WAVING THROUGH THE WINDOW | 김선우

17 ʟɪғᴇʟɪɴᴇ

"feelings are hard to understand, they're delicate and can lead to a disaster if we're not careful"

"Jung Gyeoul?"

Ah, shit, of all fucking places...

"Is that you, Jung Gyeoul?" she asked, following Gyeoul who had her face down trying to avoid being seen by the girl, "Jung Gyeoul from Shinhye Middle school?"

Wincing, she raised her head and slightly chuckled, "Ah, yeah. I'm Jung Gyeoul"

"Oh my! Long time no see! Do you remember me?"

Gyeoul held back a glare and the urge to be rude or sarcastic. She didn't want to cause a scene, not when the 3 boys had their curious eyes on her and especially not when she was so close to just stepping out the door and running home.

Of all places she could run into people she used to know, why did it have to be at an ice cream shop three hours away from where she used to live? And of all the people that she could run into, it just had to be one of the people she resented the most.

"Yeah... Of course... Yang Minji,"

"My 13th reason."

Minji giggled, either oblivious of it or choosing to ignore Gyeoul's attempt to indirectly make her go away. "You're still as funny as ever, Jung Gyeoul,"

After realising she was the only one laughing, she paused to cough a few times then asked, "So this is where you moved, huh?"

"Nope."

Taken aback by the blunt but simple answer, Minji looked around, a little embarrassed, "Why are you here then?"

Gyeoul was getting impatient. She did not want to be in this situation nor did she want to talk to the person standing in front of her. "Do I have to answer that?"

Gyeoul has always been nice, even to strangers she's never met before. But nice people have their moments, right? Well despite being nice, she can honestly say that she could never stand talking to this girl in front of her like nothing ever happened. She was itching to walk away and leave the girl. She didn't want to answer questions nor did she want to catch up with her.

Can this ice cream stop get any worse?

"Noona!"

Jungwon halted after seeing who Gyeoul was with.

The other two boys were far away, trying to act as if they weren't watching the encounter but as soon as they saw Jungwon approaching the two girls, they couldn't help but watch. They didn't expect Jungwon to run over because if he was watching, he wouldn't have run over and butted in unless he really had to. "Oh? Minji noona, what are you doing here?"

The answer is yes. Yes, it can get worse.

"Oh, Jungwon? Why are you here?" Minji asked.

"I was with my friends. We visited the zoo and this new pet cafe—why are you here?" Confusion was written all over his face as he panned his head towards Gyeoul, "And why are you with Gyeoul noona?"

Yep, of course... it definitely can get worse.

"Gyeoul and I used to be friends! Didn't she tell you that?" Minji asked, her annoyingly high-pitched voice almost making Jungwon and Gyeoul wince as they heard it, she was just smiling as if there was something to be happy about with the sudden encounter.

"Hm? Well—uh no, not really, no." Jungwon stuttered. He noticed Gyeoul's discomfort immediately as it was all over her face. He felt that something was off about this interaction.