IF ONLY—
@752naoko ( sometimes i still awake from you calling out )
naoko’s parents have always been warm and kind where hers were not. dahye thinks of them as fondly as she does her own – she loves her parents, she’s grateful for the strict way she’d been raised and she knows they love her, through it all. but naoko’s parents were the opposite of hers, and a different set of parents who mean just as much to her as her own. they brought laughter and jokes into her life, the carefree joy they exuded contagious. she loves them, just like she loves their daughter.
which makes the disgust on their faces when they pass her by in the halls hurt all the more.
she’s always had a soft heart, and their looks weigh heavy on it throughout the day. keeping herself busy with her duties can only go so far. dahye excuses herself when she finishes the last batch of radaway, leaving earlier than usual when she finds tears blurring her vision every time she lets her mind wander. it’s not the most responsible of her, but she can always come back to work tomorrow a little earlier to compensate for it.
for now, she goes back to her room – or rather, naoko’s room, because she’s converted her own into a makeshift hair salon for the dwellers who come by. there is a touch of naoko in every corner and as much as it comforts her, it also reminds her of the other girl’s parents. fresh tears well up in her eyes, dahye curling up into their duvet. the warmth of it soothes her in place of the girl herself, as she waits for naoko to come home to her. it must feel empty to come home to a room with only one person when she’d had such a warm family growing up, and dahye can’t help but feel guilty for it too, being the reason naoko’s become estranged from her parents. hers have always been strict and she’d known, in some part of her, that they wouldn’t have approved of the two of them. but she’d thought naoko’s parents would be different. had hoped it, because she doesn’t know if she can do this with only one person in her corner. even if naoko is the most important person to her right now.
the door opens after a long while and dahye jumps, guilty despite having nothing to be guilty about. ( yet. ) “nao?” she wipes her tears and smiles at naoko, entering their room, and sits up from the bed. “how was the workshop today?”