back and looking up at the dark ceiling. She heard shuffling from the man as he got comfortable in his own bed.

"Holding up to what?"

"All of this." Ophely said, turning her head towards the sleepy male. "You take care of me, because I don't know the country or your ways, but you also care for your members and listen to their worries. You must also have worries, thoughts that gnaw at your head. No?" It stayed silent for some time between the two. Ophely knew that either Jeonghan would keep quiet or tell her to go to sleep, or he was taking his time to know what to tell her. She hoped that it was the latter and that he was going to open up to her like she had opened up to him.

"There are many things that worry me." He finally spoke up. Shuffling in the bed so he was warmer and only his head peeked out of the duvet. "Concerning the boys, concerning you, and concerning me."

"You need to get them out at some point."

"I know." He replied quietly. "But it's hard to find the words. Ones that you would understand too."

The room was dark, so even if she wanted to look over at Jeonghan, she wouldn't see anything. The curtains were drawn and barely any light made it through them. But she turned to face him even if her vision was filled with darkness. "I really want this situation to be over." He concluded with. "Not because I don't like you, I actually quite appreciate your company, but because it isn't easy to live life when you can find yourself somewhere else suddenly because you, or I, were stressed. The boys aren't comfortable with talking to me anymore because they know that it probably means speaking to you too at the same time. Either with you near so I don't swap back with you, or with you just swapping with me. Right now most of their worries concern you. They don't want you to be sad, you know." He turned to face Ophely in his own bed, his voice much easier to hear now. "They worry that while I get better you sink lower because of everything accumulated on you. So I do want this to be over. Or at least we could be more independent and spend more time away from each other. I say that with no ill feelings."

"It's okay, I understand."

"Because you have school to go to soon," He lifted his head from his pillow for a second, "Wait, the school year has already started. I'm sorry..." This was another worry that had just been added to his growing list, how would Ophely fit in with the rest of the students as a foreigner and someone following two curriculums at the same time. She wouldn't have the same free time as her peers, and that might hinder the probable friendships. That might actually start bullying.

"Don't worry about that, I'll manage."

"But you're only seventeen, it isn't easy to manage."

"Eighteen now."

Jeonghan sat up in his bed, shocked by the girl's words. "You're eighteen? When was your birthday?"

"In February." Jeonghan gasped, he suddenly felt so bad for not having at least celebrated her eighteenth birthday, it was a big deal in home country, so many things she could now do. Same in Korea when a young one turns twenty (in Korean age). "On the second, you had a concert that day. I wasn't going to bugger you all with that. It wasn't a sad or lonely day." She said with a small smile, trying to appease the older man, who she knew felt bad, since he had gifted her a present on Christmas day. "I didn't want you to worry about it on such an important day, you had so many things going on then."