off limits ✧ zb1 applyfic

✧ ninety one

Coming to a skating rink, only to not skate, might have been a little odd. But Hao had his reasons. You see, he simply had to sulk and look like he wasn’t enjoying himself, for one simple reason: this hangout was all Yanmei's idea. And yes, she had helped him a bit with Haewon, but that didn't mean he was ready to simply forget the way she'd treated him all those years. So, out of principle, Hao had opted not to skate, and was sitting at a table near the rink, overlooking all of his idiot friends skating around.

It had nothing to do with the fact he knew he couldn’t skate to save his life, and that he didn’t want to look ridiculous in front of his girlfriend.

"Everyone seems to be having fun," Haewon remarked before sipping her juice.

In all of her kindness, Haewon had decided to forgo skating and stay by his side — or maybe she wasn’t so good at it either. Needless to say, Hao was glad to spend any moment with her, even if it were small. The date of her departure was drawing closer, and if memories were to be the only thing he would have until they would meet again, he needed to make as many as possible. Just sitting at a table with her was enough.

Yeah, he didn’t need to skate to bond with his girlfriend. Take that, Yanmei.

"I guess they are," he grumbled, his chin resting in his hand. "I still don’t know why she organized all that though. Seems out of character."

Haewon huffed out. "You're really something, you know? She's just—" Before she could continue her scolding, the sound of Gyuvin nearly crashing into the barrier of the rink made the both of them flinch. She widened her eyes for a second and, when she was sure he was safe and sound, chuckled lightly. "Wow, he's really not good at this. Guess that runs in the family."

Hao would have laughed along, were it not for the way her gaze shifted in the next instant. As she stared at her brother, the light in her eyes dimmed, and her grip around her glass tightened. She tried to conceal the sigh that came out of her lips, but he had caught it. Hao knew the cause for her sadness, but couldn’t get himself to talk about it. It hurt him, too.

"I can't believe I'm already leaving in a few weeks," she murmured, mostly to herself.

The tone of her voice told Hao he needed to lighten up the atmosphere, to bring a bit of a laugh to an otherwise heartbreaking matter. But his body was as if petrified, and all he could was nearly sprawl himself over the table, his lips in a pout.

"I don't want to be alone," he whined exaggeratedly. "What am I even gonna do with my days?"

That at least seemed to get a chuckle out of her, as wistful as it was. "Oh, Hao, you’ll be so busy you won’t even see the time pass."

"I'm not so sure," he muttered under his breath.

It seemed like, every time she left the room, every clock would slow down, come to a stop. Hao barely even tolerated being in his own home anymore — every second spent alone felt like precious time wasted. Just a bit of waiting, then they would have forever, he always tried to convince himself. But this summer with her had already spoiled him. To think that, soon, he would not be able to see her face any time he wanted, was grueling. Texts and video calls just weren't the same. Who would hold his hand, when he needed someone to soothe him? If only someone had invented teleportation in this century...

Haewon already seemed to have pushed all the emotion down. "You know, I thought about organizing a party for my departure, but I definitely don't have the time for that. Plus I'll probably spend my last evening here with my family, or else poor Gyuvin will be so sad."

Her words pulled him out of his spiral of lamentations, and a lightbulb appeared above his head.

A party, huh? He hadn’t even thought about it, too eager to keep her to himself as much as possible. If it were to happen a little bit before her departure, she would still be able to spend that evening with her family. A party was exactly how they'd been reunited, it only seemed fair for it to mark their (temporary) end, too. And he was sure having all her friends by her side one last time would make her happy. Organizing a party couldn’t be that hard, could it? Well, no matter the difficulty, if it made Haewon happy, it was one hundred percent worth it.