You thought you were dreaming. You had to be. What else could explain this? Him, in front of you now. Just a few meters away. Making the long span of two months seem like nothing. Your heart picked up its pace, your fingers trembled, and your whole body felt like it was jolted to life. Because he was there. He was there and you were here with him.

You couldn’t help but think you were hallucinating. You reached up and rubbed your wet eyes, your hand wiping away your tears that continued to fall. As you looked again, this time making sure that your eyes weren’t clouded over, that you weren’t seeing things, you felt a small laugh escape your throat.

It wasn’t a dream.

You weren’t hallucinating.

Myungsoo was there. His profile all you could see as you relished in that simple fact. So many questions filled your mind. So many things you wanted to say battled with each other for dominance. Yet, no sound escaped your lips. You watched him. Watched as he pulled his hand from his pocket, glancing at the time displayed on the phone in his hand. He scowled then, displeased with it for whatever reason.

And your lips tugged upwards at the sight of it.

At the sight of that forever unsatisfied expression on his face you had seen so many times.

You couldn’t look away. Couldn’t look anywhere but at him in that moment. Noticing how his furrowed brows relaxed as his lips parted, a light breath coming from between them. How he raised his head, looking forward again, as his expression returned to normal. Normal being his eternal pokerface. Then, his eyes shifted. Shifted to the left. Towards you. And his head turned, turned ever so slightly as time seemed to ebb by at the pace of a speeding snail.

“Hyunjoo.”

Your name seemed to echo in the distance.

“Hyunjoo.”

You were called again, but you were in a trance, waiting for the moment in which your eyes would lock with his. Except, they didn’t.

“Hyunjoo, come on, I’m talking to you.”

Your shoulder was pulled backwards, causing you to turn around. Causing you to turn to the person who was calling out to you.

Niel.

His expression was one of annoyance. Then, as he saw a single tear drip down your face off of your red streaked cheeks, his features relaxed and his grip on your shoulder loosened until his hand fell from you completely.

“What’s wrong? Didn’t you hear me?”

You shook your head slowly, causing Niel to worry even more. Your eyes were looking somewhere else. Somewhere far off into the distance. Before he could continue, you turned your head, looking over your shoulder.

“Minah said she wanted to sleep a bit. The sedatives they gave her are still wearing off, so you can’t go see her anymore today.” He spoke to you as you continued to pay him no mind, looking off down the hallway towards the direction he knew to be Minah’s hospital room. “Hyunjoo.” He called your name again, his voice a whisper. You finally looked towards him and his lips formed a frown at the distant look on your face.

You had cried more than just that single tear from earlier. He could tell you had cried. Your eyes were still wet and you looked as though you would cry again any second now. He felt as though anything he would say to you now would go in one ear and out the other. This is how you were the day following the hospitalization of your friend, Tiffany. He didn’t know what to say to you. Ricky, who had now grown a knack for how to respond to you in any and all situations, didn’t know what to say to you. The only ones who he felt did know were gone. Transferred out of school and gone without a trace.

Niel held a silent grudge towards them for that. For being so protective of you to the point where you didn’t need other friends before leaving so easily. And here it was again, that look on your face of complete devastation.

But, you were strong.

And in the next few seconds, he knew he wouldn’t see it anymore. Because you got over things quickly. Because you figured out how to handle things and braced for the worst after pulling the pieces of yourself together again.

Because you were strong.

And that’s what drew him and Ricky to you.

That strength that always kept you moving forward. Always kept you headstrong. Always kept you smiling. Always kept you, you.

That didn’t change though that he still had no idea what to say. Not then and not now.

No idea what to say as your smile returned to your face just as he knew it would.

No idea what to say because he had no idea what you had seen.

What you had seen as you turned back around, back towards where Myungsoo once stood.

That Myungsoo wasn’t there.

And you scolded yourself for thinking he was.

“So I guess I can’t meet her after all then.” You joked, turning on your heel towards the elevator of the hospital. Niel didn’t follow right away and you stopped walking, “What’s up?” You asked with a tilt of your head.

“That’s what I’d like to know.” He murmured as he made his way towards you. You didn’t catch it however as he covered it up with another quick quip, “This doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. You’re going to have to see her sooner or later.”

You laughed as you pressed the call button for the elevator, “I know. I know.”

“Hello?” You answered your phone that went ringing a few seconds after you arrived home from the hospital. You had just dropped off Ricky and Niel at their houses instead of having them walk from yours due to the rain that started to fall a little after you three left the hospital. They had thought you ditched them there when you didn’t show up to Minah’s room earlier, the reason Niel had come back inside to look for you after the two saw that your car was still parked outside.

“Hello to you, my lovely Snow White.”

You shook your head, scoffing at the nickname as you instantly knew who was calling without having to look at the caller ID, “How do you always seem to know when I get home?” You asked him, suspicious of how he always called just when you had. Never before. Never too much time after.

“Well, that’s easy.” His voiced to a hush as he whispered, “The truth is, I’m psychic.”

“Lies.” You called his bluff immediately and heard him guffaw on the other side of the phone. He was, without a doubt, utterly pleased with himself at this point in time.

“Ey, how’d you know?”

“If you were psychic, you’d know how I knew.”

He was silent for a second before you heard him tsk, “Touché.”

“So tell me, why are you using Soryong’s phone?” You asked him. Just because you knew who was calling without looking doesn’t mean you didn’t look.

“For reasons.”

“For reasons? Really?”

“That’s right.” He laughed again and the contagiousness of it caused you to laugh along with him. You shifted your shoes off of your feet, reminding yourself that you couldn’t simply stand at the front door and let him distract you completely.

“You’re insane.” The words escaped your mouth without you really thinking about them and a bitter truth seeped into your mind. “Though, maybe I’m the insane one.”

He spoke up without hesitance, slight static coating his voice as it passed through the transceiver, “How so, babe?”

Minah stared down at her right arm, a frown on her face. She wanted to sleep but she wasn’t used to it, sleeping on her back. It was the only comfortable position though so she didn’t have many options. She wouldn’t have been trying to sleep at all if it weren’t for the flowers by her bedside now. The flowers brought to her by Daniel and Changhyun. But it wasn’t that there was anything wrong with the flowers. The problem was what the two boys had told her before they left.

That you were going to visit her soon. And she was mortified, telling them she was tired from the sedatives that in truth wore off this morning.

She didn’t want to see you.

She was embarrassed.

That’s all it was. She was embarrassed to have to face you while lying down in a hospital bed in loose scrubs and a cardigan with her arm wrapped up to the point where she could barely move without it burdening her.

It was the rear end collision, the accident.

She being the one who rear-ended the other car.

Her own mother’s car.

The car she didn’t see sticking out as it was parked on the street as she pulled out of the garage in her silver Ford Focus and turned. The airbag went off then, causing her arm to break.

She didn’t expect Daniel and Changhyun to visit but they always were the nice ones. The kind of boys she wished she liked. Instead of, well, instead of the straight faced one who liked someone else already.

She pulled out her phone, about to text Yura and Sojin to grab some ice cream for her. About to complain about how bad the hospital food was. She was about to, until the hospital door slid open.

She breathed out and turned, expecting to see you standing there.

But, that’s not who she saw.

Instead, it was someone she was much more mortified to have see her like this.

She sat up immediately, drawing her eyes away from the person who closed the door behind themselves before taking steps closer to her. And they stood there, silently standing next to her bedside. She breathed out again, except this time it was because she was anxious. Excitedly anxious.

“What happened?”

The person asked and she felt herself stutter to answer back. She hadn’t heard that voice in so long and she could feel her neck start to redden, a hue of pink snaking its way up her face, “Car accident.”

“Did you get hit?”

Minah shook her head no slowly, taking a gulp to clear . She was amazed she was even able to say a single word.

“How are you feeling?”

That broke her stare down with her light vanilla colored bed sheets. That one inquisitive sentence that she had never heard them say before. Never heard him say before. That’s when she looked up, her lungs in a breath as she took in his facial features. The ones she adored with every fiber of her being.

“You’re not mad?”

Her voice managed to find itself as she asked the first question that rolled off of her lips. He didn’t respond right away. He stared at her. Stared at her until she felt her body give way like mush. She could only thank the fact that the bed allowed her to continue sitting up.

“I’m not mad.”

She couldn’t believe it. There was no way he wasn’t mad. Not after everything she did. However, he had said it with such a serious expression, without faltering in the least, that she found herself believing it in the end. Believing beyond disbelief that he wasn’t angry with her.

“Do you hate me?”

That question took more courage than the last one did. It wasn’t nearly as spontaneous. And he did something she didn’t expect just as much as she didn’t expect him to actually show up here and now. He laughed lightly and he smiled. He smiled as he enjoyed his own inside joke.

“I don’t hate anyone.”

Minah’s heartbeat sped up then. It was the first time she saw him smile like that. So freely. So calmly. So playfully. And while she enjoyed it, while she committed that blissful smile to memory, it also hurt her. It hurt her because she then realized that all the smiles she had seen before now, the ones she had stored in her memories of him, were forced. That those smiles were fake.

Yet, one fact remained. One fact that solidified in her mind.

“I still like you.”

She watched him for his reaction.

She had never confessed to him before. It was obvious though how she felt. Even if she never said it, it was obvious she liked him. And as she saw that smile just now, she felt herself fall deeper. She found herself liking him even more then she had ever before.

He didn’t respond visibly and his smile didn’t fade. He pulled a chair from beside the wall towards her bedside and scooted it close to her before sitting down in it. That’s when he answered. When Kim Myungsoo responded to her statement.

“Okay.”

And it was enough for her for now.

Daeryong laid back onto the couch, a contented sigh leaving him as he held his brother’s phone up in front of him. The reason he was using it? His own was upstairs and that was much to far away for him to trouble himself with getting it. And since it was you he was calling, he saw no reason to be specific with the phone he was using.

He did, however, get confused for a moment in the contact screen when he searched for you. His own name for your contact not being Song Hyunjoo, but instead “Snow White ♥.” Of course, Soryong’s contact name for you was even more obscure. It being “That girl.”

His own way of making sure if his cellphone happened to fall into the wrong hands, in this case, the hands of their superiors, it would take at least some time to figure out who “That girl” was. Because really, who password blocks their phone anymore? It’s too much work to come up with one. But, they didn’t have to come up with a password of their own. Their password was their rank in the Elites. A password that could be known by all of their superiors as long as they requested for it, the reason for the vague “That girl.”

EN06 for Soryong and EN10 for Daeryong.

EN standing for Enforcer.  The number following it dictated their security clearance. The lower the number, the more clearance. Soryong’s was higher only because Daeryong disliked having to up to those higher than him.

“You -kisser, you.” Daeryong shook his head, a grin spreading across his face. He had an idea in mind as he clicked edit on the contact named “That girl” and began to type into the phone. He was having so much fun that he forgot that had discovered something very important moments ago while on the phone with you. He had forgotten until his twin brother entered the room, instantly suspicious of him as he saw the smile on Daeryong’s face and even more so when he saw his phone in Daeryong’s hands.

“What are you doing?” Soryong surprised him as he grabbed the phone out of Daeryong’s hands. Daeryong didn’t fight it because he had already finished what he set out to do. Soryong looked on at his phone screen in confusion, “Who is “my girl”?” He asked as he narrowed his eyes at the contact name that read “My Girl ♥♥♥.” He clicked on it to see the number and his lips parted in realization, “Oh, so she’s my girl now?”

Daeryong blinked a few times, processing what he had done before he sat up, twisted in his seat on the couch, and reached out for the phone again, “Wait, I didn’t finish.”

Soryong pulled the phone out of his reach, “No, I’m pretty sure you did.” He went through his phone then, trying to see what else Daeryong changed when he saw  “My Girl ♥♥♥” in his recent call history. “I forgot that you always call her around this time.”

“Oh yeah,” Daeryong half-yelled as he turned to his brother, no longer caring about the “my girl” situation, “I did call.” His smile hid something else behind it, causing Soryong to have to inquire exactly what it was before his brother would say a single word.

“And what did you learn?” It was obvious he had found something out. What wasn’t obvious was what it was.

“Snow White spotted Prince Charming at the hospital today.” Daeryong didn’t stop there, “Whether or not the other princes are here has yet to be seen but of course where there’s one the others can’t be far off.” Daeryong couldn’t help but laugh as you told him why you thought you were insane. You weren’t. Not in the least. If anyone’s words as a witness to something were true in Springfield, it was yours. He comforted you like you were wrong though, all the while holding back from laughing any more.

“Is that so?” Soryong contemplated this new information, a smile forming on his face. He knew now what the women who had made their presence known at the Spring Welcome were doing here. He thought back to the woman with short brown hair whose insight took him by surprise not long ago, “Clever woman, I wonder how she knew. That Hyosung. I wonder if they have any idea what they’re in for.”

Daeryong yawned and laid back down on the couch once more, amusement coating his voice as he spoke, “I’d say she thinks she does.”

“Twizzlers. She’s sending me out for twizzlers.” You sighed, burying your hands deeper into your pockets. It was freezing cold outside and your mom was sending you out for candy. Because she felt like having it. What other reason would there be? You could have said no but the argument you had with her over having candy late at night earlier was so funny you ended up giving in.

It was the first time in a long time you saw her so playful. So like how she used to be before your father left.

She said things like, “I deserve a treat every once in awhile!” and “When you were four you made me drive to the grocery store just so that you could eat a pear. Pay me back for driving forty minutes for one piece of fruit.”

“It’s still freezing outside though.” You shuffled hurriedly down the street, sniffling as you nestled your nose into your scarf. You regretted deciding not to take your car. Then again, the roads were dangerous tonight due to the rain from this afternoon freezing over. “What time is it even?” You asked yourself as you pulled your phone from your pocket to check, finding that it was a little after eight at night.

Luckily, you had reached your destination. A blinking red and green sign that read “Snack n’ Go” hung over the doorway. You yawned widely as you came to a stop in front of the convenience store, waiting for the automatic doors to open. When they did, you were greeted by a lukewarm breeze. You breathed out as you felt the warm air hit your cold face.  As you stepped inside, the cashier at the register said the usual greeting.

You let your lips mime the words as they left the cashier’s mouth.

“Welcome to Snack n’ Go.”

But you froze on the second syllable.

The voice.

You had heard that voice before.

You walked forward slowly, moving to the front of the cash register. You saw red, not because you were angry, but because that’s what the color of the cashier’s hair was.

What the color of Sunggyu’s hair was.

On the counter in front of him lay a magazine. On his denim, buttoned up shirt was a Snack n’ Go nametag. On his face was a knowing smile.

Your legs gave way as you squatted down right there, face in the palm of your hands. “You’re unfair, you know?” You mumbled to him and you heard him laugh once.

“How so?”

You looked up from your hands, your eyes beginning to water. He was still there. He hadn’t disappeared as Myungsoo had. He was leaning over the counter, gazing at you from above as he used his elbows to keep him up. Your bottom lip trembled as you felt the tears welling up again. You shook your head slightly, rubbing away your tears before they could fall.

Sunggyu whispered from above you as he watched your bundled up, small roly-poly form in front of him, “I’d say you’re the one who’s unfair.”  

A/N: What is this sorcery that has granted me so many subscribers to this story? I must be some kind of wizard, really. You're A Wizard Harry. Speaking of subscribers, I have reached the 500 mark. I want to thank each and every one of you through this link if you click here. This chapter though, this chapter was stalled many times because I kept falling asleep. I still finished it early though based on past times I've updated the night of. I'm excited to get to writing the first scene of the next chapter (Spoiler: Sunggyu's in it and if that's not a reason to be excited then I don't know what is.) Did any of you think Hyunjoo was crazy when she saw Myungsoo? Looks like she wasn't! And the character with brown short hair is revealed as Hyosung of Secret. Another question though, why did Myungsoo and Sunggyu come back? Guess we'll find out next time won't we? 

I am seriously hungry now. Time to get my munchies on.