The Reason? - Yoon Jeonghan

Chapter 43

It pained him, yet he knew that she would choose whatever made her happy.

-

"Are you okay Ophely?" Jeonghan asked the girl once they were all sleeping at the dorms, lights out and doors closed. "You haven't said much today." He looked down to the joint bed beside his on the floor where Ophely laid. She was there, straight and stiff looking up at the ceiling with her hands twiddling over the duvet. In silence.

"I don't know." Ophely said. She looked towards Jeonghan, where he was already leaning over the side of his bed to see her face better in the dark. Ophely gave him a tight smile, looking back at the ceiling and breathing in deeply. "It's just that I know that my parents want me to come back with them to France and continue my studies there. Since we haven't had any problems in such a long time, I feel like this is all coming to an end."

"Where's the but?" He asked, without his usual mischief knowing that it wasn't the time to joke around, it would make Ophely close back up in herself.

"But I like it here." She felt his hand hold onto her, gently drawing circles on the back of it with his thumb. She let him do. "I don't want this to end. I really like working with the eonnis at Pledis. I never thought I would ever make it as a stylist, or even in the artistic field. I would have continued studying natural sciences and probably would have had a hard time and been sad. Even though I'm still half unsure of what I want to do now, I think doing the Suneung will be a good start. And then I have Christmas to think about it. Yet I'm scared that during the holidays I come to no conclusions."

Jeonghan held her hand as they thought in silence; the sky dark, a slither of light falling between the curtains, lighting up a small path from the ground up to the duvet on Ophely's bed. She traced the lines coming up to her waist with her free hand. Head away.

"I just-" She sighed, tightening her grip on Jeonghan's hand. "I'm conflicted. What do I want? What do I enjoy? What is better for my future? I don't really know. I can't really know, I haven't lived that long, nor have I nobody in my family that could help me on that task. They are either in the farming world or teachers." She turned to face the man on the bed over hers. Their gazes crossed. Ophely sent him a small smile which he returned in the dark.

"You shouldn't worry about it, Ophely. I think you should live life as it comes for the next month and a half. You should allow yourself to dwell on it after the new year. When there isn't anything stopping you apart from your thoughts. Whether you go back to France, you study there, or you study here; you choose to work and not study, at Pledis or not, in the art department or not. You have the time to think about it. There isn't a clock right now ticking away each second that you don't make a choice. This should be done in your own time."

Ophely enjoyed hearing Jeonghan talk, his voice was light and calming. Soft to her ears. She could sleep if she wanted to. "Thank you." She whispered, curling up in bed, still holding onto him. His thumb having not stopped what it was doing, soft circles on the back of her hands.

"It's going to be alright." With one last tug at her hand, Jeonghan let go and retreated his arm back under the warmth of his covers.

-

The next day, she watched as her parents left to go meet up with Jeonghan's parents down at Hwaseong. It wasn't far, but still she bid them goodbye before going to work.

Many things were going through her mind. Jeonghan's words, as well as the many from the rest of the boys. They knew what was to be done, yet all of them, without necessarily talking between themselves beforehand, had all told Ophely to make the choice later, when she was more reposed, and that the idea of going both places had been slept on many times. There was no rush, and she could enjoy the moments as they came.

In the next two days, as her parents explored the country she had fallen in love with despite being forced there, Ophely worked closely with the boys. She left her hair up in a ponytail all day long, running from one department to the other passing information and making sure details were being taken care of. The boys would have to do a shoot in the coming week, the day after the Suneung, and then she had to be there for the last preparations, including filming the MV, the dance practices.

As she had been for the last two days, Ophely worked closely with the other departments but mostly with the designers. Regarding outfit changes due to the unavailability of certain items of clothing and wrongly sized garments. She helped with the alterations and the smoothness of the entire schedule. She was the helping hand that smoothed over the rough surface of the stressful times.

Weirdly enough, this didn't weigh too much on her, much less than the upcoming Suneung, for which she was revising relentlessly with the help of other workers and Seventeen during breaks.

At night, she talked with Jeonghan, voiced her worries for each of her choices, and each time he would respond calmly, telling her about everything that he could think of himself, debate her choices smoothly, make her questions things further than she had first seemed to. It was nice, and the weight of those problems slowly retrieved to the back of her mind, there were other more pressing things to worry about, and really, it wasn't such a bad thing. She had time, and either choice could be good.

More pressing matter. Like the Suneung. And her studies, which she was slightly behind on due to the tour the boys had gone on.

But one problem at a time. Right now, it was making sure everything was okay between her and Jeonghan. She wished not to be brought back over to Korea while she studies in France for example.