11:20 pm

Jinxi was standing in front of his parent's house after a long time. The warm weather made for a striking contrast against his cold memories, as he stood there watching the building. It had been almost a year since he moved out of his childhood home. The beige-colored bricks had a strong emotion of dark love in them.

Jinxi's naive and sweet but short-lived childhood, his tragic teenage years, some brave mistakes, and some regrets that he was too cowardly to face. Everything that was buried within the confines of this house seemed to invite him with a familiarity resonant with the endless dark night.

The envelope he had in his hand was light, but his heavy heart made it incredibly difficult to hold on to it. It seemed like the knife that would finally set him free. He made his way to the door and knocked as he waited outside with bated breath.

The door unlocked with a creak to reveal an old man with a dominant demeanor. Jinxi had run multiple scenarios in his head. Thousands of ways for this to go, and just like one of the shorter versions of the scenario that he had envisioned, the old man had shut the door with a bang before he got to speak.

Jinxi knew this was coming, so he wordlessly left the envelope with a copy of a job offer in LIE fashion studio, and left. He didn't have any regrets and strangely, he thought this was much better than any other version he had imagined in his head.

His life was finally on a path that he wanted to walk on, and he was happy with it. He had people who love him, and there were people whom he loved. He had a family that he could call his own, and that was enough to keep him going.

His future was waiting for him.