"Things used to be so different when you were here."

+++

People were dressed in black. Black dresses, blouses, coats, even shoes. It was the day when people mourned over a random nobody's death, although to Gaeul, that nobody was her last family ever existing in her life.

Gaeul trudged slowly behind four men carrying a coffin. In her hand were two picture frames. One was her mother's.

Another was Chan's.

Of course, Chan wasn't dead. She believed it herself. But to the real world, Chan was. Her other aunts and cousins assumed that after being missing for so long, they consider it as suicide.

Gaeul couldn't protest anything. She couldn't have said that Chan left for Neverland, could she?

Mingyu was there too, smartly dressed in black. He was washed with guilt for doing something like that to her, and once he's realized the situation that her family's in, he understands.

Gaeul looked up at the van in front of her, the four men pushing the coffin inside. Her vision was sometimes blurry but they quickly became clear again.

To her, everything felt like it escalated too fast.

The van left, and she couldn't bear to go to the burial grounds. She just couldn't. Let her aunts do that.

Her family ; they were never in good terms. Her mother seemed distant from all her other sisters due to financial issues, and her sister never seemed to like Gaeul's father. Her aunts badmouthed her mother, saying that she had mental issues and put a wall between all of them.

Which is why Gaeul never likes her aunts.

Gaeul walks back inside to get shelter from fhe rain. It was a bad decision indeed.

People were chattering. This always happens during funerals. Once a person dies, then you finally appreciate them. Then you'll finally realize how their existence was important. Then you'll finally forgive the person for all the troubles they've caused.

Gaeul would prefer to stay drenched in the rain rather than listen to these people insult her life.

"Is she going to live alone now?"

"The kid doesn't deserve this."

"I heard her mom was sick."

Shut up.

"Her mother was crazy about seeing her son flying often, she was getting treatment on her hallucinations."

Shut up, please.

"I heard that there might be a possibility that this was suicide."

"Poor girl, I pity her."

"Shut up!"

All eyes were on her. Gaeul's vision was blurry again. Quickly, she walked out of the room and towards the hall, finding a secured place so that she could calm herself down.

"Even her son disappeared."

"How nice, the suicide family. Hey, are you next?"

The owner of the voice tapped her on the shoulder. Gaeul didn't want to turn. She knew the voice. It was the oldest sister, the aunt that she hated most. She once fed Gaeul's family with spoilt food and it costed a lot for all the hospital fees.

"Be careful, your mom's curse might still be there. So if you want to follow your little brother and your beloved mother, go ahead. We don't need you the least bit." She laughs, kicking Gaeul's back with the pointy tip of her heels "are you going to follow your other family members, Gaeul?"

"Hey, look at me when I'm talking." The woman kicks her again, and Gaeul braces herself "answer me when I'm asking you a question."

"Why do I need to talk to a lowlife like you? All you do is badmouth people when you yourself have your own flaws." Gaeul mumbles, audible enough for her aunt to hear. Her aunt's ears flushed pink in anger and embarrassment.

"You rude shit," She curses, taking hold of Gaeul's wrist and spinning her around. Her other hand was raised, ready to give Gaeul a slap.

"Ma'am." A hand stopped her aunt, and Gaeul squinted her eyes open. Mingyu took Gaeul by the shoulder away from her aunt.

"Please don't be a rude shit during a funeral." Mingyu says firmly towards the gaping woman, and tugged on Gaeul's hand so that they could quickly leave.

He led her out of the building towards a black sedan that was waiting for him.

"Where are you taking me?" Gaeul asks.

"Home." Mingyu replies shortly.

"But I have a dinner that my aunt organized. I promised I would come."

Mingyu sneers, "You still want to go to that kind of people with shitty people? I'm sure you don't."

Gaeul felt a little flattered at the fact that Mingyu could actually read her. It's true. All her mother's siblings would talk about was who would inherit her mother's things.

Gaeul entered the car quietly. Mingyu made her tell the driver her address, and the driver nodded in reply.

Mingyu took off his coat and draped it over Gaeul's shoulders. When Gaeul gave him a questioning look, all he said was, "It's cold. Besides, why are you wearing something like that?"

Gaeul went pink. She knew that the dress she was wearing had a low cut neck and was a little shorter than her usual knee-length skirts.

"I had to borrow my mom's," Gaeul explains "I didn't have any formal black clothes." Everything went silent after that, Gaeul slightly dozing off.

"Are you really going to live alone?"

Mingyu's question breaks the silence. Gaeul blinks twice and just nods.

"I'm not going to live with those horrible people." She answers.

"I've never seen people that horrible too." Mingyu comments.

Another few minutes of silence, and Mingyu sighed. He had something he wanted to say to her, but he let her doze off. She was tired. He knew that too.

Mingyu looked through her purse for her keys and carried her into her house. It looked really old, Mingyu thought. There was nothing much in the house too. No television and such, were they that financially troubled?

He finally found Gaeul's room and placed her gently on her bed. Mingyu looks around her room. He was amazed.

The wall in front of her bed, it had all sorts of papers pasted on it about astronomical studies. There were studies of each planet of the solar system. But the biggest study out of all of them was the moon.

Mingyu walked closer towards the writings about the moon.

'Man in the Moon' he reads, and next to that, in big, red letters, she wrote 'EXISTS!'

Meanwhile, on her study table, books were scattered everywhere, left open. There was a certain, strange object that Mingyu's never seen before.

'Moonstone', he read the papers that were next to it. He wasn't sure if Gaeul got scammed or something, or if it was real moonstone. Gaeul didn't look like the type to lie when it comes to astronomy.

"Don't touch that." Gaeul's voice made Mingyu flinch, and he turned around to see Gaeul leaning against her pillow.

"Why are you still here?" Gaeul asks. Mingyu shrugs as an answer, but Gaeul doesn't scold him.

"Get out, I need to get changed," She tells him, pushing him out of her room "I'll make some dinner."

+++

"They're not much, sorry," Gaeul tells him, placing a bowl of rice in front of him, along with a pot or soup. She sat down opposite of him, and starts to eat.

They ate in silence, probably because Mingyu didn't know when he should say what he wanted to say to her, or Gaeul not wanting to talk.

Their dinner ended jist like that, without saying a word. Once Gaeul was done with the dishes she puts down a mug of coffee in front of him, another one in her hand.

"Are you still going to stay here?" Gaeul asks.

"Do you want me to?" Mingyu answers with a question.

"I don't need you to." She takes a sip of her coffee.

Mingyu eyed her for a good five seconds before saying, "I have a few thinga to say to you."

"Go on."

"It's an apology, actually," He says, wrapping his nervous fingers around the mug "I'm sorry for treating you that way once. It's true, it was a dare, and at that time I didn't think you would take it so seriously. People knew me and were okay with the jokes I've done. And I'm sorry for hurting you."

"It's not good to play with love."

"I know, and I'm sorry."

"So what am I supposed to do?" Gaeul asks him, putting down her finished mug of coffee.

"I don't know.. like, get rid of the grudge you had against me, I guess?"

Gaeul laughs, "I never had one against you. I just thought you were shitty and annoying."

"Hey, not to offend you or anything, but are you sure you want to live alone?"

Gaeul tried to look like the question was nothing, but Mingyu could read a slight hurt expression on her face.

It was a big deal. Gaeul is still underaged and she needed to be taken into someone's care. The problem is, she doesn't want to. She doesn't need to be cared by her other family members, who have been absolutely horrible towards her and her mother.

"I will." Gaeul replies "I'm going to live alone. And nobody's going to stop me."

"But underaged people are supposed to be under someone's care."

"I don't have anyone."

"You have your other family members-"

"Do you think I would want to live with people who have been ruining my life? Spouting nonsense and shit sbout me, my mother being an absolute psycho and Chan with his so called suicide? They're not my family, Mingyu. I hate them. I've suffered enough."

"The more days that pass by, the more I feel like people are leaving me," Gaeul says. Transparent tears formed in her eyes, trickling down her cheeks bit by bit as Mingyu watches in silence.

"I've never felt so alone before," she cries as her head hung low, trying her best to hide her face. The sleeves of her shirt were wet with her tears when she wiped them away.

"Now I'm all alone."

Mingyu had to think twice before he wiped Gaeul's cheeks with the sleeve of his suit, bit it was all for the best. He couldn't just leave her there crying. By the time it was over, he guessed the house eould be flooded by tears.

Gaeul didn't even realize Mingyu enveloping her into a hug. She felt like she was all alone.

Bur she can't give up. Her life has to go on.

But for now, let her cry all the tears she's been holding back.

Witnessing a broken heart ; a heart smashed into pieces. It wasn't the same as losing a lover. It wasn't the same depression after a break up. It wasn't the same.

Losing one's family, the people you've been leaning onto for so long, now gone. Whenever people tell you to depend on them, it's not the same.

Jisoo witnessed it all. He could read things that were running through her mind. A cloud of grey words and foggy images. She was in a blur.

Why was Mingyu there for her? Why couldn't it be him? It should be him. It has to be him.

Jisoo swore he would get out of this damn, cold sphere.

He swore he would be a human.

---------------———————

My eyes hurt and i need to sleep

Suddenly tonight i have a problem writing so I'll just publish this and sleep

Well yall were asking why jisoo asked soonyoung to look after gaeul during her mother's funeral

Well its because he's stuck on a fucking sphere!! And the burial happened during the day so ofc no jisoo

I really need to sleep now

Have a nice day ♡

- Cee