A groan escaped Jihyun’s lips as she finally opened her heavy lids and sat up. The first thing she saw when she woke up was Heeyeon’s worried face.

“Oh my god Jihyun you finally woke up” she quickly hugged Jihyun, feeling relieved.

Jihyun patted her back unsurely. “What time is it?” she furrowed her eyebrows.

Heeyeon quickly released her hug and glanced at her wrist watch. “It’s currently 5 pm now. I should go to hakwon soon.” She then stood up and slung her bag on her shoulders. “Jihyun, I suggest you to rest for today. Don’t go to hakwon.”

“But—“ “No, Jihyun. You inhaled too much smoke and that’s why you fainted. You should listen to me this time and rest,” Heeyeon bid her goodbye, and Jihyun nodded in acknowledgement.

She glanced at the nurse who was reading a book by her chair. With a sigh, she leaned back to her bed and stared at the empty ceiling, waiting for the time to tick by quickly.

The sun was set when she got allowed to go home.

“I’m sorry to keep you late,” Jihyun bowed to the nurse.

The nurse flicked her wrists in acknowledgement. “It was my duty,” she said and locked the infirmary in front of her. “Go home safely, okay?”

With a nod, Jihyun turned around and went to the school’s gate. She never stayed so late at the school, and the view was new to her. She never knew the school would be so dark at night even with the hall’s lamps on.

Walking alone in the empty school was somehow thrilling. Both bad and good.

Gripping on the straps of her bag, she took out her phone and messaged her father that she couldn’t go to hakwon today and pulled out her earphones. She was about to plug it into her phone as she turned outside the gate.

“Oh my goodness!” she exclaimed, clutching her racing heart.

Jihyun stared wide-eyed at the figure that leaned to the gate with fair skin, it scared her out. She brushed her hair behind her ear due to the sudden strong wind and breathed out. “What are you doing so late at school?”

Eunwoo straightened up and scanned her up and down. “Are you okay, sunbae?” he asked.

She was about to ignore him away, but against it since she knew he was just worried about her. With a sigh, she nodded her head. “I’m fine now” She glanced at the boy and silently questioning on to why he waited by the gate.

Jihyun stepped forward when he suddenly stepped forward, diverting her eyes towards his brown orbs.

“Sunbae, should I walk you home?”

Eunwoo winced when he realized he should have stated that he wanted to walk her home instead of asking her. Of course she would reject the idea.

She gave him a weird stare. “.. No, thank you”

He awkwardly scratched his neck. “I mean, I will walk you home,” he corrected his sentence earlier.

Jihyun raised an eyebrow. She was confused on what was his reason to stubbornly walk her home. She decided to not ask about it and started to walk her way home.

Even though she declined, he still walked her home—a few steps behind her. Jihyun’s phone buzzed in her blazer’s pocket and it turned out to be her father asking what happened. She replied, saying she would explain it at home and putted her phone back in her pocket.

Jihyun realized the boy still followed her despite her rejection, and tilted her head a bit. The curiosity upon his actions were still in her head. He didn’t know her that well, but he acted.. weird. Her eyebrows furrowed at the possibilities to answer her questions, but none seemed right.

Despite her curiosity, she didn’t say anything to him and faintly enjoyed the sound of footsteps behind her. At least she felt safe without her earphones on.

***

“Ooh noona, you look different today,” her cousin, Sanha, cooed, pointing at her pony tail.

Jihyun side-eyed him, giving him a small glare. Not wanting to even waste her energy on answering the boy’s comment, she followed their parents ahead, leaving him following her while poking her pony tail.

He saw his cousin’s roll of eyes and chuckled. “Noona, why are you so sour?”

With a swift turn, Jihyun faced him and stared blankly. “I’m not sour. I just like being like this,” she reasoned.

“You like being sour” he replied, walking ahead of her nonchalantly.

Didn’t even feel like replying, Jihyun just rolled her eyes at her childish cousin. He was literally a child though, still 14 years old and all.

After a few moment of Jihyun in her own bubble, her cousin approached the girl again, this time leaning down to the girl’s height while walking side to side.

“Noona, who’s the guy who walked you home a few days ago?” Sanha slightly whispered to her ear.

Jihyun had to double-glance at him to make sure he wasn’t just blindly trying to force her lips to spill any unnecessary secrets, which he often did to her.

“He’s not though” she tried to dodge the question. She wasn’t really lying though, he didn’t exactly walk her home. That was what she thought.

“He was following you noona. He went back to the other direction just after making sure you went inside” he pointed out, trying to reminisce that night.

She glanced at the younger boy who seemed to ponder about something. “No, Sanha. He’s not.”

Knowing Jihyun would flatly avoided to answer his questions, Sanha jutted his lower lip in disappointment.

“I don’t know why you never admit every boy that went with you” he complained, straightened his body to normal.

“Because none of them is my boyfriend” she shrugged.

“But the last one was pretty good looking though. I bet he has many fans” he grinned.

Jihyun was about to reply when he interrupted. “Did he ask your phone number?”

She turned to him with an annoyed look. “No he didn’t and he would not. I don’t like talking about boys, so quit it Sanha”

He slung an arm around his cousin which was shrugged off by her within seconds.

“But how about that boy who delivered your notebooks? I noticed him going to your house several times.”

Jihyun looked away and gulped, hoping Sanha wouldn’t notice her sudden change of attitude.

“You mean Doyeon? None of them is my boyfriend.” Her ears went red and she subtly covered them with pretending to arrange her hair.

Sanha stared at her and was about to throw another question when she shut it with a glare.

“Quit it, Yoon Sanha”

He whined and complained about how cold she is to him. His constant whining pointed out that he was indeed still a child that was trapped in a giant body. Ignoring her whiny cousin, she walked ahead to follow her parents closely.

Her steps stopped abruptly when she saw an unfamiliar event in front of her. Her eyes squinted, trying to take a clearer view.

“Why can’t you be—what’s wrong noona?” Sanha stopped whining and stared at where she was looking in confusion.

Jihyun felt like dreaming. Was that the exact person she was thinking in her mind? She was afraid her mind are playing tricks on her.

Doyeon was laughing with one of her classmate, Min Chora, while holding hands. Was that what she was thinking? An affair? Or was there a reason behind their loving acts?

All her rational thoughts disappeared at that moment. The feeling was unusual to her, it felt like something was burning yet it was frozen. She didn’t even understand what that was. All she could think of was Doyeon’s gaze at the girl beside him.

A/N : I finally have time to update thank god._. woah 11 subscribers already, welcome! I hope you like this update, I'm sorry if it's not good enough:( I wonder if ASTRO will make another album with winter theme, I really want to buy one. See you next week (maybe)!

"Wanna go with me?"