The end of my shift soon came and I was walking out of the cafe together with Sehun. I decided to show him around the town a bit.

"Chaerin, I forgot my phone inside. Wait for me", he said and entered the cafe again.

I was lost in my thoughts when I heard a familiar voice calling me.

"Chaerin? Is that you?"

Great. Out of all people in this world, she had to walk by here. The girl was Lee Soeun and she was one of the girls who couldn't stand me during high school. Frankly speaking, I couldn't stand her either. She was the worst type of person you could meet during your lifetime. Lazy, irresponsible and envious of everyone who did better than her. Not to mention that she was a close friend of Donghae.

"You are working in this cafe?" she asked, the mocking in her voice evident.

"Yes, I do", i replied as calmly as possible. Just then I noticed that she wasn't alone. There was another girl with her.

"I heard that you're studying in Seoul. Is it hard? Did you meet any boys? Are you still single?"

Just when I was about to reply, she continued in a mocking voice.

"Oh, pardon me! You never talk to boys. How stupid of me to think that you could have a boyfriend?" she said, her words followed by a loud laughter. The girl next to her joined her.

I couldn't keep my calm facade any longer. I didn't care about anything anymore and I was ready to make a scene in the middle of the street."Listen you disg-"

"Baby!" Sehun exclaimed, approaching me with quick steps. I stared at him in confusion, but he ignored my look and wrapped his arms around me.

"Play along", he whispered in my ear and I nodded, not having the slightest idea what was going on.

"I missed you", he said with a pout and this time gave me a back hug. Now I started to realise what was he trying to do and all of my previous anger towards the girl melted away.

"We weren't together for five minutes. You can't possibly miss me", I said.

He shook his head and snuggled closer to me. "Five minutes is too much", he said and took my hand in his. I believed that my face was as red as a tomato and I lowered my head.

"My baby is so cute."

Sehun, stop being so cheesy, I thought inwardly. I almost forgot about the girls who were probably watching our every move.

He finally looked up to see the girls. "Chaerin, are those your friends?"

I gulped. "My ex classmates."

He smiled at the two girls who were gaping. "I'm Sehun, Chaerin's boyfriend. Nice to meet you."

I think they were probably too shocked to speak so they just nodded.

"I think we should go now", he said. "I'll get my kiss later", he said playfully and I blushed even worse, if that was possible.

"My girlfriend is still shy about PDA", he said to the girls matter of factly. "Let's go now."

He finally let go of me and we walked to his car. As usual, he opened the door for me and soon entered the car.

We were silent for some time, probably because we both needed to calm down from everything that happened earlier.

I couldn't help but to think about Soeun's words. I couldn't believe that she was the same girl as before. I honestly couldn't find a reason for her hostility towards me. Tears started welling in my eyes unconciously and I cursed myself for being such a fool.

"Are you okay?" he asked carefully and I could only nod, because if I said one word, I would start crying.

"Do you want us to go somewhere? For a ride or something like that?"

"Sehun..." I said in a shaky voice and tears started falling. I  wiped them hastly, but it was no use. "Thank you."

He sighed, and in the corner of my eye I saw him grip the steering wheel. "I don't understand, Chaerin. Maybe I'm stupid or just ignorant, I don't know, but I don't understand how people can be so mean. How? And especially to those who are good, like you. Why? I don't get it", he said angrily.

"I-I don't know either." I took a napkin from my purse and wiped my tears again.

"That makes me so mad, you have no idea how much."

Calming down a bit, I thanked him again.

"You have no reason to thank me. I should be thanking you. I have to say that I liked the role of the boyfriend", he said with a chuckle and I smiled, blushing again.

"Shall we go now? I mean, if you want to."

"Sure. I know a nice place."
_______________________________________________________________________

We ended up sitting by the river bank. He admired the view and couldn't let his phone out of his hands. I had a feeling that he had the need to take a picture of everything he had seen.

Glancing at him from time to time, I was sure that I liked him. My feelings for him had grown to the point where I could imagine myself in a relationship with him. Only if I wasn't so scared and insecure. I wanted to make Sehun happy, but I was so damn afraid that I would mess up. He was such a great guy and I felt like I wasn't enough. I wondered why he even liked me in the first place.

"Chaerin, look up!"

I smiled at him and looked to the direction where his finger was pointing. A plane was leaving white marks on the clear blue sky.

"When I was a kid, I would always look at planes and wondered where were they heading to", he chuckled. "I still do that, from time to time."

"Same here", I said and looked to him. The innocent smile on his face made him look so carefree and happy. At that moment I wanted to tell him that I liked him, I really wanted, but my damn lips wouldn't move an inch. I just couldn't. He won't wait for too long, my brain told me, and I knew that very well. I just hoped that he would wait enough for me to gather up the courage and tell him my feelings.

"You thinking about something?" 

I shook my head and gave him a small smile.

"This place is beautiful."

"Yeah, I come here quite often after work."

He chuckled. "You seem to like river very much."

"I do. It gives me peace."

"What would I give to have some peace..." he said with a sigh and I looked to him worriedly.

"Is something wrong?"

He nodded and that action itself surprised me. He was starting to open up and I was both curious and worried about what he had to tell me.

"Tell me, I will listen."

"I...I have some problems with my parents."

God, his voice was so painful that I had to struggle not to cry.

"They are sometimes just so controlling that I had a feeling they already planned all my life and I now just have to follow the instructions. I'm not their robot, I'm a human being."

There were no tears in his eyes, he was probably trying to stay strong, but I knew better. I saw how hurt he was.

"They've always been like that. It's just that, when I was younger, I couldn't see it. Now it bothers me so much."

"Honestly I've never had a problem like that", I started, "but I see how much it hurts you."

"They want to run my life, to tell me with whom to hang out with. That's just crazy!"

Well, if they went to that extent, they were sure crazy.

"You know, that day when I lashed out on you in the cafeteria", he said, looking to the ground, "I was so mad at them and at myself."

"Can you imagine what they did? They wanted me to stop hanging out with Jongin!"

I gaped. His parents were really insane. I could just imagine what he had been through.

"Why would they do that?"

He smiled bitterly and shrugged. "I honestly don't know. I've told you about Jongin before. That guy wouldn't hurt a fly. Heck, he saves from his lunch money to donate to an animal shelter."

I didn't know what to say. I couldn't believe that such people existed.

"So I took my stuff and left my house."

"You did what?!"

He looked up at me. "You didn't expect that, did you? I just couldn't cope with them anymore. I lived with Jongin for a week. We struggled to move in his small apartment."

I couldn't imagine that someone ran away from home. Home was the place you were supposed to run to, not to run away from.

"I'm sorry if I'm bothering you with my problems, but I just had to tell someone", he said.

"You're not bothering me, Sehun. I've never been into a situation like that and the only thing I can offer you is my support. You can tell me everything. Don't bottle up your feelings."

He sighed. "You've already helped me a lot."

"I'm glad I did", I said with a smile.

"There's actually one more thing I'd like to ask from you."

"What is that?"

He looked around and smiled. "Tell me, what is the craziest thing you've ever done."

What? I was confused by his sudden request, but I decided to tell him. It's not a big thing anyway.

"Well, when I was ten, I took my dad's phone, typed random phone numbers and called people", I said in one breath.

Sehun looked at me, confused, but then burst in laughter. "I can't believe it!"

I laughed too, seeing him so happy.

"Oh my God! What did you tell them?"

I shrugged. "Nothing. Oh, once I told them that they would get free pizza in an hour."

He laughed even harder. "Chaerin, I am crying!" He actually wiped a tear from the corner from his eye.

"Thank you for this", he said. "I needed this."

I smiled widely and patted him on the back.

My phone suddenly beeped and the message I got from my mum almost gave me a heart attack.

"Sehun? I need to go home because it's getting dark."

"Okay. I'll give you a ride."

"Actually, I told her that I'm with a friend and she told me to invite my friend for dinner."

Sehun  gulped and looked around nervously. 

"Would you like to go?" I asked, blushing for the millionth time that day. I seriously needed to control it.

"I-I guess. I would love to."