On the next day, Seulgi woke up from her morning nap after arriving early in school. Everything was in place and nothing changed except she felt things stuck to her fingers. They were covered in animal patterned plasters, even near her palms. Her mind flew to Soojung only. It'd only be her to do this kind of things in secret.

That day, her mood were boosted up and she tackled Soojung into a hug and a peck on her cheek when they met on the canteen, sending the two boys looking at each other.

“Thank you, Soojung!” She beamed, and the girl just nodded slowly, though glad seeing her having such a good mood in the morning, and she left it at that.

Wonwoo smiled satisfyingly, looking proudly at his work of picking those bandages on his own and managing to do so without waking her up. She was such a deep sleeper, head turned to the side, her arms were left dangling on her sides. Her lips were slightly parted and she looked so adorable and serene with one of her cheeks squeezed to the table. Wonwoo refrained himself from taking another picture.

Mingyu glanced strangely at his friend, who was yawning and eyes drowsy, then scooping a spoonful of rice to his mouth. “Rare to see you getting sleepy, dude.”

Chewing, he only shrugged it off. He was looking forward to her talking about this matter but strangely, she didn’t and only gleefully smiled to Soojung all day long. 

Æ

“You look so happy today,” he coughed, not wanting himself to sound curious. 

She was literally exuding orange skies and jumpy thoughts, skipping and humming her way around. 
“Yes, Soojung just did this to me. Isn’t it sweet of her? To cover my scratches when I was unawa-” a flash of anger went pass his face, and she stopped. “What’s wrong, Wonwoo?”

He sighed, “I just remembered I have something to do, I have to go,”  he hurriedly went up to his feet and held himself back from running. So foolish of him to think that the first person she’d be reminded of was him, so stupid and he felt pathetic for feeling like over it. So much to feel for a single girl.

Seulgi watched Wonwoo disappear from her eyes and brought her stuffs to sit with Mingyu and Soojung. Mingyu was too busy running his fingers and studying the flowers around him to notice his friend just bolted pass him behind. 

Soojung got up to face Seulgi, peering over her shoulders. “Where is Wonwoo?”

“He said he has something to do.”

Soojung nodded, without feeling a brush of something terribly out of place. Then, her eyes shifted to her fingers, smiling softly. “Finally, you finally stop forgetting to actually cover those blisters.”

Seulgi’s eyebrows furrowed together. “Wait, you were the one who put it over my hands this morning, right?”

Soojung shook her head. “No, I wasn’t. I arrived late to school this morning.”

“Then who put this-no way. Why would he-I can't believe it, I gotta go-” Seulgi rose to her feet and bolted away, her feet and her body feeling light as the wind carried her.

Thoughts flew to her mind, for the boy whose words were so careless and lacked of consideration, whose locks of hair were black with a sense of lightness in it, eyes sharp and lips easily curled into a coy smile most of the time, who all in all listened to her. But really? Why would he be this dramatic? He was the one last year getting judgemental because of her being ‘dramatic’ over a damn swimming pool.

“Wonwoo, stop right there!” she held on to her knees, wiping sweats from her forehead with the back of her hand as she saw him kicking pebbles on the empty, stranded street, hands on the pocket of his pants. She could tell that it was him because of his uniform and his worn out shoes, his broad shoulders connected so his small hips and how tall he was compared to her even from afar. 

He stopped then messed with his hair, slapping his face with his palms as he heard feets padding behind him. He should have played it cool and pretended it was Soojung. Now what was he going to say to her? That he was upset she didn't immediately think of him? That it was because he liked her? What a good way to make a confession.

“Turn around, you obviously have something to say to me,” he did. He didn’t even realise Seulgi had began to treat him like she treated Soojung with care. 

“So you applied these to my fingers while I was asleep.”

Man up and answer it, Jeon Wonwoo! “Yeah,” he replied casually, looking down to her as she looked up to him while holding out her fingers. 

“Why?” 

“Because I want to,” he gulped all kind of embarrassment that threatened to wrench itself out of his throat as her eyebrows arched, amused. 

“Why do you feel the need to do this?

“You sound like you’re giving me a job interview-” he sighed looking that she was still waiting for his answer. “You didn’t take care of yourself. A girl’s hand should be taken care of properly.”

This had taken Seulgi back as she pretended to study over her fingers while hiding the heat rising to her ears. Wonwoo was too convoluted in his thoughts to notice.

“I don’t understand why you were upset, you could just tell me that it was you, not Soojung-” 

“I don’t know,” he muttered, letting his hair fell to his eyes while looking down to his shoes. He sounded so confused it was pretty overwhelming for her. Wonwoo losing his composure like this didn’t really make sense to her, since he was usually so loud and rude with his words, exuding this bad guy aura. These months though, she started to see him in a different light. Perhaps, they were like them too, too different to fit into a certain group. But she remembered Wonwoo and Mingyu and what a perfect fit they were to their school.

In the hallways, sometimes, she could hear whispers whenever the four of them walked together. She hoped Soojung wouldn’t hear them, some were too cruel for comprehension. 

Seulgi didn’t really notice how they casted away those groups just to be friends and spent their time with them. Even before all those growing feelings of something more than platonic attraction. They were intrigued by how close and tight knitted the relationship between the two are, how they seemingly needed each other as if they had built a world of their own. Mingyu and Wonwoo, in some ways, wanted to take a look into their world.

As far as he could see, for Wonwoo, it looked unreal; whatever Seulgi had with Soojung. Too good to be true. But there they were, always having each other’s back for each situation, communicating with a language beyond their comprehension

“Thank you though, for doing this,” Wonwoo was still looking down when Seulgi stepped in and wrapped her arms to hug him, past the gap between his arms and body with her hands entwined with each other, making his lips touched the crown of her hair. Then, her face went nearer to the side of his face, pressing her lips to his cheek while still holding him. Wonwoo’s head still hung low. 

Seulgi stepped back with her heart ramming her body over and over to run out of her body for racing in a speed so high it couldn’t be measured by a speedometer. She did it because it was how she treated Soojung. She reminded herself how she did that to him because it was just her way of treating friends she found precious. She had kissed Soojung on the cheeks countless of times as her form of affection and perhaps, she felt another different feeling for it was her first time in having a boy as a friend, and doing it to him.

She couldn’t imagine giving one to Mingyu though, she didn’t feel that close to him even when he was far more decent than this boy who still had his head hung low.

“Are you okay? I was just showing my gratitude-”

His head snapped back quickly when he knew his face was no longer heating up, “No, yeah, no problem, it’s cool. Where is your bag?”

“I left it there, I actually came to get you.”

“Oh, okay,” they walked in silence after that, back to the meadow, side by side. 

Wonwoo kept looking down or turning his face away to the sky, anywhere where he couldn’t find Seulgi because his mind was imploding in repeat as the latter scene was repetitively replayed on his head like a movie.

Seulgi just hugged me. This isn’t real and she just kissed me in the cheek. I must be dreaming. I must be dreaming. Yeah. Of course you are dreaming, why would she kiss you out of the blue. This whole thing is an imagination. Yeah, it is, this is too good to be true. Okay, I’m pinching myself and she’s still here beside me. This is actually reality. This is not a dream. How could this happen, how could this be possible?! His mind rambled on and on and on and Wonwoo held himself back from screaming or jumping in happiness because it was so out of his nature. Feeling this much happiness felt sinful somehow even for him.

Seulgi blushed a deep shade of crimson red when she saw him unconsciously touched his cheek and smiled while looking down, gnawing on her lips as she turned to the sky to let the wind blew off the heat rising and boiling her face.