"I'm Cha Jaehwa." She quips when her fingers begin to cramp, still holding out the bag, and the boy, still staring at it.
He shifts his gaze to stare at her, and something bitter flickers through his dark eyes.
"I know." He murmurs deeply, the first words he's spoken to her.
Oh.
Jaehwa swallows the lump that begins to crawl up her esophagus. He knows, but she doesn't.
She doesn't.
The conversing mood depletes from Jaehwa's system. The boy's face purses, and he finally takes the bag from her slowly weakening arms.
"I'm Yeon Si-eun." He provides a name, and such a beautiful one, before shutting the door and leaving Jaehwa a withering human, standing there and staring blankly at the old peeling numbers against the metal entrance.
Yeon Si-eun. Jaehwa repeats the name. She might forget it if she lets the syllables slip through her fingers, the way they had, once.
She finds her heart heavier, the overlapping images of a sad-eyed boy that stares at her as if she isn't real, and the underlying sketch of rough yet gentle fingers, lopsided smiles, and crinkled grins, and they sift in her brain for a moment before — Jaehwa finds herself back at her own front door.
She pushes in the code — Cha Si-woo had changed it to Jaehwa's birthday to make it easier for her to remember — And enters the house.
She ignores the almost silent whispers as she passes her parents' bedroom. There is nothing to hear; She knows without a doubt that it is her they are conversing so urgently about.
Jaehwa buries herself back in her bed. She is anything but tired.
"I'm Yeon Si-eun."
"Ahn Suho."
"We're your parents."
Jaehwa closes her eyes. Perhaps it would be easier to just slip into eternal slumber, and leave behind what she no longer remembers anyway.
Not for the first time, the harrowing feeling of being someone in the wrong skin is what keeps Cha Jaehwa awake.
When the sun peeks through the curtains, perhaps then Jaehwa will plaster a smile on her face and pray that she can pretend well enough to fool not only those around her, but herself.
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✧ AUTHOR'S NOTE !
2nd chapter and a very short si-eun interaction!! i promise ill give them deeper and longer interactions later, but not yet
the amnesia plot is rlly getting to me bc i have no idea what im doing 😭 anyways hopefully it will play out better in the following chapters
chapter title courtesy of matt maltese's curl up & die! slightly or very angsty chap bc jaehwa is glued to her bed and not in a 'real' way but a prob depressed and anxious way 😣
good news tho, i will be introducing suho vv soon (maybe in the next chap or the one after that) but i'll have to find a way for them to meet what with them being on slightly bad terms 😊
other than that pls lmk if there are any mistakes in the spelling or anything so i can fix it !
also don't b afraid to vote or comment, i will probably (very likely) reply!!!! and if you don't understand something, plsplspls lmk!! i want yall to fully understand what's going on
