Mixing present and past tenses

Hi! So I've been struggling with the tenses recently and I need help! ;A;

I'm writing this prologue in the first person point of view past but then there are some sentences where I do think it's better to write in present tense.

Example:

“Hey, Kyungsoo! What are you doing?” Sooyoung asked before the awkward silence would stuck between them. I have always envied her for how she always manages to avoid the uncomfortable situations.

I read somewhere that the inner thoughts are written in present tense. Is it okay to write it like that then?

Another example:

It had been a little over a week since the day at the park with the boys and the days were again passing by without nothing special happening around.

“What do we have next, again?” Jiyoung asked, and moved a little closer to me, dodging the people walking up and down the stairs. I was in school and I and Jiyoung were returning to the classroom as we had helped the teacher to bring the books to the teacher’s room. It was a short break-time.

That was the example where everything was written in past tense and I'm not sure if it's grammatically correct?

All the help is appreciated!

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YumeSakuya #1 Sep 14, 2014 02:38:39

I think it doesn't matter which tense you go with, as long as it's the same through out the whole text :)

For the first one I would either write: “Hey, Kyungsoo! What are you doing?” Sooyoung asks before the awkward silence would stick between them/us (depends who Sooyoung's talking to). I have always envied her for how she always manages to avoid the uncomfortable situations.

or if you write in past: “Hey, Kyungsoo! What are you doing?” Sooyoung asked before the awkward silence would stick between them/us. I had always envied her for how she always managed to avoid the uncomfortable situations.

For the second one, I'd write something like:

It had been a little over a week since the day at the park with the boys and the days were again, passing by with nothing special happening around.
“What do we have next, again?” Jiyoung asked, and moved a little closer to me, dodging the people walking up and down the stairs. I was in school and Jiyoung and I were returning to the classroom as we had helped the teacher bring his/her books to the teacher’s room. It was a short break-time.

I don't know if i helped, but I hope I did? Sorry if I offend you or anything XD