thirty six

hayeon had been looking out her window, avoiding speaking to sunghoon for the whole drive back to her apartment. she could feel how uncomfortable they both were, but she didn't care to try and fix that.

she was both mentally and physically exhausted after the day she had, and all she wanted to do was get home and sleep. that was all she even had enough energy for, hayeon doubted if she could even walk up the steps to her floor.

just as she was about to doze off in the car aswell, she felt it come to a stop outside of a place that definitely wasn't her apartment. sunghoon quickly got out without a word, leaving the girl incredibly confused on what was happening.

she was going to ask the driver where they were, but even that hayeon wasn't sure she had enough energy for. so she just sat in the car until sunghoon came back, resting her eyes while she waited.

"hayeon?" she heard sunghoon say, shaking her lightly while he spoke. when did he get back?

"what?" the girl asked groggily as her eyes opened back up, not understanding what was happening.

"you fell asleep," sunghoon explained, chuckling at her obvious confusion. "we're almost at your place."

"oh," she nodded, "where did you go?"

"convenience store," he replied simply, pulling out a bag full of snacks and handing it to her.

sitting there with a blank stare on her face, not understanding why he had given her a random bag, hayeon didn't speak a word.

"it's for you," sunghoon laughed at her expression. "jake told me what happened."

"oh," hayeon said again, not knowing how to respond to that information. she was still attempting to process what had happened with junseo, her brain could barely even move onto thinking about sunghoon.

in truth, hayeon had gone into the night knowing she had to break up with junseo. it wasn't fair to him for her to stay in the relationship despite having feelings for someone else too. however, she didn't expect to find out that he was cheating on her in the process.

sohee's craziness might have actually paid off this time.

before hayeon could even bring herself to say the words she prepared at dinner, a girl had come up to their table and greeted junseo. she began talking about the amazing date they had just the other day, the day where hayeon was laying in bed sick, texting him as he was kissing another girl.

hearing this, her heart felt like it had shattered into pieces. she was trying her very best to ignore her feelings for someone all while he was going behind her back and cheating anyways? it felt like a complete blindside, he seemed so perfect to her.

but it's always the ones you never expect, isn't it?

hayeon knew that sunghoon knew none of this, and she didn't want him thinking that she broke up with junseo for him.

to be honest, the girl was still unsure how she felt about sunghoon. she knew she had feelings for him, but the past month of ups and downs with him had fucked with her head.

she wasn't sure if she felt ready to reciprocate his feelings, especially when she was as emotionally fragile as she was in that moment. she didn't want him to get the wrong idea.

"i'm still mad at you, you know," hayeon finally spoke, needing him to know that this didn't change anything between them. she may have sounded harsh, but she didn't have it in her to find a way to soften the blow in that moment.

"i know," sunghoon smiled sadly at her.

he had accepted the fact she probably wasn't going to talk to him much again, but that wasn't going to stop him from trying to look out for her anyways.

"we're here," the boy spoke softly as he saw her apartment building come into view.

nodding uncomfortably, hayeon picked at the ends of her still soaking wet dress to try and distract herself from looking at sunghoon.

"thank you," she whispered, keeping her head down.

ducking out of the car quickly once it came to a stop, hayeon took one last look at the boy behind her once she was out of the car. it took everything in her not to open the car door again and run into his arms, all she wanted in that moment was a hug from him.

but she knew she couldn't do that. she knew she had to go, and she knew she had to be the one to leave. sending sunghoon one last small wave, hayeon turned back around and tried her hardest to ignore the tears that started streaming down her face once again.