Chapter 2

    The bell rang, signalling the end of the day. Hana hurriedly packed, in a rush to leave as quickly as possible. Daehyun, for the first time, packed just as quickly as well. The reason? He wanted to tell Hana all the reasons why he stopped talking to her. It would help her fix herself and be more social, right? Or maybe he just wanted to be a douchebag to his ex-bestfriend. The girl from earlier came up to him, expecting a kiss, but instead, Daehyun simply patted her back, muttering something about being busy. He dashed out of the room a second after and he grabbed Hana’s wrist that was hanging by her side.

    Hana gasped in surprise, jerking her hand away from him,”What’re you doing?”

    “We need to talk. Now.” Daehyun grabbed her wrist again with more force and began pulling her towards a cafe.

    She scoffed in disbelief as Daehyun shoved her into a booth and sat on the opposite side of her,”Oh, now you want to talk?”

    “Don’t give me attitude. This is to help you, alright?” He rolled his eyes,”You should be grateful that I, Jung Daehyun, even wants to help you.”

    “I don’t want help from a snotty kid!” Hana snapped,”And for your information, I don’t need help with anything.”

    “With your social life, everything! Don’t you ever wonder why I stopped talking to you? I’m telling you right here, right now, so that you can change and have friends.” Daehyun crossed his arms and sat back in his seat.

    “I do have friends. Better friends than you ever were.” Hana looked him in the eye and lied straight to his face.

    “Lie,” Daehyun saw through her and rolled his eyes,”anyway, I made this during class.”

    He slammed down a piece of lined paper that had his messy handwriting covering the page. It was labeled ”10 cons of Lee Hana”.

    Hana gaped at the paper in disbelief,”Are you stupid? What’s the point of this? You stopped talking to me and became a , that’s that! There’s no need for a stupid list!”

    “Number one,” he ignored her protests,”Your stubbornness. It’s extremely annoying. Extremely. Extraordinarily. Incredibly. Immensely. Plethora. Increasing-”

    Hana covered Daehyun’s mouth her hand and he blinked in surprise,”Stop! I never agreed to this!”

    Daehyun sighed and took her hand off of his mouth, placing it on the table and placing both hands on top of hers,”Hana, dear.”

    She yanked her hand away,”Creep!”

    He ignored her comment and grabbed her hand again, enveloping it between his own,”You need help, darling. I’m sorry for breaking it to you this way.”

    He said it so softly and caringly that it irked Hana even more, making her pinch the bridge of her nose with her free hand,”Stop.”

    “But don’t worry. I, the great Jung Daehyun, will help you through this.”

    “Stop. Right now.”

    “And for me to help you, the first step is for you to stop being in denial. So, take a deep breath, and-”

    “STOP NOW.”

    Daehyun closed his eyes and took a deep breath,”Follow after me. Deep breath through your nose.”

    Hana’s eyebrow twitched in annoyance,”I’m going to murder you.”

    “And a deep breath out of your mouth. Come on, dear, follow.”

    “JUNG DAEHYUN!”

    “I see, some anger issues as well. Don’t worry, that’s on the list too.”

    “I hate you.”

    “Okay, how about this,” Daehyun gave up on attempting to be a therapist,”you write a list of ten cons about me and we’ll give them to each other tomorrow after school. Then, we each get ten days to fix ourselves. We’ll meet on the fifth day to see progress and on the tenth day to see if we’ve made it. If we do, then we’ll befriend each other again. If not, then we’ll become complete strangers again. Sound good?”

    “I’m not changing myself for a jerk like you, Jung Daehyun.”

    “Don’t think of it like that then. Think of it as adjusting yourself for the future.”

    She paused and decided to contemplate it for a moment. He was right; what if she never made friends? She knew she needed them, everyone needed a friend. Hana sighed in defeat and her shoulders deflated.

    “Fine.” Hana grumbled and Daehyun lightened up, folding his piece of paper back up and slipping it into his pocket.

    “Great! Meet you here tomorrow after school. We’ll exchange lists then.” Daehyun grinned, the one that made girls swoon over him everywhere he went.

    “Whatever.” Hana muttered, grabbing her bag and exiting the cafe before Daehyun could say another word.

 

    The next day after school, the two had met up at the cafe as they had planned. Hana clutched onto her paper while biting her lip, sitting at the same booth the two of them had sat at yesterday.

    “Where’s that idiot...” She muttered, taking out her phone to waste time.

    “That idiot is right here.” Daehyun rolled his eyes and slid into the seat,”Rude of you to say that, by the way.”

    “I don’t care.” Hana snapped, placing the piece of paper on the table and sliding it over to him,”Here’s your stupid list.”

    Daehyun slid his own paper over to her, rolling his eyes,”Seriously, you should work on number two, your personality.”

    “My personality is who I am. My attitude depends on who you are.” She muttered, snatching the list off of the table.

    “Smart thing to say.” Daehyun nodded.

    “Are we done here?”

    “You remember to meet back here on the fifth, right?”

    Hana rolled her eyes,”I don’t have that bad of memory, Daehyun.”

    “Of course, I should’ve known. Your memory is as good as if the event happened yesterday. Remember that weekend we went on vacation to the states? You still remember that to this very day, I bet.” Daehyun chuckled.

    Hana softly laughed at the memory,”I remember how milk came out of your nose because you were laughing so hard.”

    Daehyun pouted,”Hey! It’s your fault! You’re the one that made that one face while doing your creepy walk!”

    “You mean this one?” Hana reenacted the facial expression Daehyun was talking about and Daehyun laughed, clutching onto his stomach.

    Hana laughed along with him until an awkward silence filled the air.

    “Uh, yeah, I’m gonna, um, go...” Hana awkwardly said, standing up and flinging her bag over her shoulders.

    “Good idea.” Daehyun coughed into his fist to ease the atmosphere and left the cafe after Hana had exited.