priorities | go eunhyeok

[ 16 ]

Today is Saturday. Su-ae, Eunhyeok, Junho, and I are meant to meet up to do a 'Language Performance Assessment' project today. I'm sitting down on the bus in a singular seat and Su-ae is sitting in the one in front of me.

I threw on a casual outfit this morning and did my hair. It was 14:45 now and the bus slowly drove until it came to a stop at our destination.

Su-ae informed me that she texted Junho while we were on the bus but he never read her message.

We walked on the sidewalk next to each other and I had one earbud in my ear listening to music while we made our way to his house. When we arrived in front of his gate, Su-ae stepped up to the doorbell and rang it.

"Do you think we're too early? We agreed on 15:00, but it's only 14:50 right now..." I asked as I turned my phone on to once again confirm the time to myself.

When I look up, the sound of the door being pulled open is heard and we are both met with the sight of Eunhyeok with wet hair and a towel sitting atop his head. Did he just get out of the shower?

When he leaned his head out of the door, you could see the droplets falling from his hair as they landed on the stone tile underneath us. I stare at him but he immediately pulls me out of my trance.

"Huh? Why are you guys here so early?" he asked, confused.

"The bus arrived at the stop earlier than we expected," I explained, shrugging and feeling my cheeks get slightly warm.

"Okay, come in," he said, and then turned on his heels to lead us inside.

Su-ae stepped in front of me and followed him first. As he went ahead, Su-ae stopped to allow her eyes to wander around the beautifully decorated and elegant hallway.

"Wow... he's totally rich! I guess his family is super wealthy," Su-ae covers her mouth partly as she leans into my ear, whispering.

"Yeah, I guess," I shrug once again and stop in front of a huge family portrait that takes up a large portion of the wall. Eunhyeok's parents are sitting in chairs as he stands behind them. It looks like it was taken a couple of years ago considering how much younger he looks to be in the portrait.

"What are you guys doing? Aren't you coming?" Eunhyeok comes back over to us, towel still draped across the top of his head.

I begin to follow him and Su-ae does the same. He leads us to the living room, and we all take a seat on the floor around the coffee table on the carpet. It is awfully silent but I don't feel like being the first one to talk. Eunhyeok and I have our arms crossed and Su-ae makes a funny face down at her phone.

"Wh-why isn't Junho here yet?" She stutters nervously and scrolls around on her phone. "Oh, never mind. He said that he's sick now, so he can't make it."

"Yeah, sure. I doubt he's actually sick," I roll my eyes. Junho has a reputation of doing this whenever he has a class project to do.

Nevertheless, we get to work and no conversation is really made. Honestly, we could've all done this separately at home. We wrap up after a while and we all pack our papers away.

"Let's prepare the PPT and presentation with Junho next week," Eunhyeok suggests. Before attempting to leave, he waves bye to me and I smile, waving goodbye back. He doesn't make an effort to interact with Su-ae. She's probably been pushing his buttons way too much for him to feel the need to be polite anymore.

Su-ae looks down as if she's thinking hard about something, she stands up and then says, "Hey, Eunhyeok."

He freezes, and I do too. Not this again.

"Will you hear me out just one more time? Then I promise I won't bother you again," She pauses. I take the opportunity to try to stop her.

"Su-ae, enough with this-"

She cuts me off. "After this, I'll give up and drop it. Just hear me out." I roll my eyes and stay on the floor.

"Sit down, Su-ae." Eunhyeok's voice fills the room. She complies and takes a seat on the carpet. Her gaze is glued to the floor and she fidgets with her thumbs, before pulling out a sheet of paper from her tote bag.

"Did you really prepare a script?" He asks.

"So what?! I've been carrying this around just in case because you wouldn't listen to me before. Anyways, here are the reasons why I think you and I should pretend to date."

My heart pangs with a sharp emotion. Maybe hurt. Or sadness.

Su-ae continues to read off her reasons.

As the time goes by, I feel myself starting to get heavy. I'm not crying but my eyes are somewhat filled with tears. I unconsciously find myself hiding my face from the two but I know they aren't paying attention to me.

"Reason 6, you like Ra-im," Su-ae lists off her final reason.

Wait, does he like Ra-im? I haven't seen them hangout in forever. Is this something that he's only told Su-ae?

I stop thinking when Eunhyeok shakes my shoulder lightly. I guess he noticed me zoning out. When his attention is back on Su-ae I turn away.

At this point, I think that I'm practically choking back a sob. I feel dramatic but nevertheless I can't listen to Su-ae's plan anymore.

"I'm going to go to the bathroom..." I quietly mutter but they don't say anything to me. I don't even know if I've said it out loud with the way that they didn't even react. I stumble around the hallways, in search of a bathroom. When I find one, I sit down on the floor and feel light tears fall down my face.

I shouldn't even be crying in the first place. Nothing has happened and all they're doing is talking about the plan they might do. I guess I do really like Go Eunhyeok.

If he likes Ra-im though, then there's absolutely no hope for me. Also considering the fact that Su-ae is keeping up her idea of a cheating plan with him.

After around five minutes of just sitting in the bathroom, someone knocks on the bathroom door and I jolt up from the ground, wiping my tears with the backs of my hands. I stare at my reflection in the mirror above the sink. I don't look too bad. The tears were only small and thankfully I didn't wear any mascara. My face would've been a mess. Though you can still tell that I've been crying with the way that my eyes and nose are slightly red.

"Y/N? Are you in there?" I hear Eunhyeok's voice and he knocks again.

I wait and try to calm myself down, attempting to make my voice sound as non-shaky as possible. "Yeah, give me a second."

I take one more look at myself in the mirror and hesitantly open the door.

His eyes bore down into mine and I smiled at him lightly. I begin to pray in my mind that he doesn't notice how I had been crying.

"Hey... are you okay?" His voice is so gentle that I could cry again right then and there. His hand grazes my cheek but I begin to walk back to the living room to get my stuff.

"Yeah. I'm fine." I try not to make my voice sound really nasally.

"Did something happen?" He asks again but this time his hands are reaching for my shoulders.

I slowly back away and shake my head, grabbing my stuff.

"Hey, Y/N. The bus will be here soon. Let's go now, okay?" Su-ae calls from the front door. I look at Eunhyeok one more time and wave bye.

I think that Eunhyeok notices that I don't want to talk about whatever is wrong with me. I silently thank him for that. He walks me to the door and I leave with Su-ae. I can't even bear the action of walking next to her, so I trail behind her and she doesn't seem to notice.

When we arrive home, I go straight to my room and sleep.

I just want this day to be over.