Woohyun POV

Hana heard me stirring and turned around and eyed me with a look deeper than an abyss. It was expressionless, yet full of something I couldn’t read.

We both waited for each other to speak first. After a long, teetering silence, I chose to break it.

“Hana,” I croaked in a voice heavy from sleep. Being the first word I spoke to her after what happened at the restaurant, this was not how I wanted to sound. “What – what are you doing here?”

She sighed and played with the drawstring of her hoodie, avoiding my eye contact. She looked up.

“Your mom called me,” she said finally. “She came home from work and you were delirious, and you kept calling…my name.”

It was obvious that saying this made her extremely uncomfortable. She paused, seeming to play around with words in before saying it.

“Why…did she call me? Doesn’t she know that we’re over?”

Even though I was the cause of this, those words still tore through my heart like a knife. We’re over.

I hesitated again. I was furious with myself. I had a pounding headache and I could hardly sit up straight because I was sleeping in a crooked position that curved my back.

I had imagined the first time Hana and I would be alone since everything happened and everything had passed. I pictured it in a restaurant, or at the theme park. Somewhere nice where we could talk and just enjoy each other’s company. Not this – not her, sitting in my room while I had a pounding headache, interrogating me on something I had no control over.

Why did my mother call her? I cursed myself for never telling her about Hana and I breaking up. She never knew, and never suspected.

Was I really being delirious? God, how embarrassing. What did I say when I was drunk?

“I’m sorry,” I apologized. For everything. “I don’t know why she called you. I’m really sorry for bothering you. You didn’t have to come, really, Hana. Um, thanks.” I trailed off awkwardly and winced at my own incompetency.

“Woohyun…” She left the chair of my study table and sat on my bed, next to my feet. “Are you okay?”

She reached out to touch my hand that was lying next to me. I was propped up against my bed head with several pillows cushioning my tight back.

I didn’t want to answer her. Truthfully, I was not okay. I had forgotten that it was Hana, who understood everything that I was thinking.

She hesitated again. “I know you haven’t…drunk yourself into oblivion since. That.”

She didn’t need to elaborate. We both knew what that was. And how bad it was.

“Is your coach giving you a hard time?” She spoke with such a soft, tender voice full of love and care it threatened to break down the barriers to my heart. Not like she hadn’t already.

I shook my head, not trusting myself to speak. I didn’t deserve this kindness. I was a rotten person that had no regard for her feelings, tossing her aside like she was useless.

I didn’t want to cry. But so many things were running through my head, and I had woken up to the fright of my life, I actually felt tears b in my eyes.

My life was a mess. I didn’t know anything, anymore. I was confused, stressed and tired.

I think Hana sensed my tears. She reached up and touched my cheek with one single finger. My skin, where she had touched it, sizzled. I inhaled sharply.

“Don’t,” she whispered. “Or I will, too.”

I reached out to grab her hand and squeeze it. “Hana…” I leaned in closer to her. “I know nothing I can ever say or do will ever make up for it. But I really am sorry. I’m so sorry, beyond any words can comprehend.”

Her eyes met mine and I couldn’t speak. She was hypnotizing me with her gaze alone. I felt powerless.

I don’t know what possessed me – I guess I was in a daze because of how close we were – but I moved forward, closer to Hana, to make the distance between us smaller.

I could feel my heart beating furiously in my chest. I could feel the pulse from Hana’s wrist beating quickly, too.

Before I could do anything, like close my eyes and lean in even closer, I heard a knock on my door. My breath caught in my throat again. Without waiting for an answer, my mom stormed in, announcing that it was dinnertime.

Hana jumped up from where she was sitting just seconds before – her face three centimeters from mine – and bowed to my mother, thanking her and saying she had to return home for dinner too.

“Well… would you like to stay? For dinner?” My mom asked coyly, fully aware, or she thought, of what she had just walked in on.

“No, thank you, Mrs. Nam. I better be going.” She bowed again. “Thanks. Bye.”

And she rushed off before either my mom or I could say another word.

“Huh.” My mom moved in to sit on my bed. “Son, if I hadn’t walked in at that moment, what – “

“Mom!” I yelled furiously, embarrassed at what she was saying and what she had just interrupted. I was so close. “No!”

I stormed down the stairs into the dining room, pounding down the steps to match the pounding of my head. And my heart.