POOLS | jungri

FOUR.

FOUR,

BLOSSOMING FEELINGS AND BROKEN HOUSEHOLDS

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"SO WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN THIS WEEKEND? you were pretty quiet and lowkey, if that's the right word," ahreum spoke, putting down her food tray and settling down in front of yerim, who was already munching on her kimchi.

"what do you mean 'quiet' and 'lowkey' ahreum?" yerim replied with a clear amused expression plastered on her face.

ahreum raised her eyebrows. she clears her voice. "i mean, you would always be the spontaneous one and maybe ask me out at like twelve midnight to go to the beach or something. or sneak into the nightclub or something. ask me out to hongdae or something."

yerim snickered at ahreum's reply, but proceeds to feed herself another spoonful of rice.

ahreum whined. "this is so not like you, rim! so you're not gonna tell me where you've been this weekend?"

just then, even before yerim has the chance to speak up and explain, another food tray lands on the table.

"she spent it with me."

yerim looks up and sees a familiar face, which she expected but somehow at the same time unexpected as well. jeongguk settles down next to yerim, shooting her a smile before averting his gaze towards ahreum, who has a surprised look on her face. "yeah, she spent it with me."

ahreum looks at jeongguk and back to yerim and she does it all over again. ahreum finds yerim dumbfounded for a second, staring at jeongguk openly for a second before she returns her attention on her food. but being her best friend, ahreum could clearly sense a change of mood in yerim. 

jeongguk raises his eyebrows and lets out a chuckle. "what's with that reaction, ahreum?"

ahreum puts her hand on her forehead and rests her head on her elbow. she scoffs, "i did not expect your sudden entrance into this conversation, jeon."

jeongguk smiles. "if i were you, i wouldn't expect my entrance either," he says before starting to eat his food in front of him.

yerim looks up at ahreum, who is shooting her a 'mind explaining???' look. yerim mouths, 'later'. ahreum, finally convinced, raises her eyebrows and goes back to eating her radish. 

in the midst of the noisy cafeteria crowd, silence seems to fill in the void between the three of them until jeongguk’s phone rings.

all of their eyes look to jeongguk’s phone, which eventually gets picked up by its owner to answer the incoming call.

“hello, mum?” jeongguk speaks into the phone.

hearing the word ‘mum’ makes the two curious girls return their attention to their food, but jeongguk’s next response makes the two of their heads shoot up again.

“what? what’s wrong?” jeongguk says, with his previous calm expression having turned into a worried expression.

after a while without saying anything, jeongguk hurriedly replies. “alright, i’ll be back soon. don’t worry.”