The mass of people streaming across the mall's polished floor should have told Rin to stay hunkered in his house. Instead, he was out here, trudging along with them.

"Hey, you alright?" Hye-jin said beside him, giving his hand a small shake. His fingers tightened around hers as if he was afraid he'd lose her in the crowd. Or was it because he was afraid of losing himself? Being apart from Hye-jin, in a place this big, was enough of a nightmare.

Rin threw a small smile in her direction. With a light yank, he drew her closer and stuck their intertwined fingers in the pocket of his coat. "All good," he said, the words slowly becoming true as he watched Hye-jin's eyes brighten. "You?"

Hye-jin stuck her lip out. "Aside from my feet killing me? All good."

"You shouldn't have insisted on wearing those torture devices then," he rolled his shoulders, his thick coat rustling against her sleeve. "You're the one to tell me this place is huge."

She clicked her tongue. "No fair! I want to be pretty for once."

Rin stopped walking, forcing Hye-jin to follow. Behind them, a couple of annoyed grunts resounded. From his periphery, people swerved and overtook them. He didn't mind, though. He looked down at Hye-jin who looked at him like he had just grown pointy ears.

"Tell you what—you don't need those shoes to be pretty," he said. "Whatever you wear or slap into your face, you're gorgeous."

He dropped his voice, hoping the clamor of the crowd and the mall music blasting through the speakers hid what he muttered next. "At least, to me."

A strangled laugh tore through Hye-jin's lips as they resumed their walk. "What the hell was that?" she said. Still, a smile pulled at the corners of her lips. When Rin didn't answer and continued looking ahead, she backhanded him on the arm. "Rin!"

He took out their hands from his pocket and threw an arm around her shoulders. He did feel more comfortable doing things like they're friends more than like they're what they were now. "I'll buy you flats," he said. "Come on."

Before Hye-jin could protest, he dragged her to the department store. "Don't make me carry you all the way to your house," he said. "Your father will kill me if he sees your feet all blistered. You know how he is."

Hye-jin rolled her eyes as they tore through aisles upon aisles of clothes. The shoes section wouldn't be in the end of the store. "Tell me about it. I lived with that man for a lifetime."

"Won't be for long though."

She whirled to him. "What does that mean?" her eyes widened. "You're saying—"

Heat rushed to Rin's cheeks, making him shake his head vigorously as soon as what must have come across Hye-jin crossed his mind. "N-not that," he cleared his throat, averting his eyes towards the watches displayed behind glass cases. "I meant moving to the city, living on your own as a young professional. You know. That."

If Hye-jin was disappointed, she didn't show it. "Ah," she bobbed her head in a slow succession. A beat passed between them. Two. "I wouldn't mind if you meant the other thing, though," she said, her voice no louder than a whisper.

Rin's saliva didn't quite go down his throat the right way. He hacked and tapped a fist against his chest.

Hye-jin raised her eyebrows. "I'm guessing you're not into it, then."

He had never drawn back up that fast. "No! I mean, yes. I would want that but not—" he sighed, pushing his hair off his forehead and scratching the back of his head in the process. "Not right away, I mean. Still got to graduate and all."

To her credit Hye-jin nodded along. "So, about those flats?" she prodded, taking his hand in hers once more. "Can it be from Chancet?"

"No," was all Rin said before widening and quickening his steps before Hye-jin latched on to some other thing he wouldn't be able to afford with his pocket money.

Hye-jin caught up to him and gripped both of his arms, stopping them both in the middle of the store's walkway. "Come on, please?" she said, plastering on a smile she knew Rin wouldn't be able to refuse. "I'll go to Jeongsan with you. To that...vase thing."

It was rare for Hye-jin to present the conditions of her own bargain. She must have really wanted those shoes. Rin decided to stretch it further. "Really? I thought you hated mud? The sound of clay squelching and mushing and—"

"Yeah," she interjected before he could go any further. "But it's rare for you to agree to buy me something from Chancet. There's these really chic sandals I've been wanting to get my hands on and well..."

That's all Rin needed. He slung an arm around Hye-jin once more and resumed their walk. "There's really no need to go that far," he said. "I'll get you the sandals. It'd be totally okay if you don't want to come to Jeongsan."

Hye-jin shook her head as if her honor was on the line, when in reality, it wasn't. "I have always been curious as to how porcelain is made," she said. "Maybe we could design one for ourselves too?"

He thought about it. "I'm sure there's some tourist workshops there," he said. "I haven't looked it up properly. I just wanted to get a vase for Mom. She loves flowers."

She gave him a light bump with her shoulder. "Well, let's go there and design the best vase in the world," she said, her grin brighter than the lights raining down on them. If he could just frame that particular moment of his life, maybe he would have given an arm and a leg should it be required.

A few minutes later, Hye-jin's steps bounced a bit as she swung the shoebox in her hand. Rin reached over and took it from her. "Want some ice cream?" he ventured. The number of times Hye-jin refused a free treat could be counted by how many tails humans have.

They found a nearby kiosk. When they got their cones, they wandered to the floor's glass railing, leaning their backs against it. "How are things back home?" Rin asked, for lack of better topic while eating ice cream.

Hye-jin sniffed but continued eating. "It's fine. Mom's going to need some treatment. Probably more meds," she said. "Nothing she couldn't handle. Dad's really been supportive too."

She spared him a glance despite a trail of milk staining her upper lip. "Yours?"

Rin was forced to look back to the last time he had been home. Spring break. Yeah. "Mom's ecstatic," he said. "She found this guy. He's been really good. So far."

His voice trailed off as he focused on consuming the ice cream before it melted and dribbled down his hand. Hye-jin asked the forbidden question. " 'So far'?"

Having dug this grave for himself, Rin found no other choice but to go all the way. Besides, this was Hye-jin. She should know every little thing about him. "Long story short, me and my mom always had the worst luck with people," he said. "Everyone who meets us, stays for a while, and then leaves in the worst possible way. Mom's had it worse, though."

Hye-jin was silent when Rin turned to her with his heart twinging with the words he was about to say. "My father left us when I was six," he said. "Didn't say a word. Didn't even bother finding me and saying goodbye. Happened one random day. I just found Mom crying and one person missing from the house as I got home from school."

Rin sipped the ice cream from the cone's bottom before licking his lips and continuing. "Back then, I understood why he had to go, though. A few months prior, they had done nothing but to scream at each other. Only happened when they thought I was sleeping," he took a deep breath, marveling when it had turned shaky. "I could hear everything, though. And not soon after, it's just me and my mom."

"I'm sorry," Hye-jin muttered, too soft against the rancor of the world. "Must have been tough for both of you."

"It gets easier. Maybe," he said. "Messed me up as a kid, though. Somehow, I got it into my head that I was the reason why Dad left. Maybe I did something bad and it angered him. Mom defended me and they fought. You know, things like that. I just..."

Rin crumpled the paper cone holder the ice cream came with. "I can't get rid of this feeling. Like I'm walking on eggshells. I kept thinking the moment I made a mistake, then people would leave. If I fail them, then they will find someone new and discard me."

And that was still true to this day. Every once in a while, he thought that if he had displeased Hye-jin, she would leave him for some hotter senior or other twisted stuff like that. "But, Mom has found someone now. And he's a good guy. I really hope they will make each other happy and all that cheesy stuff," he said. "I just don't want to see her like I was six again."

It was quiet beside him so he turned to see Hye-jin just finishing her cone. Was she not listening to everything he said? "I'm sorry to have dumped that on you," he said immediately. "I ruined the mood."

Hye-jin shook her head. "You made it better, honestly," she said. "Thank you for sharing that to me. I'm honored to have been the one to hear it."

He breathed a sigh. Of relief or of some other thing, he wasn't really sure. "Well, where do you want to go next?" he asked.

"And for the record," came Hye-jin's reply, making Rin lock his gaze on her. "You can make a million mistakes, Rin. I'm not going anywhere."

Something snapped and fluttered inside him. He didn't mean to cry but a single tear slipped past his defenses and he brought his hand up before she could see it.

She did. "Oh, are you crying?" she clasped his hand and attempted to pry it off his face when he shook his head. "Oooooh, he's crying!"

Rin sniffed but laughed at how silly they must be to anyone who passed them by—just two young lovers oblivious to the flow of the world around them. "You're so cheesy you made me tear up," he said, wiping the rest of his tears away. "Come on. We still have to beat the level dungeon. Which console are we using today?"

Hye-jin tossed the wrapper of her cone into the trash bin they passed. "Yours," she said. "You've got cooler stats than me."

He nudged her. "Is this Joon Hye-jin I'm hearing?" he teased. "She admitted I've got the cooler stats?"

"Only in Solarlume, genius," she rolled her eyes. "Now, come on. We need to hurry back. And dear lord of all things pointy, my ankle hurts."

Rin only laughed as Hye-jin dragged him along. As long as he was with her, it seemed like he wouldn't ever stop. There simply was no need to.