[edited]

As soon as the door to her past family house opened, Aera felt her head being hit by a rush of memories, some of them sweet or sour, and some of them, happy or sad.

It was hard for her to hold back the tears which made there way to the waterline of her eyes, trying to fall out, but the tightening of Jin's grip on their intertwined hands gave her the necessary assurance she needed, that someone was there for her.

After 4 months of therapy, which was especially carried out for Aera to move on from her past and overcome her fears, Aera's personality had shown a positive transformation, thus making her more confident, calmer, happier; also, she got rid of her panic attacks.

Therefore it was decided a few days beforehand, that she'd be going back to her father's house, in order to check on the property, get necessary documents, and to get her things. It was realised so, that it was high time the important things were done and over with, so she was accompanied by SeokJin, who had taken especially a day off for the same.

As she crossed the threshold of the bungalow, flashes of memories hit her..

Aera runs through the house with her brand new teddy bear in her arms, her smile wide and clear, and her feet tapping against the ground as she dashes about in excitement.

"Aera-ya, don't run! You'll get hurt!" Her mother reprimand her, but all goes into deaf ears.

The familiar horn of a car is heard from outside the house, making the 5 years old Aera grin even more.

"Appa!"

She dashes to the the front door to open in, but the door opening abruptly from the outside makes her run into the person.

"Owee..." she mumbles as her little bum hits the hard ceramic floor. Tears gather in her eyes and start rolling down her chubby cheeks. She starts sobbing when she feels pain erupting in her backside.

A pair of arms gather the little girl in their arms.

"My little baby, don't cry."

A palm softly massages the aching area.

"A-Appa..."

"Yes baby...see I've got you your favourite sweets. Wanna have them?"

She starts smiling through her tears at the sound of 'sweets' and nods.

Her father grins at her cuteness and kisses her cheek softly.

A tear rolled down her cheek unconsciously as she reminisced the joyful moments in her past.
Those beautiful moments were the only ones which made her believe that the sweet childhood she had wasn't just some dream.

"You good, Aera? Hm?" Jin asked her softly, knowing very well how she'd get sentimental upon getting reminded of her lost family.

Trying to suck the tears back into her eyes, she gulped down the hurt she felt inside and nodded to him.

Giving her a kiss on the forehead, he walked in further inside the old bungalow.

As they checked through the living room, Jin couldn't help but smile at the happy family photographs that were hung beautifully and artistically on a seperate wall, which seemed to have been made to specially hold these memories. In his eyes, it was the most beautiful part yet, of the whole bungalow.

These photographs were arranged chronologically, depicting how the family grew in ages. There were photographs of a baby Aera, in the arms of her parents, while they smiled unceasingly at their little bundle of joy.

Then there were photographs from what seemed like Aera's birthday parties, her swinging on one of those swings in a park, and dressed in a school uniform, on her first day at school.

SeokJin traced his fingers at the small figure in one of the photographs.

They had such precious and happy lives.
He thought.

Then according to the sequence of years, were photos of a toddler Aera turning into a young kid of around 5-6 years of age. Looking through the photographs of her childhood, SeokJin felt his heart thump against his chest loudly. Her features were beautiful, just as they were now, but her chubby cheeks and all the baby fat made her the most adorable child he'd ever seen, even if those were just photos.

But then the next photos shocked him to no extent. He couldn't believe it. He traced his fingers along the digits that were written with a marker at the foot of one of the photographs.

#8 years.
It read.

——

Everybody is talking and laughing, enjoying their time with their loved ones. Jin is sitting in the seats in front of his parents along with her sister, who's chatting away with another girl around the same age as her.

——

A sudden flashback hit him hard, resulting into his head starting to pound as it did every time he'd remember any moment of that fateful day. He stumbled to the nearest dusty sofa, and not caring about the dirt, he put himself down on it.

As both the girls chat happily about unicorns and princesses, a 14 year old Jin struggles with some new-found sensations taking over his body. Every time he looks at the unknown girl who sits in front of him, on her father's lap, he feels his heart beat louder than ever.

He tries drinking water and taking deep breathes, anything his 14 year old self thinks, would help his body and heart to calm down, not knowing what else to do with these new feelings.

And when she turns to him and smiles so sweetly at him, he feels his heart almost jumping out through his mouth. Well...not literally, but something like that.

He finds her cute and pretty.
He wants to know her name.
He wants to know...her.
He wants to be her friend.

And when he hears his sister say it, he feels a flower blooming in his chest, very his heart his.

'Aera...'
A beautiful name, just like her.

He makes up his mind. He'll befriend her.

There's a part of him, that blushes heavily whenever the little girl would glance at him. But then, there's another one, which wants to hug her, hold her hand.

It's just 'friend things', right...?

When he finally gathers the courage to go and talk to her, something unexpected takes place...

——

'You're the flower,
which blooms in the core of my heart...'

———