stars | park sunghoon

nine

[dec. 11, 24] note: unfortunately, this chapter is a bit shorter than the others (this one is slightly under 2k words, whereas the past two chapters were 3k) :(

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alice laughed when she entered her home with her father. first day of school in new york, it was amazing!

"dad, i made so many friends today," alice giggled. her father giggled as he closed the door behind him.

alice sensed a comforting figure coming from the kitchen. she looked up and her eyes squinted as she smiled even brighter. "mama! mama!"

"hi my sweet girl!" her mother kneeled down with her arms wide open. alice quickly took off her shows and ran as fast as she could into her mother's arms. "i missed you, mama!"

her mother laughed. "it was only for a couple hours!"

alice looked at her mother with a smile. she observed her mother's beautiful face. something was off.

when she noticed her mother's puffy eyes, her face was quickly plastered with confusion. "mama, what's wrong with your eyes? are you sick?"

"huh? oh!" her mother exclaimed, nervously looking at alice and her father. "just allergies, ally."

alice looked at her father, who now had a worried expression on his face. her father, noticing that alice was looking at him, forced a smile.

"ally," he kneeled down. "how about you get a snack? your mother and i made you freezed dried fruits!"

alice's eyes sparkled. "okay, dad!"

she immediately ran off to the kitchen, not paying too much attention to what just occurred.

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chapter 9
wave of emotions

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alice sighed as she took a step into her school. she already wanted to leave. she kept looking forward, music blasting in her ears to wake her up. she forgot to make coffee.

she was stopped in her tracks when someone tugged on her sweater. she took out an earbud, ready to scold the person who did. alice didn't have the patience. it's monday morning.

her anger quickly turned into guilt when she saw sunghoon. "oh, hey sunghoon!" she greeted. how could she yell at sunghoon? especially since he was looking at her with a smile.

"hey!" he waved. "you're early today," he mentioned.

alice nodded as she hissed. "yeah, couldn't sleep."

"same," sunghoon replied.

the two started to walk side by side, keeping a moderate distance. it was silent. alice put her hand in her pocket to take out her earbuds.

"i like your jacket," sunghoon mentioned. "where did you get it?"

"oh!" alice stopped shuffling for her earbuds, looking at her jacket, then sunghoon. she smiled, "this was my uncle's. he usually gives me his old jackets and sweaters." (feel free to imagine the details of her jacket, it's beige c:)

"wow!" sunghoon exclaimed, looking at alice's beige jacket in awe. "your uncle was stylish back in the day, wasn't he?"

"haha! he was!" alice chuckled. "my dad said my uncle had many girlfriends in the past."

sunghoon gave a funny, confused look to alice. they both stopped in their tracks. alice tried to hold in a laugh. sunghoon looked cute when he was confused.