Song: Suzy - Ring My Bell

No matter how you think about it, it was awkward.

You peeked at Hoseok who was paying all his attention to the snowy road he was driving on. He was just like before, handsome and manly when he was focusing on something but playful and loud when he wasn’t focusing on something which meant, well, almost all the time. But for the past two hours that you were driving on the road, only a few words were said between you two.

You looked away and tried to busy yourself with watching the scenery. You were ruined. It was night and you couldn’t find anything but snow out the window. You sighed slowly and leaned your head to the seat, closing your eyes. Being around Hoseok brought back memories of your high school days.

You and Hoseok were classmates, not exactly close friends but you were in a same group of friends. And the story began when you started to develop a secret crush on him. You smiled unconsciously when he was around and sometimes you even blushed when he was talking with you. But the sweet moments didn’t last when you found out that he started dating a senior in his dance group. The girl was like the queen of school and every boy dreamt of catching her attention even for a split of a second. Dating her? That was like hitting the jackpot and indeed Hoseok hit it. You cried for some days but eventually let go of it. It was not like that the world was ending. However, he broke up with his girlfriend after some months but back then you’ve just started dating another guy. Bad timing.

After you were all graduated from school, college got the best of you and then work and real life limited the connection between once close friends to a chat group. That was the reason that you all decided to have a meeting this weekend in Gwangju to see old friends and catch up on lives after all those years of separation.

You were rambling in your group chat that how your car broke down out of nowhere and you needed to take a bus there but suddenly Hoseok offered you a car ride. You were insisting that you could take a bus but then your other friends made you accept it because that was nothing between close friends. But the fact was that you and Hoseok had never been alone, just two of you, after he started dating his first girlfriend and that was mainly the reason that both of you were awkward.

“So…” Hoseok started suddenly making you snapped out your thoughts. “How’s life?”

You cleared your voice because you didn’t use it for quite a while. “Good. How about you?”

“Good…”

Awkward silence again but he broke it quickly.

“So are you dating someone? Or perhaps… you have a fiancé… or something?” He started confidently but his voice cracked at the end of the question. He took a quick glance at you before staring back to the road.

His question didn’t surprise you, to be honest, you were curious about him too. “No, I was too caught up with work, I didn’t have time for dating.”

“Oh…” He tapped his fingers on steering wheel rhythmically.

“What about you?” You had noticed that he wasn’t wearing any rings but yet you asked.

“Nope.” He answered playfully.

Your heart skipped a beat out of blue. It doesn’t mean anything… get yourself together, girl… oh, awkward silence again! I wanna jump out his car…

Hoseok cleared his throat, he was dying of the awkward silence too. He wasn’t that kind of guy usually, but he became timid and polite in front of you.

“Let’s listen to some music.” He the radio without waiting for your answer but you were agreed anyway. The familiar melody hit you. It was Leessang’s ‘Turn off the TV’, it was so popular when you were in high school and you remembered listening to it with your friends a lot. Hoseok started humming with the song and after a second you were both singing along with it. Hoseok tried to mimic Gill’s low pitched voice which brought a great laughter to you. You two sang along passionately till the end of the song. It brought back good memories to both of you and after that, you started talking about the songs you used to listen back then and the previous awkward vibe disappeared completely.

Hoseok was laughing at one of the stories you were explaining about your work when he noticed there were lots of cars stopping in front. He slowed down the car and joined other cars in the unexpected traffic.

Minutes later you reached a policeman who was wearing tons of warm clothes and leading cars in the snow. Hoseok turned down his side window and asked him what happened.

You turned down the music quickly and leaned toward Hoseok to hear what was the problem. Apparently, the main road connecting there to Gwangju was barred to cars because of the heavy snow. It was understructure for a few hours and the policeman addressed Hoseok an inn and explained that the road back to Seoul was jammed with traffic too and the best solution was to stay the night.

“I guess we should stay at the inn.” Hoseok explained as he started the car again. “We are close to Gwangju, it’s a pity to go back to Seoul like this.”

You agreed with him and he drove away to the inn. You hardly found a spot on the crowded open parking lot of the inn. You had to run all the way to inn because of the heavy snow pouring down yet you couldn’