off limits ✧ zb1 applyfic

✧ forty five

Finally, for the first time in a bit, Haewon and Hao had a moment of respite. The two were comfortably in her room, spending time together, yet doing their own things. Hao was lying on Haewon's bed, scrolling through his phone, while she had her head on his lap, a book in her hands. Since Haewon was always studying, it was hard to find time for Hao. But simply coexisting like that, even without talking to each other, was miles better than being separated. And his presence always managed to calm down any of the anxiety she had about her studies and future career and all the worries that came with it.

Sometimes, she wondered how she would fare when she would go back to California. All these years apart, she'd learned to rely only on herself. But now that she'd dipped her lips back into the addictive poison that was Hao... Getting sober again would be much harder.

Hao's nails clicked against his phone, as he tensed up under her weight. "By the way, did you get any more texts from that Caihong girl?" he asked, glancing at her through the corner of his eye.

Haewon closed her book, her thumb keeping it marked to the page she'd been reading. "No, nothing." She rolled over onto her back to be able to look at him. "And you? Has she followed you or something like that?"

"She didn't. Hmm, maybe our talk actually worked and she's leaving us alone."

"That would be great..."

Too often these days, Haewon found herself constantly looking over her shoulder, to make sure Caihong wasn’t following behind. She always worried whenever Gyuvin would go out, even though she knew he was more than capable of defending himself. But that girl hadn’t made a peep since Hao had had that conversation with her. It seemed the threat of revealing everything to her father had been the nail in the coffin. Hopefully, at least.

"Hey, you know what?" Hao turned his head away from his phone, and grinned. "To get our minds off of this whole thing, let's get started on organizing that beach trip."

Immediately, Haewon let her book close itself. She would have to look for that page again later, but she couldn’t care less at this moment. Her hands holding her weight, she sat up, and cozied up next to Hao, laying her head on his shoulder. He'd already pulled up a car rental website on his phone.

"So, it's two hours to Sokcho. We can rent a car for about... 50,000 won, if we want to have it for two days. That way we don't have to worry about rushing to give it back."

Haewon hummed in response.

"Should we leave early morning, so we have as much time as possible? I'm thinking that if we leave at eight, we can just eat breakfast in the car, and we'll get there at ten." He continued on his tirade. "Traffic should be okay if we go back after six in the evening, but that means we'll still be on the road come dinner time. In which case, we could just get snacks in advance, or we could stop on the road. But then, that would..."

Hao stopped, and looked down towards Haewon, who had been silent the whole time. Feeling his eyes on her, she straightened up slightly, already embarrassed. A question had been on the tip of her tongue ever since they'd started talking about the beach trip, but she was a bit afraid of asking it. It was hard to predict how he would react.

"You're quiet," he observed, his eyebrows creasing. "Is everything alright?"

"Yes. It's just..." She tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, and bit the inside of her cheek. "Listen. I really want to spend time with you, and I'm excited for this trip, but... Would it bother you if we went with friends?"

As she'd somewhat expected, Hao's face fell, and he blinked in confusion. She knew how much he'd wanted to spend this day only with her, but after giving it a bit of thought, she wondered if, maybe, it wasn't better being in a group. Disappointing him had never been her intention, but honesty and openness had always been a core principle of their relationship. She would've felt bad keeping it to herself and just going with the flow. And she knew Hao liked it better too, when she spoke her mind.