~

이제 웃어줄래?

Now, can you please smile?

~

 

 

“Ugh, Monday again.”

 

 

Somi reached over to turn off her alarm clock, and got out of bed.

 

 

“Calculus test, chemistry quiz, language homework due,” Somi told herself as she picked her textbooks to bring to school that day.

 

 

She waltzed out of her room, whistling a song that Woohyun had sang that day at the karaoke, and ran into Myungsoo.

 

 

“We need to stop bumping into each other like this,” Myungsoo smiled and tousled Somi’s hair.

 

 

“You stayed the night again, L oppa?” Somi asked, as she headed to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

 

 

“Yup. I don’t like going home. And I didn’t even get calls from my parents. They don’t care about me,” Myungsoo laughed dryly.

 

 

“Where’s Sungyeol?” Somi changed the subject.

 

 

“Sleeping.”

 

 

“Okay, well I need to be getting to school. Bye!” Somi didn’t want to put Myungsoo in a bad mood.

 

 

“I can give you a lift, if you want,” Myungsoo suggested.

 

 

“Oh, I’m extra early today. I can make it in time, but thanks!” Somi exited without eating breakfast and closed the door behind her. 

 

 

What she really wanted to do, was meet up with Woohyun.

 

 

She stood outside Woohyun’s door for about ten minutes, waiting for him to come out.

 

 

“It’s already 6:30 am, and school starts at 7:00. I’ll wait twenty more minutes, and then walk,” Somi thought.

 

 

Somi usually left around 6:50 am anyways, but she assumed Woohyun left earlier, being class president and all. After all, it was one of the class president’s duties to arrive early and take roll for the teacher.

 

 

“Hey,” Somi heard a voice behind her, and she jumped.

 

 

“You scared me!” she exclaimed, looking at Woohyun, who was still in sweatpants, holding coffee in his hand. He still had bed hair and he looked sort of flustered.

 

 

“Sorry.. But I should be the scared one. Why are you standing outside of my house like a creepy stalker?” he asked playfully.

 

 

“I was waiting for you to come out, so we could walk to school together! I didn’t really have a way to contact you.. So I was just waiting here,” Somi told him. “Why are you out so early anyways?”

 

 

“I went to go pick up coffee. But here, you can have it. Unless you’re a total germaphobe, cause I put my lips on it. Oh, and put your number in here,” Woohyun handed Somi his coffee and his cellphone.

 

 

“No, it’s okay, you have it,” Somi handed Woohyun back his coffee and punched her number into his phone.

 

 

“Thanks,” Woohyun smiled, taking back his phone. “I’ll go in and change to our school uniform, I’ll be out here in a few minutes!”

 

 

After some waiting, Woohyun opened his door, and stepped out with his uniform and a backpack.

 

 

“We have twenty minutes, plenty of time,” Woohyun said, as he and Somi began walking to the elevator.

 

 

“Yeah,” Somi smiled, as she pressed the button to go down to the first floor.

 

 

“So, tell me about you.”

 

 

“Me? I’m not a very interesting person,” Somi sighed.

 

 

“Well, I know some things about you,” Woohyun wiggled his eyebrows.

 

 

“What?” Somi was curious.

 

“You like Running Man, singing, and hanging out with your oppa. And, you think I’m good looking, right?” Woohyun laughed.

 

 

“WHAT?!” Somi was flustered.

 

“Haha, I heard you talking with Howon. And give me that, it looks heavy,” Woohyun politely took Somi’s bag from her and carried it himself.

 

 

“Wow, what a gentleman,” Somi smiled, as she and Woohyun exited the apartment building and trudged down the road to school.

 

 

“But seriously, let’s learn more about each other. I want to become close friends,” Woohyun was straightforward. 

 

 

“Why don’t you tell me about you?” Somi asked.

 

 

“What do you want to know?” Woohyun chuckled.

 

 

“Kim Sunggyu,” Somi thought. “Tell me about Sunggyu.”

 

 

“Well?” Woohyun asked, after Somi thought for a moment.

 

 

“Who do you hang out with? Or are all your friends, girls?” Somi tried to lead the conversation to Sunggyu.

 

 

“Well, there’s Kibum and Jonghyun, who are in my class. They are closer to each other than they are to me, though,” Woohyun thought for a second.

 

 

“Oh, so you don’t really have a ‘best’ friend? You’re pretty friendly with everyone, then!” Somi said.

 

 

“Well, I actually do. But he’s not here,” Woohyun looked at Somi.

 

 

“Who?” Somi pried.

 

 

“He’s actually your brother’s age. I called him ‘bibimi hyung’, because he liked bibimbap so much,” Woohyun laughed.

 

 

Somi touched the locket around her neck. Woohyun brought his attention to it.

 

 

“What’s that?” Woohyun pointed to the locket, his joking tone was gone. His expression was unreadable.

 

 

“It’s nothing..” Somi said.

 

 

“Is that what he meant? Could it be..” thoughts ran through Woohyun’s head. He was hit with shock and deja vu.

 

 

~~~

 

 

“Everyone put everything away except a pencil. We are about to take our calculus test,” Mr. Kang said.

 

 

Somi groaned, and Howon gave her a reassuring smile.

 

 

“I bet you’ll get a higher score than me this time. I didn’t study,” Howon said.

 

 

“Yeah, right. You never even study, and you always do well,” Somi sighed. 

 

 

Howon barely studied. He spent a lot of time playing sports and dancing. But he was naturally smart. His class rank was always in the top 5’s, while Somi lingered in the 6–15’s.

 

 

“Fighting! You can do it!” Howon gave Somi a thumbs up, as the test papers were passed out.

 

 

“Lee Howon haksaeng. This is the millionth time this year. Please do not speak in class! ESPECIALLY while we are taking a test,” Mr. Kang said in an annoyed tone.

 

 

“Sorry,” Howon replied, as he grabbed his pencil and began speeding through the problems.

 

 

Somi looked at her paper and sighed.

 

 

She recalled what Myungsoo taught her.

 

 

“Okay, you can do this,” Somi said to herself as she picked up her pencil and began working.

 

 

~~~

 

 

“Time’s up! Please pass your papers forward!” Mr. Kang announced. 

 

 

“Urgh. I didn’t finish solving the last two problems,” Somi complained to Howon as she watched him pack up.

 

 

“It’s okay, that’s an improvement from last time! You didn’t even finish half,” Howon tried to encourage her.

 

 

“I guess, yeah,” Somi muttered.

 

 

“Hey guys!” Dongwoo came up to Somi and Howon.

 

 

“Hi. What’s up?” Howon answered.

 

 

“You know the soccer tryouts for the summer varsity league are today right?” Dongwoo looked at Howon.

 

 

“What?! Really? You should’ve told me sooner! Look at the time!” Howon exclaimed.

 

Try-outs were to begin in five minutes. 

 

 

“I need to stop by the locker room for my cleats, and I need to change. Meet you at the field, Somi!” Howon picked up his backpack and bounded out of the room.

 

 

“Oh, and this is for you,” Dongwoo handed Somi a box of chocolates, and she raised her eyebrows at him.

 

 

“Not from me, silly,” Dongwoo laughed. “It’s from your admirer. Read the note.”

 

 

Somi read the note on the front of the box.

 

 

“If I told you who I was, 

would you accept my heart?”

 

 

“Uhh. Tell him I said thanks, for the chocolate. I need to get going now! Need to cheer my best friend on!” Somi awkwardly grinned, saying bye to Dongwoo.

 

 

~~~

 

 

“Go, go Howon!” Somi cheered as her best friend dribbled the ball perfectly through cones and kicked it into the goal.

 

 

Chansung laughed at how Somi was being so enthusiastic, and Junho just looked at her with an expressionless face.

 

 

“You’ll cheer for me too, right? When it’s my turn,” Chansung asked Somi.

 

 

“Of course I will!” Somi didn’t take her eyes off Howon, who was now defending the ball.

 

 

“And me?” a somewhat hopeful-but-still-dull-sounding voice spoke up.

 

 

“….Did you just.. talk? To me?” Somi looked at Junho with a surprised expression.

 

 

“Uh. Yeah. I did,” Junho rolled his eyes. “And I was just kidding. I don’t need someone like you cheering for me.”

 

 

“..Okay,” Somi didn’t even look up at Junho. “Go, go Howonnie!”

 

 

Howon looked at her and waved, before demonstrating a perfect corner kick. 

 

 

“Yay!” Somi and Chansung stood up and cheered for their friend, while Junho just watched.

 

 

“Ding!” Somi’s phone went off.

 

 

From: Unknown Number

Hey, guess who? ^^

 

To: Unknown Number

Woohyunnie??

 

From: Unknown Number

Correct!  ㅋㅋㅋ Somi-ah, where are you? =_=

 

 

Somi smiled at the text message, and quickly inputed Woohyun into her phone contacts.

 

 

To: Neighbor Woohyun

I’m watching Howon’s soccer tryouts ><

 

 

And a reply came within seconds.

 

 

From: Neighbor Woohyun

You should’ve told meㅠㅠ I’m at the gate. I waited to walk home from school together!

 

To: Neighbor Woohyun

Sorry! I didn’t know ;~; I’ll be there soon! Howon’s almost done, anyways!

 

From: Neighbor Woohyun

Hurry up! I’m tired =_=

 

To: Neighbor Woohyun

I never told you to wait for me.. ㅡㅡ

 

From: Neighbor Woohyun

But I did. Now come! And bring Howon with you if you want, we can go eat bingsoo!

 

To: Neighbor Woohyun

Sounds good! We’ll be there in a few minutes^^

 

 

Howon finished his try-outs, and it was now Chansung’s turn.

 

 

“Sorry Chan, but we need to go! I’ll cheer for you once you make the team and I attend an actual game!” Somi waved goodbye.

 

 

“Aww, okay,” Chansung ran out to the field. “Wish me luck!”

 

 

“Good luck!” Somi and Howon called out, as they together walked towards the gate, where Woohyun stood waiting.

 

 

“So, there’s a bingsoo place two blocks away, do you wanna go?” Woohyun asked Howon, having already asked Somi.

 

 

“I’m in! Let’s go!”

 

 

~~~

 

 

Somi, Woohyun, and Howon had a blast together.

 

 

For the first time in forever, Somi didn’t think of Sunggyu. She lived in the moment and had fun with her two friends.

 

 

“Maybe it’s time to forget,” she thought. “There’s nothing I can do to get him back, anyways.”

 

 

But throughout the afternoon, Somi didn’t sense the two eyes that couldn’t seem to pry themselves away from her locket.

 

 

And when Somi got home, she reached up to touch her locket.

 

 

It was gone.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

*Author’s Note: Woohyun’s so nice, and such a gentleman. I love Woohyun..^^ and omg INFINITE’S TEASER! I wonder who the person who is chasing Gyu is.. It seems like a creepy concept.. And here's a gif of Howon playing soccer :3