| everything i didn't say pt.2

note: self-indulgent, so expect this to be really long, like very long (my bias is yeseo too that's why)

"now i wish we never met, 'cause you're too hard to forget..."

— 1874

나는 우리가 만난 날 당신을 사랑했습니다.
残念ながら、私はそれらの感情に無知です。

"mandatory schooling will start tomorrow, here's the letter given to every houses by the british empire." mr. kang enters the house, sitting down on the wooden floors as he brought down a letter on the table, yeseo walks in the hall of the house, carrying a basket of clothes y/n wore from yesterday that she will dry outside, seeing her parents talk among themselves.

"i see, we had agreed upon sending yeseo there, yes? it's for her own good, though i am still upset about what happened yesterday." her mother answered, her voice ending with a long sigh of distress as she remembers the scene from yesterday.

"i heard about that— mr. yeo... he seems shocked about what happened, i heard from people that he was set to meet that japanese exchange student and was disappointed she had to come late due to that event." mr. kang crossed his hands on his chest, huffing out of stress.

yeseo hides behind the thin walls, holding tight to the basket in her hands.

"don't worry i've talked to her about that, we were lucky that ms. shen and ms. higuchi were very understanding, we never know what power they hold being under the custody of the biggest university and school in great britain." mrs. kang stated, yeseo's heart pounds loudly in her chest, if people from that university finds out about yeseo and y/n's incident they might hate her.

"i just hope she accepts yeseo's apology, they will see each other a lot starting tomorrow." mr. kang responded, noticing that the chattering went quite yeseo fled away to the back of their house, immediately hanging the clothes to dry.

"hey you there." a familiar voice called out, even though she couldn't understand she looked over to where it came from and there was y/n, wearing a new set of uniform, dark green blazer with a little gold emblem in it's breast pocket, brown tie, white dress shirt, a brown hat, brown trousers and a pair of boots.

"oh, ms. higuchi... what are you doing here?" yeseo asked, as she carefully carried the empty basket, looking over at y/n from the other side of the backyard.

"roaming around for a while, and checking the school grounds. also mind if you call me y/n instead?" y/n inquired, her voice sounding more softer than it did yesterday.

yeseo stared at her, before nodding her head and opening her mouth. "okay, y/n." yeseo walked over to the small fence separating her and y/n, and she leaned in and looked around to see if anyone was there, she noticed that y/n was carrying a brown bag, wrapping it around her shoulders to her waist.

"are those my clothes?" y/n asked, looking past yeseo pointing out to the clothes hanging to a small line of rope. yeseo looked over it and nodded, facing y/n again. "yes, i just got it washed today after you gave it to me yesterday." yeseo replied, y/n nodded, her lips pursing into a thin line, eyes grazing around the wooden house.

"are your parents here?" y/n asked, to yeseo's utter surprise, but yeseo shrugged. "i don't know, i should check, please wait here." yeseo looked at their house, placing the basket down before entering inside to check.

and fortunately, they weren't there anymore.

she came back to see y/n waiting behind the fence patiently, walking back to y/n, yeseo looked at her earnestly. "they're not here, they must've left somewhere." now that yeseo thinks about it, why would y/n ask about her parents' presence?

"is there something you want to tell them?" yeseo asked, y/n coughed, her eyes roaming around the alley where she was standing to see if anyone was witnessing anything at the current moment, but there was no one so she leaned in the fence and looked yeseo dead at the eyes.

"no, i walked here on purpose of meeting you. i am tasked to roam around and get myself used to the joseon island, but i grew tired and wanted to take a rest." y/n responded.

so she wanted to take a rest? in the kang residence? for what reason?

yeseo couldn't get the idea of it, but now that she thinks of it, even if her parents were here they wouldn't mind, because people like y/n were privileged.

"you want to take a rest here? even if my parents were here, they would still allow you." yeseo stated, then she shifted her eyes to the gate of the fence just a few meters away from y/n opening it and gesturing the taller girl inside.

"even if that is indeed the case, i do not want them to know i stayed here. so, if you might want to keep this a secret?" y/n asked, her question being processed by the korean girl.

yeseo looked at her confused as she closed the gate. "you want no one to know you are here? why would that be?" yeseo asked but then she led y/n inside their house, with y/n taking off her boots and excusing herself to almost no one.

"that is... it's my own choice, i want to lay low about my actions in this island, it will be nice to know you acknowledge it, yes?" y/n's words were carefully handpicked, making sure she wouldn't say any suspicious words to the other girl, and she guessed yeseo didn't think any wrong of it base on her reaction.

"is that so? i respect your choice, would you want some tea or water?" yeseo inquired as she walked towards y/n, seeing the other girl's gaze wandering around the house.

and then their eyes met. "i'm good, can you stay with me for a while?" y/n asked.

for some seconds yeseo thought about it, their eyes watching each other intently as if it was a contest, her heart was peculiarly beating fast in her chest, and she could hear her breath.

her hand found its way to the door of her own room, opening it for the exchange student in training to enter inside, with her following in suit.

yeseo couldn't understand nor see the wrong to her opening the door of her own room for a stranger she only met yesterday after she stupidly splashed the foreigner a cup of warm coffee, it felt right, her simple common sense think it is anyway.

y/n dropped her bag to the floor, taking off her blazer, dropping it to the floor too and spreading it before she laid down.

yeseo closed the door and stood there, watching the other girl lie down comfortably to the ground, now only wearing her socks, brown trousers, and her dress shirt, whilst her hat fell down as she lays down using her bag as a pillow.

"you're not gonna stay here with me?" she was cut off from her trance as y/n spoke clearly, snapping yeseo off her daydream.

"i don't know where i should be." yeseo stated, honest. she walked some steps before standing beside the tall foreign girl who was laying down.

"you can lay or sit down wherever you want, this is your room right?" y/n responds, half joking as she looked at yeseo who hesitated and breaths out before sitting down besides y/n.

while she was sitting, she can't help but feel the strong gaze of y/n watching over her every moment, and her face flushed for some reason, she took the fabric of her clothes and gripped on it as the tension rises.

"are you uncomfortable?" y/n asked, using her hands as she sat up and scooted closer to yeseo. "tell me so i can distance myself, if not, i'll stay here beside you." y/n stated, her voice now husky. yeseo feels her face lighting up, as the only thing she heard was y/n's steady breathing and her fast heartbeat.

yeseo couldn't understand why she felt intimidated, being beside such person took so much toll on her, it felt nice to have someone beside her but y/n is a foreigner, from the empire of japan too.

"no, not really. i just feel very new to having a foreigner with me and i was curious it bugs me out." yeseo said, her grip on her clothes being softer as she peeked to see what y/n is doing, yet she only finds her staring at yeseo. "what makes you curious?" y/n asked, before reaching to her hat and swaying it in her hand.

"about you? i really don't know what's your purpose here in joseon and how you end up being here now." yeseo responded, now being able to catch her breath as her eyes met y/n's.

y/n knits her brows together but she nodded. "i have a purpose and a job to do here, you know just exchange student activities. and i'm here now because i've met you, it's curiosity too, i guess?" y/n laughed off, wearing her hat once again, looking away.

"tomorrow, the mandatory school is gonna start, will you be there?" yeseo asked. y/n looked back at her, observing her nature before blowing a breath and nodded. "yes, i will help xiaoting with her work and some of my colleagues too. we'll be here for over a month or two. so expect to see my face as a part of your routine." y/n chuckled.

yeseo hugged her knees, her eyes falling to the floor as she lets her mind drift off to her conversation with the other girl. "i would not mind too, i was quite worried about how my father will think about the sudden visit of foreigners in our island."

that was something. y/n thought.

it seems like mr. kang doesn't find interest nor enthusiasm in the sudden take over of the great britain and the empire of japan, but either way, joseon island has no choice if they want to see another hope for their island.

"it's inevitable, one must come and change something for either the better or for worse. don't you like the idea of learning new things? it's fun." y/n paused, waiting for an answer from the korean girl, who huffed.

"maybe it is, but how would i know? i can see my future being stuck in this island until my death."  yeseo pouted, y/n paused, looking away as she realizes how her world was way different from yeseo's, unlike yeseo, she's bound to explore every part of the world as a part of her training under mr. gregson, yeseo is more likely to follow the norms of being born in joseon.

"don't you like the idea of travelling somewhere?" y/n asked, y/n moved away reaching for her bag as she took out a small booklet.

"what's that?" yeseo asked, pointing to the booklet in y/n's hands. their eyes met as y/n opens the booklet. "this is a travel booklet my mentor gave to me, something he used when he was young and was traveling around the world while he was in training." y/n asked, opening it to a specific page.

"here, that's the university i'm studying in." in front of yeseo's eyes is a black and white picture of a big building, she assumed was the university y/n was talking about, it was huge, compared to the things she had seen in joseon, maybe even bigger than a castle? it did look like a medieval castle compared to their empire castle.

"it's a picture, you can't see the color but that's what it is in person, it's not drawing or anything, what you see is what it is." yeseo has never heard of such thing before, most of the time things were just illustrated and shown to them to depict a thing which was seen once.

"say, one day... do you have any interest in going to london and seeing new things in person?" y/n asked once again, leaning in too close to yeseo, and to what yeseo had witnessed, the foreign girl seemed to be more enthusiastic than she was before, there was a bright gleam in her pair of dark eyes.

y/n scrunches her nose before leaning away and her hat fell from her head.

yeseo stared at her before opening her mouth. "maybe, one day i'd like to go somewhere far away from here." yeseo answered, lips closing as she finished her sentence.

her cheeks burn up red and her eyes turn pink at the sudden realization.

y/n looked down on her booklet, pulling out a small bookmark and sticking it to the specific page of the picture of their university.

"there we go..." muttering under her breath, unknown to the korean girl what was inside her mind.

y/n looked at yeseo, their eyes meeting in an intense gaze, y/n's eyes flashed towards yeseo's lips before looking up at her again.

"here, you can have that. i know you might not understand all of that, you can look at the pictures instead and use that as your guide to learn english." y/n stated, smiling mischievously towards the shorter girl, before placing the booklet in yeseo's lap.

yeseo stared at the booklet, before taking a hold of it.

"i appreciate this, but isn't this too precious for you? considering that this is a gift from your mentor." yeseo stated, observing the bundle of papers in her hands, appreciating every parts of it from the cover to the paper and the smell of lavender.

"it is beyond precious, he gave it to me in order to familiarize myself, now that i am familiar with almost every part of that paper, i want to give it to you so you can make a good use of it, if you ever want to travel across the world." y/n responded, then once again she reached for a fountain pen in her bag, and leaned in towards yeseo to take a hold of the booklet too, then opening it on the first page writing yeseo's full name below hers.

"there, i wrote your name under mine so you can finally call it yours too." y/n smiled.

yeseo's eyes sparkles, her breath hitched and her heart leaped in joy as she and y/n stared at each other.

and she doesn't know, whatever she was feeling right there was mixed-up, she was anxious but at the same time very happy, pushing back worries into the back of her mind.

she had never realized it, but it was already dark outside.

"i should head back to our place, see you tomorrow." y/n stood up and picked up her blazer, wearing it and she did the same with her bag, she exited the room with yeseo following behind and she got out of the house after wearing her boots.

"i'll see you tomorrow yeah?" y/n looked back at yeseo, raising her brows in inquiry. yeseo nodded, smiling brightly as she held the booklet in her hands.

"yes! take care." she replied.

as y/n runs through the alley and disappear from yeseo sight, she entered back to her room to be greeted with y/n's hat down the floor.

yeseo trudges towards it and picked it up. "she left it here, she must've forgot about her hat." yeseo smiled, before hiding it somewhere in her room and thinking about bringing it to y/n the next day.

oh, how could yeseo be this happy over something unexpected?

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