How long has it been?

A year, 2 months, 20 days, 12 hours, 15 minutes and 9 seconds.

And for the past week after accidentally bumping into him, I’ve never gotten glance of Jong In. Even for a second.

I know there’s a chance of that maybe I didn’t look hard enough, maybe I lost that last second of the probability to meet him if only I took the corner a second late or that maybe (to my logic) he is just ignoring me like he had done and like what he is doing.

“Hey, Ji Eun, you’re joining us tonight?” I looked up to Key’s call. I was doing some extra Math’s exercise that Joon Myeon gave me to work on during our last study session. I don’t what is it with the sudden help (not that I don’t appreciate it), but Joon Myeon just suddenly came up to me right after Spring break saying that since I at Mathematics, he will save my by being my guardian-good-at-maths-angel.

“What about tonight?” I scrunched up my face.

“’What about tonight,’ she says. Roi Ji Eun, you’re missing the best part of your life. Today is Halloween meaning tonight is H-A-L-L-O-W-E-E-N night,” Key placed a hand over his heart. This guy, despite being the wing of our basketball team point guard, he is pretty fabulous. He calls everything about him fabulous (His fabulous hair, fabulous eyelashes, fabulous smile, fabulous tie, fabulous shoes, fabulous everything.). He’s fab-fab all the way to the point that everybody and everything around him are just not fabulous to him.

“Oh,”

“’Oh!” she says. Roi Ji Eun, you, very un-feminine feminine, needs to know the fabulousness of Halloween,” he pointed his finger at me. (See what I mean?)

I ignored him and looked back down to my Maths problems or maybe I should call it Joon Myeon’s-maths-love-calls. It’s freaking hard.

“What?! How come?!” he screamed and hit both of his palms onto my table.

My pen moved across the page at the speed of lightning as caused of the vibrations. How fabulous (as in feminine) he is, he has fabulous strength.

“Hey!” I scowled at him.  Joon Myeon’s guardian angel efforts had been destroyed.

“What’s wrong here, hmm?” A hand went around Key’s neck. It was Minho, the basketball captain.

“Ji Eun saying that Halloween’s not important, it’s a disgrace, it’s an embarrassment,” Key turned to the Minho and snuggled his face onto his shoulder, dramatically letting out a sob here and there for effect.

I scoffed.

Minho gave out a humored smile and raised an eyebrow at me.

“That’s a bit weird, Jie. Halloween is probably one of the best events in a life of a teenager two steps before Summer holidays and Christmas,” he said.

“You missed out New Years,” I pointed out.

“Christmas and New Years are almost the same,” he chuckled.

“No,” Key and I said in unison. He raised his head from Minho’s shoulder and glared at the said person.

“I would love to discuss how fabulously different Christmas and New Year’s celebration is but the golden egg of this discussion that I need to crack is why Roi Ji Eun doesn’t give out a positive respond towards Halloween,” Key turned to me and crossed his arms.

Both stared at me, waiting for an answer.

I gulped.

Well, there’s nothing much really about Halloween. I mean, kids dressing up as their favorite characters or any other horror symbols exist from movies. There’s nothing much to get excited about except for kids I guess, they get candies. That will then ruin their teeth and then they will cry when it hurts to munch on food. And so on. I hope, I’m not getting off topic.

“No-no reason at all,” I quickly move my gaze back to the Maths problem. This is more important.

I could feel Key’s stare boaring holes into my head. I could feel immense curiosity coming out of him in questions of whys? and hows?.

He leaned to me. “Are you perhaps scared of ghost?”

I scoffed.

“Is that the only conclusion you can come up with?”

He scoffed back.

“Well, you’re being a mystery and I’m not Kim Jong In who’s good at cracking the shell you have around you,” he tapped my cheek before smiling and walking off.

I gripped my pen tightly.

“Sorry ‘bout him,”

I looked up at Minho, he was giving me a sad smile.

“Nah. It’s okay,”

I guess.

It’s okay.

________________________________________________________________________

“So, tonight’s Halloween,” Min Ji said.

We were walking back home together, the three of us, Min Ji, me and Amber.

I nodded back. Amber kept quiet, scrolling through god-knows-what on her phone while walking.

“It’s Halloween night tonight, Jie,” she looks at me, smirking.

“I know,” I snapped back, scowling.

She giggled, “There’s no need to go all moody now, Jie. I’m sure tonight’s gonna pass by well. You will sleep tight!”

Amber hummed in support.

“There’s no such thing as Amanda Young or Bloody Mary or Freddy Krueger or The Pale Man or Chuckie or Grim—“

“Stop it, Min Ji,” Amber warned but she was smiling.

My scowl deepened.

The smell of sweet cakes and coffee filled the air as we passed by Mrs. Jung’s café. I took a glance inside. Her daughter, Krystal was wiping the table while chatting with another worker, Hyun A. The later looked up as we passed by and waved at us with a grin.

Kim Hyun A, a cutie as what most boys like to call her. She’s what I like to call original. Despite most people judging her beauty and her aegyo-filled character that she is a , I think she is just being comfortable with who she is. She’s not my classmate though sadly, we could have been closer friends instead of just acquaintances. I smiled and waved back.

“I wonder how you’ll survive tonight to be honest,” Min Ji muttered as we reached the junction and walked up the hill of our street.

“I can and I will,” I said as I climbed. Have this hill been this steep before or am I just getting fat?

“Hey, don’t you think it’s getting steeper?” I turned to asked both of them to only see them gaping at me a metre away. Well, Min Ji was gawking. Amber was still on her phone.

“What?”

Min Ji raised her eyebrows.

“You, Ji Eun, is saying that she can survive Halloween night without calling me or Amber or Kyung Soo or, for God-heaven’s if it will ever happen, Kim Jong In crying about a ghost hiding under your bed and begging for us to come and sleep with you,” she said while walking towards me, her hand circling around her in gestures to express her opinion. Amber follows her quietly.

Hearing Jong In’s name pissed me off.

“I can and I will!” I hold my ground before stomping back up towards my house.

When we reached my house, Jong In and Taemin were outside his house, laughing about something.

“Oppa!” Min Ji ran to her brother.

Even knowing that he lives in front of me pisses me off. I muttered a goodbye to Amber as she pushed her gate open. She nodded back in acknowledgement.

I went into my house, ignoring the trio standing outside my house.

“Bye Jie!” Min Ji shouted. I raised my hand, hoping she gets the message that I am annoyed with her at the current time.

As I was getting out of my loafers, I heard something that made my blood come up to my face.

“Jong In, it is Halloween today. So, you, since you’re the nearest and have more heart than Young-Il does, make sure Jie doesn’t go crazy over the fact that there’s probably Jack the Ripper in her bathroom,” Min Ji was purposely saying it out loud for me to hear.

I could hear Taemin chuckling.

It’s not funny.

For clearance, yes, I am freaking afraid of ghost and horror movies. On the night of Halloween every year, I will find myself insomniac with the thoughts of zombies or Ghostface are lingering somewhere in my house. I know you’d probably call me stupid for watching all those horror movies but Min Ji likes it, that’s why I watch it.

And to take note, I don’t think Jong In will mind about this anymore anyway. I mean, I survived last Halloween without him (for the fact that I was totally occupied with the fact that he was ignoring me). I’m sure I can survive tonight too.

I pushed the front door open but something held me in my tracks.

“Yeah, I promise,”

It was Jong In.