By the time they reached the apartment building, Hae-joon looked tired, not only physically but also mentally. Arthur noticed this, 'Don't worry...it'll be done soon, and you would no longer have to worry..I'm sorry, this all started because of me and I need to fix this...mess. So trust me, Hae-joon, please don't lose hope.'
"Hae-joonaa!! You are back again late, eh??" a familiar voice broke the silence.
"Ah! Halmeoni!! When did you get back from your hometown??" Hae-joon says as he rushes towards a woman, in her late 60s, carrying a small bag.
"Yaa..look how thin you've become..halmeoni wasn't there for a few months and this is how you treat yourself, eh! Come over! I'll make you some Ginseng Chicken soup...your favorite."
"I would've loved to...but I've have someone else who is staying with me, I don't want him to feel awkward." Hae-joon says as he points at Arthur.
The old woman's eyes immediately shifted toward him. Arthur, meanwhile, stood perfectly still beneath her sharp stare, posture straight, expression unreadable as always.
"Aigoo…" Halmeoni muttered softly. "He's handsome."
Hae-joon nearly choked. Arthur blinked once.
"H-Halmeoni..."
"What?" she asked innocently. "Am I wrong?? Look at his built."
Arthur inclined his head politely. "Thank you."
"Oh ho? Even polite too." Her expression brightened instantly. "What's your name?"
"Arthur."
"Arthur-aa," she repeated thoughtfully, like testing how it sounded. "Foreign name. Explains the face."
"Hal--"
"And look at those shoulders," she continued, completely ignoring Hae-joon now. "You eat properly, unlike this boy."
"That's why I'm here to take care of him." Arthur said patting Hae-joon's shoulder.
Arthur glanced at Hae-joon for a moment before quietly adding, "He skipped lunch today."
Hae-joon snapped toward him in betrayal.
"Yaaa Kim Hae-Joon!!"
"What are you trying to do eh?! No wonder you are still single..You think soup is optional for survival?" she scolded, smacking his arm lightly with absolutely no mercy behind it. "Come. Both of you."
"No, really, it's okay," Hae-joon tried again weakly. "You just got back. You should rest."
"Nonsense."
Her eyes narrowed suddenly.
"Unless…" she said slowly, gaze flicking between them. "Arthur is shy?"
Arthur answered immediately. "No."
"Good!" she beamed. "Then settled."
Hae-joon let out a tired sigh, already defeated.
Arthur leaned slightly closer to him then, voice lower.
"You seem calmer around her."
Hae-joon sighed, "Yes...because she has always been there to comfort me, knowingly or unknowingly." The irritation on his face softened just a little as he glanced toward the older woman fumbling through her bag for keys while still muttering about his eating habits.
"Why are you two whispering back there?" Halmeoni called suspiciously.
"Nothing!" Hae-joon answered immediately.
"Hm." She opened the door and the air inside felt like gardens and fresh rain. "You both, settle down I'll go and make the soup within minutes!"
"We can help you!!" Hae-joon said.
"Aigoo...no need! Sit there and relax, I don't need any help I've been doing this for ages!" She said and left for the kitchen.
There was that silence again, both Hae-joon and Arthur remained quiet. Hae-joon broke the silence, "She's amazing..she loved me like her own since the day she has met me."
Hae-joon smiled softly before adding, "I still remember the first day I moved in," he said quietly. "She came over with homemade chicken soup. I didn't know how to refuse, so I had it… and it became my favorite."
"It's just a simple dish to most people, but for me it wasn't. It was the first home-cooked meal I'd ever had, something made for me with care."
His voice softened further.
"For the first time, I tasted something called motherly love… something I never really had growing up...and so, since then, she became my only family and I, her's."
"... I'm glad" Arthur said calmly.
That made Hae-joon pause and ask, "Why?"
"I'm glad that you have someone who takes care of you...I thought you were sad and lonely, looking at the way you live and talk."
Hae-joon scoffed, "Being introverted doesn't make you look wretched and lonely...maybe it does but that doesn't mean you'll assume my entire life like that!"
"I wasn't assuming..it was just an observation I made." Arthur said bluntly.
"Wow. As if that makes anything better." Hae-joon looked offended but it was rather sarcastic, Arthur didn't catch on.
"I apologize… I am still learning the correct ways to speak to humans. What should be said, what should not, what causes comfort and what causes harm… it does not come naturally to me."
He paused briefly before continuing, quieter this time.
"But I am trying to learn. Repeatedly, if necessary."
His gaze lowered slightly.
"I do not wish to disappoint you… nor do I wish to lose you."
Hae-joon looked dead into Arthur's eyes, not believing a single word that came out of his mouth. Those words struck him so hard that his heart almost skipped a beat.
"I-I wasn't...upset, I was just teasing you..but uh wow...thanks for saying that." He was out of words and breath.