Pure white snowflakes dance along to the rhythm of the cold breeze, landing on the end of Hye Sun's button nose. It's strange how something so beautiful causes her whole body to shake violently, trying to fend itself from the below zero temperature. She's been waiting outside an apartment door for the past 3 minutes and the cold has seeped into every corner of her body as she stood there watching what were basically frozen rain drops fall. She's never been too fond of the snow.

Her hands are clammy from sweat despite it being freezing outside and though she doesn't want to admit it, she is slightly nervous about seeing Sehun again. No matter what Yuhan says, she hasn't spoken to the boy for what seems like ages; what used to be so hard has suddenly become as easy as breathing. 

The creaking sound of the door opening averts her attention away from staring at the number '69' painted on the door. A figure in an oversized t-shirt and jeans is revealed, forcing a stiff smile but you could see in his eyes that he's pleased to see her. 

“Long time no see,” the boy with messy blonde hair greets, stepping to the side so she can come into his home. It has indeed been a long time. The air around them is heavy with unwanted awkwardness, only emphasized by the way he shifts from foot to foot continuously. 

“That's so like you, Sehun,” she jokes, trying to lighten the atmosphere by nodding her head in the direction towards the combination of numbers. The latter feels blood rushing to his cheeks and his gaze falls to the ground.

“I, um, didn't do that on purpose,” he tries to explain but only ends up making himself look more stupid, “it was...the landowner gave...I- never mind, come in.” Her tinkling laughter echos through his living room as she walks in, taking off her shoes while Sehun ruffles his hair in embarrassment.

Pulling off her coat, she looks around his apartment, examining every inch of it. It's neat and had a calm vibe to it thanks to the blue painted walls. It's completely different from Luhan's: no papers and books scattered everywhere, no curtains blocking out the natural light from outside the windows yet no familiarity or coziness. 

Even now it's suffocatingly uncomfortable between the two of them. Sehun an hardly look her in the eyes for longer than 2 seconds and Hye Sun is glued to the spot, unsure where to look, whether move or even breathe. The fact that they were once childhood friends, sticking together through thick and thin seems pretty unbelievable right now.

Ever since graduation, they'd hardly ever spoken to each other. They had somehow managed to stray from 'best friends' to strangers.

“Thanks so much for letting me crash at your place,” Hye Sun says, finally meeting his eyes which makes her heart beat speed up against her own will. 

“It's OK,” he replies curtly. 

Unsure what to do with herself, she follows Sehun as he goes over to get a blanket and pillow from another room. Mumbling a thanks, she tries to take the things out his hands, only to have them yanked backwards out of her reach. With a puzzled look, she steps forward in another futile attempt to snatch the blanket away from him, but Sehun raises them above his head. She only stands a few inches shorter than him but Sehun smirks with amusement when she just gave up. Typical Hye Sun; not wanting to waste her energy. “I'm sleeping on the couch, you can sleep on my bed." To this the girl crosses her arms over her chest and scrutinizes him.

“Strange,” she mutters, scanning her suspicious eyes over his expressionless face, “that's not like you...”

“What do you mean?” he questions, resting the pillow on the edge of his new, leather couch and sitting down. 

“You were always so...”

“Mean?” he concludes for her, raising his eyebrows in amusement.

“Immature,” she corrects him with a smile, proceeding to take a seat next to him. “I never thought you'd give your bed up for me, it's not the Sehun I'm used to...or should I say the Sehun I used to know? I guess growing up has done good to you.”

“Well, obviously I've changed since high school.”

Hye Sun's eyes softens, it feels like all the time they'd spent without each other caught up to them. It didn't seem like such a big deal during the time, but now she really sees the aftermath of the period where they'd lost contact. While they were growing up, she'd never imagined herself without him and once it had actually happened it had proved to be worse than expected. A person can change in 2 years. A relationship can fade in 2 years. Though she already knows nothing would last forever, she'd always seen Sehun as one of the things that would always remain. Well, reality sure slapped her in the face.

“Even if you have I'm not letting you sleep on the couch!” she announces, doing a little jump and snatching the duvet from his hands. Sehun's eyes flashes with an unfamiliar emotion.

“But I'll feel bad-”

“We're friends, you don't need to feel bad.” A sigh of defeat leaves the boy's lips. No one ever wins against her. 

After what seems like an age of silence, he finally remembers his manners and jumps onto his feet.

“Do you want anything to drink?” he asks, causing her to raise her eyebrows at his polite tone. Have they really drifted apart enough for him to start using formal speech?

“Got any alcohol?" she asks in an attempt of maybe making things more comfortable for the both of them. 

Sehun wants to ask when she'd started drinking but decides against it. They both know when she started drinking; a few years ago at Luhan's party where some unspeakable actions took place. Without a word he gets up, sauntering over behind the kitchen counter and stooping down to open a cupboard. He pulls out a can of beer, closes the door, stops, opens it again and takes another one out for himself. 

'Might as well,' he thinks, rushing back to her. 

“Here.”

She accepts the drink with a cheeky grin before taking swig of the liquid. Sehun nods wordlessly, sipping some himself. The last time they'd been drunk she'd made one of the biggest mistakes of her life. She'd never really thought about being drunk -or even tipsy- ever again, scared the outcome would be something similar.

“Yeah,” Sehun's voice was just above a shaky whisper, clutching on tightly to the can whilst remembering the events of that night. He still can recall every moment, movement and minuscule detail of the event they'd branded as a 'mistake'. Not wanting to be haunted by the beauty of something that should been horrible, he swings his head back and takes large gulps from his can. After a while, he brings the aluminium can before lowering it onto the wooden coffee table, his gaze never leaving it. “So, how are you?”

Silence. The glassy eyed boy looks up from examining the writing on the can to meet a pair of questioning eyes. He thinks those orbs are asking him where everything went wrong.

“Sehun it makes me upset how we seem like strangers now.” Sitting up straighter, the latter's eyes widen, “All those years of being friends seemed to have been flushed down the toilet.” Sure, they didn't always make the best of memories and usually did nothing but hurt each other in past, but their relationship was - is -  still an undeniably big part of both their lives, she doesn't want to lose him now. 

“Well, I was always lacking in the friendship department,” a forced laugh leaves his lips as he starts fiddling with his empty can. He doesn't know where to look and ends up letting his pupils dart from corner to corner, side to side; anywhere that doesn't get him caught in her unwavering gaze. He deserately wants to say something, something that's been lingering in the back of his mind for years now but he has no confidence to say those words. 

“I used to think you were my biggest problem,” she says after another sip. The can is now almost empty. “I would tell myself to let you go because you weren't good for me...I don't know how I could have lasted almost 6 months without you. I really miss you, even right now, Sehun.” The said boy tries hard not to show how much he's hurt by these words. "Don't kill me, but you seriously were a ," a bitter laugh resounds, filling the silence, "how much must we have drifted apart to be able to talk about the past like this?" 

“I never meant to hurt you,” Sehun blurts out, his voice just above a whisper. A feeling of relief washes over him once he finally says it. However, he'd still rather not answer the second question right now. A ghost of a smile appears on the shocked girl's face, but it's not a smile of happiness, rather a sarcastic, slightly strained twitch of the lips. The silence lingering around them is terrible, only to be broken with an even more heartbreaking reply.

“Well, congrats, you did.”

There is a bitter taste in the back of Sehun's mouth, prominent against the taste of the beer, “OK,” he says whilst looking at her with sparkling eyes, swallowing the lump forming in his throat, “talk.”

“What do you mean?”

“Tell me everything I ever did wrong to you, I honestly regret ever making you feel bad...”

She pauses slightly, mouth hanging open. Blinking a few times and processing what he had just said, she chuckles. “We were teenagers, it's water under the bridge.”

“But wouldn't you rather we have something to talk about right now?” he askes, eyes drifting over the caramel locks that replaced the natural black ones she used to be so reluctant to lose. She is a lot slimmer now and he finds himself worrying if she'd been eating properly. The things that brought on those changes were probably the fact that they were getting older, maturing, experiencing new things. But could they also be to blame for the dwindling of their relationship? Or would they just be considered as excuses?

Sehun begins to wonder, had he been with her through most of those things, would she still be the same Hye Sun? Would he have found a way to make her keep her natural hair colour which he loved so much? Would it have still felt like they were old embers, burning low and dimly but pretending they were roaring flames, connected and thriving off each other? They played it off like they were still close, but how much more pretending will it take to realize just two short years could have broken them so much?

Maybe, it hadn't started 2 years ago, maybe it had started from the moment he first started to be the little he was. Like the water running over a hill for millions of years, softly taking away a piece of the earth with the current, until finally it had eroded so much there was nothing but flat lands and only a trickle of water that remained.

“I get your point.” Even her voice sounds different, a more calmer and relaxed equivalent to the one that would always be so loud and hyper.

Sehun shakes his head lightly in an attempt to rid himself of his strange thoughts. “Go on then. Shoot.”

“Um...”

“OK, I'm gonna start,” he announces suddenly, making her scoff. He smirks at her reaction. “It really annoyed me whenever...you went all romantic and . You would always start fangirling over the weirdest stuff. Someone hugs someone else and you'd start like...what is it you'd always say...? 'Melting in a pile of feels?'”

Hye Sun laughs loudly, tilting her head back and bringing her hands up to cover her bright red face. He always loved her infectious laugh, though her eyes always turn an impossibly small size, opens a little too widely, she claps her hands like some kind of a retarded seal and the sound altogether is a few decibels too loud for some people's liking, he still thinks it is beautiful. “You didn't complain then,” she says, using her hand as a fan to try and lower the temperature of her flushed face. “You'd never complain whenever I did weird stuff like that.”

“You didn't either. In fact, you're not even complaining now. Come on! I'll never give you an opportunity like this again!” There is no logical reason as to why they are having such a conversation beside the fact that they were bored and desperate or just high on the fact that they haven't seen each other for ages.

“What do I complain about? I'm over it.” Though there were so many feelings within herself that she'd wanted to voice out two years ago, they just don't seem that important now. He rolls his eyes at how reserved she's being and decides to spur her on.

“I also didn't like how you got over things so easily, I never knew whether you were still annoyed or not.” He smirks when she reacts almost instantly to his nonchalant complaining.

“Me? More like you! You would move on as if nothing happened and it was even sadder how you'd never know what you'd done wrong!” Her voice is just a fraction too loud and her answer a beat too fast. It had obviously really gotten to her. Sehun, however, acts as if it hadn't got it to him as well.

“See? We're getting somewhere!”

She sighs. “What a nice reunion conversation...” Sehun's heart drops as she slouches forward, resting her head in her hands.

Hye Sun's never imagined she'd come into his house and start ranting about the past. She doesn't want the past tie her down like it had used to. And truthfully she doesn't want to ruin the nice, joking mood and change it into some kind of heavy, melodramatic atmosphere.

“We can go as deep as you want, I don't mind,” Sehun says, “I know how you like to over think things and dig deep into situations until you depress yourself and turn what seems lighthearted into something terrible-”

“.”

“Sorry...” but he obviously isn't judging by the amused sparkle in his eyes. “But that's what high school's for; hormone levels to go ballistic.”

“I don't know...” with another sigh Hye Sun rubs her temples. Her low spirited tone certainly wipes the smug grin off his face. “I...always seemed like the second choice back then...When I was around Yuhan or Hana I would be invisible,” she says bitterly, giving the most pathetic excuse of a smile possible. “It seemed like you'd pick nearly everyone over me, like I didn't mean to you as much as you did to me...”

Her words linger in the air, replaying in his head constantly, like a broken record. All the feelings left unexpressed, all the words left unsaid return to him. He opens and closes his mouth a few times but nothing comes out thanks to the intense way she is staring at him. The heart wrenchingly sad look in her eyes makes his last string of self control snap. Without even thinking about it, he leans forward, outstretches his arms and pulls her against his chest. She instinctively closes her eyes while taking in a sharp breath, inhaling his so familiar yet distant scent. They both bask in the warmth they receive from the other, a feeling they've not felt for ages. 

“You were never the second choice to me...” he mutters, his breath tickling her ear. He kind of expects her to her to push him away or squirm out his grip, but she doesn't. Instead, she leans into him more and returns the hug by wrapping her arms around his waist.

“Really? Because I felt like a rebound. You only seemed to talk with me when you had no one else to go to,” a sad chuckle leaves her lips, “was I even an option to you?”

His heart lurch after such an accusation. Pulling back, he stares down at her, trying to hide the amount of pain her words have caused him. It seems like the roles have been magically reversed.

“No,” he mutters.

“I knew it.” They are only an inch away from each other, one wrong move and they could end up kissing. Her eyes stung with fresh tears, thinking to push him away and run out the door. But when she tries to break away from the proximity he only holds onto her tighter. A chuckle leaves his lips, causing their noses to brush ever so slightly. The contact makes her heart skip a beat.

“You were my priority.”

A/N- Was this chapter OK? I re-read and edited this a dozen times because I was unsure of it lol I swapped from the past tense to present, I don't know if I left any mistakes >.<

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