[#1] boy next door :: im youngmin

chapter five

It's her first time ever to walk home alone without him, and she doesn't really know what to feel. Maybe she should have waited for Yerin to finish her group project so she won't be so lonely.

"Yuna-yah!"

There's someone suddenly calling her when she has just arrived right outside her apartment building, and a hand is on her shoulders. She looks around to spot Youngmin catching his breath just behind her, his hair blown back messily and his uniform shirt crumpled.

"Oh, hi."

"Why didn't you wait for me? I thought we were going to walk home together every day," he frowns, adjusting his shirt collar.

"Ah, well," Yuna's cheeks suddenly heat up under the yellow orange glare of the street lights, "Well, you looked busy, so I decided to go home alone."

At this, his frown deepens. "I was just talking with a... a friend. You could have just walked up to me and said something. What if something bad happened to you because you were walking home alone?"

"Relax, it's not even that dark-"

"Even though," he cuts her off, his stare intense, but then it quickly softens, his hand moving from her shoulder to the top of her hair, ruffling it gently. "I just don't want you to get hurt. Alright?"

She can only nod now, and she reaches up to comb her fringe before he jerks his head towards the entrance of the apartment building. She follows him inside in silence; she doesn't know what to say.

"Where are your friends, by the way? You could have walked with them, at least." He says casually while holding the elevator door open for her.

"They take the bus home, and Yerin has a project."

"Ah."

A rare awkward silence falls in between them now, and Yuna decides to ask him a probably personal question, "Was that girl you were talking to earlier your girlfriend?"

He answers in a heartbeat. "No, she's not, of course not. She's just a friend." She looks up at his face and he is biting down on his lips before sighing and saying something again, "Please don't tell anyone this, but she's a friend I really really like. We've been friends since forever and the only reason why I haven't told her I like her yet is because I know she likes someone else, and I don't all those years of friendship to go to waste."

This time, she's the one who doesn't know what to say anymore and just replies with a very short, "Ah."

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i can't believe this story hit 100 votes already, thank you so much for reading this;; and as you can see from this chapter, there's probably going to be a bit of drama...because i think every story needs some drama, even just a little bit>< (though tbh i dont really think the drama in this will be just 'a little bit';;)