The Hideout I Need

Chapter 22: I really didn't mean to kiss you!

Hyeong-jun was racing through the school hallways. Fast footsteps, but not quite running. He felt himself slowly lose breath as he kept pacing, but knew he couldn't stop walking.

"Song Hyeong-jun!" was being yelled by a very familiar someone, and he would like to avoid that person at all costs.

It had been a couple of days since Hyeong-jun kissed Tae-young. Honestly, the weekend had been excruciatingly embarrassing to live through. As soon as he came home that Friday late afternoon, he broke down crying in front of Hyeon-ah. He walked into the apartment tears streaming down his face, every part of him dripping wet from the rain.

"Oh my, Hyeong-jun, what's wrong?" she asked, as he entered their apartment sobbing.

"I did something incredibly stupid," he was wailing, speaking through loud sobs, "I kissed Tae-young. Even though I knew he wouldn't feel the same... and now I think I might lose him as a friend..."

Hyeon-ah couldn't help but smile caringly at him. She got up and walked over to him. She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a big hug. It felt cold, but it was alright; she knew he needed it. Hyeong-jun kept crying as he also wrapped his own arms around her. She smiled at the feeling, remembering how they'd hug back when he was so much shorter than her. As Hyeong-jun let go of the hug, she removed the hood of his hoodie, which was all heavy as it was wet. She patted his head, trying to signal that he was safe now at home.

"You can tell me all about it once you feel like it. Remember what mom used to say? Always take a warm shower after being out in the rain. And in this case, I think it might relax you a bit."

Hyeong-jun's pout turned into a little smile, although he could still feel tears falling from his eyes. He nodded at her and walked towards the bathroom. As he took off his soaking wet clothes and got into the steaming hot shower he did feel a little better, though. He felt the warm water run against his cold face and felt himself heat up. The tears had somewhat stopped. Or maybe he just didn't have any left.

As he got out of the shower and changed into some home clothes, Hyeon-ah had made some dinner for the both of them. She turned on their little TV and played a drama she had started watching a while ago. He was thankful for her effort and enjoyed the two of them sitting there and watching in peace. And once he was ready to talk about it, they paused the episode for him to let it all out. After telling every embarrassing detail including his five-minute crying session out in public, she started laughing.

"Hey, it's not funny, Hyeon-ah," he pouted, despite chuckling a little.

"I know, I know, sorry. But you're really acting an awful lot emotional over a boy!" she joked.

"Hey, don't act so holy, I remember how much you acted up about Jae-hyeon or whatever his name was," he laughed, thinking about Hyeon-ah's list of ex-boyfriends.

She made a playful glare, "Touché."

"But I get it! I mean, I definitely am acting up a lot because of Tae-young. Because... he's special," Hyeong-jun's smile faded a little, "I just seriously don't know what to do the next time I see him. I think I really messed up."

"Well you can either ignore him forever or suck it up and talk to him," she said, directing her focus back onto the TV, pressing play once again.

He decided to go with the former rather than the latter.

"Hyeong-jun!"

He started walking faster. It was already Tuesday. God, was he lucky that he managed to hang onto Se-kwon and Won-jin yesterday. On Monday, the very second a class would end, he would sprint out of the classroom and run towards Class 3, asking the two if they'd like to hang out. Go somewhere. Do anything that wasn't with Tae-young, Se-rim, and Jung-mo. Tae-young tried catching his attention quite a few times, but each time Hyeong-jun narrowly avoided it. This was one of those times Hyeong-jun was grateful for their class now having single tables and assigned seats. Monday was narrowly successful.