high school love || sungchan

03: a step closer

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 25, 2017

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Maya had a bad habit of being able to stay up all night.

It was already 3am — the student thought during 11pm till 5am, it was the best time to be alone and in control of your life. As it was a Saturday, she didn't feel the need to sleep her usual 11pm (or 2am if she procrastinated her homework), so the girl just drew original characters in her sketchbook.

However, hearing someone hyperventilating from another room made the girl quietly rush out of her room to find where the noise was coming from.

Were they okay? Who was it? Nearing Sungchan's room, Mari identified the noise was coming from there, as the volume increased.

"Sungchan—" She opened the door swiftly, as the boy looked disheveled, sweaty and vulnerable.

Attempting to help calm his breaths, Maya walked closer to the boy, "Breathe in... hold it for a bit... breathe out..." The girl regret not bringing her phone, breathing exercises saved on the device for both her and other friends if they needed it, but she was glad that the boy was slowly recovering.

Maya didn't want to force him to spit out what happened or why, wanting him to recover first before asking, so she just resorted to rubbing small circles on his back, "You okay now?"

"...Yeah. Thank you. I... just had a nightmare where you were coughing flowers out, but you never told us— and then, you di-..." Sungchan choked on his words, tearing up slightly.

Maya tried to give her friend a warm smile to assure him all was well, "Channie, please, don't force it out. I'm here and I'm okay— in this world, we don't cough out flowers. I'm not gone."

The dream Sungchan told Maya about featured the Hanahaki Disease - an unfortunate outcome of unrequited love, where the person with unreciprocated feelings would cough out flowers, until eventual death.

'How fitting to my situation.' She internally rolled her eyes, 'Just without the flowers and dying.'

"You're okay." Sungchan confirmed. He wasn't aware of the fictional disease, so the poor boy woke up with both fear and confusion, "I'm glad."

"You really do care about me, huh?"

"Of course I do, Maya. We're close friends, and I'm so lucky to have you." 

She could hear her heart beat louder, "Bet. Cause you're never getting rid of me, and this bitch cares about you so much, too." The boy laughed at her choice of words.

"Now that you're okay," she started to get up, "I'll take my leav—"

"No, wait!" Grabbing her wrist, Sungchan pulled the girl into a hug, "Stay? Please?"

As much as she wanted to stay, Maya felt her mind screaming at her to go and run. Listening to her heart was what she chose, to selfishly stay in his warmth for as long as he wanted.

"You know I love my cuddles, Channie." And so, they just ended up cuddling on comfortable silence.