C L O S E R || hwang hyunjin

truth

I took a deep breath. 


I knew the new year was approaching soon, and the break was just about over.


"Too bad we have to go back to school." I heard Macy roll around in bed. "Yeah, and you have to go back." I looked down with a sigh. "For real! It felt like I had just gotten here." She added, then got up quickly. "I am going to get ready to go out."
"Where are you going?" I asked. 
"Uh,,, just out that's all." Macy made a quick nod and quickly ran off to get dressed. "I feel like she's hiding something from me." I glared over. I quickly started to get my things together.
There was a project I wanted to start working on. That I was motivated to do, I just had to keep organized of my time. I got up, wanting to find answers for myself. 


NARRATOR POV 


Felix stood up very quickly, shrugging his arms back trying to release some tension in his shoulders. "Aish, so much homework to do." Felix closed all the school books on his desk. Felix had always been an outgoing person, but there were some things he liked to keep hidden. 
"Something's my friends may never know." He'd call it. He walked away from his desk, and through his cluttered yet clean room.
He had bookshelves full of trophies, medals, and awards. Felix was talented, full of light. But, he kept a lot of deep things deep down. 
He looked around his room like he was seeing it for the first time. He stood there, with his hands in his sweat pants pockets. His phone started to vibrate. He ran over to it and saw that Minho was calling. 
He quickly picked up. "Hey.." He said in his deep voice.
"Want to come to hang out? My sister is in town and we were about to go eat some Kimchi-jjigae...so uh." Minho made a small cough.
"Oh, uh sure. I will be there soon." He hung up the phone and started to get ready, he dressed in jeans, and a large coat. He pulled his hair out of his face with a slight shrug. He was about to go out the door, but his sister quickly stopped him. "Hey, be back soon. okay? Father wants us to organize the business details." His sister looked more sophisticated, mature, and older. 
"Ah," He made a quick nod and ran out the door into the cold. He wrapped his scarf around his face and took a deep warm breath. "It's cold today." He muttered to himself.
As he walked into the restaurant, he unwrapped his face and looked around for Minho. He spotted him in the corner of the room, sitting at a circle table, and someone sitting across from him. Felix made a small skip over to them. Felix looked over to Minho's sister and realized it was someone he recognized, and she recognized him too. Her face widened as she saw him. "F-Felix?" 
"Ah.." Felix started laughing nervously, then made a quick smile.
"Wait, don't you remember her?" Minho laughed.
Felix softly sat next to Minho. "Ah, I remember meeting your sister lots of times but she must have grown up a lot," He looked over at her. "I didn't notice you were her." 
"I didn't know you were THAT Felix, like how can I be so dumb?" Macy facepalmed her head. 
"I guess it has been a while since we've seen each other, so we don't really remember much." Minho shrugged, then called the waiter over so they could get something to order. 
"I mean, I did go abroad when I was in middle school, So I guess it has been quite a while.." Macy looked down, she seemed really embarrassed. 
"I just can't believe you guys didn't remember each other, even by names." Minho made a small laugh. "Like my best friend, and my sister." 
Felix and Macy were silent because they felt awkward. The food quickly got to the table. "Ah. It's here." Minho clapped with a smile. Felix smiled wide too and tried to forget the mood. 
"This looks good." 
"Let's dig in," Felix added as they all picked up their chopsticks and started eating. "Yeah, I mean you never recognize or pay attention to my friends either so..." Macy teased Minho as she took a bite of rice. 
"Ah...right, you have a friend, I never met her though because you always went over to her house." 
"Well, Yeah, I didn't want her to be at our house because I didn't want you flirting with her." Macy snapped back. Then Minho let out a small laugh. "Would I have?" 
"Yeah, she's super pretty."
"Now I need to know who she is." He looked down with a small smirk. 
"No," Macy made a small laugh.
"Now I kind of feel like a third wheel," Felix said in a low voice. Both Minho and Macy glared over at him. "Nah, you don't have to be." Minho nudged his shoulder. 
"It's nice being out, especially when I don't want to be home." Felix tried to make a joke, but something seemed to be on his mind a lot. "What's wrong?" Macy asked, she was worried about him. "Ah, it's nothing." he gently waved his hands with a smile, trying to put it off. He didn't want to bother anyone else with his problems. He just wanted everyone to be happy.
But, there was something he hasn't realized.
"Yeah, the other day I remember a group thing we did while we were kids." Minho leaned back in his chair, trying to put all of the pieces together. 
"I remember Felix, Eric, Daehwi, Gracie, and I went on little adventures in the woods together."
"Yeah, you speak as if it was over ten years ago." Felix made a small laugh.
"Yeah, but it's been a good seven years, we've all grown a lot since then. " Minho shrugged.
"You haven't talked to Eric since then?"
"No, actually. I haven't been in good contact with him in a while.." Felix looked down as he started to think of their faces. "I haven't thought or talked to them since then." He thought deep in his mind. The memories started to flashback, 

When they were young, twelve years old. Felix, Minho, Gracie, Eric, and Daehwi went camping together. There were other kids from their school around too, running around, setting up their tents, and gathering things together. It was still kind of light out, but the sky was beginning to fade. Felix and Minho were trying to put up the tent by themselves. "aye, do you guys need help?" Eric tried to help. "Nah, we good." Minho acted confident. "We got this." Felix made a smirk as they struggled to get the pegs in the ground. Minho and Felix were grunting as they used all their strength to pull them to the ground. "Geez, just let me help you." Gracie got up and forcefully took hold of Felix's hands and shoved them in the ground. Felix's heart started to race a bit, he looked off, trying to shake off the nervousness. "It's not a bad thing to ask for help." She crossed her arms and stood over them confidently. Eric seemed embarrassed, and Minho rolled his eyes. "We are tougher than that." 
All Daehwi and Eric did was laugh gently at them bickering. The counselor got all the students' attention to gathering around in the middle of the campsite. They all went to the center together. There were many picnic tables and food spread out. The smell of the grill and meat filled the air. "Ah, that smells so good." Eric let out a gentle smile. "Right?" Minho agreed. They were all excited to sit at the same table together. The counselor went around at every table to make sure everyone was eating. As she got to their table she noticed something and looked at Gracie. "Doesn't it bother you that you are the only girl in your group?" 
"Nah." Gracie shrugged and started eating. 
The cold summer night started to approach them, darkness filled the sky, and everyone was sent to their tents.
"You're lucky you get a tent to yourself." Felix shrugged to Gracie. "Yeah, I wouldn't be alone if Minho brought his sister." She glared over. 
"What? She's a year younger, so she's not in this class anyway." Minho shrugged. "You never want her here for no reason." Daehwi scratched his head. 
"AH, you're just saying that because you have a crush on her." 
"Not true!!" Daehwi yelled, embarrassed. "It's not like that." He pouted. Daehwi and Minho went in a tent, and Felix went in a tent with Eric, while Gracie went in hers. 
Eric and Felix laid side by side in their tiny sleeping bags and stared up at the ceiling of the tent. Eric made a small sigh. "You are going to have to tell her eventually." Eric looked over at Felix with a smile. 
"What do you mean?" Felix was confused by what he said. "You know what I mean." Eric nudged his shoulder. They both laughed a bit. "Your family actually let you come, huh?"
"I told them it was a field trip somewhere fancy. If I told them it was an icky campsite they would keep me in my room to make sure there was not a speck of dirt on me." Felix made a joke.
"You are young, but you sure are smart." Eric slowly closed his eyes with a gentle look on his face.
"You are the same age as me."
"Not true, I am a year younger. I am just a year ahead." 
"Woahhh, you are eleven? I keep forgetting...you act sixteen!" Felix's eyes grew wide. 
"I am very mature," Eric said confidently, with a small voice. They both laughed. As the night started to move by, Felix couldn't find himself to fall asleep. He tossed and turned. He realized that Eric had fallen asleep. Felix could hear the chirping of the crickets and the sound of the woods surrounding them. "Ah, I need to use the restroom." He muttered to himself as he quietly unzipped the tent. As he stepped outside, the smell of the night woods hit his nose. He took a deep breath of the fresh air. "Why can't I sleep?" As he thought that, he looked around outside and in the corner of his eye, he saw Gracie sitting on a tree log, looking at the fire pit, which had no fire. She was dangling her small legs. Felix slowly approached behind her. "What are you doing up?" As he said that, she jumped back and almost screamed, but he stopped her.
"Oh.." Gracie fixed herself. "Just thinking."
"You shouldn't be out here alone this late at night.." Felix was a bit worried about her.
"Yeah, sure. It's not like I am going anywhere." She looked off in the distance with an annoyed look on her face. Felix sat right next to her. "Did you have fun today?" He asked.
"Sure, it was." A quick smile formed on her face. 
As they were sitting there, there suddenly was a noise coming from the bushes. They both jumped back and looked deep into the trees, which seemed to be dark and darker as it went on. "What was that?" Felix made a small whisper. 
They both gulped as they heard weird, rattling noises. They both stood up, taking small steps back. "Shouldn't we check out what it is?" Gracie said. 
"No! what if it's something dangerous." Felix started to get worried. 
"No, I am sure it's just a bunny or something." Grace started to walk toward the woods, to try to follow the sound she was hearing. "What are you crazy?" Felix chased behind her. 
"Shut it." She nudged his shoulder playfully. 
She got out her phone and tried to shine the light in the darkness. Owls hooting, crickets chirping, and the sound like something was running. Both of them took steps further and further in the woods. 
"Shouldn't we just leave this alone?" Felix whispered to her again, but she released a quick: "Shh!" They both went silent, and the noise went off again. Like running in the bushes, around, back and forth around them. Gracie looked around, trying to find what was making the noise. The path started to get more narrow, and they could barely see their feet anymore. Suddenly, someone popped behind them, almost making them scream, the feeling in their hearts dropped as they looked back to see Eric.
"Eric?!" Gracie gasped, Felix had looked like he lost his breath and almost passed out from shock. "Don't do that." Gracie playfully pushed his shoulder with a smile on her face. "What are you guys doing out here?" he whispered with a smirk on his face.
"We heard a sound, so I decided to follow it." Grace made a quick, confident smile.
"What are you crazy?" We heard another voice say, and we all turned back to see Minho, peaking his head behind a tree. "What? you too?" Felix sounded surprised. 
"Well, you guys are really loud and I was curious where you were going alone." He laughed and made our way to them. They started to walk around more, and look for what was making the noise. They heard it again and quickly turned back and forth. They heard it getting louder and louder, as they continued down the path. "Are you sure we should be out here...?" Eric whispered. "Yes...it's totally fine." Felix made a nervous laugh, he knew that it wasn't fine. They found themselves deeper in the darkness to where they couldn't tell where the campsite was. 
Minho looked back. "Uhh..." He stopped. "Guys...where is the camp?"
As he said, they all stopped and looked back at him. The feelings in their chest deepened even more. "Uh..haha.." Gracie started laughing, trying to act like she wasn't scared. "It's okay, we just have to keep going." As she started to walk again, Eric grabbed her arm. "No, we should try and head back." 
Felix nudged Eric's hand off of Gracie, "Let's keep going, we already made it this far." Felix was trying to defend Gracie, but all Eric wanted was for them to be safe. "Hey, I think we should head back." Minho Made a small laugh, trying to shrug off his pride. Gracie wasn't listening though. 
The sound of howling and crawling started to get louder and louder, Gracie shined the flashlight through the woods, quickly back and forth.
They pushed their way through the bushes, then noticed what was making the noise. 
Deep in the woods, there was a circle of logs laying on the grass, with the trees making a circle around it. Someone came from the trees while dragging a large tree.
All their eyes widened. "Daehwi?" They all yelled, almost making him drop the log.
"What are you guys doing here?"
"We should ask you the same thing!" Gracie yelled. 
"For real!" They all took a big sigh of relief. "We are just glad you're not a monster or anything." Minho scratched his head. "You believe in monsters?" Daehwi raised his eyebrow as he dragged the log to the right spot. He brushed off his hands. "Well, I wanted this to be a surprise for you all to show tomorrow, but." He took a seat down on one of the logs and looked up into the circle in the trees, to see the shining, starry sky. 
Minho sat right next to him, then Eric and Felix next to each other. Gracie stood up. They all looked up, with the gentle breeze, and woods smell filling the air. 
"It's much better at night anyway." Gracie made a gentle smile. Felix smiled at her, then looked back up. 
"You really shouldn't be out here though, especially alone!" Minho yelled and nudged his shoulder. "Ayee....but I wanted to make something for you guys..like I am always the one who does the least so I could at least do this for you all." Daehwi scratched his tiny head.
"Still don't come out alone next time, ya? I will help you." Grace grinned. They all sat there together, in the middle of the night. Felix couldn't stop looking at Gracie.
That day was flowing around in his memories because that was the day he realized his feelings for Gracie started to grow.
As they all enjoyed the moment, Eric made a small yawn. "We should head back." They all agreed. They all stood up and were about to reenter the woods, but then noticed. 
"Uh...which way was it again?..." Minho looked back at Daehwi. He started laughing nervously. "Uh...I dunno." He shrugged. All their eyes widened. "Are you saying we are lost?" Felix shoved his small hands in his pockets. "Broo...I just wanna go home." They all started to complain. 
"Stop complaining guys..we will get out of this." Gracie started out confidently, "Eventually."
"Do you have your phone?" Eric pointed out. 
"Right." She quickly got out her phone and tried dialing but there was no service. "Aish," 
They all took a big sigh. 
"Well, it was nice at the moment." Minho was quick to give up and quickly sat back down on the log. 
"Can't we just wait here until morning comes..? it'll be easier to get out then," Eric suggested. Eric was younger than all of them but seemed more mature. He always had the ideas, brains, and was gifted really talentedly. 
"That's a good idea." Gracie agreed with a smile. They all stood there and slept until the morning came. They all saw the light shining through the tree circle. Waking them all up. They heard loud voices coming towards them, noticing the counselors had found them. 
Time had passed by, and the busses were there to pick them up back to town. But, Minho had a special ride from his family so they could stop somewhere on the way back. Macy got out of the car and ran up to them. "Hey, did you guys have fun without me?" She glared over at Minho.
"Well, I wish you could've come but you are not in our class." 
"Uhg." They both muttered at each other as they walked to the car. Felix waved bye to the both of them. Then, Felix realized Gracie getting in one of the busses with Eric and decided to follow them.
This memory was important to them, not only did they become closer, but they realized that they can never make it on their own. 

Macy waved her hand over Felix's face, breaking him out of his flashback. "Ah, sorry." He said with a light cough. "I am going to head out." Minho looked down at him as he grabbed his things to go. "Ah," Felix made a small wave as he left.
"Deep in thought?" As Macy said that, Felix look straight at her. "Yeah, a bit." He nodded, then got up quickly. "I should head out too, I have a lot of business things to do." 
Macy made a small nod, "I guess I should go too so I am not alone."
"Ah," It was a bit awkward between them. Even though they knew each other before, they didn't really know each other. Something deep down in both of them wanted to grow closer to one another but, something was also stopping them. They both waved goodbye and went the opposite ways down the street. Even though Felix confessed, and Gracie refused all so weeks ago, he couldn't shake the feeling. He couldn't stop thinking about it. He shrugged to himself, and he tucked his head in his scarf. "This is annoying." 


ANNIE POV

As I was walking down the street, by myself. I was looking around for research about what I should do. "Maybe I should have a timer on me at all times?"I thought. "Maybe I should strap it to my hand so I can count how fast my minutes are." I started to mutter to myself, I looked down, distracted then ended up bumping into someone. I looked up quickly, "I am so so sorry." I noticed it was Felix. The cold really brought out his freckles. 
"Felix!" I called out. His eyes widened when he saw me. "Oh, hey."
"What you been up to?"
"Just was out with Minho and his sister for a bit." He tugged on his hat. 
"Ah...cool." I made a small nod. Then the thoughts started to roll around in my mind. I noticed that he seemed to still be bothered by something. "Is there something bothering you?" I looked over. He looked away. "I am fine." 
I knew he was lying but I didn't want to dig any deeper. "I guess I will see you later then." I made a small cough, as I went to go to the tech store downtown.

"Why am I so worried about him? Why do I worry so much about others?" That was something I never thought I would think before. Before this year, I never really thought about anyone outside my family and one friend. I didn't make an effort for anyone. But, ever since I got to know Hyunjin, he's made me into a more compassionate person. "Ah, I am finally admitting that to myself." I made a small laugh. As I walked into the store, I looked around at how expensive everything looked. "All I need is a basic timer..why does Jisung suggest me to come here?" I thought as I looked around. The prices for everything were jacked up. "Geez.." As I whispered that, I looked up and saw someone walking up and down the aisles in a uniform.
"H-Hyunjin?" My eyes widened. I hadn't seen him since Christmas. I turned around so he wouldn't accidentally notice me. My heart started to race. "Did Jisung know he was here?" I yelled at myself. "Wait, why am I hiding from him? Didn't I want to get to know him better? How can I do that by hiding?" I motivated myself, I turned back around and marched towards him confidently.
"HelloOO." I said weirdly and tapped his shoulder. His head turned over. "Hm?"
He noticed it was me. "Oh, hello."
"I wasn't expecting you to be here!" I scratched my head. 
"Shhh, shouldn't you speak formally to me?" Hyunjin made a slight smirk.
"W-what do you mean?" I found my face starting to get red. 
"I am a worker here, I don't want the manager to see." He leaned in and whispered.
"Oh." I noticed. "I should be saying the same thing about you then." I made a small laugh. 
He smiled quickly. "Why aren't you surprised I am here?"
"I knew you were here." He turned away.
"How?" I asked, but he didn't answer. As he walked down the aisles, I followed behind him.
"I didn't know you worked here." I looked around.
"Yeah, I needed to get a job to help my mom out." As he said that, the question I wanted to ask him popped up in my mind. I still couldn't bring myself to ask him.
"What are you looking for?" He tried to stop thinking about it.
"Oh, just a watch that connects to my phone, if you know what I mean?" I asked, he lead me down the store and to the department where all the watches were. "Which one do you want?"
I looked down at the options, One that stood out to me, was a dark blue one with a yellow star on it. I couldn't keep my eyes off of it. But, then I saw the price. "Ah, nevermind. I don't really need it that bad." I turned back, but Hyunjin lightly grabbed hold of my arm. 
"I can buy it for you." He looked into my eyes.
"But what about you mom? Don't you need the money to help her feel better?" As I said that, something had sparked inside of him. He looked down slightly. "How did you know about that?"
I accidentally let it slip the wrong way. "Well...the thing is.." I couldn't bring myself to say a full sentence. "I will also be getting a discount so it's okay." Hyunjin let out a slight sigh as he grabbed the box of the watch, then paid for it. I felt bad, I didn't want him to get it for me, but I felt even worse for making him feel worse about his mom. 
He gave it to me with a small smile, but I could tell he had a low look on his face. As he was about to turn away I called his name: "Hyunjin!"
He looked back at me. "I am sorry," I muttered. "I shouldn't have mentioned her..I just ran into her when I was in the hospital and I wanted to ask if everything was alright and I was afraid I was going to hurt you and I ended up doing-" As I was talking so fast, I couldn't get out all the words. Hyunjin stopped me. "It's okay." He grabbed ahold of my hand, with a gentle smile. "Thank you for being worried." Hyunjin turned away again, and I stood there, looking at the watch around my wrist. "Remember our date, okay?" Hyunjin yelled from afar. 
I looked up at him, waving from behind. My heart started to race, and a smile grew on my face. "He remembered that?..."