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. The past week, filled with Jung Ara rushing from university to look after Kyungsoo's small child, zoomed by, everyone busy planning their outfits and so for the special day due near the end of Autumn October.

Taeyeon and Ara were walking through central Seoul's shop covered high street linking arms, bodies covered in warm coats and fashionable scarves — ready to buy their dresses for the wedding. Taeyeon was one of the bridesmaids for the wedding alongside one of Juhyun's lifelong friends, so she was going to wear a floor length cream dress. It was already ordered and all she needed to do was retrieve it from the shop, whilst Ara needed to buy a new dress. She was extremely broke and only had enough to buy one from a mid to low end shop, unlike Taeyeon's which was from an expensive store paid by the bride herself.

"What kind of dress are you looking for, Jung?" Taeyeon asked, skimming through a bunch of cute dresses that had astronomically high prices. Not them certainly.

Ara tilted her head. "Something modest but pretty."

"That really narrows it down," Taeyeon frowned. "Thank you for your help."

At that moment, Ara was swiping back and forth on her phone dangerously close to low battery. On cue it turned off to her despair.

"Darn it," she grumbled. "What were you saying?"

Taeyeon gave her a brisk shake. "I'm seriously going to slap you, Ara! I don't know about you but I have a lasagne waiting for me at home, so let's quicken the pace."

Finally, Ara found the nicest dress she'd seen in a while. Skimming just above her knees, the dress had a modest neckline, the first layer white net emboidered with simple patterns, then the bottom layer silk: a slightly metallic pink color. Paired with white heels, it actually looked very pretty. However, the price wasn't as pretty.

"Ara, when's your birthday?" Taeyeon inquired when she saw the puzzled girl stare forlonly at the price tag. She turned back at her older friend even more puzzled.

"It was in July, how come?"

Snatching the shoes and dress from Ara's grasp, Taeyeon swiftly bounded towards the checkout to pay for the clothes. "Consider this a late birthday gift." As she paid for the lot.

The former felt bad for making Taeyeon pay for it all — she didn't want to seem like a charity case, but she was grateful that she never made Ara seem like one. It just felt like a friend was helping another friend rather than pitying her. Taeyeon absolutely adored the younger; seeing her as a best friend that she'd never really been able to have throughout her almost thirty years of living. She did have a best friend once upon a time — Hwang Miyoung — but after finishing her degree at the same university as Taeyeon, she packed her bags and moved back to her home country, America.

Taeyeon switched on her own phone, checking the time. It was darkening outside because it was mid autumn where the days were short. "Are you peckish? Baekhyun and Chanyeol are at some burger restaurant nearby and invited us."

All the money she bought today retained because of Taeyeon's sweet deed, Ara shrugged. "Yeah, I could do with a milkshake." She had already eaten prior to meeting up with her.

The burger shop was nearby — a five minute walk to be precise. A woody brown interior with a large blackboard covering one wall where visitors could write a cute message to the restaurant, it was empty except the pair of guys sitting at the end waving their hands crazily to get the attention of the duo. They were both eating burgers bigger than their own heads.

"Hey," Chanyeol greeted, hugging both tightly with his extra long arms. "It's great you came to meet us!"

Once the girls were seated on the comfortable sofa seats, Baekhyun began grinning towards Ara. "So, how was Busan?"

"It was lovely," Ara simply replied to prevent the conversation from steering towards what she knew it was going to lead to. Baekhyun was a very curious person, sometimes it was a little too curious.

"What did you do?"

Her eyes casted down to the inviting menu in front of her. The mouth–watering sundaes piled high with cherries and chocolate, waffles, milkshakes... "Just hung out with my family, went to the beach."

"What did Kyungsoo do?"

Baekhyun had teasingly said his friend's name, smirking in accomplishment upon seeing Jung Ara squirm under his stare. She wouldn't even lay eyes on him, too afraid that looking up would reveal her probably tomato colored face. Cheeks burning and hands shaking, Ara turned over the menu.

"He mainly stayed at home," she fibbed, making sure not to pose a risk of revealing what actually happened. "Didn't really do much. Can we order?"

Hearing Ara's desperation for the conversation to divert was painful for Taeyeon, so the latter cheerfully nodded her head. "Yeah, I'm craving something sweet. Do you wanna share a sundae?"

"Only if it's cookie and cream flavored."

To her delight, Taeyeon had ordered an extra large of Ara's favorite flavor; cookies oozing out of the huge cup and whipped cream practically sliding down the exterior. They dug in almost immediately once it was ordered, not even bothering to take photos for social media like they'd usually done.

The general talk between the quartet was shallow — beginning with the dreaded wedding as the pair of friends also went out to buy a suit for the day. They weren't the best men, surprisingly, it was Minseok and another of Junmyeon's friends.

Suddenly, Taeyeon recieved a call. The photo ID of Kyungsoo, an old cringey photo of the two taken a few years ago on a group holiday, popped up. She excused herself from the table as the conversation the trio were diverged in was quite rowdy. Her dark heels clinking on the tiled flooring, Taeyeon briefly stood outside the restaurant as she held onto the soft scarf keeping some warmth within her in the cold weather.

"Hello?" She started, a little startled as to why Do Kyungsoo chose to call her instead of Ara. Oh yeah, her phone shut down.

"Taeyeon," his voice was shrill and panicked; Taeyeon's stomach churning from hearing it. Something was wrong. He didn't even address her with formalities, something he never failed to do. "Is Ara with you now?"

Her eyes shifted to peer past the glass to see Ara giggling away, eating the last of the gigantic sundae. "Y--yeah, what's wrong? Is everything okay?"

"Honestly? No," he almost sounded like he had teared up earlier as his voice was oddly thick. "Tell Ara to get home as soon as possible. I'll explain later, but it's super serious. Heck, tell her to come over to mine."

With that, Kyungsoo hung up. Taeyeon's eyes were widened and the biting weather wasn't the only reason she was shaking. She pushed through the door to the table where the three were sat making comfortable conversation.

Taeyeon then made a wide eyed gesture to Baekhyun, who in turn realized something was wrong from her panicked state. She would have to say it later. But now, her main concern was getting Ara home. Hopefully the issue wasn't too bad.

"Ara, we need to go," Taeyeon urged as Ara's eyebrows furrowed. Clearly she didn't want to. So she began to lie. "If we don't go now, I'm going to get a parking ticket."

Reluctantly, Ara stood up from the seat and said her goodbyes to the pair still finishing off their dinners. She was a little thrown off by Baekhyun's slightly pitying look, but she brushed it off. Anyways, he was an odd person.

The drive back to her apartment was tension filled. Taeyeon didn't speak a word; instead conserving all of her attention to the quite congested road ahead. She was gripping tightly onto the leather steering wheel to the point that her knuckles were white. Ara was utterly bewildered but didn't comment. Maybe Taeyeon was just tired.

The car parked right outside the apartment and the older pulled Ara into a tight hug. "Take care, yeah?"

"Thanks for today," Ara beamed, hugging her back. "It was really sweet of you to buy me the dress and shoes."

"Don't mention it. By the way, Kyungsoo wants you to pop over to his. I'm not entirely sure why, but you'll find out."

Ara was confused with that but obliged. It was probably to do with Kyungri, anyways. Kim Taeyeon wanted oh–so–terribly to go upstairs with Ara and see what was wrong with Kyungsoo, but she believed it was better for the pair to deal with the issue seperately. Anyways, if Kyungsoo wanted her to be there, he would've said so. She would just call Ara later on to see if everything was okay.

Gripping onto the new clothes in the bag, Ara practically skipped her way up to her floor and remembered Taeyeon's words to visit Kyungsoo. Why he wanted her on such a random day of the week was questionable, but he wasn't a man of ambiguity. It probably meant something important. To him or her, that is what she was curious of.

Knocking onto Kyungsoo's door with a smile on her face, she was bewildered to be met with a teary one. Do Kyungsoo was crying? His abnormally big for an Asian eyes was red and eyelashes surrounding them wet with tears. Upon seeing Ara's happy face made him feel even more nervous to tell her the news. The upwards curl of her lips quickly shifted downwards as she unconsciously placed a small hand onto his shoulder.

"Kyungsoo? Is everything okay?" She asked in absolute shock. Never has she ever expected him to cry. He wasn't crying at that moment of time but it was evident that some snivelling had occured earlier.

He moved aside to let her in, wiping the residue tears quickly. "Y--yes, just come in."

Ara's eyes locked to the phone charger on Kyungsoo's coffee table, immediately charging her phone and turning back to him. "What's wrong? Why are you crying?"

He bit his lip when their eyes met. "I don't know how to say this. Your Dad..."

"My Dad?" She breathed, confused. "What about him? Is he okay?"

Kyungsoo paused to think — he then shook his head. Seeing her enlarged eyes and fingers fumbling with itself in fear was hard enough. Now also having to bear the bad news; another blow.

"Your Mom tried to call you earlier, but it went straight to voicemail," he began hastily. "She was at the hospital. Because of your Dad."

At that tension filled moment, Ara's phone pinged to signify its return back to life. She turned it on; minutes slugging by like a snail, her heart racing faster and faster by the second. Upon its awakening, it revealed seventeen miss calls from her sister and Mom, messages begging for her to pick up. Her heart dropped.

"Kyungsoo," she began to hyperventilate. "What happened? I--Is he okay?"

That's when his heart began cracking also. Seeing her state made him hurt too. "No...last night, he had a stroke. The doctors think it was complications from the previous fall, and he was in a coma for the whole day. Then his heart began to fail and h--he..."

Do Kyungsoo, the man of limited emotions, failed to continue the sentence from the urge to cry. He'd only met Ara's Dad once, but the endearing way she'd mention him was something he'd experienced in his childhood. He couldn't imagine ever losing his loving parents, so putting himself in the position of his neighbor right now was unbearable to say the least. Ara was definitely not stupid. She knew what he referred to, and it was too much to bear. She stayed silent for a minute, just allowing the information to sink in as Kyungsoo kept in his tears.

Coughing a little, he continued. "It was six forty–seven when his heart officially stopped," he rasped out, looking into space as Ara's knees began to shake and she had to hold onto the table to keep steady. "The funeral's next Monday."

Hearing that somehow triggered a mechanism in Ara's brain as she found herself sliding down to the floor and sobbing. She'd never been one to cry loudly so the tears came out quiet yet heartbreaking. Kyungsoo was stumped. Half of him wanted to crouch beside her, comforting the crying body on his living room floor. But the other half felt like it was too soon. She needed space.

His signature phone ringtone flooded the room, prompting him to pick it up and check the number. Her Mom.

"Ara," he softly mumbled, holding the phone. "It's your Mom."

Her tear stained face came to view, Kyungsoo's urge to cry returning even worse than before. Never has he seen her look so vulnerable, hurt...suffered. He knew she's been through so much at a young age, living alone from her frail parents back in Busan, her Dad being ill. Sniffing back a sob, he carefully helped Ara up from the floor and situated her onto his sofa, sitting beside her for comfort.

"Ara?" The sound of her Mom's tears was enough for her own to pour straight out.

"What happened?" Was all Jung Ara could mutter at that painful time.

"I'm sorry," she cried, hicupping from the sheer amount of crying she did the whole day. "If only I'd just looked after him better."

"Don't blame yourself! Please."

"I can't help it... I'm so so sorry."

When the conversation had ended, Ara was left in pieces. She threw the phone onto the sofa, covering her face with her small hands to cry. Kyungsoo wiped yet another tear slivering down his frowning face before pulling the hysterical girl into his arms, hugging and comforting her.

"It'll be okay," he murmured again and again as therapeutic as he could — the room as cold and biting as the outside. He was practically shivering until her warmth brought a little more heat to this particularly freezing day.

With her arms wrapped around him and crying to the point that she'd expected Kyungsoo's shirt to be soaking wet, Ara snivelled. "How do you know?" She squeaked, voice muffled from being covered.

"Because I'll always be there," he found himself promising with a cracked voice and eyes stinging with fresh tears. Thank God Kyungri was spending the week at Juhyun's. It would be too hard to cope for her. "I know I can't take away the pain, but I'll try my best."

The room fell silent. Ara's cries were subsiding, but she was still hurting so much. Her heart was being ripped into two. Why couldn't she have just called her Dad before?

With a whisper, Kyungsoo breathed out, "I promise."

—»

Guys, I've never brought this up yet but this book is almost at its end! There's like four chapters left? That's so sad; I'll miss updating! But every story has its end, I guess. Oh yes, and I'm currently writing a Christmas bonus chapter hah, because I combust when thinking of Kyungsoo during Christmas! But this chapter is quite deep lmao, I hope you liked it at least! I'm not very good at angst but I tried my best. Thanks for reading