⚉ characters: jiung x reader
⚉ genre: slice of life, fluff, angst, slow burn, hint of romance, hurt/no comfort, slight comedy, strangers to friends, friends to?
⚉ theme: stranger!jiung, stranger!reader
⚉ warnings: character disappearance, mention of parental abandonment, feelings of loss, unnecessary use of the words: ice cream, bench, park, walk, smirk and tease
Masterlist ┋ |pt.2| a walk can be beautiful, and still painful <-
⚉ a/n: welcome or welcome back! Whoa, this is the longest story I have ever written... and I am kinda proud of it (even if there is still some room for improvement). Let me know how you liked the story, and if you would be interested in a part two! I have some ideas. Thank you so much for reading, leaving a heart, or even reblogging - it means a lot to me! If you see any mistakes, please feel free to kindly correct me ♡
Every single day you liked to go on a walk around your neighborhood. It started when you were only five years old and your dad randomly decided to go on a walk with you, just to spend some quality time with his child. Since then, you two went out every single day (unless one of you had a valid reason not to go), because you enjoy it so much—the ice cream, your dad always bought you on these small trips, might have helped a lot too.
No matter the weather, you always found some time to go out and walk around, with the final destination that was a nearby park where the sweet cold treat always awaited you and your dad. With your dads fun—and sometimes unbelievable—stories, the path never felt boring, though it was the same every single time.
Surprisingly, your favorite weather to go for a walk, was when it rained. When you were still young enough, you always wore a raincoat, which had one of your favorite characters on it, and rain shoes. With you growing up, your rain attire changed from your favorite raincoat, to an umbrella that you shared with your dad, until you both could no longer fit under it. Since then, you had your own umbrella and gone back to a design that had your childhood character; but this time more minimalistic, just to remind you of the fun times you had as a child.
Today was no different, you once again went for a walk but sadly, this time without your dad. He had to leave for a month to another country for a business trip, so it was only you for the time being. Yes, you could just stay at home, but it was a must at this point. It would feel so wrong if you didn’t go to stretch your legs to a nearby park and buy an ice cream—which you always sent a picture of, to your dad. Was it to tease him that you're still getting your sweet cold treat, even without him? Maybe.
When you arrived at the park, you went straight to buy an ice cream. Because it was a sunny day (and a very hot one), one of the employees was outside with the sweets shop's ice cream trolley, selling it there. You bought a scoop of lemon ice cream and added some sprinkles on top.
Once you paid for it, you went to the side, so you wouldn’t be in the way of other customers, and quickly took out your phone to snap a picture to send your dad later. After that was done, you put your phone in the back pocket of your shorts where your wallet lived for this walk too. With no other things in your way, you dug into the ice cream that was already a second away from dripping down the cone—luckily, you or your clothes didn’t end up messy or sticky.
You were just walking around the park, enjoying the sunny day, though, the heat was balancing on a very thin line with being unbearable. Of course, because it was such a beautiful day, there were a lot of other people too. Many of them were there with their families having a picnic, others took out their pets (mostly dogs) for a walk or to just play with them, and a lot of elderly people decided to enjoy the sun too.
Nothing out of the ordinary. But there was one person who was always sitting on the same bench that was under a large tree, hiding in its shadow from the sun. It was a boy, looking around your age, and he was just sitting there with a sketchbook in his hands and a tint case full of pencils with an eraser placed next to him.
You noticed him sitting there roughly two months ago and since then, you've been seeing him on every walk you took in the park. He was just a normal boy, enjoying his time outside like everyone else, but there was something about this boy that always made you think about him when you saw him sitting there.
You never approached him. Mainly because your dad was on a walk with you, and you definitely didn’t want to abandon your dad and the time you had with him, because of a boy you don’t even know—and also because why would you just go to a random boy? How would you even start a conversation?
But your dad is already a week away—and will be for another three weeks—so you were finding the courage to go and talk to the boy to finally feed your curiosity and possibly make a new friend.
"You got this." You mumbled to yourself while exhaling softly and focused on the path that was leading you towards the bench.
With each step closer to the mysterious boy, who intrigued your interest, you felt more unsure about all of this. Suddenly, you weren’t so confident like you were in the morning and had second thoughts about this. What if he is going to think you're some creep that is stalking him? You didn’t want him to think that because that is not true, but would he believe you?
A thought, that this is a bad idea, popped in your head (the voice in the back of your mind was actually screaming at you very loudly that you shouldn’t be doing this) and you stopped in your tracks. Only a few steps away from him—you for sure looked like a creep right now.
You were ready to turn around and walk away, to continue with your path—not caring about the boy—but a voice made you freeze. "You don’t have to look so scared. I don't bite, you know?"
"Ehm... Y-yeah, sorry." Your brain decided to shut down at the worst possible moment. You closed your eyes and took a deep breath to collect your thoughts; you now don’t look just like a creepy stalker but also a crazy one, great!
You opened your eyes once you heard the boy talk again. "Come, take a seat." He moved his tint case with pencils closer to him so you would have more room to sit down (and probably, to not destroy his pencils).
"Thanks." You mumbled and slowly sat on the opposite end of the bench, to leave some space between you two. You already crossed enough boundaries, so you didn’t want to cross another one by sitting way too close to him.
Once you were seated, there was nothing but silence between the both of you, obviously. The only thing that could be heard were other people around you having fun and also the sound of pencil against a paper. What else could you have expected when he doesn’t know you and you don't know him? Starting a conversation seemed like an impossible task at the moment—especially with your brain still in a shut-down mode.
After a few more moments of silence, your brain finally decided to work again and come up with a question you could ask; a very obvious and normal question. The whole time you tried to compose yourself, the boy had a small amused smirk on his face, which you didn’t even notice, while still paying attention to his drawing.
"My name is Jiung." The boy suddenly said, taking you off guard again, and you ended up just staring at him in the process. "It looked like you wanted to ask me about my name. Did I guess that right?" He moved his gaze from the drawing to look at you, the smirk still playing on his lips.
"Eh, yeah." Was all you managed to say to him, and you immediately gave yourself a big slap in your mind. You knew this meeting wouldn’t go smoothly, but this was absolutely horrible, and you wished for the ground to just swallow you, to prevent you from embarrassing yourself further.
The boy, Jiung, chuckled softly and shook his head a little. "Can I now know your name?" He led the conversation you were supposed to start in the first place, but after seeing you struggle so much, he took that role on himself. "I think it would only be fair after I told you mine, don't you think?" The smirk wasn't leaving his face anytime soon.
"Oh, sure, of course." You said immediately because your brain (that was very useless to this point) finally comprehended everything that had happened and started to function how it was supposed to from the beginning. "My name is Y/N."
Jiung gave you a warm smile, though, you could still see in his eyes the amusement he had from your brain crashing out and failing you. But you couldn’t blame him. "It's nice to meet you, Y/N." He said and with a slight nod, turned back to his drawing.
And then, another silence occurred around you both. You had a question in your mind you wanted to ask—a different one from the previous you didn’t even have a chance to ask—but you weren’t sure if you could ask it. It wasn’t anything personal, you were just curious about his drawing. But for him, that might actually be a personal question, and you didn’t want to upset him.
'Why did I even do this? I should have just minded my own business.' You scolded yourself in your mind, looked down to your lap and bit your bottom lip out of nervousness. You vowed to yourself that you will never try to make friends ever again, they're gonna have to come up to you themselves.
Someone from above had to decide to be nice to you and reward you for at least trying to talk, because Jiung wasn’t hesitant to speak up again. "I saw you here many times with your dad, I assume?" He placed a colored pencil into his tint case and took another one to continue his drawing you still were curious about.
"Yes." you nodded your head. "That’s my dad." you confirmed again, like the simple 'yes' you said a second ago wasn’t enough.
"It's nice that you still go outside with your dad." He said, looking at you from his drawing once more. "You must have a very nice friendship." His words weren’t mean, but they almost sounded like that. Like he was envious about your relationship with your dad. But his eyes were telling a completely different story that sparked another match of curiosity inside you.
"It is nice, yes." You agreed with him and looked away from his gaze. Jiung also looked away and paid attention back to his drawing, just like before you awkwardly approached him.
"Hm," he paused. "I am more of a loner in this case. I love my mom… my parents, but going on a walk with them every day?" He shook his head with a low chuckle, not finishing his trail of thoughts. But he didn't have to. You had an idea what he might want to say.
"Yeah, many would not want to spend this much time with their parents, even if they do love them." You looked back at him, feeling a little bit more at ease while talking about this subject. "But I'm used to it, you know? It's like an unwritten rule, or tradition if you will, between me and my dad." You couldn’t help the small laugh that escaped your lips upon saying that out loud. And it wasn’t even a bad thing, just… Not a very common one.
"You don’t have to explain yourself to me." He placed the pencil back into his tint case and closed his sketchbook, meaning that he was done for today. Or he was just done with you and wanted to find a different place where you wouldn’t bother him so he could draw in peace again (which you would absolutely understand, if that's the case). "I’m not judging you or anything, don't worry." And that smirk was back on his face.
"Yeah… yeah, sure." You weren’t sure what to say to that, so your brain decided to rumble something out, making an even bigger fool out of you—yes, he was definitely leaving to be alone again, to be without your awkwardness ruining his day. "Sorry." The apology just slipped your lips because it felt right, and you immediately looked down in shame, cursing at yourself mentally.
Jiung was watching you for a moment, his expression twisted in confusion. But then… he let out a quite loud laugh while throwing his head back. "You're an interesting person, Y/N." He grabbed his belongings and stood up from the bench, taking a quick glance around to check if he didn’t forget anything. "I hope I'll see you here again tomorrow." And with that, he left.
You stayed sitting there, watching his figure disappearing from your sight. Once he was completely gone, and you couldn’t see him anymore, your brain started to function properly again—it was just like magic, but not a very useful one. Sadly, your brain just kept repeating to you the awkward conversation (more like lack of a conversation) you had with Jiung and your face turned red out of embarrassment.
With a groan, you hid your face in your palms and started to curse yourself even more at how stupid you looked, and how you should have just left it be and never approach him. But then your mind brought up a sentence he told you before he left your awkward self: 'I hope I'll see you here again tomorrow.'
He wanted to see you again.
You raised your head with furrowed eyebrows as you repeated his words over and over again in your head, still not truly believing them. Didn’t you just make that up so you would feel a little better about this failed attempt of getting to know the boy? You must have to.
Why would he want to see you again when you just… Well, you didn’t do exactly anything bad, you simply did not do anything at all, only made a big fool out of yourself. You couldn’t even ask a simple question: 'What's your name?' Yet, he wanted to see you?
"Better not get my hopes up." You mumbled to yourself and finally took your leave from the park too. Tomorrow is a new day and hopefully, it'll be far better than whatever today was supposed to be about.
You were excited to meet Jiung again, and that's why sleep left you in early hours with nothing else to do, just looking into your wardrobe and choosing the right outfit. When you had the right outfit set up, you finally did your morning hygiene (yes, today choosing an outfit first seemed more important) and then got dressed.
While sitting on your bed with phone and wallet clutched in your hands, ready to take them with you, the excitement slowly turned into anxiety, leaving you with a shaking leg due to nervousness. You checked the time—god knows how many times you already did—and let out a loud shaky exhale. Turning your phone off again, you looked out the window, lost in many thoughts that clouded your mind and each one got worse and worse; definitely not helping your sudden anxiety.
After a few more minutes (that felt agonizingly longer than they truly were), you decided to just go and face your fate of possible humiliation. So, even if a shame stuck to you like a tick to a skin, you didn’t chicken out from the situation, and went for your daily walk in a park. Instead of going after lunch—as you usually did with your dad because of his work—you went way before afternoon was even close.
Once you arrived, the sun was already warm enough, telling, that today will be another beautiful day. Well… at least the weather. If your day in particular will be beautiful, that is still unsure. While walking to the bench, you embarrassed yourself in front of Jiung the other day, you passed by a couple of joggers and bikers that were already leaving the park, being done with their morning workout without any interruptions in the form of kids or animals.
You also passed by the sweets shop without buying any ice cream—your head was still overflowing with thoughts about how this meeting would go. Will you embarrass yourself again? Highly positive. And even if you wanted to buy an ice cream, you would have to wait, because the employees were just setting to open up the shop.
Your steps slowed down upon noticing you were getting closer to the spot of meeting. Suddenly, another thought—among many others—popped in your head: 'Is this even the spot where you’re supposed to meet up?' Completely stopping in your tracks, you looked down at your phone that you were still clutching together with your wallet, and decided to message Jiung.
You don’t have his number or any of his socials, if he does any. You looked around in hopes to see him, but there was no one around, at least not in this specific side of the park. The only thing that could be heard around you were birds chirping hidden somewhere in the trees. With this realization, yet another thought took residence in your head: 'Was Jiung even serious about meeting up with you today?'
A loud, almost defeated sigh escaped your lips, as you closed your eyes for a second, collecting your running thoughts—you were surprised you didn’t get any headache from your head working overtime at full speed. Even with the thought that you may have been made fun of, you continued walking to the bench. Once you arrived, you sat down and placed your phone with a wallet next to you, but kept a protective hand over them. Now you just need to wait.
As the time was slowly passing by and the sun got warmer and warmer, a lot more people started to show up in the park. You even recognized a few people that you happened to see yesterday on your walk. But the one you were hoping to see wasn’t showing up, and you started to believe he was truly just messing with you. He is probably somewhere laughing his ass off at the thought of you sitting alone on the bench and waiting for him.
'So much for not getting your hopes up. Good job, Y/N.' You mentally scolded yourself while rolling your eyes in the process. You grabbed your phone and wallet, stood up from the bench you were nervously waiting for Jiung and started to walk away.
Still lost in your wildly running thoughts, you didn’t notice that you were passing by the sweets shop that already had an ice cream trolley standing at the front, which almost ended in a disaster—with you accidentally running into a poor person enjoying his ice cream. Luckily the person, you were a few seconds away from crushing into, noticed you in time and made a few steps back to not be in your way. The sudden movement caught your attention, and you looked around trying to figure out what that was.
Jiung was standing there, holding up ice cream in each hand with a small smile forming on his lips once he saw you finally recognized him. "Hi." His smile grew wider.
"Hey." You greeted him, a hint of confusion lingering in your tone. Because of you overthinking the whole situation, you truly believed you were made fun of, and he would never actually show up. But here he was. Standing right in front of you.
"I bought us an ice cream." He stated the obvious. Unless he was just a huge ice cream lover, he would buy two cones of ice cream for himself. "I wasn't sure which one's your favorite, so I chose a flavor I prefer. Chocolate."
"Yeah, that’s… that's perfect." You nodded your head, still in slight disbelief that he was true to his word and came to see you again. "I mean… My favorite is lemon, but chocolate is also nice." You also revealed your personal favorite ice cream flavor.
"Gonna keep that in mind." He winked at you, but before you had any chance to react, he continued. "I think we should move. It’s starting to get crowded here and more importantly, the ice cream won't last forever in this heat." He reminded you of the situation you were in, which brought you back to paying attention to your surroundings, and you now noticed the line that was forming in front of the ice cream trolley.
"Yes, of course." You agreed, and with that both of you started to walk side by side to the bench you left a few minutes ago—ready to go home and forget about Jiung. Change of plans, after all.
Luckily, while you were gone no one decided to take your spot on the bench, so when you arrived, you sat down and claimed it as your spot for the time you'll be occupying it.
Once you were both seated, Jiung turned to you and moved his hand, which was still holding onto the ice cream, closer to you. "Here, for you." He said with a small smile. "But hurry up eating. I have a feeling it will melt soon." He added.
When you took the cold treat from him, he immediately started to enjoy his scoop of ice cream. "Thank you." You mumbled almost shyly and dug into it too. Jiung just waved a hand at your gratefulness, saying with it, that it's okay.
"I must admit," he stared. "I thought you can’t speak properly." He looked at you with a teasing smirk, but quickly turned back to his chocolate ice cream.
"What?" You furrowed your eyebrows, trying to think of a reason why he would assume such a thing. "Why?" You looked at him with a small glare; did you seriously look that stupid that some boy, you met barely 24 hours ago, thought you can’t speak?
"Well…" He paused, just to tease you a little more before giving you the answer. "You weren’t very verbal yesterday." A quick glance, still with a smirk playing on his lips, was thrown your way and your cheeks, in an instant, turned pink out of embarrassment.
"Ah, that…" You moved your gaze back to the ice cream and licked around the edge of the cone to prevent any melted ice cream from dripping down onto your fingers. "That was…" You searched for the right words but couldn’t come up with any. "Yeah." Was all your brain could formulate.
Jiung let out a hearty laugh, finding your communication skills highly amusing. He was having so much fun over your troubled speaking, that he almost dropped his ice cream right onto his pants. You of course saw that, and also saw how his face changed very fast from all bright and happy to a slightly frightened one, because he was a second away from messing up his clothes and losing the cold treat he was enjoying so much. Now was your time to have a good laugh.
"Hey, that's not funny." Even as he said in a mildly offended tone, that you dared to laugh at him, the corners of his lips turned slightly upwards. "I could have lost my ice cream, and then I would have to steal yours."
"Oh, no, no, no." You shook your head and moved more to the edge of the bench, away from him, to prevent him from making his threat come true.
"Calm down, I'm joking. I won't steal it from you." He chuckled and went back to finishing his ice cream. You were almost done too, so you two sat in a comfortable silence while eating the last remnants of your ice creams.
As you both finally finished eating, the silence stayed between you both while you were simply enjoying the beautiful day, looking around at other people doing their own things that brought them happiness. Your eyes suddenly fell onto a few kids that were sitting around one spot on the concrete pavement and were drawing over it with colored chalk. People had to walk around them through the well-kept grass but neither of them seemed to care—quite the opposite, actually.
Many of them gave the children warm smiles—probably being reminded of their own childhood—and some even stopped by and praised their creations and artistic skills. Of course, it wasn't the best skills out there, but it's kids having fun we're talking about and if they are passionate about something, we should encourage it. Unless it harms someone, obviously, but that's a conversation for another time.
The sight of the children happily drawing reminded you of Jiung's own artistic skills, but you didn’t notice that he would bring his sketchbook with him today. You turned your head to face Jiung so you could ask him about the sketchbook—and maybe finally ask about his drawings too—but Jiung wasn’t sitting there anymore.
"Jiung?" You called out his name, your brows furrowed in confusion at his unannounced disappearance.
You wanted to call out his name again, but you could suddenly hear Jiung's voice right next to your left ear, making your heart jump in your chest: "Come on, let's get going."
It wasn’t any surprise that you jumped in your seat a little, as his voice came out of nowhere—mind you, right next to your ear—and startled you. You quickly moved your head to the other side, to see Jiung's face leaning close to yours with his significant smirk; he was definitely enjoying your reaction too much.
"Scared you?" His tone was almost mocking, like he wasn’t the culprit who made you jump out of your skin.
"Can you give me a warning next time or something?" You knitted your eyebrows together, being slightly annoyed by his little action that he did without any reason. You also had trouble keeping yourself back, because you wanted to punch him in the shoulder (lightly, of course). "And where do you even want to go?" You asked the main question.
"Sorry, sorry." He straightened back up, and even put his hands up to show you that he doesn’t mean any harm—probably sensing your little violent thought. "But it’s really fun to tease you." He added, putting his hands back down, leaving them by his sides.
You rolled your eyes. "Yeah, I noticed." Even if you were annoyed by this, you also found it… fun. And it made you feel—for some reason—warm inside, and you had to suppress the urge to smile. "Can you now tell me where you want to go?" You said your question again in hopes that you'll now have your answer.
"Drawing." His answer was very simple. It was simple to the point that you still had no idea where he wanted to take you. At least you knew what he wanted to do.
"Drawing?" Your eyebrows were so close to each other from confusion, that it almost looked like you've been frowning. "But where?" As you said it, your eyes instinctively fell onto the kids, still peacefully coloring the concrete pavement. "You really think they let you hang out with them?" You turned to look back at Jiung with raised eyebrows.
"Of course." He said, maybe a little too smugly. "I am very charming, the kids will love me." He moved his eyebrows up and down and then gave you a big smile.
"If you think so." You shook your head lightly in disbelief. "I won't ruin it for you, I guess…"
"Come on!" He took your hand and helped you on your feet. Once you were stable on your legs, he let go of your hand. "Or are you scared of kids too?" Yet another teasing smile covered his lips, and now you did nudge his shoulder a little.
"I'm not." You crossed your hands over your chest, almost giving into the temptation to stomp your leg against the ground, like a kid would.
Jiung laughed, grabbed your hand again (uncrossing them from over your chest) and dragged you towards the kids that had no idea what they had coming. But, either way, a faint blush tinted your cheeks to a pinkish color. There was something about Jiung that made you feel, dare to say, safe and happy.
Luckily, the kids allowed you to join their drawing session and lend you two their colored chalk. No, it wasn’t thanks to Jiung and his charming self. One of the kids actually threatened to throw a blue chalk at him if he didn’t leave them alone. Quite a funny scene, but when you saw that Jiung would do the same thing to the poor kid as a payback, you had to quit your chuckles and intervene.
Promising the kids you'll take them to the sweets shop—only if their parents agree—saved you and Jiung a spot with them. And a wide warm smile flashed to the boy, who earlier threatened Jiung with a blue chalk, guaranteed you some chalk for you two too, so you could draw alongside them.
The "art class" was going pretty smoothly, and you could see, Jiung was in his element because he was fully concentrated only on his drawing and wasn’t wasting time with teasing you or the kids. A few of the kids stopped working on their pieces, so they could watch Jiung make his own piece come to life. To your surprise, he even let the kids help him color some sections of his art. He gave them instructions and the kids followed without any problem.
But you weren’t cut short from an audience either. The rest of the kids, who weren’t mesmerized by Jiung and his drawing (yes, including the boy with a blue chalk), moved closer to you, and now you had your little helpers too. They definitely deserve some candy after this, or ice cream, the choice is theirs.
With the help of the kids, both of your works were finished in no time, and all of you were now standing around the drawings, admiring them and praising each other for the good job all of you did. Of course, Jiung's drawing was better, much better, but that didn’t matter. The important thing was that all of you had fun, enjoyed this small drawing session and are proud of your creations.
Jiung actually praised your piece—said a lot of positive things—and you could tell he is sincere, that he is not just saying it for the sake of the children's feelings. On his face, there wasn’t the usual smirk but genuine honesty and a proud smile; he even applauded you and the kids, which was joined by the group of his helpers. Your group applauded them too for the amazing work they have done.
Once you helped the kids to pack up all of their belongings (chalk, mostly), you went with them to see their parents and asked them if you could take their kids to a nearby sweets shop for a small treat. The luck was on your side today, because the parents agreed. The chanted pleading of their children might have helped the situation just a little…
As it got closer to noon, the parents called back their children, so they could go back home and have their midday meal. While the kids were going back to their parents, all of them gave you a warm goodbye and also shared their gratitude for the candy you bought them. You and Jiung both said your goodbye to them too and thanked them for their help on the drawings.
You were the one who got most of the credit, because you were the one paying for everything and… well, the kids seemed to like you more than Jiung. No, all of this wasn’t about who is better with kids and who they like more, but you couldn’t lie it felt good to be the favorite one (even if the candy you bought for them helped with that).
"It's lunchtime." Jiung said a very obvious thing, but before you could come up with some funny remark, he continued. "Can I take you for some food?" He looked at you, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his jeans. You could see in his eyes a hint of nervousness and that alone, alongside his question, made you speechless.
Did you hear him right or did you just imagine his words? Was your imagination even that strong to trick you like that?
You must have been silent for a long period of time because Jiung arched his eyebrows, though, a hint of sadness crossed through his eyes. "You good?" He asked. "Look… I just… I don't know. I thought it would be a good idea. Because it's lunchtime, you know? Nothing serious." And suddenly, he was the one who was at a loss of words. Or more like blabbering and stumbling over them, because he didn’t know what to say.
"I would love to go." You said, but it looked like Jiung didn’t hear you, because he was still blabbering an explanation why he asked you for lunch and that he heard about this restaurant. "Jiung." You gently grabbed his hands that he moved out from his pockets to passionately follow his speech.
Finally, he stopped and paid you attention. "Yes?" He waited for you to continue, keeping his hands in yours.
"I would love to go and grab lunch with you." You gave him a small reassuring smile, followed by a light squeeze of his hands.
That seemed to snap him out from his blabbering daze, and he immediately moved his hands back to his sides. He was looking at you for a second longer than was necessary and then nodded. "Okay, great." His smile was full of relief while his shoulders relaxed.
Silence fell upon you two and now was your time to lead the conversation, just like Jiung did yesterday when you were unable to form proper words. "So… What were you saying about the restaurant?"
The tips of Jiung's ears turned red, but you decided to keep the teasing for later, or maybe for a future blackmail; only, if there will be a next time. "Ah, yeah." He scratched the back of his neck. "I wasn't there myself, yet, but I heard only good things about it. You know, the typical things that are said about every new restaurant."
You now understood why Jiung liked to tease you about your poor communication skills you showcased yesterday. Seeing him like this, fighting his embarrassment and stumbling over his own words while searching for the right ones to say, was very endearing.
But you just gave him a big warm smile. "Go ahead then. Lead the way." You gestured with your hand for him to start to move. Jiung, in return, looked at you with a grateful smile and started to move towards the restaurant with you walking right by his side.
Jiung took you to a small Italian restaurant that you didn’t even hear about being newly opened in the area. You haven't seen any posters of grand opening nor have you read any articles on socials, which new businesses love to do in this age full of technologies. Regardless, the place was quite busy, and it left you surprised at its early popularity—you'll have to tell your parents about this place, they will for sure love it.
Still with luck stuck to you two, you were able to find a free table for two people which was absolutely perfect. Jiung took out two menus from the stand that was neatly in the middle and handed you one of them. You took it with a small thanks and started to search for something that could please your appetite.
Soon, a waiter arrived at your table with a notepad in his left hand and a pen in his right, while greeting you both with a gentle smile. Once he asked for your order, Jiung let you answer first. You chose Tortellini with sauce and soda. Jiung stayed with you on the pasta train, but he chose lasagna instead with the restaurant's homemade lemonade. The waiter wrote everything into his notepad, and with a small nod, left to give your order to the kitchen, so they can start to prepare your meal.
"So…" Jiung started, taking the conversation back into his own hands. "Wasn’t your dad mad you went out without him again?" He asked, looking at you with the same expression he had yesterday, when you were talking about your relationship with your dad—envious and sad.
"No, no." You shook your head. "My dad is away on a business trip. He will be back in three weeks." A small smile formed on your lips as soon as you said it. You were excited for your dad to come back and join you again on your everyday walks to the park.
"Ah, I see." He nodded and looked down, playing with some coasters that were in the middle of the table, right next to the stand with menus.
You trapped your bottom lip between your teeth, as you were contemplating if it's a good idea to ask or not. Having a much clearer mind than yesterday (when your brain decided to take a vacation), you finally spoke: "Do you… Do you have a bad relationship with your dad?"
It was a risky question to ask, especially when you properly met Jiung only yesterday, and you still had yet to know him. Asking such a personal question—even assuming something of this level—might end up in complete disaster, and you would never have a chance to see Jiung again.
Jiung chuckled. "Yeah, you could say that." His voice was filled with bitterness. "He left me and my mom with the words, that he can't do this anymore."
He didn’t say more, so you didn’t ask. You had the feeling you were already treading on a thin line with asking the first question, and you definitely weren’t crazy enough to push your luck and pry on his personal life more. Jiung actually told you more than enough to finally shut the lingering curiosity that was holding onto you since yesterday.
"I'm sorry to hear that." You said softly, still unsure if that was the right thing to say, but you felt like you had to say something. You couldn’t imagine your own dad doing something like that, just the thought made your heart clench painfully—and now imagine how Jiung must feel.
"You don’t need to be sorry." He exhaled softly, still playing with the coasters. "It's been… a long time." He moved his gaze up, back at you, and you could see the lingering pain in his eyes. You expected his face to look angry, but that wasn’t the case. His face was full of acceptance and… understanding.
"Here is your food." Suddenly, the waiter came back with your order, breaking the tense conversation you had a second ago—you could say the waiter came at the right time. "One tortellini with sauce," he placed a plate in front of you. "And one lasagna." He placed the other plate in front of Jiung.
"Thank you." Said you and Jiung at the same time.
"You're welcome." He gave you both a warm smile, oblivious to the tense atmosphere. "I'll be back in a minute with your drinks, sorry for that delay." Without waiting for any response, he went back to the kitchen.
Jiung moved his gaze down to his food, grabbed his utensils and started to eat. A clear sign this conversation was over, so you did the same thing and tried to enjoy your tortellini. Your drinks were served just a minute later, followed by "Enjoy your meal!" from the waiter.
The rest of your lunch went by in silence. The only time you talked to each other was when Jiung was ready to pay for both meals, to which you immediately said that he doesn’t have to, that you're fine paying for your own meal, but he insisted. And because you didn’t want to argue with him and make him more upset, you said your thanks and that was the end of your conversation. Then, you left the restaurant and slowly made your way back to the park.
"Jiung." You couldn’t stand the silence any longer, so you gathered your courage and said his name to get his attention. But you didn’t wait for his response to know if he is listening to you. "Look, I am very sorry. I shouldn’t have asked you about your dad. It was rude of me."
Jiung stopped walking, which made you stop too, and looked at you. "Y/N, I am not mad at you for asking that. I am not mad at all. You were just curious and that's okay." He said. "The anger I felt for my father came back, and I didn’t want to snap at you for something that isn’t even your fault, but my father's."
"Still, I should have just stayed curious and kept the question to myself." You said, the heavy guilt having fun time nagging you.
Jiung was looking at you for a minute, until a big smile formed on his lips. "At least you are finally talking." Here it was again, he went back to teasing you. "Seriously, Y/N. Shouldn’t you be attending some communication classes or how to talk to people type of thing?"
"Oh, how funny you are." You said, sarcasm coloring your every word, yet you couldn’t hide your own smile. "I was nervous yesterday, okay? I didn't want you to think I'm some creep or something."
"Don’t worry, that wasn’t my first impression of you." His words were supposed to be calming, but the smirk on his face told you otherwise. He was definitely thinking something much worse.
"Do I want to know?" You raised one of your eyebrows in question. But when he opened his mouth to continue, you made your decision. "You know what? I think I'm fine not knowing." You said quickly, not giving him any chance of exposing his teasing thoughts.
"Oh, c'mon! It wasn’t anything bad." Even if you knew him for barely a day—combining yesterday's and today's meeting together—you knew better than to trust his pretty face in this manner. "I promise." His still visible smirk did not convince you.
"Odd." You pursed your lips. "For some reason I don't trust you." You pretend to think of an actual reason why that might be.
"Ouch." Jiung dramatically put his hand over his heart and acted hurt. "Y/N doesn’t trust me. What am I going to do now?" He looked up at the sky and raised his other hand clenched in fist. This didn’t go unnoticed by people passing by. "What?" He wept, still showing his acting skills to bystanders who weren’t exactly thrilled.
Were his acting skills good or bad? You still had yet to decide that.
You couldn’t stand the judging stares of others, so you punched him in the shoulder, which immediately grabbed his attention. He looked at you with a frown, rubbing his hurt shoulder.
"Don’t look at me like that." You said in a hushed voice. The stares made you feel like the people can hear you even if they are standing on completely opposite sides from you two.
"You punched me." He pouted which was a clear sign he is back to normal and ready to tease you again. "I need a kiss to make it better."
"People are staring." You argued, back in your normal voice. "And it wasn’t even that hard of a punch, just a small push." You tried to explain but then your brain finally processed his other sentence. "You need a…what?" Your cheeks turned pink as fast as Jiung's ears turned red.
"Nothing." He said, acting like he had no idea what you were talking about—even his shoulder magically stopped hurting. "Shall we continue our walk back to the park?" He suggested, his ears still red.
"Yeah." You agreed, not wanting to press further. "Sure." Without saying anything else, you both returned to the park.
Since that day, which was already three weeks in the past, you and Jiung have been meeting up every day. Your meetups were always at the same bench you saw Jiung drawing in his sketchbook all the time, and where you first had the courage to talk to him.
You two agreed on lunch as your meetup time, so you could treat each other to different delicious meals. Each day it was one of you who took the other out, and together you discovered various new spots that weren’t even that popular, which was only a bonus—fewer people are much better than overcrowded spots.
Of course, since he started seeing you, he never brought his sketchbook with him. He only brought it one time, just because you finally asked him about his drawings, and he promised to show you—that was the only exception. You were very excited that particular day and absolutely blown out at how talented Jiung is.
Though, he didn’t show you the full sketchbook. Before you could turn to the last few pages, he quickly took it from your hands with the stupid smirk of his and the following words: "These are not finished yet, you'll have to wait." You gave him an eye roll for that but decided to go along with it, you were already satisfied enough from the drawings you have seen.
You two were truly enjoying each other's company, and even a blind person could see that there was something more between you two going on. Something that neither of you had the balls to say out loud. Or you were just too shy and awkward to even acknowledge it.
That was at least in your case.
But in Jiung’s? He might have another reason why he is scared to accept and admit his feelings that he has for you.
Once your dad was finally back home from his business trip, you told him about this new friend you met at the park, and asked whether it would be alright for him to accompany you on your walks. Or at least, for one of them, so you could introduce Jiung to your dad—you were pretty sure he would like him.
Your dad agreed, but he asked if he could meet him on the next walk. He wanted to spend some time just with you after the small departure and before someone new would join you—he didn’t see you for a month, and he wanted to spend some quality time with only his child. You understood his reason and wrote Jiung a message that you won't be able to meet-up for that one specific day, because your dad was back (yes, you finally have his number, so no more stressing about if he is going to show up or not).
Jiung messaged you right away that it's okay, that he would not be able to come either way on that day, so it worked out perfectly. He also sent you an additional message where he was telling you to have a great day with your dad. Replying to him with a few heart emojis was a quick end to your conversation.
After enjoying your walk with your dad—where he was asking almost the whole time about this new friend of yours while you treated him to an ice cream as a welcome—you headed back home where your conversation about everything and anything continued. That night, you went to bed all giddy and excited about the upcoming day because you will finally introduce Jiung to your dad. It was also a little nerve wrecking, but the excitement overshadowed that negative feeling.
But Jiung didn't show up that day.
That alone was odd, because you messaged him the night before, and he agreed, even said he can't wait to meet your dad. But the weirder thing came later, when he never replied to your message, asking why he hasn't shown up. He actually stopped responding to every message you send and call you made. It left you… heartbroken.
You waited for his reply every day, holding onto your phone like a lifeline. But his name never popped up on your screen. You still continued with the unspoken tradition you have had with your dad since you were a little kid, and went for a walk every day—that didn’t change. However, you couldn’t find the same joy in it anymore. Every time you passed by the bench, that was your meet-up spot with Jiung, you hoped to see him there, waiting for you. But he never did.
All you could think about was Jiung and his whereabouts. Why did he suddenly disappear without saying anything? Yes, you didn’t know each other for a very long time, but you couldn’t deny the connection that managed to grow between you two even in that short amount of time. You were friends, close friends, and all of this—all the silence from his end—was hard for you to accept.
Your dad saw how much you struggled to see the bench empty, how deeply the absence of this new friend—he didn’t even know much about—had affected you and one day he suggested that maybe you should start a new route on your walks, maybe on a different side of the neighborhood. He even suggested that you should perhaps stop going out on a walk for some time, to make peace in your mind and let go of the false hope you have. It was killing him to see his child always so sad just by passing that empty bench.
You immediately dismissed his crazy thoughts. Changing the route? That could work, but not at the moment—what if Jiung showed up one day, but you wouldn’t? That thought was unacceptable. And stop going for walks? Was he crazy? You would never do that! You loved that, and you wouldn’t give that up for some boy who you… Who you deeply missed and… something more.
Something, that now even the thought of it scared you much more than it ever did. Because what if it's true, the feelings? If you ever found the courage to express your feelings to him, you wouldn't be able to, because he is... God knows where he is.
Being broken by someone who you didn’t have a single chance to properly love, who didn’t have a chance to properly break your heart… That was something unimaginable, the pain unbearable.
The days were passing by and once you lost count of how many already went by, you started to think about your dad's suggestion of changing the route of your every day walks. Seeing the bench, but no sign of Jiung, always made you feel like someone is squeezing your heart and with each squeeze, hope slowly left your body piece by piece.
You've lost hope of ever seeing Jiung again.
That's why this was your last intentional walk to the park—especially a visit to the bench—so you could give some kind of farewell to the memories you made there with Jiung. It was crazy just how three weeks of friendship, of feelings you didn’t have the chance to properly explore, could make you feel so empty. Make you feel left alone, betrayed almost.
Your heart painfully clenched for the last time, as your eyes laid upon the empty bench, hidden under the tree's shade. Still no Jiung, just as you thought but not wished for. The last tiny bits of hope leaving your body completely.
You sadly nodded your head as you approached the bench, but didn’t stop in front of it this time. It was your way of moving forward. You continued with your walk by your dad’s side, leaving all those memories behind—at the bench.
Who knows where Jiung's end is, but you still wished for him to be happy and healthy, to be somewhere safe. Because after all, you’ll never stop having a place for him in your heart. Even if you knew him for only three weeks.
