beliefs ° 2kim

chapter 4

"we meet again."

chaewon tilts her head to the side, thinking, 'who are you...?'. the boy bends down to carry the cat in his arms. "you're not wearing your earphones this time. don't blame it on me if you lost it," he says smiling before walking away.

before he could go further, he turns around one more time to face the girl, and reaches something inside his pocket. "number."

when the boy walked away, someome suddenly touches chaewon's shoulder, making her startle. "who was that?!"

"nako! i thought you were a dog!" chaewon exclaims, holding her chest. nako raises an eyebrow, looking at the girl with sharp eyes. "really? a dog? you're avoiding my question," she says, crossing her arms, rolling her eyes.

chaewon doesn't know the guy too. he's no one to her. he knows her, though. he had seen her in school multiple times, but never got to interact with her.

"i don't know him either! we just exchanged numbers so we can contact each other if his cat escaped their house again or if i saw his cat again," chaewon says defensively. she didn't lie, it's the excuse that the boy said. he doesn't like her yet, but it's obvious he got interested in her.

chaewon looks into her phone, and reads the saved contact.

'cho sehun'

that's his name.

──┈ ➳

a girl stops checking herself out in the mirror when she saw the cat. "bomi!" her eyes light up, walking to the cat to reach it. "where did you find her?" she asks his brother who is taking his shoes off. "she was playing with someone."

the girl nods and nuzzles bomi's head on her neck. "i missed you, baby." sehun plops down the sofa before asking his sister something, "who was the guy with you earlier?" his statement caught his sister off gaurd. she didn't answer at first, until her brother called her name again, "yuina."

she stands up and looks away. "a friend of mine." sehun raises both of his eyebrows. "friend? why did he seem so touchy?" the girl rolls her eyes and says, "we're that close. that's why," before running upstairs and locks herself in her room.

sehun brushes his fingers against his face, sighing with the disrespectful manner his sister gave. their parents are divorced and their mom died, so he has to take care of his sister. their aunt used to be the one taking care of both of them until sehun became legal and now able to take care of himself and his sister.

the world is dangerous. he needs to look out for the both of them, especially his younger sister who grew up to be stubborn.

'are they friends with benefits or something?' sehun asks in his mind, turning his phone of, completely disgusted by the video he played about his sister and a boy.

he stands up and heads to the kitchen to cook dinner.

──┈ ➳

the doorbell rings as minju fixes the flowers she received earlier in a vase. she opens the door, seeing her kind-of-favorite-cousin, chanwoo. "hey, cous," he greets. "what are you doing here?" minju asks, continueing to fix the roses.

chanwoo didn't answer minju's question. "where did you get those?" his cousin turns around to face him and answers, "someone gave them to me." chanwoo continues to ask about it. "who?"

minju rolls her eyes at her cousin being nosy. she's used to it, though. chanwoo just doesn't want a quiet atmosphere. besides, your mouth will be dry if you don't talk.

"a guy from school. i don't remember his name." chanwoo laughs and says, "you don't remember his name? that's my bestie." he raises his hand for a high five, but minju didn't take it. "he never told ne his name. i just saw his name plate, but now i forgot his name."

sometimes, minju wants to go to the doctor to check if she has memory loss or something. "okay, whatever. i was expecting it was from the girl who gave you cookies." minju sits down the couch, and says, "chaewon? she gave me a daisy earlier. i don't know if she took it back or i just lost it."

chanwoo looks at minju and suddenly asks, "is there something going on between the two of you?" minju rests her cheek on her palm and says, "no, but if i'm going to tell the truth, she likes me... for a long time, now."

"did you ever give her a chance?"

minju sighs, "no, i don't really want to brainwash her that i like her back because i don't, but i don't want to push her away just like that either."

"the girl seems nice. if she is, she'd appreciate it if you'd reject her politely," chanwoo says, sitting back. minju can't help but question in her mind, 'how do you reject someone politely?' chanwoo continues so speak, "you can't not hurt her feelings whether how you reject her, but you'll just keep hurting her if you keep welcoming her in your life. do you realize that she only gives you material things to express her love because she knows you won't accept her if she expresses it in an emotional way? she still has her own life, yet she does everything for you and none for herself. i think that the least you could do is bring her back to her life."

chanwoo spoke like he knew everything that's going on. minju can't believe she's getting advice from a man who never got into a serious relationship, but that's not the point. he is right, there is no way you can reject a person without hurting their feelings, but if that person is soft and kind, they'd appreciate it if you reject them in the kind way. but why do we have to reject them in the kind way when you can just reject them right away? they'd hate you for that, but the result for them is just the same if you rejected them kindly. they'll move on and eventually focus on their world. maybe even find someone knew.

the only difference is your image. it's on being selfish or selfless. it would ruin your image if you rejected them like you want to hurt their feelings. some people do that because they don't actually care about the people who like them, and some people would do it for the person's own good, even if it would change how people would look at them. it's up to minju on how she'll reject chaewon, but either way, she just wants chaewon to actually look for herself, she barely does something for herself. she's losing self-love because of minju.

tomorrow, she'll try to tell the truth to chaewon. "by the way, i came here to tell you that i'm going to throw a party by the end of the week. invite your friends." maybe not tomorrow, then.

oh, minju, you're going to make a mistake.

⊹ ┈──┈ ⊹