chapter ten.
you're my all and more,
but i need room to breathe
✧༝┉┉┉┉┉˚*❋ ❋ ❋*˚┉┉┉┉┉༝✧
raindrops lashed down on the rooftops. the cold wind made the tree branches dance and brushed against seol's skin as she headed out the door, leaving school. the biting cold chilled her fingers into clumsy numbness. shivering, seol wraps her hoodie tighter around her to find more warmth.
exactly three weeks ago, she wanted to disappear from the world, planning to entirely cut school for the first few days, only if her mom didn't nag the heck out of her.
it was not because the heartbreak she was going through. though she can't deny that she indeed felt her heart shattering when she found out jungmo doesn't feel the same way as her, and to the extent, jungmo has a girlfriend, or at least a potential girlfriend and he is hiding that from seol.
seol could swear that was not the reason she wanted to ditch school.
it was because of minkyu. call it overreacting or anything but she still can't stress enough how much she didn't want to stumble across the younger at school. for god's sake, she wanted to curse—well, she did—at herself for sobbing and making a mess when minkyu drove her home that night. it was to the extent until she refuses to face minkyu.
that night when minkyu and seol were on their way to her home, minkyu pulled over when he saw a convenience store. seol stared at minkyu with bewilderment, "stay here." minkyu has that smile again on his face, shimmering before his eyes as he walked towards the store, sweet and with tenderness as only a spirit could smile. he didn't show pity, but she speculated he pitied her, and minkyu probably thought she was pathetic.
but no, minkyu is not that kind of person so she brushed that one thought away.
"here you go." seol's thoughts seems to travel through time a lot, she flinched when minkyu already came back from the store. one hand was offering her a pack of tissues, and the other one was holding an eco bag.
seol doesn't know where did that eco bag come from. maybe minkyu brought it all along, she didn't plan to ask. she felt energy drained out of her, already imagining the good night's sleep she was planning to do. though that night, she ended up staying up late.
minkyu sighed when seol keeps on zoning out, ignoring his hand. he has been holding it in since they were still at school, when seol just abruptly ran away after she was done spying on jungmo. if the guitarist had glanced left he would have looked at seol right in the face, but luckily he continued making his way briskly to the driver seat, taking a girl with him and out of sight. without thinking any further about other possibilities, she speculated things. minkyu decided he should just blurt his thought out. "she might be just a friend, you know?"
"h—huh?" seol really doesn't wanna discuss about it now, in fact she is trying to brush the memory off.
"it's not that i'm saying you shouldn't cry over this," minkyu pulled out a tissue, wiping her tear-stained cheeks. he hates seeing seol in this kind of state, and would have hated the person behind those tears more. but this time, he couldn't even bring himself to have the slightest distaste at jungmo, he isn't really sure why. maybe, it was because jungmo is a good person indeed and minkyu knows that, "but aren't you speculating things? maybe instead of overanalyzing stuff by yourself, you should directly ask him yourself."
minkyu would be lying if he says that didn't hurt, helping the girl he loves, to be with the one she loves. but seol wasn't his and minkyu was fine with that. he had accepted the fact long ago.
"just don't tell him, okay?" she asks, almost begging, "i don't want us to become awkward. at least i could still be his friend after this." she knew it is easier said than done. everytime her eyes meet jungmo's captivating brown ones, her heart couldn't get cooperative.
"who do you think i am, seol? i won't spill any of your secrets since forever." unless seol made the younger frustrated to the point he has to spill it himself. "and of course i'm in no place to tell him. you should tell him yourself, seol."
seol's eyes widened. "nooo," blush seared through her cheeks and for a minute she thought her face was on fire. she, confessing her feelings to her crush, jungmo? seol suddenly felt awkward, demure, and coy; even going as far as attempting to hide her rosy features behind her palms. "i don't think i will do that, minkyu."
minkyu groaned in frustration. also trying hard not to pinch her cheeks for being that adorable in front of his face.
the last thing minkyu wants is seol to be mad at him for crossing the line, so maybe, just maybe he won't tell jungmo about it.
"here," minkyu handed her the eco bag he has been holding, "your favorites are there."
this time seol doesn't ignore him and takes the bag from minkyu, peeking a look. her eyes lit up after finding her favorite chocolates and a cold canned drink inside.
"are these for me?" no shit, sherlock. it was more like a rhetorical question though, as seol already cracked open the canned drink, hastily taking a sip as she felt dehydrated due to crying. she handed minkyu one of the chocolates she scooped from the bag.
"no, i bought it for you," seol tilted her head, minkyu continued, "you always chomp on a chocolate bar whenever you're feeling sad."
"i wish more men were like you, minkyu."
shit, how is minkyu gonna recover from that.
the very first day after that accident, she managed to ditch school by telling her mom she is having a fever. the dark circles under her eyes seems to contribute a big help in her pseudo that her mom believed her. she didn't waste any more time and straightly went back to sleep which she needed the most, because she stayed up all night, overthinking about how much she regretted what happened earlier. without checking the texts she has on her phone, she fell asleep soundly. her phone has always been on a silent mode so it didn't bother her when her classmates bomb chat her asking her whereabout as the first class was already starting.
few hours later, her mom almost beat her ass when she found out she didn't have a fever and was just sleeping in. the next day, she attended school grudgingly. and that was already three weeks ago.
now, seol is about to go home by the bus. it started to drizzle and she doesn't bring any umbrella with her, before the rain got any heavier she pulled the black hood over her saturated form as she saunter in the rain. small pellets of water spitting on her hands as the remainder of the drops quench the scattered puddles decorating the asphalt.
appeared from nowhere, a hand was tightened on her wrist, preventing her from walking any further in the rain. white knuckled, she turned to fight it but found her feet dragging along the slippery cement as she lost her balance.
someone pulled her closer to them, wrapping their arms around her. their embrace was warm, while their arms seemed very protective, trying to keep her balance from the icy surface.
the heat from their arm creeped into her consciousness and she wanted to pull her body away. she looked up only to meet their downcast eyes. the urge became too strong the moment she realized it is the guy she has been ignoring in an attempt to forget about her feelings. sadly all her efforts go in vain the moment she met those captivating brown eyes once more.
band | koo jungmo
・‥…━━━━━━━☆☆━━━━━━━…‥・
i can't believe i'm writing 4 consecutive chapters without a decent screentime of jungmo himself in a freaking jungmo story lMao oh my god i'm becoming an mnet!!!
this chapter was too long so i decided to cut it into two parts or else you'd get bored
