Later Never Comes | Lee Eun-Hyuk|

Welcome Home

Green Home Residence. It's not exactly what you'd call a stable home.

But that's only if you took it literally. The entire place seemed like it was continuously on its last legs. The paint was falling off the walls, the windows were thin and cracked, and all of the equipment that any cleaners would use were always on the verge of crumbling in their hands.

Seo Ae-Cha was one of the residents that stayed in the building, though she never seemed to complain about her environment. She was always smiling, always polite, and always grateful for the security guard's help when she'd bring in her recent shopping binge that ended up being way too heavy to carry by herself. And yet, no one knew a thing about her. Ae-Cha always seemed to keep herself to herself and never stopped to actually speak to any of her neighbours.

That was until one day.

The security guard was outside with a grass cutter, one of those light ones you could pick up that had a spinning blade at the bottom. Ae-Cha had the irrational fear that she'd use one of them and end up slicing her own leg open, so she kept an eye on him. Just in case that situation actually came about. Instead, something else happened.

As the grass was being cut, the blade caught a stone on the ground and instantly broke off. The blade went flying through the air and into the rusted, broken sign that welcomed everyone to the Green Home Residence. The blade landed right next to someone's head. Ae-Cha didn't recognise him, so she knew he was new to the area and that he must have been moving in since this area wasn't the type for tourists. Both the security guard and Ae-Cha quickly moved over to the boy, making sure he was alright. The boy was still frozen in place, only turning his head to see the people approaching him.

Ae-Cha noticed that he didn't seem to have much on him for someone that was moving. He was carrying a monitor and had a bag on his back that had a keyboard sticking out of it.

"Oh, my God. That was close." The security guard said, approaching him. "I don't know how that flew over there." He sighed.

"I'm so sorry. This isn't my job, but nobody could work this weekend, you know? People think security guards are here to do everything." Although he was happily speaking to the boy, he didn't seem interested. He never spoke in return, he just let the security guard do all the talking.

Finally, Ae-Cha made her way over to him. "Are you okay? That thing almost cut your head off!" She said, all the boy did was nod.

As the guard moved over to pull the blade out of the sign, he made an easy observation. "I haven't seen you before. What brings you here?" He asked. The boy didn't hesitate much to answer, but his voice was very quiet.

"I moved..."

"You moved? I can't hear you, speak up." The guard said, although she knew he didn't mean any harm in his comment, Ae-Cha shot him a glance. She could tell there was something up with this boy, he seemed sad.

"Yeah, I moved." The boy said a little louder. He tried to get away from the situation but the guard made a realisation.

"Ah! I heard someone was moving into Room 1410! I guess that's you. Are you living alone?" He asked him. The boy paused and seemed to sigh.

"Yes." He muttered.

"What did you say? I can't hear you." He said loudly.

"I'm all alone." He said quickly before leaving. Ae-Cha noticed how sad he seemed just from that answer. She noticed more things about him, like how it looked as if he wasn't taking care of himself. His hair was shaggy and almost covering his eyes, his clothes were loose and it looked like he had been wearing them for several days straight, and he was only wearing slippers that dragged on the floor which showed off his damaged feet. It just didn't look like he took care of himself at all. Ae-Cha didn't like that thought, so she put a small act of service plan into action.