𝐓𝐎 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔

𝟎𝟗 ── "𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧'𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬."

"So I've made up my mind...to put in my everything"

With every breath and every second which was felt between the rising tension in the air, both Yeoreum and Jun stood there, staring at eachother intensely. It seemed that they had so much to say each other yet one thing or another were holding them back.

"Into what Jun?" Yeoreum asked, her heart thumping so loud within her chest she could barely hear her own thoughts. He doesn't like me...does he?

Does she like me...? Surely not... A faint voice found its way into Jun's head as he stared at the girl in front of him which seemed to look at him was anticipation. Anticipation for what however he didn't know.

"Into helping you..." the boy continued. Trying to shake off the thought from his head. He figured that if he couldn't get Yeoreum to stop hanging out with Dohyun, he might as well join them.

The thumping came to a halt and suddenly everything seemed clear to Yeoreum. She had gotten ahead of herself, a piece of hope she couldn't dare to have yet. Of course he doesn't like me.

"Help me with what? Grocery shopping?" A faint chuckle escaped from her lips as she tried not to show that she was disappointed. Although she couldn't exactly be disappointed when she hadn't thrown out any hints of her crush in the first place.

Jun rubbed the back of his neck as he directed his gaze to the floor and back up at Yeoreum, "I'll probably look like a hypocrite but I wanna help you with Harim."

Yeoreum seemed to be stunned, not finding the right words to leave her lips as she stared at the boy in front of her. The boy who was so engrossed with his studies and had no time for anything else. The boy who she had known since they were thirteen who didn't like to meddle in other people's business was the one after six years, suddenly volunteering to help her with someone else's business. She couldn't help but be filled with scepticism as she watched Jun for a few seconds, trying to scrutinise his expression. Just what is he thinking?

"Why though? Wasn't it you a few weeks ago saying that I shouldn't bother with Harim's case as the worlds of adults is scary and whatnot?" The girl tried to make sense of Jun's proposal, "—you literally told me to stop hanging out with Dohyun because he'd be a bad influence..."

Slightly embarrassed that she had memorised what he had told her Jun let a small chuckle escape his lips which trailed off as he noticed Yeoreum still looked as serious. "Yeoreum don't you want me to help...? I thought you'd be happy..."

"Jun I'm not a kid. Of course I'd be happy that my best friend wants to help me, but I'm also not stupid enough to realise that this isn't without cause.  Especially when you were so against it. So what is it? What made you change your mind." Yeoreum's eyes gazed into the taller boy's ahead of her, her caramel coloured eyes glistening in the warm spring sun. The birds continued to chirp, her short black hair seemingly dancing to its song.

She couldn't help but pry further, a small bit of hope still within her that maybe he'd give her a small hint. A small hint that there was a reason that he changed her mind and that it was because he liked her too.

"Jun-"

"—it's because we've been drifting apart... we haven't properly hung out since late March, and it's nearly may."

Yeoreum's heart seemed to sink to her feet as she heard Jun's words. It seemed like all of her hope had been shattered beneath her feet. She swallowed hard as she tried to hide the truth within her.

"Oh..."  The short haired girl knew herself that she had been drifting apart from Jun, yet she didn't know how to fix it. Yet for Jun to bring it up first, she couldn't tell if it was something she was grateful for or not. For some reason she didn't want to address it. She was scared that if she did, they wouldn't be able to fix it, and like that would eventually fall apart. Just as she did with Eun.