The next few weeks were agonizingly confusing. You know when you want the time to go by faster, but at the same time, you wish it’d just pass slower so you can take in as much as you can? Yeah well, that was the sentiment of the students of Seoul High School. Exams came with stress, responsibility, and self hate for procrastinating. But as soon as their torture was over, and their last exam paper had been collected by the invigilators, the screams and cries of joy filled the school. Hana ran towards the building where she knew she would find them. Being pushed along the way didn’t really matter all that mattered was that finally exams were over and that after so long they’d be able to hang out together again. Spotting them wasn’t hard, Baekhyun’s laughter guided her towards their location. Hana could see the smiles she loved, a rectangular smile, a heart shaped smile, but there was this one smile that was missing. The dimple smile. Instead she saw another boy with black hair and defined cheek bones standing next to them with Kai. She hadn’t seen him in her four months of knowing the boys, but that didn’t really matter. Their exams were over, she was finally free, and she got to see her friends without stressing about studies after a long time, presence of one unknown person was the last thing she was concerned about.

Kai screamed her name as he ran towards her and met her half way with a hug. That day at Baekhyun’s place, Hana had found Kai to be a comfortable presence to be around. He had stopped asking penetrative questions, for which she was thankful. Moreover, their short encounter reminded her of a specific someone. Kai was even more random than Baekhyun; his personality reminded her of the person she had spent more than half of her life with. Hugging was something she still wasn’t used to with everyone but it was the last day of exams, and the euphoria was enough for her to ignore any awkwardness. Instead of putting her down on the spot he held her in the air until they were next to the rest of them. High fives and hellos were exchanged for a while before Kyungsoo deemed it necessary to introduce the unknown face to Hana.

“This is Jongdae. We have the same History class and we’re also in the same club.”

Hana greeted him with a bow which he mirrored before holding out a hand.

“Hi! I’m Kim Jongdae. Nice to meet you.” He smiled and Hana took his outstretched hand for a shake. They conversed, and Hana could already tell she liked Jongdae, he seemed nice. Hana felt like something was missing. Maybe it was just a random feeling, or maybe Hana was just too used to having a certain fair skinned brunette standing on her left. Her eyes searched the crowd around her. This was the first time Hana ever came to the school’s front door while the students were out. She couldn’t even ask where Lay was; they were too engrossed in their ‘what did you get for that question’ conversation to notice her confusion. So she looked around herself, sifting the crowd as she looked around, their conversation became faint to her ears.

“But what’s with that girl and Lay? What’s taking him to long.”

Until she heard that. and suddenly all her attention was focused back to the group.

“You mean Yuri? I don’t know man. She suddenly popped out of nowhere saying she wanted to have a word or something.” Kyungsoo supplied and Jongdae narrowed his eyes.

“I don’t like her.”

Although Baekhyun wasn’t told about the episode between Yuri and Hana, he pieced together that they were probably ex friends. Hana’s was suddenly uncomfortable. Why did she want to talk to him? Hana knew they weren’t friends, then what’s with the sudden interest? Baekhyun didn’t miss the change in her expression, and while Kai asked Jongdae for his reasons to dislike the girl their friend was with, Baekhyun draped a comforting across her shoulders and flashed a reassuring smile.

“I know her. We’ve been in the same Science classes since the past three years. She used to be all nice and stuff but then she started hanging out with Rania and her group and suddenly she became…not so nice anymore. She had a friend I remember, but I never really paid much attention so I don’t really know who she was. Meh. All I know is that I don’t like her.”

Ah, now that he mentioned it, Hana remembered Jongdae. He used to sit at the front and had a lot of friends. But Hana wasn’t one of them; she kept to herself and preferred Yuri as her only company. She was slightly relieved that the boy didn’t remember her. However, the fact that Lay had been held back by Yuri who suddenly wanted to ‘talk’ to him annoyed her. Moreover, it worried her. Hana doesn’t know what went on in her friend’s head anymore. How Yuri perceived the situation was a mystery to Hana, and the only thing that worried her was that if Yuri was to mention anything to Lay about what happened years ago, he would not see her the same way anymore, and Hana wouldn’t be able to explain herself even if she wanted to.

“Yehet! Exams are finally over!” Kai suddenly screamed and Jongdae shouted along I victory.

“Yehet?” Kyungsoo asked with a raised brow.

“Yeah, yehet. This new friend of mine-‘

“Hello people.” another voice interrupted and Hana whipped her head towards the left at the sound of it. Lay came smiling as widely as ever but as he moved, she saw Yuri walking away from them and Hana’s stomach churned in an unknown way.

Baekhyun’s arm made him stand closer to Hana than Lay wanted, so while trying to be as discreet as possible, Lay took his place on Hana’s left and swiftly pulled her by the arm, dropping Baekhyun’s arm in the process and successfully replacing it with his. Two hearts among the hundreds within the ground were beating faster than regular. Despite the sudden heat Lay didn’t remove his hand. Who knows? What if as soon as he moves his hand, Baekhyun may casually lay his arm over her shoulder again? No sir, that wasn’t going to happen while Lay was around.

Hana was contemplating whether she should or shouldn’t move. She’d be lying if she said she minded his arm, she liked it in fact, but there was this weird feeling telling her that there should be a little distance between the two. But if she were to move, wouldn’t that be a little awkward? Not to mention embarrassing for Lay? So she decided to stay put, and get over the other feeling. Baekhyun winked at Kyungsoo, who later nudged Kai and hit the back of his head instantly because the boy was almost going to scream out something probably embarrassing.

“So you guys are pretty close huh?” Jongdae asked, noticing how comfortable the others were around Hana. They nodded, and another string of basic introductory questions was asked by Jongdae before they decided to distribute and head home to change before they went out celebrating. Despite Lay’s insistence to drop Hana off, she refused. She wasn’t a kid anymore and besides, as far as Hana knew, Lay’s house was the other side of hers, she didn’t want to trouble him.

Hana was pretty excited. Their first gathering after so long and she got to make new friends too. Her social circle was increasing, all thanks to the three people. She was speed walking towards the bus stop, knowing that no matter how fast she wanted to get home she’d still have to wait for the bus. She bumped into someone by accident while she fiddled with her phone. As Hana bent to grab her phone, she got distracted by a pair of white joggers with twin black stripes. A pair she knew she’s seen on someone she really didn’t want to meet, at least not today. Yuri picked up her phone before Hana could and saw the messages that piled up on her screen. Hana straightened herself, not really ready for a face to face encounter with her ex-best friend. Yuri scoffed, and that’s when Hana realized that her privacy was being violated, so she snatched it away and locked the screen before tucking it in her skirt pocket.

For a while they just stared at each other, dead in the eyes. None of them wavered even for a second. Albeit the stare Hana had no hard feelings for Yuri. According to Hana, Yuri’s hare was justifiable, but also for the wrong reason. The only thing Hana couldn’t get over, and probably could never forgive Yuri, was for the lack of trust and faith the latter held in her.

Yuri’s stare was icy and would probably scare any other girl, but Hana wasn’t afraid. In fact, she was tired of being afraid, of always being the one to hide. Few moments of silent staring and then suddenly Hana’s phone produced sounds of notifications, indicating she had messages. The breaking point of the stare, as Yuri scoffed once more and looked towards her left for a second before returning her glare towards Hana and slowly inching towards her. Hana had always found Yuri’s presence intimidating; maybe it was the fact that the latter was taller than her by a few centimeters, and with Jongdae describing Yuri as ‘not so nice anymore’, Hana internally dreaded the words that were to come from .

“Stay away from them alright.” It sounded more like a warning than a simple statement and Hana didn’t have to think twice to know who the ‘them’ she was referring to were. For Yuri to come along and tell Hana to stay away from HER friends kind of pissed her off. Ok, extremely pissed her off. Hana almost rolled her eyes but Yuri’s next statement caught her off guard.

“Those three guys are good people who shouldn’t even associate themselves with you. I don’t know what you did, or how you got them to be your friends but they deserve better company than a backstabber’s. Stay away from them, especially Lay and Baekhyun. I see what you’re doing Hana. You’re playing with them just like you did with me. You’re with Baekhyun one second and with Lay the next. Don’t mess with their feelings. I’m warning you.”

And with that she walked away, purposely bumping shoulders with Hana. Suddenly all of Jongdae’s words about Yuri made sense. She changed, and every vexed word she spoke stung Hana to the core. How could someone who used to be your best friend suddenly say something so rash to you? Well, Hana had been through it once, but she forgave her for that time. Hana convinced herself that whatever Yuri said two years ago was out of anger and betrayal, she thought she’d set the story straight when she was not so hostile and when things with Hana herself would get better. But Yuri never bothered to contact her again, and Hana wondered if Yuri was even aware that her parents died. With a heavy heart Hana boarded the bus and after five minutes of battling with thoughts her phone rang and unlike usual, seeing the name on the screen made her feel confused. She wasn’t playing with their feelings, she wasn’t. Who was Yuri to accuse her of such preposterous deed? Why do Yuri’s words even matter to Hana? They weren’t even friends anymore. Yuri knew nothing, not about the situation from two years ago and not the situation at present. She reacted of decisions made by her own ways of perception and judgment. So why would Hana destroy her bond with the few people that made her feel something other than self pity after so long? And that too, based on Yuri’s pathetic observations?

The call had ended, and multiple messages flashed on her screen. This time though, she replied. She felt lighter, not to mention proud. For the first time in a long while Hana had not let herself be affected by someone’s words, not let her confidence shatter, and not go. Baekhyun and Hana were just friends, and that was a fact that both of them knew, how the others took their relationship, or what meaning they made out of their close bond was not Hana’s concern. Her concerns were her new friends, and what they thought was the only thing that mattered.

Junmi was in the kitchen when Hana barged in. She noticed Junmi preparing for food that was more than just for two people, however, Hana was already in a rush, so as soon as she kissed her aunt on the cheek as a hello, she ran upstairs to change. She could hear Junmi screaming something downstairs, probably saying something to her, something Hana didn’t understand because the closed door suppressed the sound.

Hana quickly showered and dried her hair before pulling the loose black top with grey denim shorts, and stuffed her feet into her ankle boots before rushing downstairs. Junmi was still in the kitchen when she reached the last step. Junmi took in Hana’s appearance as the girl hastily scribbled something on a piece of paper, and before she could even ask where she was going, Hana held the paper in front of her face.

‘Last exam. Celebration with friends.’

Junmi read the words scribbled in black and took the note from Hana’s hand. The look on her face already told Hana that something was up.

“But we have someone coming over for lunch. It’s important and…I want you to meet them.”

Hana looked dejected and Junmi felt guilty for ruining her fun. The sparkle in Hana’s eyes died down and it killed Junmi to be the reason behind it.

‘They’ll be staying anyways…..maybe if she comes back before dinner….?’

Junmi sighed and crumpled the paper. “You can go. But be back before dinner.”

Hana’s head snapped back up and the gleam was back. Hana jumped and embraced her aunt before planting another kiss and running out the door. Junmi smiled as she watched her go, but the smile soon faltered. They were coming today, after long years of separation, the three would finally meet. Junmi wondered if Hana had already met one of them, but then, if she had, she would have said so. Junmi worried over how she’d react after seeing them. It had been almost two years, and at their last meeting, they couldn’t even say their good-byes. Junmi felt excited yet nervous at the same time.

They were here……

She’d see them again…….

They were coming back home…..

-

i shall update the next chapter soon :D