BEHIND THE SCENES

chapter 26: their sweet past

<OST: Orbit - Hwasa>

"Hey, sunbae-nim-" Hyejin placed a sandwich and a can of milk tea in front of Chungha and took a seat next to her. "What's wrong?"

"What?" Chungha smiled at Hyejin, shaking her head and pretending like everything was alright. "Nothing, Hyejin-ssi. Why?"

"Come on, really?" Hyejin pursed her lips. "What just happened earlier... in addition to the both of you communicating through me over the past few days - what's wrong?"

"I guess everyone in the office knows, huh-" Chungha's face fell. "Whenever something happens between us, the whole office finds put somehow."

"It really shows," Hyejin said quietly. "The two of you are always yelling at each other - it's unusually quiet when the both of you are at cold war with each other."

Chungha pursed her lips and looked down at the sandwich on her desk. "Yeah."

"Why-" Hyejin pouted. "Did you say something to upset him...?"

Chungha gasped. "How did you know?"

"I mean-" Hyejin shrugged. "Based on what I've seen, you seem okay with talking to him but he seems to he avoiding you like a plague. Also, from what I've noticed over the past six months... Hoseok sunbae-nim seems to get the most upset by words, over anything."

"Daebak-" Chungha's jaws dropped. "You sound like you've known us for over ten years. That's amazing observation skills right there."

"So I'm right...?"

Chungha hesitated a little. "You know how Hoseok-oppa and I met, Hyejin-ssi?"

"How?"

"We met when he was in uni and I was in high school-" Chungha said with a fond smile. "As a freshie, his school had organised some Journalism workshop at my school. He somehow ended up being the group leader of my team. After the workshop ended, we exchanged numbers - I was the one who requested for his number, to ask him questions. And that's how we started texting."

Hyejin listened quietly with a smile on her face. "That's cute."

"I know-" Chungha admitted. "It was adorable back then - we were adorable together. At first, he was just a mentor to me - he was cool, and really nice, and... I really liked how genuine he looked every time he smiled. I had never seen someone who had a smile quite like his."

"Neither have I," Hyejin agreed. "I guess his smile never changed."

"It didn't - oh, not at all." Chungha chuckled. "But that was it - I never ever thought of dating him before, I was just... grateful for a friend like him. He was the type who always willingly gave me his notes without me asking, pasted little post-its on it that told me to study hard and treated me to meals. The thing was, I thought he did that for everyone."

Hyejin smiled knowingly. "But he didn't."

"He didn't-" Chungha smiled. "He only did those things for me, but I was unaware. Until one day, when he was treating to a meal, I asked him how he was able to cope with his studies and even still top his cohort, when he did all these things for the people around him."

Hyejin inhaled sharply, thoroughly immersed in the story. "And what did he say?"

Chungha smiled shyly. "With a look of total surprise, he said, 'No? I only do it for you though?' And of course, being the oblivious me back then, I asked him, 'Huh? Why?' And he just answered, very matter-of-factly, 'Because I like you, of course.'"

Hyejin squealed loudly as she hit Chungha on the shoulder several times. "Ah! Sunbae-nim!"

"I'm telling you, my heart just melted right then and there-" Chungha said with a dreamy look on her face. "And we started dating immediately after that."