— grocery store.

@✽ jiwon p. there are a couple of hobbies eunbi can't stand despite not giving it a try: skydiving, giving yourself a fright by watching scary movies, touching newer instruments within a feet radius to name a few. what she judged as a strenuous hobby years ago turns out to be one of the hobbies she likes doing until this day.

as two peas in a pod who are devoted with the world of canvas and paint streaks on favourite shirts and unfinished artwork hidden behind a pile of finished ones, eunbi's twin could draw a question mark on top of eunbi's head when she came back home one night after her shift with yarns and knit / crochet equipments brimming in her bags. not that she is in a rut of her art, but eunchae is the person to give new hobbies a try to see for herself if she could "vibe" with it and keep doing it. eunbi can spot her on the carpet and a tutorial from her laptop a background noise whilst her twin worked the days after. she made a couple of hats and sweaters for herself, some sent out for gifts, and a couple more clothes intended for her pet. it looked like she had fun, and she did have fun.

eunbi, however, can be a bit different.

eunbi could say she was not in a rut more often than she'll admit to the fact during college, but she still held onto her lifeline as her college life passed from one season to the other. it was a struggle to juggle doing something that you don't like and dedicated to doing at the same time, and the negative outweighed the good things more. as soon as she let go of her fixation on "keeping herself on the pedestal" for her primary hobby and venture to more the world could offer, it felt liberating.

that was when eunchae invited eunbi to make a clothing piece with a cape for the cat. even of the empression that she might not like it at the end of the day, she said yes. the finishing product was lopsided but seeing the cat enjoying it — also known as giving it random scratches because it might be a tid tight around the tummy area — was a wonderful sight to see. she have some of its shredded yarn kept in a small box as a commemorating gift for herself.

ever since then, eunbi could do knitting one day and painting for the next in a breeze. stress from all the pressure from her grandmother slowly dwindled as work was smoother than it was before. there were times of unprecedented stump, which eunchae was happy to shower her twin with new hobbies they could try together and mostly didn't go well at the end of the day, so eunbi would be busy on her desk all night and have made couple of hats for the cat. said cat have it more as a toy than of clothing.

to put it simply, it has been approximately six years and eunbi still likes knitting. eunchae switched to horseback riding.

six years is both short and a stretch of time when it comes to hobbies as such. she could say she is still a beginner though could work a couple of hard piece but not there yet to be called intermediate. some tutuorials found in the internet looks a lot harder than it is when face to face so she's deligent when it comes to classes. she has learned a few tricks here and there as well as garnered a couple of advice from friends and colleagues. problems she considered as a barrier no longer she considers as one. she is still learning and likes learning.

the problem is that one of her students have found out from her parents' friends that she attended some classes and now asked to have a custom bucket hat made for them. a unison consisting of 24 pupils then said ditto. words can spread fast but not as quick as this.

not that she can't make a decent bucket hat, but compromising with children feels like a time bomb at zero-zero and a miniscule move could set it off. eunbi promised something along the lines of fried chicken instead, the love it a lot but they were adamant with the piece and soon, children then come up to her desk with random doodles of their hats and what colours they like with it. not wanting to upset them, their teacher soon instructed them to make a single file so she can measure. it will take a while with making, she said; as long as they get to have one, they replied.

as much as she loves her children so much, she hates how they could find a single fact about her and then make it as a business interrogation.

even if groggy, a back pain she can slowly feel creeping up from her lack of sleep, eunbi musters up her remaining energy to hit the store to bulk buy supplies. some colours have ran out — surprised she have made three so far — and she is in dire need of coffee, loaves of bread and couple bottles of mayonnaise. eunchae is kind enough to accompany her throughout the night with her horseback lessons and plans for joining archery lessons next time to keep herself awake, coffee machine working overtime as she worked with one stitch to the other. fearing they might have more requests up their sleeves and eunbi will not have the heart to say no, it is best she better work with this mini project of hers fast.

amongst the crowd of shoppers, eunbi could spot jiwon — and, almost instinctively, her feet paddled to where her friend slash classmate stands with a small smile after a big yawn. "hi, wonnie-ah, nice to see you here. what's up?" her voice, despite small, chirps up; the lack of social contact she have outside with work scarce obvious but she continues on, her upcoming question so sudden as her gaze scan on random boxes and bags in front of them. "i was also wondering if you remember about that small project miss hwang is about to introduce to us soon for class. and i hope work has been well for you as well."

@✽ jaehyun l. "crazy this man is crazy!" hyewon grumbles under her breath while hastily finding a spot in the parking lot. the display screen of her car flashed the time, and if she recalled correctly - it was half an hour until closing. she needed to move fast to buy all these last minute holiday decorations...because it'd be an awkward dinner regardless, atleast hyewon could spruce it up with some holiday cheer. hell throw in a mistletoe or two for kicks and giggles to see how her divorced parents would react. her father had called her just a half hour earlier saying that he was boarding a flight, only for hyewon to realize that meant he would be coming to visit her and her mother. to say the shock was immense would be an exaggeration as it took her entire willpower to not potentially destroy the aging man's eardrums through the speaker.

so here she was, quickly grabbing her purse and slamming the car door to rush inside the store - taking a cart along the way. moving at a speed that would make most power athletes jealous, she finds herself at the home goods section in a heartbeat. had her father told her earlier, hyewon would have enjoyed this trip much more - while being able to take in the pretty decorations around her. instead she moves methodically, picking the decor she needs and not sparing a glance at anything distracting.

that is, until her gaze locked onto the pretty coral shower curtains displayed in their full grandeur. it wouldn't hurt to check them out just a little bit..right? she wonders, putting the cart aside and stepping into the model bathroom to inspect the curtains closely. the material was nice, and she had some cash to spare tonight but before she could justify leaving a dent in her wallet she hears the creak of a door slamming shut as well as the click of a lock. the announcement on the speaker may as well have drowned out any color from her face. ", , !!" she says, moving quickly to slam on the door.

time was running out and she's thinking that she'd rather just leave without the decorations to just go home. however her heart sinks when the lights seem to dim and the chaotic prattle outside fades out. surely there would still be some employees left though, right? she wonders, continuing to slam on the door. "hello?? is there anyone still here?!" she exclaims in a panic, hoping anyone could free her from this situation.

@✽ seungwan s. Seoham tried his best to understand Seungwan’s unreadable expression, the ambiguity of it making him a little bit nervous. It did not help with his nerves that she was, for some reason, taking a step back— two actually, to look at him, probably. Her neck was craned upward slightly, he was very much used to this as he was almost always the tallest one in the room. Though most people hadn’t done this in a while so he slightly mirrored Seungwan, looking down at her and slightly leaning backwards. It was not on purpose, just a reflex, or a reflection of his confusion.

The sudden swoop of her hand to his sleeve almost shocked him but thankfully he didn’t stumble backward. Her soft apology plus her smile eased the tension in his muscles. “It’s fine, ande— ah yeah. Yeah!” he quickly replied, breaking into a more relaxed and genuine grin as she remembered something about him aside from what he had said. He gently tapped his chest with his left hand, an affirming gesture towards her. “Yeah, that’s me! I can’t believe you remember my digital art too, wow…” he trailed off, his voice getting softer as /he/ took a step back this time, bowing to Seungwan multiple times. “Son Seungwan, Yonsei… medical? Dentistry program? I swear it was something related to public health.” he tried his best to remember her program. He knew they weren’t from the same place, but they had interacted multiple times through extracurriculars. “I had no idea you were in Dandelion, you didn’t seem like the type for a small town.”

@✽ hyunjung k. Yewon was also out grocery shopping, being a college student ment she couldn't eat out all the time as much as part of her would love to do that. The internship she's at does make pretty good money for what it is, so she's not some broke college kid but still if she's going to things other then just eat out she does still need to cook a lot. so here she is figuring out what she's going to make this week, she thought she'd come to the produce area to get stuff to make a good salad with and more thinking about that while she's got kpop blasting in her ears. but then she notices someone familiar down the isle, it's not someone she's seen for a while so she does stop and pause her music for a moment to think and quickly remembers it's her old friend from school, before she moved out of her parents place and went to college and started her transition.

the memories start coming back to her now as she starts to think about all the good times they had together, and the less good times they had towards the end of their relationship. but then again that was then she also was stuck with a lot of things she wished she could change or do that she couldn't then but has now, perhaps it was the same with Hyunjung, or at least now that we don't have to work so hard to maintain an image since everyone is a lot more scattered, working their various jobs and lives instead of all being stuck at the same school building all day, she would be more willing to talk with her again, or heck maybe now that she's well a lady so all that macho stuff she was never any good at isn't being held against her anymore that might also help.

in anycase she has to admit she still doesn't have a lot of friends and would love to see if they could become friends again, so she goes over to her and waves. "Hey Hyunjung, wow fancy meeting you here, I recently moved to town and gosh it's so nice to see you again after all this time. do you live here now too?" this does lead her to wonder if Hyunjung recognizes her, or if her new look is to different from her old one.

She's wearing a pink tshirt with cinnamoroll from Sanrio trying to cook something, a matching skirt that hangs down to just below her knees and white tights leading into a pair of purple flats. you can also see she has her long hair pulled back into a lose ponytail, if you look in the cart you'll see a pretty random assortment of food she picked out, and in he front part sits a purse with a sakura tree pattern on it.

@✽ yewon k. What was her grandmother asking for again? Cabbage or cucumber? She said she was making kimchi, so Hyunjung was pretty sure she wanted cabbage, but she had just made cabbage kimchi the other day… When will that woman get a cell phone for Hyunjung to call her? Especially when doing errands like this. She could call her Aunt, who was at home, but she really wasn’t in the mood for another headache.

Perhaps she could get both. Looking up from her intense stare at the vegetables, she heard her name being called out. By someone, she didn’t… She... didn’t really recognize. Kind of? Hyunjung wasn’t sure, and it wasn’t like the usual moments of being called out for in Dandelion. She didn’t feel the urge to run away this time, run away from her past. Instead, she just felt… Confused.

@✽ love p. It was just another day for Sejun, with a fake smile on his lips as he greeted most of the customers, tired of that poor life he's been living since forever. wanting to just have one chance in life to earn a lot of money and actually do whatever he wanted. but feeling trapped in his own ego, Sejun didn't give a damn about people. he would do anything to just get ahead of them and be on top of everyone. and with that, he had a break, no customer coming through the cashier, causing him to just lean back looking outside at the rain pouring heavily. certainly wasn't a day to walk around and enjoy nature, at least he was inside, and hopefully, by the end of his shift, the rain would stop. so he thought. pressing his lips together, he started to hum some random song while going through his phone to text some of his flings, waiting for the next customer to show up.

@✽ eunwoo c. Donghun was a bit flustered. After all this was the first time someone ever offered to help him with anything. Of course, that was mainly his own doing, seeing as Donghun usually refused all help from people and sent people away and insisted he could handle himself. But this was a case in which he did need someone's help and was secretly grateful to have it. Not that he was gonna let the other one know that, of course. "Don't 'sir' me," scowled Donghun, "I'm not that much older than you. I bet I'm more youthful than you, and I'm a parent. I get up early everyday and work outside til late at night and raise a child, while you, young man, probably just sit on your all day." He rolled his eyes. "'Sir', phooey."

@✽ donghun l. [ hi omg so sorry for the late reply ;; ]

Eunwoo was about to respond the fact how can he hit the other guy when his hands were on the steering wheel but he just made no comment on it. Watching the male carried his daughter and along with the carseat, it seemed quite heavy and not to mention the groceries still at the trunk. Eunwoo was not a heartless guy, so he offered, “I’ll bring my car here instead, sir. Wait for me here,” He bowed to the male before making a run for it. The black haired guy was very confident of his driving skill, manoeuvring the car out of the park space and stopped near the family stood. Eunwoo got down from the car and helped the other with the carseat to be placed on the back seat before pressing the trunk button on the car remote. “Let me help you carry your groceries, sir.”

@✽ hyewon k. people are bustling about, the store crowded as it is just only a day away from christmas and twenty minutes from closing. jaehyun enters, quickly striding through and down the aisles, hoping to cross off everything on the list that his mother had given him. "okay, christmas cards.. where are the christmas cards, christmas cards.." he talks to himself, eyes darting to and fro from each big overhead hanging sign that indicated all the products in every aisle. spotting the sign he needed to get to, jaehyun steps in the direction he needs to go. reaching the aisle, he grabs a package of cards, making sure the inside of the card didn't have some cheesy, poorly written greeting line. after confirming this, jaehyun took the box under his arm. "okay, christmas cards, check. next, some stockings and festive napkins." he lets out a small noise of inconvenience, seeing that his next two items were located on opposite ends. however, before he could even begin moving, his phone rings.

"hi mom." jaehyun greets, answering his phone. he turns, looking around some more. noticing that the store was getting even more packed, and that he was somewhat in the middle of incoming and going shoppers, jaehyun moves to where he sees the most space. "hold on mom, i gotta get to somewhere i can hear you a bit better." he walks to the furniture section, standing by a model bedroom. there's a few, handful of people that are lingering around, quickly glimpsing at some pieces as they walk through, but much less foot traffic than the rest of the store. "okay, sorry mom, now you can continue." instinctively, he reaches into his jacket's pocket, taking the ring that was inside it. he begins to fidget with the plain, silver band between his fingers, having taken it off earlier for work. jaehyun had forgotten that it had been there. he rolls the ring in between his fingers, letting it slip on and off between each tips of his fingers, before moving onto the next.

the phone call is interrupted yet again, when an annoucement goes over the store's PA system. /"all shoppers, could i please have your attention, the store will be closing in 5 minutes, please make your way towards the cashier. thank you./

"oh shoot. mom, i gotta go. don't worry, i'll get everything, should be home in about 30 minutes. think the line to cash out is going to be long. okay, see you soon." jaehyun hangs up, about to returning to his shopping, when a burly man accidentally knocks into him. jaehyun immediately bows, apologizing profusely. "i'm so sorry." he then immediately crouches, looking to the floor. he's just dropped his ring. "!" he curses under his breath, unable to spot it in his vicinity. setting the box of christmas cards on the model bedroom's side table, jaehyun gets on his knees, peering under the bed, to see if the ring has rolled under it.

"phew." he exhales in relief, spotting the irreplaceable piece of jewelery. reaching out, jaehyun retrieves it. he then slips the ring onto the right hand of his pinky, not wanting to ever go through the devestating moment of potentially losing it, ever again. as he gets up from the floor and comes to a stand, that's when jaehyun notices that the store is suddenly eerily empty, its lights dimmed and in some areas, turnt off. "you've got to be kidding me.." he exasperates in frustration, realizing that the store was really trying to kick out its shoppers. he starts running, aiming to at least grab one more item before he potentially gets trapped inside.

@✽ seoham p. Park Seoham — ‘Seo as in outstanding and Ham as in fruitful!’ She had heard of the name in that same voice somewhere back during a dinner gathering, perhaps a few times more than she could count. Raising her head to face the tall man, she brushed away the fringe that covered her sight. Had she ever had to look up to this tall of a person before? Seungwan took a step back. Then, another step back when craning her neck just to get a good glimpse of the man’s face proved to be a taxing task.

Yeah, she definitely had to do this before.

His words pulled her out of a trance, and Seungwan quickly swooped in close and reached for the man’s sleeve. She pulled away, retracting her hand to her side when she realized it could have made him uncomfortable. “Sorry for reaching for your shirt.” She started with that first before giving him a nod and a smile. “Park Seoham, SNU Psychology. You’re the junior who’s really good at digital art, right?”

@✽ sujeong r. shiah watched as sujeong's cheeks puffed in the familiar expression she'd seen so many times before growing up, her body melting into nostalgia. her shoulders shimmied shyly as she shook her head. "I'm only able to come up with a fitting name because I have you as my muse!"

her face scrunched in a carefree, teasing smile as she slithered her arm between sujeong's crossed arms. "I'm teasing, I'm teasing, don't be mad," she retracted her words as she pulled sujeong back into her arms.

as shiah pushed the cart around the vegetables, she looked around and hummed, replying to sujeong with, "carrots are good! put them in!" and leaned over to examine the carrots over to make sure they were fresh before looking around the vegetables, taking her hand out as she gave sujeong her mental list of curry vegetables off the top of her head, "if it's curry, then... we should get potatoes and zucchini and bell peppers and maybe mushrooms?" and she reached over to grab a sack of russet potatoes, heaving it into the cart, "anything you don't like?"

[u w u look at me, replying only a month late <3 at this pace we'll have a full thread done by 2025 lmaoo TT]

@✽ siyeon l. Hongki didn’t even notice that another person had come up next to him, their presence shocking him. Either his music was way too loud or this person had the stealth of a ninja that he didn’t even notice them at all until he saw their hand reach for a salad. Though Hongki was never the type to judge anyone by their appearance, but the figure beside him looked almost… scary. Not in the bad way, nothing wrong with looking like that, it was just a little oddly out of place in a town like Dandelion. He managed to remove his headphones in time for him to hear what she said. “Ah… but isn’t that the point of the food… to look appetizing so we buy it faster?” He grabbed the salad he had put back on the shelf, inspecting the confusing orange ranch sauce before shrugging and grabbing two more and putting all three in his cart.

@✽ eunwoo c. [] hi

@✽ yuta n. there is no need to be crying, she keeps telling herself.

there is no point for fresh tiers to brim her lashes once again as she was declined with her wishes to pull away — /to run away once again/ — from his grasp, how undeniably tight yuta's hold was on her skin and staggering on her steps to keep herself upright, how confined the space and air between the alleyway; faint albeit obvious bright light the only colours she could make out from the world made out of glass ahead of her. there is no point for each heated gloss to roll on her cheeks as he strips himself bare in front of her. there is no point in staying and sharing tears with him when she can push him away and run as far as her feet could carry her.

but then there is nowhere else to go than here.

what she thought were healed cracks start to resurface once again, walls and dams that were built to shield herself away even from the probability, slight possibility, of seeing him. she could feel herself coil and break and rack with fears and apologies spilled through loud sobs, laboured breathing and shaking knees. even if with her arms holding herself up, it isn't and will never be enough to shield her away from the bloomed hurt in forms of thorns to coil in her chest, its thorns prickling deeper and deeper.

sooyoung could feel the weight of his raw confusion, hurt and pain his voice on her shoulders. it is a wrecking ball that plummets her defense to ashes. soon, tears and sobs are longer out of her own control.

there is no wine to cover the clear concrete this time, but she is certain that there is red and splotches of clarity swimming up her ankles pinning her further to the ground.

"i… i can't. i can't let you know…"

there are no right words to tell anything of what she was hiding from him, it always comes to the point of bad no matter how practiced — even if flourished — the sentences are; a wonderful music with lyrics of honesty from a person driven with deceit day to day. no individual would like to hear that their partner, behind their backs, was being paid to be someone else's partner albeit temporary. not only that, but said partner puts, sells, intimate parts of herself in a show that should be exclusive for their significant other only. despite the reasons behind the actions, if put into textbook definition, she was neither a loyal nor a faithful partner — and she was, still is, painfully aware of it.

a drastic change will soon unfold whether she chooses to tell him herself, or that time taking its own course and he himself will know about it, and there's a feeling that she knows it will turn out extremely bad either way. what she isn't aware of is the fact that yuta has suffered as much — even more than she imagined it will be — with how she completely cuts herself out of the picture. it was rather selfish to do so, cutting herself completely and without an explanation spared, but her younger self thought it was best to let go and save themselves from the chaos the confrontation might bring, and bring themselves to move on afterwards.

sooyoung still thinks it's best, even if it sounds extremely selfish on her part. and that's why she had to run away. again. no matter how many times she has to do so. for the sake of himself — for the sake of protecting him /from/ her.

she might not be able to strip herself bare right now, sooyoung still shows hints of skin — of scars, burns, cuts — unhealing. honesty is the bare minimum with however hell she pulled him through, but she figured that it won't hurt putting pieces of her heart on the plate for him. "i have no other words to say but i'm sorry. i still can't let you know and i want to run away from you again. i don't want the remaining pride i left for myself being stomped on. i don't want to go through the same disappointment i felt for myself with leaving you alone and without a goodbye. i don't want to feel the same guilt and shame i have on myself, but i have no other choice but to feel it hot and burning on my skin.

"it still hurts. and i don't want to be hurt anymore."

@✽ hongki l. siyeon only needed to pick up a few things from the supermarket and so she only had a basket on her elbow, carefully walking through the aisles to pick up a few things. she paused when somebody was already in the aisle as well, but she really wanted to get one of those salads so she wouldn't have to make one for her long shift tomorrow. she could hear him talking about orance sauce and she picked one up from beside him, looking at it with carefully concealed disdain on her features. "they're not supposed to be appetizing."

@✽ siyeon l. Hongki walked silently through the supermarket, very very slowly as he wanted to savour the nice chill of his surroundings. With his headphones resting comfortably on his head and blasting some heavy metal, he grabbed a ready-to-eat salad, squinting and trying to understand the small label. “It says ranch sauce but why is the sauce in the cup orange…” he mumbled to himself before setting the salad back onto the shelf. After a few seconds he picked it up again, not wanting to let go and he stood there in silence.

@✽ seungwan s. “Do I know you from university?” Seoham grinned slightly, nodding at her words while his hands were on the cart handlebars. Yeah, it was definitely her now that he took a few moments to register her face. He as an artist was rarely bad at faces and matching names with them, and he was blessed with decent memory too. “Well, you might have! Park Seoham?” he replied, his hands moving the gesture near his chest. “Left for the military early on, SNU Psychology!” He gave her a grin, hoping it was enough but he didn’t know he looked terribly awkward, like that awkward smiling old white man meme that went around the internet a few days ago.

There was some dull silence between them and he rubbed his nape, a little embarrassed and he was ready to pull his cart away. His yogurt was all in there anyway. “Oof, sorry, must just be a coincidence! Sorry for the mistake, haha, have a good day!”

@✽ eunwoo c. Donghun put his hands on his hips. "How is you telling me that you have weapons in your car supposed to make me feel better?" he asked, "If anything, that makes me scared you're gonna hit me over the head or spray me with the pepper spray." He turned away. "I mean, come on, you took a picture of my kid without my permission, how am I supposed to trust you? It's not abnormal for me to not trust you after that." He shivered as a chill came over him. "It's getting cold," he sighed. He went and got his daughter out of the car and got her carseat. "Fine, we'll go with you, but you better not him me with the bat."

@✽ seoham p. Seungwan found herself stunned, her breath shaking quickly, and her eyes wavered. She stayed rooted on both her feet, her arm now held back to her side as she wondered whether she had heard it right. Whether the man in front of her cart had spoken her name and if he knew her. Had they ever met? And where did he happen to have known her? Seungwan might be terrible at remembering names, but surely, she wasn’t as bad at remembering faces. Thus far, she hardly had a hard time recalling the people she had met throughout her life.

For a quick split second, Seungwan looked away and took one step back. She quietly reached for the handlebar of her cart, ready to zoom past the man. She tried to remember that face in seconds that she could spare to do so, but nothing came to mind. Not a name or a location conjured from her memory, but she could only guess that this man wasn’t a face she knew from high school. But when the man started to speak again, this time correcting himself, a load of relief washed over her being. She only gave the man a nod and a polite smile, happy that he might have been mistaken.

Seungwan pushed her cart forward and in the opposite direction of the man, only to stop when she heard her name being called out again. She spun her head around slowly and gave him yet another small smile, this time with a bit of wariness.

“I am Seungwan… do I know you from university?”

@✽ donghun l. Eunwoo waited for the stranger to finish the call until he was greeted by a curt response. Tough one. The male decided to dismiss it as he took a peek at the car engine. The case of car battery was looking good, the terminals were still looking new and clean. "Mostly, the cause was a dead car battery, sir. I used to have the cables in my car to do the jump start but today I just didn't bring them," He dipped his head in apology. Groceries at the back bed of the truck, a kid inside the car. There was no way Eunwoo was gonna leave both of them in the parking lot for hours, "I think around this time the repair shop is already closed and you have lots of groceries too. I can give you a lift if you want to," offered the black haired male as he tilted his head to point his SUV parked not so far from the grocery store entrance. Remembering the event from earlier, Eunwoo knew that this guy won't be that convinced to have a ride with him. You can't just trust people right away in this planet — "Don't worry, I have a baseball bat and also pepper spray in my car. If I did something weird, you could probably utilize them for protection."

@✽ sooyoung p. "no."

it was the only word he could utter at this very moment; how was he able to let her go when what he wanted for all these years was to see her again, to feel her again, to love her again even though he had become such a mess, a mess caused by her when she left him without any explanation or answers. even as the shopkeeper came yelling at the both of them, he stood his ground, pulling out a thick wad of cash to solve the problem of the spilled wine, then pulling the female out of the grocery store into a quiet alley nearby, this time needing to solve the problem between them once and for all. and when the surroundings were set just right for the both of them, dim lights glowing with a faint orange hue, the world now only (metaphorically) with only the both of them was when his grip on her loosened, hand retracting back to clutch his hair in a firm, desperate grip, finally able to pour out his emotions he kept for such a long time, cheeks flushed with heat, eyes wet with tears.

"why.. you never told me why. you think it's okay for you to leave just like that? do you really think it was okay for you to put a knife in my chest and live a normal life not knowing whatever you did to me!? park sooyoung, please..."

his voice was loud, screeching, agonizing, tragedy finally exposed to the world, to her, but of course it turned soft, desperate, begging towards the end, now slumped onto the floor, wet drops beginning to appear on the concrete surface as he latched onto her skirt with a touch.

"please just let me know."

@✽ seungwan s. Seoham was surprisingly good at picking up and tossing yogurt cups into a trolley with ease, maybe he should have been a grocery store staff instead of a webtoon artist and illustrator, he thought. He stood there in the dairy section longer than any normal person would, continuing his actions almost blindly as he just wanted to stock up. It seemed excessive, but he’s a man who loves his food and his mood would depend on if his favourites were present or not.

“Excuse me.” He heard, though it was probably addressed to someone else. “Excuse me!” Another one from a voice that seemed vaguely familiar, but he ignored it. He wondered who this faceless woman was getting angry at, poor victim. He saw a small promo packet of yogurt in the back and he got excited at the sale, so he stuck his hand in far. Thankfully his limbs were long enough to reach and when he finally got that last yogurt he turned and saw someone he knew waving at him.

“Seungwan?!” That was a stupid idea, blurting out someone’s name like that. He wasn’t even sure if it was her, it could very well be some stranger in Dandelion who had an uncanny similarity to someone he knew back then. “I mean, sorry— I thought you were someone I knew.” Then suddenly what she said registered in his mind and he quickly pushed his trolley away. “, sorry about that! I was distracted stocking up on yogurt!” he apologised, keeping his eyes on her face while trying to look like he wasn’t obviously staring. This was Seungwan, her voice matched too now that he thought about it. “You… know me, right?” Well, it’s on him if he was bad with faces, but he took the risk and asked politely.

@✽ seoham p. Seungwan grumbled— almost grumbled, under her breath when a cart stocked with an unhealthy amount of frozen rice cakes, packets of honey-cured bacon and yogurt cups didn’t move. She found herself scrunching her nose as she noted that the only thing green in the opposite trolley was the trolley’s bar handle and the plastic packaging of flavoured-jajangmyeon ramen. She went up on her toes to find the owner’s face hidden behind stocked-up aisles and cardboard cutouts taped to the shelves.

“Excuse me.” She started, wishing that whoever it was would eventually move. Then, she tried again the second time when the owner didn’t make haste. “Excuse me!”

Seungwan pushed her headphones down and let them rest around her neck. The sound of yogurt cups being thrown without a care into the cart had her a tinge bit worried. Who wouldn’t be? Was she up facing a cult follower who was intent that the world was about to end, so they had to stock up on some greek yogurt? The selection of instant noodles, bacon and rice cakes made her rethink that perhaps, the customer was another young person who decided that they’d rather kick the bucket with an unhealthy food selection.

With both hands on her waist, she left her trolley for a second to wave at the other customer. “Hey there, can you move your trolley so I can get to the milk?”

@✽ dohwan w. All of her heartache that she wrapped up in a box and shoved into a corner of her mind seemed to come to the forefront when seeing her ex husband. Everything about the situation was ty. It started out ty, moving from her beautiful big city to this little town to take care of her parents. Then she got homesick, so she came to the grocery store to get her favorite cookies. And who was there, trying to take the cookies from her? Her ing ex husband. As he walked away, she followed right behind him, snatching the box from his cart, “these are the last ones! And you don’t even like them!”

@✽ yuta n. there was a brief shriek that rings in between sooyoung's ears, one she can't tell if it comes from her though the faint scratch on speaks otherwise, too late for her hand to spring into action that it blends with how glass and liquid create a symphony on tiled floors. jumping from a dimension of raw surprise to another has her breath stuck, suffocating, on every fibre in her chest. time stopped underneath his fingers, the world smaller and smaller with every passing ring as unfathomable tension dragging her down. every pore and lashes she can see from her very own reflection on once her pair of favourite irises in chocolate — pain, longing, fear, confusion, love; words forgotten and yet to be spoken ending with just a single breath.

/her name leaves from his mouth./

the voice — all too familiar and hitting close to home, memorized with every dip and rise in the back of her hand and once brought sunshine to her life — comes in a sense of dread seeping down her muscles, colouring through her bones and creating another vacuum in her soul. her staked heart drops along the mess beneath their shoes that only she can hear the resurfaced cracks she thought was healed with time. all colours on her face draining down in specks on her jeans, unsure if whatever pooled underneath their feet was wine or her own life and blood. but one thing is certain amidst her dilemma: she needs to run away. now.

"you— you must be mistaken me for someone else. i'm really sorry."

another lie. another lie she spits on his face and sooyoung was immediately brought back to the night of their fight. how it was a moment of deja vu but they're older — away from their shared space, away from the bubble of smiles and kisses, promises and profession of love from the morning to the night — away from the the wilted rose they used to grow together and now trying to live in different roots. as much as she feels sorry for herself, she feels outmost sorry to /him/. he doesn't deserve any of this — rejected, brokenhearted, left once again with more questions than answers — but she /has to/.

heat started to prick from each corners of her eyes; how the world blurred right in front of her sends waves of panic that wakes her senses up. ! she has to get out of here, but the iron grip on her arm keeps her caged in his proximity, in his presence. her weak resolve and even weaker attempts are futile, trying to push his hand away as mouth floundering words in a jumble, incoherent even in her head. it keeps brewing and brewing, trying her might to blink it out and trying to free herself again and away from his hold. she tried until prints of heat burns on her cheek, on her skin, told her to stop.

she doesn't want to cry in front of him. doesn't want to see how she still is hurt. doesn't want him to hear that the rocks of pain after pain still stacked and heavy on her shoulder. doesn't want him to feel each missing gaps she was forced to forget the moment each piece of him she bids goodbye with every thread of her heart no longer connecting to his. that, after all the suns and moons behind them, her honesty — the most version of herself — will hurt him even further.

she loved nakamoto yuta from the bareness of her soul to her flawed skin, from each waves of her hair to the tips of her toes. he was the missing piece that completes her puzzle — but, if it means of driving him away and knowing a better picture awaits for him to fill such gap as protecting him from the whole picture of a mess as her life, she can stomach watching the gap everyday if she have to. she will. /she must./

"please, i'm begging you, i need you to let me go."

@✽ yongsun k. ‘What are /you/ doing here?’ He groaned in annoyance, as if this day wouldn’t get any worse than it already was. While surprise was his initial reaction, anger was slowly bubbling up inside Dohwan as Yongsun was definitely the last person he wanted to see, for the time being. The two had ended their relationship with quite the nasty divorce, each going their own way after having different views about their future. After that, everything in Seoul reminded him of his ex-wife, from the cafe they liked to brunch at on sundays to their mutual friends — heck, even work was starting to get hard with her around. Dohwan then made the decision of moving back to his hometown, as recluse as possible from anything that could remotely remind him of her, alas it seemed like life had other plans for them. ‘Get your own box’ he swatted her hands away and threw the cookies in his cart, starting to walk into the opposite direction from Yongsun.

@✽ seungwan s. The man did not realize he had run out of a lot of his favorite foods at home. No more yogurt, no more honey-cured bacon, and no more rice cakes, among others. Those were all the things he constantly ate and no wonder they were always emptied from his fridge so quickly. It was also quite late already, past 6pm but he needed his night greek yogurt so he searched through his phone, relief flowing through him as he found a grocery store that was still open. He biked as quickly as he could towards it, hoping that it wouldn’t close on him. He was rushing so much that all he managed to bring was his phone, his wallet and a stick of gum he always had on him. He even forgot to put on a jacket going outside, so he was shivering slightly in his black shirt when he reached the slightly cold interior of the grocery store.

Seoham moved quickly to grab a shopping cart, deciding that he should stock up more than usual so he wouldn’t have to panic so much like this next time he ran out of his favorite foods. So that’s exactly what he did. He went to the frozen rice products section first, grabbing 10 packs of rice cakes, and then eventually 6 large packs of honey-cure bacon. Some eggs too, some ramen of course. All he needed was to go to the dairy section to grab his greek yogurt fix. He made it there not realizing he bumped into some girl’s trolley, as he practically emptied the shelf when he got 15 pints of greek yogurt, tossing them all into his cart haphazardly.

@✽ sooyoung p. the downward spiral of the whirlpool that yuta got caught in was one that he never escaped from.

love.

his mother told him that to love somebody, you have to give it your all so that there wouldn't be any regrets, even after it ends, you'll be able to take it as an experience and move on with improvements. but he couldn't do that. he wasn't like her. and so he ran away from it all, embracing a new image, a new identity, trying out all sorts of things, vices and otherwise, and yet the thorn still pricked him occasionally when he had clarity. but at least he was able to use this pain to carve out a niche for him, ending up with a dj-ing job that allowed him to travel round the world, until it came to the part where he hated the most, being back in dandelion for a break. a break that he never wanted nor needed - he'd prefer to work himself to the bone, at least it kept his mind off things, off her. now he had all the time to think of what could have been, what could it have become, if things didn't end up this way.

and so he seeked out the usual poison for the night, the only therapy he knew would drain him of his energy so that her face wouldn't appear in his mind at least for a few days. booze. cigarettes. a hand on his phone already tapping away for the sources of weed. hookups. in the quaint grocery store tucked away at the corner of the town, the bottle of liquor was already clutched in his hand, already moving out from the selection to pay until a chirpy voice buzzed from behind him. a somewhat familiar voice that brought out the old yuta back in him, almost giving a nod to her request until he came face to face with the person who had constantly been in his head for years, the person who he thought he would never see again, the person who made him the way he was right now.

crash. liquor bottle onto the ground, breaking into smithereens, red liquid spattered all over the cold, hard ground. it was metaphoric to what he felt on the day when yuto told him about seeing her with another man, the confrontation about that incident turning into her running away and blocking him out from her life. glass shattered into millions of pieces, just like his heart; wine just like the blood from getting stabbed a thousand times. she hurt him so badly, and yet he still wasn't able to move on from her.

love.

that was how much he loved park sooyoung. he gave it his all, but she never gave it back. so why was she in front of him again with that bright, gummy smile, seemingly unchanged even after years? maybe it was fate, no, it had to be fate, another opportunity for them to clear things up, things that were left unsaid, and he instinctively grabbed onto her arm, not caring about the amount of force on the grip he was putting in.

"sooyoung-ah..."

@✽ eunwoo c. Donghun had exited the store with his daughter after checkout at the register. He put her in the carseat in his truck and made sure she was buckled in and locked in safely. He loaded all the groceries in the back bed of the truck. Time to go home. Donghun unlocked the door and got in the truck, and buckled up and turned the key. Nothing. Then again. There was this weird grinding sound bein made and the truck wasn't starting. "Aish," groaned Donghun, resting his head on the steering wheel, "Not now." He sat up and sighed. He looked over his daughter who looked worried, and he reached out and petted her arm softly. "It'll be okay," he assures her, "I'll see what's happening." He got out and lifted the truck hood. He couldn't make heads or tails of it. Was the battery dead? Or something worse? That was one thing he wasn't good at, auto stuff. He pulled out his phone and called for a wrecker to come and get it to take it to the auto shop. However, they weren't able to get him because they were closed. Donghun groaned. "Come on, can you make an exception? Yes! Great! Wait....it's going to cost how much?!" He moaned.

That's when the other walked up. Oh great, not this man again. "What?" Donghun asked him rudely. He then sighed. "Yeah, I can't get it to start."

@✽ donghun l. Watching the father came back to his daughter, Eunwoo was touched by the sight of it somehow. Maybe he longed for his parents to come back to Dandelion and spent their time with the only child of theirs. But it seemed it was quite impossible since they were too focused on their works and as a grown up man, Eunwoo never complained about that. Sighing, he continued to shop whatever on his grocery list after called the janitor to clean up the mess. After all, it was his fault and he was willing to pay for the oils. Minutes has spent, Eunwoo aimlessly pushed the cart passing every aisle and finally reached the cashier. He told the incident of him knocking off several bottles of oil on the ground to the staff, waited for the staff to scan every item that he put into the cart. Putting the items on the grocery bag, when he was about to pay the total amount, his eyes widened in surprise. Pretty sure that he did not knock the whole shelf off— what a scam. Not wanting to create another conflict in this very store, he unwillingly pulled out the credit card from his pocket and handed it to the staff.

Once the payment was done, he advanced directly to his car as he wanted to go under his comfy cover as soon as possible so he could forget this incident. One thing that caught his attention, didn’t the guy with his daughter leave the store earlier? He was so sure that he did not see any of them in each aisle. Yet they were still here the whole time at parking lot? And it appeared that he was talking to someone on the phone while gesturing his truck. A concern has painted on Eunwoo’s face— eyebrows knitted to the point formed a small frown— even though the male was yelling in front of Eunwoo in anger earlier, Eunwoo could not help but to worry that something was wrong with his vehicle. Eunwoo was a type of person who always offered a help to whoever needed his help. To come over or not? He chose the first option as he braced himself for getting yelled again to buzz off since it was clearly not Eunwoo’s business to even care but he did it anyway after he quickly put his groceries in the trunk. “Excuse me, sir. Is there something wrong with your car?”