Summer Detour [Book 2] | Pentagon ✔

Chapter 7

❝I'd rather regret things
I've done
than regret the things
I haven't done.❞
ㅡLucille Ball

CHAPTER 7
Mall
Hongseok

I'm going to be honest. Hyunjoo isn't the prettiest girl I've seen in my entire life but when she came out of her tent, her hair in a mess and her morning face greeted me with a shy smile. I couldn't help smiling back at her.

"Good morning!" I said.

"Good morning." she greeted meekly.

It's still early. The sun hadn't even risen up completely. I got the feeling that she didn't sleep well either because I didn't. The ground was too hard beneath my sleeping bag. The crickets were too loud.

She didn't look at me. I know enough to know that she's shy around me. I would have thought something if she wasn't shy around everyone else too.

"Coffee?" I asked.

She rubbed her eyelids. "You have coffee?"

"Coffee is a must."

She smiled as we got up at the same time. We headed back to the van. I brought packs of instant coffee with me. I brought a lot of food with me. I've been planning all of this through, but Hyunjooㅡshe didn't have any plans at all, or at least, that's what I see.

We drank coffee in silence. Too early to speak. And then she brushed her teeth by the sink. I did the same after her, then we headed back to our tents.

#

Hyunjoo

I tried my best not to keep looking at Hongseok. It's still a little dark but there's enough light to see his morning face. His features were softer. He looked more innocent and younger this way.

"So," he said, doodling on the ground with a stick. "Care to tell why you ran away?"

"I didn'tㅡI mean, I'mㅡI'm coming back. I just..."

"Need time for yourself." he continued for me.

I looked at him in astonishment. He smiled. I never paid attention to anyone's smile before, but Hongseok has an adorable one. Whenever his lips would curve into a smile, there's this very defined line on both of his cheeks. "Y-yeah..." I replied.

"I'm just the same. I really needed to get away."

The silence came back between us until I gained enough courage to tell him about myself. It's not that he could use this against me. He could just forget all about it later on when he drops me off somewhere. I took a deep breath, rehearsing the first few words over and over inside my head and then I spoke to someone I see eye to eye for the first time about my concerns, "I wanted to find myself. I know it sounds pathetic and I'm... weird for doing it this way but like you, I needed to get away from home. I feel like... all my life I've been living in a bubble of my comfort zone. I want to be out, you know. I just can't do it all at once, but since I've startedㅡeven gone to my first party, I'm going all in. I want to find myself when I'm not with my family. I don't want to be swallowed away by this bubble."

I looked at him and he's looking back at me but I couldn't read him, the way he could do to me. I smiled nervously. "Sorry, I talk too much."

He chuckled, shaking his head. "Are you kidding me? All these years, that was the longest I heard you speak."

I smiled sheepishly. Found guilty. I wrapped my arms around my knees.