Seventeen Lee Chan Fanfic | "My 13th month."

12. E- Ease, you make me feel at ease.

Chapter 12.

E . Ease, you make me feel at ease.

Chan and I continued to meet in my room for English lessons, and the truth is that I was very surprised by his English... and I was starting to think that these meetings weren't to improve his English or his grades, but to improve our friendship.
I started to understand it slowly, after our third lesson, that he had completed his task and showed me the grade he got; "thanks to me", he then hugged me again, without saying anything, he hugged me while I was holding his test.
"Noona Saem! What would I do without your great help?" he sounded so happy, and I didn't want to ruin his happiness, but I somehow did.
"Why are you lying to me again?"
"Lying?" he breaks away from the hug, I figured he'd have that face.
"You're excellent in English, you don't need me as a teacher."
silence.
"Chan."
"Oh?" He wonders to himself.
"You... don't want us to meet for this? I- I can tell my parents to-"
to take a private teacher, yes, Chan, I know what you wanted to say, with that face you were making.
You felt hurt. You were so young, and so fragile, but so manly when you thought I didn't notice.
I started to laugh, and he cut off his own voice, I remember the way he looked at me with his open mouth.
I thought to myself, no way he likes me, right?
I never seen someone looking at me like this, like he did.
"You're so dumb." I said to him.
He pouted.
"Ah. Noona. I am wasting your time." He turned his gaze to the desk, I remember his hands running on the desk, as he took his test from my hand and started to close his books and notebooks, I remember how I laughed at him.
"Shut up, stay." I asked from him, he stopped but didn't turn his head to look back at me.
"Chan." I called him.
"Only if you knew how much I like being around you... Noona, I get it, I am not mad or anything that you don't want to keep on-" I remember my heartbeats.
"I like being around you too, you dumbass." I don't even know how I said that. It was so easy, and simple.
Silence. I remember how you turned your gaze to my direction, you looked at me and smiled a little smile.
"I'm just saying... If you want to see me more, you should tell me that directly, because we could go out instead of sitting here for hours and laughing at things instead of really studying, Chan."
Well, she was a clever girl, and Chan waited for her to say those words, but he felt so weird inside.
"Noona." He looked a bit frozen.
"Hm?" I hummed.
"You barely go out with Eva because of me." He pouted, lowered his small Asian eyes down just to see what my reaction would be.
I started to laugh, and he looked at me as if he knew what Eva was doing, she was too busy with boys, and her mythologist Ex, our friend, Vernon.
"Well, she's busy with her business while I am the same."
He laughed. I always liked it when he laughed because of me. I was a tiny part of his happiness.
But there was the common thing we had.
We had the same way to laugh at certain things, and the same passion for the same certain things.
I guess that's why we fell for each other.
"So, no more English lessons, Noona Saem?" he asked, so innocently.
"You can come with math, you can ask for help anytime you want and need, you know that."
I remember he was getting closer to me with his face, placing his hand behind the wall I sat.
My heart skipped a beat. I remember my breath was caught in the middle of my throat.
Wha...t are you... doing? I asked inside my mind.
His eyes were like lightning to my eyes, they sparked, and his lips opened.
I was already sweating as if I was running a marathon of 10km.
"You like me."
I read his lips.
I swear, I couldn't breathe at that moment, I remember I started to mumble in an audible voice until I started to laugh. I pushed his body.
"You're like a brother to me."
"Noona!" Chan's voice raised at once, "What? What?" I remember he laughed, as if a movie was playing in front of my eyes and we we're playing, the whole you like me scene didn't really happen, but only in my head.
"I'll come with my math book next time, ah?" I looked around to see all his things already packed inside his backpack.
"You're daydreaming too much, Nooni-yah." My heart died from this nickname everytime he said it.
He placed his hand on my shoulder, hugged me from behind for two and half seconds.
"I'll leave now. Thank you for everything. Don't miss me too much, ah?" he giggled while he walked to the door, as I waved at him and kept on waving for about a minute without realizing what I was doing.
I was daydreaming, but what if Chan really did that? What if he teased me like that, and it wasn't in my head?
no...no...
It didn't happen. I really daydreamed about this happening.
That night, before I went to sleep, Whitney Huston's song "How will I know?" played on the radio, while I listened to Chan's voice message.

"Sweet dreams, Nooni-yah... I just wanted to tell you that my parents are taking me and my brother to my uncle's house, and I won't see you for three days... so..." he was making that sweet sad voice, my heart's rate was getting higher from hearing his voice message; "So... I guess I'll see you only next week. Don't miss me too much. We still have our phones to see each other. Good night~"
I fell back on my matrass and looked at the ceiling as his voice was still ringing in my mind.
I found myself daydreaming about my best friend, wherever I was, at classrooms, at my bedroom and even at lunch time with Eva.
She noticed, but never said anything, and I wonder why she kept it to herself, though I saw it in her little smile whenever we talked about our boy-best-friends.

Me and Chan planned on meeting on Sunday next week.

On the first month we met, we've hung out with each other nearly every day, and not seeing Chan on this weekend made me feel as if I was missing someone.

Eva was too busy with her exams, but she left me endless of voice messages to which I replied only the day after.

Chan was away for the weekend.

He told me his father's brother lives in South California, which was 200km from our neighborhood.

I didn't notice the change in my mood, back then, but as I remember how I felt then, I can say that I was turning into a very moody girl because of him being away from me.

And it was new to me, I couldn't tell the same as I do now.

He was sending me pictures from his uncle's place, telling me he's missing me much, teasing me a lot with his unique ways, and all I did was praying for him to come back and be with me, as the best friend he was.

Chan made me turn to another kind of girl, it felt as if... he was everything I ever missed in my teenage years.
I really felt at ease, and secure, whenever we were together.
Whenever he was around me.

And I believed he was the best man I could ever have near me, although he is the boy who forever will be younger than me.

I remember sending him voice messages and receiving his whispering one's, as I giggled in the dark at late night hours while my mother thought I am asleep, I was so happy to have this kind of friendship with him, Oh Chan...
who thought we'd change so much?