He continuously looked at her in search of any gestures, she would show at any moment, and quickly he would get his outfit changed and leave the place already.
A few minutes later, April waved at him signaling him to come over to the staff room.
Handling the spare clothes in his hands, she ordered, "First dry it with a towel and only then wear it."
He stood still with a blank expression on his face. With a pause, he nodded.
"?"
Witnessing his hesitation, She waved off in a cool manner, "Rest assured, it's a clean cloth! I'll wait outside."
Newmoon slowly brushed off the clothes with the tip of his thumb a few times before he began to take off his water-soaked shirt.
Just when he was pulling his shirt off, unconsciously a large 'thud' sounded on the floor.
Quickly, he peeped through the hole of the neck area of the shirt.
His soul left his body once he saw his phone lying on the floor, all broken and dead.
Leaving the shirt halfway at his neckline area, he hurried over and knelt on both knees to examine the dead body of his phone.
Despite tapping the phone on his hands several times, the phone still blacks out. And why wouldn't it?
It was the first ever model of the screen touch that their parents bought a decade ago. At first, it was used by the mother, then serially passed down from Jina to John to finally newmoon. To talk about john being placed ahead of him was simply because he was the youngest. The fact the model was too old, it barely was hanging on its thread and now that the phone was heavily soaked by the rain and if it hadn't been enough, it got stroked on the floor too, leaving the display cracked everywhere.
"…"
For a long while, he kept on staring into the piece of the dead soul of the mobile phone.
With a short 'creak' sound, Newmoon returned to the April, bowing his head half,
"T-Thank you for the clothes! I'll wash it and return it to you by tomorrow morning."
Wriggling her fingers calmly she denied, "No-No! You don't have to go that far. It's just a cheap piece of spare cloth anyway."
"-That's not for you to decide!"
Newmoon instantly cut off her with a cold expression. So much was going on lately that he happened to lose all of his remaining coolness. Now he had no energy left to bargain with her.
Turning around, he lazily added, "I Don't want to live as I owe you anyway!"
Newmoon was strangely fast-witted with his feet that day despite the nervousness and the other scenario going on behind the scenes.
As if something hits April's mind, she immediately asked in a curious tone, her eyes reflecting the seriousness.
"Ohh! By the way, why were you crying earlier?"
As soon as the words reached his ear, his entire body froze up in a way as if he was electrocuted on the spot.
It took him a while to get over his stiff shoulders to return to normal. He hastily walked off bluffing around randomly, "C-crying? Me? N-Not at all. It just happened to be raining. Nothing more! H-Haha you're seeing things. Anyway, I'm grateful for today. See ya!"
In a sec, He managed not only to be able to explain an absurd lie but also to end the awkward conversation, saying goodbye and even fled away in split moment.
April, "?"
The moment he stepped outside the place, his brows frowned a bit. Beneath it was aching pain hiding behind the pupil of the eyes. That night, both his heart as well as the sky, cried along.
With a heavy ton of heart and a million thoughts surfing and swirling around his ocean of mind, he finally reached the doorsteps of his house.
But the problem wasn't with it. The main issue was,
He couldn't move his body!!
A voice in his head made its way to him, "What should he do?"
"Whether or not he should enter?"
"And even if he entered, How would he face them?"
"How would he talk, eat and live with them?"
Recalling every cent of the memories he spent with them under the same roof made his stomach churn up all upside down. The same disgusting feelings as before.
The expression of 'extreme disgusting' was hanging all over his face. It was no doubt he was regretting all of it with the memories kept on clashing one upon another, on and against each other fueling the bitterness and sadness of his heart to the whole another level leaving him devastated and helpless.
Just a day before, he was living and praying carefully with that so-called family, and couldn't help but secretly admire how lucky Jina was to have such a beautiful, kind-hearted, and understanding family. He was caught up in their words. But who knew all of sudden, he had to face such a drastic change in behavior? It felt like the whole dimension was split into half where the expectation and reality separated like oil and water.
Now, he came to know it wasn't such a blissful family but an impotent one. No words came to match his true inner feelings at all. All he could think was how Jina was able to adjust with such a twisted family. Did she know it or not? Did she know the real selfish reasons behind her marriage or not? How she was able to live with it till now?
It was indeed suspicious in the first place how such a graceful family would pick such stubborn, poor, and uneducated country bumpkin of all other people? No matter how much one gives thought to it or no matter how long the debate goes on bragging about this topic, it doesn't make sense at all.
However, compared to it now, not only did it makes sense but also gave all answers to his unanswered questions on its own.
Meanwhile, a long 'Creak' sounded out of nowhere and a moment later, the door in front of him was wide open followed by a familiar figure standing straightly opposite to him.
It was Aiden.
Seeing each other out of blue in an unexpected way, they both flinched and a freakout.
"Oh, God! Who does the f**k stand in front of the door on such a midnight rain like a ghost? That scared the hell out of me!"
Quickly afterward, he placed his hands on his chest to make sure the heart was beating.
To his surprise, the same condition was with newmoon as well.
One hand on his heart feeling the rapid heartbeat, veins pumping sprinting while the other hand was busy pointing at Aiden's face in an expression where he thought he was been wrong,
"A-And you- W-What about you?"
Without thinking once, he spilled and argued with unnecessary facts in a way as though he don't want to be bullied by the older person like a small child.