Love is a Lie

CHAPTER 5 - TOMORROW

<KIHYUN>

"... And now I'm here." I looked around slightly as my story came to an end. It had been a long six years but when I tried coming up with things to say about them, very little came to mind. My trainee days had been hard and action packed, sure, but nothing I particularly wanted to point out, not because it wasn't good or anything, but because it just didn't feel needed.

"With pink hair." Sulli pointed out with a hidden smile I couldn't help but copy.

"With pink hair." I agreed with a nod.

"I like your pink hair. I'm sure everyone is going crazy about it." She chuckled, her hand moving up to cup her red nose, which must have been as cold as red, but I didn't want to push it too much, Sulli had seemed kind of angry at me at first and I really didn't want to poke the bear.

"No one's seen it yet." I admitted, reaching up to pull some of it down from my forehead, "I dyed it earlier today, it's only going to be shown tomorrow." Sulli seemed to have remembered something for she squealed so loud out of nowhere and jumped up on the couch, getting on her knees next to me.

"What colors do the others have?!"

I had to press my lips against each other to stop a laugh from coming out as I realized something I hadn't yet. She liked us. Sulli liked Monsta X and she knew the members and the songs. That filled me with pride for some reason. I decided to mess with her a little.

"Hmmm..." I wrinkled my nose, pretending to think for a few seconds, "I don't know... I don't know if you deserve that kind of privileged information." Sulli narrowed her eyes at me and I couldn't hold my laugh anymore. "Most of them have dark hair. That's all I'm saying for now." Sulli must have been satisfied with that information because she dropped the subject. And we fell in comfortable silence for a few seconds.

"How did you know this is where I live?" She asked quietly, her stare fixed on her hands that lay on her lap. I took a beat before I replied.

"Yesterday you said you moved back home. I didn't even question you meant here." I spoke honestly. I hadn't even thought of the possibility of her having moved somewhere else, which had been pretty dumb of me, come to think of it. "And when I got here, Puppy was inside so I just... stuck around." Sulli didn't say anything about that information, she just nodded. She was being particularly quiet and I couldn't figure out why. "How about you?" I decided to ask to try and get her talking, "What have you been up to?" Again, she took a few seconds, slowly moved her stare to me, and spoke.

"How about we postpone that part of our conversation?" She asked, "You let me know when you have free time and I'll clear my schedule?" That was better than before when she'd told me she didn't want me to come to her at all.

"Deal." I nodded, knowing she was probably right to cut things short right there, I had taken my sweet time and I knew the rest of the group would be having a hard time covering for me if someone realized I was gone. "I'll be on my way, then." Even though I really didn't want to, I got up, and Sulli followed my lead, but as I turned to the door to leave, her hand stopped me, her fingers wrapping around my wrist.

"Wait." She barely gave me time to turn back to her before she continued, "I don't mean anything other than what I'm actually saying with this, but I really am sorry my friends were so dumb and rude. You have to know I would never have sent that." I knew she didn't want me to miss interpret her words as I'm sorry my friends were dumb and rude and made us talk again, but I couldn't help think about it, and how we wouldn't have started texting if it wasn't for them.

"Don't worry about it." I reassured her with a soft smile, "I understand, I know, and it brought more good than bad."

"Thank you." She nodded with a soft smile, "You're awesome." Sulli leaded the way to the door and opened it up for me, only then reaching up to hug me. I wrapped my arms around her like I had before, hugging her back. The rain had subsided substantially, I wasn't going to get home that drenched. "When am I gonna see you again?" I couldn't help but grin knowingly at that.

"Tomorrow." My voice came out simply as we split our hug, and if I didn't know better, I would have said I saw her cheeks going a little red.

"You know what I mean." Sulli pushed her dark hair behind her ear and sniffed a little. I had only say one word and she was flustered already, only because she knew I knew she watched our shows and live streams.

"I'll text you." I promised, pulling my hoodie over my head. At that moment, Puppy came out from the bedroom, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. "Hi buddy, hello Puppy!" I cooed at him, leaning down to pet his head, "I have to go now, but I'll see you soon, okay?" Even though the words were spoken to Puppy, I knew it was a promise I was making to Sulli once again.

I straightened up and walked outside, moving across her front yard. When I turned to the street my eyes fell back on her door. Sulli was still there, leaning against the door frame, Puppy standing next to her. I pulled my phone from my pocket and fired up my texts.

To: Sulli

[22:01PM] – Go inside. Eat. Shower. Warm up.

She must have seen it because when I looked back again, the door was closed.

<Sulli>

I couldn't do anything for the next hour. I just sat there with Puppy's head on my lap, going over what had happened, how I'd gone from shocked, to emotional, to worried, back to emotional, then mad, excited, happy, and ended up sad. 

The first thing I'd done after going inside was try to call Ji-woo, I needed to talk to someone about it, plus, I was worried about him, we hadn't talked in over twenty four hours, and I wouldn't have thought anything of it, but the way we'd left things off still bothered me. He didn't pick up, but I left him a voice message.

"Hey, it's Sulli, I'm worried about you. Something amazing happened today, I can't wait to tell you about it. I miss you. Call me."

And then sent a text saying basically the same thing. If he didn't reply in the next 24 hours, I'd go straight to his house.

It was only when my phone went off that I realized I was still holding it. My heart jumped hoping  it would be Ji-woo, I was starting to worry more and more. It wasn't.

[1 New Text - 23:16PM]

From: Kihyun

Don't forget to eat. I know you haven't eaten dinner yet. Go do that.

I felt awkward, being home alone and smiling at my phone, but I still pressed the call button and waited for two rings before the voice came from the other end.

"Hello?"

"Hi mom. You'll never guess what happened."