Mia sits on the grass, holding a bag of gummy bears as the brown calf beside hers chews on the grass. "Is it good?" she asks them, smiling when the calf grunts in response. "You don't mind if I try some right?"
It was cold and the sun was starting to set but Mia stayed still, entertaining herself with the herd of cows on her grandfather's farm. The girl sighs, pulling out her phone to see that an hour had already passed. She put the phone back in her pocket and looked back at the calf. "You know what?" she asked. "I'm gonna name you Bailey. You know, like the beluga whale from Finding Dory? Yeah," Mia laughs to herself and grabs a handful of gummy bears from her bag. "Yeah, except you're a cow. You'll be Bailey the cow."
The calf only grunt in response, moving closer to Mia as it eats the grass beside her thigh. She smiles and reaches out to touch it's head. "You're the hairiest cow I've ever seen," she says, eyes wide in surprise.
"I don't think that's what Bailey wants to hear." Mia jumps, turning her head to see Sunghoon standing a few feet beside her. His hands were stuffed into the pockets of his jacket and he was shivering. "It's so cold out here," he says. "How can you only be wearing one layer?"
She doesn't answer but sighs instead, setting the bag of gummy bears beside her and getting off the grass. The calf continues to peacefully eat the grass, ignoring the two. Mia turns her attention away from the calf and towards Sunghoon, who's face and ears slowly turn red from the cold. She takes a deep breath, enough for him to know that he's about to get an earful from the girl.
"You're a bitch," she starts off. "You know how important your life is to me. My sleeping schedule is already fucked up as it is, so what made you think that I wouldn't make the time to go to your graduation? And that's not even what bothers me. The fact that you just chose to ignore it completely and keep it a secret from me - that just pisses me off. I would cry right now just to torture you but that would make me look weak, so I'm not going to fucking cry. I'm glad you realize your mista--" Mia cuts herself off and shuts her eyes in frustration before looking back at him annoyed. "Will you stop shivering?!"
"I-I'm sorry, I'm just really cold," Sunghoon says. Mia lifts her fist as if to hit him but holds herself back, silently counting down from ten. She then lets her arm fall beside her and looks at him again. She sighs.
"Go inside," she says, pushing him towards her grandfather's house. "I'll yell at you later."
···
"You're a fucking bitch."
"You already said that, Mia."
"Right, where was I?"
Sunghoon sat comfortably on Grandpa Choi's couch, wrapped in three layers of blankets he had taken from Mia's old room and sipping onto hot chocolate with marshmallows floating at the top. Mia stands in front of him, blocking his view of the television as she tries her best to remember where she left off. "Oh!" Her face lights up when she remembers before going back to its serious expression. "I know you felt bad now that you'd seen my reaction, so I just want to know why you didn't tell me?" she asks. "You said it was because I was obviously tired but knowing you, that can't be the only reason."
He sets the mug of hot chocolate beside him and sighs, looking up at Mia. "I didn't want to make you regret anything," he says without hesitation. "You dropped out of highschool because it was hard on you and you had so much on your plate at that time. That means you didn't get the chance to graduate. If I had brought you to my graduation, you would've regret everything you've done and all your hard work to get where you are despite dropping out - don't even deny it, I know you better than you do." He pauses and looks down, suddenly turning embarrassed. "Plus there were a lot of girls flirting with me," he mumbles.
Mia blinks, processing his words. At first, she starts to feel bad for getting angry but then, noticing his embarrassed expression, a mischievous smile forms onto her face. "I'm sorry," she says slowly in a teasing voice, "I didn't catch that last part. What did you say?"
Sunghoon quickly realizes that she's messing with him and buries himself in the layers of blankets, shaking his head. "Nothing," he says. "I said nothing."
"No no, I think you did."
"I said nothing!" he says louder, screaming when he feels Mia's fingers jab into his ribcage at an attempt to tickle him. He continues to scream (and laugh), followed by the girl's childish giggles.
"Aww, is Hoonie afraid I'd get jealous of a few girls?" she continues to tease him.
"STOP TICKLING ME!!" Sunghoon yells, holding onto his stomach as laughter pours out of his mouth. His lungs burn as he tries to breathe in and out, kicking his feet at Mia to get her away from him.
"Okay, okay!" Mia backs away from him, holding her hands up in surrender. She watches as Sunghoon slowly calms down, sitting up on the couch and gathering all the blankets he had pushed to the floor before piling them on him again. The two fall into silence, Mia sitting on the living room's rug with the TV playing behind her at low volume and Sunghoon sitting on the couch, staring at Mia and completely avoiding the television.
"Mia," he then calls her name.
"Yes?" she replies.
"I'm sorry," he says. "I hope you know that I never meant to hurt your feelings. I was doing what I thought was protecting them, but I ended up making you cry. I don't want to be the reason you cry. I'm really sorry. I hope you can forgive me."
She stares at him. Mia can hear the sincerity in his voice and how he genuinely wants her forgiveness in his eyes. She stays silent once again before cracking a smile, then quietly laughs. "You're hilarious," she says. Mia clears her throat and sits up, calling his name. "Park Sunghoon."
"Yes?" he replies.
"I forgave you a long time ago."
