Room 508 - Purinz

Chapter 9 - Miyawaki Sakura's Redemption Arc

It had been a week. An entire week that Chaewon had gone since she last spoke to Yunjin. Yunjin, who up until a week ago, she had spent every single day with. A week, nine hours, and, and forty seven minutes. Not that Chaewon was counting. At the thought, Chaewon dragged her pencil down hard along the page and snapped off the tip again. She threw it down in a huff and hoisted herself onto her bed.

"Ooh, are you being a moody artist again?" Eunchae asked from the other side of the room. Chaewon glared back at her. "Yikes, okay, sorry." Eunchae raised her hands in defense. "So, just wondering in a completely non-judgemental way, are you planning on studying for the finals at all?" She asked. Chaewon gave her a look. "I know you're upset and all, but come on, is it really worth ruining the semester over?" Logically, no, it wasn't. Chaewon knew that, but she also knew that moping made her feel better. "Come on, Chaewon?" Eunchae said, walking towards her. "I'm going down to Chaemin's to study, you're welcome to come. We actually came up with this system where-"

"Eunchae, I'm fine, really." Chaewon said. "I'm gonna study, I just-" She sighed. "I just need a break from all the school stuff for a while."

"Fine." Eunchae sighed. "But if you change your mind you know where to find me." She picked up a few textbooks and left, leaving Chaewon alone.

She tried to take a nap, but couldn't get her thoughts to slow down enough to let her sleep. She was used to feeling like this; tense, distant, but this time it was worse. Everything beyond her room felt too far or too much. Before she could coax herself into studying, there was a knock on the door.

Chaewon buried her head deeper into her pillow, ready to pretend she was asleep once Eunchae came through the door. Normally, she would knock first, then look for her key, always complaining things get lost in her bag when Chaewon would reprimand her. Strangely, the knocking didn't end after a minute like it usually did. Eunchae must've lost the key. Chaewon sat up, barely containing her annoyance as she crossed the room to open the door.

"Can you please stop leaving without your key?" Chaewon huffed into the hallway. Immediately she realized the person in front of her was not Eunchae.

"Hey," Sakura said. "Can we talk?" She asked after a beat, frowning into the crack of the door.

"How did you get up here?" Chaewon asked with barely contained contempt. She hadn't forgotten about the mailroom. In fact, it's all she had been thinking about.

"We still have mutual friends, you know?" Sakura sighed softly, picking at the paint on the doorframe.

"I'm not really in the mood to talk." Chaewon said quietly.

"I'll do most of the talking." Sakura shrugged. Reluctantly, Chaewon opened the door, widening it just enough to let Sakura pass. "So, you're the final stop on the Miyawaki Sakura apology tour." Sakura jokes, clapping her hands down awkwardly at her sides.

"Apology tour?" Chaewon cocked an eyebrow at her. "I thought Miyawaki Sakura doesn't apologize to anyone." She said, mocking. She pulled out her and Eunchae's desk chairs and turned them to face each other, gesturing for Sakura to take one.

"Yeah." Sakura sighed as she sat. "Well, as painful it is for me to admit this, I fucked up." The corners of her mouth were turned up, but her eyes lacked any hint of a smile. Chaewon didn't smile back.

"Why am I the last stop?" Chaewon asked almost accusingly. It was hard not to look at Sakura and think why Thanksgiving was officially her least favorite holiday.

"Because you're the most important." Sakura said seriously. "Look, I'm not really good at this kinda stuff." She sighed. "You have every right to be pissed at me. I put you in some shitty positions more than once, and I'm sorry." Sakura frowned, glancing up at Chaewon's unchanged expression. "I never meant to hurt your feelings or make you uncomfortable. I just thought that I was doing the right thing, you know? I thought it would be fine and Junhan could just come back and we would all be okay."