╰┈➤ ❝ [ And now I see daylight (Daylight), I only see daylight (Daylight) ] ❞

"IM JUST SO TIRED OF IT." Kim Ji-an complained, a broom in hand as she swept the floor. The space hadn't been cleaned in days. The cleaning ladies or Chin-sun were the ones meant to do it but Ji-an liked doing it herself. She didn't want any of her belongings to be moved out of place and she also felt bad letting other people clean the messes she made every time she left in a hurry, so it was a rule for no one to come into her room to clean it.

"I wish I could do something about it, sweetie. But there's not much I can do except be here for you." Chin-sun said, her slow paced voice full of pain for the girl. Ten years old, that's the age Kim Ji-an was when Chin-sun started working with the Kim family. Since young, there was an unremarkable sweetness about the girl. Less than a year of knowing her, Chin-sun took notice of the mistreatment towards the young girl. The favoritism directed towards Ji-hun was clear. Their mother had not even a bit of decency to try and hide the fact.

The whole matter was incredibly unfair and painful to witness. Chin-sun always saw Ji-an's attempts at making her parents proud, bringing them drawings, school projects, the best grades she could get, but none of it was enough. Slowly, she saw the sparkle and innocence leave Ji-an. She stopped trying to receive the love she never had in the first place. That's why Chin-sun did her best to make sure the girl was always okay. The older woman never had the chance to have kids and now all her family was gone. So it wasn't hard for the woman to love the girl as if she was her own.

Kim Ji-an stopped sweeping and emptied the dustpan on her small trashcan. "And I'm really glad about that. I know that if you weren't here, my life would be ten times more miserable. You make living in this house more tolerable, so thank you."

"Oh, sweetie." The woman smiled, "I can say the same thing. I would've probably left a long time ago if it wasn't because of you. Last year when you left, this house felt a lot more emptier than it already is. For some time, I contemplated leaving, but I knew that if you ever came back you'll need someone to be here with you. So I stayed. I see you like the daughter I never had, I couldn't leave you alone in this place."

Kim Ji-an had moved over to wipe down her vanity, the piece of furniture beginning to collect small particles of dust. When Chin-sun finished speaking, Ji-an stopped what she was doing, turning to look towards her bed where the woman was sitting at. "Are you serious?"

"Yes."

Throwing the damp towel on her vanity, the girl launched forward, pulling Chin-sun into a much needed hug. "I also see you like the mother I never had." Ji-an smiled, "Thank you for caring about me and for not leaving."

Chin-sun rubbed the younger girl's back before the two pulled away. "There's no need to thank me. I'll never leave you, sweetie."

Kim Ji-an wiped her eyes with her sleeves, the heartfelt conversation making her sentimental. "Not a lot of people think I'm worth staying for. But you did, and I'll always remember that."

Her mind involuntarily shifted to her mother and then to the things Han Seo-jun told her that night, remembering how insecure she felt. After that, she had issues trusting people easily, she became wary, feeling like every word expressing care towards her was a lie——an act. Lee Su-ho helped her a lot in that department. He always made sure to show her how much he loved her and his genuineness in all his actions.

That's why Ji-an found herself in such a tough spot when it came to Han Seo-jun. They were best friends, she trusted him, loved him, and he broke that trust in the worst way possible. Used her insecurities against her instead of just telling her he didn't want to be friends anymore. There was no reason for him to say all those things. A part of her, the biggest part, was happy about properly having him back in her life, no more petty arguments or lies about fake relationships, but the other was still a little skeptical. Why couldn't he just tell her the truth? What was he hiding?

Chin-sun shook her head. "Don't say that."

"But it's true." The girl reassumed cleaning her vanity, she organized her make up, placing everything back where it belonged, she also threw away things she ran out of or didn't use anymore until the space was clear again. Ji-an froze as she stared at the mirror, or more accurately said, as she stared at the pictures she had around it. Pictures with her friends, pictures with Su-ho. Soo-ah's advice ran through her head, causing a heavy sigh to leave her lips. With hesitation, she grabbed the picture frame she had on the corner of her vanity. The photo of her and Su-ho covered on frosting, smiles frozen in time, in a past memory.

"Do you by any chance have a box laying around I could use? And also some duct tape?" Ji-an asked, never taking her eyes off the picture.

Chin-sun frowned at the change in her voice. "I think one of the other maids has some. Let me see if i can find it."

Ji-an nodded, listening to Chin-sun's footsteps fade away until a silence settled around her. Her fingertips touched the glass of the picture frame, admiring the picture closely. The photo had an important memory behind it, it was the day Su-ho asked her to be his girlfriend. Ji-an cherished that picture with all her heart and would never forget that day. But for now, it was best if she didn't have it in plain sight. If she wanted to move on, she needed to do it the healthiest way possible.

With a new found determination, she began grabbing all the pictures she had with Su-ho, only leaving behind the ones where it wasn't just the two of them. Then she stared at the bottle of perfume the boy had once gifted her. She had loved the perfume so much it became her official scent. Each time she ran out, she would buy a new bottle, even after the break up. It literally became a part of her, but just like places hold memories, smells do too. And that scent held plenty of them, perhaps it was time for new changes. Even if they seemed small or insignificant.

"Here's the box and the duct tape, sweetie. What do you-" Chin-sun stopped her sentence, her line of sight falling down to the small pile of pictures. The woman then looked at Ji-an, seeing the look on her face. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

The girl shook her head. "Not really. It's not like I'm throwing them away anyways. I think it's best if I put them away for the time being. Just until I don't feel like bursting into tears when I look at them." A heavy sigh left her lips, "Also, seeing them there makes me feel like nothing has changed, maybe putting them away will make me accept my new reality a little faster."

The woman nodded in understanding, watching as Ji-an gently placed the picture frame inside the box first, then the rest of the pictures followed after. Chin-sun noticed the way she placed each item with such gentleness and care making sure everything was nicely put into place. She knew it wasn't an easy step for the girl, but she couldn't be prouder. The past week has been a nightmare and the woman hated seeing Ji-an so broken. So she was happy to see the girl slowly pick up the pieces of herself that had fallen.

Lastly, Ji-an took a hold of her perfume. She opened the lid, sniffing the scent one last time and letting it flood her senses. Then she closed the bottle and placed the item inside the box. Grabbing a large piece of duct tape, she sealed the box, along with it sealing that chapter of her life.

↶*ೃ✧˚. ❃ ↷

Walking side by side, Han Seo-jun and Kim Ji-an entered the library to print out the pictures needed for their history project. Surprisingly, the two were able to smoothly work on the assignment without any difficulties. There were the occasional times where they would disagree on something, but other than that the pair made an excellent team. Kim Ji-an knew Seo-jun was a smart guy, he was just lazy and preferred to slack off. She was actually more than grateful for his help, as he had looked for all the information needed and she didn't have to do much work herself. It was a nice thing, considering she had been doing his homework for the past months as a form of payment for the fake relationship.

"How many pictures are we printing?" Han Seo-jun asked as the two made their way to the far corner of the library where all the printing machines were.

Ji-an who was currently holding the poster, answered. "Four. More than that will make the poster look overcrowded." Nodding, Seo-jun opened his laptop and selected the pictures before adding them to a file and sharing it to the email address of the librarian.

"Are you two going to print something?" A kind voice spoke from behind them, turning around to acknowledge the voice, they were met with the librarian. It seemed she had seen them walk in.

"Hi, yes we want to print some pictures." Ji-an responded with a soft polite smile and gestured to Seo-jun. "He just sent the file to you."

The short lady nodded, "You want the pictures by color, right?"

"Yes, please."

"I'll go and add the file. The prints should be done in a a minute or two depending on how many pictures you chose." She explained and walked away.

While Seo-jun and Ji-an waited, the girl decided to take the time they were alone to fill in Seo-jun on what happened. "I haven't told you but Lee Su-ho knows everything. Us fake dating and me still having feelings for him. He found out the day we went to buy Go-woon her birthday presents."

Han Seo-jun sighed, "I know. He confronted me about it."

Ji-an's eyes widened at the revelation. "Really? Why didn't you say anything?"

"You didn't give me much time. That same day you broke off the fake relationship and then you missed school." He explained, hoping the girl wouldn't ask any details about his conversation with Su-ho. "How did you find out?"

"Right." She sighed, the memory still a fresh painful thing in her mind. "Su-ho's father had some business party I was forced to go to and that night I told Su-ho everything. We- um i really thought things were going to work out between us. But after Su-ho admitted he still loved me, he told me we can't be together, that I deserved someone better than him. So we agreed to stay as friends."

Shocked was too short of a word to describe what Han Seo-jun was currently feeling. In that moment, his mind went blank with a turmoil of emotions mostly consisting of confusion, happiness, empathy, and lastly hope. Just a week before, Han Seo-jun had completely lost the remaining pieces holding together the small amount of hope he had gathered. Nobody knew it, but that past weekend hadn't been a good one for him either. Mentally preparing himself for the worst case scenario, had him trapped in his room thinking about his life choices and how he had placed himself in the current position he was stuck on. He tried to brace himself for the inevitable and accept that Ji-an and him just weren't meant to be.

But now, with what Lee Su-ho told him and Ji-an's revelation, he still had a chance at winning Ji-an's heart. Not everything was completely lost, in fact this was the biggest chance he's gotten. Previously, it was him holding on to a simple maybe, time running thinner and thinner before the truth was revealed. A last desperate attempt on Seo-jun part to make Ji-an question her feelings. This time it was different. Lee Su-ho was no longer going to be in the picture. At first Seo-jun didn't quite understood what Su-ho meant with his words, but now that he knew what went down, Seo-jun realized the boy had given him the green light.

You have the chance now, so don't mess it up.

Sooner or later Ji-an would move on. It was now or never, Seo-jun had to be more forward with his actions and words, make his feelings clear. There was no time for playing around and doing the hot and cold thing, he had already done enough of that. If a month before he started being more straightforward, now he had to be painfully obvious. Just until he could finally confess the feelings he's been holding onto for the past years.

The sound of the printing machine going off, snapped Han Seo-jun out of his deep train of thoughts. Kim Ji-an grabbed the papers with the images, enjoying the warmth of the freshly printed paper on her palms. The girl turned to Seo-jun, noticing his far off look, "Are you okay?"

Pushing away the million of thoughts running through his head, Seo-jun concentrated on the current moment, finding himself empathizing with the girl. "I'm sorry, about what happened." No matter how relieving the news was for him, Han Seo-jun was very familiar with the feeling of heartbreak. He knew how bad it could be and it was obvious Ji-an was having a rough time.

Ji-an offered him a soft smile. "It's okay. I should be the one saying that. I was the one that wasted your time. I'm sorry for that." The memory of how everything started made a dry chuckle escape her mouth. "Next time, buy yourself a new helmet."

A smile formed on Seo-jun's lips. "As long as I don't get blackmailed by you again, there won't be any next time."

The girl frowned but the smile on her lips didn't falter. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Shrugging, Seo-jun readjusted his grip on his laptop. "It means I only allowed myself to be persuaded because it was you, sweetheart. You think I would just say yes to anyone?"

It was Ji-an's turn to be stunned. She stared up at the boy, searching his expression to see any signs that he was joking with her but his serious expression just shocked her more. Gulping, Ji-an gestured to the papers in her hand and the poster. "We should glue this on."

The girl left him standing by the printers. making Seo-jun smirk to himself, enjoying the cute expression that took over her face when the words left his mouth. He turned his head back and watched her quickly walk away to where the larger tables were positioned.

This will be an interesting journey.

↶*ೃ✧˚. ❃ ↷

After school, Ji-an decided to make a pit stop at the comic bookstore. The heavy plotted pages became her current best friend, helping her forget about her sad reality and momentarily worry about someone's else's. When she entered the small building, the smell of the book pages filled her senses along with the unremarkable smell of the ramen the owner served. Comforting enough, the familiar feeling bought her a sense of tranquility. Lately, the girl has been really enjoying action centered comics. She decided to take Lee Su-ho's recommendation and it might've been the best thing she could've done as the book was one of the best she's read. It was a three book series and she had just finished reading the sequel which ended in a huge cliffhanger so she needed that third book asap or she'll die.

The girl walked up to the shelves, deciding to check out if there was anything new before grabbing the one she came looking for. She looked through the romance section, immediately discarding all options as she already had enough romance related problems in her life. She didn't need any reminders.

Then she moved to the science-fiction section. One book in particular caught her eye, the cover had a girl with long blue hair and she was riding some type of futuristic motorcycle with a bunch of different creatures chasing after her. While reading the description, Ji-an realized the book wasn't even that interesting. From only reading the small paragraph, Ji-an could already guess the whole plot of the book.

She wasn't even a fan of science-fiction books. However, her mind involuntarily shifted to a certain someone, realizing the reason why the book grabbed her attention in the first place was because it reminded her of Han Seo-jun. His favorite color is blue and the whole book including the characters hair had different variations of the color. Not even to mention the fact the girl is riding a motorcycle.

Ji-an was never a fan of that specific form of transportation as she thought it was dangerous, but last time she got a ride from Seo-jun, she understood why he loved his motorcycle. The feeling of the wind blowing against your face and body was one of the best things Ji-an has experienced, specially when everything at the moment felt overwhelming. It was also kind of attractive for a guy to own a motorcycle, specifically black. Black is a nice col-

THUD!

The book was immediately placed back in the shelve with more force than intended. Kim Ji-an stared at the book in horror, not because of the particular object but of the thoughts it formed. Seo-jun didn't even like books, she shouldn't be thinking about him while looking at them. She didn't even know where the motorcycle thing came from, but it was worrying.

With lingering conflicting emotions, she concluded that was enough searching. The girl walked to the action aisle, scanning the shelves for the book she was looking for. Carefully, she checked every part of the shelves and her heart dropped when there was no sight of the book she wanted. Quickly, she went to the counter where the owner was sitting at. "Please tell me, you have the last book of the Vortex Fury trilogy."

"No hello? How are you?" The man asked, straightening up in his seat.

"Hi, how are you? Good? That's great." The words left her mouth quicker than she could comprehend them. "So? Do you have it?"

"Since when did you become so demanding?" Sighing, the man stood up from his seat. "Was the book at the shelve?"

"No."

"Then I don't have it. Someone most likely has it and still hasn't returned it."

"What. No. I need that book. I deserve answers, I was left in a cliffhanger!" Ji-an complained. "Can you at least tell me who has it?"

Turning to his computer, the owner typed in the name of the book. Instantly a whole list of names filled the screen, all with the date they had taken it and returned it. The man turned his attention to Ji-an. "Good news is, your boyfriend has it. So just go and ask him. But he does have to return it before the assigned date. Make sure he doesn't forget or there will be points taken out from his profile."

"Boyfriend?" It took the girl a second to realize what he meant. "You mean, Lee Su-ho?"

"Aren't you two dating?" Confused, the man asked. He had seen them together so he had figured the pair were dating again.

She shook her head. "We are just friends."

"Oh, well-"

"Here's the book." Goosebumps formed on Ji-an's arms, her heart jumping at the familiar voice, she didn't have to turn her head to know who was standing beside her. The past week she had been avoiding Lee Su-ho. Of course, not because she didn't want anything to do with him anymore, but because she needed time to sort her feelings out before being able to hold a proper conversation with him. But maybe it was time for her to confront her new reality.

The owner of the comic shop grabbed the book from Su-ho's hand. He scanned it, and typed in the current date beside Su-ho's name to have in record the day the boy returned the book. Scanning it again, he made a new tab for Ji-an before handing the book to the girl. "As you already know you have a max of two months to return the book before points begin to be taken off."

"Thank you. And sorry about my small outburst." She smiled sheepishly.

The man dismissed her apology with a wave of his hand. "I've dealt with worse."

Kim Ji-an finally turned her head to look at Lee Su-ho. Seconds of eye contact passed, before Lee Su-ho spoke. "I'll walk you home."

Not knowing what to exactly respond, she nodded, letting him guide her out of the comic bookstore. The two found themselves walking in complete silence, it wasn't an uncomfortable silence but it wasn't the most comfortable one either. Trying to find something to distract herself with, Kim Ji-an grabbed her backpack, she opened the biggest pocket to place the book inside it before closing it again and swinging the bag back on her shoulders. Another minute of silence went by until it was broken by Lee Su-ho. "I'm sorry."

Ji-an didn't understand where his words were coming from. She thought they had already settled everything.

"I've been thinking a lot this past week, and I realized I never specifically apologized for some of the things I did when you returned to Seoul. I know I messed up on a lot of things. I should've dealt with things differently. That day at school when your shirt got stained, I should've helped you. I shouldn't have left you to help Lim Jug-yeong instead." The boy turned his head to look at the girl, a vulnerable look in his eyes. Ji-an was one if not the only person allowed to see that side of him. "I only did it because I wanted you to hate me."

The girl frowned at his words. "Hate you? Why?"

"I thought it'll be easier to move on if you hated me. Again, not my brightest moment." He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Ji-an."

Taking a hold of the boy's arm, she gave it a gentle squeeze. "Su-ho, I could never hate you. I admit your actions did hurt me at the beginning, but later on I realized you were just masking your feelings. So there's no need for more apologies, okay? Let's just leave those mistakes in the past."

"I still feel bad." He admitted. "I promise you that as long as we are in each other's lives I'll make sure to never hurt you again. I could never forgive myself."

Ji-an swallowed thickly, mentally reminding herself to not romanticize anything. But it was hard when her feelings for him were still very much alive. The girl had to look away from the boy settling her gaze in the path in front of her. "It's okay. I also can promise you, I'll always have your back no matter what. That's what friends are there for right?" Her voice wavered at the last sentence despite how much she tried to act unbothered by the statement.

"Right. That's what friends do." Su-ho followed along with her words. He hadn't anticipate how painful hearing and using that term was going to be. He had set it upon them so now he had to learn to deal with it. As long as he could still have Ji-an close, it was enough for him.

——————— ↶*ೃ✧˚. ❃ ↷ ˊ—————

—Joy

Yes, I changed the gif and divided the book into act l and act ll. In the 1st act, Ji-an is in love with Su-ho, 2nd act Ji-an moves on and falls for Seo-jun. Get it? 🤗 

If there's still some readers from the early days of the book, they'll know I used to have another gif before I changed it to the one on act l. Does anyone remember how it looked liked? 👅

I promised memes on this chapter and I delivered!!! So enjoy. I had a laugh with the 2nd one.