reality check // @gswoori
OCT. 28, 6:03AM — sunrise diner
Hangyeol much preferred to be alone. Serenity settled its way in solitude, and he sat on his lonesome, nursing a cooling cup of tea. His only companion would be the rising steam and the quiet hiss of his own breath. Few and far between did any building grant him the opportunity. Not even his visits to Eunjong Shrine could be marked with silence. Always existed the presence of others. Footsteps crunching on gravel, a soft mumble under one's breath, the incessant sniffling of the chilling weather.
When he found no peace in nature, a surprising sanctuary always peered over the horizon. The end destination of his mechanical off schedule in Seomyeon — Sunrise. Nary a soul lingered around the diner in the earliest cries of morning. Not while the sun was still only beginning to shine. Lest on a Friday. One or two stragglers, perhaps, and Hangyeol would be among them.
He slides into his same seat; the one furthest from the door, tucked into the last window. His eyes travel to the counter, a habit of searching for her. That year ago, those months past she tolerated him, he would have felt a small smirk dance across his lips, pleased to see the tired waitress he once found an inkling of kinship with. The one he eventually found easy on the eyes, regardless of the disheveled appearance after a hectic shift. That did not mind his few and far between words.
Now, he wears a frown and averts her eyes when she nears, raising the menu as if the entirety of the staff did not know to prepare his order the moment he walked in. ( Five egg whites, two pieces of toast, five sausages done up crispy and a foggy cup of Earl Grey. Then, of course, a piece of their famous persimmon pie. )
He still maintains the barrier through the thinly laminated paper, refusing to look up even as Woori places the cup of tea and glass of milk in front of him. And yet, for the first time in months, he speaks first. "Hey," Their typical greeting. His hands tremble. Not sparked by nerves but a strange rumbling in left arm and chest. Why do I suddenly feel like I have to puke? "Are you okay? You know..."