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chapter 33: ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
"young miss, sir and madam are about to leave and they want to see you before they go." one of their house maid informs the girl before leaving her room. she immediately gets up, confused. "leave? where are they going?" she asks no one in particular, putting on her bunny house slippers and going down quickly to the main living room.
seonghwa arrives downstairs too not long after jihyun did. their parents' doors open and they walk out with a few luggages, the house maids and their driver quickly helping them bring it to the car.
"we're going back to the states. we're needed there." their father announces. "i thought you said you're staying longer?" jihyun directs the question to her mother. "didn't you say father had some plans, that's why you'd be staying here longer?"
"i did have some important things to announce but.. i thought about what you said and you're right. you're not ready yet for what i have planned for you, jihyun. i'm not changing my mind about this but i won't bother you about this for now. i'll let you be until you finish high school next year." their father says as he walks towards the front door where the car towards the airport is waiting for him and his wife.
"w– what? what are you talking about?" jihyun asks as she catches up to her parents who are already at the front door. "just, enjoy the freedom while you still have it okay, honey?" her mother says, giving an apologetic smile to the girl which worries her. her father then turns to seonghwa.
"you on the other hand, seonghwa, i don't care what you say. you're still going to work in the company because you're my son. you two be prepared for when we return next year." their father says before entering the back seat of the car, not looking back at the siblings.
their mother smiles at them, feeling sorry for not being a good parent and not being able to stop whatever plans that her husband has for their children. "see you two next year. love you." she gives them both a light hug before entering the car, waving at them one last time before the car drives off.
"i can't believe him. after all we said to him, he's still not changing his mind, huh? and he wonders why we hate him," seonghwa says, draping an arm over jihyun's shoulder. "but whatever. we have each other, that's all that matters." he pinches his sister's cheek and she slaps his hand away because he was pinching too hard.
as they were about to reach the stairs to go back to their rooms, one of the house maids approached them. "young master, miss, we'll be going home now, okay? we'll come every once in a while to clean the house up." she informs the siblings and they nod their heads in acknowledgement, smiling at all the house maids before going up the stairs.
their huge house will be empty once again. until next year when their parents return and the house maids stay in. they usually only stay at the house when their parents are back, which isn't often.
"but i'm scared. what did father mean by that? what did he have in mind for me? thank god, if i didn't have an outburst at the restaurant that night, who knows what could have been happening right at this moment." she sighs in relief.
"don't be too relaxed. before you know it, next year will come by in a blink and they'll be back and we have to follow whatever they have in plan for us." seonghwa warns. "chill, we have a year of freedom. let's just hope he doesn't go overboard." jihyun replies as she enters her own room, seonghwa sighing out loud before he goes to his own room.
and for the whole day, they stay cooped up in their rooms, only coming out once when seonghwa tells her he ordered food and that they should eat together. they talked about all things that they could, the conversation not drying up once throughout the dinner.
and for the night, jihyun facetimes her boyfriend until midnight and then she's on the phone with san until morning, each spilling their own concerns and worries.
it was an almost everyday routine for the pair of best friends. if they had nothing to rant about, they'd talk about random things they could.
she was grateful for san. she never had anyone stick by her like san did. although she had yeosang and the other boys, no one could understand her better than san, her best friend.
it all started when she wanted to talk to yeosang and have him provide her comfort like he usually did when she felt down. but that time, it was different. she called him up at 2am, in the middle of a breakdown. he declined her call but a text came in a minute later.
"hey, baby? i don't think i can talk much, i've had a really long and tiring day and i don't want to upset you if i accidentally fall asleep in the middle of our conversation or something. i'll talk to you tomorrow. have a great sleep, my princess ❤️" she felt her heart breaking while she read the text. all she needed was him at that moment but he didn't even bother to find out if it was important, instead, as harsh as it sounds, he shut her down just like that.
it was then she thought of san. she knew san and wooyoung were probably playing video games together at that hour but she didn't think twice of decided to ring san up since he was the closer one to her out of the two.
it didn't even take a while for him to pick up, wondering why the girl called him up at that hour. it was when her voice cracked that he knew that she was crying.
she tried not to but when san had asked her what was wrong, the flood gates opened and her loud cries were heard from the end of the line. san didn't mind, though a bit surprised, he understood and listened as she let it all out.
at first it was awkward for him to give his responses but he realised, it wasn't really about what he responded her with. it's being there for her to listen to her spill about her worries and rants.
she didn't even expect it to continue after that night; them being each other's rant listeners. san started to open up to jihyun about his own worries and it kept going on.
and that was how their close relationship bloomed. she still felt a little upset at yeosang though. she didn't think her boyfriend would be that ignorant. she rarely called him after midnight, couldn't he have figured out something was wrong? nevertheless, she was glad that she managed to become even closer with san through that.
she got to know how good of a listener san actually was— she gained an actual best friend because of her boyfriend's unintended ignorance.
a/n: god i feel like my writing is getting worse as the book progresses-
