Lip Balm | Wooyoung

23

Sunday

Despite going to a beach, Hyunmi puts on a warm knitted sweater. She smiles warmly at the soft orange colour, remembering the other two men in shorts.

"Are you ready?" she hears a shout from outside her front door. She recognises the voice to be Wooyoung and quickly grabs a large tote bag with beach blankets before stepping out of the front door.

She beams to him and he returns the smile, the two of them wearing warm clothes. San and Yeosang step out afterwards, still wearing their shorts while holding two bags. "I'm sure it won't be too cold," San states, shrugging off the giggling Wooyoung.

Everyone decides to get into Wooyoung's car, Wooyoung volunteering to drive them all. Hyunmi automatically takes a seat beside Wooyoung, not even noticing San and Yeosang sharing glances with each other while smirking.

Eventually the four arrive at the beach and Wooyoung parks swiftly. 

They hop out of the nicely heated and comfortable car into the crisp outdoors, a strong gush of wind instantly blowing a bunch of Hyunmi's hair out of place. She frowns and frantically moves strands of hair away from her eyes when a pair of larger hands approach her face.

She freezes as Wooyoung carefully moves her hair and tucks it behind her ears, his smile giving enough warmth on this chilly day, despite it being sunny.

A subtle blush forms on Hyunmi's cheeks. "Can we hurry?"

Hyunmi turns around at the sound of Yeosang and laughs as she sees the other two men restlessly moving in their place. They stand tall, but their bare legs shake violently.

"Do you guys finally realise that it's too cold?" Wooyoung grins at his friends' suffering. Yeosang scowls at him. "We're not cold. Let's go."

"Wait! What about the ice cream?" Wooyoung reminds them. The two men look reluctant but in an attempt to look strong, they nod. "Let's go to a shop now."

Hyunmi beams by herself while walking alongside all these men. They don't even realise how much she's enjoying simply being in their presence, no matter what they do. If this is what having friends feels like, she would have gone out of her way to make some years ago.

She can't help but regret the past. But one glance at Wooyoung walking at a steady pace beside her puts her at ease. There's no point regretting the past if all her past choices are the ones that brought her to someone like Wooyoung.

They walk into the heated shop and Hyunmi pretends not to hear San and Yeosang sigh out of relief, their legs not shaking anymore.

The boys all choose their ice creams and Hyunmi decides to have a classic vanilla soft serve ice cream with strawberry sauce and a chocolate flake.

Wooyoung observes Hyunmi making her choice and gets soft serve too, but with blue raspberry sauce.

They now walk out and Hyunmi takes the first lick of her ice cream, the sweet treat ironically warming her insides. She smiles to herself as she takes another lick, savouring the smooth ice cream.

Suddenly Wooyoung's head swoops down to her hand, taking a large bite of her ice cream from the top. He smiles in satisfaction at the look of horror on Hyunmi's face.

"You can't just do that!" she scolds. "Why not? You can have some of mine too," he shrugs, sneakily licking his ice cream more quickly. She furrows her eyebrows and her heart pounds in her chest. "Y-You ate the ice cream that I licked, and you licked your own ice cream too, how will I even eat that now?" she mumbles sheepishly.

Wooyoung raises an eyebrow. "You're worried about me having ice cream that you licked? But haven't we done much more together anyway?" he nonchalantly responds. Hyunmi burns up. "Don't say that so loudly!" she hisses, noticing Yeosang glancing behind at them. Wooyoung smirks in response and silently holds his ice cream out to the side in front of Hyunmi while keeping his eyes facing forward.