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literallynocontext · 3 years ago

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Undying Love - Olivia Hye (Part 1)

Authornim: Alright, I’m back on uploading my one-shots. I figured it was time for this before a short break, so I might as well give a lengthy piece for you to read.

Also, I tried new things for this piece as compared to when I first uploaded it , and that is trying to create a separate OC for this fic. I’m still experimenting on it, so any feedback would be appreciated.

The beginning might also be a bit too angsty for some, so there’s just that warning there.

Enjoy!

Words: 29932

Master List: here

---

I can’t even remember when the last time I ever took school seriously was. Ever since what happened almost two years ago, I never had the motivation and even the strength to study, or even live for that matter. No matter how much I tried, I know it would never be the same again; even if I force myself to believe that it could help me in the long run or that it would be the best decision rather than just sulking in my own room. I do appreciate my parents for thinking what was best for me… however, that alone can’t bring things back the way things used to be. It would never have the same effect because things are changed forever. I lost my will to live when I lost what I thought was my only motivation for life was, and now I’m walking in the pavements of Block Berry Creative University not even giving a fuck what was going on.

For what I could tell, the school year has started for almost a week or two now; but as a transferee here from a foreign land it was safe to say that I was still adjusting to everything around me. That’s is not only because this is my first venture back to South Korea for almost fifteen years since we left, but because I am still being haunted by the memories of my past even to this day…

I still remember that one day two years ago when all my deepest fears came to life…

I was never prepared for it, but no one really was. It was as if it just happened yesterday.

The day when I lost the only person I gave a promise I can never ever fulfil…

And all those days before that we were so happy and gave no care to the world…

---START OF FLASHBACK ---

-- TWELVE YEARS AGO---

The lovely rays of sunshine seeped through the gaps of the canopy of trees overhead. It was a late Saturday morning quite a few hours from noon on a quiet countryside, located on the far, rural outskirts of Australia. The fresh breeze of the wind gently grazed the long pool of trees surrounding the rich, soiled pathway where a young boy was occupied on riding his bicycle with utmost glee. The time between morning and the stretch of noon was one of Sang-hoon’s most favourite times of the day and that was solely because he gets the ability to drive across their forest-like neighbourhood with his trusty bike, all without worrying about the threat of cars passing by.

Choi Sang-hoon’s neighbourhood was perhaps one of the most sought after-places that people would often look for in a place like that. It was a small town located far from the city proper where houses practically lived one with nature; complete with large trees becoming a part of the rural landscape of civilization. It was precisely because of the green environment and the mountainous topography of the place that made the air really fresh and definitely suitable for a morning bike ride and perfect for a young boy such as himself who yearned to enjoy his youth every chance he could.

Sang-hoon could not even count the number of times he rode the trail ever since he was a toddler just because of the sheer experience it provided; the high canopy of trees giving the pathway a cool, relaxing shade under the bright and intense sunlight. A soft rush of water could also be heard as he passed, signalling his proximity to the clean river located nearby.

It has always been like this on class-less weekend mornings for a young boy such as Sang-hoon. His mornings would be a good hour or two of watching his favourite morning cartoons all while eating a rich and fresh vegetable soup prepared by his loving mother. After that, it was the usual morning routine was to spend biking around the rural neighbourhood and bask in sweat thanks to the heat of the sun. Today, Sang-hoon decided to go to his rather unusual routes and tread on the edge of the trees overlooking the long riverbank as opposed to the usual street dwelling that he did. So far, everything was going on smoothly. He had his back rested against an old, large tree with his bike parked on one of its overgrown roots as he pondered on his next route while keeping up with his breathing.

And that was when he heard a squeal; a cry of help that clearly came from the direction of the river.

Almost immediately did it catch Sang-hoon’s attention, and on the spot the young boy moved towards the harsh slope of soil, weaving through the root and tendrils and headed down towards the cliff overlooking the moving stream of the riverbank. At that time of the day, it was surprisingly strong for what he usually remembers it to be, perhaps due to the rain that happened the night previously. Yet, he was still puzzled as to how a young girly voice would call to him in that river.

“Hello…?” he called amidst the strong splash of water as he craned his head around hoping to find the source of the voice. “Is anyone down there?”

“Help me! Someone please! I’m down here!” replied a female voice barely audible from the loud splash of the water.

Determined to find the source of the voice, the young boy Sang-hoon quickly went to the other hanging sides of the small clearing, trying to look for a good angle to find the person perhaps in trouble with the flowing stream. He skipped, hopped and jumped over open spaces as the girl continuously cried for help, and the pressure of her voice being fainter and fainter as time went by instilled a little hint of panic within the young boy’s mind.

It was when he finally finished a couple more jumps did he finally find the source of the voice. True enough, at one of the narrower and steeper ends of the clearing was a young girl dressed in a bright blue dress, her face in utmost fear as she clutched on an exposed tree root and clung on it for dear life. Her white doll shoes were covered in dirt and soil as she stood with the platform of soil; the earth she had her foot on slowly being eaten up by the flowing waters. Sang-hoon had no idea how she got there but if he could not get her out, there’s a good chance that the stream might take her away.

“Please! I’m scared!” The little girl cried. “I don’t want the water to take me!”

“Please wait for me,” Sang-hoon called back in a frail attempt to calm the clearly panicking girl down under. Finally knowing where she was exactly placed, he ran back right above where the location of the girl was and quickly thought to himself of a way to pick her up from there without putting them both in danger.

And then it hit him: a little trick he has been taught during his summer camps as a kid Scout. He removed the jacket he previously tied around his waist, laid it out lengthwise before tying one end of the sleeve to a sturdy exposed root, ensuring that it was knotted well that it can take more than his own weight. With that, he carefully descended towards the location of the girl with utmost caution, minding the length of his jacket as well as his arm to not fully focus his weight on the makeshift rope.

“Hey! Up here! I’ll get you out of here!”

The girl then looked up with fear, albeit in the fraction of second that she was able to see Sang-hoon, she felt strangely calm all of a sudden, perhaps knowing that someone is out there to fetch her out of her predicament was plausible than she first thought.

“I’m scared!”

“Don’t be! Please don’t be scared! I’m going to get you out of here! Grab my hand!” Sang-hoon said as he extended his hand for her to take. “I’ll pull you out of there, just take my hand!”

“You promise to take me out of here?”

“I promise! Take my hand, quick!”

The young girl moved to grab Sang-hoon’s outstretched hand with hers, and with the force of the two children they both yanked themselves up towards the flatter part of the clearing. Sang-hoon, with the best that his young body could do, pulled the girl in utmost effort while she frantically propelled herself upwards with whatever ground her feet could hit themselves upon. It was perhaps perfectly timed, for the moment that the girl’s feet left the small mound of soil it immediately crumbled; dissolving unto the angry stream like it was nothing.

“We’re getting there!” he told her as he pulled. “Grab that rock over there!”

Thankfully, the young girl followed Sang-hoon’s instructions as she was able to grab the protruding rock from nearby; using it, as well as some help from Sang-hoon himself, to hoist herself out of the steep cliff and onto the flatter part of the forest. However, just as the girl was safely on the top of the stable soil, Sang-hoon heard a quick cracking noise as the root he tied his jacket on finally splintered and gave up due to their combined weights before finally cracking in two

“Oh no!” the girl exclaimed from the ground above.

It was quite expected for it to do that, and so Sang-hoon acted instantly with the noise; finally letting go of the sleeve he held on his hand and swinging his weight unto the same protruding rock before his jacket was washed on the raging stream as well. Then, with utmost effort, he pushed himself out of the steep cliff; his head adorned with thick trails of sweat and filth as he collapsed beside the sitting figure of the blue-dressed girl.

“A-are you alright…?” she asked with a soft voice, eyeing Sang-hoon’s huffing figure by the ground.

“That was close…” he breathed as he turned in place to face his body up. “I barely got out of there.”

“Your face looks so dirty.”

“Hey, I just saved you,” he said back, looking towards the face of the young girl as it, too, was filled with dirt as much as his was. “What were you doing down there, anyway? The streams pretty strong… were you planning to go for a swim?”

“No… my… I was trying to catch my b-bear when it fell down there … I had no idea that it was slippery… it wasn’t like that the last time it fell…”

“You should have let it go. That bear is washed up now, I’m sure. Does this happen to you often?”

The girl silently nodded. The moment Sang-hoon turned towards her, he noticed the little graze on her knee perhaps from the rocks that she kneed while going up.

“You have a graze on your knee… I bet it’s painful.”

She didn’t respond.

“I live nearby. I can ask mom to put some bandages on that; you don’t want trains going out from that, you know.”

“’Trains’…?”

“She usually says that to me. I should attend to my wounds immediately because trains might come out leaking from them. Now,” he said as he stood up before brushing his shirt and shorts clear of dirt. “Let’s go. It’s not that far. We better get that cleaned up.”

Sang-hoon then proceeded to offer his hand to the girl in the hopes of assisting her up.

“My name’s Sang-hoon Choi. I’m eight years old; how about you?”

The girl eyed her saviour for a good minute or two before finally deciding to take the hand offered for her. She stood up and brushed the dirt off of her bright blue skirt and stifled a smile towards Sang-hoon’s direction.

“O-Olivia… Olivia Hye … I’m s-seven y-years old…”

“That’s a nice name. Let’s go, Olivia. Let’s get your knee treated.”

---

It may have been fate that bound them together after that fateful meeting for Sang-hoon and Olivia have grown with each other’s presence for almost every single day. Their encounters have far been just two people paying each other courtesy because one saved the other, but rather their friendship and companionship developed as the months passed by. Sang-hoon and Olivia have been so used to being around each other that they’re practically the best of friends. The bright ray of sunshine became a lot more meaningful for both the young friends as they became each other’s highlight for their own respective days.

As if being together through thick and thin was not enough, with the years going by (as well as both of them becoming a lot mature in their own regard) Olivia and Sang-hoon found themselves going to the exact same school since primary school, even more so being together in the same exact class. That fact alone inevitably attracted a lot of speculation amongst their peers yet the couple did nothing to mind all of those. As far as they both were concerned, they were the best of friends and nothing else could top that.

Three years has passed since they first met each other and now the two friends stood on top of a glassy hill close to their home, and sought a small resting place under a large tree; embracing the comfort of the sunset as they overlooked their little, hidden town. In all aspects, this part of Australia was one, if not the best the country has to offer. It was so peaceful; which is what both of them loved about the place.

“…And then maybe I’ll convince mom and dad to get me a new bike for my birthday this year,” Sang-hoon said while he gazed on the lazy horizon of their little town, overlooking the carpet of indigo-orange clouds that signalled the incoming twilight. “My old one broke already and I can barely even use my legs to cycle without it bumping against my elbows. This growth spurt thing is real.”

“Uh-huh…” replied Olivia’s voice from behind as she sat leaning on the tree’s trunk, clearly occupied on something that Sang-hoon had not noticed since arriving just yet.

“Do you miss going for bike rides, Oli? It’s been a while since we did it together, and summer break’s perfect for that. It is funny how we first met because of bikes and now the thing’s giving up because of old age. You still remember it?”

“Uh-huh…”

“But now that I think of it, maybe not. I mean they’ll probably just give me what my older brother already has, you know. I don’t know, but there’s something about toys that don’t interest me. I’d prefer to go out like I usually do. And there’s no way they’re going to buy us that console… mom does not want my brains absorbed into that or something… Do you play dolls, Oli? Do your parents buy you toys?”

“Uh-huh…” the little girl replied once again in the same, preoccupied tone.

Because of that, Sang-hoon finally averted his attention from the seething horizon and looked back at his friend. Olivia Hye, even in her pink and white dress, sat glowing with the rays of the setting sun. If it was not for her undivided attention with what she was writing then maybe she could contribute something to what Sang-hoon was saying.

“Olivia…?”

“Uh-huh…”

“You smell like rotten egg.”

“Uh-huh…”

“You’re okay with me calling you a rotten egg for the rest of your life?”

“Uh-huh…”

“OLIVIA!”

Sang-hoon changed in tone definitely caught the young girl’s attention almost instantly. Olivia Hye may have jumped for a brief moment there, clearly startled by Sang-hoon’s sudden burst in voice before finally deciding to pay attention to her friend. She then supplied her with a look that was caught in between being apologetic as well as being guilty as she was well caught in the act of not listening to what he was saying.

“Yeah…? I’m sorry what were you saying?”

Sang-hoon scratched the back of his head in disappointment before walking towards the sitting figure of Olivia. He stood beside her and looked down in utmost confusion right towards her notebook right as Olivia’s hand was frozen in mid-write.

“Yah, I’ve been talking about my plans for the summer and you’re not paying attention. What are you doing anyway? You’ve been so absorbed in that thing since we came here. What is that?”

“Oh this…? It’s my diary, Sang-hoon,” the young girl replied after a short chuckle, showing him the pages of the small red notebook that were filled with Olivia’s own handwriting. “I figured if I want this summer to be unforgettable, I should write about it.”

“Hey, are you sure that you’re not just doing that because everyone else in our school does it? I often see girls writing weird stuff on their notebooks and when I ask them if I could read it, they’ll just scoff at me. They kept telling me that it was private because they kept their crushes inside there or something…”

Olivia shook her head.

“No, this is not a slam book, Sang-hoon; this is a diary. They’re totally different things.”

“They are…?”

“You know what… whatever. I’ll just write here whatever happens during the summer and you’re going to thank me for it. Mother and father always told me to cherish things while we’re still young because they said four or five years from now, everything might just be a memory. It would be fun to look back especially when crazy things happen this summer.”

“Do you really need to do that? We can remember things just fine, Oli. I don’t think writing it down would make any difference. Let’s just run down this hill and whoever goes last has to treat the other with an ice cream or something.”

“We can do that later, Sang-hoon, come on. Besides, I’m going to write our promise to each other a year ago in case my brain forgets it again. I don’t want you to use it against me because in the near future I know you will.”

He knit his eyebrows.

“Promise…? I thought it was a joke. Mom got angry when I told her about it because she said we’re still too young to think about those kinds of stuff. I don’t want her to go scolding me again, Oli, come on.”

Olivia chuckled, much to Sang-hoon’s annoyance.

“Who told you to tell it to them in the first place? I told you this would just be between us. It is what would happen in the future anyway, and you and I promised to each other that it will be like that. You still remember the promise right…?”

Sang-hoon pursed his lips.

“Yah, Sang-hoon …”

“Of course I do…”

“I’m writing that here because it’s a promise… a promise that we’re going to marry each other when we’re old enough. You agreed to it, and we’re going to do it, okay?”

“Fine, fine… sure, we’ll get married when the time comes… but if you’re just keeping it on that diary, what if something happens to that and you forget? If it would take so long before we do that, I’m sure we’re going to forget it at some point. We’re talking about, what, more than fifteen years before that happens?”

Olivia raised her head only for her keen eyes to meet his genuinely curious stare. An idea she initially thought to be ridiculous proved its point the more that she thought of it. Surely, how long could she guarantee that she could keep the notebook to herself, knowing how much of a messy person she actually is? So with that in mind, Olivia stood up and looked back towards Sang-hoon. This time, she closed the notebook-diary, clasping the pen in between its pages and offered her attention on Sang-hoon’s still-confused demeanour before proceeding to offer her hand for him.

“What’s that?” he asked, puzzled as he stared onto Olivia’s open palm before him. “What am I going to do with that?”

“You said you brought your knife whenever you went, right? Do you mind if I borrow it?”

“My knife…? What are you going to do with that? It’s just a hard plastic knife, it’s not like it can cut anything. I’m just keeping it because it’s special.”

“I need to borrow it just this once, Sang-hoon. I won’t break it, I promise. What would be its purpose if you won’t even use it just once?”

Sang-hoon, despite the weird nature of Olivia’s request, eventually gave the small flip-up plastic knife from his pocket instead of opting to ask for more questions. In turn, Olivia casually handed him the folded notebook before walking back towards the tree, plastic knife in hand.

“Hey, what are you doing? Don’t go knifing that on the trunk because it won’t work!”

He approached her in panic only to find Olivia literally carving off something on the edge of the tree’s bark-free trunk, sending loud noises from where Sang-hoon stood. Just as he was about to lean in to check what she was writing, the young girl walked in front of him and blocked his view with her own body.

“Hey! What on earth are you doing? You’re hurting the tree!”

“I’m just writing on the already open space and on the obvious dead parts. Come on, Sang-hoon, just stay there. This is about to be done.”

“What does this tree have something to do with remembering our promise?”

Right after he said that, Olivia finally moved out of the way to show her small artwork to him, cleverly made using the very knife she just took from him moments ago:

It was a small writing that comprised of both their names, “Olivia & Sang-hoon”, enclosed with what he assumed to be a rough estimate for a heart. True to her statement, the small reminder was placed on the tree’s bark-free trunk, exactly where the part of the tree looked essentially ‘dead’.

“Let’s see you try to forget that with that one on,” she said with a smile. “I bet you’re going to remember it whenever we go here, I guarantee you that.”

“I get it, but why do you need to do it on the tree?”

“This is now our tree, Sang-hoon. I know it looks weird, but at least you now have a good reason to remember it otherwise the tree’s bark would have been written on for nothing.”

“That’s so weird to put, you know. Can I have my knife back?”

Olivia handed him his plastic Swiss-knife back, only for it to completely break free from its handle the moment that it hit his hand.

“Oh, I didn’t expect that…” Olivia gasped as she stared onto the broken knife before her. “Sorry.”

“Hey, I’ve been using this for years now! Come on, Olivia why did you just… Olivia--?”

For what felt like a matter of seconds, Olivia immediately disappeared from Sang-hoon’s from to run away from him down the grassy hill, screaming her apology as she treaded the twilight-lit path down below. Sang-hoon, on the other hand, froze on the spot as he took a couple of seconds to register what had happened. He stood there holding the broken halves of the knife on one hand and Olivia’s diary notebook on the other, and once he realized that Olivia has gained enough ground from him while she ran away, did he only decide to dart after her while shouting her name amidst the forest.

And with that, the promise of Sang-hoon and Olivia’s future plans were pledged in witness of the tree overlooking the final rays of the sunset; Olivia Hye’s handwriting glaring intensively on the tree on top of the hill.

---SIX YEARS LATER---

It was needless to say that whatever friendship that Choi Sang-hoon and Olivia had cemented went on for years since that promise under the tree. Sure, it might have looked like an innocent agreement that both of them did during their youth, but as the years went by the promise still held itself as something that Sang-hoon and Olivia had going on the background. The promise was still there, lingering silently as the pair of them finally graduated from their primary school and more beyond that.

Years since that fated conversation under the tree and their bond became stronger than ever; whether it was out of utmost friendship and trust for one another or if it was a product of an unknowingly blossoming romance, both Sang-hoon and Olivia knew it was still too early to find out which is which. The pair of them got so used to being around each other that neither of them noticed how much the other has grown through all the years they spent together, and it was right at the end of middle school, on a specific incident when Sang-hoon began to notice how beautiful Olivia has become throughout the years.

Olivia Hye has always been a really beautiful person even during their younger years, but as time went by, all the beauty she had when she was young only emphasized itself when she finally reached her teenage years. If anything, Olivia went from a cute, adorable little girl to an astonishing, drop-dead gorgeous woman. Her skin was as fair as ivory, complimented by her straight, black hair, sharp eyes, and her uniquely curved smile. It was easy to say that because of her further glow-up transition that she became the cream of the crop, often having eyes lead to her ethereal beauty if only it was not for his friend, Sang-hoon.

He used to be the small, skinny kid who loved the outdoors and practically lived under the guise of the sun, but Choi Sang-hoon grew most in comparison to every young man in his age group. His youthful charm still remained there despite being absolutely overthrown by his height and physique. For someone who’s still in middle school, Sang-hoon was clearly seen taller above everyone else and perhaps even against his seniors; on a height that was definitely impressive, albeit just enough that he (and Olivia for that matter) is not too comfortable about it. It was precisely because of this very reason that, despite his charming looks, he is often found very intimidating for those who attempt to even think about wooing Olivia Hye.

It was a cold afternoon and the sun is gracefully glazing the sky with its red-orange hue, signalling the approach of the day’s end when a fifteen-year old Olivia Hye sat on the small road-side shed eager to go home. She waited patiently for Sang-hoon to join her and in the meantime busying herself on the red diary she has been working on for years since. It was quiet for the most part, until her silence was broken by the approach of two men that she immediately recognized to be high school students from nearby.

“Oh, look at that,” one man said, and just by his statement, Olivia knew that she was already being checked upon; the heat of his gaze blaring on her exposed thighs on her school uniform. “If it is not a stray from Mulberry Science School… goddamn… are you alone here?”

“Of course she’s alone, dumbass, why else would she be waiting here for?” the other man replied with a really raspy voice.

Olivia raised her head and eyed the two high schoolers in contempt, although keeping herself calm and composed to hopefully intimidate the two boys. One guy, the person she immediately recognized to be the one that was checking on her was a slender man that had a high buzz cut amongst a really smug impression on his chiselled face. His friend, on the other hand, was a hair shorter than he was, stood with a bag on his back and his ginger-brown hair tied on a black bandanna. Both of them were wearing the all-black uniform of the Appleton High School poorly, exposing the colored shirts they wore underneath the uniform shirt. The pair had an impressed smirk upon them and loomed far from Olivia to prevent her from taking either way out of the shed, and perhaps to add an ounce of intimidation to the girl. However, Olivia was clearly uninterested and figured it was just another day of having assholes for her to deal with.

“Can I help you with anything?” she asked in a calm tone as she brought her diary down.

“Well, your name would be really nice for starters,” the guy wearing the bandanna. “My name’s Jake, and this good looking fella right here is Bruce. We’re just walking around to find some people we could… hang out with, right mate?”

“Right,” the guy called Bruce answered. ��We figured a young and beautiful woman such as yourself would be bored in the middle of a roadside shed like this and we thought… maybe you can join us on a little house party, yeah? It’s going to be fun. We have a lot of girls there too, you know.”

Olivia stifled a sarcastic smile. “Sorry, but I have plans for this evening. I’ll have to say ‘no’ to that.”

“Well of course you’d say that,” Bruce replied. “We’re just concerned, yeah? We’re just uncomfortable leaving a pretty face such as you in a dark shed like this. It’s about to go night too, yeah?”

“Yeah, you’re a lot safer with us, miss,” Jake added. “We’ll make sure you’re going to be safe.”

“You’re right,” Olivia replied as she checked her wristwatch. “It is about to get dark. That reminds me that I should go ahead. Thank you for your offers and have a good night.”

She then proceeded to stand and head for the road-side on her right, only for her path to be blocked by the smug-faced Bruce. Olivia glared at him with utmost hatred, but her expression was met with a gentle smirk.

“Goddamn, you’re body’s really curvy,” he whispered to himself, but Olivia heard it too clearly as well as taking a hint of alcohol in his voice. “You’re going to leave us now, princess?”

He then reached for her hair, of which Olivia was quick to swat away.

“Please don’t touch me. Get out my way, please.”

“Aww, a sensitive one, huh,” Jake remarked from the left. “I’d like to see this one cry out for sure!”

“You’re not going to move?” she asked in a dangerous yet silent tone.

“Not until you say ‘yes’ baby. There’s two of us here, what are ya gonna do?” said Bruce.

Olivia’s eyes met his, and to his surprise, the girl they thought they had cornered gave a sly grin. The next thing the both high schoolers knew was they were flying in opposite directions to each other with Olivia standing in the middle after giving them both a hard push on their respective chests. She dismissed the annoying situation and walked past Bruce before bagging her diary for good measure.

“Ah this one’s a fighter, Bruce!” Jake yelled from behind. “Seize her, quick!”

“Come on, missy, we just want to talk, is all!” Bruce said as Jake helped her up before the two of them darted towards Olivia, who was walking calmly away from them.

Bruce was about to reach her and grab on her backpack intending to seize her like Jake said, but before he was about to reach for her, he felt a hand grip on his shoulder. Then, with utmost annoyance, he turned towards Jake only to see him having the same grip on his shoulder as well.

“Do we have a problem here?”

The two high schoolers stopped on their tracks and Olivia, having recognized the voice, stopped in place as well to turn towards the source of the sound. Sang-hoon stood in the middle of the two guys with each of his hands on either of their shoulders, looming so tall above both of Bruce and Jake that he stood almost a head taller than them. There was a brief, hostile intent from Bruce’s part; furious at the fool who dared to stop him and Jake from asking Olivia out. He was sure at that moment he was ready to make him pay for interfering, but the moment that his eyes met the tall and imposing figure of Sang-hoon, he immediately slacked back. Whatever his business was for appearing next to both of them, he was sure that Sang-hoon was involved in some sort with Olivia. With his physique and his state of not wearing any recognizable uniform, Bruce immediately assumed him to be out of highschool or worse, a delinquent.

“Hey, sister,” Sang-hoon teasingly called to Olivia as he held both of the guys on their shoulders. “Are these guys bothering you?”

“Oh no, we aren’t,” Bruce said as he brushed Sang-hoon’s grip off of him, his tone clearly changing from being previously gruff to borderline apologetic. “We’re just wondering why a pretty face such as her is waiting alone, is all. Wha’s wrong with that, yeah?”

“R-right, we t-told her it’s dangerous around here,” Jake said.

“Dangerous, huh… Is that so? I’ll have you guys know that I’m the one she’s waiting for. She’s fine now that I’m here, so I don’t think she’d need your help anymore. Thanks for keeping her in check for me, though. I’ll take it from here, guys.”

Olivia rolled her eyes and smirked.

“R-right you are. We’re leaving her to you, then. We’re just watching out for her.”

“He’s right… we’re not gonna do anything to her, yeah? We’re heading off man, shit.”

And so, in utmost panic, the two high schoolers immediately darted past Sang-hoon’s tall figure and bowed in fearing courtesy before heading back towards the direction of the waiting shed, clearly pushing each other out of the way. Sang-hoon, on the other hand, stood there smiling as he watched them panic themselves away, equally amused how he managed to scare off the two seniors just by talking to them casually.

“Take care, guys!” he called back towards them before turning to Olivia. “Hey, you okay?”

“You didn’t have to do that. I had the situation under perfect control,” Olivia remarked, beckoning Sang-hoon to join her on their journey home. “I was minutes ago from blowing their noses up.”

“Well, I figured some people need protection, you know.”

“I don’t need protection, Sang-hoon; not from guys like them. I can deal with it.”

“But sometimes you need my help, you know. You still remember how we met?”

“Shut it, Sang-hoon. I can perfectly take care of myself.”

“I’m well aware of that, Oli. By the way, I was actually pertaining to them. I don’t want them to go home with bandages all over their smug noses.”

Olivia looked back towards him and she met his eyes. There was a brief pause before both of them smiled and eventually chuckled with the small ordeal. For both of them, it was hilarious to have someone hit on Olivia for the nth time only for it to end up almost exactly on the same way.

“What took you so long, anyway?” Olivia retorted to him. “And why are you not wearing the school uniform? Did something happen while you’re still at school?”

“Oh this…? I changed for the Play rehearsal but I got too lazy to change back to my uniform. I think it’s so pointless if I’m going home anyway, so I figured I’d just walk home like this.”

“Seriously… you walked out of school wearing all black and a leather jacket. With your height, no wonder those idiots were so scared of you. You look so damn intimidating.”

“But hey, if it was not for this they might not have gone off without doing anything, so I’ll count that as a bonus. You got to admit, Oli, seeing them scurry out of here because of me was hilarious.”

Olivia sighed.

“Sheesh, I should have taught those idiots a lesson. They’re already in high school and yet they still act like elementary students. Even the kids around our neighbourhood act a lot better than them... get drunk at this time of the day…. What the hell are they doing?”

“You sound like my mom. No wonder people start to say that you’re older than me, Oli.”

Olivia gave a light slap on his arm.

“Hey! “

“I’m joking, Oli, I’m joking! You’re way too serious! Come on, you need to lighten up! Let me see that smile of yours.”

“I’m sorry. I just got upset that I didn’t get to unleash my irritation on those idiots, but maybe for the better. I’m also hungry, so there’s that.”

“Do you want me to call them back here? I recognize where they’re from with their uniforms. I can tell them that I mistook you for someone.”

“Hey, that reminds me, why on earth would you call me ‘sister’?”

Sang-hoon knit his eyebrows for a moment as he recalled, and then it hit him.

“Oh, that… well, I figured calling you by your name might be wrong. I’ll be sending them the hint of your identity and then they’ll be able to track you because you’re wearing the Mulberry School uniform, so I went to the safest route of calling you my sister. Plus, I think it adds more to the intimidating part, you know.”

“I get that, but why does it have to be a sister? Do we see each other as siblings, Sang-hoon?”

“Umm… I don’t know what you’re getting at this but maybe…? I don’t know. What else do you want me to call you so that next time I know what to say?”

Olivia opened her mouth but before she could speak, she felt herself blush. Instead of pursuing with the conversation, Olivia decided to shift the topic into something else entirely.

“Never mind, just tell me how your day went. That’s for making me wait for you after hours.”

“I guess that’s fair. So I mentioned this play, right? And I thought I’m going to have way less lines but then another actor said he won’t be able to come, so...”

Sang-hoon and Olivia’s conversation continued on until they both reached the bus stop. The young man was more than happy to lay out to his ‘friend’ how much he has achieved for the day and Olivia, being the natural listener she is complementing Sang-hoon’s adventurous personality perfectly, listened with utmost intent and enthusiasm. For her, there was something about his stories that appealed to her especially hearing how happy he is with everything he managed to accomplish. The conversation continued for until they were practically telling each other stories, especially their plans for their upcoming summer like they usually did. The end of their middle school is approaching after all, and so they mutually agreed to make the most out of the break before the weight of high school responsibility gets them fully.

It was roughly a thirty minute bus ride and the pair eventually reached their stop and subsequently dropped off of the bus before resuming their never ending stories. The sun has completely set at this point, and the only thing that was lighting Sang-hoon and Olivia’s pathway are the streetlights along the sloping path. However, if he has anything to say about it, the smile on Olivia’s face was brighter than any light on that very evening.

“You know what you should do? I think you should try out for the Dance Club, Oli. I feel like you have an unsung talent for dancing, you know.”

Olivia scoffed in return before proceeding to talk.

“You know I’m a terrible dancer, Sang-hoon; like that’s going to work.”

“What do you mean that you’re a ‘terrible dancer’? Oli, come on; you’re good. You’re not just putting too much thought into it. I’m pretty sure if you take it seriously, you’re going to do a good job. Believe me.”

Olivia rolled her eyes and smiled.

“Between the both of us, you’re more likely to be the dancer than me. You’re born to perform because you’re a very active person, that’s exactly why you’re on the Theatre and you do plays, right?”

“Yeah but who found out that I had a penchant for those kinds of stuff? It was you, Oli. You made me realize that I have something in me that I can use to share to people, and that’s amazing to think about. I want to do the same for you because I know there’s an untapped potential in you. You just need to look where.”

“Well, maybe or maybe not. We never really know what’s going to happen, do we? Sometimes fate presents its favours on the ones not expecting, so there’s that. We’ll see what happens.”

“But how would you know if you won’t try it out? Come on, Oli; the next time that I’m with you and your favourite upbeat song plays, you have to dance and you have to take it seriously. I’ll be your judge.”

“You’ll only say good things, Sang-hoon.”

“Of course, among others, yeah; but that does not mean I won’t criticize you if you need improvements, right? I mean, every great performer started as a back act, so you’re not an exception. Besides, that’s not my point. What I’m trying to say is that I know you’re a good performer and I want to see people appreciate your talents. Try it, Oli.”

“Sheesh, you’re really pushing me on this are you?”

Sang-hoon smiled before he nodded.

“I know you can do it, Oli. I want to see you succeed, and I’ll support you on whatever you do. I’ve always been like that ever since.”

Sang-hoon felt Olivia slow her pace down after a brief pause and so he did the same. He turned his eyes to Olivia’s, standing ever so still beside him as she, too, supplied him with a really sincere gaze amidst the barely-lit side street; cars passing by them with their headlights blaring on the approaching evening. There were no words to it, but that exchange surely brought some sense of sentimentality between them as if they’ve already spoken just by merely gazing at each other.

“You really know how to make my heart flutter, you know?” Olivia concluded with a smile on her perfect, triangle lips.

“Of course, Oli; I guess that’s why we’re so compatible for each other since day one. There’s only one person who could finish my sentences with ease; only one person who fits perfectly with me. That person is you, Olivia Hye.”

Olivia felt her cheeks blush, rendering her unable to reply even if she wanted to reply back.

“You know,” Sang-hoon interrupted, acknowledging the awkward silence he unintentionally made. “Maybe we should up our pace for a bit. It’s obviously later than we anticipated and I bet you’re getting hungry too. We didn’t stop for snacks when we’re near the bus stop so here we go.”

However, as Sang-hoon proceeded to walk a few steps ahead, Olivia remained silent beside him. Whether it was because he made the situation a lot more awkward than he intended to be, or perhaps Olivia’s mind was occupied on something else unrelated to what he just said. He obviously did not want to keep it that way and so he tried to open a topic in the hopes of keeping the conversation up until they go home.

“Have you tried those spicy rice cakes, Oli? I know you’re half-Korean and all, but I never saw you chow on one of those. Is it tasty? I kinda want to try it if you’re up for it.”

“Sang-hoon …”

“I’m serious. Have you ever tried it before? They say it’s really spicy with the sauce, but some people fry it until it’s crunchy. What is it called again?”

“Sang-hoon … Wait…” she said with a notable crack on her voice.

“Huh…? Why…?”

Sang-hoon stopped in his tracks to turn towards Olivia’s direction, only for him to not see her next to him. He then looked back and there he saw Olivia distanced far behind him, separated from him for about a few metres with a look of worry on her plain, round face.

“Are you okay?”

Olivia returned a gaze full of shock and anguish, her face turning pale for almost an instant that she stopped walking.

“My… my legs feel weak Sang-hoon … and my body is aching…”

“You’re just probably hungry and tired. You know how I mentioned we didn’t take a snack back—“

“Sang-hoon …!” She cried aloud; her face began contorting with pain. “Ouch! It hurts!”

Her cry felt genuine; the shrill, painful tone enough to chill him to the bone and make him act on the spot. It was that very cry that brought Sang-hoon to think that Olivia was being dead serious and simply not doing it as a cruel joke. His eyes met Olivia’s for a brief moment and her once sharp, intimidating eyes were filled with utmost fear and pain from what she was feeling from within. Olivia swayed on the spot as she lost balance, and fortunately he was quick enough to catch her before she fell completely on the ground. Now, with him kneeling on the ground and clutching Olivia’s body on his arms he was able to see her face clearly; she was sweating so much that her entire face was shining amidst the eerie light of the lamp post.

“Olivia, what happened? Are you okay? What are you feeling?”

However, there was no direct response from her. Olivia lay there on Sang-hoon’s arms, her eyes half-lidded as she fell out of motion, unconscious. Then, as Sang-hoon was panicking for seeing her like that, a single drop of maroon blood dripped from her left nostril and trailed down her cheek.

“OLIVIA…!” Sang-hoon screamed, giving her body a soft shake before turning towards the rest of the onlookers with only one thing in his mind:

“PLEASE HELP US! PLEASE, SOMEONE CALL AN AMBULANCE!”

---TWO HOURS LATER – AT A HOSPITAL NOT FAR FROM THE INCIDENT---

Sang-hoon has been sitting on the white chairs of the medical centre for as far as he could remember, his legs tapping anxiously against the ground while he eagerly waited. It was almost eight in the evening and the hospital’s white corridors slowly became devoid of any sort of presence aside from the occasional trips of nurses and doctors. Olivia was fortunately immediately attended to the moment that the ambulance arrived to take her, but it has been an hour or so since her father and mother arrived and went inside her room and they haven’t been out ever since. He was left there waiting for news he could only hope to be good all while the weight of exhaustion, hunger, worry and guilt all coming at him all at the same time.

It was the first time that he saw Olivia ever so fearful like that, even more so than when she was left on the river during their younger years. A part of him was frustrated that he should have had a hint when it came; he even felt entirely stupid for thinking that Olivia was merely acting for what she’s worth. He didn’t even know that she was already in immense pain then and there, yet it still remained a mystery to him with regards to what happened. The longer that her parents stayed inside her room, the more worried he was becoming for his friend.

What on earth happened to Olivia? He thought to himself as he waited. Where did that pain come from? Why did it have to happen right now?

The door from the emergency room finally opened after what felt like an eternity of waiting, and then emerged Mr Hye, a brilliant-looking Korean man in his early forties with a sleek physique, a rich head of slick black hair finished with a pair of round spectacles that went well with his casual-corporate attire. He opened the door and peeked around; perhaps looking for Choi Sang-hoon in the hallway’s waiting chairs. Having noticed this, Sang-hoon immediately sprang up and approached Mr Hye with concern on his eyes.

“Mr Hye, I’m here,” he remarked the moment that he was close towards the door. “Is she okay? Is Olivia okay, sir?”

Mr Hye stifled a smile and raised his right hand in the hopes of calming Sang-hoon down.

“It is okay, Sang-hoon. Olivia’s doing well right now and she’s awake, but I think there’s something that we need to discuss before you go in and see her. Can we take a seat first?”

Sang-hoon nodded in response and gesture for Mr Hye to sit on the nearest hallway chair. Perhaps it was from his rush that Sang-hoon’s legs felt really rubbery once he began to sit down next to Olivia’s father, but then again it was more leaning on the anxiety and anticipation with regards to Mr Hye’s news that brought a grim look on his rather young face.

“Before anything else,” Mr Hye began with a hoarse tone on her heavy voice. “I want to personally thank you for being there for Olivia when all of this happened, Sang-hoon. I don’t know what would have happened to my only daughter had you not been there for her. I’m grateful for that Sang-hoon. Thank you for being there for Olivia especially on times that we cannot.”

Sang-hoon stifled a smile and nodded in his direction.

“Olivia’s such a lucky girl that she has you in her life, and I do understand that your relationship with my daughter goes as far back as your youth which explains why you’re so comfortable with each other. This is the reason why I wanted to talk to you first before I give you permission to see Olivia inside. I know how much you value her, and so I’m going to ask a huge favour from you based off of that.”

“I don’t understand, Mr Hye. What is this favour for and what does it have to do with Olivia being inside the hospital room?”

“I’ll be completely honest with you Sang-hoon … Olivia’s not doing well.”

“What… what does that mean, Mr Hye?”

Mr Hye pursed his lips before proceeding to talk to Sang-hoon.

“I personally talked against telling this to Olivia because I don’t want to hurt her the moment she woke up, but Sang-hoon, the doctors are pretty straightforward when they told me how she was doing and how this illness would affect her in the future. For starters, they already asked if I could give them permission to run tests on Olivia because they cannot pinpoint exactly what caused all of her senses to feel weak as well as her entire body ache out of nowhere. All they could asses for now is that there is a possibility of it being an auto-immune disease that possibly targets her nervous and muscular system. We can only hope and pray that this does not complicate things for her because there is a tendency for the disease to spread over her body and attack her organs which is why we should be really vigilant on taking care of her.”

Sang-hoon froze on the spot as he looked at Mr Hye in disbelief.

“A mysterious disease that targets her nervous system,” Sang-hoon repeated. “But they can cure her, right? They can at least rid her of her pain while all of this is going on, right?”

“We cannot be absolutely sure right now. Like I said, the doctors here haven’t encountered something like this and they can’t be sure how to completely treat her. However, since the effects had just begun to manifest, they are not that sever yet, and so we need to be prepared in case things got worse. Hopefully it won’t be. I cannot stand seeing my daughter in pain like that with me unable to do anything to help her. I’d rather have myself to be in that situation rather than her. I don’t want our Olivia’s ability to move and go around to be taken away by something that felt out of nowhere because the doctors also warned me that it is a huge possibility.

“I’ll do anything to help her while she undergoes treatment. We’re already arranging a new room for her to move to once things here get settled.”

“B-but Mr Hye… you are saying that she won’t be able to walk anymore? It’s just like that that she can’t move her body on her own now?”

Mr Hye nodded softly.

“This pains me to admit too but yes, there is a tendency for her to not be able to walk if things go really wrong, but of course we’re praying for that not to happen. I’ll find the best doctors in this country to make sure none of that would transpire. Olivia’s too young to be kept inside a room waiting for a cure. This is where my favour comes in, Sang-hoon.

“Like I said, you and my daughter have been really close friends and you’re the one she trusts so much. I’m even willing to bet that recently you’ve been more with her than I am with her, and so I’m asking this of you, Choi Sang-hoon. I’m pleading on your heart that you keep watch on Olivia while we’re away. With the kind of work that my wife and I are in, it’s very hard to check our Olivia in the same way that I know you could. At least with you, I know that I won’t have to worry about her being lonely inside this hospital. I feel like with her seeing you here as she fights this disease would be one more step towards her eventual recovery. You’re the next thing she has to having a brother or maybe even more than that in the first place. Olivia trusts you, Sang-hoon, and so I do too. Can you do that for me? Can you do that for Olivia?”

Sang-hoon turned towards Mr Hye and met his eyes with his own.

“Yes, Mr Hye. Even if you did not ask me to do it, I’m going to do it for her anyway. I’ll do anything to help her recover and get her life back to normal. I know she deserves it more than anyone else.”

Mr Hye sufficed a smile and ruffled the soft curls on Sang-hoon’s hair.

“I know you would, son. Thank you so much. Let’s go in and see her. You’ve waited long enough.”

The elder man began to stand up with Sang-hoon following him. However, as Mr Hye was about to reach for the door leading to Olivia’s room he was stopped by Sang-hoon casually taking hold of his arm. There has been a question that was lingering in his head for so long now, albeit he was too afraid to ask in case Mr Hye gives him an answer that he did not want to hear. However, if he did not make a move to know for himself, the situation might strike him harder than when he’s aware of it.

“Mr Hye… this disease of Olivia… it’s not fatal, right?”

There was no response from Mr Hye’s end. He merely stood there with a grim look in his eyes, and he seemed to have realized that he was giving a false impression towards his still-hanging question. He deliberately ignore that and then proceeded to stifle a smile, something that felt forced from Sang-hoon’s point of view before Olivia’s father nodded for Sang-hoon to follow him inside.

---A FEW DAYS LATER---

Sang-hoon always dreaded going to hospitals more than any other building he had ever gone to in his life. To him, there’s something unnerving about being inside a large establishment knowing how much people are inside there with him in the brink of life and death, the fact that somewhere someone is deeply in paint without him even knowing, even more so the eerie mono-white sanitary colours of the hallways, floors, and ceilings made him uncomfortable with how clean things felt. The scent of different medicines lingering in the air was also something he found that he could not bear. However, as he had entered the very same hospital for a couple of days since Olivia has been brought here things felt a lot more reserved for the most part.

Not having Olivia accompany him going to and home from school definitely made the trip a lot sadder and lonelier than he thought it would. Despite that, there was something pleasant on seeing Olivia every day after school; and it felt akin to a well-earned reward. He always came back empty-handed during the past days but now, Sang-hoon elected to bring with him a basket of fruits to hopefully contribute to Olivia’s recovery even if in the smallest way.

Mr Hye’s chosen room was almost similar to every room inside the rather unexpectedly luxurious hospital rooms, earning an atmosphere that felt borderline hotel-like. It was spacious for what it was, located on the fourth floor of the hospital and had a sight on the breath-taking view of the city streets below as well as the urban jungle horizon as it was finally embraced once more by night. Olivia’s hospital bed was right in the far end of the room, placed next to the window with a bedside table next to her. A round table was located not far from the foot of the bed, complete with four sets of padded seats adding to the more luxurious feel of the hospital room itself.

“Sang-hoon …!” Olivia’s face immediately lit up the moment that Sang-hoon entered the door from the left side of her bed.

“Hello, Oli. I brought in some fruits for you,” he said as she showed the small basket. “I figured maybe you’re hungry. You usually are at this time of the day so I’ll just put it here.”

Olivia smiled as she watched him place the fruits on the bedside table. Even though she was dressed in the casual hospital robes with her right hand having the connection on the nearby IV fluid post, her young and pristine beauty still showed itself through her bright smile.

“So how are you feeling?” Sang-hoon said, pulling a chair from the table-set nearby and sat beside her. “Are the nurses taking good care of you, hmm?”

“I’m feeling a lot better, you know. I’m able to move my hands and legs now unlike yesterday when they felt frozen on the spot. At least now I can write and I can do something else than just ask for the nurses to turn on the TV for me. It’s a start and I’m pretty happy with it. This is definitely better than watching TV shows anyway; having to read our previous adventures when we were little was fun to remember, really.”

“I’m glad to hear it, Oli,” Sang-hoon replied, eyeing the red notebook placed on her lap. “You’ve been writing on that notebook since we’re young, you know. I’m surprised you’re keeping the pages intact, even having some pages to write new entries.”

“Of course; it’s the one thing I’m not going to throw away. Everything looks plain for what they are because you know I’m bad at decorating diaries, right? And I’m just writing on the important days of my life anyway, and this is no exception.”

“You’re writing about your hospitalization?”

“Uh-huh… as much as it looks really bad, it’s still something worth noting, you know. I mean, how many times do you get hospitalized in your lifetime? Of course it’s something memorable, right? If anything, I feel really loved with all the people taking care of me. It’s amazing.”

“That’s… that’s a pretty weird way to put out but hey, I’m in it if you see it that way.”

“Oh yeah, Sang-hoon; you better be. It’s better than just sulking around because I’m sick.”

“Do you mind if I check what you’ve been writing on it for all these years? Come to think of it, I never thought of checking it out, not even once. You put out remembering our adventures were fun; I doubt I can still remember them exactly so maybe a little refresher would be good?”

Sang-hoon reached for the notebook on Olivia’s lap but she immediately swatted his hand away before supplying him with a pout.

“Hey, it’s not yet done. You’re going to have all the time in the world to read it soon, but for now, no. It’s not yet ready.”

“Oh, okay then. I apologize. I don’t exactly know when you’re going to deem it ‘ready’. How would we know?”

“I’ll know for sure. I also don’t want you to see everything just yet. In case my situation worsens that I can’t write in here anymore, then maybe you have my blessing to check it out. I think when I run out of pages to write on to, and then I think it’s ready.”

“Hey, don’t say that. You’re still going to finish it, Oli. You’re going to finish that diary because you’re going to get well, okay? That’s why I’m here, remember? I’m here to make sure that your recovery goes as smooth as it could.”

“Okay then, Mr Recovery,” she said with a sarcastic tone before placing the diary back under her pillow. “If that’s what you came here for, then why don’t you tell me what did I miss on this day of school, hmmm?”

It was exactly just how Sang-hoon relayed it to Mr Hye; even if Olivia’s own father did not ask his favour to look for her daughter, he would still do it. It was exactly because of this reason that Olivia’s time in the hospital was a lot lighter than she initially thought it would take. The idea of being confined in the four corners of the hospital room without anything else to do is definitely saddening. Sure, her parents weren’t always there for her but she understood the reason why, let alone not even thinking of that thoroughly because Sang-hoon has always been there for her.

Even through days, and then came weeks and months of Olivia’s treatment did Sang-hoon never missed a single day of visiting her. He would often bring her different comic books and magazines to read during her stay, even more so going out of his way and taking pictures of all the places they usually pass on every single day as they headed home as well as going ahead and teaching Olivia of all the lessons she missed at the school. He was more than determined to help Olivia out even in the smallest of ways possible, not even letting the possibility of her condition worsening as the months went by. What mattered to him the most was seeing Olivia smile, even if he was quite unaware that she was smiling because of him.

However, on Olivia’s end, she just could not bring herself to tell Sang-hoon that she was feeling a lot worse as the days went by. Her mysterious disease, of which at this point has never been named by the doctors because of how rare it was, caused her entire body to progressively feel week as well as her muscles began to slowly lose their very function. In just a matter of months, she has already shed a lot of weight by being confined too much in the four corners of her room. The nature of it being an auto-immune disease, some of her reflexes are being taken away from her as her muscles began to deteriorate in the slowest manners. Her face became pale and the skin below her eyes slowly became dark as a result of that, and even reached a point where she almost prohibited Sang-hoon from entering her room because she did not want him to see how frail and weak-looking she has become. Despite that, it was because of his very persistence and determination to help her recover that ultimately helped Olivia get through the hardest, most painful parts of her treatment until her body began to show visible signs of improvement.

Months passed into the treatment … two months… three… and then…

---ONE YEAR LATER---

It almost exactly one year after Olivia has been diagnosed with the still-unnamed illness and things felt worse than her state on the previous year. Albeit showing completely positive signs during her treatment for the past months, Olivia’s motor responses still remained limited as she still could not bear to stand on her own without support. The illness has also begun its attack on her immune system as well, rendering Olivia extremely vulnerable to different kinds of viruses and disease that circle about in the air which is why she is strictly watched by everyone entering the room.

The intense physical demand of her body has already taken its toll on her appearance as well. Aside from the visible signs of extreme weight loss, her face has gone gaunt, her eyes heavy and lips pale from all the medications she has undergone. It was needless to say that she has been really weak with everything that was going on around her. With all the medicines and the tests that were conducted, she felt more exhausted and slowly her body succumbed to the disease.

However, there was still one sliver of hope that she was clinging on to: Choi Sang-hoon. She had to survive for him for all the efforts he has done for her.

The weather has started to become colder and colder the closer that their graduation finally approached. In a matter of days, both Sang-hoon and Olivia are finally saying goodbye to their high-school selves for the next chapter in their life. As usual, he took the early day off to visit Olivia on the same hospital room holding a booklet of the graduation hymns he intended to teach her so that she could sing on the graduation ceremony as well.

He was sitting next to Olivia’s bed admiring the multitude of papers she had stacked on the bedside table. They were graduation and get-well-soon greetings combined from all of their classmates and some of Olivia’s close classroom friends. Like before, it was of course Sang-hoon’s idea to compile them for her so that she won’t feel left out from the incoming graduation day.

“Thank you so much for… for everything,” Olivia said as she placed the final message greeting for her back on the stack of papers. “It’s really amazing how you even thought of doing this for me, you know. I can already feel the graduation coming, Sang-hoon. I really appreciate it.”

“Exactly, Oli,” he remarked, supplying her with a wide smile. “That’s why on the next few days you should gather all your strength because we’re going to go to the graduation together, okay?”

Olivia stifled a smile; her pale lips almost matching her already pale skin.

“What if I can’t walk to go there, Sang-hoon? I don’t want—“

“Shh, don’t say that. You’re going to make it there because I told you so. I’m going to get really mad at you if you’re not going to be at the graduation. We started this together; we’re going to finish it together. I’m not going there without you. It’s just not the same.”

Once again, Olivia smiled.

“I’m so lucky I got to meet a person like you, Sang-hoon. You’re everything I could have asked for in this world. If I didn’t meet you back at the riverbank, then maybe I never would have been happy the way I am today.”

Olivia proceeded to plant her weary eyes on Sang-hoon’s and she immediately sensed the pity in them. Slowly, she moved her hand across the surface of the white sheets and moved to hold Sang-hoon’s with hers. Upon contact, he felt a short jolt upon her shaky touch as her skin was as cold as it could have ever been, but with that he held on to her, grasping Olivia’s hand as tight as he could and let her feel the warmth from his own touch.

“What happened? You suddenly became sentimental out of nowhere,” he responded. “It’s very unusual for you to be this, Oli. It’s worrying me.”

Olivia chuckled.

“I’m sorry. I just wanted to thank you because I never got to say it before. I better tell it to you before I lose the chance to do so.”

“Shut up, Oli. I know we have plenty of time to talk to each other. Stop thanking me; all I ask for you in return is to get well for the future. We still have a lot of time to talk about what happened in the past, and into the future. We’re going to make it. You’re still going to write a lot of stuff in that diary.”

“Oh, t-thank you that you mentioned it,” Olivia said, and with a shaky grip she took her red diary from under her pillow and presented it to Sang-hoon. “Guess what? I only have room for a single entry. After that, I’ll be running out of pages to write on to, and I’ll have to write on a different notebook now. I did it, Sang-hoon, after all these years it’s finally complete. You can finally read it once it’s done.”

“You finished it? That’s cool!” he said as he held the weary red notebook with his other hand. “But you said you still needed one more entry… what are you waiting on writing?”

Olivia looked at him with a glassy gaze before proceeding to speak.

“Sang-hoon … I remember a year ago before I fainted, you were asking me if I want to eat the spicy Korean rice cake thing, right. Do you still remember the place where you said we’re going to take the cakes from?”

Where are all these random topics coming from? Sang-hoon thought.

“O-of course, I still remember it. The path is not that far from the bus stop, but it’s quite a walk from here. I just remembered that they were called tteokbokki, you know. Why did you ask? Do you want me to get some for you?”

Olivia nodded slowly, not removing her eyes from him.

“I want to know how it tastes, finally. I want to write about them and how I ate it with the person I cherish the most in this life. I want to eat them with you, Sang-hoon.”

“Wait… you mean, right now? You want me to get the rice cakes right now, Oli?”

“Yes, Sang-hoon … can you get some tteokbokki for me?”

“Are you sure you’re allowed to eat spicy food? That one’s pretty fire, from what I’ve heard. Are you sure you don’t want to do this sometime later?”

“It is really fine, Sang-hoon. I just want to eat tteokbokki with you. I had a dream about it and I want to know exactly how it tastes. I don’t think it can wait anymore. Please?”

“Okay then, I’ll go fetch some because you requested it,” he replied as he stood up, although not letting go of his grip on Olivia’s hand. “I’m pretty sure they’re still open. I’ll make this as quickly as I could.”

“Please… I can’t wait to eat tteokbokki with you, Sang-hoon.”

“Will you be okay until I’m gone?”

“Of course… I’ll just continue to read these messages again while I wait. Please make it fast, okay?”

Sang-hoon nodded before placing her red notebook beside the stack of messages. He gave a firm grip on Olivia’s hands before letting them go, and he then proceeded to walk towards the door and was about to exit it when he turned back towards Olivia’s direction one last time before going ahead.

“Don’t do anything crazy while I’m gone, okay?”

“I won’t. I still want to marry you soon, so I’ll just wait here patiently for you.”

Sang-hoon blushed for a brief moment before supplying Olivia with a wide smile, and then he closed the hospital door before heading off to fetch a cup of spicy tteokbokki in the middle of the night.

---ONE HOUR OR SO LATER---

“Damn, I got caught up,” Sang-hoon muttered to himself while wading through the large sleuth of night employees. “I hope these tteokbokki are still in prime shape.”

It was rather unexpected for the night lives of their city to be this crowded especially on a weekday and he certainly did not expect the path going back to the hospital to be filled with traffic. He initially thought it would take a couple of minutes just to go to the place serving Korean food 24/7, ten minutes at most. However, because of all the people and the band of cars he had to go through even with the brief bus ride, he was held back for what felt like at least an hour.

He did not let that sink in though, for he held the box that contained Olivia’s personally requested tteokbokki and was about to share it with her when he finally gets back at the hospital. All his work for the past hour would be really worth it as that alone was a worthwhile reward. All he got to do now was to make sure that things are still fresh before he came in.

He finally reached the hallway leading straight towards Olivia’s room and he was immediately taken aback by the sudden emergence of nurses and doctors coming from her room’s direction. He found it curious that on the one time he decided to go outside after-hours that he finally got a glimpse of what the night life was, and the hospital was no exception to that. There was a weird atmosphere in the air, though; something that was borderline unpleasant. He dismissed this as something normal, perhaps his internal dread in being inside hospitals bringing in the unpleasant feeling.

He then approached Olivia’s room, quite surprised to find it opened by about a few inches. Noises came from inside of the room but he could not tell exactly what they were as everything was muffled, perhaps from the distance.

“Oli, I got your rice cakes,” he said as he pushed the door open. “I’m sorry it took so long. I got caught on—“

As he entered, he was once again taken by surprise by the amount of people inside of the room. Mr and Mrs Hye stood beside Olivia’s bed surrounded by nurses and doctors who had their heads hung down low. He froze on the spot, trying to process what he was seeing upon the realization that the muffled noises he heard from the door were from Mrs Hye. Both of Olivia’s parents stood there hugging, trying their best to comfort each other. Mrs Hye was crying hard on Mr Hye’s shoulders that they failed to even notice Sang-hoon enter the room from the door behind them.

“Mr Hye… Mrs Hye… is everything alright?” he asked with a trembling voice, taking few shaking steps inside the humble room.

Olivia’s parents turned towards him with their eyes red and wet from the crying that they have been doing. Sang-hoon’s heart began to beat heavier against his chest as well as the trail of cold sweat trail down from his temple; there was a bad feeling as his stomach lurched on itself. As he continued his approach, Mrs Hye withdrew from her husband’s embrace to move to Sang-hoon, transferring her hug to him in a vanilla-scented embrace.

“Sang-hoon … oh Sang-hoon …” she said, weeping on the young man’s shoulder.

“Mrs Hye… what’s going on? What is happening?”

“Sang-hoon,” Mr Hye told him from the bedside. “I’m sorry.”

“What?”

He felt Mrs Hye let go of the hug and direct him towards Olivia’s bed, only for her to weep a lot harder as her husband gave her a consolidating embrace.

Sang-hoon’s heart raced heavily against his chest as he approached the bed. Olivia looked almost exactly how he would find her whenever she was asleep; her eyes were closed shut as she lay on the pillow with her right hand holding steadily of what he recognized to be her diary, laid peacefully over her stomach. If anything, he noticed something that was different from her.

Olivia’s lips curved into what appeared to be a silent smile, something he found unusual for her whenever she slept.

“Sang-hoon,” Mr Hye began the moment that he stood beside Olivia’s hospital bed. “She’s… she’s gone. Our Olivia’s gone.”

Sang-hoon’s heart skipped a beat. He then turned towards Mr Hye

“’G-Gone’…? What do y-you mean, Mr Hye?”

“M-my daughter’s g-gone, Sang-hoon … she’s gone… there’s… there’s been a complication a-and her b-body gave u-up… we got a call t-that they tried t-to revive h-her but… it’s t-too late…

“Our Olivia’s gone now…”

“N-no,” the young man replied with contempt, his lips and legs began to shake as he felt tears stream down from the corner of his eye as well. “N-no, that c-can’t be! What do you mean she’s ‘gone’, Mr Hye? There’s no way! There’s no way she’s gone!”

“Oli,” he turned towards Olivia’s resting figure on the bed, kneeling beside her... “Please wake up… please tell me that you’re just sleeping… please… I’m here. I-I came back! I have the tteukbokki you requested … you said we’re going to eat it together, right? I’m here, Oli… please wake up!”

There was no response.

“Oli, please… not like this… please… we’re still going to attend our graduation tomorrow, right? You promised m-me… Olivia… I came back here for you… No… please don’t do this to me… Olivia…. Open your eyes…”

“Sang-hoon …” Mr Hye said, placing his hand on his back to comfort him.

“I t-told you t-to not do anything crazy while I’m g-gone… Olivia, why? N-no… please… not like this… Olivia… You said we’re still going to marry each other, right? So wake up! Please….

“Olivia… no…. Olivia…”

But he could only shed his tears as he knelt beside her, his hands crumpled on the plastic that held the box of tteokbokki he brought for her. Nothing else could change the fact that Olivia’s body has now given up to the illness, that she has left the world while he was gone.

The hospital room fell silent, with only Sang-hoon and Olivia’s parent’s cries heard through the unending silence.

---END OF FLASHBACK – PRESENT DAY---

I’ll never forget that day that I lost Olivia Hye. Everything is still fresh inside my head.

I had a lot of stuff I never told her when she was still alive. I should have said it before I lost my chance.

Her death devastated me so much that I refused to attend graduation despite being heavily convinced by my own parents. I promised Olivia I won’t go there without her, and it would not have been the same without her even if I did decide to go. I was so pained with her passing that I got bitter with life; so filled with grief that I did not even bring myself to visit her grave even after her wake. I could not accept the fact that she had died because of how unfair it went for every one of us. We all thought that she was recovering and in just one day, that disease got her before we even knew it.

I could not accept it that I refused to go out for school; I know everything there would just remind me of her and probably drive me for the worst. I locked myself in home helping my mother and father in their respective businesses whenever I could, hoping that each paper I wrote and each box I lifted would rid me of my thoughts for Olivia. However, both my parents knew that as long as I stayed there in our little town in Australia that I can never move on from her, not when everything I do reminds me so much of her and so they decided to send me to South Korea in the hopes that the new place would let my misery fade.

For the most part, I would say that it was not a bad call. I can’t blame my parents for wanting the best for me in the first place; I did not mind leaving the place because I had little reason to stay anyway. It’s been a month since I came here, enrolled in Block Berry University for a degree, and so far the change in place is really helping me out.

I just wish that she was here. Olivia always wanted to go here. She would love to be here with me.

It was an early morning and as usual I spent it seated on the far end of the classroom, right next to the window as my newfound friends barraged each other with theories from their favourite manga. I was busy staring at the far horizon when our Literature teacher, Ms Yoon, came inside with news for everyone else.

“Alright, good morning to each and every one of you; before we begin this day, I would like to introduce to you a transferee. She would be joining your class from now on. Now, please introduce yourself, Miss Son.”

A girl, huh…? I could care less. I’m sure my idiot classmates would fall for her if she’s really good looking. I’m not interested though. Let’s just hope that this new girl is not annoying.

---

The new student joining Sang-hoon’s class entered and as soon as she stepped inside the small room, she was already met with a lot of gasps from everyone else. He clearly expected this, and so he simply rolled his eyes as he turned towards the new girl, hoping to evaluate her for what she is, perhaps build a first impression.

However, the moment that Sang-hoon laid his eyes on her, his entire world froze. It felt as if the room was blown out of proportion as he began to doubt on what he was seeing. That moment, his heart began to beat hard like it has never done before, noticing the feature of the woman his eyes were laid on. His face immediately turned pale as if he has seen a ghost, but he knew deep down that with what he was seeing, maybe the new girl was an apparition.

Surely, the transferee wore the typical Block Berry Creative uniform ever so perfectly; complete with the jacket and the skirt but that was not what caught his attention. Her skin was as fair as ivory, complimented by her straight, black hair, sharp eyes, and of course, her hauntingly similar triangle smile. Sang-hoon felt he was seeing someone he was not supposed to see, freezing in disbelief as the transferee walked towards the middle of the classroom to introduce herself.

“Hello everyone,” she said with a deep voice after a short bow. “My name is Son Hyejoo and I hope we can be friends! I hope I can get along well with all of you. It’s nice to meet you all!”

---

It was an understatement to say that Sang-hoon was more than frozen with the presence of the new transferee. Sure enough, on the eyes of his other classmates, this Son Hyejoo was indeed as gorgeous as the word ‘gorgeous’ could get, but to him her presence showed something that he had not seen for so long. It was as if he had seen an apparition there in front of him and he even took a couple of blinks and second looks to convince himself that his eyes were not deceiving him. However, no amount of self-convincing and repeated checking could change the fact that Son Hyejoo looked exactly like Olivia Hye. They were so similar even down to the last detail; the way she smiles in front of the class as she greeted them, the way she silently waved her body unconsciously, her triangle smile, her body that had good proportions, everything was perfectly – and eerily- similar. It was as if he was seeing a ghost; the ghost of the person he loved standing in front of the class in flesh and bone in the person of Son Hyejoo.

“Please be nice to me,” Hyejoo said with a bow, and even her voice felt a lot alike Olivia now that he’s minding every single move of her.

What is this…? Even the way that she recoils after a bow… she’s… she’s so similar to Olivia… what the fuck…?

Who is this person?

“Alright, please treat Miss Son well. There are a couple of seats that are free, Hyejoo and please feel free to pick where you’d like to seat so that we can begin today’s lesson,” addressed Ms Yoon as she gestured towards the chairs.

“Hey, would you like to seat next to me?” The girl on the opposite side of Sang-hoon voiced out as she raised her hand to get Hyejoo’s attention; of which the transferee returned with a smile.

Surprisingly, the act of the girl volunteering to be Hyejoo’s seatmate earned a lot of gasps, ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ of amazement as Hyejoo finally made her way towards the chair; a smile clearly plastered on her face with the offer. Sang-hoon, on the other hand, had goosebumps from head to foot knowing how close he’d be with Hyejoo (or possibly Olivia in his head) seated next to him. While the young girl treaded closer, he could not help but keenly observe the details of her face and with it, the rest of her body. It also helped that her steps seemed to have slowed time itself. He knew that it was absolutely wrong and creepy to be doing the very thing that he was doing in front of the new girl, but the thought of finding answers to a thousand arrays of questions in his head overcame his courtesy and manners. It was of the small chances he would take to verify if this person indeed looked extremely similar to Olivia, or that maybe his unsaid feelings for her and the fact that he’s missing her now caused that feeling to manifest through this Hyejoo.

He had that in mind but all he felt as she approached was the very presence of Olivia within her. Hyejoo met his eyes and briefly gave a smile to him before turning back towards the seat on his immediate left, all while Sang-hoon felt his heart skip a beat with the small interaction. He felt as if he would have fainted had the small exchange of eye contact lasted a little bit longer, yet his body displayed the truth of his anxiety as cold sweat begun to trail down from his temple. The feelings were too real for him to even comprehend.

What the fuck is this? It feels like fate’s toying with me.

She looks so much like Olivia even down to the last feature! She moves like her too!

“T-thank you for asking me to be your seatmate,” Hyejoo said towards the girl as she sat beside her. “I’m Son Hyejoo; let’s be friends!”

“Hello,” the girl replied. “My name is Park Gowon and I look forward to be your friend! Here, since you’re new to class, we can share the book for now until you get yours.”

“Oh thank you so much! I really appreciate it!”

A soft shiver ran from Sang-hoon’s head down to his feet while he eavesdropped on her conversation with Gowon. He was definitely in a trance, carefully locked towards Hyejoo’s figure as Gowon did a small recap on the lessons since the beginning of the semester. If it was not for a small nudge on his right, Sang-hoon was sure to be lost in thought with the new transferee. It was maybe for the first time that he took his attention off of Hyejoo since she arrived to transfer it towards the source of the nudge.

“Damn, so she sat right next to Gowon, huh?” His best friend Hyojong said beside him as he nodded towards both Gowon and Hyejoo’s direction; his blond hair bobbing gracefully with his gesture. “If those two become close friends, their visuals would overload this entire classroom, believe me. I’m calling it right now. Gowon being alone here already causes a lot of heads to turn towards her, and now that she’s joined with another cutie... you get it.”

Sang-hoon blatantly let the impact of Hyojong’s statement to pass as he turned his gaze back to Hyejoo once again.

“I guess you’re right on that.”

“Yah, how about you, Sang-hoon,” Hyojong said, moving closer to him in order to lower his voice. “You can’t seem to take your eyes off of the new girl. I never saw you fawn over a girl like that before, huh. Is she your type?”

“Shut up, man; it’s not that… it’s just… she looks like someone I know. I… I even thought that she’s her that’s why I kept on looking at her.”

“Really…? I find her visuals really unique you know. If you’d see someone else who looks like her, you better let me know.”

“You have a fucking girlfriend, Hyojong, what the heck are you talking about?”

“I call this a joke, bro. What I’m trying to say is that… I’m surprised you know a person who likes like her because she’s definitely a girl you don’t see every day.”

Sang-hoon gazed back towards Hyejoo once again; taking in how her teeth showed perfectly on her triangle lips just exactly like Olivia did back then and he could not help but silently agree with Hyojong’s statement.

She’s not, and that’s why I’m more than happy to see her again after all these years.

---A FEW HOURS LATER---

August 13th, 20XX

It’s been a while since I last wrote in this diary and I really missed doing it. I’ve wanted to do it for the longest time, but my fingers have started to feel numb during the past weeks that I could not simply make myself write even for a paragraph. Today, I felt a slight improvement with my senses and so I decided to write while I still could, and while my body could still retain my seated position and be able to write on a piece of paper. Things have gone really worse since the last time I wrote to you, and I’m even considering myself lucky that I could hold a pen and share my thoughts here even if my fingers are trembling with every word. It was the first time that I felt sensations on my limbs and I don’t want to waste it. I’m feeling really bad now and probably worse than my body has ever been, so no matter how hard it is, I would write my best here because it has a possibility of it being my last entry forever. If it’s not, then I can just tear it out and throw it, right?

I wanted to believe that I would eventually overcome this unnamed disease and for a year since I was diagnosed, God knows I’ve given it my all through the therapies, tests and surgeries they did to me. I’ve given it everything that I have, but because it’s a rare condition, I heard that the doctors have no idea how to properly cure it. But then again, I can’t really blame them. I have been in treatment for so long that I felt like I should have died a long time ago; that I was living merely on borrowed time. I was given a chance, and maybe that was for me to properly say goodbye to the people that mattered the most. I better do this now while I still have the chance and while my body still permits me to do so.

Sang-hoon, if you’re reading this without me then it means that I haven’t kept my promise to you; the promise of recovery, the promise of a happy ending, the promise that we would eventually get married soon. I’m sorry because I won’t be able to keep any of those. My heart knows how much I have loved you ever since our youth, that the promise was not something I did just out of impulse. I have seen the man I wanted to marry one day on the day that I saw you save me by the river. Our encounter would always be one that I would cherish the most in my life and I will always be thankful that I went with you when you treated me back then. I wish it could be that easy. I wish I could just treat the pain that you are feeling the way that you treated mine. I wish it would be that simple.

I don’t want this to end like this, Sang-hoon, but I don’t think I have that much of a choice. What’s destined to happen is bound to happen, and if I’m destined to be sixteen forever, then so be it. I want you to continue with your life, Sang-hoon. The ending of my story may have been a sad one, but that does not mean that you don’t have the chance to make yours a happy one.

I know that it’s too much and shameless of me to ask, but I could not bear myself seeing you cry for too long; the thought of it alone already kills me. You have to live well and healthy unlike me, so don’t remember me for too long. Please be happy for me. Live Choi Sang-hoon. Live because I love you more than anything else in this life. Please take care of Mom and Dad for me, okay? Please make sure that they’re well after my death. I’m asking this as a favour to you, Sang-hoon.

If afterlives do exist, I promise I will find you there. I promise that in that reality, I won’t ever leave you like this.

I love you, my Sang-hoon, always and forever.

~Olivia

I don’t even know what I was expecting when I read this again. I know I read it countless times after Oli died, but after some point, I knew I had to stop doing it to myself. No matter how much I read it over and over again, there’s no excusing the truth that she was gone. Olivia was dead, and the more that I read into her final entry only drew me away from her wish of not being too sad when she left.

However, as soon as I managed to reach my apartment here in Daegu, I immediately reached on Olivia’s diary from my bedside drawer and I could not be more than thankful to have brought it here with me. I promised myself I would no longer take a peek on that one because it was too painful enough once I flip a page knowing it was filled with nothing but the dying words of the woman I loved, but this time it was different. Having met the girl named Son Hyejoo, I knew I had to look at Olivia’s final message again and perhaps pick up a sign. I know I remember her writing something on the lines of ‘finding me in the next life’, and now I just saw a class mate of mine who looks EXACTLY like her. Could this perhaps the next life that she was pertaining to three years ago? There’s no way that she’s reincarnated into an existing person already. Even I would know that it just breaks the rules like that.

Everything felt so perfectly placed. If this Hyejoo girl merely shared a physical aspect with Olivia, then perhaps I could make myself believe that the two of them really just looked alike. But with her even being on the same class as me, that could only mean that Hyejoo also went for the same course as Olivia dreamed of. I told myself, as respect for her memory I would fulfil her dreams for her, but now that I know of Hyejoo’s existence, I now doubt whether that was necessary or not.

How on earth could they look exactly like each other? It was as if they’re twins from different mothers. I know that it’s an outrageous idea, but on this sense it feels way more feasible than just fantasy, honestly.

Is it possible for two unrelated people to look exactly alike?

Or if I would put this out in a really ridiculous way, could Hyejoo be…?

Could Hyejoo perhaps be the reincarnation of Olivia in this time?

But if that’s the case, Hyejoo shares the exact same age that Olivia did, meaning at some point they both existed at the same time. They were alive at some point not knowing of the existence of the other. Plus, I’m never one to believe in fantasies because I view them nothing more than for entertainment, but I’m not going to lie that somehow Hyejoo being Olivia’s ‘reincarnation’ is something else. The fact that she showed up on the day I decide to get my life back felt as if Olivia was watching me from above. I don’t know how to react to this; and certainly I and Hyejoo’s next interactions would be really awkward as I am sure I would see Olivia in her no matter what.

I’ll have to sort myself out. Maybe associating her so much with Oli was not the best idea, especially now that I had just seen her for the first time. Perhaps once offered a second look on tomorrow’s class, maybe I won’t be seeing Olivia in her then. However, if she acts like Olivia…

I don’t know.

I guess we’ll find out.

---THE NEXT DAY---

Today’s the second day of the Literature class and I could have sworn I heard a lot of rumours surrounding Hyejoo already. Usually Block Berry’s mornings passed like any other normal universities with the half-asleep students dragging themselves to class at 7 AM, but this morning felt different. The path heading towards the main building of the Film Arts and Sciences began to be filled with senior students from various departments, and I was able to deduce much because they were wearing their jackets as they stood on the hallways. Seniors spanning from accounting to engineering courses blocked a clean path towards my morning class. Had I not been early for today’s meet, I would have been really annoyed with these people.

Why are they even here in the first place?

But it’s not like they’re flocking on a specific place thought; it felt as if they were merely just passing by and drawing their eyes on… our classroom?

After a couple of ‘excuse me’s and soft wading through the flock of students I finally managed to reach the said classroom. Apparently, my initial assumption was right and that those excess students were passing by OUR Literature classroom for who-knows-what reason. I just find it really weird that people were doing that on the second day of class.

Anyway, I entered the room and saw that the minimal amount of classmates that I had inside were as equally intrigued as I am. The doors were filled with commotion with regards to students passing by, resulting with the hallway being noisier than the inside of the classroom. I’m actually surprised that they weren’t called out at this point. It’s a jungle out there.

“Hey, Sang-hoon,” Hyojong greeted me with a smile as I walked towards the chair on his left side. “A bit early today, aren’t we?”

“H-heya; I woke up earlier than my alarm so I just headed to school. I just figured that I…”

Damn, my voice just trailed off as I was taking the seat next to him.

I know for a fact that Hyejoo really has Olivia’s visuals, and I had a good experience of that when she first arrived at school yesterday but fuck man… her presence still did not sink in me thoroughly. Seeing Hyejoo as I sat beside Hyojong felt like I was seeing Olivia Hye again, even more so when she’s sitting there talking to Gowon. There is that small skip of a heartbeat whenever I lay my eyes on her, and it’s an understatement if describe my feeling as seeing an apparition.

I really don’t want to stay in this situation and put it in my head that she’s Olivia no matter what. If I’m going to put myself in her situation, it feels really awkward that I look into Hyejoo and she’d see a thousand hours of my memories with Olivia while both of us are complete strangers to each other. I want to know her more, for sure, and perhaps draw the line whether she and Olivia are related to some degree or not, but the situation has proven itself to be really difficult considering how much of Olivia I see on her.

I don’t want this to be unhealthy already on the second week of the semester, jeez.

“Looks like the place has been really full, you know. I’ve never had to wade through that ever since I entered school here. It’s crazy,” Hyojong said while not turning his gaze away from his phone, clearly commenting on the large sum of students walking outside.

“Since you entered school here? But I thought you’re a first year as well. We’ve just been here for two weeks if I remember right.”

“Well, you are. I haven’t told you that I’m from Block Berry High School; the good looking building that’s next to the auditorium and is the university’s HS department.”

“I… I didn’t know that.”

“Now you do. Anyway, ever since I was doing some errands for the high school teachers, I would often walk around here and I never saw the place this full. It’s surprising that it’s even this early in the morning.”

“Yeah, what’s up with them going here anyway? Is there something going on here?”

“Not ‘something’, Sang-hoon, rather ‘someone.’”

“I’m… I’m not sure I follow, man. What’s all this about?”

I patiently waited for Hyojong’s answer, yet all I could see from my peripheral was him still keeping his eyes on his screen. This time, however, instead of swiping the screen on his game, I could see him clearly typing something on a messaging app. Soon, I felt him shift from his position and carefully place the phone over my end of the long desk.

“Do me a favour and don’t read it aloud, thanks,” he requested.

I gazed down, transferring my eyes from Hyojong’s sly smile towards the screen below where he clearly had something written down for me.

I think they’re here because of the new transferee. I did some stalking around and I found Hyejoo’s Instagram and apparently, she’s really famous.

“How on earth did you even do that?” I told him as he took his phone from my desk. “How did you manage to find it this fast?”

“That doesn’t matter. I’m pretty sure this explains things a lot better,” he said, once again typing something on his phone before handing it to me in a similar fashion as before.

She has over 3k followers on IG and is a graduate from a Music School.

“Is that… is that supposed to be a lot?”

Hyojong gave me a soft, sarcastic laugh.

“Are you crazy, Sang-hoon? Do you even know how that works?”

“I know how that works, but aren’t… aren’t they supposed to have a lot more followers compared to guys?”

I turned cautiously to check if Hyejoo heard my whisper towards Hyojong, only for me to see her and Gowon standing up and perhaps headed to the women’s restroom.

“Ah perfect, they’re gone for now,” he said as he opened his Instagram, swiftly inputting Gowon’s IG profile and casually showing it to me. “Look, we all know Gowon’s pretty famous and she’s resting at 2.5k. Hyejoo has five-hundred more.”

“I get that it’s a lot, but does that mean anything…? Is the number of followers actually the basis for being famous these days?”

“Not entirely, but it does provide a good impression. Here’s Hyejoo’s IG. Check it out and you’re going to see how famous she is with how much reactions her posts get. You’ll know what I mean when I say that she’s well-known and why the people are flocking this early in the morning.”

I was reluctant with Hyojong’s suggestion because I really feel weird whenever I go stalking a person’s profile on social media, but my inner curiosity got the best me on doing against it. Initially, I was pitching on the idea of proving Hyojong’s point that Hyejoo’s really famous. However, the chance of me being able to look into her childhood and hopefully find a missing link between her and Olivia became a top priority. It was too far-fetched of an idea but if I manage to find a common person between them both, then at least that’s the start of me uncovering who she truly is.

I highly doubt it though; at this point I was more leaning on her old photos to see if she really resembled Olivia even during her youth.

With that in mind, I carefully took Hyojong’s phone with Hyejoo’s profile held on her most recent photo and began to slowly check on her posts. Somehow, Hyojong’s own proof of his point gave me a way to check into her youth. The fact that she’s famous during high school was the least of my concern, but it did provide a good enough excuse for me to check her profile. At least in this context, I could easily mask my agenda in front of Hyojong that I won’t have to answer any follow-up questions. I am interested on Hyejoo, there’s no doubt about that; but in this sense I want to know how her childhood unfolded. It was key information for me, and perhaps that alone would stop me from associating her to Olivia too much.

Still, as I held Hyojong’s phone and scrolled, there’s no denying that it was amazing how they looked like twins. The way that she smiled was similar to Olivia’s. It would even go as far as having their pictures taken on a specific way is so similar, too. Had I not know that this was Hyejoo’s Instagram profile; it was easy to assume that I took those photos myself for Olivia and only forgot it.

My eyes carefully dropped down to the likes of her more recent photos and true enough, Hyojong was not joking when he said that she has a lot of reactors on her posts. I’m not that much into social media myself but I know for a fact that having at least a thousand followers on her photos felt like a lot. She does have a way of capturing the perfect angle for the camera that her beauty just shined perfectly on her pictures. A part of me, however, felt really sad seeing these photos of her taken on such amazing angles and perfect times as well.

Olivia would have been doing the exact same things today. I know I told myself that I’d merely take a peek on Hyejoo’s posts to check her youth, but damn this makes me Miss Olivia so much. She’d love doing these photos on—

“Have you seen what I was talking about?” Hyojong’s voice came out of nowhere and it effectively shook me off of my temporary trance. “She has so many followers. No wonder the morning’s flooded the moment that the news of her transfer came out. I bet our seniors just want to see her if she really chose Block Berry Creative, you know.”

“Yeah I… I can see that… do you mind if I borrow this for a bit? I want to see more photos of her.”

Dammit, I hope that that did not come out weird. Fuck.

“Oh, well fine then; go figure. I feel a bit thirsty so I might head to the cafeteria and fetch something to drink. You want me to get anything for you?”

“I’m good man. Thank you for asking.”

“Alright then; just don’t like any of her older posts otherwise she’d know that you’re stalking her. Keep in mind: you’re using MY account, okay?”

“I got it, man. I’ll be here.”

Hyojong gave me one look of ‘don’t do anything stupid’ before finally heading out of the door. As I looked at his disappearing figure, there were still a good number of students passing by the doorway despite Hyejoo leaving with Gowon for the restroom. It has been a good while too, which made me wonder how come the pair of them had not come back yet.

Regardless, now that I have her account for myself, I can continue my investigation.

I took a couple of long scrolls down Hyejoo’s profile, and that was largely due to her being exponentially active on Instagram that she has a lot of posts for the past months. There were vocal recording lessons, dance studio ventures, international trips… well I can see now why everyone was so interested when she moved to Block Berry. In a way, I can see how she differs from Olivia in this regard, but then I know I need further investigation for what it’s worth.

A couple of fast scrolls down her really long profile and I found a photo of her during her younger years. It was a compilation of her throwback photos including some of her childhood photos.

Fuck… I’m lucky that there’s no one around here who could find my actions to be suspicious. I should deal with this quickly.

I opened the first panel of compilations and the first batch of photos that greeted me was more of her late middle-school years. Despite Hyejoo having a different type of haircut compared to what she was sporting now, there was no denying that she had a visible resemblance to Olivia even down to the last detail. It’s like I’m seeing an alternate version of Olivia that lived on a different life; like how she would turn out had she studied in Seoul instead of Australia. I am looking through enough photos to justify that Hyejoo indeed had a life of her own before everything that’s happening and that she is completely unrelated to the Olivia I knew from across the world.

They’re completely unrelated. I can see that perfectly now.

It just baffles me that they look so alike. I would continue to revel in that disbelief until I perfectly distinguish Olivia from this Hyejoo for good.

I would say, however, that seeing these photos for myself are affecting me in a rather odd way… sad, actually. Seeing Hyejoo’s photos of her youth to her highschool and her pre-college life like this… it somehow shows me how Olivia should have been. Hyejoo somehow is the epitome of Olivia’s existence had she managed to succeed on her disease before.

I got to stop.

I turned Hyojong’s phone’s screen off after checking on the last of Hyejoo’s photos and immediately placed it on his end of the desk. It was timed too, because as soon as I did that, the figures of Hyejoo and Gowon eventually came through the door frame as they were both holding a cup of coffee on their hands. Even in that sliver of opportunity I had, my eyes were planted on Hyejoo until she reached her desk with Gowon. It would be an exaggeration to say that time seemed to have slowed itself down as I observed her path, but in reality it really felt like that. Hyejoo seemed to pause as he walked around the classroom and closer to where I was seated. I would not have been extra concerned with it had my heart not noticeably beat a lot harder against my chest as if it was yearning to go out and leap towards her. I could also feel my face going hot just by seeing her smile curve on her lips.

“Hey, are you still alive?” Hyojong’s voice came booming from beside me after he finished waving his hand across my face. “Sang-hoon, are you on this classroom?”

“Yeah, I am man. Here’s your phone by the way. Thank you.”

“You seemed pretty occupied,” he said as he took his seat again beside me. “How was it?”

“I… uhh… I guess I saw your point. She is really famous.”

“I told you so. We’re lucky she’s our classmate; at least in some form we could manage to talk to her and Gowon. It feels like taking to the president, you know.”

“I… I guess so…”

I know Hyojong might have rambled on for seconds after that, but my mind simply spaced out as I continued to observe Hyejoo and Gowon on my peripheral. I may have found out a bit about her, but something is telling me that it’s not enough.

I want to know Hyejoo more than her photos and her reputation. I want to know who she really is.

I think I need more time.

---TWO MONTHS LATER---

Sang-hoon has spent the previous weeks and days observing Hyejoo down to the very last detail, and his seemingly stalking nature increased as the months went by, although with that he’s also making sure that he would not look too obsessed with her. Even with the abundance of university work coming his way, somehow Hyejoo’s presence motivated him to do good in his works with Hyejoo serving as his primary motivation for school. In fact, it was precisely because of her that he had signed up for the university’s Theatre club in the hopes of getting her attention. Sang-hoon had the good looks after all, and coupled with his impressive height and training during his younger years, he was bound to get his imposing presence elsewhere. He knew he had to do this knowing how frail he felt next to Hyejoo, and as a result, he never managed to exchange a conversation with her despite having months behind him.

Well, he also has to be blamed for that considering he always views Hyejoo as Olivia whenever he attempts to talk to her.

Regardless of how hard he tried, he really could not dissociate the two ladies from each other. After two months work of observing (which involved him doing Sasaeng-like stalking to the greatest of limits that it allows him to), he felt farther and farther from the answers he seek. Every time that he discovers something about Hyejoo, it felt a lot closer to her actually being Olivia. It was also the feeling; that unsung feeling of being dearly attracted to her presence that draw him mindlessly close to Son Hyejoo. He was aware of this as well, and with utmost effort he tried to keep himself at bay and still respect the privacy of the girl as much as possible.

It was the week after the first university examinations and classes were pretty much lax, and so the pair of Hyojong and Sang-hoon sat across the university fountain right smack in the middle of the campus in the hopes of letting time pass by. The lazy afternoon of having absolutely nothing to do was the reason that they decided to settle there, but not before opting to buy a good cup of refreshments.

Sang-hoon did not expect it, but somehow the pair of Gowon and Hyejoo was also seated on the far end of the fountain, admiring the sight that he and Hyojong blatantly ignored.

“Oh, look, Sang-hoon,” Hyojong teased as he had his arms rested on the long, concrete backrest. “If it isn’t your Hyejoo hanging out with Gowon again; I heard she had a hard time on our Mathematics exam. You’re good at math right, Sang-hoon? Why don’t you teach her for this term? It might be a good deal of a help, you know.”

“What are you talking about, man? She’s not struggling on Math. In fact, she’s really good at it. I don’t recall her having bad scores.”

“How did you know about that?”

“I—I saw her exam paper before she turned it in.”

“What the fuck?” Hyojong exclaimed, effectively sitting straight to look at Sang-hoon’s face. “You were peeking on her paper during the exam? Damn, I didn’t think you were the type who would do that.”

“No, I didn’t copy her answers! I… I just saw it when Mrs Kang was returning the papers. Somehow her paper ended up next to mine and her score slipped under my eyes.”

“Well, that’s progress now, isn’t it? Who among you both got the higher score?”

“Is that even important now, Hyojong?”

“It is. At least I’ll know which person I’d sit next to on the midterm.”

“Hey, that’s illegal.”

“I’m kidding, okay? Look, you got to look into the small details if you’re planning to make a move, Sang-hoon. If she’s higher than you by a couple of points then ask her to teach you, at least then you’re going to have a reason to talk to her.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary, you know. I mean, if I wanted to talk to her I could easily have done it. She’s in most of our classes and I see her almost every day.”

“If it’s that easy, then why haven’t you done it yet?”

Sang-hoon opened his mouth to reply, but the fast-paced conversation between him and his friend suddenly met an abrupt end. He thought of a reason on the back of his head and yet he could not really make out of something that was the reason for that. Hyojong, on the other hand, sat there opposite him with his legs crossed over on the stone panel and anticipated a convincing answer from him.

“I… I guess the opportunity just did not present itself. It’s pretty obvious right? Plus, I don’t want to talk to her just because I WANT to talk to her. It makes the conversation a lot more awkward, wouldn’t it? I want to approach her when there’s something to actually talk about.”

“But you have something to talk about; I’m sure you, the great Choi Sang-hoon of the Theatre Club, have some sort of dialogue planned on your head for her right? You can’t just sit around all day, watching her and hoping for the best, man. You’re not going to get anywhere with that.”

“What do you mean? What do you know?”

Hyojong paused and took a good look around towards Hyejoo and Gowon’s position. Seeing that they have already left their seats, he brought his legs back on the ground and moved towards Sang-hoon’s still-confused figure.

“You know, I’ve been playing blind these past weeks because I don’t want to be so nosy,” he said as he placed a hand on Sang-hoon’s shoulder. “But I feel like at some point, I’ll have to ask this out from you. I think that time is now. Look, I know Hyejoo’s famous as hell and she’s a really pretty girl and that might be intimidating to you, but are you sure you just want to watch and observe her from afar?”

“What…? I’m not watching her from afar… come on, man.”

“Oh no, don’t play games with me man… don’t think that I didn’t notice you looking at her whenever we’re on the same class. Even when we’re eating at the cafeteria for some snacks, you’d position yourself that you’ll have perfect view of her even if we’re sitting across each other. I even see you following her route home, so you can’t really say anything against me now.”

Wait, am I THAT obvious?

I guess during the past weeks, I slacked off of being cautious around Hyojong. He doesn’t seem to mind when I’m doing my investigation while we’re together. I got a bit too comfortable.

Maybe I should tell it to him now. He discovered it himself anyway, so if anything I think he deserves to know the truth.

“Okay, maybe I did stalk her a bit… but that’s all that is to it, you know.”

“Is it, though? Are you sure that’s all that you have to say about doing it a couple of times?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, I could say so much about your little sliver of looks for her, man. It looked to me as if you’re way too interested on Hyejoo; way more than being just a classmate.”

“Wait, there’s no rule that I can’t observe her from afar is there?”

“Sure, Sang-hoon … you can observe her from time to time, but doing it every day and every chance that you get… I think that’s something else entirely on itself. I wonder why you’re doing it though.”

Fuck… no matter how much I attempt to ride this around the bush, Hyojong felt very focused on me already. I’m pretty cornered.

“It’s nothing, I told you.”

“’Nothing’ he says… that’s not what I think. You’ve been stalking her as if you want to understand everything about her; know more things that you don’t get to see on the four corners of this classroom. You want to understand how this specific person acts when she’s not around Gowon or anybody else, and I think you’re doing that because you’re starting to like Hyejoo.”

Sang-hoon felt his ears go hot the moment the words escaped Hyojong’s lips. It’s not as if he’s forcing the idea on the table, but rather he was merely just relaying his interpretation of what he was seeing. Sang-hoon knew deep down that he can’t possibly excuse himself out of this one, not when Hyojong’s way too invested on finding his answer out. However, he was surprised that he actually looked that way towards him.

Now, he had been a lot more conscious than ever. While Hyojong waited for his response, flashbacks of all his stalking adventures for the last week began to flash unto his head. Images of whether there were other people who could have seen him stalking Hyejoo like that flung themselves like a pin-hole movie, and now that he was so deep into the situation, he could not think of a way to walk it out in case the worst comes. He never thought of it through as he was focused on the one thing he came there for: Hyejoo.

“So,” Hyojong continued after the ensuing silence albeit controlling his voice to almost a whisper. “Do you like Hyejoo or not?”

“I’m… not sure about that.”

Hyojong’s face contorted with confusion. Clearly, what Sang-hoon had said was not what he was expecting. Either of the answers in his head, he had the perfect retort to it. However, with something that vague, his rhythm was thrown off of the window in an instant.

“What do you mean ‘not sure’?”

“I’m… it’s too complicated for stuff like that now, you know. Yes, I’ll admit that I’m interested about Hyejoo and that I am slightly stalking her. Would liking her actually be the reason for that? I don’t know. I’m trying to find out too… it’s more of I’m trying to go near her because I’m seeking an answer to a question I’ve been having ever since I met her.”

Sang-hoon watched as Hyojong gave him a really unconvinced expression. The blonde guy then scratched the back of his head and placed an arm over Sang-hoon’s shoulder once again.

“You know what? You better do you. I’m not getting any of this by any degree, but in the off chance that you’re not yet ready to fully admit to yourself of your feelings for Hyejoo, then take your time. All I’m trying to say is, if you’re really interested on Hyejoo and you want to be close to her such that you can be together, then I suggest you get your ass off and go to her directly. Like I said, sitting around and waiting for a miracle to happen won’t get you anywhere. You better move fast and smart too, if I may say so myself. Since Hyejoo’s been really close friends with Gowon now, and she’s a lot more famous than she was when she first came here months ago…”

Honestly, I could care less if she’s famous or not. I need to find out if there’s even a slight connection between her and Olivia, and once there’s none then I can let this thing to rest.

I just need to know, and then I can stop.

“…I’m just saying that as an advice, but as I was saying it, I figured you won’t need it. You’re freakin’ Choi Sang-hoon; the good looking tall guy from the Theatre Club. Women all over campus know how you’re good looking on stage and a lot of them like you. You could get any fan whenever you want, which is why I’m a bit surprised why you’re having this much of a difficulty with Hyejoo. I’m sure with all your achievements, your looks, your talent, your height maybe… I’m sure she notices you. You might be waiting for each other to start the conversation, for fuck’s sake. What are you waiting for then; the end of semester?”

Sang-hoon nodded, although he was thinking deeply inside him…

I guess I could not also find the answer for that.

--- THREE DAYS LATER ---

University life for each and every student inside Block Berry Creative passed on like as it should and as always it was just another day filled with occasional requirements here and there. Luckily, things were taken a bit lightly by the professors given the schedule of the school activities, and so the following days were a lot more relaxed compared to the usual heavy hitting days of college. As a result of the more relieving atmosphere, Sang-hoon had a lot of time to think about what Hyojong had said to him a few days ago when they were at the university fountain. This afternoon was perfect in his opinion as the most of the professors went off for their regular inter-department meeting, leaving most of the students in their respective classrooms with a short activity and nothing to do for most of the afternoon.

Due to that, the hallways were scattered with students and Sang-hoon found himself sitting on one of the in-hall benches of the school with the view of Hyejoo and Gowon opposite him as the pair sat on the other side of the hall absorbed in a long, inaudible conversation. There was some significant difference, however; despite having the two of them so close to him, he had taken care of himself to not ogle too much with Hyejoo now that Hyojong knows. If anything, he was merely staring at the blank space pondering of a way and a good excuse to engage Hyejoo in a good convo. He doubts if he could do it now thought considering how occupied she and Gowon were with their talk. It also did not help that Hyojong was out, using the lax time of the university to go out with his girlfriend; leaving him with no one to push.

He could already feel it; the drive to actually talk to Hyejoo. If anything, no matter how much stalking he would do, nothing would matter unless he actually would talk to Hyejoo. It sounds really easy, if only he’s not seeing Olivia whenever he would go out of his way and talk to Hyejoo. He can’t help but feel that sense of comfort and relief, coupled with that little fear that he might overdo it and actually treat Hyejoo as Olivia accidentally. He knew himself perfectly well and there’s a good chance for that to happen whenever he decided to go for it.

There was also that odd, unsettling feeling that he’s having. It was as if people walking in front of him had their eyes planted on him, even more so now that most of the passers-by were fellow first year girls from different departments.

On that very moment, even with utmost effort of deliberately ignoring the urge to watch silently at Hyejoo, Sang-hoon felt the presence of a person walking towards his direction. The footsteps of a young woman stomped softly on the tiled floor, and every second that the closer she came, the more that he felt really anxious for whatever her business was with him. It also did not help that he could see her hands on her back, clearly hiding something from him.

“Umm… e-excuse me… you’re Sang-hoon, right?” the girl said with a small voice with a notable tremble in her sentence.

“Yes, I am… can I help you?”

Sang-hoon turned his gaze to finally meet the girl’s bright brown eyes, and instantly recognized the somehow familiar face. The girl was a fellow first year as he was as well, shyly smiling through her straight-cut shoulder length hair along with a sly, pink shade on her cheeks. Sang-hoon recognized her to be the girl that was taking up an Accounting course and was often front-seated on his theatre rehearsals and shows and sometimes she would often be seen having a conversation with their set designer. He was sure that she’s not a member of the club given how she only shows up during practices, and neither have they even started a conversation prior to what was happening that time. There was a sudden uncomfortable feeling from being next to her, and he knew that there was something bound to happen because of such encounter.

“H-hi… I’m… my name i-is Yeojin… “ the girl mused and this time she avoided Sang-hoon’s inquiring stare as she bowed her head out of sight. “I… I-I’m from the Accounting department a-and… And I’m a huge fan of y-you…”

Sang-hoon could merely listen to the girl as she stood there, and because of her stance, some students around the pair have begun to stop and eye them for a second. He could see that there was something behind her judging by the excited and interested faces of the people standing beside her, and whatever it was drove him really anxious. He and Yeojin was the centre of attention at that very moment; even Hyejoo and Gowon stopped their ensuing conversation to observe what was going on with their classmate from Language class.

Holy shit, what is happening? Sang-hoon thought to himself as he trembled in place observing Yeojin’s body language. What does she have behind her? And Hyejoo’s watching too! What is going on here?

I should say something. She’s clearly out of her words.

And why is she so nervous in front of me? Her actions are unintentionally drawing the crowd! I need to say something!

“Oh… I… I’m flattered, Yeojin… t-thank you. I do recognize you from the rehearsals… I appreciate that you like the theatre club’s work…”

Is that okay? Did it make the situation worse?

Fuck, if only Hyejoo was not watching me right now. It’s so unsettling.

“Y-yeah… I’ve… I’ve been watching you s-since you joined and… I’ve been a huge f-fan of you, Sang-hoon…”

“Thank you…”

“B-but I’ve… I’ve wanted to give you something… y-you did well so much on the last play and I loved your role in it… and…”

Yeojin raised her head up.

“I… I want to confess that I like you, Choi Sang-hoon.”

Wait, what?

SHE SAID WHAT?

“Please accept this… please accept my confession,” Yeojin said without even exchanging eye contact with her, and before he could react, Yeojin finally drew her hands from her back.

Sang-hoon froze on the spot as he looked at Yeojin’s figure, her head bowed down and kept out of his sight while a box of chocolates rested on her palms.

Her action caused a lot of gasps and ‘ooh’s to ooze from the surrounding students, admiring her astounding courage to admit her feelings on broad daylight just like that. Some students were even clapping their hands in support of Yeojin’s confession and beckoning him to accept the pretty humble gift. Sang-hoon, on the other hand, was completely taken away by what he just heard and what he was seeing just now. A part of him wanted to make Yeojin repeat what she just said in case his ears were playing with him because of the situation, but the chocolates on her arms are way too much of an evidence to prove that what he initially heard was true. He could not understand the reason though on why Yeojin chose to confess in front of so much people, especially now that everyone else around him already saw Yeojin’s figure holding a box for him that they’re now expecting an answer from his end.

Perhaps that was the reason. Maybe Yeojin chose to give him the chocolates in public that the chances of him accepting it would heighten. It was really admirable, considering it was even Yeojin who had the guts to confess of what she feels. He was flattered and definitely amazed, and under normal circumstances he would have easily accepted her gift just like that.

But this was definitely a different circumstance and it most certainly isn’t normal…

The situation was different because a specific person was watching… Son Hyejoo

He could not understand why his mind was telling him to not accept the small gift just because Hyejoo was there. Somehow her presence felt everything to him; that with Yeojin showing up with a gift for him was something he did not want to happen, let alone have any other succeeding encounters with her after that confession. He wanted to accept it before, but now his mind was panicking with regards to how to politely decline it without looking like an asshole in front of everyone else.

However, there was not much of a choice. In his head, he would either look like an asshole in front of everyone but he’d be honest with Yeojin and himself, or pretend that he would accept it and reject Yeojin later. Either way, it would have involved him rejecting Yeojin anyway, and so his mind went for the easiest thing to do at the spur of the moment and he immediately stood up; quickly earning a flock of reactions from the crowd as he towered over Yeojin.

“I… I’m sorry but I can’t accept it,” he said with a tremble.

Yeojin, along with everyone else gasped with what they just heard. The young girl raised her head and planted her gaze to Sang-hoon, possibly hoping that it was the latter’s idea of a joke to lighten things up. However, instead of the usual handsome face of her crush, it was the pitiful look of Sang-hoon that greeted her.

“What…?” she mouthed.

Sang-hoon’s eyes went to all places, scanning the crowd before him in case a violent reaction was to occur. His eyes eventually rested towards the figure of Gowon and Hyejoo on his left, equally anticipating the unfolding of the events as much as everyone else was, and throughout that deal, he felt his eyes gazing back to Hyejoo’s for the first time ever.

“I can’t accept it,” he said clearer this time while keeping his eyes planted on Hyejoo. Sang-hoon then turned towards Yeojin’s waiting figure and spoke with a trembling voice. “I-I’m sorry.”

He raised his gaze once again, this time meeting the eyes of all the onlookers on Yeojin’s back who have circled the hallway for the commotion. Once again, he mouthed.

“I’m sorry.”

And with a state of panic, he left Yeojin where she was standing and quickly weaved to the wall of people behind him, not even bothering to give a single glance back to the girl he rejected and to the Hyejoo who was the reason why he rejected Yeojin in the first place.

---

Choi Sang-hoon kept his feet walking for as long as he could; quite determined more than anything else to leave the scene as quick as possible. On his way out, he was met with a lot of angry, confused and surprised eyes as he expected, but none of those deterred him from taking the step out of the building and heading off somewhere else. The Film Arts department was not a place he wanted to be at that moment and it was convenient that there was a meeting going on at the afternoon that he could easily decide to ditch this afternoon’s classes for good.

He could not bear to see the aftermath of what he had just caused, not now that Hyejoo had first-hand seen what he had done.

Have I done things right?

His feet finally found themselves walking towards the locker room of the school’s Sports Club, not far from the university’s own covered court. It was this series of door-less mini-rooms that lined the hallway like extended bathroom stalls, with each room having a decent set of lockers lining against the three surrounding walls. Thanks to the absence of afternoon activities, most of the said locker rooms were void of any presence of students, given the athletes who were supposed to practice might have called it a day and headed on off. If anything, Sang-hoon was quite happy that it was empty because he could not bear see anyone else there with him. Considering he was a member of the school’s Sports Club himself as a game panel judge, he has a locker on the far end of the hall and so his existence there won’t be that much a surprise in case a fellow club member manages to present themselves there with him.

He walked towards the farthest right room of the hallway and moved the small steel chair to rest against one of the lockers before resting himself, but not before placing his small bag on the floor. With a rather audible bang, he leaned his head against his locker and recalled what had transpired on that afternoon. Sure enough, his actions would change the course of Yeojin being his fan of some sorts, yet that would not entirely be a surprise considering he practically shamed her in front of the crowd.

What the fuck did I just do?

I could easily just taken those chocolates and just kept them somewhere, and then I could have talked to Yeojin in private and explained my side of things. I feel like I acted so much on the moment that I took the easiest way out.

God, I look like an asshole in front of those people.

Why did I act so conscious in front of Hyejoo like I was so afraid that she might think of me differently?

Shit… no, she has nothing to do with this. Whatever happened to me and Yeojin was entirely my fault and dragging Hyejoo here would be me making excuses for being such a dumb asshole.

Fuck… I need to sort this out tomorrow because there’s no way that I’m going through this in the afternoon.

I’m heading off home after this. I’ll just bid Hyojong good luck because I’m sure as hell that he’s going to get bombarded with questions.

And as he sat there for minutes pondering on his own plagued thoughts as well as taking in the soft squeaks and cries heard from the basketball court of the university, he heard a set of male voices enter the private male locker room engaged on a loud conversation as if they’re not next to each other talking. With the volume of their voices, Sang-hoon could not help but eavesdrop with what they’re talking about even if he elected not to listen. He heard their steps shuffle on a parallel room to his before the three sets of voices continued on their conversation.

“That was a fucking killer of a try-out,” echoed a voice from a senior that Sang-hoon had been acquainted on, and clearly with the tone of his voice, he was gloating about something unruly he did once again. “Can you see the look on that poor shithead first year’s face when I threw the ball right at him? Dumb idiot didn’t even saw it coming!”

His annoying tone was then followed by a series of laughter from his squad that Sang-hoon hated the most.

Shinichiro Takagi was a Japanese student who was two years older than Sang-hoon. His sharp eyes and permanently arrogant face scared almost every new student in Block Berry Creative, as he and his supposed friends thought themselves to be absolute kings of the court. Takagi was physically fit, even more so muscular than most of the people on his year and so took that to his advantage of harassing every person who tries out for the basketball team.

He was one of the reasons why Sang-hoon dreaded auditioning for the basketball club when he did it, as he was not interested on teaming up with a person he deemed to be an asshole from the top down. It was needless to say that their first encounter together did not end up well, with Takagi interpreting Sang-hoon’s decision to ditch basketball for another sport to be an act of cowardice, even going far to call him as a ‘tall waste of space because he did not have the balls to go against him’.

Sang-hoon immediately wanted to go out of the locker room for as soon as Takagi and his goons take note of his presence, things might not end well. His day was pretty fucked up already and having it worsen because of an ego-eating maniac like Takagi would just make things worse for what they already were.

The best thing to do is to wait their presence out. He figured at some point they’ll get tired of the locker room and go ahead to mess up something else. However, it is a pain to listen to them.

“Yeah, I hope that shithead won’t pursue the try-outs,” another person’s voice agreed with Takagi’s statement. “I can’t bear to see his face on our team. He’ll just be a frail pushover.”

A third person laughed before proceeding to speak. “This year’s first years are a fucking disappointment, Takagi. I can’t see a person who’s worth our time and fun like last year. Everyone else seemed to be so addicted to academics like they’re going to die without it.”

“Well, there’s one interesting person. Takagi, I’m sure you’ve heard of the transferee at this point, right?”

“Oh yes,” Takagi replied after a series of clangs and crashes from their locker room was heard. “You mean that transferee who’s a famous as fuck, what was her name again? Was it Son Hyejoo?”

Sang-hoon’s heart skipped a beat, and he moved out of his chair to listen to what they have to say about Hyejoo.

“Yes, that’s her Takagi. I heard she’s really a hottie and friends with the first years’ Gowon, too.”

“Yeah I’ve heard about that girl and I’ve seen her too. I got to say, that first year has a body worth worshipping; she has the body of a slut and she’s oh so luscious to look at. I can’t even emphasize the number of times I imagined myself getting blown by her, let alone ripping that ripe cunt and filling her in with my cum.”

A series of laughter occurred among them once again, and Sang-hoon tried his best to compose himself as he remained hidden on the far end of the room.

“You’ve seen her body right? Those goddamn heavenly curves must be really nice to lick while you’re banging her from behind. If I had the chance to bang that bitch, I’ll make it sure as hell that she’ll cum all over me while I fuck each of her holes. We’re going to have one hell of a good time because that person sure looks like a pretty little fuck toy to me, and sure as hell I’ll share her to us three.”

“But I heard she’s not interested on getting on with anyone. Pretty much every one who tried to woo her has failed miserably, Takagi.”

“Oh bitch please,” Takagi gloated once again. “All girls are the fucking same. They act as if they’re so pure being so picky, but they all cry and moan hard in the bed when they get a dick that’s too much for them to take. Believe me, that Hyejoo’s no different; I bet that she’s even a loud moaner.”

That was it.

Takagi has reached the tipping point of Sang-hoon’s patience and tolerance.

It was almost on the same manner that he remember seeing the two guys three years ago; the very same high school seniors who were hitting on Olivia when she was waiting for him to go home. Back then, he perfectly left Olivia for herself knowing how she can handle herself without him. However now, he felt like he was the only person who could stop this sexualisation before it even begins. There was a perfect difference between Hyejoo’s and Olivia’s situation but now he could only see Takagi and his cohorts verbally harassing Olivia before him, and he could not take it.

He stood up from the locker rooms and the force of his body leaving the metal panels emitted a loud clang, and as he walked angrily towards the direction of Takagi, he could still hear them gloating about their devious fantasies about Son Hyejoo.

“… and that’s exactly what I’m going to do, man. I’m going to ask her out and when I do, I’m going to do everything that I can to make her cry,” Takagi roared, along with the smirks of his friends. It was only when he noticed the figure of someone else standing upon the entrance doorway of the small locker room that he began to stop from talking.

Noticing the sudden change in atmosphere, even his two friends stopped and turned their attention towards the door upon which they finally saw the figure of Choi Sang-hoon glaring at them with his fists balled up.

“You got a problem?” Takagi asked in annoyance. “Do you have anything business standing up there, dumbass?”

Sang-hoon ignored his statement and proceeded to walk in the locker room, keeping his eyes glared against Takagi. In caution, Takagi stood up and brushed his lengthy blond hair out of his face to further scoff at Sang-hoon while his friends notably took a defensive stance against him. The three guys were seated and leaned against each of the lockers lining the walls of the small room, greatly gloating around a small wooden bench situated at the middle of the lockers. Each of the three seniors wore their own combination of jerseys and shorts covered with their own respective jackets, with Takagi being the most recognizable amongst them three with his lengthy blond hair swaying as he stood up against Sang-hoon with his friends.

“Hey,” he added once again as soon as Sang-hoon was inside the room. “You got a mouth, huh?”

“Not as dirty as yours, Takagi,” Sang-hoon replied in the most informal and disrespectful way he could deliver it. “I don’t like what I’ve been hearing, especially about that new girl Hyejoo.”

Takagi scoffed.

“Oh, you’ve heard what we’ve been talking about? You don’t like me telling you what I’m going to do about her, huh? What are you gonna do about it, newbie?”

“I want you to take it back.”

“And what are you gonna do if I don’t want to?”

Sang-hoon walked closer to him, around the bench in the middle of the room. Takagi’s friends, despite wanting to help him against Sang-hoon, were clearly intimidated by the young man’s presence. After all, Sang-hoon towered them with over a head of height difference.

“Take it back, Takagi. Take it back while I’m still asking nicely.”

“I’m so fucking intimidated. You’re just a first year, what are you gonna do? You’re just one of those idiots who fantasize of being romantic with the Hyejoo girl just because you’re being a white knight—“

And before he could even finish his sentence, Sang-hoon reached for the jacket’s collar, pulled Takagi up and slammed him on the lockers with a loud bang. The sudden action of Sang-hoon earned an immediate response with the seniors and so the two accomplices of Takagi held each of Sang-hoon’s shoulders back.

“I told you to take it back!” Sang-hoon roared, giving Takagi a slight shake and in turn inciting his friends to move Sang-hoon away from him.

Takagi, however, smirked.

“I just recognized who you were, kid. You finally got the balls, huh? Your dick finally rose up because of that Hyejoo?”

“Give it up, idiot,” his friend to Sang-hoon’s right said. “Are you expecting to take us on 3v1 here? You want to prove something to yourself?”

Sang-hoon got caught of himself after realizing the odds, and so he gently lowered Takagi from the grasp while he kept his head low.

“I’ll let this loose for once, bitch,” Takagi scoffed. “You could’ve just asked me for turns and I would have considered giving it to you.”

Sang-hoon’s grip tightened once more on his collar, and that statement was the one that cause his mind to go blank.

In an instant, the Takagi and his friends’ voices inside the locker room were replaced by clanging metals as Sang-hoon drove a quick, heavy fist against Takagi’s gut and slammed his body against the metal door of the locker behind him. The Japanese man grunted in pain, prompting the two men beside him to act against Sang-hoon.

However, Sang-hoon saw this coming when he thought of punching Takagi, and so as soon as he punched him in the gut, Sang-hoon immediately swung his hand towards the man on his right and it quickly hit him squarely on the abdomen. He felt the man on his immediate left push his shoulder back and effectively break his grasp with Takagi, and with that Sang-hoon launched his leg straight towards him; effectively pinning him away as he turned his attention back to Takagi again.

The Japanese senior had just begun to get on his feet when he saw Sang-hoon swing a fist on his stomach again. The impact caused him to gasp in pain, but before he could recover and perhaps follow up with it, he grabbed his jacket again and picked him up before slamming a fist against his face. Takagi fell sideward and crashed onto the foot of the lockers as his friends began to stand up.

Sang-hoon, being too fixated on glaring at Takagi’s collapsed figure, failed to notice that the man on his right had stood up. As soon as he turned his attention to him, the man already had his fist in mid-swing and it hit him on his right cheek. The force threw him back equally similar to how Takagi fell, but instead of crashing onto the floor he felt arms grasp his shoulder as the senior who punched him prepared for another punch.

“Hold that son of a bitch, Dae Jin!”

“Go ahead, Min Joon!” The person grasping Sang-hoon, Dae Jin, breathed. “I got him now!”

Min Joon charged with his fist. Sang-hoon, however, having lengthy proportioned legs, had no trouble pegging Min Joon with his leg before he could even reach contact. He drove a swift kick against Min Joon and sent him tumbling down back towards the lockers once again.

Sang-hoon then drove his entire body back using his legs and took Dae Jin with him, and similar to Min Joon, he crashed against the lockers with absolute force that caused him to lose grip of Sang-hoon. Sang-hoon turned towards him and raised Dae Jin’s face up before punching his face with strong force. Then, just to make sure that he would be taken out of the picture as Sang-hoon would deal with Takagi and Min Joon, Sang-hoon kneed his crotch with all the force he could muster and left him groaning as he fell to the floor.

Takagi had managed to get up once again and swung a fist against Sang-hoon, of which hit him on the other side of his face. Sang-hoon saw Min Joon getting up as well and prepared to join Takagi on beating him up, and as he got knocked aside he reached for the metal chair where Min Joon sat previously. With one great swing, he launched the metal chair against the pair of them which effectively missed Min Joon but hit Takagi on his arm. Sang-hoon gave him another kick, forcing him back against the lockers as he turned his attention back to Min Joon.

Min Joon, however, took the small window of time to launch a fist on Sang-hoon’s gut. He swung another fist against him to hit him on the face, but on Min Joon’s third attempt Sang-hoon quickly weaved out of his fist. On a split second, he saw a small opening on the nearby locker and he quickly opened it to hit Min Joon in the face to temporarily startle him. Then, he kneed Min Joon deep on his abdomen with the force causing him to bounce against the lockers behind him. Sang-hoon caught him on the head upon impact and slammed the side of his head on the lockers twice before leaving Min Joon to collapse on the floor, groaning with pain.

Takagi had started to push himself back up when Sang-hoon punched his face again. He then held Takagi up and slammed him against the locker’s a couple of times before glaring at him once again.

“I told you to take back what you said against Olivia,” Sang-hoon said with a pant.

“Fuck you, Sang-hoon; and who the fuck is Olivia?”

Sang-hoon glared once again and slammed him against the lockers before launching punches on Takagi’s gut and face out of anger. And then with all the force that he could muster, he grabbed a now-beat up Takagi by his jacket and his stomach, lifted him over his head, and slammed him back-first against the wooden bench in the locker room, effectively breaking the bench with the huge impact.

Sang-hoon stood there huffing and panting as he witnessed the three seniors he just beat up crawling and groaning in pain with what he just did. Only after the adrenaline rush had passed did he realize how painful his face was. He had bruises and cuts on both sides of his face with his nose dripping with blood, and it was only then did he realize how me managed to take on three of them at once.

A shuffle of footsteps were then heard from the entrance of the locker room, and in a couple of seconds the Badminton coach, Mr Hwang, stood on the locker doors’ façade in disbelief as he is followed by a handful of students getting to check on the commotion as well.

“What happened here?” Mr Hwang said with a clear look of surprise on his face. “Mr Choi, why is the locker room on such a mess?”

The locker was full of dents, three students were lying on the floor groaning of pain with chairs and debris all over the place, while one tall first year stood in the middle of the locker with a bloodied face and his fists balled up. If anything, it was one sure fire way to get them to the Office of the Student Affairs.

However, from Sang-hoon’s perspective, there was nothing more important in his head that moment than to give Hyejoo’s harassers the treatment they deserve. A part of him felt fulfilled even though there’s a good chance that he’s looking at a huge punishment.

--- SOME TIME LATER – AT THE OFFICE OF THE STUDENT AFFAIRS---

“So can you tell me that again,” the young Guidance Counsellor asked as she eyed the four guys seated on her office with their faces full of bandaged bruises and cuts. “This first year right here; Mr Choi, beat the three of you seniors up three on one? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”

The three guys, notably seated on the wooden bench closest to the door, barely even replied to the Guidance Counsellor as they merely looked at her in embarrassment while they winced from the pain of their bodies. Min Joon held the side of his head with an ice pack while they’re being questioned; Takagi was gently massaging his shoulder and back, while Dae Jin still had his hands over his crotch area.

“You three won’t speak up?” she said once again before turning towards Sang-hoon. “Fine; I don’t know how this turned out this way, but do you mind explaining why did you beat three of your seniors straight up?”

Sang-hoon, who was seated on the chair in the immediate right of the table’s front, did not even bother to reply as well as he merely shifted his gaze on the student seated opposite him. The student was a second year student he knew from the sports club, but the reason why he was exactly there seated opposite him really baffled him with regards to his connection with this issue.

The Student Affairs room’s door then opened followed by the entrance of the head of security, Ms Jo Ha Seul. She entered the room with her usual black blazer and pencil skirt, oozing with a strong authoritative presence as well as a flowery scent that immediately filled the room. Ha Seul walked with a notable charm, holding a piece of flash drive on her hand as she approached the counsellor’s desk.

“Here’s the piece you requested for, Vivi,” Ha Seul said onto her which made Counsellor Vivi really red. “Let’s get a cup of coffee later?”

“Ha Seul… we’re in the office and in front of the students. Please don’t call me by that here,” she whispered to her as she took the flash drive from her hand. “Thank you for this, and yes let’s get coffee later.”

“Work hard,” Ha Seul said before leaving the room, but not before eyeing the three beaten-up seniors seated near the door.

Counsellor Vivi just shook her head in disapproval of Ha Seul’s behaviour, although she merely shook it off in favour of the video she requested. She figured that Sang-hoon and the other seniors won’t talk, and then perhaps the CCTV footage of the entire deal would speak in behalf of them.

Sang-hoon, on the other hand, was reasonably confident that the footage would yield the reason why he beat those three up. He was more worried of the student in front of him; sure, he was brave to tell it straight to Counsellor Vivi like that, but what if those three get back at him for standing against them? He won’t be able to do anything then and that’s what’s concerning him.

A few minutes passed involving Counsellor Vivi watching the short video with her earphones on, and eventually she raised her beautiful head of hair and eyed each of the five people that were seated around her. Sang-hoon was certain that there was a moment of hesitation and disbelief upon her the moment that she set her eyes on him, but was soon disregarded as she began to speak.

“So, I guess your story was not so crazy after all,” Counsellor Vivi towards the sophomore in front of her. “I admire your courage for standing up for Mr Choi here. What’s your name again?”

“A-Avarice, Ms Vivi; my name is Jake Avarice.”

“Thank you, Jake. I’ll take note of your participation for this… event that Mr Shinichiro here started. Please bring this note to your professor so that you’ll be excused for the classes you missed while you’re here. You can go now.”

“T-thank you, Miss Vivi”

The second-year gave Sang-hoon a curt not. Whether it was a nod of acknowledgement or a nod wishing him good luck could only be interpreted by Jake Avarice himself as the European student exited through the door without giving a second look to the three beat-up seniors.

“Excuse me, Ms Vivi,” Min Joon said as he held unto his head. “You’re just going to let that kid go without doing anything? We just fought on the lockers and he did nothing but bug around and eavesdrop?”

“Mr Yang, as far as I remember it was YOU, Mr Im and Mr Shinichiro here who started that ordeal on the lockers. From what I could tell, Mr Choi here was provoked because Takagi said awful things about his friend.”

“What?” Takagi interfered, raising his voice against Ms Vivi. “Why would he not be held liable here? Look what he did to us! We’re going off school because we’re injured!”

“Watch your tone,” Counsellor Vivi snapped with a dangerous shift on her tone. “This isn’t a place to shout, Mr Shinichiro. Yes, we’re not going to remove the fact that Mr Choi here was indeed included in the scramble that happened and sure he did beat the crap off of you three at once. However, I’m still holding this against the three of you because of your reputation in this office. How many times have the three of you earned a trip here because of harassment for the lower years?”

Takagi opened his mouth to reply, but he closed it as soon as he realized he lost count.

“That’s what I thought,” Ms Vivi continued. “I’ve gave you three countless warnings during the past, and I’m the last person that’s standing between you and expulsion. I don’t want to expel students and I don’t want your parents to suffer because of your antics. However, I feel like I have to do something in order to preserve the atmosphere of the students here. I’ll have to punish the three of you.”

“What? Ms Vivi, only us three? How about the person who beat us up…? We’re going to miss so much on the school activities and our education!”

“You should have thought about that before it went to a situation like this, Mr Shinichiro. I’m giving this as your final chance and warning as this is the very last thing I could do to keep you three in Block Berry. As punishment, I’ll be writing to your families with regards to what happened today including your past meetings with me. They’ll be made aware of what you’ve been doing here and how much trouble you’re causing me…”

The three seniors groaned.

“If I could not discipline you three well, then I bet your parents could. Perhaps they could trim down those huge egos of yours and maybe teach you that violence and threat is not always the answer. Oh, and let’s not forget how vulgar and nasty you three treated our new student; and to ensure that you better get this on your heads, I’m including a two-week suspension for the benefit of the students here with a permanent revocation of your membership for the basketball team.”

Takagi and Min Joon could only sit in disbelief with what they just heard. They knew they fucked up and for real this time; there’s no real way out of it. They’re suspended and worse, they might get a lot of scolding. Dae Jin, on the other hand, sat there still holding his crotch.

“You better think of what you three did. I’ll ask you three to kindly head off to the waiting room of the Office and wait for further orders,” Ms Vivi said as she gestured towards the door nearby. “Don’t do anything bad or else I’ll make sure that you’re expelled for good.”

Without a second word, the three of them slowly walked towards the door on the far side of the room with a clear display of disappointment on their face. They could not even bring themselves to look at neither Sang-hoon nor Ms Vivi as they exited the small office.

“As for you, Mr Choi,” Counsellor Vivi began as soon as they were left alone. “While I admire your courage for standing up against those three, that does not mean that I approve of what you did to them. Avoid getting into fights as much as possible, okay? Can you promise that for me?”

“Y-yes, Ms Vivi,” he replied softly as his face still ached with the beating he received previously.

“Normally, I’ll give you some sort of punishment for that, but I’ll take in to consideration how you gave me a reason to get them suspended by school law. I’ve wanted to do that to teach them a lesson but I haven’t gotten the proper reason to do so. I’ll also consider that you’ve never been summoned here before, and that you stood up against them because of what they’ve been saying to your friend. With that, I’ll make sure that you won’t have any records for this incident. As far as I’m concerned, you’re not going to get any bad records for your actions.”

Sang-hoon raised his head up in disbelief.

“This will be just a one-time thing, though, so please behave for the rest of your stay. I’m only letting you off because I admire your courage for standing up against them. The absence of punishment would be your reward for that. Is that alright for you?”

“Y-yes, of course Ms Vivi; thank you so much!”

“I still can’t believe how you fought those three-on-one. Regardless, that’s it for today. You’re good to go. Let me just finish this slip for you as you would be excused similar to Mr Avarice previously.”

“Thank you Ms Vivi--!”

And before he could finish his sentence, the door to the Office of the Student affairs swung open with force, and upon turning his head it was the sweaty and panting figure of Hyojong that stood on the doorway with his eyes wide open looking at Counsellor Vivi.

“I’m sorry for barging in, Ms Vivi, but it’s not Sang-hoon’s fault! He did nothing wrong! He just defended himself against those three seniors!”

Ms Vivi merely smiled as she handed Sang-hoon his excuse slip, but not before proceeding to ask him a question.

“Is he your friend, Sang-hoon?”

“Umm… actually yes, Ms Vivi…”

“That’s perfect. He can take you out of the office now.”

“What?” Hyojong asked, clearly confused.

“I’ll take care of him, Ms Vivi. I apologize for that, and thank you for the consideration.”

Counsellor Vivi nodded.

“That’s alright; just make sure that next time you come here, you won’t be filled with bruises, okay?”

“Yes, Ms Vivi,” Sang-hoon said, giving her a final bow of courtesy as he attended to Hyojong by the door.

“Wait, did you tell them that you’re innocent, man?” he said as Sang-hoon gently pushed him out of the door way to close it. “Are you in detention right now?”

“It is okay man, come on. We’ve sorted it out so let’s go. Don’t embarrass yourself in front of Ms Vivi.”

And with that, the pair of them exited the door after closing it, earning a brief smirk of amusement from Counsellor Vivi.

---

I can’t believe that I really got off. I’m fortunate enough that that thing won’t get to be stored against my name, at least for now.

“What happened there, Sang-hoon?” Hyojong said as soon as we exited the Office of the Student Affairs. “Did Miss Vivi let you out because she knew the truth? Did you get punished?”

“No, no, man; I’m really fine. Aside from my bruises on couple areas, I’m no really worried on anything else. Yes, that includes Miss Vivi. She let me go clear of all charges, which is a relief.”

We treaded across the hallway from the office and I can’t help but notice how much people have been staring at me as we walked. It was only then did I realize how alarming my actions were, and now I’m sure everyone else that had their eyes on me knew what happened during the locker rooms.

It also did not help that I walked out with Hyojong with obvious bandages plastered all over my face.

Shit, I did not think this through when I assaulted Takagi and his boys…

“So, how on earth did you beat Takagi and his friends?” Hyojong asked and I could sense a tone full of curiosity in his voice. “Did you really beat them up, three on one like they said?”

“I’m pretty sure you’ve heard the entire story at this point, man. I don’t think I have to confirm anything about it.”

“Damn, you really beat them up. That’s amazing, man. I wish I could have been there and watched it.”

“It’s fine; Hyuna-noona would kill me if anything else happened to you so no thanks. So, I got excused of my activities for the afternoon and I don’t think I have classes left for the rest of this day after the meeting. Should we go home now?”

“Not yet, Sang-hoon; actually, I’m… I was asked by someone to do a favour for them. Someone really wants to talk to you after what happened.”

Huh?

Who on earth would want that?

“Who is it?” I asked him eagerly as we turned on a corner. To my surprise, Hyojong stopped walking and it ultimately caused me to halt my steps as well.

“It’s her,” Hyojong said, gesturing in front.

I turned my gaze from him towards the two figures standing on the pathway ahead, and my heart skipped a beat. Son Hyejoo stood there in the middle of the hallway with her bag on her shoulders and a shy smile on her face. Beside her stood Park Gowon who had an expression that seemed to be in between of curiosity and confusion.

“Hi…” Hyejoo began.

Shit, of course she might have known what happened.

Oh no, don’t tell me she knew that I beat those seniors up because I was trying to defend her.

Fuck, now this got a lot more awkward. Shit.

“Hyejoo and Gowon here actually came to me and asked if… if they could talk to you,” Hyojong explained.

“Actually, I’m not in this,” Gowon interfered, giving us a curved smile. “It’s only Hyejoo that wanted to talk to you, Sang-hoon.”

“I’m… I’m actually nervous right now,” said Hyejoo, and I could tell her face turned a slight shade of pink. “Do you mind a couple of minutes, Sang-hoon?”

Is this real?

I’m going to talk to her?

“Yes, sure; I don’t mind.”

“We better get going then,” Hyojong said but not before giving me a soft pat on the back. “I’ll wait on the grounds when you’re done.”

“Hyejoo-ya, I’ll go too. I’ll see you on the café,” Gowon seconded.

And with that, the pair of them walked out together and essentially leaving me and Hyejoo alone along with some onlookers.

God, this is so fucking awkward. I never viewed our first conversation to be like this! I’m sweating head to foot and my knees could barely make me stand! This is not the perfect time to talk like this. I might screw this up!

“Let’s get in the classroom. There are a lot of people watching us right now,” she said.

I could only nod in response as I followed her inside, begging the heavens that whatever would follow might not be as bad as I’m thinking it to be. Hyejoo closed the door behind us, much to the disappointment of everyone outside who were hoping to at least get to hear the conversation of the two students who made the afternoon interesting.

Well, I better not screw this up. I’m alone with Hyejoo, holy shit!

“So… I don’t know how to begin this,” Hyejoo said as she leaned on a long table while I stood in front of the professor’s desk. “This isn’t the way I thought I would meet you… umm… how are your wounds now? Do they still hurt?”

Dammit, I should compose myself. I’m feeling so tense out of nowhere.

Choi Sang-hoon, where’s the damn courage that you used to beat those three seniors a while back?

Why are you chickening out on Hyejoo?

Don’t think that she’s Olivia, please.

Don’t think that she’s Olivia.

“I… It’s nice to meet you, actually and to finally… to finally talk to you, Hyejoo. I’m… I’m still kind of hurt, but it’s nothing major… nothing that I can’t take.”

“I… I heard about what happened, actually…. I’ve been made aware of what happened and why you… why you beat those seniors. I’m… I’m actually flattered.”

“You are…?”

Okay calm down, Sang-hoon. Make it easy for her to talk to you. Come on now.

“Yes… I mean, I am very flattered that you got out of your way to… to protect my name from them. We both know that we haven’t talked ever since I got transferred late here so… so the fact that I was the reason for what happened to you made me glad that you were there for me even if you did not have to do it. But it… it also makes me feel guilty…”

“Wait,” I blurted out. I know where this is going and I have to stop it before it even starts. “Umm… I know it feels really wrong that this turned out the way it did, but I have no regrets on doing that to them including the consequences that came with it. I got angry because of what they were saying about you… I figured you didn’t deserve it because they have no right to tell those nasty things to you. My mind went dead and the next thing I know I was standing in front of their crumpled figures.”

“I really appreciate what you did, Sang-hoon. You could have just let them be but you defended my name…”

I was spacing out as I deliberately drew my gaze away from her. I can’t bring myself to keep our eyes on contact because I feel like I’m going to melt. Seeing Olivia on her is the last thing I want to happen in this moment.

However, as I turned my gaze away I felt her approach my figure. Then, Hyejoo circled her arms around my free waist and gave me a tight embrace. I nearly lost my mind. I did not know what I was supposed to do at that moment, and I could feel my senses increasing a thousand-fold because of the contact of skin.

My stomach is turning on itself as if a flock of birds circled within.

“Thank you, Sang-hoon. I’m really touched.”

Holy shit

After a brief moment, Hyejoo finally broke off of the hug and stood in front of me.

“I always wanted to try to talk to you because of all the people here; you’re the only one I haven’t interacted with yet even after months. I would really have viewed our first meeting under a completely different circumstance, Sang-hoon, but I’m glad that it turned up this way. At least, I no longer have to think of a reason to talk to you out of nowhere.”

She then proceeded to hold my hand and examine the redness of my knuckles. The sensation of her touch sent thousand jolts of electricity all over my spine.

“Please, just allow me to apologize for what happened to you.”

“I… umm… I’ll accept that apology then, but only because you asked nicely, Hyejoo.”

Also for her to stop because I can’t let this first convo ever to be here just apologizing...

“I… We’re still going to talk after this, right? You’re okay with us being friends?”

“Are you okay to be friends after what happened? I hope I didn’t give a bad impression because of that. I hope that it’s not weird.”

Hyejoo grinned and her smile was the first time I ever saw her like that.

Damn, she’s so…

“I’m not really one to judge, Sang-hoon. Like I said, I’m really flattered on what happened and I still want to be your friend, regardless of what impressions I’m supposed to feel after that.”

“Well then, let’s be friends Hyejoo. I’m glad that we’ve been able to talk, finally.”

We smiled mutually towards each other and it felt it lasted for a couple of minutes. Surprisingly, it was not awkward, but rather peaceful. I cannot explain where the sense of familiarity and comfort is coming from and I’m sure even Hyejoo felt that.

“Sorry, I stared for a bit too long,” Hyejoo finally said as she broke the silence. “I can’t help but feel like I’ve seen you before, you know; it’s as if I met you before. I feel that there’s a sense of de javu whenever I’m around with you, and I can’t explain why because I don’t feel that on anybody else.”

Well, I feel the same way too Hyejoo…

I feel…

Wait, did she say that she knew me before…?

“But it’s just probably me. I’m sorry if I’m too vocal on what I’m feeling, but I feel like I had to tell it out. I’ll… umm… I’ll have to go home, Sang-hoon; I don’t want to make Gowon wait for a long time and I think you should rest your wounds as well. Shall we go?”

My mind was held in limbo after what I just heard. It felt as if thousands of alarms are going off of my head the moment that Hyejoo said that she might have met me before. She and I already exchanged our farewells and after that I still could not remove it in my head; she said she knew me from somewhere…

What could she possibly mean by that?

Hyejoo and I finally separated our own ways after that and yet I could still not remove that thought in my head. I was so ready to give up the idea that she’s Olivia, but now the signs have gotten a lot stronger.

This feeling…

This gut feeling that draws me closer to her…

I have to get this on track. I have to grab the opportunity that I lost before.

I’m not losing Olivia again, not this time.

I’ll have to ask her out.

---

267 notes · View notes

literallynocontext · 3 years ago

Text

300

Zielschmerz

Yeojin x Male Reader

SinsCorp Series: Part #2 of “Yeojin’s Internship Arc”

wordcount: 11675

A/N: I promised myself and gave myself an ultimatum, that whether I finished this fic or I retire AND IT WORKED! I finished hahahaha. I hope you guys like it as I spent my 3months trying to write it. As usual I'm not proficient in editing but yeah haha.

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

Early walks always seemed so relaxing. Tall buildings, fresh air, pleasant sunlight, and there was no need to hurry. Being a morning person has its perks and one of which is you're always able to visit your favorite cafe in the morning.

You stood in front of the glass door and pushed to be greeted by the serene sounds of chimes and the energizing smell of coffee. Although you weren't there for the coffee like any other customers, you were there for something else. As you walked to the counter, you were greeted by a smiling barista.

"Good Morning, Sir! Welcome to 'I'VE GOT YOU' What is your order?" The girl greeted enthusiastically while you giggled upon hearing the witty cafe name.

"Why must you always call me 'Sir', Gaeul?" You asked her while looking at the menu, checking the drinks and the day's special even though you already knew what you were going to order.

"Because you are a customer and I'm an employee," Gaeul pointed out while she leaned to playfully pinch your nose, "and if that answers your question, will you answer mine now?"

"Come on! We're the same age and I thought we had already become friends. You even know what I'm gonna order and you're still asking," you replied with a pout, trying to appeal to her to which she responded with a shrug and a giggle.

"Hmm… let's see, matcha latte, hot milk?" The woman asked while making a curious face with a finger pointed at her nape. You smile as you know what she was going to say, "And Iced Tea with a shot of Espresso!"

"Iced Tea with a shot of espresso." You both said simultaneously and laughed. It goes to show how you two were close and that you were able to joke around.

"Your supervisor is weird though. Never seen someone drink Iced Tea and Espresso in one drink!" Gaeul explained as she worked with the counter. You just laughed at her and shrugged your shoulders.

"She might be weird but she's good at her job and she's gorgeous. We don't know, maybe the drink is the secret?" You nodded and after paying, you watched her prepare your drinks for you. This left Gaeul thinking that she should try the drink for herself.

After a while, she served your drink that was ready for take-out. You smiled before bidding her a good day but she stopped you in your tracks with one sentence.

"Take Yeojinnie with you next time! Have a good day!" Gaeul shouted and you responded with an awkward smile and a nod. Would she still ask the same if she knew what happened? Suddenly, the morning wasn't so comforting anymore as you remembered what happened… and how awkward meeting Yeojin at work would be.

You continue walking to your work with heavy feet, and as you got closer to the office… your heartbeats became louder and faster. You didn't even notice the elevator reaching the floor where you were supposed to get off.

"Aren't you supposed to get off?" Ha Sooyoung greeted you with a smirk and a flick on your forehead. She couldn't help it as you were spacing out.

"Get out and go to the office. Leave my drink at my table, I'll drink it later cause I need to go to the boss for a while. Also, finish your business report and submit it to me later," Yves commanded, which made you skedaddle. When you reached the office, you were greeted by a big table in the middle(Ha Sooyoung's Desk), and three cubicles that are for you, Yeojin, and another intern. It was convenient because Yeojin was learning the ropes of the business from the head herself, while you just supported them with the minors and anything that required your expertise(graphics design)—you were basically just the PPT guy and the design guy… which honestly… they didn't need it at all. You knew this so the least you could do was your best, get them drinks(hyung intern prefer to buy his own so he is exempted(extra notes he like Fanta so yeah XD), and try to learn as much so you could help.

Of course, the Business Department had many employees but you and Yeojin the Interns, report and work directly with the Chief Business Officer Sooyoung, also known as Yves. You headed to Yves’s table and placed her cup there, and then headed for the cubicle placed opposite yours. There you found Im Yeojin… your best friend and childhood friend although right now, you don’t know anymore how to describe your relationship after what happened.

She was asleep so you had time to ponder about it. You just smiled, staring at her sleeping face. Yeojin always arrives at work early, but you would always catch her napping whenever the boss isn’t around. You never really noticed it before but Yeojin is a pretty girl… When did she become so beautiful? It was like yesterday that you two were catching frogs by the riverbank and she was relentless in doing so. Or how you had to keep your bike locked up forever cause she hated it, you couldn’t just let her walk alone to school every morning. She hated all aspects of it, both going to school and waking up every morning so you had to make sure she did at least attend or didn't miss any class.

How could things change so fast? How did even this cute frog friend of yours learn to use her tongue like that? Or even how to pluck your heart? Things would surely not be the same as before. Nevertheless, you just have to accept it and hope that her being your friend would be one thing that would never change.

Yeojin squinted her eyes, waking up from her slumber. However, being the lazy bum she is, Yeojin resisted and nestled against your touch—your hand that you used to caress her cheeks? You didn’t even realize that you had unknowingly been nuzzling her cheeks.

She suddenly opened her eyes and found you staring at her. Out of panic, you quickly removed your hand which made her lose her support and pillow to lean on. A thud echoed inside the room as her head hit her table. Of course, it also woke her up but weirdly, she was still half-asleep even after all that.

"Oppa? What are you doing here? I'm sorry, did I fall asleep again?" Yeojin asked as she brushed her eyes and rubbed the part of her head that hit the table. You felt bad seeing her, but you couldn't do anything about what had already happened.

"Jin… stop calling me 'Oppa' we're the same age and you don't even call Mint like that even though he's older than you." You handed her drink over and she just smiled. She didn't utter a word as she took a sip of her milk.

"I asked Gaeul for your usual. Drink your milk and work, don't fall asleep. I told you, stop staying up all night playing Pokemon or watching Demon Slayer," you scolded her. The cute Yeojin suddenly turned sour as what she heard didn't go well with her. Goes to show to never scold someone who just woke up… preferably not after she woke up the way she did either.

"You're not my mom. Stop scolding me like a kid cause I ain't one!" Yeojin exclaimed as fierceness filled her eyes—the cat suddenly became a tiger. She was angry and glaring at you, however you couldn't help but notice other things: how pretty her red pinkish lips were, how her black nails gave her an alluring charm, and how that off-shoulder outfit made her subtly sexy.

"Are you even listening to me? You know what, forget it. Just get out of my cubicle." Yeojin pushed you out of there with her small hands and body. If you retaliated a little bit, she couldn't have been successful, but it was your fault also so you didn't.

Other than that, those things that happened before seemed to be affecting you as to how you view Yeojin today… a little bit weird from what a childhood friend should do.

Before you even realized it, Yeojin already pushed you to your own cubicle, and the next thing was her back facing in front of you. Once again, it was her figure that caught your eyes. Hints of her back alongside her shoulders were both candy to the eyes. Her skin… you could still feel the sensation of her touching your… they felt smooth and…

"Wah!" You shook your head, trying to get it out of your head. Yeojin, who was walking away, jumped out of surprise. She turned her head to glare at you, to which you replied with an awkward smile. Her glare sent chills and when she clicked her tongue, you knew she was angry… her tongue… her tongue, it felt so euphoric—the way she used it to lick the tip of your…

"Fuck, what were you thinking!" Yeojin this time almost tripped. Thank god she didn’t, but twice the hit, twice the damage. Being yelled at without knowing why surely would blow a fuse somewhere inside Yeojin.

"What?! Why are you yelling at me?! Why—" She was yelling and throwing a fit at you. There was nothing special in it as for the many years that you’ve been friends, Yeojin and you fought and reconciled countless times. However today seemed different, she wasn’t the childhood friend you grew up with, she was just a beautiful lady that is angry at you. She yelled and shouted but all you could think about was how her lips felt when they were wrapped around your dick. How warm, wet, and cozy her mouth was. How that off-shoulder crop top showcased just the right places: her small waist, her flat stomach, that cute navel, and slender shoulders on top of her snow-white skin—Yeojin was just beautiful from head to toe.

Of course, all of this isn't news to Yeojin. After what happened, she dedicated herself to looking more mature than she already was. Yeojin has always liked revealing and sexy clothes, but today's outfit, she specially chose for you. In hopes that it may shake something inside of her "friend's" heart. To maybe struck a chord after what had happened—to basically stir your shaken self, but here she is, annoyed because she was suddenly yelled at. The words "What were you thinking?", she interpreted as a call-out for what she did—shamelessly blowing her "friend's" dick without consent.

"Yah! One moment you're yelling at me and the next you're so quiet!" Yeojin continued yelling until she noticed that you were spacing out. Face red and hot, staring at nothing, and words seemed to be just passing through. After seeing all these, of course she would be worried.

Before you knew it, your jaws dropped out of awe and you were left standing there, staring at her. You didn’t even realize her face was only inches away from you. She was smaller than you are so you only realized it when she disappeared from your line of sight. Look down only to find her there. Although, it was too late as she began to move. Yeojin used two of her fingers to push your jaws up. She caught your eyes as you had caught hers. Yeojin looked worried, far from the angry tiger she was moments ago.

“Are you okay? You were spacing out and you looked hot… Do you have a fever?” Yeojin placed her hand on your forehead to check your temperature, and then pressed her own to compare. It was a cliche KDrama scene but it was really happening, burning cheeks and booming hearts all misunderstood as a fever.

Hot? That you're blushing was not what she meant, like someone with a fever. You didn't care though as your fazed brain was overpowered by a stirred heart and a horny penis.

“You’re hot! I think you need to go to the company clinic. Are you dizzy? Should I take you there?” Yeojin placed her forehead on the opposite side of her palm to try and compare temperature. She had completely forgotten her anger and all she could think about was your well-being. You were honestly happy, but you have to clear the misunderstanding.

However, before you could even do that, you need to get out of this dangerously close position—her breath hitting and brushing your nose—just one push and it would lead to a kiss. You hurriedly took a step back to completely disconnect with her, shook your head to reject her offer, and took a deep breath to calm yourself down.

“Jin, it’s okay, I'm fine. I’m sorry for keeping you here, you should get back to work. Miss Ha said I should finish a report too.” You hurriedly pushed her to her cubicle. Yeojin didn’t wanna leave you but after you promised to take meds, she agreed and left even though she had a sulking attitude. It honestly bummed her out, seeing that she was shut up when she only had good intentions and that it seemed like you didn't want her care and help.

A lengthy sigh wasn’t something you could pass on as you took a seat which Yeojin also did as soon as she arrived at her table—she was disappointed while you were relieved. A sip to prepare yourself and wash all impurities that your head thinks, like Yeojin giving you a blo—Fuck, yeah thoughts like that. As for Yeojin, she couldn't even touch her milk as it reminded her of your… dairy product...

It was hard but soon, you were able to finally start working on that report… that you certainly knew how to finish… or not… Why are you lying to yourself? You can't, so you took your phone to ask your reliable colleague for help—a fellow intern alongside Yeojin and you. An older colleague who joined soon after you and Yeojin. If you were to describe him, he’s like Bruce Banner of Avengers, a genius plus he got something to with gamma radiation?

You whined as without him, you wouldn’t be able to finish the report. At times like this, you regret joining the company as you rarely get to use your own skillset—or at least not going to the non-existent PR department which is handled by an outsourcing company called “Blockberry”.

Now you have no choice but to ask Yeojin for help. Wondering what she's up to? Not really, as her closest friend, you know there are only two scenarios that are possibly happening inside her cubicle: it's either she is curled up on her single bubble sofa inside her cubicle(big enough to be called an office but you know "fanfiction") playing on her Nintendo Switch, probably online with her weird Pokemon Online friend "Joon" or her eyes glued on her computer screen, working on a business report or a project Ha Sooyoung tasked her to work on.

Judging from the lack of keyboard clicking and random hearty complaints, the first scenario is most likely to be the correct answer. Honestly knowing all these(her just playing and not working), it really wouldn't be so hard to ask for help if it wasn't for what happened. A sigh once again escaped your mouth as at the same time, Yeojin cussing reached your cubicle(she must have missed trying to catch a pokemon). You just can't look at Yeojin the same way as before, and that is your greatest fear.

Nevertheless, you have to deal with it and live with it. Hold back and try to put everything back in place again. Yeojin is your childhood friend, best friend, and she's not one to look at with lust.

"Yeojinnie! Can you come here?"

"What is it? Don't think I don't know that you only call me with that nickname when you need a favor."

"Aww come on… Jin, help me out please?"

“Nope never! Do it yourself!” Those were her words but her actions said otherwise—goes to show she cares about you. Her steps were as heavy as they could be and she had a frown on her face but she came. It was adorable and lovable how no matter what she’ll come to help you—needless to say, you will do the same for her too. A secret though, Yeojin was hiding a grin on the back of her annoyed facade. She was honestly happy that you needed her. She likes it when her "friend" asks her for help, it makes her feel wanted.

“What is it?” Look back once again to be able to gaze upon her beauty. Yeojin was just standing there, she just asked what is it that you need help with, but suddenly… your heart was booming. Maybe it was the Pokemon soundtrack coming from her console, but there was drumming and it was either that or your heart.

Her demeanor was soft, cute, and adorable. It was a sudden shift through the lenses of your eyes. What happened? Maybe it was the soft features of her face or the fact that she couldn't resist you. A few minutes ago you couldn’t take out what happened off your mind, but now… she was more than that. She was looking at you with care and her gaze had comfort in them—there was no judgment in them, just intentions to help, to care, and do what she must for the person she had… feelings for… maybe it was her beaming expectations and excitement to know what is it that she could help you with after all.

“Is it the report that Yves-unnie said you should finish?” Yeojin asked as she moved closer to your table after seeing the paperwork scattered on your desk. She was cunning, suddenly closing in the distance, making her move—she hopes that it could shake you up just a little by taking and stealing your personal space up. She unknowingly giggled, one more reason is that she just likes to stay close as much as possible.

"Yes, I just can't figure out how to sort these data and where to put them." You scratched your head, looking at all of those big numbers written on a paper that you can't even differentiate. Yeojin moved closer once again, moving her arms over your back to reach the mouse. Alongside this, her face was also inches away from yours, although her focus was on the screen… well at least for now...

"Oh, this is pretty simple! You only have to sort all of this to a spreadsheet according to where each revenue came from and by timeline since this is the quarterly business report." You weren't sure if it was just you being bad at your job or Yeojin being good at hers.

"Sins Corp is a space exploration company so we earn money through many things. The government rewards us for the exploration achievement. Other companies pay us to launch and maintain their satellites. Rich people also offer big sums of money for round trips to space and…" She was close… awfully close as she scooted over to your computer. She was focused on the computer, typing, and explaining but you couldn't do the same. You just stared at her, imprinting her side profile at the back of your brain—her long neck, perfect v line on her jaw, her sharp nose, cat-eyes, and the way her short hair was comfortably tucked in behind her ear, Yeojin is a work of art. Her scent soon reached your nose, light and soft scented perfume that wasn’t so heavy to smell but rather soothing.

"Yah, I know I'm cute but stop staring at me. I won't do this for you, so you have to pay attention and learn how to do this." Confident, that is what she is, although despite this being a fact, she couldn't hide the hints of red on her cheeks. It was funny and it made you giggle, but you couldn't blame her as you too were probably blushing… more than her actually…

"Yah! Who's staring? I was just spacing out and coincidentally, your face was in the way." The feisty cat glared at you. Who wouldn't? She was helping, but with the way you sounded, it was as if you were annoyed by her. It was a shitty excuse, you know that, but it was the only thing you could cough up on the spot—a catty statement that would just pass on not as an insult because it was from you, her best friend from childhood up to now.

You just smiled at her to which she quickly averted her eyes from you. Yeojin clicked her tongue before she once again directed her focus at your computer, explaining how to accomplish the work all over again. Suddenly, beats of drums were once again there. You were sure that Yeojin already turned off her console so it wasn’t just a game soundtrack or maybe the music’s base… it was from inside you…

"Hehe, please do help me, Master." A shake of your head to get rid of all these thoughts, may it be lewd and lust for her, or pure admiration… just shake it off. You shouldn't be leaking from a locked-up faucet from long ago.

Focus on what is needed to be done. Do better and work harder is what Ha Sooyoung said. Although despite that, you just couldn’t help but steal glances once in a while. Occasionally, Yeojin would too and your gaze would meet which would end up on the same equation every time—your eyes would lock upon each other for a few seconds, a surge of heat on each cheek, and then she would avert her eyes to the computer again.

"So uhm… did you at least get the basics of what I said?” She asked as you caught her gaze again. For the last time it happened, no one dared to break that sudden staring contest. Her eyes were like the abyss, it pulls you in and you can’t resist its gravity. Before you even knew it, your mouth opened to utter the words, “I love you.”

Her eyes widened alongside her now tomato red cheeks. Yeojin wasn’t expecting you to make such a remark… definitely not after how you’ve rejected her.

"Wh—what d—did you just say?" Yeojin stuttered, surprised, and couldn't believe what just passed through her ears. It was what she was been dreaming to hear. That three words she wanted to come from you. Yeojin wanted to shake you up with her actions, but instead, it was her that was shaken by measly three words. As for you, the desire to run right then and there, but you were in a disadvantageous position with you seated on a chair while she is standing right in front of you.

However, you were quick to take action. With a little bit of panic and haste, you stood up. Clashing with her a little bit as her arm that was holding the mouse was still over your back but she wasn't quick enough to react to your attempt to make a tactical retreat. Only when the mouse that she was holding hit the floor, her trance was broken but it was too late, you already had stood up from your seat.

"Nothing! I just said I love your earrings! Oh man, I wish my Mom would let me pierce my ears. Anyways Imma brew some coffee want some? I'll be back okay!" You ran to the office kitchen as swiftly as you could, leaving Yeojin who took a critical hit.

After closing the door, you ran to the sink and splashed water on your face. An addition of a few slaps on each cheek to knock some sense on to yourself. How could you say such a thing? Now all of it would come crashing down and Yeojin has more reason not to give up.

May it be your abashed emotions or your still panicking self, but that was also when you made your second grave mistake, and that is not locking the door.

As for Yeojin, who was left standing still from where she was, she couldn’t help but grin. She couldn’t help but blush and squeal. Her heart was booming, trying to escape her ribcage. Bliss was overflowing, she knew her little steps and actions worked. Yeojin knew she succeeded, now all she has to do is to corner you, and never let you go so she ran for the chase before you could lock yourself inside the kitchen.

“You said it right?” A voice coming from behind said, along with a click that indicates the doors locking in the both of you. A voice that was so familiar—a voice you’ll recognize at all times. It was Yeojin and now there is no escape, “You said you love me, right?”

Turn around and swallow whatever is stuck inside your throat. Maybe come up with another excuse and brush it off all over again. Do whatever it takes to preserve a lifelong friendship you don’t wanna lose even if… even if it means breaking her heart once again.

“Yeojin I… it’s not what you think…” You avert your eyes, you couldn’t even look at her straight. You’re too embarrassed, you’re too afraid, and your cowardice is drowning you—you just want the ground underneath you to swallow you alive.

“Then what is it! Tell me! Look at me and say you don’t love me too! If you can do that… if you can do that… then I will stop,”—You couldn’t say anything, you couldn’t even get past step one which is to look her in the eyes. Yeojin took steps closer, and before you could move, her arms wrapped around your body and her head already nestled against your chest—“but if you can’t, if you cannot do it, then just love me…”

She could hear it, she could feel your heart booming—it resonates with her. She could feel each beat, fighting and competing with hers. One more push and she knew you’ll finally give in. Yeojin didn't hesitate, she could never miss this one chance so with fire and passion she went in for the attack.

Yeojin looked up, both of her hands soon landed gently on each of your cheeks as she cupped them both, and then she started to inch her lips closer to reach yours.

It all happened so fast that you couldn't retaliate nor react properly. Her lips soon found yours. It wasn't a torrid kiss unlike the first one. It was just her eyes looking up to you as her lips met yours. Soft and heavenly, a simple lips to lips.

As your eyes widened, hers soon closed, leaving everything onto you. Will you break it? Or will you reciprocate her feelings? Yeojin didn't move and forced herself onto you just like the last time. She gave you the chance, hoping she would get what she gambled for.

10 long seconds passed, Yeojin didn't break and you didn't even flinch. Noone dared until you noticed a subtle shake from Yeojin. She was smaller than you are, you didn't realize it with your mind full of concerns, but Yeojin was tip-toeing just to kiss you. This made you smile and giggle. This also surprisingly made you realize one simple thing, and made you ask yourself,

“What are you so worried about when you're obviously into each other?”

Your smile widened as you broke the kiss. Without her lips glued to yours, Yeojin's heels met the floor once again. Soon after, she opened her eyes, giving you the chance to get pulled by them once again. However, this time there was sadness on each of her beads, she thought you had rejected her once again, but that wasn't the case.

"So… all I had to do was say 'I love you'?"—you asked as you moved her hands, wrapped them around your neck, and after, you too wrapped your arms around her torso, pulling her onto a hug—"if that's it then Im Yeojin, I love you."

Love

You

Three words ever so magical in a sentence, Yeojin couldn't hide her happiness as she finally heard the words from you—not for someone who's like a sister—not for a best friend and a childhood friend, but for a woman he had an interest in.

"I love you," you uttered once again, making Yeojin more shocked than she already was. When she finally processed everything, tears fell from her eyes but not because of sadness and the pain of rejection, but because of happiness.

This time you were the one to pull her into a kiss. This time she didn’t have to tiptoe as you were the one to lower yourself for her. It was soft, slow, indulgent, and full of emotion. A kiss that lacks hunger but is overflowing with love. It was of gentle pats and pecks onto each others’ lips. Yeojin giggled at each contact, she couldn’t help but smile as she relished the softness of your lips.

“I got you now and I'm never gonna let you run away ever again." Yeojin went in for another kiss. A kiss that is deeper and more passionate. A torrid kiss as she jumped and wrapped her legs around your hips while she used her arms around your neck as support. Thankfully, you were able to catch her, both of your hands right under her butt.

Yeojin squealed as you gave her a slight squeeze. Lip locks as you carried her to the nearest counter. After you make sure that there isn’t anything on the way or something ceramic or glass that can shatter by accident, you gently put her down. Yeojin giggled once again upon the separation of your lips.

“A piece of advice, best friends don’t kiss, nor do childhood friends,” Yeojin whispered as she leaned over your ear, “so no backing down now, we’re definitely more than friends.”

Speechless, that was the only word to describe you right now, surprised that those words, those flirtatious words came from her mouth. You couldn’t help but be in awe, although despite that, you’re not the one to stop. Hands move from her two small pillowy ass cheeks to the insides of her shirt.

“Don’t blame me for what will happen…”

There wasn’t a war, but there are your hands doing an invasion. Slow feathery touches upon her soft and silky skin, tracing the entirety of her torso. From her lower hips, you gave a light tickle on her sides, gaining a held-back laugh from Yeojin before continuing to her stomach where you found her navel. You pushed, sinking a finger onto it. Yeojin flinched, she backed down a little in surprise. You went in for the chase as she trembled a little while you crawled further up her torso until you found her small and perky breast.

“Oh my, Jin these are cute,” you teased after giving a light squeeze. It made her moan softly but she also pouted. The sensation was new to her—the feeling of a man’s touch and the pleasure it gives. Yeojin was happy although she was a little annoyed because of what you said.

“Yah! I know they’re small… don’t tease.” A punch on your shoulder, lacking power and not even enough to leave stings but enough to tell you your teasing was successful. However, despite your words, you don’t have any plans to release her mounds.

A few more squeeze through her bra before you ghost to her back. Through skillful fingers, you’ve easily unhooked the strap of her bra and then you found the hem of her cropped shirt. Yeojin raised both of her arms to help you remove every piece of her clothing. Now minus the shirt as Yeojin lowered her arms, that little garment that was once her bra slid down, allowing you the sight of your half-naked childhood friend. Petite torso on top of her immaculate face, her breast with a pink cherry on top that maybe isn’t as big as other girls, but it is enough and of course, she is beautiful enough.

“How do I look?” Yeojin looked at you with innocence, expecting an answer different from your teasing earlier. How could she exude that kind of aura? Looking so innocent yet so breedable? It was a marvel to see, she was a piece of art. She left you stunned for a moment, you couldn’t even spit out a compliment.

3 seconds before your trance broke. A kiss was all you could give at that moment, not a compliment but a kiss with the intention to leave a mark to basically mark your territory. One on her luscious neck, one on her chest, and one dangerously near her nipples.

“You’re beautiful.” Two words and an ample of hickeys, that was your reply to her question earlier. A little bit late, but it was exactly what Yeojin wanted—maybe even more than what she was asking for. She was redder than any tomatoes, hearts were pounding, butterflies fluttering everywhere.

"Shut up, I know.” A kiss alongside a giggle just to shut you up. Any more compliments, she won’t be able to take. Your touch, your lips, and your heat were more than enough for her. A few squeezes on each of her breasts result in a few more moans from her escaping every time she disconnects to catch her breath.

Yeojin found herself trying to remove your shirt also, but what she didn't expect was a push—an attack that made her bite on your lip as she tried to suppress her moan. A push on both of her nipples, fingers sinking into her pillowy breast. Instead of pulling up to remove your shirt, Yeojin gripped the hem of it and tugged it. She whimpered, couldn't even speak out a retort as you released her mounds. You just giggled while you grabbed onto her hand to help her strip yourself.

She was in awe, staring at the bare torso of her longtime crush. Although, she has seen you naked before. She had shared a bathtub with you when you were kids, but it still amazed her to see a grown-up version of what once snotty kid who was afraid to catch frogs. She roamed her hands, she wasn’t shy to feel you up, ghosting her hands everywhere. From the chest to the abdomen, she didn’t hold back as it was all hers now.

“Jin, stop feeling me up please,” you said as you moved closer to her, hands on her hips as she continued to grope your chest. Suppressing your moans was a hard job, her touches were electric. Never have you imagined someone touching you the way she is doing right now. Before you even knew it, she was already working on the buckle of your belt, undoing it to free the pitiful thing aching to escape inside. Soon a familiar feeling found your shaft. Thin fingers once again wrapped around your dick, for the second time Yeojin held it in her hand for the second time.

“Why would I? I’ve been waiting for so long to do this,” She smirks, knowing what she is doing as she recalled memories of the first time she held your dick. Her dominance over you despite her being inexperienced. All it took was her tongue, her lips, and her tiny hands. Yeojin started to stroke your member, resulting in you letting out a moan. A suppressed silent moan, but of course Yeojin heard—it was little but a small accomplishment for her that certainly drew a smile on her face.

She continued her strokes, slow, gentle, and pleasurable. It was a little bit rough without any lubrication, but it was electrifying —the way she teases the tip with her thumb pushes, and the way she sends waves of pleasure just by her touch.

You have to do something before she completely takes over so you move down to the hem of her pants, pulling them down alongside her underwear and leaving her completely naked. Yeojin lost her grip on your dick as a result and upon the realization, she squealed.

“Don’t stare…” Yeojin shyly said while trying to cover herself up—one hand to cover her most private part in between her legs and another to cover your eyes. It was one thing for you to see her breasts but she was too embarrassed to show her pussy.

"Why? How am I supposed to pleasure you when I can't see?" You asked as you ran down your hand through her luscious thighs. Yeojin fought back, putting pressure on her legs to stop you from invading. However, that wasn't enough as with a little force, you were able to spread her legs open. Glistening lips deep inside her legs. Pink, shaven, and most importantly wet. You knew she was wet, even before you even touched it.

“Thanks for the meal,” you whispered into her ear alongside a kiss on her cheeks. Another peck on her lips and then neck. Pepper her with more kisses, one on each section of her body as you trail down up until you reach her lower abdomen and her groin. Her lips were in front of you, but you weren’t the one to dive in so fast.

Yeojin was embarrassed, shy to show her everything… not because she felt insecure, but because she was thinking that you would assume she shaved because she was anticipating this and wanted it to happen—she certainly did it for that very reason but she was just shy.

“Yah~ are you just gonna stare and stay in there or what? Please don’t sniff it…” Yeojin timidly said, almost like a whisper you almost couldn’t hear. It made you smile and it made her blush harder than she already is, but she was more than willing to say it. Because of it, she was able to express her willingness and her wants for this plus you were able to catch all of it.

With that, there was no reason to delay anything so you dive in. You started by kissing and down her inner thighs, dodging her lips intentionally while gaining soft suppressed moans from her. They were music to the ears, her high-pitched whimper of pleasures as you repeatedly made contact with her warm skin.

You also made sure to sniff even though she said not to. It was intoxicatingly pleasant, with hints of an unknown smell alongside the sweet soapy smell of maybe her feminine wash. A few more wet kisses on her immaculate thighs dangerously near her wet folds. A long trace down her pristine thighs to stain it with your own saliva, stealing its cleanliness and pureness. Smooth and creamy, what a delectable experience it was just to be able to make contact using your lips.

“Jin, don’t be shy. You’re beautiful and they are beautiful,” you said pertaining to her entirety and specifically her sex. Finally, it was time for the main dish to be tasted—her enticing pussy delicacy. Yeojin could feel it all and all she could be staring, motionless as your breath hit her wet folds. She couldn’t speak as she anticipated what was about to happen. The woman was shy but she was more turned on that it cancels out. She wasn’t the one to stop your advances she waited for too long.

“Do it…” Yeojin uttered and that was the last straw. Nothing could draw a bigger smile to your face than a consent—her permission, her assurance, and her saying that she wants just as much as you. With that, one full long lick traces her slit from its start to its end.

Yeojin couldn’t hold back her voice as she let out her loudest moans of the day—not suppressed or anything, she just let it out and cried her out. It sent electricity down her spine and a tingling sensation on her pink slit as your tongue traced it. Lucious and delicious, that was what it tasted like. Out of this world, you were not sure whether it was just your haze fueled by Love and Lust but just that one lick, beat all of the dishes the world has to offer.

“I love you, Im Yeojin,” you were talking to yourself, with no intention to speak out to her but the words just came out as your tongue separated from her. It made you flushed and out of embarrassment, you impulsively dived in once again, suddenly parting folds as your tongue enter her inside.

Another loud squeal Yeojin released, she was still surprised to hear you say those three magical words and she was suddenly attacked to a second critical hit. Closed eyes, you just invaded inside with the intention to give her as much pleasure as she could receive, while on the receiving end, Yeojin released moans after moans as she gripped the back of your head.

Never in her life, had she received so much bliss, hearing the one she love say it to her while he worked on her pleasure. It was addicting for her, Yeojin’s fantasies were being fulfilled one by one.

“I love you too! S—so mu—much!” She cried out, her tiny hands gathering as much of your hair as it could grip, inflicting pain to you but also a sign of her pleasure. As her legs around your head tightened, you knew you weren’t going to see much light soon so the only way was to continue eating her out.

“More!” Yeojin pushed you in, burying you inside her crotch. An expedition it was, explore her delicious delicacy. Every corner and depth with the use of the tongue. How deep and much could you reach inside her. All in one while not letting any drop of her juices pass your mouth. Slurp, lick, and drink, the only actions you did and what is most important.

“More!” Yeojin pushed more for the second time, although there was retaliation on your part. Slightly fighting back just to make sure your nose has room to catch air and to inhale her intoxicating aroma. Her scent kicked in harder and stronger as sweat came into the equation, however it wasn’t pungent, yet it drew you in more, fueling every quick up and down motion deep inside her.

“Fuck!” She cussed, moaned, and shouted all at the same time. This girl cuss all the time during the duration of your friendship but somehow, this time it was different and that drove you to continue. Yeojin just watched you while relishing each sensation sent to her. She could never get tired of it and with every second passing by, she only got more addicted.

You lost count of how much time has passed, how much of her juices have you drunk, or how many times have you hit the ceiling of her pussy. Yeojin didn’t dare stop you, she just grew more accustomed to the feeling of your tongue inside her. It didn’t take long before her legs crushing your skull loosened up. Without the overwhelming sensation, Yeojin was soon able to enjoy this service more.

“I guess… w—we found one go—good thing to use yo—ahh! mouth besides… spouting nonsense,” Yeojin struggles to say her mocking in between her moans and breathlessness. This woman had the audacity to start a fight while you were in between her legs. Yes, she could probably crush your skull, but you control her. Bite, up the ante, torture her with speed, and other things, there is a long list for you to retort without spouting anything.

“Wh—what? Cat’s got your to—tongue?” She added, still stuttering while she pats your head. It was rather irritating, but… it weirdly made you smile as her being like this, is just a sign that nothing has changed despite the “love confessions” that happened. Well… something changed, and it’s you and her being more open to your feelings.

Although you weren’t the one to back down, if Yeojin decides to go with this kind of competition, well two can play that game. With her legs loosened up, there is finally room to move so slightly raised your head, a halt of your meal. She whined upon the realization that your tongue wasn’t inside anymore—as expected. What she didn’t expect is that she was up for something better than a tongue moving frantically inside her.

“Ohh Dear Yeojinnie, you don’t know what you’re saying. I can tell, your lack of experience,” You uttered each word alongside a blow of hot breath, making her moan and whine once again, “this is just the start… later on, you’ll scream more than you did a while ago.”

Of course, Yeojin doesn’t have experience. Yes, she was successful with her blowjob and pushing you up to this point, but the way her body quivered and the way she reacted, all screamed the fact that she’s a virgin.

The next target was her enticing clitoris. Sniff her fragrance once again, and blow air for the last time, just for her to vocalize such small things. A preliminary peck to get an even louder moan.

“Ahh!~”

Her moans are music to the ears. Every sound that she produced was tickling to the ear and you want more of that. Of course, her comforts come first and foremost, but there’s no harm to this so going on is the only way to go.

“Op—” By the time she tried to utter her next words, you started to put pressure on her erected clitoris, thus cutting her off. You didn’t need to hear it though, you knew it was just her attempt to call you “Oppa” which she seemed adamant to be doing. Yeojin rarely does this, even to her best friend Mint, she calls him using a different nickname so it’s weird when she does this since you two are the same age—not that you hate but the meaning behind it… is still a mystery.

Nonetheless, that’s not important right now as you swirled around her most erogenous spot, gaining louder and more high-pitched moans. Circular patterns onto her clit, before gently pushing it with your tongue, and then taking it in your mouth for a treat. A wave of voluptuous pleasure came crushing down Yeojin, she wasn’t ready for it and what she thought couldn’t get any higher, limit broke like fragile glass. All of it flooding her senses, her moment of relief earlier was stolen from her, and certainly, now she wouldn’t be able to use her mouth again for anything other than vocalizing her drunkenness.

Her legs locked around your head, and her nails started to dig onto your skull. Painful yet you are willing to take all of it if it means taking Yeojin to euphoria. As every second passed, nails went in deeper and deeper, she couldn’t help but squirm and looked for an outlet that isn’t going to destroy her vocal cords. Being the only thing in her reach, the outlet became you as she applied more force, pushing you deeper in hopes that your tongue would reach deeper inside her slits, and add pressure onto the suckle on her clit.

Soon, breathing became a chore. Numbness was introduced to your head with the combination of her legs that seems more like a hydraulic press now, and her nails buried on your scalp. In addition, was her wet sex that would be soon the reason for your drowning. With all of these listed, buried against her crotch, all you could only do was go crazy as you tried to taste and service Yeojin as much as you could—sucking her wet and delectable pussy—gladly tonguing and drinking her juices. Yeojin turned into a squirming mess and you turned into her reason as to why she became one.

“I’m… cumming…”

Replying wasn’t an option as the only sounds possible to be made while buried in her were just muffled and incomprehensible sounds. So instead of speaking, keep pressure on her now swelling clit, suck hard and fast. Keep the pace fast to help her reach her climax.

5 more seconds and Yeojin arched her back and bucked her hips, she bit her lips to suppress anything coming out of her mouth. She trembled and her body reacted to each movement however small or big, while the madman that you are didn’t let her come down from her high.

3 more seconds, Yeojin held back squeals rung through your ears, and without any warning, she squirted onto your face. Yeojin did paint the town as she released spurts of her juices all over you. How could this small lady cum so harshly? Whatever may be the answer, you gladly accepted, Yeojin making a masterpiece out of your face—her squirt being the paint and your face being the canvas.

Yeojin released a sigh of relief as she finished squirting harshly, while you helped her ride her orgasm with slow and caring sucks and licks on her slits, savoring every juice that came out of it. She successfully rode her high and enjoyed the peak of her pleasure.

Her legs slowly loosen and so are her nails not digging onto your scalp anymore. You remove yourself from her pussy, caught your breath, and lick your lips. Tenderly and caringly, you caressed her thighs while she panted after coming down from her high. While trying to recover from what happened, Yeojin found your gaze, locked eyes with you, and she beamed with delight.

“I love you,” She uttered while looking down at where you are. Yeojin landed a caress on each of your cheeks as her gaze slowly leveled with yours as you stood up. You returned her smile as she went in for another kiss. Soon, her forearms wrapped around your neck as you worked on lifting her. You were honestly throbbing and itching to enter her, but the countertop where she is sitting right now is too high, you have no choice but to relocate to the nearest table, and there was certainly no care if there’s something on top of it as you sat her there.

“I love you too.” This reply came in inevitably and without any force the moment she separated her lips from your lips. A string of saliva representing your connection was there up until she giggled, resulting in it breaking. That giggle lingered in your ears, breaking your lust-fueled haze. That smile of hers worked something, giving you back the rationality you had forgotten because of all of these emotions and events coming into place.

Yeojin might be smiling, happy about how intimate she was with you. Her fantasies came and she was able to finally have her love reciprocate but… is this right? Everything came with consent, but just a moment ago, you were ready to ram her and pound her senseless while fully knowing her lack of experience. As you locked eyes with her, you realized what it was that you had done. Yeojin was drunk with lust and bliss. Not necessarily a bad thing but then again is it right either? Servicing her and making her feel good was the goal yet, a pinch was there.

"Jin, are you sure about this?"

This might be insecurities and unnecessary concerns coming into the equation, but there was a need for reassurance. Yeojin no matter how much her senses were stimulated and how love-drunk she is right now, if her answer to the question is a simple "yes" or any of sorts, you'll continue and if ever she changes her mind, then you'll just have to take responsibility for it.

"Yes."

One word and nod were all that was needed. Of course, you can't stop now and she wouldn't like that either(hopefully). Trust, her feelings and that similar tingle inside your heart. So you held your dick, aimed near her entrance while Yeojin moved and hugged your torso, her palms fell flat onto your back as she moved forward to you.

"I'm yours… I'm giving you all of me… so I hope that this isn't just us doing things because of the heat of the moment. I hope even after this… that you’ll still be mine." Yeojin whispered into your ear as she leaned towards your body, and tightened her hug as she readied herself for what was coming next. You could feel her breast pushed onto your chest as she engulfed you with her hug. Hard and erected nipples brushed against your body as you placed your cockhead right in front of her entrance. Yeojin quivered as she felt a foreign object touch her that was so different from the tongue earlier—this one is the real deal.

“Of course Jin, I love you and that will never change.”

With your free hand, you ghosted onto the back of her head. Stroke her and pat her. Give as much comfort and as much reassurance that she needs. Deliver the love that she clearly deserves.

"Please be gentle…” Yeojin whispered while tightening the hug once more. Her palms actively trying to grasp something, although she always ends up with the skin of your bared back. You cooed to her and tried to calm her down. Subtle shakes of her body and her loud heartbeat. The state of being as nervous as her was a fact, but you had to be the one to take the lead.

“Of course, Jin. I promise it will feel amazing and it won’t hurt bad,” You replied as you started entering her. Inch by inch slowly without any hurry. She’s wet… wet but tight—incredibly tight that it was torturous to enter her with such speed. Nonetheless, you continued as she whined silently and intently just accepting anything.

For Yeojin, she can’t help but be scared. This was different from her stuffing a dick inside her mouth(which surprisingly she is talented at) or the soft wet muscle invading her. A penis has length, and girth so she can’t but worry if that big of a thing could fit her inside her seemingly small entrance. Yeojin is small, much smaller compared to you or other human beings that’s why she is nervous.

However, she has resolve and she is ready to take it as you inch inside her. Slowly, her slits parted and she welcomed your member. There was a force that fought to push you out but as you inch, a stretch was there and soon a pop. Halfway through, Yeojin closed her eyes as she let out a silent cry.

You widen the distance between your bodies while making sure not to disconnect from her. She looked at you as several drops of tears crawled down her beautiful face. A finger to wipe her tears and a palm to caress her squishy cheek. You pull her into another kiss while you sneak a look at what connects you two. Her lips soon glued onto yours as tongues danced inside a wet orifice that acted as its ballroom. It was clear even though it was only for a second, hints of blood dripped through your connection(a clear sign of Yeojin losing her womanhood and her gifting it to you). You couldn’t fathom the pain she is going through and the amount of love she had for you to offer such an important thing. You could only try to soothe her, repay her love with the same amount of what she gave or even more, and take her round trip to euphoria.

“I feel so close to you… It’s nice so I think I can get used to this…” Yeojin uttered as she got a fresh supply of oxygen through a momentary disconnection between lips. Soon her tensed body relaxed, a giggle she unknowingly released a cue for your continuation.

“Don’t worry, Baby… we’ll go on as many rounds as you want.” A dirty talk that you’ll surely cringe at later. A dirty talk that Yeojin had unknowingly filtered some of the words out—not that bad it brushed her off negatively, just that one word hit her with a critical hit straight to the heart that transcended her brain and her ears.

“Baby.”

Yes, that one word. A pet name you uttered out of the heat of the moment. Usually, Yeojin loathes being called such, but this time it made her blush and dazed for a moment. She hates it as she feels whenever someone calls her such, it is to mock her and that she looks like a baby despite being an adult. However, this time the name was uttered under the pretext of lovers—an idea she’s fond of.

As such, Yeojin suddenly broke off the kiss and anything else simultaneously, surprising you with her sudden actions. She grabbed onto both of your shoulders, her eyes were wide open as if she too was surprised.

“Did you just call me ‘Baby’?” Yeojin asked, still baffled, her eyes wide open shocked at what just heard. She shook you, trying to get an answer from you. The sensual atmosphere disappeared as it was replaced with something else—something that was as bright as her grin.

“You know… Baby as in… a ni—nick… Yah! Why does it matter now?” All of these happening while Yeojin still has your dick inside her which… she probably forgot. Nonetheless, as each word reached her ears, Yeojin's smiles became wider and brighter.

“Really? Baby then! Our pet name is ‘Baby’! I’m going to smack you if I ever hear you calling me other than that.” Yeojin seems very fond of the idea of dating. So fond that she forgot that she was naked as she went for a hug. Sweaty bodies glued together, Yeojin took away any distance that separated you from her. Of course, all of plus what she has been neglecting is that connection of your nether region.

“Ahh~”

Yeojin only woke up to the fact again when she felt your length deep inside her—deeper than earlier what you reached earlier—so deep that she couldn’t help but be amazed that she didn’t realize it earlier.

"Aish, you're such a dork.” A whisper to ear her—the usual teasing and her usual playful punches were the reply. For some reason that exchange took away a weight off your shoulders, may it be the tendency to overthink… basically all of these.

“Shut up and fuck me.” A dirty talk she’ll surely cringe at later. A dirty talk Yeojin just playfully spat out but she unknowingly backed up the words from the last paragraph. She giggled at herself as she realized what she just had said but that doesn’t mean she cringed at herself that she’ll back down. No, Yeojin wrapped her legs around your waist and tightened it as she had no intention to let go.

Actions from earlier continued with you accurately lined up into her wet pink glistening sex. A sigh escaped your mouth as you let go and directed all of the focus on one thing—endgame and climax for both her and you. She flinched at the first thrust, her quim contracted and a whine she tried to suppress escaped.

There was pain but there was also delight in being impaled by a dick. It was serendipitous. Her tightness was out of this world as she held your dick with a tight grip, while her wetness competed that allowed movement.

That position doesn’t allow any big movement, it only allows deeper thrust and little room to pull out(it also didn’t help that Yeojin had her legs to secure your place). Nonetheless, that was enough. In fact, because of that, you felt more intimate with her, and Yeojin felt closer to you.

She had her fill with foreplay and drama, Yeojin wanted the dick of her lover to fill her up now. She compelled you to move and so you did. Pull out until the tip was only inside her, and push deep into her. Deep without much care but still gentle enough for her.

Yeojin became more vocal as she no longer tried to hold back her moans. With each in and out motion, her vocalizations got louder and more honest.

Her moans weren't the only thing, gasping for air, loud pop whenever the base of your cock hits her entrance, and that squelching from her juices—it all produced a harmony—all the noises only the two of you could hear, resonating to the rhythm of the heart and echoing through the four corners of the room.

The fact that this was all happening inside the company building and during work hours, Yeojin relished the feeling of your length inside her rearranging the inside, hitting the right places, and delivering an immense achievement of hedonism. Pain was long gone and it all subsided as adrenaline rushed through the body system.

You kept going again and again with the same in and out, push and pull movement. How could you stop? When her eyes gleamed delight, her mouth kept agape, and her constant utterance of her wanting more fed you up.

Sweaty bodies, her aromatic scent was intoxicating—a drug you inhale that kept you high and addicted. To add onto was her herself, with a small body but dangerously model for breeding. It was sex incited by love and fueled by lust.

"Kiss me."

Those were the first two words after a while. Although she was the one to ask you, Yeojin was the one to pull you into an amorous dance of the tongues and lips. Saliva was mixed, and love potions were brewed by it. An entrance to Luguria, her quim was the entrance and your member was the key.

She was lost and addicted to your touch, just as you were to hers. Time? There wasn't any care for it as the hands of time traveled freely and it bore witness to this story.

Her palm behind your back formed a fist, she tightened her hugs alongside her legs, and Yeojin pulled you closer. Relentless to the chase of pleasure, she wanted it more now as she experienced it earlier—she already knew what the peak was like.

Yeojin started to move her own hips, meeting you halfway through your thrust. It was a surprise and you couldn't help but cry out a moan every time your lips separated for a moment. Hardened nipples alongside her perky breast brushed onto your body, her lungs and her own movements made this possible. This pushed you to the limits—the limit that you kept ignoring.

Whether it be the dick that was filling her up or the butterflies inside her Yeojin, the fact is that she is enjoying every second of it—her first experience was certainly memorable and euphoric.

It was only a matter of time before her second peak came and your first is inevitable. Shut-eyed and focused on each sensation, you two chased climax as if there was no tomorrow.

Heartbeats were booming, loud, and fast. Hers resonated with you and moans blended with the wet slapping sounds caused by your base hitting hers. You cheated, opened your eyes to witness her marvel: the sight of her drunk, addicted, and dazed, appetitive beyond imagination, her cutesy small tits bouncing, smooth and creamy skin that is glistening because of sweat, and finally expressions you're just seeing for the first time after almost two decades of friendship—that pure bliss drawn by the smile of her lips.

"Baby… I'm cumming…" She uttered before pulling you into one last deep and passionate kiss. It was sloppier and messier. Yeojin just frantically sucked on your tongue and twirled hers around. As for you, like a madman without zero gentlenesss hammered her small and tight sex.

Yeojin's leg soon gave up, and that gave you the leeway for the hurrah. Your body was shouting to just ram inside her and her body gave the chance. Each stroke was inserted down to the deepest depths of her pussy. Fast, full, and rough, anyone would say otherwise if they knew this was her first—maybe it was just her partner(you) who made this possible. Although, it didn't take for the stamina to run out and the build-up on your groins to present itself.

One full deep pump before actions stop. Hitting her womb acted like a cue, Yeojin's body quivered, arched her back, and bucked her hips. Well… she was about to cum just as she declared earlier. The same goes for you as you finally let go.

"Let's go together," you uttered while buried deep inside of her. Gushes of liquid, strings of your cum, and her juices collided with yours. She released waves after waves, drenching your shaft while some leaked out of the connection between your sex.

Yeojin bit your lips as she came harshly. Blood dripped to your chin just as blood dripped when her hymen ripped. Her body trembled as you throbbed inside of her. Yeojin and you shared the highest peak of pleasure. Seconds of it felt like minutes and might even be an hour.

Soon moans were replaced with satisfied sighs and gasps for air. Both orgasms subsided and your muscle loosened up and your member soon softened. No one dared that connection and no one dared speak. Eye to eye, she just stared at you as she once again cupped your cheeks.

You were the first to break that staring contest, looked down and you found that white liquid dripped out her quim. You weren't the only one to notice something as Yeojin saw the blood from her bite.

"Hahaha, you're still an idiot!" She teased while she laughed, "How could you hurt yourself while having sex?"

This question you widen your eyes as it woke up something inside of you—that feeling of competitiveness whenever Yeojin starts her usual shenanigan teasings.

"Yah! Im Yeojin, this is your fault!"

She didn't reply and just laughed. The next moments went on like haste and you weren't even sure how it went.

The next thing was you and Yeojin were once again clothed, back in each of your respective cubicles and working. Sets of footsteps soon took your attention, and it revealed three people which of importance and friends: The CEO of Sins Corp, Ha Sooyoung The Business Head Department, and your fellow intern(this dude is super competent so it makes sense that he accompanied Yves on a meeting with the boss).

You and Yeojin stood to welcome all of them. Greeted them with a bow which the CEO reacted quickly with gestures that you shouldn't do so(The CEO is a very down-to-earth dude, and really nice).

"Oh please! Please don't bow to me, our ages aren't that far and it makes me feel old. I just came to visit our hardworking interns, and ask how is it working here in Sins Corp."

"Great! Yves-unnie— I mean Department Head Ha teaches us a lot and I greatly enjoy the work here!" Yeojin answered, panicking with her slip of the tongue—nervousness was evident in her expressions.

"Oh my, please don't be nervous. I'm happy that you do enjoy working here at my company. I'm aware of you and I assure you that your promotion as a full-time employee here is on the talks. That is, if the time comes, you still want to work here."

"Certainly, Sir! I would love to continue working here even after my internship!"

"And for your colleague here, Miss Ha said you were having difficulties with the work here. Is that right?" The question was directed to you.

"Uhm… yes Sir. But don't worry! I'm working hard," you replied.

"Haha don't be so tense! I assure you, Sooyoung will teach you and I know you will gain a lot from her. If you still are having difficulties even after your program, don't worry as I will write you a recommendation and will help you get into a company better suited for you."

"Thank you very much, Sir." You bowed to express your gratitude.

"Oh well, that's it for now. Thank you Sooyoung and I wish you three interns the best." The Boss bid his goodbye and headed for his office on the highest floor, leaving you four members of the Business Department.

"Okay Interns! Back to work!" Yves clapped her hands as she went to her table while the radioactive intern followed her. It seems that he needed to review her with what was discussed at the meeting.

"Tea Intern! Come here! Where is the report?" Yves shouts, asking for you. Hurriedly, you headed for her table and handed your report nervously if what you did was right. Of course, it would be as Yeojin helped you but still…

"Great! This is just what I'm asking for. You two can head back to your stations now, and please," Yves gestures you to get closer to her, wanting to whisper something to you, "Yeojin and you should head to the onsen… you two reek of sweat and a smell I can't clearly describe with words."

It was the smell of sex! This made you blush and flustered, you widened the distance between the two of you in hopes that she won't be able to smell you anymore.

Looking down you walked to your cubicle with Bruce Banner Intern. You looked at him and he had his nose plugged using papers?

"Hyung! Come on, I don't smell that much!

"I'm sorry, it's just funny that Boss noticed even that and moreover, told you and Yeojinnie to take a bath," He said with a tease as he removed the paper from his nostrils.

"By the way… thank you Hyung." An expression of gratitude as with him and Yves, advising you to ask Yeojin for help, all of those things won't and you'll still be stuck with that awkward situation with her.

*ends*

A/N : EYY HAVE YOU REACHED HERE? CONGRATULATIONS? WHAT DID YAH THINK HAHAHAHAHA. I don't know really know what to feel bout this fic but I'm kinda satisfied yet I am not hahaha do let me know what you think hahaha

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literallynocontext · 3 years ago

Text

I gotchu mate

Dating App - Jinsoul

“Why do relationships suck?”

You ask as you have your head face down on a table, your hand holding an opened bottle of soju, wallowing in depression of a very recent break up. Sitting across of your sad self is your best friend since birth, Jung Jinsol.

“What’s wrong with me Jinsol?” You adjust your head on the table, now leaning onto your chin. “The fact the first thing you do is harass me at my dorm at 2am is for starters, I’m a very busy woman.” Jinsol tells you as she crosses her arms and legs.

“Oh, please Sol, I know you’re off tomorrow so don’t think I wasn’t going to come over in the first place.” You smiled in a very cheeky way, that breaks Jinsol’s poker face, making her giggle. She leans over to take the bottle of soju out of your hands, pouring herself a shot in an empty glass on the table, then pours you a shot as well.

You sat up in a proper position at the table, with Jinsol smiling that you finally learned some manners. “You know I could’ve drunk from the bottle Soulie.” Jinsol puts the bottle down and lifts her glass, gesturing you do the same. “Cheers to you oppa, being a jackass after another break up.”

You pout playfully while lifting your glass. “Yah, I’m like the nicest person ever!” You say in defense of your smug personality. “You’re nice to everyone, but me oppa.” Jinsol taps our glasses together, letting both of us take the shot down. “Paaaaah!” Jinsol may be an adult, but she still can’t take alcohol down so easily.

“That’s because you’re a baby Sol, someone like Jungeun or Sooyoung are real adults.” You tease Jinsol as she scrunches her face, exposing her chubby cheeks. “Hmph, I guess you rather drink with one of them instead.” Jinsol gets up from her chair and starts walking away.

In an instant you chased after her, grabbing her from behind and lifting her. “Oh no Soulie, you’re not leaving me!” You laughed, making Jinsol giggle as well, you can practically feel her smile. “To the living room!” Jinsol points to the kitchen exit, adjusting to you holding her from lifting from behind to bridal style.

“Wait!” You stop in your tracks, little annoyed “What?” Jinsol points back towards the table, at the bottle of soju, kicking her feet like a baby. “You’re so annoying.” You say while rolling your eyes and walking back to the table so she can grab the bottle. “Now we can drink from the bottle.” Jinsol says cutely, while you roll your eyes again but this time with a smile.

“Movies?” You ask as you start making your way with Jinsol in your arms to the living room.

“Movies.” Jinsol replies.

You enter the living room, empty and void of life considering its 2am and you and Jinsol are the only ones awake at this hour. You place Jinsol on the couch, she grabs the remote to turn on Netflix, you grab the pillows and blankets out of the cabinet where Haseul once told you it’ll be.

“What are we watching tonight?” As you place a pillow behind Jinsol, then next to her for a spot for yourself, placing the blanket over her while leaving room for you to scoot in. “Hmm, are you feeling romance?” Jinsol asks innocently, while you give her a face of disgust while getting in the blanket with her.

“I’m just kidding oppa, how about zombies?” Jinsol hovers over the show ‘All of Us are Dead.’

“8 episodes? Think we can finish this before they wake up?” You challenge Jinsol, who already pressed play while smiling at you. Jinsol takes a big sip of the bottle before handing it off to you, you look at her funny with her face starting to glow a little red. “You know we basically kissed.” You say while drinking from the bottle right after.

“So, we’ve been drinking from the same place since we were kids, but don’t be surprised if we lock lips one day.” Jinsol blows a kiss at you, making you laugh.

“You don’t know how much I want that.”

The show starts, leaving you two in silence. Jinsol pats your shoulder, signaling for you to adjust your height so she can rest her head on your shoulder which you happily do, as she rests her head on your shoulder, you rest your head on top of hers.

“Thank you for being there for me Soulie.”

Jinsol snakes her hand around your arm and reaches for your hand to intertwine her hand with yours.

“Of course, oppa, together no matter what.”

You smile as you and Jinsol watch the show on Netflix for the rest of the night.

~~~~~

You slightly open your eyes, the tv is turned off and sunlight is gleaming through the living room window. You feel a weight holding you down, only your left arm being free to move, opening your eyes slightly more to see what or rather who is holding you down.

Jinsol sleeping peacefully on your chest, your right arm underneath a body, her legs wrapped around yours. You would be lying to say you don’t find this state Jinsol is in to be beautiful, you chuckle to yourself seeing how the way you two have a sleepover evolved over the years.

“Soulie, wake up.” You adjust some hair out of Jinsol’s face, she just hums at you. “Mm, 5 more minutes oppa.” Jinsol tightens her grip around your body, you wouldn’t move her off you, hating to ruin her sleep.

You hear steps coming down the stairs, you eventually just accept your fate as being Jinsol’s bed and started stroking her hair, the steps getting louder as the seconds go by.

“Omo, oppa, I didn’t know you were here.” Jiwoo came running around the corner to an immediate stop seeing you and Jinsol laying on the couch. “Good morning, Jiwoo.” You wave with your free hand, smiling at her. “Is unnie still sleeping?” Jiwoo asks and you nod your head, signaling Jiwoo to venture to the kitchen a little bit more quietly.

“I think it’s time to get up now Soulie, Jiwoo already saw us.” You continued stroking her hair knowing she likes the way you do it. “Okay, oppa.” Jinsol gets up from your body, reliving you of the pressure on your entire right side. “Oh my god, my body can finally get it’s blood.” You stretch as Jinsol subs her eyes and giggles.

“What time is it?” You pick up your phone off the ground in front of the couch, with the screen brighten the room.

“9:30am.”

“Mmm, I’ll go freshen up and we can get breakfast.” Jinsol says as she gets off the couch, but you grab her before she could leave. “No, no, I’m pretty tired, I’ll just go home Soulie.” Jinsol looks at you with a tired pout, then nods. “Only if you’re sure oppa.” Jinsol says then stretches as she yawns loudly, making you laugh.

“Yeah, you’re pretty tired anyways.” You say as you get up and you lay Jinsol back down, tuck her in the couch with no resistance. “I’ll come over when you’re off again, okay?” Jinsol nods her head, but she leans towards you, telling you can’t leave without doing it.

You smile as you lean forward and kiss Jinsol on the forehead, the two of you have been so close for so many years, skin ship and other closeness isn’t much of a problem, of course know each other’s boundaries as well. Jinsol then kisses your forehead in return before going back to sleep, you gather your things and the empty soju bottle.

“Jiwoo, I’m going!” You pop your head in the kitchen as you see Jiwoo making a bowl of cereal for herself, although her face is quite red. “Are you okay?” You ask with a questioning look, as Jiwoo just nods slightly. “W-When did you and unnie start… Dating?” The question now has made you look red, red like a tomato.

“W-Wha-What do you mean?” You nervously say as you throw the soju bottle in the garbage, regretfully so as Jiwoo then gives you a stare. “Pabo, that’s recycling, save the environment!” Jiwoo hands a metal spoon in her hand as if she’s going to throw it at you, raising one of your hands you go on pick the bottle out and throw it in the recycling bin, making Jiwoo go back to normal and back to the conversation.

“I saw you and Jinsol kissing in the living room.” Jiwoo says as she sits at the dining table, you go and sit with her, getting caught in a conversation. “Oh no, no, that’s just how close we are, it’s normal between us.” Trying to defend the friendship you have with Jinsol. “Besides, I just went through another breakup.”

Jiwoo nods as she eats her cereal. “But why won’t you and unnie date?” You shrug and you look at her with maybe the most hurt look on your face. “She only finds me as a friend, I would know since we grew up together.” Jiwoo nodding along with what you say, then a switch goes off in her head.

“Oh! I know what you can do!” Jiwoo grabs her phone and opens the app store. “Here, I saw a commercial about it.” Jiwoo shows you her phone and shows an app called ‘One and Done.’

“A dating app?” You say in disgust, while Jiwoo shows a little smile. “Not a normal dating app, you fill out a questionnaire and it matches you with someone who best matches your test!” Jiwoo explains, you are suddenly interested in this app as you take your phone out and find yourself staring at the ‘download’ button.

“I suppose giving it a try wouldn’t hurt.” You pressed the download button and now the app is installing onto your phone, Jiwoo clapping her hands together seeing that you chose to follow her advice. “I’ll fill this out when I get home, I’ll let you know what happens.” You say as you get up and waved bye to Jiwoo.

“Good luck!” Jiwoo says while giving you two thumbs up, as you give a thumbs up to her before leaving the dorm.

~~~~~

1) Favourite movies - Up to 3

Hmm… I’m into a lot, so maybe The Notebook, then 500 Days of Summer… Then why not, Endgame.

2) Favourite colour?

Easy! Blue.

3) Favourite meals?

Eggs on rice, noodles and stir fry veggies.

4) First date ideas?

Cooking together or picnic.

5) The perfect ideal date?

Just to spend time together anywhere.

6) What 3 basic things you see in a partner?

Honesty, openness and hmmm funny!

“And done!” You fill out the questionnaire and post your account online, it’s now only a matter of time for you to get a match.

-Back at the dorm-

“Yah, unnie get off the couch already!” Yerim tries to pull Jinsol off the couch that she’s been sleeping on all day. “Noooooo, it’s comfy!” Jinsol yells as she tries to hold on to the couch cushions, in the middle of the ruckus, Sooyoung comes down talking on the phone.

“Oppa, Yerim and Jinsol are fighting again.” Sooyoung brings her phone up, being on facetime with you. You just facepalm to seeing the state the girls are in at this hour. “Sooyoung, put me on speaker please?” You basically groan through your hand as Sooyoung puts you on speaker.

“Yah, Yerim, don’t pull your unnie of the couch!” Yerim then turns to Sooyoung, hearing whose voice that was and seeing how Sooyoung is holding the phone, her face turns a little red. “But Jinsol unnie won’t get up!” Yerim pouts at the camera for you to see, you roll your eyes and that Sooyoung was the only one who can see you, she giggles at your antics.

“Soulie, get up already! It’s 12:30pm, bet you didn’t even have lunch!” On cue, Jinsol’s stomach starts to grumble, making Jinsol blush and get up. “I guess I’m a little hungry…” Jinsol stands up rubbing her stomach while trying to look away from the camera.

“Sooyoung, please make sure she doesn’t eat junk.” You say as she flips the camera back to herself and takes you off speaker, she gives you a thumbs up while thank you for getting the two babies to stop fighting. “Thanks, oppa, I’ll see you soon!” You wave bye as Sooyoung does the same and hangs up.

“Jinsol don’t-”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t eat junk, I know what oppa says.” Jinsol passes by Sooyoung to the kitchen acting all grumpy, surprising Sooyoung as she follows the brown hair girl to the kitchen. “How do you know oppa said that?”

Jinsol strolls to the fridge to the fridge to take out some stir fry veggies that you cooked up for her the other day, while also grabbing some rice. “Because he tells me that quite often, always took care of me when we were kids.” Jinsol says smiling down at the food she’s prepping in a bowl, while Sooyoung grabs some cereal, she notices to smile on Jinsol’s face.

“Is he someone special to you or just your best friend as you claim?” Sooyoung says with her trademark smirk, making Jinsol feel hot around her cheeks. “We’re only friends Sooyoung, plus he goes on a lot of dates.” Jinsol’s smile fades as she takes the bowl of rice and veggies out of the microwave.

“True, but where does he always go to after?” Sooyoung asks as she sits down to eat her cereal, leaving Jinsol speechless after that question. “We’re only friends, always been like that.” Jinsol says with somewhat of a down look on her face.

“But anyways, I heard from Jiwoo that he downloaded a dating app?” Sooyoung says while looking down at her cereal, but Jinsol cringed and feels shocked. “Oh? Oppa didn’t tell me he spoke to Jiwoo or downloading a dating app.” Jinsol picks up chopsticks from the drawer and sat with Sooyoung.

“Jiwoo told me it was ‘One and Done’, it matches you with a partner depending on your questionnaire results?” Sooyoung tells Jinsol about the app, Jinsol eating her food seemingly uninterested in what she’s saying but deep down, she’s noting everything down in her head.

Sooyoung finishes her cereal, washes her bowl and spoon, and decided to go back up to her room with Jiwoo. Jinsol doesn’t take long to finish her bowl as well, rushing to clean her dishes, she dashes off to her room shared with Yerim, looking for her phone.

Jinsol wrecks her bed, throwing her pillows and blanket off in search of her phone. The phone drops to the floor and she immediately goes for it, Yerim was sitting on her bed peacefully until a crazed Jinsol came busting in their room. “Unnie, what’s wrong?” Surprised of Yerim’s voice, Jinsol came to realize that she didn’t notice Yerim sitting there and watching her.

“N-NOTHING!” Jinsol panics and runs out of their bedroom, making a dash to the nearest washroom.

Entering the washroom and locking it, Jinsol scrolls through the app store and finds the dating app. “Maybe if I get matched with him…” Jinsol installs and downloads the app, in minutes she’s filling out a profile.

“I can’t use my real name, that’ll be bad for publicity.” Jinsol being the smart apple she is, decided to go the conventional route and fill her name as ‘Erica’ being her representative flower in the Loonaverse concept.

She then gets the same questions as you had, answering the best of her abilities.

“I hope this works.” Jinsol says to herself as she posts your profile online.

~~~~~

“Hey, I’m going out on a date today, I’ll come over with food tonight. (:”

It’s a been a week since Jinsol has made the app, filled in a profile, and posted but she has yet to be matched up with you, only to being matched up with some other weirdo dudes around the city. Only if she was able to tell you the conventional way of her feelings for you.

“Ugh, I don’t know who’s denser you or me.” Jinsol yells out sitting on the living room on the living room couch, sitting with outstretched arms and legs spread across the couch.

“Are you okay unnie?” Hyunjin asks coming in with a milk tea in her hands.

Jinsol just sighs and looks at her “I like this guy, but he doesn’t see that I like him, I’m trying to match up with him on this app, but I don’t end up with him, what am I doing wrong?” Jinsol explains herself to Hyunjin since the two are close, but not too close where Heejin glares.

“Ah, boy troubles?” Hyunjin smirks at Jinsol, wiggling her eyebrows too. “Aish, no… Maybe… Yes!” Jinsol falls over face down onto Hyunjin’s lap, but to Hyunjin’s entertainment seeing her unnie struggle with love life. “Why don’t you just tell this boy you like him?” Hyunjin says as she strokes Jinsol’s hair.

Jinsol turns herself over facing the TV in the living with a frown. “I can’t exactly do that.” Hyunjin looks down at Jinsol confused “What do you mean unnie?”

-On your date-

You were downtown with a girl, somewhat taller but still shorter than you are, attractive, loves to talk and seemingly clicks with you so easily.

“So, Eun-Mi, are you feeling hungry?” You ask the girl, nodding in cute manner “What do you feel like having tonight?” Asking you, you try to think of a place to go for dinner and one place comes to mind.

“You like hotpot?” You ask, she claps and nods. “I love hotpot!” She grabs your arm letting you lead her to restaurant. “Great! I know a place me and my best friend always go to!” Just the mention of Jinsol in your head just set off random alarms.

“Is Jinsol okay?”

“What is she doing?”

“Is she eating healthy?”

“Hey, are you okay?” Eun-Mi asks, snapping you out of your thoughts. “Y-yeah, sorry did I zone out?” The girl looked at your worriedly, nodding slightly. “So sorry, something came up to my mind.” You look at her with an apologetic smile, she smiles back at you.

“So, tell me about this best friend of yours.” Eun-Mi asks, making you smile.

The night went on like how it started, you enjoyed your date with Eun-Mi, getting to know each other, talking all evening long, everything seems so pleasant except that one thing that you always think about, well rather one person.

Jung Jinsol.

All evening long, it’s been you talking about Jinsol except you don’t mention her name as it could come up as a controversial topic. Eun-Mi of course listened to you, speaking to you of her own personal stories as well, but with you ALWAYS speaking of your best friend were starting to set off some red flags.

The evening was ending, it was around 10pm and you were escorting Eun-Mi to a taxi to take home. “So, what are the chances of a second date?” Asking hopefully, but the girl just gave you an apologetic smile and a hug for the night. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think it’ll work out.” Your hopefully smile falls into a small frown.

The girl cups your cheek “I think you’ve fallen for another girl already.” Eun-Mi then gets in a taxi, you watch it drive off as you stood there.

“Have I really fallen for her?”

You ask yourself, feeling dumbfounded.

You went to the nearest fried chicken restaurant to get some takeout for Jinsol and the other girls in the dorm. “Ugh I need some guy friends to drink with.” You tell yourself as you walk down the street with a bag with several boxes of chicken.

*Ding*

Your phone receives a notification, you pull it out and see it was a notification from ‘One and Done’ ‘You’ve been matched with Erica!’

You roll your eyes being bored of this app already, you opened the app to see the profile all filled out, but the profile picture was a picture of a Lego Cat? “Hmm, I suppose one more try wouldn’t hurt.”

“Hey there (:”

You mentally slap yourself in the face, questioning who the hell just says, ‘Hey there.’ “Ugh you loser, you probably lost the match.” You say angrily as you walk down the street when suddenly.

*Ding*

You got a reply! “Oh my god!”

“Annyeonghaseyo (:”

“How are you doing?”

“Just fine, tired, how are you doing?”

“I could be better if I’m being honest.”

“Aw, why did something happen? ):”

“If I’m being completely honest, another date went wrong.”

“Maybe the girl wasn’t the one?”

“Hmm, you might right… What about you, why are you on this as well?”

“My love life is confusing, so I came here to maybe figure it out (:”

The conversation kept going the whole time you walked to the girls’ dorm, the two of you had similar likes, dislikes, had oddly a lot in common, a little suspicious.

Seeing that you’re so close to the dorm now, you decided to ask the question.

“Would you like to go out some time soon?”

“I would love to, but my life is very busy…”

You sigh in defeat, now you can’t even get a date. You walk up the steps to the dorm and ring the doorbell.

“That’s alright, I would love to keep talking to you though.”

“Yes, that will be fun (: But right now, I need to go! Talk to you soon!”

This seems a little weird for you, not wanting to meet then leaving so suddenly. You shrug your shoulders as you figured some people just do their own things. As you wait at the door, you hear quite a lot of noise inside, you were about to take your key out, but the door opens.

“H-Ha, hi, ha, oppa, ha.” Hyunjin came to the door, completely out of breath. “Uh, are you okay Hyunjin?” You ask while raising an eyebrow at her. “Y-yeah! Ha… What do you mean oppa?” Hyunjin says suspiciously, trying to stay nonchalant. “Mhmm… Where’s Jinsol?” You ask as Hyunjin opens the door wider for you to walk in.

“Uh… Unnie… Is taking a shower!” Hyunjin grabs the bag out of my hand. “Is this for us oppa?” Immediately sniffing the bag of its contents, you nod as you undo your shoes and take off your coat. “I’ll take this to the kitchen now!” Hyunjin runs off with the bag of food, excited to eat, almost like they starved, but really this dorm is home for 12 black holes.

You chuckle as you watch and follow Hyunjin to the kitchen, but oddly…

“Jinsol? I thought you were taking a shower?”

Jinsol was seen sitting at the kitchen table, perfectly dry, clothed as she should be, doesn’t seem like she was even in the shower in the first place. “Eh, what do you mean oppa?” Jinsol says while giving Hyunjin a little glare.

“I took a shower earlier. I was in here the whole time… RIGHT Hyunjin?” Jinsol says while slapping Hyunjin’s back, shoving Hyunjin a little bit. “O-Oh right! I didn’t notice Jinsol unnie there! Ha… HAHA.”

The two of them acting very weird since coming, but you shrug it off. “S-So how was your date oppa?” Jinsol asks in attempt to change the subject as Hyunjin gets the food ready on the table. “It went well, really nice actually.” You say with a smile, Jinsol leans forward with a smile. “Mhmm, go on!” Now leaning onto her arms, supporting her head on the table.

“Her eyes are so beautiful.”

“She didn’t think things would work out well.” You shrug, not telling Jinsol the entire reason. “Aw, I’m sorry oppa.” Jinsol drops on of her hands and reaches for yours. “Maybe she wasn’t the right one for you.” She says as she pouts at you, trying to make you feel better.

“Yeah, I guess not.” You found it strange how Jinsol said the same thing as ‘Erica’ although you let it be seeing how it’s a common saying. “Call the girls to eat, you must be hungry.” You say as you and Jinsol turn to Hyunjin at the end of the table eating the butter biscuits from the box.

Hyunjin freezes smiles with some of the bread in her mouth.

“What am I going to do with you girls.” You face palm yourself, making Jinsol laugh. That laugh you love so much, you look at Jinsol, admiring her as your eyes just get softer and softer for her.

Yeah, you damn right are in love with you best friend.

~~~~~

“Bye oppa, I’ll see you at the company!” Jinsol waves at you as you walk down the pathway away from the dorm. You have work tomorrow as well at the company since you are a set manager, you were the one in charge of how the background sets were put up and placed.

*Ding*

As you walk along the nightly streets, you get a notification from none other ‘One and Done.’

“Hey I’m back (:”

You smile at your phone, you thought of this as an opportunity, to maybe get over Jinsol. You immediately write a message back, not wanting to be rude and leave her on read.

“Hey where did you go?”

-Back in the dorm-

“Hey where did you go?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I had some things to attend to. I hope I didn’t make you lonely. ):”

Jinsol sends as she is smiling like a baby who received a lollipop, Hyunjin sitting next to her giggling and clapping. “Unnie it’s working!” Hyunjin say excitedly as the older hugs her. “Ah I waited so long to be matched up with him!”

“But when are you going to tell him it’s you?” Jinsol’s eyes shot open, realizing she did not think this through. Jinsol stood up from the chair and started pacing back and forth in the kitchen. “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.” The panicked woman started to mess her hair with her hands, not knowing how this possible situation could play out.

“What’s wrong with Jinsol unnie?” Jiwoo peeks in the kitchen seeing Jinsol pacing back and forth and Hyunjin staring intently at a phone on the table. As no one answered the little penguin, she walks in and peeks at the phone seeing your name at the top of the messages. “Unnie?! Is this the-” Before Jiwoo can finish her sentence, Jinsol cuts her off by grabbing the shorter one’s shoulders.

“YOU!” Jinsol looked at little Jiwoo with a furious look on her face. “EEP I’M SORRY I WAS ONLY TRYING TO HELP OPPA!” Jiwoo panicked and dropped to the ground covering her head, Hyunjin cut in between the two to prevent anything else from happening. “Jinsol unnie, Jiwoo unnie was only trying to help oppa, she doesn’t know about this.”

Jiwoo then stands up and hides behind Hyunjin, only peeking at Jinsol who looks defeated and sad. Jinsol sighs and sits back down at the table, telling the two younger ones to sit which as well they do. “I like him, I never felt it that way as we were kids, but now since we’re adults and how close we’ve been… Things just changed, I started getting attracted to him and well, you know.”

Jinsol started blushing and started hiding her face with her hands due to the embarrassment.

*Ding*

The three girls look at the phone, seeing that it was you leaving a message. “Unnie, what are you going to do?” Hyunjin looks up at Jinsol, as Jinsol kept staring at the phone. “I think I have to keep going along until I can tell him… I would hate to be the one who breaks his heart.” Hyunjin and Jiwoo both sigh. “I’m sorry unnie, I didn’t know you like him. He told me that you just think of him as a friend.” Jiwoo frowned, Jinsol looked surprised. “W-What else did he tell you?” Jinsol looked at Jiwoo with a little bit a hope, the younger smiled at her, Hyunjin just listening intently.

“Nothing else unnie, but I think he likes you back, I can see it in his eyes when he thinks of you.” Jinsol smiled, though it’s not exactly the answer she was looking but she’ll take it.

“Okay, I will continue messaging oppa on here until I can tell him.” Jinsol looking determined, much more confident than a few minutes ago.

“Fighting.” Both Hyunjin and Jiwoo are rooting for Jinsol, rooting for you.

-To your apartment-

The night went on as it usually goes for you, nice and quiet. Although a significant difference at the same time, its 4am and you’ve been nonstop messaging Erica.

“It’s getting late now, maybe we should sleep now?”

You smile at the cute message as you’re laying in bed, you told yourself to sleep early tonight but here you at, needing to get up in 5 hours.

“But I’m having too much fun talking to you.”

The thought of Jinsol is slowly slipping your mind, all you’re thinking about is meeting this Erica, continue talking to her. She has the same interests as you, keep up conversations with you, it felt familiar to you somehow, but you couldn’t think why.

“I have work tomorrow, don’t you?”

“I do, I have to work on some sets tomorrow ): What do you do?”

“Hmm, you can say I’m a model. I can’t exactly disclose that information, not yet at least.”

“Oh wow, so secretive?”

“Haha, getting more interested, are we?”

“Might be working lol”

“Let’s go to sleep and maybe I’ll tell you more about me (:”

“Okay deal.”

“Goodnight <3”

You smiled at your phone, someone who’s giving you time and effort to talk, this feels new, refreshing.

“Goodnight <3”

And with that, you set your phone down on the nightstand and head to bed with a smile on your face, although it’s short lived seeing that it’s about 3am and you must go to work at 8am.

RIP you, I guess.

~~~~~

Morning came around and you’re on set for a shooting for the “Not Friends” MV with Jungeun and Sooyoung, Heejin and Jinsol will be arriving later in the day as their scenes are in different sets.

You and your team are setting up the kitchen for the two girl’s “fight scene.” You’re working as hard as ever making sure the sets are perfect for the cameras. “You’re doing great oppa, don’t stress yourself too much.” Sooyoung gives you a little bit of encouragement.

“Thanks, Sooyoung. How’s Jungeun doing?” You ask as you observe your crew setting props and other background settings. Sooyoung giggles at the mention of Jungeun, “She’s enjoying this a lot more than her last recordings.” You chuckle at the thought of setting up the pink background and little island setting for “Yum Yum.”

“I guess she has a real liking to Cocomong?” You and Sooyoung look at each other, trying to hold in your laughter but failing to do so. “Yah, don’t make me kick you to the curb like I did with that sausage monkey!” A furious Jungeun come up behind you and Sooyoung, the two of you stared at the young blonde whose face is scrunched up.

You and Sooyoung crack up even harder, Jungeun is one of the least threatening members in the group, she wouldn’t hurt a fly. “Yah, why won’t you take me seriously.” Jungeun stomped her foot and pouted at us, she may not like cutesy concepts, but she’s born for it.

“Aw is Jungie mad, does she need a hug.” You mock the pout she made, but you open your arms for a hug. Jungeun then looked away from you, blushing but slowly walked into your arms for a hug. You embrace Jungeun and pat her on the head, Sooyoung found this cute and joined in the hug.

“This is nice.” Jungeun calmly said while in the embrace of you and Sooyoung. “Girls, it’s time to take your places!” The director shouted out, getting everyone in their places. “I guess it’s my cue to leave, good luck you two!” The three of you break the hug, you walk off the set giving two thumbs up to the girls.

You were set behind the film crew, watching the scenes get shot. You were quite impressed with how the girls did their scenes.

*Ding*

Your phone receives a message, you quickly pull it out of your pocket in hopes it’ll be a certain someone you’ve talked to all night and here and there during the day.

“Hey, how’s work going for you? (:”

This girl even realized you’ve been at work all day, it’s kind of weird she would know you’re at work, but it’s not completely out there that you’d be at work considering it’s already 1pm.

“Man, I could take a nice nap right now.” You say to yourself feeling quite tired.

“Pretty boring, how about you?”

You sent your message, you thought about calling Jinsol, but she’ll be there later in the afternoon, so you figured there’s no reason to call her.

“Aw, well I’m just heading to work now, had to get all dressed up :P”

“You probably look really pretty right now.”

“But you never seen my face before, how can you say I’m pretty?”

“Your personality is what makes you beautiful.”

You smirk at how cringeworthy you are, but hey if it’s working, don’t fix what isn’t broke.

“You’re so sweet <3”

After a little while of shooting, you put your phone away as it was time to change sets to the carnival area.

“Oppa!”

A familiar voice calls out for you, a voice you can never forget about. You turn around and you were absolutely stunned.

You stared at her, longer than you really should’ve.

“Are you okay oppa? Is there something on my face?”

“No, no!” You felt your cheeks warm up, Sooyoung, Jungeun and Heejin who came along with Jinsol were all standing behind Jinsol, all giggling of your reaction. “Y-You just look really good.” You stutter, but ended up smiling, making Jinsol smile at your comment.

“T-Thanks.” Jinsol puts her hands behind her back and look down toward her boots.

“These two act like school kids.” Heejin whispers to Sooyoung and Jungeun who continue to giggle at the two awkward ones. “Hey, I think we should move to the next set!” Sooyoung snaps both you and Jinsol out of it, walking away with Heejin and Jungeun.

“Let’s follow them?” You offered your arm to Jinsol which she happily links her arm with yours as the two of you follow the other three. “How’s your day today oppa?” Jinsol asks you, being a lot more cheerful than she usually is, it made you feel off. “I’m alright Soulie, very tired.” You give her a tired smile.

“You slept late again, didn’t you?” The black-haired girl said seriously, but with a little baby pout, making you laugh a bit. “Yeah, I was up late talking to someone.” You admit to her as she covers her mouth and exaggerates a gasp. “Wow oppa, you don’t even call me?” Jinsol slaps your arm in a playful manner.

You smile at the sight of Jinsol being a lot more playful and happier, like something really got into her. “You would have been asleep by then, plus I don’t think you always want to hear about my love life, which by the way.” You and Jinsol continued walking as the two of you talked, “How come you don’t try meeting people Soulie?” Jinsol stopped in place.

“I uh… Started talking to someone too.” And there it was, a stab to the chest, by your best friend. “O-Oh… That, that’s great Jinsol.” You try to cover your pain with a smile. You want to be happy for her, you really do, but there’s something in you, telling you that you need to stop her.

But if you stop her, what will she be happier with?

“Are you okay oppa?” Jinsol looks at you worriedly, she tries intertwining her hand with yours, but you reject it. Walking ahead of her, you reply in a colder tone “Yeah, I’m okay Jinsol. Let’s get to the set.” The sudden change of tone in your voice started the girl.

You start walking in a faster pace than how you were moments ago with Jinsol, Jinsol on the other hand stayed behind you the whole time, trying to keep up with your pace, feeling quite concerned about you.

Heejin was already on set, being told by a coordinator what she’ll be doing on set, you and Jinsol arrive on set although Heejin can feel the coldness from you by the look on your face and not looking back at Jinsol before leaving her on set, you rarely leave Jinsol so suddenly without saying anything.

Jinsol obviously saw how different you started acting, when you started acting like this, this feeling in her isn’t sitting well in her stomach. She obviously saw that you got hurt, by something she said, a lie that wasn’t really a lie but still a lie.

“Unnie, what happened?” Heejin looks over to Jinsol, trying to find an explanation to why you’re acting up in this way, Jinsol just shook her head and shrugged.

The workday went on as usual, the girls did what they were choreographed to do, you and your crew set the pieces and backgrounds as needed. The end of the day was near, you were avoiding interacting with Jinsol for the rest of the shooting.

“And I think that’s a wrap!”

The director announced to the crew, the girls let out a big sigh and everyone clapped for a successful shooting. ��Finally, we can have some time off.” Jungeun said as she went over to a chair to sit down. “Speak for yourself, you had extra shootings with Cocomong while we stayed home.” Heejin said with a pout, making all of us laugh.

“Come on, let’s go get changed.” Sooyoung told the other girls, Kim Lip and Heejin agreed and followed right away, Jinsol on the other hand hesitated but in the end followed along. “Oh oppa, come to the dorm tonight to celebrate.” Heejin yelled out as they walked away, you gave a thumbs up showing that you agreed to come by tonight.

As the girl’s head for the change rooms, you and your crew take down the set pieces that will be sent to storage.

~~~~~

*Ding*

Your phone receives a notification, you felt excited, relieved even. You pull out your phone seeing it’s a message from Erica, it seems like a weight came off your shoulders knowing that she was still there willing to talk to you and possibly she could be something to you more than just someone on a dating app.

“Hey, I just finished work (:”

“Hey, I just finished too, long day ):”

“Aw boo, how was it though?”

“It went great, little difficulty halfway through, but we finished shoot scenes, so that’s pretty good.”

“That’s great to hear, but what made things so difficult?”

You hesitated, you felt unsure about venting to basically a stranger about your best friend who you trust with your life, who basically trusts you the same way.

“Well, I have this friend, we’re really close, but they kept something from me, and I felt hurt that I didn’t know.”

You felt like that was a satisfactory answer without revealing too much, but on the other end of that message, the receiver didn’t feel satisfied.

“So it was that.”

Jinsol thought to herself as she’s laying on the couch in her sweats, she got changed quickly since her outfit wasn’t as extra as the other members and she was quite motivated to finish as fast as possible.

“Hm, let’s try digging some more.”

Jinsol then types in a response, hoping to dig up some more tea.

“Is this person special to you? You can be honest with me (:”

Jinsol hit the send button and she patiently waited there, anticipating an answer. Nothing came in, no notification, no missed messages. Jinsol began to feel impatient, sitting from the couch, staring intently at her phone.

“You know he won’t message you if you keep looking at your phone.” Sooyoung says as she plops on the couch next to Jinsol. “H-How did you it’s him?” Jinsol looked at Sooyoung with a confused look, making the older one amused. “You don’t think Jiwoo wouldn’t have told me about it yet?” Sooyoung gave Jinsol a cheeky smile.

“Who else knows?!” Jinsol stood up from the couch look at Heejin and Jungeun who are still sitting in front of mirrors removing makeup. “You don’t try to hide it in the first place unnie.” Jungeun said calmly as she wipes her left eye of eyeshadow. “And you don’t think Hyunjin wouldn’t tell me what she does on daily basis?” Heejin says just as calmly while removing her red lipstick.

“Great! Everyone knows except for the idiot I love!” Jinsol falls back on the couch, facing the ceiling. “Wait… You love him?” Heejin turns away from the mirror, looking at Jinsol, Jungeun and Sooyoung also look at Jinsol, but Jinsol didn’t sense the stares from them.

After a moment, it finally hit her.

Jinsol’s eyes shot wide open, her face heats up and turns red like a fresh tomato. She jumped off the couch, waving both hands in front of her. “Woah, woah, woah, woah!” Jinsol looks around the room, first Sooyoung, then Heejin, then Jungeun. “I swear to Heejin, if you say, ‘Let’s pump it up’ I’m drop kicking you right now.” Sooyoung says seriously before Heejin and Jungeun come running at Jinsol.

“YOU’RE IN LOVE!”

The two younger girls come running at Jinsol, embracing the embarrassed elder member. Sooyoung sat that just smiling at Jinsol, seeing that Jinsol finally embraced her feelings for you. As the two younger girls jump around holding Jinsol, Sooyoung saw this as a chance to take a photo of them, just for the memory.

*Ding*

The celebrating has stopped at the sound of Jinsol’s phone receiving a notification. “I think I have a message.” Jinsol says as the four of them stare at the phone, Heejin and Jungeun let go of the girl so she can check her phone.

“Well, tell us what he said!” Sooyoung says excitedly, anticipating an answer.

“Okay, okay!”

Jinsol opens her phone and reads out the message.

“Let’s say I have a best friend, someone very special to me, kept a secret that could end up, possibly, not letting us be best friends anymore.”

Jinsol then frowned at the message, is this the effect the two of you really have on each other?

“I think he’s really hurt by this Jinsol.” Sooyoung frowns as well, Heejin pats Jinsol on the back and looks at her. “You’ll have to confess to him eventually, you can’t keep hiding behind the phone screen.” Jinsol nods while staring at the phone.

“Let’s figure it out later, he must be waiting for us to go back to the dorm.” Jungeun says while looking at the clock on the wall.

~~~~~

The girls got ready to meet you, you’re waiting by the van in the parking lot that will take you and the girls to the dorm. You kept thinking about what Jinsol told you earlier, over, and over, the scene kept playing in your head.

“I’m sorry, we can’t be friends anymore.”

“But why Jinsol?”

“I have someone in my life now, all my time will be going to them.”

“Am I not important to you? Everything we’ve been through together?”

“I’m sorry, but I need to focus on things elsewhere.”

The worst-case scenario kept playing out in your head, the thought of losing Jinsol hurts you, it kills you that she will eventually one day be focused on someone else.

But what is it that makes you hurt?

Is it because Jinsol might leave you one day?

Or is it that Jinsol is talking to someone without you knowing?

Or maybe because you want Jinsol for yourself?

You shake your head at the thought of it, she’s your best friend, best friend. You repeat to yourself in your head.

“She’s only your friend, nothing more than that, she only thinks of you as a friend.”

You sigh as you lean against the van’s door, could Jinsol really be the reason you’re holding back from trying to find a girlfriend? What are you really doing with yourself? Were you really trying to find love? Find someone to be with for the rest of your life?

Or were you running? Running away from rejection? Running away from possibly ruining what you have with Jinsol? The one person you cherished since childhood.

“I can’t be with you.”

“But Jinsol!”

“I only see you as a friend, I’m sorry.”

The voice of rejection plays in your head, the voice of abandonment plays after, your brain doesn’t get a break, your ears deafening the sounds from the outside, you lost all attention to your surrounds, staring off in the sky, admiring the stars.

“Am I really a fool?”

You say to yourself, not realizing the girls are practically 10 feet away from you, Jinsol being the only one walking towards you while Sooyoung, Heejin and Jungeun stay behind.

“What you a fool about oppa?” Jinsol questions, causing you to snap back to reality. “Are you okay?” Jinsol grabs your hand, holding it firmly, making sure you don’t let go like last time. “Uh, yeah I’m alright, why?” You replied nervously, Jinsol pouting at you, largening her eyes as well.

“Ugh Jinsol, don’t give me that face.” You look away from Jinsol’s attempt at a puppy dog face, Jinsol didn’t respond only to stay in her position, staring at you intently with puppy dog eyes.

“Jinsol, please.” You look into Jinsol’s eyes, paralyzing you with her look. You panic a little, look behind Jinsol to Sooyoung, Heejin and Jungeun only to see Heejin giggling at your little predicament, while Jungeun is shooing you to talk to Jinsol and Sooyoung to shrug, leaving you no choice.

“Jinsol-”

“No, that’s not my name.” Jinsol finally spoke after staring for a good two minutes, furrowing her eyebrows, now giving you more of a glare than a puppy dog look, you sighed and finally smiled at her.

“Soulie.”

Jinsol then cut her glare and smiled as she wrapped herself around your arm. “Good, now tell me what was wrong oppa.” You were about to speak, but this being a personal topic you look back at the little gang of girls behind Jinsol, Sooyoung understanding the look, telling the two younger girls to hop in the van first so you and Jinsol can sort things out.

The three hopped in the van, closing the door, leaving you and Jinsol complete privacy. You take a deep breathe and sighed before speaking. “I was hurt, I was hurt hearing that you were talking to someone, and you never told me about this person.” Jinsol frowned a bit hearing it even though she knew before hand, this conversation was still not something she wanted to deal with.

“Why does it hurt you oppa?” Jinsol felt sad, she wanted to tell you how she feels, but it will only complicate the situation with the dating app, although deleting the app and never messaging him again there was an option but getting together through another rejection could make things nasty.

“I’m afraid you might leave me.” Jinsol could see the tears build up in you, seeing you so sad, so broken made Jinsol feel like absolute trash for hurting you like that, completely unintentionally but she failed her duty as your best friend.

Jinsol let go on your arm only to engulf you in a hug, you were surprised of this. You and Jinsol hug all the time, cuddle at the dorm as well but this hug felt different, Jinsol’s face was flat on your chest, you can feel a small spot on your chest feeling a bit moist, you embrace Jinsol in your arms.

“I’m sorry oppa, I would never leave you!” Jinsol says in a breaking voice, you knew she was crying into your shirt, you did nothing but smile and stroke her hair, just the way she likes it. Your hand slowly slowing from top to bottom repeatedly, your fingers going her hair like a brush. “I would never leave you oppa.” Jinsol repeated.

“Okay Soulie, I believe you.” Jinsol looked up at you, both of you teary eyed. “Best friends forever, right?” You smiled while looking down to Jinsol, as she smiled back at you. “Yes, best friends forever.”

You feel relieved yet at the same time, you feel that weight on your shoulders. You and Jinsol made up, joining the other girls in the van, and being driven back to the dorm by one of the managers.

The four members you were with decided to crack open their secret stash and opened some bottles of soju for a successful shooting and that everything is wrapped up and it is all up to the editors now.

“Here’s to a successful shooting!”

Sooyoung raises her shot glass to toast our success today, with the rest of us following suit. We all took our shot, Heejin taking it down rather well, Sooyoung was always able to hold down alcohol, but the two OEC girls always had trouble for being such light weights.

“Jungeun ah, you’re so pretty!” Jinsol started hugging Jungeun, a little too much for Jungeun’s comfort. “Yah unnie, stop rubbing your face against mine!” Jungeun yells as she tries to push Jinsol away from her, but Jinsol’s grip around Jungeun was too strong.

“Unnie, your gay is showing!” Heejin laughs as she points at Jinsol, Jinsol being the little drunk she is, lets go of Jungeun and starts looking around her pants and sweater. “Where?! Where is it?!” The rest of us being amazed of how drunk Jinsol is, we all die of laughter.

“You pabo! Heejin said your gay is showing!” Sooyoung tries to explain to Jinsol, but she was still confused. “Oppa, help me!” Jinsol walked over to you, pouting like a lost baby, she went over and sat on your lap, wrapping her arms around your neck. “Oop, I think she lost her gay.” Jungeun whispers to Sooyoung, the two of them start snickering.

“Oppa, Soulie is tired.” Jinsol says resting her head on your shoulder, you look at her face and her eyes are slowly closing. You knew it was time to bring this baby to her bed, you look over at Jungeun asking for permission to bring Jinsol to their shared room, which Jungeun gave.

“Okay, let’s bring Soulie to bed.” You hold Jinsol in your arms as you get up from your chair, you are struggling getting up and leaving the table, but you were able to life her up without so much trouble.

“Oppa, do you love someone?” Jinsol asks you, in a tired and drunken state, you only look down at the sleeping girl and smile. “I do love someone. This person is especially important to me.” You say as you reach Jinsol’s bedroom. You lay the girl in bed, she is sound asleep, lightly snoring.

You smile at the big baby sleeping peacefully in her bed, you close the bedroom door gently, so you don’t wake up the big baby and the other babies in the dorm. You rejoin the 3 other girls who still drinking in the dining room, everything seemed fine, but they’re thinking how cute your relationship with Jinsol is.

The night goes on as calm as it could be with 3 Loona members, it started getting late and you called it a night. Sooyoung, Heejin and Jungeun travelled off to their respective bedrooms, you would take the couch in the living room once again, which is basically labelled as your bedroom in the Loona dorm.

You lay down in your makeshift bed, feeling relaxed in a pair of sweats that you stash in dorm. You pull out phone and you see you didn’t get a message from a certain person, you felt kind of dejected knowing she didn’t message you all night, but at the same time relieved?

You still question yourself.

Are you going to embrace your feelings for her?

What will happen if Jinsol rejects you?

Will your friendship still be the same?

Are you willing to risk it?

You open up the dating app, to the inbox for Erica. A feeling of regret looms over you, you felt like you were betraying Jinsol, but at the same time you two are not in a committed relationship.

“Hey are you up? (:”

You sent the message.

*Ding*

A huge weight landed on your shoulders after hearing a distant ding coming from the kitchen. You sit up from the couch, swallowing down your saliva in your throat, you quickly get up from the couch making your way to the kitchen.

You find a phone on the kitchen counter, you went over and picked it up, by the phone case you can tell it was Jinsol’s. The phone lights up and there was a notification.

‘1 Message One and Done’

You unlock Jinsol’s phone, opening the notification.

It was your messages. The messages for Erica. She was Erica.

“Oppa?”

A familiar voice calls for you, someone way too familiar.

You turn around seeing her, Jinsol standing in front of the kitchen entrance.

“What is this?” You ask calmly.

Jinsol’s eyes widen, seeing her phone in your hand. “O-Oppa. I. I can explain.” Jinsol tried to take a step closer to you, but something in you snapped.

“Jinsol what is this?!” You raise your voice at her, frietening her, you never raise your voice at her. “T-That.” Jinsol couldn’t spit out the truth, she has become afraid of telling you. “ARE YOU TRYING TO PLAY WITH ME RIGHT NOW?!” You again raise your voice at the girl, Jinsol starting to tear up, she knew the conversation was going to come, but not this soon.

“No! That’s not what I want to do!” Jinsol replies loudly back at you, tears coming down her face. “Then what is this?!” You ask once more, trying to get an answer from her. Jinsol couldn’t look at you anymore, you were angry, furious, the worst that she’s ever seen you, even worse than any other night you came to the dorm drunk and depressed over another break up.

“Did you think pretending to be someone would make me happy?!” Your emotions taking control of you, anger clouding your judgement and logical thinking. “I never wanted to hurt you!” Jinsol would say, but you didn’t believe it.

You gently put the phone down on the table, you slowly walked past Jinsol, making her confused. You gathered your things putting on your jacket and headed for the door. Jinsol did nothing but watch you.

“I thought you were really my best friend Jinsol.”

Those were the last words you spoke before leaving the dorm, Jinsol didn’t move, didn’t speak. She collaspes on her legs, crying her heart out, she hurt you, she broke you.

She lost you.

Footsteps come running towards Jinsol, it’s Haseul and Sooyoung hugging their fellow ’97 member in their arms, trying to soothe her from crying any harder. Their were unsuccessful.

It’s 4am, you’re walking out in the middle of the night, there were no busses and you didn’t want to call an uber home. Tonight’s cold air is the most refreshing thing that you experienced today, your phone rings nonstop.

‘Haseul.’

‘Sooyoung.’

‘Jungeun.’

‘Hyunjin.’

Each of the 11 members called, several voice messages were left. The one person you secretly hoped to call, never called.

You unknowingly walked to a park in the city, once you saw a swing set, you decided to walk over there, thinking it’ll be good place to sit and think.

Back at the dorm, it’s complete chaos for Jinsol.

“He found out.” Jinsol said staring at the dining table, with a pile of tissues in front of her. “I see he didn’t take it that well.” Sooyoung said with a clear feeling of sarcasm, Haseul slaps Sooyoung’s arm to knock off the sass. “I’m sure this is just a lot for him to take, I mean he isn’t wrong for feeling like this Jinsol.” Haseul tries to empathize with how you feel, but also tries to make Jinsol understand what she did was wrong.

“I want to talk to him, but he didn’t answer anyone’s calls.” Jinsol sniffles then blows her nose into another tissue. “I don’t even know where he would go at this time.” Haseul then pulls out her phone “Maybe I can find him if he didn’t…” Haseul opens a Find My type of app on her phone that’s secretly a tablet.

“Here!” Haseul shows a map and route to your phone’s location. “Eh? How did you do that?” Sooyoung genuinely questions knowing you have an iPhone and Haseul has an Android. “I installed on his phone since he started visiting more frequently for a certain blonde at the time.” Haseul smirks at Jinsol, making Jinsol smile a little.

“I’m going to go find him.” Jinsol stood up, with Haseul disapproving this action. “No, you’re not!” Haseul grabbed onto Jinsol’s wrist.

“But Haseul!”

“Shh! You’re not going alone.” Haseul smiles at Jinsol, with the taller one smiling softly back. “Okay let’s go!” Jiwoo pops out of the hallway, along with Heejin… Hyunjin… Yeojin… Basically the other 9 members who were listening in on what happened. “Aish Jiwoo, I told you this was private!” Sooyoung walked over to the little penguin girl, patting her head.

“I know baby, but I want to see this through.” Jiwoo pouted and hugged Sooyoung looking up to her. “Yeah, this is the most entertaining thing you oldies are going through at the moment.” Yeojin says, making Haseul roll her eyes. “You watch too many kdramas.” Haseul says making everyone laugh.

“Let’s go find him!” Hyunjin raises her fist in the air, while everyone follows suit.

The twelve girls dressed up in sweats and jackets, and man it really was like a family of penguins walking around.

“Chuu is cold.” Jiwoo whimpers as the cold is getting to her.

Sooyoung rolls her eyes and holds Jiwoo’s hand and stuffs it in her pocket. “Better?” Jiwoo nods her head and happily walks along.

“Jinsol make a right here, then a park should be on the left.” Haseul directs Jinsol as everyone following the determined girl. “There!” As the park comes into Jinsol’s view, she made a dash towards it.

“I didn’t know Jinsol unnie can run that fast.” Choerry saved while shivering slightly, Vivi just smiles at the awkward running Jinsol. “Love does that kind of thing.” Haseul who is holding onto Vivi’s arm, smiles at the elder member.

“Oppa!”

You hear Jinsol’s voice, you look up, she’s running at you full speed. The realization hits you, it’s really Jinsol running at you, finding you in the middle of the dark. “Oppa!” She cries out, as she gets closer you can see tears running down her face. You get up from sitting on the swing, you start unconsciously walking towards the girl.

“Jinsol?!” You walk towards the running figure, it soon came to you that Jinsol was not slowing down. “J-Jinsol, slow down!” It was already too late, Jinsol jumps at you full speed, taking you down to the ground. You lay on the ground with Jinsol crying on your chest.

“You pabo! Why did you go out in this cold!? Ha?! It’s freezing! You could get sick!!” Jinsol nonstop yelling and hitting your chest. You smile at the crying baby on your chest, you stroke her hair to calm her down. “I’m sorry I did that Soulie.” Jinsol stopped hitting your chest, she pushes herself up, hovering over you.

She stares at you angrily, dried tears marked under her eyes. You look at her in the eye, you were afraid of this glare coming from her.

“Jins-”

Before you could spit out another word, Jinsol shut your lips up with hers. You were shocked, eventually giving in to her kiss, embracing her in your arms.

Jinsol broke the kiss, resting her forehead on yours as the two of you catch your breathe. “I love you oppa, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.” You smile as you still have Jinsol in your arms. “I love you too Soulie, you’ll only ever be mine.”

“YEAH JINSOL UNNIE, GET IT!”

Jinsol looks behind her, you doing the same. “Yah Yeojin shut up! You ruined the moment!” You can hear Hyeju yell in the distance as you see multiple flashlights, most likely the member’s phones taking photos of you two.

You shake your head at the chaotic behaviour. “What am I going to do with you 12?” Jinsol then looks at you and pouts at you, slaps you on your chest. “It’s only me now!” You smile then start laughing. “We just confessed to each not even two minutes ago and you’re already jealous.” Jinsol slaps your chest again, slightly harder this time.

“I’ve had you for years, we’re only official now, got that.” Jinsol said sternly, you were intimidated this time, but being the goof you are with Jinsol, you pulled her in for a kiss. You felt Jinsol smile as your lips are making contact.

The moment the two of you break the kiss, you give Jinsol a salute. “Yes ma’am!” Making Jinsol giggle.

“Hurry up you two, we’re freezing!!!” You can hear the anger that is in the small body of Kim Jiwoo, even Sooyoung couldn’t calm her down.

Jinsol finally gets off you, helping you up to your feet. “Let’s go home now oppa.” You smile to your new girlfriend and nodded.

~~~~~

“ACHOO!”

You let out a big sneeze while you’re laying on the couch, underneath two layers of blankets. You definitely did get a cold from being out in this weather for a few hours last night, Jinsol having her fun saying ‘I told you so’ every 5 minutes.

“Babe, I told you that you get sick, you had to run off like a child.” Jinsol rolled her eyes as soon as she walked into the living room holding a bowl of chicken noodle soup. She came over to your side and sat down on a child next to the couch. “Up.” You listened to your girlfriend and sat up.

“Now open.” Jinsol readies a spoon of soup in front of your face, you didn’t argue and opened your mouth as Jinsol prepares to spoon feed you the rest of the soup. “This is good, when did you learn how to cook?” You question as you knew Jinsol was never a good cook. “I have my ways.” Jinsol winks at you.

“Vivi unnie made it.” Haseul says as she passes through the living room, making her way to her shared bedroom with Vivi and Yeojin.

You stare a little Jinsol as she gives you a cheeky smile. “Pfft who needs to learn how to cook when you’ll cook for me.” Jinsol says as she feeds you another spoon of soup which you happily accepted.

“You know Soulie, I can feed myself.”

Jinsol’s cheeks started getting red, she looks down to the soup avoiding eye contact with you, leaving you questioning her behaviour.

“Soulie?”

“It’s because I want to feed my…”

“Your?”

“Baby.”

“Eh?”

“I WANT TO FEED MY BABY OKAY!”

You start heating up more, mostly around your cheeks. Jinsol notices this and places her hand on your forehead. “You don’t have a fever, but you look red.” You’re now the one who’s too embarassed to look Jinsol in the eye, her calling you her baby hits you a different way.

“Face me.” Jinsol tells you and you obey since you wouldn’t want her to be mad anymore since being sick. Jinsol examines your face carely before grabbing your chin. “I think you need some medicine.” Jinsol says, you began to speak “But I didn’t finish-” Jinsol cuts you off once again with a peck on your lips.

“Better?”

You look at the goddess you call you girlfriend straight in the eye, smile and nod happily like a child.

“Okay babe, finish this soup so we can watch our dramas.” Jinsol says as she prepares another spoon of soup for you.

“When we said ‘best friends forever’, I didn’t think it’ll be like this.” Making Jinsol smile before you consume the spoon of soup.

“Wait till we get married oppa.” Jinsol winked at you, causing you to choke which lead to her pointing and laughing at you having trouble take down your soup.

“I love you so much oppa.”

The day continued with Jinsol babying you all day but ends with cuddles at night, you were finally Jinsol’s and Jinsol was finally with yours.

366 notes · View notes

literallynocontext · 3 years ago

Text

200! for Jinsol Floof

Dating App - Jinsoul

“Why do relationships suck?”

“Movies?” You ask as you start making your way with Jinsol in your arms to the living room.

“Movies.” Jinsol replies.

“I’m just kidding oppa, how about zombies?” Jinsol hovers over the show ‘All of Us are Dead.’

“So, we’ve been drinking from the same place since we were kids, but don’t be surprised if we lock lips one day.” Jinsol blows a kiss at you, making you laugh.

“You don’t know how much I want that.”

“Thank you for being there for me Soulie.”

Jinsol snakes her hand around your arm and reaches for your hand to intertwine her hand with yours.

“Of course, oppa, together no matter what.”

You smile as you and Jinsol watch the show on Netflix for the rest of the night.

~~~~~

You hear steps coming down the stairs, you eventually just accept your fate as being Jinsol’s bed and started stroking her hair, the steps getting louder as the seconds go by.

“What time is it?” You pick up your phone off the ground in front of the couch, with the screen brighten the room.

“9:30am.”

“Oh! I know what you can do!” Jiwoo grabs her phone and opens the app store. “Here, I saw a commercial about it.” Jiwoo shows you her phone and shows an app called ‘One and Done.’

“Good luck!” Jiwoo says while giving you two thumbs up, as you give a thumbs up to her before leaving the dorm.

~~~~~

1) Favourite movies - Up to 3

Hmm… I’m into a lot, so maybe The Notebook, then 500 Days of Summer… Then why not, Endgame.

2) Favourite colour?

Easy! Blue.

3) Favourite meals?

Eggs on rice, noodles and stir fry veggies.

4) First date ideas?

Cooking together or picnic.

5) The perfect ideal date?

Just to spend time together anywhere.

6) What 3 basic things you see in a partner?

Honesty, openness and hmmm funny!

“And done!” You fill out the questionnaire and post your account online, it’s now only a matter of time for you to get a match.

-Back at the dorm-

“Jinsol don’t-”

“N-NOTHING!” Jinsol panics and runs out of their bedroom, making a dash to the nearest washroom.

She then gets the same questions as you had, answering the best of her abilities.

“I hope this works.” Jinsol says to herself as she posts your profile online.

~~~~~

“Hey, I’m going out on a date today, I’ll come over with food tonight. (:”

“Ugh, I don’t know who’s denser you or me.” Jinsol yells out sitting on the living room on the living room couch, sitting with outstretched arms and legs spread across the couch.

“Are you okay unnie?” Hyunjin asks coming in with a milk tea in her hands.

Jinsol turns herself over facing the TV in the living with a frown. “I can’t exactly do that.” Hyunjin looks down at Jinsol confused “What do you mean unnie?”

-On your date-

You were downtown with a girl, somewhat taller but still shorter than you are, attractive, loves to talk and seemingly clicks with you so easily.

“Is Jinsol okay?”

“What is she doing?”

“Is she eating healthy?”

“So, tell me about this best friend of yours.” Eun-Mi asks, making you smile.

Jung Jinsol.

The girl cups your cheek “I think you’ve fallen for another girl already.” Eun-Mi then gets in a taxi, you watch it drive off as you stood there.

“Have I really fallen for her?”

You ask yourself, feeling dumbfounded.

*Ding*

Your phone receives a notification, you pull it out and see it was a notification from ‘One and Done’ ‘You’ve been matched with Erica!’

“Hey there (:”

*Ding*

You got a reply! “Oh my god!”

“Annyeonghaseyo (:”

“How are you doing?”

“Just fine, tired, how are you doing?”

“I could be better if I’m being honest.”

“Aw, why did something happen? ):”

“If I’m being completely honest, another date went wrong.”

“Maybe the girl wasn’t the one?”

“Hmm, you might right… What about you, why are you on this as well?”

“My love life is confusing, so I came here to maybe figure it out (:”

The conversation kept going the whole time you walked to the girls’ dorm, the two of you had similar likes, dislikes, had oddly a lot in common, a little suspicious.

Seeing that you’re so close to the dorm now, you decided to ask the question.

“Would you like to go out some time soon?”

“I would love to, but my life is very busy…”

You sigh in defeat, now you can’t even get a date. You walk up the steps to the dorm and ring the doorbell.

“That’s alright, I would love to keep talking to you though.”

“Yes, that will be fun (: But right now, I need to go! Talk to you soon!”

You chuckle as you watch and follow Hyunjin to the kitchen, but oddly…

“Jinsol? I thought you were taking a shower?”

“Her eyes are so beautiful.”

Hyunjin freezes smiles with some of the bread in her mouth.

“What am I going to do with you girls.” You face palm yourself, making Jinsol laugh. That laugh you love so much, you look at Jinsol, admiring her as your eyes just get softer and softer for her.

Yeah, you damn right are in love with you best friend.

~~~~~

*Ding*

As you walk along the nightly streets, you get a notification from none other ‘One and Done.’

“Hey I’m back (:”

You smile at your phone, you thought of this as an opportunity, to maybe get over Jinsol. You immediately write a message back, not wanting to be rude and leave her on read.

“Hey where did you go?”

-Back in the dorm-

“Hey where did you go?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I had some things to attend to. I hope I didn’t make you lonely. ):”

Jinsol started blushing and started hiding her face with her hands due to the embarrassment.

*Ding*

“Nothing else unnie, but I think he likes you back, I can see it in his eyes when he thinks of you.” Jinsol smiled, though it’s not exactly the answer she was looking but she’ll take it.

“Okay, I will continue messaging oppa on here until I can tell him.” Jinsol looking determined, much more confident than a few minutes ago.

“Fighting.” Both Hyunjin and Jiwoo are rooting for Jinsol, rooting for you.

-To your apartment-

The night went on as it usually goes for you, nice and quiet. Although a significant difference at the same time, its 4am and you’ve been nonstop messaging Erica.

“It’s getting late now, maybe we should sleep now?”

You smile at the cute message as you’re laying in bed, you told yourself to sleep early tonight but here you at, needing to get up in 5 hours.

“But I’m having too much fun talking to you.”

“I have work tomorrow, don’t you?”

“I do, I have to work on some sets tomorrow ): What do you do?”

“Hmm, you can say I’m a model. I can’t exactly disclose that information, not yet at least.”

“Oh wow, so secretive?”

“Haha, getting more interested, are we?”

“Might be working lol”

“Let’s go to sleep and maybe I’ll tell you more about me (:”

“Okay deal.”

“Goodnight <3”

You smiled at your phone, someone who’s giving you time and effort to talk, this feels new, refreshing.

“Goodnight <3”

And with that, you set your phone down on the nightstand and head to bed with a smile on your face, although it’s short lived seeing that it’s about 3am and you must go to work at 8am.

RIP you, I guess.

~~~~~

You were set behind the film crew, watching the scenes get shot. You were quite impressed with how the girls did their scenes.

*Ding*

Your phone receives a message, you quickly pull it out of your pocket in hopes it’ll be a certain someone you’ve talked to all night and here and there during the day.

“Hey, how’s work going for you? (:”

“Man, I could take a nice nap right now.” You say to yourself feeling quite tired.

“Pretty boring, how about you?”

You sent your message, you thought about calling Jinsol, but she’ll be there later in the afternoon, so you figured there’s no reason to call her.

“Aw, well I’m just heading to work now, had to get all dressed up :P”

“You probably look really pretty right now.”

“But you never seen my face before, how can you say I’m pretty?”

“Your personality is what makes you beautiful.”

You smirk at how cringeworthy you are, but hey if it’s working, don’t fix what isn’t broke.

“You’re so sweet <3”

After a little while of shooting, you put your phone away as it was time to change sets to the carnival area.

“Oppa!”

A familiar voice calls out for you, a voice you can never forget about. You turn around and you were absolutely stunned.

You stared at her, longer than you really should’ve.

“Are you okay oppa? Is there something on my face?”

“T-Thanks.” Jinsol puts her hands behind her back and look down toward her boots.

But if you stop her, what will she be happier with?

“Unnie, what happened?” Heejin looks over to Jinsol, trying to find an explanation to why you’re acting up in this way, Jinsol just shook her head and shrugged.

“And I think that’s a wrap!”

The director announced to the crew, the girls let out a big sigh and everyone clapped for a successful shooting. “Finally, we can have some time off.” Jungeun said as she went over to a chair to sit down. “Speak for yourself, you had extra shootings with Cocomong while we stayed home.” Heejin said with a pout, making all of us laugh.

As the girl’s head for the change rooms, you and your crew take down the set pieces that will be sent to storage.

~~~~~

*Ding*

“Hey, I just finished work (:”

“Hey, I just finished too, long day ):”

“Aw boo, how was it though?”

“It went great, little difficulty halfway through, but we finished shoot scenes, so that’s pretty good.”

“That’s great to hear, but what made things so difficult?”

You hesitated, you felt unsure about venting to basically a stranger about your best friend who you trust with your life, who basically trusts you the same way.

“Well, I have this friend, we’re really close, but they kept something from me, and I felt hurt that I didn’t know.”

You felt like that was a satisfactory answer without revealing too much, but on the other end of that message, the receiver didn’t feel satisfied.

“So it was that.”

“Hm, let’s try digging some more.”

Jinsol then types in a response, hoping to dig up some more tea.

“Is this person special to you? You can be honest with me (:”

After a moment, it finally hit her.

“YOU’RE IN LOVE!”

*Ding*

“Well, tell us what he said!” Sooyoung says excitedly, anticipating an answer.

“Okay, okay!”

Jinsol opens her phone and reads out the message.

“Let’s say I have a best friend, someone very special to me, kept a secret that could end up, possibly, not letting us be best friends anymore.”

Jinsol then frowned at the message, is this the effect the two of you really have on each other?

“Let’s figure it out later, he must be waiting for us to go back to the dorm.” Jungeun says while looking at the clock on the wall.

~~~~~

“I’m sorry, we can’t be friends anymore.”

“But why Jinsol?”

“I have someone in my life now, all my time will be going to them.”

“Am I not important to you? Everything we’ve been through together?”

“I’m sorry, but I need to focus on things elsewhere.”

The worst-case scenario kept playing out in your head, the thought of losing Jinsol hurts you, it kills you that she will eventually one day be focused on someone else.

But what is it that makes you hurt?

Is it because Jinsol might leave you one day?

Or is it that Jinsol is talking to someone without you knowing?

Or maybe because you want Jinsol for yourself?

You shake your head at the thought of it, she’s your best friend, best friend. You repeat to yourself in your head.

“She’s only your friend, nothing more than that, she only thinks of you as a friend.”

Or were you running? Running away from rejection? Running away from possibly ruining what you have with Jinsol? The one person you cherished since childhood.

“I can’t be with you.”

“But Jinsol!”

“I only see you as a friend, I’m sorry.”

“Am I really a fool?”

You say to yourself, not realizing the girls are practically 10 feet away from you, Jinsol being the only one walking towards you while Sooyoung, Heejin and Jungeun stay behind.

“Jinsol-”

“Soulie.”

You feel relieved yet at the same time, you feel that weight on your shoulders. You and Jinsol made up, joining the other girls in the van, and being driven back to the dorm by one of the managers.

“Here’s to a successful shooting!”

You still question yourself.

Are you going to embrace your feelings for her?

What will happen if Jinsol rejects you?

Will your friendship still be the same?

Are you willing to risk it?

You open up the dating app, to the inbox for Erica. A feeling of regret looms over you, you felt like you were betraying Jinsol, but at the same time you two are not in a committed relationship.

“Hey are you up? (:”

You sent the message.

*Ding*

You find a phone on the kitchen counter, you went over and picked it up, by the phone case you can tell it was Jinsol’s. The phone lights up and there was a notification.

‘1 Message One and Done’

You unlock Jinsol’s phone, opening the notification.

It was your messages. The messages for Erica. She was Erica.

“Oppa?”

A familiar voice calls for you, someone way too familiar.

You turn around seeing her, Jinsol standing in front of the kitchen entrance.

“What is this?” You ask calmly.

Jinsol’s eyes widen, seeing her phone in your hand. “O-Oppa. I. I can explain.” Jinsol tried to take a step closer to you, but something in you snapped.

“I thought you were really my best friend Jinsol.”

Those were the last words you spoke before leaving the dorm, Jinsol didn’t move, didn’t speak. She collaspes on her legs, crying her heart out, she hurt you, she broke you.

She lost you.

Footsteps come running towards Jinsol, it’s Haseul and Sooyoung hugging their fellow ’97 member in their arms, trying to soothe her from crying any harder. Their were unsuccessful.

‘Haseul.’

‘Sooyoung.’

‘Jungeun.’

‘Hyunjin.’

Each of the 11 members called, several voice messages were left. The one person you secretly hoped to call, never called.

You unknowingly walked to a park in the city, once you saw a swing set, you decided to walk over there, thinking it’ll be good place to sit and think.

Back at the dorm, it’s complete chaos for Jinsol.

“I’m going to go find him.” Jinsol stood up, with Haseul disapproving this action. “No, you’re not!” Haseul grabbed onto Jinsol’s wrist.

“But Haseul!”

“Let’s go find him!” Hyunjin raises her fist in the air, while everyone follows suit.

The twelve girls dressed up in sweats and jackets, and man it really was like a family of penguins walking around.

“Chuu is cold.” Jiwoo whimpers as the cold is getting to her.

Sooyoung rolls her eyes and holds Jiwoo’s hand and stuffs it in her pocket. “Better?” Jiwoo nods her head and happily walks along.

“Oppa!”

She stares at you angrily, dried tears marked under her eyes. You look at her in the eye, you were afraid of this glare coming from her.

“Jins-”

Before you could spit out another word, Jinsol shut your lips up with hers. You were shocked, eventually giving in to her kiss, embracing her in your arms.

“YEAH JINSOL UNNIE, GET IT!”

The moment the two of you break the kiss, you give Jinsol a salute. “Yes ma’am!” Making Jinsol giggle.

“Hurry up you two, we’re freezing!!!” You can hear the anger that is in the small body of Kim Jiwoo, even Sooyoung couldn’t calm her down.

Jinsol finally gets off you, helping you up to your feet. “Let’s go home now oppa.” You smile to your new girlfriend and nodded.

~~~~~

“ACHOO!”

“Vivi unnie made it.” Haseul says as she passes through the living room, making her way to her shared bedroom with Vivi and Yeojin.

“You know Soulie, I can feed myself.”

Jinsol’s cheeks started getting red, she looks down to the soup avoiding eye contact with you, leaving you questioning her behaviour.

“Soulie?”

“It’s because I want to feed my…”

“Your?”

“Baby.”

“Eh?”

“I WANT TO FEED MY BABY OKAY!”

“Better?”

You look at the goddess you call you girlfriend straight in the eye, smile and nod happily like a child.

“Okay babe, finish this soup so we can watch our dramas.” Jinsol says as she prepares another spoon of soup for you.

“When we said ‘best friends forever’, I didn’t think it’ll be like this.” Making Jinsol smile before you consume the spoon of soup.

“Wait till we get married oppa.” Jinsol winked at you, causing you to choke which lead to her pointing and laughing at you having trouble take down your soup.

“I love you so much oppa.”

The day continued with Jinsol babying you all day but ends with cuddles at night, you were finally Jinsol’s and Jinsol was finally with yours.

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