Fallen Stars

CHAPTER FOUR

The cold of december is not for me. Dressed with two jackets, the second being Sunghoon's and Jae-yun's scarf, I feel the cold still tingling my skin, almost turning it to ice.

After a good few hours of drinking and dancing, we headed to Sunghoon's apartment in Myeongdong. Some more awake, others slightly dizzy. Hee-so and Sawako are behind the group, taking care of Daniy, who got very drunk. Hyemi and her friends are behind us, and I chose to go with the two clothes donors.

"Where will we all nine of us sleep?" Jae-yun asked, steaming from his mouth.

"Minseok told me that Daniy lives nearby, so he will take her home. I told you that another friend will come, so we are eight. I have enough rooms for everyone."

"We were lucky that your parents and brother are on Jeju Island. If we had to come to my house, Saebi would have injected us all with sleeping pills." I say.

"Are you still cold?" Jae-yun cares for me upon hearing the tremor in my voice. "Do you want me to give you the gloves too?"

"I'm fine. I'll hold on until we get there, I don't need it."

He smiles at me, continuing his discussions with Sunghoon.

I wanted to take advantage of the time I was left alone, just me and my thoughts, admiring the quiet snow, but Hyemi took my arm, starting to have a conversation with me. "How are you?"

Very bizarre, she never could stand me. "I'm freezing, you?"

"Oh, you and your sensitive heart. I have a lot of energy!"

"I can see that."

"Sunghoon, do you still have alchool at your place?"

"Yes, I bought some today."

She starts to jump of joy, causing the flakes that have settled on her hair to fall on the layer of snow on the alley.

"You know, I never understood your friendship. How could you never feelings for each other?"

I shrug my shoulders, because I can't explain it either. We became friends in the first year of high school and formed a bond more fraternal than romantic.

"Anyway, I don't think you noticed, but Sunghoon has eyes for you."

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean!The looks, the gestures, the words..."

I try not to laugh when I hear the nonsense coming out of her mouth. "Hyemi, you drank too much. We're just friends."

I immediately look at Sunghoon, who is grinning. Even if he felt something for me, I would avoid everything. Everyone can see the chemistry between him and Hee-so, everyone has seen it since they were little.

I can't say he's ugly, his provocative eyes are the same color as his hair, a very dark brown. He has the physique of an athlete, figure skating really helped him a lot, and from the discussions I heard in high school, many girls have eyes for him.

But, as I said, I wouldn't dare to get between them. I don't know about Sunghoon, but it can be seen from a great distance that Hee-so sympathizes with him. They have something special, only theirs, but which they haven't found yet.

The rest of the way I had to listen to her hints caused by the thousands of glasses of alchool. Like our group would be much more interesting if it was made up of couples, for example Sawako and Jae-yun, both of them are innocent and would look good together. She still held her opinion about me and Sunghoon, we would be the ideal couple and we would do it despite everything. He the captain of the figure skating team and I the captain of the basketball team. But when I asked her about Hee-so, she told me that no one would want her.

"And why do you think that? Hee-so is beautiful and intelligent, her opinions are always to the point, and her judgment is balanced. She always prefers to tell the truth instead of lying. You can't say no one wants her."

"It is in vain as you described her if she is a narcissist. Why are you defending her, everyone knows how she humiliated you."

"Yes, you're right, but if she chose to open her soul to me, why would I care about the past? You don't know her like I do, so you have no right to judge her like that."

Obviously I left her speechless, she knows I'm right, but she doesn't want to admit it. That's how Hyemi is, she would do and say anything to put herself first. That is, we must learn to bear it.

When we got to the front of the building, we said goodbye to Minseok and Daniy, wanting to go up, but Sunghoon stopped us. "Go to the fourth floor, apartment nine. Hee-so, Sawako and Sarang, you'll sleep in my parents' room, Hyemi and Chang-ha, you choose who stays in my room or my brother's." He hands the keys to Jae-yun, continuing his speech. "I will wait for Niki. Don't smoke in my house and don't make noise, I have demanding neighbors."

"You mean no karaoke?" Sawako says, the smile disappearing from her face.

"I wasn't doing it anyway."

She pretends to cry, making us laugh.

"Come on, you can choose which side of the bed you'll sleep on." Hee-so tells her, cheering her up instantly.

"Sarang, can you wait with me?" Sunghoon asks me as Hyemi grabs my arm again, pulling me after her.

"Excuse us, but we were having a conversation." she tells him sharply. "Why her?"

"Because I want my jacket back. And bearable company."

She rolls her eyes, finally revealing her true face. After she also enters the block, after the rest of the group, Sunghoon lights a cigarette and leans on the banister of the stairs.

"Keep the jacket, it was just an excuse." he tells me when he sees me unzipping.

"Thank you for saving me, I don't think I can take it much longer."

"I heard you talk about Hee-so, and I'm grateful. Until now, I thought you still hated her, I didn't even know what a wonderful opinion you had of her."

"My life is too short to hate someone, I just forgive and move on. When I die, I don't want anyone to worry about me."

"Stop talking about it. We know you're going to die and we can't hide it, but why not take advantage of the time we have left together?" he tells me, pulling me into a hug from which I can no longer escape.

"Sunghoon? I didn't know you had a girlfriend."

We move away from each other at the muffled voice. I can't make out who it is, but through the snow that slowly became a blizzard, a figure approaches us.

But the first look I had, it felt like my heart had been stabbed countless times