They couldn’t sleep that night. Yes, they, the three of them, Seungyeon, Youngsaeng, and even Kyujong.

Restless, that one girl paced back and forth in her room, sometimes stopped for a while to take a deep breath, sighing nonstop, then stared at her cell phone on the desk. She wanted to call him just to assure herself. She was worried yet she couldn’t understand why. Her mind kept travelling to that short flattering moment when Youngsaeng embraced her with all his might. Then she would find her cheeks burned, she could feel the blood that circulated upon it that even though she didn’t look at the mirror she knew that she was all blushing, reddening.

She shrugged her shoulders, feeling silly, as if trying to sweep away the strange feelings she felt all in one.

Youngsaeng was worse than that. Praise the Lord that he wasn’t that kind of man who loved to drink away his problem or he probably had been really drunk and lost his self in the sea of alcoholic drinks. He was surrounding by the fear. The fear to lose her though he knew that she wasn’t his, never been his since the start. More than that, he was afraid of the reaction she would give him later after she found out the plan he came out with, manipulating her and her parents.

Where the heck did he get that kind of courage to do so?

You must have gone crazy for real, Heo Youngsaeng!His heart screamed out of frustration.

Kyujong was another case. He thought that he would win, just a little bit getting closer to the victory. He was excited, thinking that the Youngsaeng he knew was someone who didn’t like to in other people’s problem. The Youngsaeng he knew was a kind of phlegmatic guy, who didn’t like to be in a trouble, who had no passion or interest for a girl; not that he thought of Youngsaeng as a gay.

While Seungyeon, he wasn’t sure but he knew that she kind of had a weakness for him.

He had plan. And he thought it was perfect. He was too happy to be able to close his eyes and go to sleep. He already could imagine the victory that he would get.

Yet, the fact, he knew nothing.

Youngsaeng had changed. So did Seungyeon, bit by bit.

*****

Seungyeon opened her eyes, slowly, blinked a few times until she saw the ray on sunlight that peeked through the curtain of her windows. She jolted, finding her self on the chair upon her desk with her small cell phone on the right hand. She had fallen asleep for a while. Tired, feeling the pain in her neck because of her sleeping position, she mumbled to herself, why did on earth she sleep there? A realization then hit her, she remembered, Youngsaeng!

She didn’t think much when she pressed some numbers on that small thing or when she heard the beep sounds while she waited for him to pick up the call. Then she heard a familiar husky voice spoke from the end of the line, saying hello, the panic attacked her right away.

“G-good morning.” She stuttered. She didn’t know what to say. She wasn’t sure. Her brain froze. She didn’t know how to answer if he asked for the reason she called him that morning.

“Mor~ning. What are you up to?”

She couldn’t sense it, but he was just equally nervous as her. Even though he was happy inside, it was a rare chance for Seungyeon to initiate a phone call. He was the one who did it often.

She took a deep breath, after distancing the cell phone from her face of course, so he wouldn’t hear it.

“Nothing. I just want to check on you.”

“Hmmm.”

She could imagine him nodding his head.

Then silence, until she broke it with a cautiously uttered question.

“Are you okay?”

He was quite startled by her question but manage to answer it smoothly, rather. “Oh, well, yes. Why?”

“Nothing.” Again she said it plainly, but obviously feeling relieved inside. “It’s just…yesterday, you know, you seemed different. Well, don’t mind me. I’m just over-thinking about it.” She stuttered a bit, fearing that Youngsaeng would think she was weird.

But instead, Youngsaeng was feeling complicated inside. He was feeling sorry, not for the hug he gave her, but for leaving her clueless about his behavior the day before. Also for the upcoming plan that he had. He didn’t know what to say.

“I should hang up now. Classes” She said after another pack of silence. Awkward, she thought, but she chose to not care as long as he was fine.

Youngsaeng felt a tingle in his heart. He didn’t want to end it yet, the phone call. Some words were hanging on his tongue, urging to be spoken. But as usual, he thought it wasn’t the time yet.

“Okay. I’ll pick you up later.” He said in the end.

*****

Youngsaeng walked down the street slowly in peace, hands were hidden inside the pocket of his pants. He stared intensely at the girl who was walking innocently in bliss in front of him with both of her eyes closed, head up to the sky feeling the ray of the left almost-set-sun as she spun around with both hands flare opened. A slight smile appeared on his lips.

“Are you that happy to walk back home?” He asked, making her stopped from turning around, bringing her out of her little own world.

Looking back at him with a wide smile, she nodded, “Yes!” Her eyes glinted, shining brightly.

He let out a small chuckle.

“Why? Do you think it’s weird? But it’s been a long time since the last time I walked back home. I always ride that expensive car of yours lately.” She said playfully, a predictable pout appeared on her lips.

She was surprised when Youngsaeng led her to the bus stop in front of his campus instead of the parking lot as usual. It was, again, weird to see him without his car but she was too happy anticipating the bus ride they would take. So she put the thought aside.

But after seeing him being all quiet and silent along the way, she remembered it again.

“Youngsaeng-nim, come to think about it, don’t you think that there’s something weird happening lately?” She now walked side by side with him; still surrounding by her enjoyment she childishly matched their footsteps.

“What?” He asked.

“It seems like our characters are mixed up. Why do I feel that you’ve turned to be like my old self?”  

Youngsaeng was taken aback. He knew clearly what she meant with her words, but never thought that she would took notice of his change of behavior. Indeed, he realized, he had been much more quite lately. There were too many complicated things going on inside him.

“Your old self? What does it imply to?” Playing fool, he looked at her with his eyebrows furrowed. Praise the Lord for his always calm and collected self, his acting didn’t seem awkward at all.

But it made her somehow irritated.

“Otter-nim!” She groaned, “I’m sure you know what it means. MY-OLD-SELF! You know how exactly I was back then!”  

Pout, that cute pout. Squinted eyes, that adorable squinted eyes.

“Ah, so you finally come into recognition on how you behaved back then. Thanks Goodness. But I don’t think I’ve became that kind of scary person.” He then laughed awkwardly to hide his nerves while ruffling her ponytail. “You think too much about it, silly girl.”

“No, I don’t!” She shrieked. “Or probably I do. But no! You’ve changed for real, in someway. Look, you don’t speak much lately, you keep being all silent and gloomy. I can’t read what inside your head or your expression anymore. Not that I could before, but it just becomes a lot harder nowadays.” She insisted, giving him a bunch of explanation and reason she had. She kept talking that she didn’t realize she had said something that shouldn’t be spoken out.

“And now, what’s this with the bus ride back home? And…and that hug you gave me the other day?!”

She stopped, right there, eyes grew larger, mouth gap opened. The fear crept up inside her with her mind kept repeating the words she just said.

Stupid! Han Seungyeon, why did you say that? He’s gonna think that you are weird for overly thinking about a hug. Just a hug, you fool!

Her inner-mind shouted inside, blaming her for the reckless acted she did.

What to do? What should I do?!

“A-a, aish, I don’t know. You are weird!”

She ran away after that, leaving Youngsaeng speechless and nervous , just as equal as she was.

Did she find it out? He whispered inside.

*****

He usually would drop her at the front gate of her house, watching her disappeared behind the gate after sending waves to him with her hand held up high in the air. Then he drove back home or anywhere he wanted to go.

She also never really meant the offer that she gave him to stop by her house, always platitude it was and he knew it well. But he never got offended or disappointed or being sad over it, because it was for the sake of them. They better avoided the probability to meet the parents.

However, she really stood for it when she told him to stop by for a while that day, sincerely. Because she thought he must be tired after the walk they went through. The distance laid from the bus stop to her house couldn’t be called near.

“Mind to come in for a while?” She asked in a low voice, statically avoiding looking right to his face, or eyes. The bashful effect she got from the incident earlier hadn’t yet to be gone.

Youngsaeng was considering rejecting it though he could feel the sincerity she had in her voice amidst the embarrassment she was going through at the moment, but not without teasing her first. It had been a while since he saw that all-shy side of Seungyeon.

“Why? So that you can pay your promise to buy me drinks earlier and replace it with orange juice you have on your fridge?” A smile spread over his face as he uttered it.

“Aigoo! Miss Hamster, don’t you think that you are the weird one? You told me that you would go to buy me drinks but you got back with nothing. Tch-”

He was about to go on with the teasing, but the response he got was totally different from what he expected. He watched as her face went pale with concern.

She supposed to be all-red blushing.

“Seungyeon-ah, are you okay?” He bended down to take a better look of her face. He found a stiff expression on her face and slight grinned-teeth as she closed her eyes and swallowed hard. In his eyes, it looked like as she was in a great pain.

“Seungyeonnie.” He called her name again, with a tender tone this time. Her eyes flared open.

“Y-yes, I’m alright.” She nodded, showing him a small smile. A fake and hard-to-be-shown one, he knew.

“Are-”

“Let’s just go inside.” She cut him off and turned around, going inside the gate and next climbing the stairway to get to the front door. He followed behind, worriedly staring at her back.

There must be something wrong. But what is that?

Reaching the terrace, she opened the door and he went in after her. They walked in silence to the living room, but then just to get an unexpected view in front of their eyes.

“Oh, Seungyeon-ah!”

“Youngsaeng-ah!”

Their parents, four of them, all presence, sitting comfortably on the couches with each pair of tea-cup in the table, staring at them contentedly.

********************************************************************************************************

Author's Note:

I finally got the time to write and update after more than one month not updating. Thank you so much for all the support that you guys still give me so far, I appreciate it a lot. You guys give me strength with your comments whenever I am too tired to write. Thank you so much, sincerely.

I hope you guys can enjoy this update.

and I'm sorry that I haven't replied the comments you guys left. I should catch up with the presentation for tomorrow's class now. I will reply the comments the day after tomorrow. See ya, have a nice week :)