Taking Challenge

Yesterday, Hareum got home early leaving Junghyun flustered and quiet. After she said that, she just left him there and as she expected, he couldn’t say anything to her. It was disappointing for her that she knew the fact he doesn’t feel the same. Their feelings are not mutual and it’s the unrequited love for years. And it left her being quiet that whole and it made the whole family and her friends were looking at each other, not knowing her story.

“What happened?” Haneul first asked her when they were having dinner together and Hareum just shook her head. “You didn’t want to tell me about it?” and Hareum shook her head again without looking at him. She didn’t want to eat and she just played with her spoon. “Okay, then,” Haneul didn’t force her to do. In the end, Hareum left dinner time and went to her room.

Sungwoo sat across Chaera and he wanted to say something about it, but Minhyun, who sat beside her already whispered to her, “Shouldn’t you ask her?”

And Chaera looked at Minhyun which made the other looked at her back. It was like she has the burden of being the only female border and apparently on Hareum’s age to care her. “Well,” Chaera spoke carefully. “Sorry, but I prefer if she talks about it first. I don’t want to force her,” Chaera said softly like she never does to Sungwoo and Minhyun nodded because what Chaera said was right.

But then, Hareum went to Chaera’s room after hours left. She knocked and called her which made her surprised that Hareum approached her first. Chaera already noticed that Hareum wanted to talk about what happened, so she quickly opened the door and let her friend in. Hareum sat on Chaera’s bed and Chaera sat on the chair in front of her desk. “What happened, Hareum-a?” she asked carefully, being care as a friend.

Hareum told all what happened with Junghyun. First, she started with how they met and that he was actually Haneul’s best friend that took her as a ‘little sister’ but she hated that title very much. On the other side, she couldn’t tell this to Haneul because he didn’t approve if one of his friends was dating his little sister. Hareum told Chaera that Haneul did angry when one of his friends was hitting on her, he was almost getting violent to that friend.  “Can you keep this by yourself, Chaera-ya?” Hareum asked. Chaera nodded, assured her. Hareum smiled weakly and said, “Thanks. You’re the one I can trust with secrets,” and they talked all night long, mainly Chaera was asking about Junghyun and how he was like.

Today is the new weekend. Hareum ended up sleeping in Chaera’s room once she brought the additional mattress, her pillow and her blanket there. They wake up because of Chaera’s alarm. Hareum yawns as she tries to wake up, half-conscious. “Why are you turning on the alarm on holiday, Chaera-ya?” she weakly complains. Chaera is surprised by the alarm and turns off right away. She tries to open her eyes and finds Hareum is back to sleep. Once she fully awakes, she gets outside and at the same time, Sungwoo is out with his messy hair like a chicken. “Oh, morning Chaera-ya,” he greets her with his eyes half-opened.

Chaera doesn’t respond as she know who it is and walks passing him as she’s going to the kitchen to get something to drink. Sungwoo is following her. She’s disturbed by his presence right now but she can’t send him off, it would be so weird and she remembers what she said yesterday that she tries not to care about whatever he’ll do.

“Oh, morning, Chaera-ya,” Mrs. Kang greets her and Chaera bows to her. “Morning, Sungwoo-ya,” and Sungwoo does the same with a smile.

“Do you sleep well, ma’am?” Chaera asks and Mrs. Kang answers with a smile.

“Oh, do you guys want tea?” she asks to both of them as Chaera is looking to her cup but they shake their head, politely reject her offer. Mrs. Kang sits down in dining table and Chaera takes her glass from the cupboard above her, but Sungwoo’s hand is faster than her as he takes her glass and gives it to her. Mrs. Kang looks at this with a smile and it makes her reminiscing old days.

Chaera clicks her tongue, almost mutes herself, to him. She rolls her eyes and secretly sighs but he could notice and she receives the glass normally. She doesn’t want to fight in front of Mrs. Kang, that would be impolite and rude. Then, she pours water for herself with Sungwoo follows her behind. Chaera is drinking her water one-shot, puts her glass to the sink and Sungwoo follows. “Here, let me help,” Sungwoo says and Chaera just leaves him there.

He washes their glass and Chaera goes upstairs again as she excuses herself to Mrs. Kang. Then, the old lady looks at Sungwoo who is drying his hand. “Sungwoo-ya,” she calls him and Sungwoo turns to look at her right away.

“Yes, ma’am?” he answers politely.

Mrs. Kang just smiles and Sungwoo still wonders himself. “It’s good to be young, right?” she says something out of nowhere and Sungwoo just politely smiles. “Have fun while you can,” she gives him advice then Haneul goes to the kitchen and finds them there. “Oh, Haneul-a.”

“Mom,” Haneul goes to his mom and hugs her tight. “Good morning,” and kisses his mother’s cheek. “Morning, Sungwoo-ya,” he says and Sungwoo slightly nods to him. Their new morning just starts.

Meanwhile last night, the boys were having a discussion at Sungwoo’s room. They talked what Sungwoo should do to Chaera. “I will talk to her everyday or at least, I try something,” Sungwoo said and Minhyun wasn’t so sure about this.

“You might fall in love with her,” Minhyun said and Dowoon nodded, but Sungwoo scoffed at them. “Well, I just tell you the possibility.”

“What if I won’t?” Sungwoo said.

“What if you do?” Dowoon talked back and Sungwoo was silent as he didn’t have any answer on this. “Well, it’s good if you try, that means you don’t want to fight with her,” Dowoon said and Minhyun agreed on this. “But, Minhyun-a,” Dowoon said as both Dowoon and Sungwoo looked at him. “Why did you say he’ll fall in love?”

“I’m sorry if I’m judgmental, it’s just you look like you fall in love easily,” Minhyun said and Dowoon laughed. Sungwoo clicked his tongue and shook his head that Minhyun started daydreaming. “But, I think, if you do, it’ll be fun,” and Dowoon started laughing out loud. Sungwoo slapped Dowoon’s arm and Minhyun laughed.

“Don’t give me nightmares,” and the boys slept late after laughing and drinking.

Chaera goes back to her room and wakes Hareum right away. “Don’t you say you want to jog this morning?” she says as she disturbs Hareum by pushing her a bit so she could wake up.

“Are you saying that intentionally?” Hareum raises her voice as she opens her eyes and throws pillow at Chaera. She laughs out loud and it does wake Hareum up. Then, someone knocks her door. They stop and Hareum tells Chaera to get it.

“Who is it?” Chaera says as she goes and opens her door that it’s Sungwoo. Hareum tilts her head so she can see Sungwoo there.

“Oh, morning, Sungwoo-ya!” Hareum greets him.

“Oh, you’re here, Hareum-a,” he says and Chaera looks at him which makes him clearing his throat and looks back at her. “Chaera-ya,” and she folds her arm, her eyes tell that she doesn’t care and doesn’t want to listen what he’s going to say. Hareum can see that Chaera is suddenly quiet and it looks like she’s mad. “Look, I’m sorry about what happened on the first day,” Sungwoo apologizes again and Chaera just stands there looking at him arrogantly.

“What are you sorry for?” Hareum asks and she stands up, going to them. She looks to both of them, Chaera who clearly doesn’t want to listen to him, and Sungwoo who is begging her forgiveness. What happened between them? “Sungwoo-ya?” Hareum asks him carefully.

“I unintentionally bumped her and I just left her when she fell,” Sungwoo tells Hareum but he doesn’t move his eyes a bit from Chaera. “And Chaera decided that she doesn’t want to talk to me,” and he looks to Hareum when he said this which makes Chaera scoffing at him. Look at him being so sorry, what a nice acting from a theater student.

“Well, it’s like that, Hareum-a,” Chaera looks to her, doesn’t care with what Sungwoo is doing right now. She looks sharply to Sungwoo once again and says, “I won’t change my mind.”

“And I won’t stop talking either,” Sungwoo then behaves so proud in front of Chaera which makes her scoffing him once again. He stands there and folds his arms with a smirk, staring to the smaller one like he still has many plans to do.

“Whatever,” and Chaera gets back to her room. Hareum smiles at Sungwoo and nods, kind of pities him at the same time.

Once the door is closed, Hareum asks Chaera for explanation to all of this. Chaera doesn’t want to talk about this but Hareum forces her to since she already told her story last night. It makes Chaera sighing deeply and hides her face and Hareum takes notice that Chaera truly doesn’t want to get involved with Sungwoo. “You guys are funny,” Hareum says as she laughs. Chaera looks at her who’s sitting on her chair with a glare. “I mean, you just can forgive him,” she says.

“I can’t easily believe in him like in instant,” Chaera says as she sits down. Hareum just nods, she understands Chaera’s personality.

“But I think it’s best if you just forgive him,” Hareum says. “Because you might not know what happened between you two,” she says with a teasing smile and this time, Chaera throws her pillow at Hareum.

Haneul goes to watch a theater performance with Yeonsoo. He thought she was joking but as soon as he texted her that he was home already, she told him to not forget about the next day. And here he is, hiding to see if she’s already there. Childish, but it’s one of his way to make sure.

“Hey!” Yeonsoo taps him from behind and he’s jumped. His heart is beating like crazy to find her behind him with a smile but she says, “Do you want to know if I come or not, huh?” and Haneul just chuckles in half because he is sorry for doubting her. “Well, I’m here,” she says with her wide smile and he can see her dressing so feminine and cute like she always does. It’s pretty normally… cute. “Let’s go!” she says and walks in front of him. At once, Haneul can match his steps with her. It’s like a dream to be with her and there’s still a thing that he hasn’t asked and today, he’s going to find out the answer.

Since what happened yesterday, Junghyun hasn’t contacted Hareum a bit, either with text or call. Hareum tries not to care but she doesn’t stop to look at her phone. “Who’s calling, Hareum-a?” her dad asks while they’re watching TV together with her mom and her friends. They’re watching soccer and Chaera doesn’t understand anything of it.

“No one, dad,” Hareum answers without looking at her dad who’s sitting on the sofa with her mom, meanwhile the kids are sitting on the floor. Chaera looks carefully to her friend and slightly elbows her, telling she shouldn’t wait. Y