CHAPTER 33: Can’t you?

Hanna spent her whole Sunday in gloomy mood, she didn’t have any spirit to do anything than rolling on the bed. She became too cool, too quiet, not the usual loud cheerful Hanna.

All of Kwak family member noticed it, so they were working together to change her mood. Starting from Mommy Kwak who asked her to do many kind of chores, Grace who asked her to play with her, to Aaron who tried to , but all of those efforts couldn’t change her mood.

Food is the best thing to change the mood, people say. That was why Mr. Kwak even bought chicken and cola, Hanna’s favorite dinner, to lift up her mood. But turned out, it didn’t give any effect to Hanna.

-00-

Sunday passed, comes Monday.

Hanna was wondering what would happen if she meet Jonghyun. She was scared Jonghyun will notice her heartbroken inside. If she could, she didn’t want to see him in near future, before her heart was healed perfectly. Actually she also didn’t understand what she feel inside, why she was feeling sad when nothing happen yet. But somehow Jonghyun’s action just gave her indirect answer.

No matter what kind of way Hanna thought of escaping, the meeting ith Jonghyun was inevitable. She needed to go to school, and Jonghyun went to the same school with her.

Just like what happened at Monday morning. When Hanna came out from her house, she was directly meeting Jonghyun. “Oh?"

She felt nervous and awkward, moreover when Jonghyun approached. "Hanna ya .."

"Uhm?" She carefully looked up.

"I’m sorry..” He bent his head down for a moment before looking up again and said, “Forgive me.."

Hanna’s heart was dropped. She didn’t want him to apologize. "Aah .. Why’d you have to apologize? I'm .. I’m okay .."

Jonghyun nodded, "Okay .. Then, I’ll go to pick up Minki.."

"Eh?” If previously Hanna thought that Jonghyun shouldn’t apologize, this time she was surprised by how simple and brief his apology. She expected Jonghyun would explain the detail reason why he had to leave that day or give nice words to comfort Hanna, but he ended it just that way. Hanna was speechless. “Aaaah, ye .. "

-00-

Hanna couldn’t help but to think about Jonghyun. Somehow she felt hurt over his apology. It was like he did it only to pay off his obligation, like he didn’t really mean it.

And moreover, Hanna felt that Jonghyun often avoiding to have eye contact with her. Just like when they met in the corridor, Jonghyun only smiled and nodded slightly. There was a moment, Jonghyun even changed his direction in order to not meeting Hanna in the halfway. Jonghyun was also strangely changed to be quiet. Usually when they were having lunch, Jonghyun was active to join the conversation and sometimes doing cute gag, but now he only laughed shortly and chose to bend his head down.

Hanna wouldn’t take it seriously, if it was only happened in one day, but he did it for days. And it made Hanna feeling more and more uncomfortable.

The clear evidence of Jonghyun avoiding Hanna was happened that day when they were riding bus to school. It was packed at the beginning but slowly the bus got more space, until there was an empty seat next to Hanna in the back. Jonghyun was the only person who haven’t sit, so Dongho told him to sit next to Hanna. But unexpectedly Jonghyun refused, “No need, we’ll arrive soon.”

It surprised Hanna.

Moreover when Dongho commented, “You’re weird. What’s so hard just to sit there? It’s still quarter way more..”

Dongho was right. He could just sit next to her, but he refused. If Jonghyun being normal, he didn’t need to be asked to sit on that empty seat. But this Jonghyun was someone Hanna didn’t know.

-00-

No matter how many times Hanna thinking about Jonghyun’s action lately, the conclusion was the same, he was avoiding her. And all of those thoughts were distracting Hanna to focus in the lesson. So at the break time, Hanna went out to school garden to ease her mind.

But no matter she tried to forget it, the thoughts were always find their way back to her mind.

She took the star pendant of her necklace and stared at it. “Are you really avoiding me? But why?”

Hanna sighed deeply.

Then someone suddenly sat next to her as he asked, "What are you doing, sitting here alone?"

Hanna turned her head and found that it was Minhyun.

"Still being sad over what happened on Saturday?” Minhyun asked softly.

Hanna sighed. “I don’t want to think about it, but I can’t stop my mind to think about it.” Hanna bent her head down again as she said, "Don’t know why, lately I feel Jonghyun avoiding me."

"He’s not avoiding you. It's just your assumption." Minhyun replied fast.

But it made Hanna chuckle. "Huh, your comment makes me even more convinced that he’s avoiding me." She turned to see Minhyun and told him, "You should have said 'Ey, what are you talking about? Don’t make it up.’  but instead you directly rejected my opinion. You just want to make me happy, right? "

Minhyun has been caught. He could only chuckle bitterly.

Hanna continued, “Did he know if that day I will confess my feelings to him? That could be the reason why he's avoiding me."

"Impossible."

"You know it better than me. Jonghyun is smart. I think he had guessed it. "

Minhyun was silent. He actually also had that presumption.

Hanna sighed again, "Ah Kim Jonghyun, he didn’t even give me a chance." Then she bent her head down deeper as she said, "If he doesn’t like me, why not just say it in front of me, and don’t avoiding me like this. It just makes me sadder.”

Minhyun could only silent. He was confused what should he say to comfort Hanna.

But