Choi Haseul

the next day

 I was putting on my clothes after a good shower when I noticed a bruise on my collarbone.What was that thing on my neck ? I got closer to the mirror and gasped, touching it. A hickey ? YongGuk was really out of his mind yesterday night. It was purpleish and a bit blue.  While I put my clothes on, I made sure that the hickey was well hidden. Jaekyung won't ever leave me alone if she see that. Yet I pulled on my shirt to look at it a bit more. Drunk YongGuk was cute.

Before leaving, I came back in the bedroom and I wrote him a little note, filled up a glass of water and put a pill for headache on his side table. No wonder he was still asleep after yesterday events. YongGuk was sleeping on his stomach, a hand beneath his pillow. He looked awfully attractive like that.But I fighted that will to just go back in bed with him to head to the library.

*

I spent my day at the library normally. I was massaging my hickey softly while thinking back about last night. YongGuk confessed to me. Jaekyung poked my arm. "You are so weird today." She had an annoyed face.

I shrugged to her, doing my best to keep a blank face, putting my hands back on the table.

"I don't know why you annoy me so much. It's that YongGuk, right ? You are head over toes for him."

I blinked, and nodded. "Jaekyung for the whole time we've known each other, you had plenty of relationship, and now you're not cool with me having a boyfriend ?"

She rolled her eyes. "I can find myself a boyfriend whenever I want."

I grinned. "Marvelous !"

It's weird but with all the flaws that Jaekyung had, I liked her. As I said that to her,we laughed together. When I left around 5, I bumped into a man. “Oh sorry.” I excused myself, I wasn't really minding where I walked because I was checking my phone. YongGuk never texted me today. The brat.

“It’s okay.” The man said. I smiled to him before realizing it was Professor Ok. I took a step back.

“How are you doing HaSeul ?” He asked.

“I’m fine … I was about to leave work.” I implied I was ready to leave library. He nodded. Gosh, that was really awkward. “What about you ?” I asked politely.

He slowly shrugged. “I’m fine. I mean … I got over it. That guy I saw was your boyfriend, right ?”

I nodded, suddenly shy. I never wanted to hurt such a kind person. He smiled. “Is he the person you told me about ?”

I nodded again. I told him about having feelings for someone else after he kissed me. “Well, congratulations.”

“Thanks you.” I briefly said. I was awfully embarrassed to meet him there.

“HaSeul !”

I turned my head and looked at YongGuk arrive. He came to my side with a cup of bubble tea and handed me the cup. "Hey, thank you." I said to him.

YongGuk smiled to Professor Ok, bowing a little bit and the man in front of us did the same. Both men looked sincere in their smile. “Well I have to find a book, take care.” Professor Ok told me.

I greeted him goodbye and took a sip of my bubble tea. It was a lime bubble tea. “You remember I liked that ?” I asked YongGuk.

“Yeah, you took this when you visited me at the hospital. So ... what were you talking about ?”

“He asked me if you were my boyfriend. And told me he moved on.” I simply said. YongGuk nodded. “He seems so kind and sincere.”

“He is. He didn’t even get mad or anything when I rejected him.” I stated. We exited the library and I took a good look at YongGuk. He looked nice and well-rested. He had a blouse and regular jeans. After months of seeing him wearing a jail uniform then my plain clothes, YongGuk finally had clothes on his own and  that man knew how to dress well.

YongGuk had a pleased smile. “That’s good. You know I see him at university. He didn’t seem to remember of my face tho. Anyways do you want to do something in particular ? I have a few hours before classes start.”

I looked at YongGuk grabb my hand and smiled. Seems like  the sweet attentions aren’t over.. “What about buying some plants ? I saw you started to make something nice in the garden. Maybe you’d like flowers ?”

He looked surprised. “Oh, you noticed ? Yeah well, it was a shame to not take care of that garden. It’s a beautiful one. I would like to have some plants, even for the house.”

YongGuk and I went to the mall and walked holding hands in the plant nursery. “In jail I liked those gardening sessions. It was around spring. I missed this year sessions. It's one of the things I was looking forwards to do.” He said that while touching some plant leaves, in a very relaxed manner.

I looked at him quite shocked. Firstly, YongGuk  avoided talking about his days in jail. And when he did, it was unwillingly, with a frown as if only remembering about it was painful. So yeah, seeing him talk freely about it felt weird. YongGuk sighed. “Don’t react like that. Despite being a jail, it was the place I stayed in for seven years.”

I might have look a bit puzzled because YongGuk brought me closer to him. “But of course, it makes me so happy to be able to buy plants with you.”

We spent a huge amount of time in the shop, reading the description of the plants, taking some for indoors. I was getting some succulents when YongGuk tapped on my shoulder. I turned myself and looked at YongGuk handing me a heart shaped plant.  “Would you ... accept my heart ?” He asked with a smirck. I gasped at such words.

He bursted in laughs before I had any chance to react and I smiled. “You can get childish sometimes.”

Like last night when he called me babe. We decided to go and pay for our plants to  bring back all of that home. It’s only there I realized YongGuk really bought the plant. “Oh, you really bought it ?”

“Of course, I did. It’s too cute to leave it here."

As he insisted to pay, I let him. It’s rare I can invite YongGuk or offer him stuffs. I looked at him struggle to hold all of the plants and took out my phone. “Let's take a box !”

We took a cardbox and arranged the plant in it. "Are