It’s 3 a.m. yet Hana wasn’t asleep. Not because of her fear of the nightmare, but because she was too busy trying to keep track of the conversation that was occurring on her phone screen. It had been two weeks since the boys had come over to her house and within those two weeks, they had made a lot of progress, not only on their song but also on their relationship. In the span of 14 days, Hana had refused four of their offers, in hopes that maybe they would get fed up of her behavior like everyone else. However, they always came back. The first time she refused after their little ‘camp out’ outside her bedroom door, they had done the same what they had done before, gaining access to the house, compliments of Junmi, and settling outside her door. The second time, Hana had chained the door, but they just jumped in through her window with the explanation of, “You’re aunt knows we were coming anyways.” The other two times was her aunt luring her out.

So by now Hana had learned that pushing them away would only result in them coming back with greater persistence. Therefore, when the plan of meeting up at the soccer field the next day after school was suggested, Hana didn’t say no.

Lay: Done! Practice is over at 5 so I’ll see you guys there at 5:30?

Baekhyun: Hell yea
Kyungsoo: Alright

Hana: Sure

Baekhyun: Guys! Important! What will we wear? ._. we should wear the same colour so we can recognize each other!

Kyungsoo: You dumb bro? we’ll be in our uniforms

Baekhyun: Yes! But we should wear something extra with it! Like a red cap!

Kyungsoo: No

The next few dozen of messages were purely Kyungsoo and Baekhyun. Lay had tried interfering; informing them that they were getting off topic but it was evident that his messages were going unread by all but Hana. She was concentrating on the rapidly occurring messages when a new one popped up, from a person outside the chat group.

Lay: These guys are hopeless -.-

Hana: it’s alright

Lay: U alright with the meet up right? Or u knw we’ll just come and get u anyways :P

Hana: Yes, that I’am aware of

Lay: we can just talk here u knw….those guys won’t stop for a while :P

_

Hana woke up by the beeping of her alarm, groaning at the thought of another day of school. Although her classes were private, they were still classes, and she was still a teenager. Buttoning her blazer, her phone suddenly blinked.

Lay: See you! Remember! Soccer field at 5:30!

Hana’s grumpy mood brightened a little at the thought. She replied with an ‘Of course’ before tossing the device into her bag and going downstairs into the kitchen.

“You seem to be in a good mood lately.” Her aunt said as she served Hana the pancakes she had made. Hana gave her a blank look, not really sure what her aunt was saying and in the end shrugged it off. Hana was indeed in a good mood. She was relieved as today was one of the days when she hadn’t had that nightmare, the awful flashback of her memories. Another thought that made her look forward to her day was the meeting. It had been almost a month she had been with them but the aura they emitted was contagious. She felt better in their presence and after two years of social exile, she was content to have them.

Hana sighed as she looked at the time. It was 3’o clock; her teacher had cancelled her last class, saying it was an emergency. Therefore, she had two and a half hours to kill. Generally, the classes were over but the last hour was always spent in club activities and meetings. Hana walked towards the entrance of the building. It had been a long time since she walked through those halls. Her personal classes were held in the other building. The sister building contained mostly of store rooms. Some of the classes had music equipment while the rest had random files and chairs.

The main building, the one in front of which she stood now, had become foreign to her now. She dismissed the thought and carried on walking the empty path. She caught a peek of Baekhyun and Kyungsoo, each at the opposite ends of the room, working on something with the other students.

Baekhyun caught her eye and gave her his usual bright smile to which she waved back. He threw a rubber which landed directly between Kyungsoo’s head. The latter glared at him and Baekhyun pointed outside the window. Kyungsoo’s scowl turned into a gentle smile as he caught the sight of Hana. He popped his head out the window and waved to which Hana  replied.

“5:30 confirmed right? Don’t forget!”

“Yeah! Or we’ll hunt you down and drag you there with us!”

Baekhyun’s statement was a little too loud, hence the other occupants of the room gave him weird looks as to why he was openly declaring an abduction but he just gave them slight bows of apology and a defensive ‘what’ at Kyungsoo’s glare.

Hana gave them a thumb up and an ok sign before she nodded and left after she saw the two boys lean away from the window to resume their previous duties. She had been walking around for almost thirty minutes and still the time until their meeting was too far for her liking.

Still wandering she found herself at the school garden. It was quiet like always however, she felt like something was missing. She had visited this are often after the incident, but amidst the calm surroundings she missed a particular sound that disrupted its quiet.

Despite spending almost 45 minutes in the garden there was still considerable amount of time left and Hana just decided to head to the soccer field 75 minutes early. The field wasn’t that far and soon she could hear the sounds of whistles blowing and balls being kicked. The view of several boys in yellow jerseys presented itself and Hana carefully took a seat at the corner in the last row.

Spotting Lay wasn’t hard as he was practically all over the field. Hana observed him closely, noticed how his face right now was different from his usual self. He looked serious and nodded at every word his coach said to him and another boy with a red arm band, presumably the captain. Lay didn’t expect her to be there so soon which is why when he glanced in her general direction, both their eyes widened, his evidently wider than hers with his jaw hanging open.

She waved at him and he just blinked, as if the fact that the girl was actually there hadn’t sunk in yet. He snapped out when his coach whistled practically in his ear, making him flinch back. He looked back in her direction once more and this time, flashed his usual dimple before running back to his team mates.

“You’re lucky coach let us off early today or you would’ve been stuck watching sweaty guys chasing a ball for another 40 minutes.” Lay chuckled as took a seat beside her. Their coach had ended their session surprisingly early and within 10 minutes the boy had showered and taken the seat next to her.

Hana shrugged and looked around the huge green area. She remembered coming here with Yuri when she wanted to watch the guys practice. She sighed at the remembrance, an act which didn’t go unnoticed by the boy staring at her intently.

“Is something wrong?” his concerned voice brought Hana back. A shake of her head made him drop the topic and while he wasn’t truly convinced, he decided that for now it was better to just distract her from whatever problem she was having. He began by telling her about their practice, of their hellish routines and exercises, complaining every now and then before moving on to his random childhood memories. He laughed at his own stupidity while Hana nodded every now and then, showing she was listening.

“And there was this one time, my brother was teaching me how to ride a bike without training wheels. And I accidentally steered a bit too much to the left and the next thing I know, my bike is stuck in a man hole with me missing one shoe-“ he erupted into another fit of laughter before continuing “and I was still sitting on the bike! My brother had to pull me out!” he continued laughing.

His laughter was the only sound heard in the empty area and the only one ringing in Hana’s ears. His childish stories and youthful laughter were all entertaining for the girl and the little dent in his cheek made him look even more adorable.

Lay wiped the tears of mirth that spilled from his eyes while taking deep breaths. The memories were embarrassing but he didn’t feel uncomfortable telling them to Hana. He felt like he could be himself around her and she wouldn’t judge him for anything. He had recovered from his fit and was still breathing hard when he turned to check on the girl.

His smile dropped as he held his breath. Hana was facing the front but he could clearly see the tiny lift of the corners of . The small smile, the tiny gesture from her made him feel happy. He remembered what her aunt had said, how Hana had closed all doors and locked her in a chamber so no one could get close to her, how she wouldn’t let anyone in, not even her own aunt.

The idea of her smiling in front of him was therefore too good to be true for him. But here she was, sitting next to him with a tiny smile. He called her out, he expected her smile to fade but when she looked towards him with the same expression, he felt his something pounding. Her dark eyes sparkled a little and he couldn’t help but smile back in adoration.

She smiled

And that for today was his greatest accomplishment.

-

i had a little time......