pavement ↠ kim sunwoo

twelve

Kevin was a sweetheart, truly. Hana actually enjoyed hanging out with him and the rest of the study group.

Although she knew the day would come that she would find out they weren't genuine.

She tried her best not to doubt them, especially Kevin. "I promise, I'll bring you a souvenir back from Europe."

"You better," the boy chuckled, closing his biology book. "But don't tell the rest, they'll get jealous."

"Why would they get jealous?" Hana asked, shrugging. The statement never appeared to be strange to her at the time. "You're my closest friend here."

"Really?" Kevin gushed. "Well, I always wanted to visit Poland. Could you bring me one from there?"

"I'll see what I can do," the girl joked, before nodding. "Of course I can."

She spent more time with him at school, avoiding her usual crowd was something of a statement to her. She was moving forward to people who actually wanted to spend time with her.

The group would wave to her at the cafeteria, but she would simply bow and walk towards Kevin and his friends. They were viewed as somewhat 'geeks', but Hana didn't mind. Of course she didn't. She just craved real friends.

"They're awfully close," Sunwoo spoke into Changmin's ear at the lunch table.

"And?" The boy replied annoyingly. He had noticed.

The red haired boy sighed, shaking his head as he looked at his tray. "Don't let it happen again, man."

After school, Hana found herself at the biology classroom, looking up at the results board. It was then tears pricked her eyes.

The next day, she didn't feel much better. Betrayed perhaps was the better word to describe how she felt.

For the first time, Chun Hana was late to class. Everyone noticed.

Instead, she was five minutes early to a class that wasn't her own.

That's where she found him, sitting in the corner beside his best friend she had become to know as Jacob. They laughed together, sweet as cherry pie.

"Why wasn't I credited in the biology project?" She asked from the front of the class, random eyes darting towards her.

"Uh-" Kevin stuttered. It was the first time she had seen that.

"I contributed," Hana continued, seeing his fearful eyes. "Just as much as anyone else did. Now I've failed. I'm failing a class I put in work for. How does that make sense?"

"Maybe it's a misunderstanding?" Jacob suggested, but Hana could see through it.

"Why?" She snapped, directing her anger at Kevin. "Why would you do that to me?"

The boy simply looked ahead with an emotionless face. It was rare to see him this blank and void of expression.

"I thought I actually meant something to you," Hana let her thoughts escape her mouth. "How naive am I?"

With tears upon her face, the girl turned to exit the classroom.

Her shoulder nudged off the one person she hated to show weakness before, as Sunwoo stood motionless at the doorway.