Let's Not Falling In Love (1st Book) (FIXED)

Get Me Wrong

It was unusually quiet this morning. Usually, I could hear the girls being noisy outside my room at this hour, but today there was nothing.
​Curious, I went out to the living room couch to check on them. All I found was the girl with the moles on her face, fast asleep on the sofa.
​Why on earth is she sleeping out here instead of her own room?
​What was her name again? Mia? Mini? Ah, Mina—finally, I remembered.
​"Chaeng..." she mumbled in her sleep.
​Is she sick?
​"Mina, are you okay?" I asked, reaching out to touch her forehead. She was burning up with a fever.
​What should I do? Wait, why do I even care? Where are the other girls anyway?
​I thought about waiting for them to return, but what if her condition got worse before they arrived? Don't be stupid, I told myself. Nobody dies from a simple fever.
​"Whatever," I muttered, turning around and heading to the bathroom.
​"Where did she go?"
​I had just come back from buying her some medicine, but she was no longer on the couch. I walked over to her room and knocked on the door, calling her name. No answer. When I tried the handle, it was locked.
​Panic settled in. What if something had happened to her inside? I frantically searched the dorm desks for a spare key.
​"Finally, found them!"
​There was a whole bunch of keys, so I had to try them one by one. After testing more than five different keys, the lock finally turned. I opened the door, only to find Mina looking back at me, completely startled.
​Mina suddenly remembered what her eunni had warned her earlier: 'Be careful around her, and keep the door locked.'
​How did she still manage to open it? Mina thought in terror.
​"Mina, are you..." Before I could finish my sentence, Mina darted past me and ran straight out of the dorm.
​Without thinking, I ran after her.
​Good lord, why is she running away from me? And how is she so fast when she's sick? I wondered, trying to catch my breath.
​"Mina... wait!" I shouted, but she pretended not to hear me and kept running.
​Sprinting as fast as I could, I finally caught up and stopped her by grabbing her wrist.
​"What do you want? Let go of me! If you don't, I’ll scream!"
​Her words stung a little. I knew she misunderstood me because of my boyish appearance, but it still hurt.
​"I just wanted to give you this," I said quietly, placing the medicine into her palm.
​Mina lowered her head, a heavy wave of guilt washing over her. She felt awful for assuming the worst about me and was too embarrassed to look me in the eye or say sorry.
​"Woah, you really can run fast, even with a fever," I said, looking around. We had run quite a distance from the dorm. I tried to lighten the heavy mood as she stood there with her head down. "Let's head back. You can still walk, right?"
​Mina looked down again, her eyes fixed on the ground.
​"What's wrong?" I asked, following her gaze.
​Then I saw it. "Wait... how did you run all the way here without any shoes or slippers?"
​"Here, wear mine," I said, slipping off my footwear.
​"What about you?" she asked softly.
​"I'll be fine. I just don't want your friends blaming me if your condition gets worse, so just wear them."
​I thought she actually cared about me... Mina thought to herself.
​"No need. I can walk back to the dorm by myself without them," Mina said stubbornly, turning to walk away.
​"Stubborn girl! Fine, do whatever you want! I don't care!" I yelled after her.
​She looked so frail, struggling to walk after running so far while sick. I watched her from behind as she stumbled multiple times. Passersby were staring and laughing at her bare feet.
​"Get on," I said, suddenly appearing in front of her and bending down.
​"No, you don't have to piggyback me. It's embarrassing," Mina replied, staying in place.
​I turned my head back to look at her. "Don't you realize everyone is making fun of you? If we do this, at least we'll be embarrassed together."
​My tone was soft, and Mina realized I was right. Hesitantly, she climbed onto my back and let me carry her toward the dorm.
​We walked in silence for a while before I decided to break the quiet. "It seems like these people have never seen a girl carrying another girl before."
​"Well, at least they know you're a girl," Mina chuckled lightly.
​"Yep. At least they're not like those perverted girls I met before," I replied.
​Mina playfully swatted the top of my head, knowing I was referring to her and her friends.
​"Ouch!" I pretended to be in pain.
​"I'm sorry! Did that hurt?" Mina quickly stroked the spot she had just hit.
​"Gotcha... just teasing!" I laughed, and she joined in.
​Silence fell over us again, but this time, it was a comfortable one.
​As I carried her, Mina found herself thinking about her ex-boyfriend. He never gave me a piggyback ride like this...
​She leaned her head against my shoulder, feeling safe and cozy. She smells nice, too, Mina thought to herself as her eyes grew heavy and she drifted off to sleep.
​When Mina woke up, she was tucked into her own bed. On the nightstand beside her lay the medicine I had bought for her.
​"How sweet of her..." she murmured with a warm smile.
​By 2:00 PM, she felt much better thanks to the medicine. She walked out to the living room and found Sana sitting on the couch, eating cereal and watching TV. Mina joined her and shared everything that had happened with me.
​Their conversation paused when they saw me walk out of the bathroom.
​"Hey there!" Sana greeted me cheerfully.
​I paused, completely thrown off. After feeling like an invisible stranger in this place for what felt like a thousand years, it seemed impossible that one of them was actually greeting me. I looked to my right, my left, and behind me to check if she was talking to someone else.
​"Yes, you, Yoo Jeongyeon!" Sana laughed.
​I waved awkwardly, offering a silly smile. My confused reaction made both Sana and Mina giggle.
​"Come sit here," Sana said, patting the space next to her.
​I sat down, feeling a bit awkward.
​"Thanks for taking care of our maknae while we were busy with our own stuff," Sana said, pulling Mina into a gentle hug.
​"Thank you, eunni," Mina added shyly, giving me a soft smile.
​I just smiled back and nodded.
​"Sorry for making you feel like a stranger here," Sana continued. "Honestly, it was partly because of how you acted—you looked like you didn't want us around, so..."
​"It's fine. Honestly, it's better than..." Better than getting too close, I thought.
​"Better than what?" Sana asked, leaning in.
​"Better than you forcing me to move out of this dorm," I lied.
​Though I secretly wish you did, so I'd have a valid excuse for my mom to let me leave, I added in my head.
​"We actually thought about it!" Sana laughed. "But we aren't mean enough to actually do that to you."
​"Haha, thanks for sparing me then," I let out a fake laugh.
​"By the way, where are the other two?" I asked.
​"You mean Momo and Nayeon eunni?" Mina asked.
​I nodded.
​"They're the busiest among us," Sana explained. "Nayeon eunni had to go to work to prepare for the new semester—she's a lecturer, you know."
​Hearing Nayeon's name reminded me of the stern warning she had given me earlier.
​"And as for Momo, even though she's my roommate, I rarely know what she's up to. She just says she's working and usually comes home late at night," Sana shrugged, completely clueless.
​"And here I thought Mina was the mysterious one," I said, pointing at Mina.
​Mina couldn't help but smile just hearing me say her name.
​"If you think Mina is mysterious, you've got it all wrong," Sana chuckled. "We know everything about her life, especially her love story. It's full of drama! You know she got sick because she broke up with her boyfriend, right?"
​" Eunni, stop! You're embarrassing me!" Mina gasped, covering Sana's mouth with her hands.
​"Is 'Chaeng' her ex-boyfriend's name?" I asked innocently.
​"What?! How on earth do you know that?" Both Mina and Sana looked at me in shock.
​"So it is true. She mumbled his name in her sleep when she had that high fever," I explained.
​"Woah, incredible, Minari! You're still totally in love with that little bean, aren't you?" Sana teased playfully.
​Mina pouted, prying her hands away. "Don't call him that, eunni!"
​"Just move on! He couldn't even give you a piggyback ride like Jeongyeon did because he's shorter than you," Sana giggled.
​"He may be short, but he's cute and lovable!" Mina huffed, rolling her eyes. "You don't understand how I feel because you've never even dated anyone! So stop telling me to move on!"
​"Since when did you become brave enough to mock me?!" Sana asked, placing her hands on her hips in mock indignation.
​"Ever since you started mocking my cutie pie, Chaeng!" Mina retorted, crossing her arms.
​"Woah, seriously, Minari?"
​I sat trapped between the two of them, watching the back-and-forth in utter confusion. My head was starting to spin.
​"I'd better leave them to it before someone ends up in the hospital," I whispered to myself, quietly slipping away while the two of them kept bickering.