ch. 63

"there are so many things in this world, but there wasn't a space around for me to rest without worrying."

-another day

"eunbi! you're here!"

yunho engulfs the girl in a big hug as he brings her inside, closing the door with his foot. hearing the familiar name, his parents comes by to the entrance of the house to see the visitor with big smiles on their faces.

"welcome back eunbi!" mr. jeong beams. "how was your trip back home?"

bringing her head to the side, eunbi locks eye contact with yunho's parents. "it was great! it has been a while since i've been back in busan, so i'm glad that i traveled back."

she then recalls something, causing her to push the tall male away from him. she quickly takes off her shoes and puts on the indoor shoes laid before her. with one of her hands, she lifts up a shimmering, gold gift bag and hands it to the adults. "i gave my parents your gifts and they loved it! they wanted to thank you by giving you gifts as well."

before she can receive a 'thank you' from them, the son drags her away from his parents and into the backyard. eunbi notices that everyone else from their friend group has arrived already, playing with one another under the setting sun. seonghwa and hongjoong are sitting around the cackling fire pit as mingi is attempting to beat jongho in an arm wrestle. with their backs on the grass, yeosang and hana watch the sunset with smiles on their lips while wooyoung and san chase each other around in the background.

mingi is the first to notice the newcomer's presence, turning his head around when he hears the screen door open, and immediately skips toward the pair that is watching them from afar. jongho catches onto his actions and follows him with a gummy smile pulling on his lips as he calls out to the girl. "noona! let me put away your bags."

with that, everyone averts their attention to eunbi and yunho as the female visitor occupies herself with giving jongho her belongings and hugging mingi. their eyes and smiles at the sight of their friend, and a few of them greet the girl with their waving hands.

wooyoung leaves san alone and charges toward the girl, causing her to remove herself from yunho's grasp. she fully embraces the male as he lifts her from the ground and twirls around, just like the good o' days. after the cheerful greeting, he places a light peck on her cheek and earns himself a light smack on the head.

"ow! that hurts!" the black-haired male fake-cries while he rubs the area where eunbi hit him. "i gifted you with my presence and all i get in return is pain."

"save those kisses for someone else." eunbi sticks her tongue out at the childish male and pulls her bottom eyelid down. "and that little smack was my gift for you."

the two of them glare at each other before bursting into laughter, wrapping their arms around each other once more. wooyoung then leads the female to the fire pit, where they will spend the rest of the day bonding with one another, and everyone else soon follows along. hongjoong and seonghwa are still next to each other in their seats, so the remaining friends each settle themselves comfortably into a chair.

being tired from her trip back, eunbi slumps into the closest seat to her and lets out a relaxed sigh when her bottom meets the cushion of the chair. the male accompanying her is about to sit next to her until an amazing idea appears in his mind, and his gaze immediately locks onto his best friend. a sly smirk creeps its way to his lips as he leaves eunbi's side to quickly grab onto san's arm and practically drag him to the seat. with one push, the clueless male plops right next to someone who he did not expect to be sitting beside.

the two seat neighbors briefly make eye contact and their bodies stiffen due to the awkwardness between them. san instantly looks up to the sky and eunbi stares at the ground, which causes wooyoung's eye to twitch in anger since he gave up his seat for his best friend to get the opportunity to get closer to the girl of his dreams.

this ungrateful brat-

"wooyoung! take a seat already!"

the male rolls his eyes at hongjoong's command before walking over to the last available seat, which is between seonghwa and san, since yunho sneakily took the other seat next to eunbi.

once everyone has taken a seat, mingi is the first one to initiate bonding time like he always is with the chattering mouth of his. the tall male looks over to the brunette female with an excited smile as he lets out the first things that appear in his head. "so eunbi, can you tell us what happened on your trip to busan?"

now focused on the conversation, eunbi takes a second to recall her visit to her hometown. an important memory is then remembered, and it brings a cunning smile to her face. "do you guys remember the bet that i made with siyeon?"

"the one about you leaving the school if you lost the public evaluation?" seonghwa asks, earning a nod from the girl. "if i remember correctly, you would tell her parents about her behavior at the school if she lost."

yeosang catches on quickly onto where this conversation is progressing to, and his adorable laugh rings through the night. he leans in toward eunbi, interested in the topic now as his shit-eating grin pulls on his lips. "you did not do what i think you did, eun."

the female copies his gesture and his grin. "oh yes yeo, i did exactly what you are thinking of."

everyone soon realizes what eunbi is implying and gasps leaves each of their mouths, eyes widening out of shock.

"it was so perfect when i arrived home because her parents were visiting mine at the moment and they were going to celebrate our return with dinner," eunbi says while twirling her hair, providing context to the event. "but obviously siyeon didn't come with me, so they asked me where she was once we were having dinner. i told them about everything that happened during the first term and after that, her parents scolded her over the phone. she will still be attending... if she can pay for her apartment fees, that is. i doubt that she'll last to the end of the school year."

the group erupts into laughter and cheering after hearing the news. mingi runs over to eunbi and embraces her, shouting "that's my best friend!", and everyone else joins the hug to celebrate. she is soon lifted from the ground and the boys toss her up and down in the air, happiness written on everyone's faces.

san simply sits back from all the commotion, lips pressed into a thin line. he is indeed glad that siyeon is getting what she deserves, but he is not worthy of celebrating this moment with them.

he worked alongside with siyeon, and he never apologized for that.

looking over to the group, the particular girl laughing brings a smile to his face.

maybe tonight, he will make everything right.

after some time, the commotion eventually settles down and everyone returns to their seats. mingi resumes initiating different conversations and for hours, they would talk about random topics like having a preference of eating mint chocolate ice cream and what would happen if all of them were in a horror movie. the exchange of words livened the atmosphere under the starry night, engraving another beautiful memory into their heads.

but like everything else, the late night talk came to an end as it became too cold and too dark to stay outside. extinguishing the fire, everyone huddled with one another while heading into the house to prepare themselves for sleep.

just as eunbi takes a step into the house, a hand takes her wrist and pulls her back. her face makes contact with a warm surface and her waist is wrapped with arms of the person in front of her. knowing exactly who it is, she teasingly attempts to remove herself from them.

"c'mon yuyu," she whines playfully. "it's cold and i want to go inside."

"sorry, but no can do." yunho spins the both of them around to keep their bodies moving for warmth, earning giggles from each other. "i heard that the first snowfall is going to happen tonight and i want to share the moment with you."

for a moment, the two of them stop joking around and stare into each other's eyes, a foreign atmosphere wrapping around them. as always, yunho looks so beautiful under the moonlight and the way he looks at her melts her heart. his embrace makes her feel so safe, so loved in his arms.

but then, looking at the sky above causes her to remember the night of san holding her hand in the cold.

slowly, yunho's face slowly begins closing in the distance between their lips. eunbi realizes what is about to happen, and for some reason she feels very uncomfortable being in this situation.

but why though? shouldn't she be ecstatic since she's spending alone time with him?

noticing yunho losing focus on his grip, the brunette manages to break free from the male's grasp and heads over to the screen door that will lead her back into the house. "i'm sorry yunho. i would love to stay up, but... i'm freezing cold and feel tired. we should get some sleep."

she quickly enters the house with red cheeks, joining the others in getting ready to slumber. yunho comes in after a few minutes, a little devastated from earlier, but pretends nothing happened as he grabs his pajamas and encloses himself in a room for him to change.

as she brushes her hair, eunbi earns a nudge from hanna, who has finished washing her face. looking over, she sees the pink-haired girl wiggling her eyebrows at her. "so, why did you stay outside with yunho?"

"the first snowfall is apparently happening tonight and he wanted me to watch it with him," the brunette elaborates while putting toothpaste onto her toothbrush. "i'm tired though, so i'm just going to sleep."

"what?!? you should stay up! it's believed that if you are with someone during the first snowfall, you guys will stay together for a long time!"

hearing this causes the girl to choke on the substance foaming in her mouth and spit everything out. "huh?!?"

hanna chuckles at the reaction. "yeah! i can't believe you declined it without thinking. and besides, you would have been spending time with the one who likes you back!"

she was hoping for a cheerful response from eunbi, but the silence she receives puts a slight frown on her face. after the brunette has finished freshening up for the night, hanna wraps an arm around her shoulder. "eunbi, are you okay? this isn't how... i expect you to react to my comment."

eunbi stares at her reflection in the mirror, biting down on her bottom lip as she recalls the incident from earlier. not wanting to worry her friend, a fake smile decorates her lips and she returns the side hug from the pink-haired female. "i'm just not used to hearing that, ya know? it still feels like a dream to know that the feelings are mutual."

reassurance is washed over hanna's face and the two of them head out of the restroom to join the others. the boys have already set up the sleeping arrangement in the living room, ten futons lying on the floor. they say that everyone should receives equal treatment and not use the couch, but the girls both know that in the middle of the night one of the boys will occupy the furniture.

seeing that each person is here now, everyone slowly settles into their futon. yawns fill the silence of the room, and the lights are finally turned off. eunbi lets out a sigh of satisfaction when she snuggles into the blanket, closing her eyes to immerse herself into slumber.

but it takes only one thought to keep her awake all night.

yunho likes me.

and i like him back.

but why did i do that?