사랑시 (Twinkling Watermelon ff)

1. Free Fall

Yeon Yi-joo

“I told you not to wait, eomma”

My mother was waiting for me for having breakfast together. I really appreciated that as she didn't want me to eat alone, but she was already getting late for work.

“It's fine, darling”, she passed me the plate of pancakes as I dug into it.

“You free today?” She questioned.

“I'm hanging out with Eungyeol”, I took a sip of my coffee.

“A date?”

“It's not a date, eomma. Eunho Oppa is also joining, and how many times do I have to tell you we are just friends?”

“Okay, okay, I won't ask again”, she gave up.

She left soon for work, after telling me that we will be going for shopping in the evening and have dinner outside today.

Sounds like a good plan.

“Have fun, darling. And can you give this to Aunt Chungha? She was complaining about her back pains yesterday”, mom gave me a box of ginseng medicine and left the house after having her breakfast.

“Take care, eomma”

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

“Found them”

I spotted the Ha brothers from the transparent glass wall of the cute café we were supposed to visit.

“You are late”, Eungyeol, my best friend, glared at me.

“You are early”, I narrowed my eyes, glaring him back.

(Underlined dialogues are conversations in sign language)

“How are you, Oppa?” I smiled at Eunho Oppa, Eungyeol's older brother, as I took a seat beside him.

“I'm handsome as always and you're looking pretty as always too," he replied, making me all flustered.

“I feel like throwing up”, Eungyeol acted out.

I rolled my eyes, totally ignoring his existence, and asked Oppa what he wanted to eat and made my way to the counter as Eungyeol followed me. Eungyeol pulled my back and ordered, asking me to go back and sit, being a gentleman. I walked back to the seat, looking at Eunho Oppa taking photos.

“Can I join?”

“Of course, pretty one”, he clicked our selfie and posted it on his insta.

According to Eungyeol, in sign language they do not call people with their name as it becomes complicated, so instead they give people a nickname based on their features, and hence Eunho oppa, Uncle Ha and Aunt Chungha always called me pretty one.

Eungyeol came back with our order. While talking about Eunho Oppa's new pretty girlfriend, we ate our order.

Six years ago, Eungyeol's family moved to my next door after they went through a horrible fire accident. Luckily, nobody got hurt. Since then, the Ha family was being nothing but kind to us. Because it was only me and my mother at our home, I was always lonely as mother used to go to work. So I started to hang out with the Eungyeol's family. Ever since then, we started getting closer to each other, our mothers became friends and I finally got to go on family trips in every summer vacation. At this point, the only thing between us was the wall between the two houses.

“Your phone”, Eungyeol eyed at my phone as it started vibration.

“Hello?” I picked up the call.

It was my fellow trainee under DP Entertainments.

“Why aren't you still here? Everyone is here”, She whisper screamed.

“What are you talking about, minhye?”

“They are announcing the final lineup and the debut song in 10 minutes. They didn't tell you?”

“Oh my fuckin- I'M COMING”, I cut off the call, standing up from my chair.

“What's wrong?”

“I'll tell you later”, I hurriedly replied Eungyeol and ran out of the café and jumped into a taxi to my agency.

It was a fifteen minute ride.

“Can you please go a little faster, Ahjussi?” I requested the driver.

But one thing didn't make sense.

Why was I the only person who didn't receive any heads-up?

I reached the building in 13 minutes. I scanned my ID card and ran towards our practice room.

“Minhye?” I saw her all curled up on the ground hiding her face.

“What's wrong?” I held her face up and saw her redden eyes and tear stains.

“We didn't make it," she cried out loud.

No fucking way.

I didn't believe her words. The producer said that we both were the most eligible trainees to debut last week on the monthly evaluation test. It didn't make any sense.

“Wait for a minute”, I gave her a pat and opened the door of the practice room.

But as soon as I did that, my heart made a free fall.

That was my song.

And I didn't remember giving them permission to use it.