winter flower ; zhong chenle

nineteen

a few months had passed since that day with chenle, and now it was graduation day for renjun, jeno, donghyuck, yangyang, and shotaro. the five were at donghyuck's house getting ready and areum ran in.

"you guys are graduating! wow! now who's gonna beat up the bullies for me." areum fake cried, hugging renjun. they all laughed, "you'll be fine, areum. you have chenle, jisung, and sungchan. and you know chenle will beat up anyone who messes with you."

it was true. areum knew that. everyone did. areum and chenle shared a bond. they meant a lot to each other. "areum, mom told me to tell you to pick up flowers on your way." areum nodded and headed out, "i'm gonna head out now. see you guys at your graduation, oldies."

before they could yell at her, areum ran out of the room. she put on her heels and grabbed her coat and keys, heading out to the car. she was picking up sungchan so she texted him that she was on her way. once she pulled up to his house, she knocked on the door.

instead of sungchan, his older brother jaehyun opened the door. he smiled, saying, "hi, sungchan will be down in a few-" he stopped mid-sentence, finally looking at the girl. she looked beautiful. jaehyun knew that he had feelings for her but he also knew that he was in college, and she was in high school. they were four years apart, so he couldn't act on said feelings.

"you look very pretty." he complimented, scratching the back of his neck and she smiled, "thanks, jaehyun! you also look very pretty." she joked and he smiled again, "thank you, areum. how have you been?"

"i've been good! kind of sad that my brother is graduating, but it's okay! how are you?"

"i'm good. just working a lot." he chuckled, his dimples getting more defined. areum nodded understandingly, and before she could say anything else, sungchan came. "let's go." he said, grabbing her wrist and pulling her to the car. "bye jaehyun. nice seeing you again."

jaehyun smiled, shaking his head, "damn, she's cute." he mumbled to himself, closing the door. sungchan and areum got in the car, sungchan immediately plugging up to the aux.

before pulling out, areum got a text from jisung.

message from 'ji!'. click to open.

ji!
hey so i need a ride. my car broke down. can you pick me up?

yeah. i just got sungchan, i'm on my way.

ji!
thank you so much, you're the best!
[seen]

areum drove to jisung's house and he immediately came out, "okay mom. yes i know... i won't!" he shouted as he finally closed the door, rolling his eyes. "eomma issues?" sungchan joked as jisung got in the back and jisung hit him in the head, "shut up."

the three drove off and arrived at a flower shop. "why are we here?" jisung asked, naturally gravitating towards areum. "my mom asked me to pick up flowers for hyuck." the two nodded. they got some flowers and were on their way to the school.

when they got there, the boys went to sit on the bleachers for friends while areum went to go sit with her mom, dad, and close cousin taeyong. "taeyong!" she smiled, hugging her cousin. "areum, hi! how have you been?" he asked, wrapping an arm around his cousin's shoulders.

"i'm good! how's college?"

"it's okay. just finding it weird that i'll be a junior." areum nodded, "yeah. i'll be a senior." taeyong's eyes widened, "you'll be a senior? i thought you were a sophomore!"

"nope! i'm a junior."

"god, you're getting old. you have to come to university! i'll even introduce you to my friends!" areum chuckled, "i was planning on going anyway."

the graduation had finally begun and as soon as they called donghyuck's name, areum felt tears roll down her cheeks as she clapped. then it really hit her. donghyuck, her only sibling, graduated and is going to college.