Nico
The phone was cold in my hand, or maybe my hand had gone cold. I could not tell anymore.
I answered it standing in the corner of Dami's bedroom with a towel still around my hips. "Mum?"
"Seo-jun-ah."
"What happened?"
Behind me, the stool scraped against the floor as Alaric stood up. I did not turn around.
"It is your grandfather." She was crying and trying not to let me hear it. "He fell this morning. The doctors say his body is giving up. They do not think he has more than a few days." She took a shaky breath. "Please come home."
I had not spoken to him in years. I had walked out of that house with one suitcase and a promise to myself that I would never go back through those gates.
"I will come," I said. "Tonight."
She hung up.
I kept holding the phone to my ear until Alaric took it gently out of my hand and set it down on the armchair.
"Nico." He stepped in front of me so I had to look at him. "Talk to me."
"My grandfather is dying. I have to go to Seoul."
