Querencia

09

Sitting on the staircase leading to the building, Hana buried her face on her lap, soft wailing was heard escaping her lips whenever people passed by. But, she ain't even care if people heard her, she was sure that they would understand her situation.

She was a hardworking girl, it was her nature since schooldays. Every assignment and project assigned to her would be done diligently, and she would make sure no mistakes existed.

However, the same report as Juyeon's that she submitted earlier was rejected.

The memory of the professor refused to accept it constantly living in her head, tears nonstop falling down her cheeks.

Not until she heard footsteps approaching her and stopped right in front of her.

Slowly lifting her head, she found Juyeon's face at her eye level, sighing as he skimmed hers.

"You're a mess", he complained, passing a tissue to her. "Why must you cry? You can amend it again."

"I can't think", sniffling, she wiped away the tears with the tissue given. "He asked to send the amended one by the next morning and I just can't calm down. I don't know from where to start."

It was then, that she started crying again, this time she was quite loud. Juyeon needed to rub her back, whispering something like 'calm down' as stares were piercing towards him from the passersby.

They must have thought that he was a bad boyfriend who had made his girlfriend cry.

"Hana", he cupped her cheeks accidentally making her look like a fish but surprisingly he had never once laughed at the view. "We still got the time. Come on, let's re-do your report, I'll stay with you."

Hana seemed to agree as she nodded, making Juyeon smile widely, turning his eyes into crescents. He must have been so happy as the girl agreed to his idea.

It was then, that he stood up, taking the girl's hand and dragged her down the stairs without turning back. If only he had glanced over his shoulder to check on her, he must have noticed how frozen Hana was in his touch, her eyes were darted on their intertwining hands all the time.

The journey towards the gate of the college would only take 15 minutes but with his hand wrapped around hers, it felt like 5 hours long. But, that did not mean that Hana cared about it, she would be pleased if it would take up to 15 hours.

As promised, Juyeon stayed there with her at a book cafe whilst she amended the report. Her focus on the laptop's screen was as if she would be sinking into the other dimension through the screen and Juyeon was only sitting next to her, doing his study and answering questions he was asked.

"Do you want a coffee?" he asked, noticing that it was already 7 p.m., remarking that it had been 3 hours since they sat there. However, Hana did not answer or more so she could not hear. "I'll go buy us drinks."

That was only when she finally heard him, nodded and returned to her report. She did not even realize when Juyeon came back or placed the drink beside her laptop. Her mind was too occupied with the dateline of the report submission.

The only thing that distracted her was her ringing phone which she picked up right away, squeezing her tired eyes.

"You two ditched me", Freya complained through the call. "Are you home now?"

"No, still at the book cafe", she yawned, now only she felt too tired.

A dramatic gasp was heard from Freya, startling Hana on the other side. "Girl, it's almost 9 p.m. It has been hours! Where is Juyeon?"

"Juyeon is.." she paused, quite taken aback by the view she was seeing. Yes, Juyeon was still there, head on the table, facing her with closed eyes. "He's sleeping."

Freya then chuckled for what sounded like she was tugging her hair next, "At this point, I'll be insane if you two didn't end up together."

And it then hit Hana hard.

"Why did he do this for me?"

"Ask him", Freya sarcastically said, sighing deeply. "Finish your task faster and make sure Juyeon walks you home afterward. I'm hanging up so you can continue staring at his sleeping face."

It sounded unreal how Freya seemed to have known Hana's plan, but even the latter had to inform, Freya had seen it thousands of times in the past.

And so it was what Hana did afterward - laid her head down so that she could stare at his sleeping face.

She must admit that Juyeon was a nice person and he indeed was a protective guy. She knew he did all of this for her just because it was his nature but from the deep of Hana's heart, she did hope that he did that only for her.

"I've been waiting for you for 10 years", she spoke up, skimming his face. "But you're asking me to go to Kevin. I-"

"Sis, do you have cash with you?"

Like how a lovely scene in a drama was cut by a commercial ad, she was cut by Eric who innocently barged in.

How could she have forgotten that her brother was joining them from the beginning?

"Why must you join us and ruin the moment?" she complained, taking a few notes from her purse and passing it to him.

Eric smirked evilly, pocketing his hands into his jacket.

"I was born to be in the middle of you two."