The awaited Sunday had finally come. Junhoe felt worried for some reason since the morning. He woke up way too early than usual. Weirdly, it was hard for him to get back to sleep and it was so un-Junhoe at all. Usually he would go back straight to sleep. He wouldn’t bother to check the time since it was school-free day. No, he wouldn’t even bother to open his eyes just for a mere second. He would wake up just on the same time when the moon takes over the sun’s duty.

But today was definitely an anomaly. He felt silly honestly. It wasn’t like he was going to meet his in-laws or something but Junhoe was certainly so nervous and it was his first time feeling that way. He never encountered such an emotion.

Getting up from his bed, Junhoe ruffled his hair in frustration. Why was he so tense? It was just meeting a friend! Why couldn’t he stay calm?

Since he couldn’t go back to his Junhoe-land, he just went straight to the bathroom. He washed himself up and got dressed with jeans and a white sweater underneath his black coat. He checked the time. It read 8.18 am; he still got more than one and a half hour to go.

“Since when did you wake up in the morning on Sunday?” When Junhoe exited his room to go outside the house, his older sister noticed him and decided to ask.

Junhoe then followed her sister, heading to the kitchen. After the elder put some used plate and utensils on the sink, she stood beside the refrigerator and eyed him intently. She knew something was definitely up with her brother and she was determined to find it out. Junhoe didn’t feel bothered by the intent stare as he took a glass and pour himself some water.

In the middle of cherishing the freshness of his water, Junhoe stopped abruptly and put the glass down from his mouth. He looked at his sister who still had her eyes fixed on him. When her little brother returned her stare, her lips automatically tugged up in a sly grin. Junhoe sighed, knowing her sister wouldn’t stop teasing him about this if she knew he was going to hang out with a girl.

“A date with Jinhwan,” Junhoe lazily said as he made his way to the front door. Such a lame excuse, he knew.

“I demand for full story!” his sister’s yell echoed through the empty room. Junhoe just smiled in amusement as he opened the front door. Sure she was bold enough to shout in such early morning when their parents were most likely still asleep. He closed the door behind him.

A gust of cold air immediately tickled his face as he made his way outside the gate. The sun reflected his mood for the day; warm and bright. He suddenly wondered since when the weather had gone normal and why didn’t he notice it. The last time he remembered was only when the condition was unbearably burning; yes, the day he received his letter.

Funny, he thought. It was really hot when he found he found the unnamed letter inside his locker. And now it was really cold when he was about to found out the writer of the unnamed letter.

Junhoe deliberately didn’t take the bus to go to his school’s stop. It would take only 15 minutes to get there and that meant he had sixty more minutes to kill. He decided that it’d be good to take a walk instead, a really slow-paced and relaxing morning walk since this might be his first and last time doing it.

---

Junhoe took a glance at his wrist watch hidden underneath his long sweater again. 10.20. He cursed under his breath. He fastened his run and stopped just few blocks before the coffee shop to catch some oxygen properly. He was almost late by half an hour.

He didn’t know what got into him but the slow-paced and relaxing morning walk turned much slower than he expected. Perhaps he enjoyed it too much. Perhaps he was just so lazy that it took him twice amount of time just to move his leg in front of another. Perhaps his heart commanded his body to walk so sluggishly because it couldn’t prepare itself for the meeting. Or perhaps he just simply forgot. He couldn’t be sure which one either.

Junhoe wiped some sweat dripping with his hand. After steadying his own breath and made sure he didn’t looked like a mess by the sudden marathon, which was a very rare occasion for him to do so, he opened the door of the café.

The dangling sound went unnoticed by the customers of the café, but like in every café in this world, the lady behind the counter saw his entrance and smiled warmly as she welcomed him. He nodded at the lady and quickly searched for his meeting partner. He really hoped she’d be waiting for him even he was more than twenty minutes late.

He threw his glance over the café. He had no idea about how she looked like. Did she have long hair or short hair? Was it black or brown? He was sure she didn’t mention anything about her outfit for the day. How he supposed to find her then? A sigh escaped Junhoe’s lips. Just when he believed she hadn’t came and was about to take a vacant spot to wait for her, his eyes noticed a woman who sat all by herself. She was back-facing him so he couldn’t tell if she was his schoolmates or not.

The girl had short black hair, ended right at the top of her shoulders. She looked like Jung So Min from behind. Junhoe had this very intense internal debate which his mind tried to decide whether he should approach the girl or not. It’d be very great if it was indeed the girl but what if she wasn’t? He couldn’t simply say he got the wrong person and leave, right? Maybe he could, but this was Junhoe we’re talking about. He couldn’t deal with embarrassment very well.

Adrenaline rushed inside him. His heart beat so fast again like he had run for hours. Well he did run, but the after-effect was disappeared already. After taking deep breaths and self-commanding his heart to work properly, Junhoe finally made his mind. He would approach the girl. Let he think about the consequences later, he needed to find out if she was her or not.

His oncoming footsteps took the girl’s attention. She turned her head to his direction and their eyes meet. Junhoe wasn’t sure if his eyes were working on some kind of optical illusion, but he thought he saw a smile was about to be engraved on this girl’s face but it quickly vanish before it was visible to him, at least to confirm she was smiling and he wasn’t imagining thing.

When he reached the space in front her, in between the small wooden square table, the girl stood up and bowed to him deeply. Just then, he saw her smiling for real. She must be the sender, he thought. Assuming from her appearance and the way she dressed herself, she might be her, most likely it. Junhoe bowed back and returned the smile. Both of them sat down moments later.

Having her right in front of his face made Junhoe’s heart beat hundred times faster. No, it wasn’t because she was that beautiful. She was indeed beautiful but not that beautiful; he had met a lot of girl prettier than her. Instead she was charming. She had eyes that easily disappeared when she smiled. Her eyelashes were noticeably long. Her cheeks were also a little bit chubby, not quite a match considering her skinny figure.

Junhoe set his eyes on the girl before him. She didn’t say anything since she greeted him earlier. She was curious about what was so interesting that she kept her eyes down until that time. Junhoe decided to speak since he couldn’t handle the silence anymore.

“As you know, I’m Koo Junhoe.” He started, stretching his hand to her. He was contemplated whether he should introduce himself or not since obviously the girl would already know him but he didn’t want to sound arrogant so he chose to just do it.

The girl looked up from her hands and smiled at Junhoe gratefully. Her eyes disappeared again as she smiled, wider than the previous smile. “Haera. Kim Haera,” she took his hand. Junhoe noticed how small her hand was compared to him. He felt like a giant since he thought it would take both of her hands to wrap his own.

The girl was obviously smiling but Junhoe knew something was wrong. Her smile was seemed to be forced and it looked like her smile didn’t reflect what she was feeling at all. It was too early for him to make such judgment honestly but Junhoe wasn’t stupid.

“So, you’re the one who sent the letter?” Junhoe asked frankly, with a smile on his lips.

Shy blush appeared on Haera’s cheeks as she nodded her head, biting her lips.

Again, that feeling disturbed him. Junhoe didn’t know why but he felt that the girl was somehow disappointed. It was like something didn’t go as she expected. It was like she had to swallow down her hope. But what was it? Junhoe straightened on his seat as he looked at the girl with interest.

“Did he tell you the reason?” she asked after a moment of silent.

Junhoe was taken aback by the question. Did he? Who was he? Did someone supposed to tell him something? Did she mention in the letter to ask ‘his reason’? Junhoe didn’t understand. Why did things seem to go weird?

“What reason?” he asked hesitantly, didn’t leave his eyes one her for once. He tried to read her eyes but he wasn’t able to. Junhoe had a bad feeling about this. Questions filled his head. He somehow felt like he had a lot of puzzles pieces but no matter how hard he tried, they didn’t come together.

“Why he didn’t come,” she said.

Junhoe wasn’t senseless and it wasn’t hard for him to notice the disappointment in her voice. Again, why was she disappointed? Now, things had gone odder, very odd.

Since he couldn’t hold it anymore, Junhoe decided to ask, “Wait, who is this ‘he’? I obviously come.” Now he started to get suspicious.

The girl, Haera, frowned at his question. Her eyes seemed to tell him that he was supposed to know ‘he’ already. “Jinhwan, of course. Did he tell you the reason why he doesn’t come when he was the one who initiate this?”

Then it hit him. Everything hit him. All the puzzles that he already collected but he couldn’t put together finally fit into one place. It revealed the whole picture and situation to him. Junhoe wasn’t stupid to comprehend what it meant.

“The letter was for Jinhwan?” he couldn’t help but asked.

Haera hesitantly nodded her head. Realization hit her as well when circled in surprise and her eyes widened in mortification. “Wait, don’t tell me…” she didn’t finish her words as Junhoe nodded to confirm her suspicion.

As he heard it, Junhoe could felt his ears burned in embarrassment. He wished to vanish right at the moment. He wished to turn back the time, to the day when he found the white envelope inside his locker. He wished he didn’t mind that letter. He wished he just threw away that letter. But he obviously couldn’t go back to that time no matter how much he’d willing to sacrifice just to get the opportunity.

He briefly took a glance at the girl before him. She had understood it as well. The blush on her face got even redder, matched with the red flower motif on her floral long-sleeved t-shirt. The silence was getting too much but none of them could find the courage to speak, they were just too embarrassed.

“Sorry. I put it in the wrong locker,” she whispered lowly as she hung her head down. She couldn’t bring herself to look at Junhoe after all the misunderstanding she’d caused.

Junhoe ruffled his hair with a heavy sigh. So the letter was actually meant for Jinhwan. She wanted to put it in Jinhwan’s locker but she misplaced it that the letter ended up founded by him instead. So she was actually one of those fangirls of Jinhwan. Sadly, both Jinhwan and he shared same initial, KJH, so it wasn’t his fault that he thought the letter was his.

“Right, you are KJH as well,” Haera said, more like to herself but since the café wasn’t really full and noisy Junhoe’s ears caught her words. It seemed like she was trying to find the reason why he didn’t return the letter to Jinhwan when she already addressed Jinhwan as KJH.

Yes, we are both KJH, he said in his mind.

Now Junhoe understood. He understood the reason she mentioned in her first letter that her letter might be one of the thousand letters he already received when for Junhoe it was first time unlike Jinhwan who got lots of love letters before. He understood that the friend she was referring in her letter that made her discouraged was actually him. Now he understood why she called him ‘very nice’ like other people described him; she was referring to Jinhwan.

He finally found out the reason behind her disappointed eyes and smile: she was expecting Jinhwan. She thought the whole time when they exchanged letters that it was Jinhwan, her crush, who wrote back to her.

“God,” he heard her grumbled as she cupped her face between her hands. The whole situation was very awkward.

God, Junhoe silently said, mirroring her. He felt really stupid. All this time he had this thought that someone actually admired him. He thought he was finally able to get rid of Jinhwan’s shadow that always left him hardly noticed, that despite their evident heights difference the attention was always on the tiny fairy boy.

Just when he was about to get to know his penpal in person, things immediately went wrong without any warning. Life is really sweet.

How he wished someone to just magically appear and murders him right now.

---

Junhoe opened the familiar door and got inside. He took his shoes, leaving him with his white socks. He didn’t bother to announce his arrival and just walked straight to, as he already perfectly remembered, the TV room. The person who was sitting on the sofa frowned upon seeing Junhoe’s gloomy expression.

“What’s with that face? Anyway how was your meeting going?” Jinhwan, who was expecting Junhoe’s appearance, asked. After the meeting with Haera ended, he called Jinhwan that he’d come to his house. He needed someone to talk and, if possible, help him to get back his pride.

Junhoe didn’t bother to answer and just threw himself beside the smaller boy, not forgetting to snatch a bag of chips that he was holding. Jinhwan didn’t protest and just sat there in silence, patiently waiting for Junhoe to answer his question.

“Can you murder me now, Hyung?” Junhoe chose to response. His eyes glued to the television in front of him but his mind was wandering around elsewhere.

Jinhwan chuckled. “You call me Hyung again now?” asked Jinhwan which Junhoe only ignored.

He knew he would get this kind of response from Jinhwan, he might even be a never-ending laughing stock if he spill everything, but Junhoe didn’t care about it. He wanted someone to listen to his story and the only perfect person to do was Jinhwan.

“Speak,” he demanded.

Junhoe sighed out loud. “The letter was originally meant for you,” he said lazily, straightforward to the point. He didn’t bother to tell the beginning of his story. He felt it was unnecessary to tell Jinhwan about how he woke up earlier than usual, how he decided to walk and consumed more time than he expected, how he ran, how he tried to find her in the café and such. The main thing was just that the letter was for Jinhwan, not him.

He ruffled again his already-messy hair as he remembered the humiliating moment back few hours ago.

He heard Jinhwan coughed hard. He was choked by his chips. Junhoe patted Jinhwan’s back, both in sympathy and irritation. “W-what?” he managed to say.

Sighing again, Junhoe then explained to Jinhwan the whole story behind everything that happened. He told him about how she was in hurry; afraid of someone caught her action, that she misplaced the letter. He told him how he didn’t suspicious because the initial, KJH, matched with Junhoe’s as well.

When the lad ended his story, Jinhwan laughed his heart out. He laughed so hard that he almost spilled the chips on the floor if it wasn’t for Junhoe to prevent it from happening. Jinhwan held his stomach as it started to ache. It was so funny for Jinhwan. Junhoe kept his mouth shut even he was really annoyed by his friend response.

‘Stop it,” Junhoe said sternly. He knew he would laugh at him but he didn’t predict it to be like this. And he didn’t like it at all. He hoped his friend would encourage him or comfort him, not laughing. Finally after some minutes, Jinhwan could calm himself down.

“Sorry,” he said between his coughs.

Jinhwan never thought the day would finally come, the day when Junhoe had to face embarrassment. Junhoe had always been a person which was so confident and love himself too much. He never ran into such shameful occasion. He suddenly remembered one day, few days after he got the letter, Junhoe bragged to Jinhwan that it wasn’t only him who had fangirl, that Junhoe also had some too.

“I just want to erase this from my memory.” Junhoe complained, rested his head on the couch. He closed his eyes shortly.

“Sorry for being so awesome that you got overshadowed,” Jinhwan laughed again which earned a punch, quite hard one, from the teased boy.

---

Had it been three days? Yes, it had been three days since their meeting.

The following Monday was the worst Monday ever. His mind kept on having flashbacks about that Monday, the Monday he didn’t wish to remember, and the Monday he didn’t even wish to exist in the first place. But sadly, everything had happened. The hot Monday that led him to the pitiful Sunday. All he could do was moving on and keep living his life, pretending his unfortunate event was never occurred. But luckily he could manage to survive the Monday, and also the following Tuesday and Wednesday.

It was Thursday. Like usual, stopped at their locker was the first thing KJH duo did when arrived at school. Junhoe’s face scrunched in annoyance as the sight of his locker greeted him. He felt bitter every time he saw his locker. There’d be no way he could pretend he didn’t experience that event. Even if he tried to forget, everything would remind him about it all over again and that made him feeling like chopping himself into pieces. Any locker, white paper, green pen, even any kinds of ramen would make him remember. It seemed the world just hates him.

Junhoe unlocked his locker and opened it. He tried hard to not expect anything since the first day. But truthfully he somehow hoped he would find a folded paper inside like usual, as if the meeting didn’t took place. And that hope didn’t simply disappear. Junhoe had to swallow hard and reminded himself about the harsh reality when nothing peculiar was inside his locker just like the previous three days. So everything was real, he told himself.

Junhoe took out his books and closed it with a little bit unnecessary force that it banged louder than normal. Jinhwan looked at Junhoe with concern written in his face upon the sudden bang.

“Junhoe..” Jinhwan called. Junhoe turned to Jinhwan with raised eyebrows. He felt bad seeing his friend worried about him. He knew Jinhwan would do anything to help him. But sadly there was nothing for him to help since nothing would change unless Jinhwan could bring a time machine to help him to change his past.

Junhoe was about to assure that he was okay but he closed his mouth and swallowed back his words when the worry on his face suddenly gone in instant, replaced by a mischievous grin. He decided to wait for his little friend’s next action.

Suddenly, with his smile even slyer than before, Jinhwan showed him a white envelope. Junhoe’s jaw dropped as he looked at the very familiar ‘KJH’ written on the envelope Jinhwan was holding. It was Haera’s. There was no way he would missed out those handwritings. He even thought among all handwritings he’d known, hers was the easiest to recognize.

Junhoe couldn’t help but to feel bitter. So she put it in the right locker this time, she didn’t misplace it or something. The letter had gone to its true owner. He knew that he had no right upon feeling anything but he didn’t know how to prevent himself from having those feelings.

He thought she was indeed his bestfriend. The moment he met her in person, he even thought their friendship could develop into something more. Disappointingly, the relationship wasn’t real; it wasn’t even his to begin with.

Junhoe growled lowly as he playfully raised his fist to his older friend. Jinhwan laughed out loud, his voice echoed through the empty hall as he dodged Junhoe’s upcoming fist with his small hand. Both of them then walked to the class. Junhoe noticed from the corner of his eyes that Jinhwan opened the ‘KJH’ letter.

Junhoe felt dejavu.

He decided to ignore his friend beside him whose pace had gotten slower due to his multitasking action; walking and reading. Junhoe tried to match with Jinhwan’s step but he was forced to come into a stop when he noticed Jinhwan wasn’t even trailing behind him. He looked over his shoulders and found Jinhwan was just standing as his eyes and mind focused on the letter. Junhoe decided to wait.

Just few seconds after that, Jinhwan looked up from, which according to Junhoe, the cursed letter, with a very wide and bright smile stretched on his face. Sure, both of them like sun and storm paired with each other; one was lively and the other one was gloomy.

Jinhwan approached Junhoe who was standing few meters ahead of him and stretched out his hand with the letter in it. Junhoe only stared at the letter; his frown showed his confusion. Seeing Junhoe seemed wouldn’t take the letter anytime soon, Jinhwan grabbed Junhoe’s left hand and slapped the letter on his palm.

“It seems like she forgot which locker is the right one again,” he explained nonchalantly as he walked past Junhoe with his amused smile that didn’t go unnoticed by him.

Curious, Junhoe opened the letter and read it.

Dear KJH,

It’s so unexpected, isn’t it? Until now, everything’s just so surreal to me. I just can’t believe things that happened between us. It is funny how we know nothing about each other at all but one accident could turn the table over and now we know almost everything, not quite close to everything but I think we got a lot closer, don’t we? I guess that is what people called as fate.

Even if it isn’t like what I hoped to be, but you’re really a great friend. I like hearing things from you and I also feel comfortable to share things with you.

It took me days to handle my overwhelming embarrassment that I finally found the bravery to write to you again. I don’t want to lose a friend, especially a very good one like you. I really hope our friendship doesn’t end just because of our Sunday’s hang out.

But the choice is in your hand. We can still be friends or we can not. It’s you to choose.

How does that sound to you? I’d like to receive your reply, like usual, before school ends.

Have a great day, Koo Junhoe.

Sincerely, Haera.

---

Just like ‘that Monday’, Junhoe’s thought was filled by the letter. He couldn’t get himself straight and he almost couldn’t prevent himself from smiling. Yeah, like she mentioned, it also felt like surreal to him. One moment he was about to erase everything that related to ‘that Monday’ but one event had made him rethink his choice again and it was funny how now he wanted to forever remember ‘that Monday’.

Just like how Junhoe couldn’t stop thinking about the letter, Jinhwan couldn’t help himself to not tease the boy. He thought it was entertaining to see how quick his friend’s behavior changed. He also complained teasingly that Junhoe had taken one of his fans and told him that he didn’t appreciate it.

“Should I reply? Or should I not?” he whispered only for him to hear.

For Junhoe, making the decision was harder that any mathematics’ integral problem he’d came across. He even thought finding a way to make Jinhwan grows taller was easier than that.

But he made his mind at the end. He wouldn’t write a reply, he would meet Haera in person. But then he remembered he only knew she was in the same year as him and he didn’t know which class she was in. Just a moment later, an idea popped in Junhoe’s head. He might not know about Haera’s class but there was definitely someone who knows.

Junhoe turned his head to his friend sitting on his left, the school’s famous playboy who basically knows every girl in their school. When he was asked why he bothered to memorize things like names, class, and hobbies of the girls, he said that it was the secret to make girl impressed; knows basic things about them without sounding like a stalker. But Junhoe disagreed on it; it could be called as stalking too.

“Kim Hanbin,” Junhoe called lowly. The Hanbin boy turned to his direction. “Do you know which class Kim Haera is in?”

Hanbin moved his head closer to Junhoe in order to get it clearer. “Who? Kim Haera?” he asked for confirmation. Junhoe nodded his head in anticipation.

Hanbin thought for a moment. Junhoe guessed he forgot which one was Kim Haera since he sure got lots of information to remember. But then Hanbin’s lips tugged into smirk as he nodded, “Of course.”

---

He didn’t expect her class to be so close to his own. Sure he knew they were in the same year but that thought never crossed his mind. All this time, her class was just beside his. Just few steps from his class and he’d arrived at hers.

When the lunch break’s bell rang, Junhoe dashed out of his classroom and went to the class, as he was told by Hanbin was Haera’s class. He was afraid if he took long time, she might go to the cafeteria already which he prayed she didn’t. It didn’t take him forever to found her due to her short hair made her quite distinctive since most of girls were long-haired.

The girl was busy talking with her two friends that she didn’t notice him coming. Junhoe felt himself smiled.

“Haera-ssi,” Junhoe called. Suddenly he felt nervous all over again. He suddenly wanted to take few steps back and chose to reply her letter instead of coming to her class.

Haera was understandably surprised to see Junhoe there. The pink flush on her little-chubby cheeks that Junhoe had seen during their first meeting now he saw it again. Now, he thought it was adorable honestly.

“Can we talk for a moment?” She nodded awkwardly and with that Junhoe led her outside the class. Once they were outside, Junhoe stopped and faced her.

He stretched out his hand to her, “Koo Junhoe,” he said. It wasn’t the words he wanted to say. He actually had rehearsed his words before the break. But somehow his mind didn’t work correctly and he had forgotten all the words he meant to say. He chose to introduce himself again, like their first meeting.

Haera stunned for a moment as the thing she could do was just staring at Junhoe’s hand. It took her few seconds to understand what Junhoe meant. Her lips tugged into smile as she took his hand gratefully.

“Kim Haera,” she replied delightfully. “So, we’re friends now?”

Junhoe nodded with a soft smile. If Jinhwan was there, he was sure he would make fun of his smile since it was rare to see Junhoe smiled that way. “Anyway, did you know that you put it in the wrong locker again?”

Haera’s eyes widened as she was shocked to learn that fact. She was sure she already put it in the correct place. “What? Really?”

Junhoe replied coolly, “Yeah you put it in Jinhwan’s instead.” Haera’s cheeks turned even rosier.

Junhoe laughed. He actually tried hard to prevent himself from pinching her cheeks since first he was sure she wouldn’t appreciate it, and second he would only make everything awkward. They just got into a good terms and he’d ruin it if he couldn’t resist.

“You need to put something to your locker so I won’t repeat my mistake again,” she tried to defend herself and came up with a suggestion to solve her misplacing-problem.

Junhoe shook his head. “Do you still want to write letter? Why would we need it when our classes are just beside each other and I can come to visit yours anytime I please?”

Haera was surprised to hear that. She then breathed loudly as she made a small fanning gesture to compose herself. Junhoe was also amazed and ashamed at his own words. Why did he sound so cheesy and flirty? Since when did he have that side of him? He didn’t have any idea.

Junhoe didn’t say anything as he tried to find a new topic. “Let’s go get lunch. My treat,” he decided to say. Haera responded with nods and both of them then awkwardly walked side by side.

Sorry Jinhwan for taking one of your fans, he thought.

---

It's done! That is the longest chapter I've ever wrote.

I hope I had done good job in catching you all off guard with the twist. I usually prefer to write June's last name as 'Goo' but for the sake of this story, I used 'Koo' instead^^

How do you find it? Tell me tell me! I hope you enjoyed reading the story because I'd great time writing it.

Lastly, I’d like to say Happy Birthday Junhoe! He finally made it as an adult. I’m so happy for him and the boys that they got some break and vacation they deserved after working hard for these past few months. I hope they rest well and have great time celebrating June’s birthday.

P.S. They changed their hair color!!

Anyway, enjoy your day everyone! <3 #EverydayJuneDay #iKONyJuneDay