I was working silently in a laboratory practical lesson the next day, when Hyuk suddenly stormed into the lab yelling things towards me to get my attention.
"Mirae, let me talk to you!" He said as he tried to walk towards me but was held back by the professor at the door for disturbing the class. "You got it wrong! Let me explain!"
I avoided eye contact by staring down at my desk throughout the whole thing, remaining unresponsive like the skeleton model beside me. Pretending not to hear or see anything was the best I could do at that moment, but a part of me wanted to look at him. I knew though that the moment I give in to this, I would be sucked right back into his world all over again...as entertainment.
The following days I really didn't hear from him anymore and didn't catch any sight of him, not even the sound of the piano playing late in the evenings anymore. It did make me wonder what he was up to, but I assumed it was probably just because he must've gotten bored and gave up. It felt strange though, walking through the university and the grounds on my own again.
Wherever I looked, there was a memory between me and Hyuk that lingered behind because he had constantly been together with me. I thought back on the oak tree where we would always sit together and he would play his guitar and sing for me, and how he would always wait outside for me. It really felt so strange without him, but I knew I was just going to have to get through this somehow. This time was a million times harder than how it had been the first time, and I wasn't quite sure I could recover again.
The next day I decided to go into university for an early start with the heart cell project. I was in the lab preparing the required materials to dissect a pig heart when I found a letter and a small glass bottle attached to it. It looked like a potion with pink liquid inside it and I had no clue what it was. I opened the letter to find some chemical equation in it that made absolutely no sense, but the solution to it read 'love potion'.
I raised an eyebrow, wondering what this was all about and then also read the tag on the potion glass which read, 'I made the equation up it's just pink lemonade'.
I couldn't help but chuckle, smiling like an idiot and looked up when I noticed someone walk into the lab. I tensed up when I realised it was Hyuk and watched him as he carefully and slowly walked up to me. He stood in front of me with a hint of timidity in his usually smug smile, something I had never seen before.
"Mirae-"
"Stop..." I fixed my gaze to the floor. "I don't want to hear anymore." I lied, because I knew that I wanted to know what all of this meant, but I was scared of getting hurt all over again. I didn't have the strength to raise my hopes and fall hard over and over.
There was a moment of hesitation in Hyuk, and I realised what I was scared of the most right now wasn't hearing what he had to say, but that he was really going to turn around and leave.
I nervously clenched my hands into fists by my sides as I listened to the clock on the wall ticking and painstakingly waited for the moment he would step away.
"Just leave..." I heard myself whisper in contrary to what my heart wanted. I was saying things that I didn't really want to say, because I was simply holding up a barrier of defence around me.
Instead of leaving, Hyuk suddenly pulled me into his arms and held me against his broad chest. I gasped as I stood motionless and flustered, still too shocked to realise what had just happened. His embrace was warm and gentle, yet firm enough so that I couldn't slip away again. My heart was racing insanely fast and I became paranoid that he would hear or feel it in such close proximity.
"W-what are you doing?!" I stammered and tried to pull back. "Hyuk, let-"
"I'm sorry."
I stopped moving when I heard those words, suddenly at a loss of words.
