"The rain fell, so you don't have to worry." /Youjin/

Chapter 9

Eunbin quickly woke up and saw Inhae sat next to her. 'So it was him. Why didn't he wake me?' She realised it's already dark and checked her watch. It's 19.40.

"You're finally awake." He fixed her messy strands of hair out of her face. "You slept peacefully so I felt bad to wake you up, knowing that you were waiting for me."

"But you're here awhile ago, right? You can just wake me up."

"No, I just came here, five minutes ago." He said. "You must be in a really deep sleep."

Eunbin was calculating the time lapse and she was really sure that someone rested her head on their shoulder. But according to Inhae's story, it didn't add up. She let it go and thought it must be her that was really tired.

"You're okay?" Inhae snapped his fingers near her face. "What do you want to eat?"

She stared at him and studied his face. She could see that he had eaten, yet he felt sorry for her. "You ate before you came here. Is it okay for you to eat again?"

"I can eat a lot. Besides, it's a date with you. We should at least dine together." He put his arm around Eunbin's shoulders and nuzzled his nose on her cheek. "So, what do you want to eat?"

She was upset with him few hours ago, but seeing him in front of her erased the thoughts completely.

[Sunday noon]

The neighbourhood was really quiet that noon. Even the narrow alleys and streets were as quiet. No children went out to play. It was really hot that day so everyone stayed out of the heat.

The quiet alley was disturbed by a running pair of short-heeled shoes which echoed through the alley. Yeeun quickly ran to Eunbin's flat, hoping the aircon in her flat was on. She entered the flat building and ran upstairs.

When she was about to reach the fifth floor she saw a tall man was standing near the stairs. It was Youjin, in a basketball jersey tank and shorts. And wet hair. She slowed down her pace and could see that he was throwing his trash.

Youjin noticed Yeeun was staring at him. "What?" He asked flatly. A drop of water fell from his hair.

Yeeun gulped her saliva. "Nothing. I can see you...you, um, just took a shower." She snapped herself and recalled yesterday's encounter. She looked at him differently this time. Like he was hiding something. "Where were you going yesterday?"

"Café." He brushed his wet hair. "Why?"

Yeeun tried hard not to fangirl. "No..no..nothing."

She walked to Eunbin's door with watchful stare from Youjin. She almost tried to tiptoe to Eunbin's door. She knocked the door. Eunbin's voice was heard. As she ran to the door, Youjin went back to his flat and closed his door.

"I don't have vermilion with me, I must have left it at the studio..." Yeeun cut Eunbin mid sentence and shoved her back inside to her flat. "What are you doing?"

"We should talk about this inside." Yeeun said.

Eunbin was sulked yet she let her enter her flat. "You didn't even come yesterday. I slept like a log."

Yeeun's face was stiff. "I did come. But you're already with someone when I get there."

"I know. Inhae oppa came and didn't wake me up so he just sat there with me." Eunbin walked excitedly toward a brown paperbag on her kitchen counter. "He gave me this. Cute, right?"

She showed an old cd player.

"It's still functioning well. He found it at a secondhand market and thought it would suit me. Besides, it's a cute vintage."

Yeeun was about to tell her something bit she stopped herself after seeing her best friend was in a happy mood.

"You two sure have weird tastes." Yeeun mocked her. "So you don't have vermilion with you right now? And I just wasted a hot day to run to your place."

"I know. Sorry." Eunbin opened her fridge. "I know you think sodas are weak, but I have this cold tonic water if you want some."

Yeeun didn't take another second to answer and grabbed the soda right away. The fizzing sound was music to her ears that she gulped almost half of the can.

"This is nice but it weakens my insides." She finished the tonic water and squished the can. Eunbin pointed the trash can and Yeeun took the challenge to dunk it in. She aimed the trash can and missed it, earning a groan. She put the can into the trash can. "It's Sunday. You're not going to manhwabang today?"

Eunbin widened her eyes. "I knew there was something missing! Let's go together! Okay? Just for three hours."

"Fine." Yeeun took her totebag in slow motion while Eunbin hastily shove her phone into her jeans pocket and grabbed her keys. "You're just....well, I thought you were going to, you know, make yourself more....presentable."

Eunbin checked herself from her toes up to her chest. "It's manhwabang, why should I dress up?"

[Monday afternoon]

The studio was arranged neatly for the still live sketching. The sketching part wasn't completely done so they made the studio in the same state as last Monday. To Eunbin's disappointment, three girls from the group didn't pass the previous tasks so they couldn't take that still live painting class. So she only had Yeeun and the other girl, who was too shy and she talked about bailing the class out since her friend wasn't there together with her. The class was one of the final steps upon graduating, so it could be done individually. Eunbin initiated to do it together so that the studio rent could be cheaper, and that she could have graduating buddies.

She sighed at the studio. She now left only with Yeeun.

"What now?" Yeeun started to push the easels back near the walls. "Your sketch is almost done, right? Mine too."

Eunbin nodded and felt a hand tapped her head. She jumped a bit, not so surprised that she already knew who it was. But what's more annoying was that the hand seemed to not leaving her head. It was comfortably rested there.

"Isn't this place too quiet?" It was Youjin. He just came and found out the studio was near to empty. "Yeeun-ssi, what happened?"

"The other girls are either bailing out or didn't pass, so it's just the two of us left." Yeeun looked at Youjin then noticed his hand on top of Eunbin's head. She knew Eunbin was not in a good mood, seeing she didn't get angry with him tapping her head. She cleared her throat. "So, do you still want to do it? I mean, we almost finish sketching you."

"Sure. It's the last time anyway." He said and took a seat.

"What do you mean with 'the last time'?" Eunbin finally came to her senses.

Youjin looked flustered while trying to remain calm with his answer. "She said your sketches are almost finished. Doesn't that what 'the last time' mean?"

Yeeun put her ongoing sketch on her easel. "That doesn't sound like the truth." She was sketching his shoulders. She then stopped at the outmost part of his left shoulder. The joint muscle between his arm and shoulder. She shifted her gaze toward Eunbin and Youjin.

Youjin felt a pair of eyes were looking at him and turned his head to Yeeun when Eunbin was too focus on her sketch. Yeeun quickly hid her face behind her easel.

She looked closely at her sketch of Youjin's shoulder. It made her having a flashback of last Saturday...