Lies and Truth

Kim Junghyun comes again on Saturday morning. It’s because he has an appointment with Haneul to jog around Han River. He presses the bell and Hareum looks at the intercom with surprise and she quickly goes outside to open the gate for him. Junghyun sees Hareum walking outside to him. “Oh, Hareum-a,” he greets her with a smile and Hareum smiles back. She is nervous and flustered with his sudden appearance in front of her house.

“Come in, oppa,” Hareum lets him in and they walk into the house with Hareum behind him. Junghyun takes off his shoes and she sees what he’s wearing this morning, so casual and sporty. “Are you going to jog with Haneuloppa?” Hareum asks as she walks to the kitchen. “Just sit down there, oppa,” she tells him to sit on the sofa in the living room. “Did you eat breakfast?” she asks loud from kitchen. The house is so quiet. There’s no sign of their parents as Junghyun sees around and the boarders isn’t in sight.

“Yeah, I ate already,” Junghyun says as he’s looking around that there’s nothing changed from this house. It’s exactly like four years ago. “Don’t give me drink, Hareum-a. I’m okay!” he tells her from the living room and Hareum closes the fridge.

“Really?” she asks once again. “Okay, then,” and Hareum goes to the living room and stands there looking at him. “I wake him up, okay?”

“No, Hareum-a!”Junghyun stops her, almost shouts and Hareum is surprised as she jumps a bit. She’s flustered and he just adds her nervousness. She carefully turns back to him and he sighs because he said the wrong thing. “No, I mean… you don’t have to, maybe he’s too tired,” Junghyun corrects his words.

“O…kay,” Hareum says.

“I’m sorry if I surprise you,” Junghyun says and Hareum just nods. At sudden, the situation becomes so awkward and Hareum decides to go to her room. But then, Junghyun stops her by saying, “Or… should we jog around Han River?” he asks. Hareum stops, she’s frozen and she’s carefully looking at him back.

“Huh?” Hareum confirms maybe she heard a wrong thing. But Junghyun is standing there and scratching his head awkwardly and it makes her more nervous than ever. Why does he have to be so awkward right now?

“Jog around,” he says with an awkward smile and suddenly moving his hands like he’s about to run. “You know, at Han river…?” what does this mean?Hareum nods with her eyes blankly stare at him. Oh, I look like a stupid person.

And she takes a step to her room, but then turns back to look at him. “Okay, sure,” she answers and Junghyun nods. “Please wait for me,” and she quickly goes into her room and changes her clothes. And the next thing she should do is telling Chaera where she goes.

Chaera gets out from her room. She’s about to have a snack she brought the other day. She goes to the kitchen to take her snack out from the fridge.

Sungwoo goes down as well, he wants to find something to eat, whatever it is. And as he goes to the kitchen, he finds Chaera is bending down. He’s curious on what she’s searching for, so he bravely and casually stands behind her. Oh, she has her own snacks, huh? And she stands up, but he doesn’t move. As she turns her body, she’s surprised to find him there as they bump again. “What?!” and her snacks are falling down. Fortunately, it is still wrapped well.

Sungwoo is surprised that she shouts at him. She finds him there and sighs, grunts, and glares at him. He takes a step backward. “Sorry,” he says it in a low voice, suddenly becomes so cowardly in front of her.

Chaera clicks her tongue at him. “How many times do you have to do this?” she complains and she leaves him there. Sungwoo just sighs as he’s getting sure that she truly hates him. He closes the fridge and puts his hand there, hides his face and sighs. Why dealing with her is so hard?

That time, Dowoon witnesses how Chaera treats Sungwoo. She walks passing him without looking at him and he knows that Chaera is angry. Then, he looks to the desperate Sungwoo. “What did you do?” he’s curious and approaches Sungwoo.

Sungwoo looks at Dowoon soullessly and he puts his hands on Dowoon’s shoulders. “Right. What have I done?” he is like in the state of giving up and Dowoon just pats his back, cheering him up. “I don’t know what I’ve done that she hates me so much.”

“Since when?”Dowoon asks.

Sungwoo shrugs, but his face still tells Dowoon that he’s helpless. “Since the first day we got here, I think.”

“Why??” Dowoon asks once again. He still doesn’t get a clear idea of what Sungwoo just said.

“Exactly, why?”Sungwoo says it sadly. “Dowoon-a, help me,” Sungwoo is desperate and Dowoon can see that.

“Okay, we’ll talk about this in your room.”

He just gets up and the clock is showing that he’s late. Ah…I forgot about Junghyun. He looks to his phone and Junghyun’s text from one hour ago is showed on the screen, “Sorry, man. I can’t come today,” he said it like that without giving Haneul the exact reason.

He gets out from his room and finds his house is so deadly quiet. About his parents, he knew they’re having their own holidays and about the kids, he doesn’t know what they’re up to today. So, he knocks Hareum’s room first and finds it unlocked but no one is there. Where is she? He goes to Chaera’s room and he knocks.

Chaera, who is reading her book, stops it when she hears someone knocking. “Chaera-ya, it’s Haneul oppa,” he says from outside and Chaera opens the door for him.

“Yes, oppa?” she asks.                                                                       

“Where’s Hareum? Did she tell you where she goes?” Haneul asks. As Hareum’s expectation, Haneul does ask where she goes and with whom. Chaera was told to lie to Haneul by Hareum. And she told her to not mention Junghyun’s name in front of Haneul.

“Oh, she goes with her college friends. I don’t know who they are,” Chaera lies naturally and Haneul nods. He believes her and Hareum wasn’t wrong to ask Chaera to do that because she’s the best in hiding her expression among three of them (except Minhyun, he can’t be lied).

“Okay,” Haneul says and then he turns again. “Chaera-ya,” he calls her before she closes the door. “I might go to the library today so take care of the house for a while,” Haneul says and Chaera nods. He smiles. “Thanks, Chaera-ya.”

Since his appointment with Junghyun was cancelled, he decides to go to the library with the intention to not read there, but he wants to meet a person. Junghyun’s classmate in college and he introduced her to Haneul in freshman year. The three of them had hung out together, but until they graduate and Junghyun went out of town, Haneul was just visiting her on the weekend with the excuse to read and borrow books there. With that excuse, he doesn’t always go there on weekend. He’s absent for like two weeks or three so that girl couldn’t catch him right away.

Haneul arrives at the library and he goes inside with a nervous heart, anticipating of meeting her right now. The library is filled with bookworms and Haneul can see that clearly. He goes to the shelf near where Junghyun’s friend is at. He noticed that she likes to wander around the fiction books, so that’s where he will go. He walks there and as always, he pretends to find a book. Since he’s interested in singing and all that, he goes to find a biography of a well-known singer he used to listen when he was little, because his parents liked to play the songs.

He doesn’t find her when he passes the fiction shelves. It’s a bit rare to find her not here in this time. But, Haneul thinks, well, maybe she will be here later. And he continues to find that book. There are a lot of biography books available there and as time goes by, Haneul is immersed with his own worlds. It’s been a long time also since he hasn’t properly visited the library.

Until, someone pokes him and he turns. He jumps in surprise as he sees that cute girl smiling at him. It’s Junghyun’s friend, Ha Yeonsoo. He remembers well her name. It’s a bit unexpected that she greets him with that smile. It was always him who found her first and greeted her, but this time it’s vice versa. “You surprise me!” Haneul exclaims in a low voice and Yeonsoo slightly taps his hand, reminds him that he almost disturbs the others. “Sorry,” he whispers and Yeonsoo looks at him with a chuckle. “How did you find me?” he asks with anticipating a good answer from her.

“I know where you are,” she says with a meaningful smile and Haneul just raises his eyebrow at her and smirks. She chuckles. “Well, just saw you walking to the biography section.”

“Oh, so you’ve been here like minutes ago, Yeonsoo-ya? And noticed me?”