“UNNIEEEEEEEEEEE!”

Hyorin knows that in half a second later, she is going to be attacked. But she does nothing as Jung Sohyun suddenly latches on her from behind, blabbering something about how much she misses the former.

Hyorin smiles, not her usual oh-I’ll-just-put-on-a-smile-because-if-not-people-think-I’m-attituding smile, but a genuine one, as she ruffles the younger girl’s hair, despite her whiny protests.

This, is only something she’ll ever show to her favourite dongsaeng of all time.

Oh, her, and Bang Yongguk.
 

__________________

“Junhong-ah. Wake up.”

Said male raises his head, heavily lidded eyes unable to make any sense of the scene in front of him, as he rubs his reddened cheek, flattened from sleeping on a thick English dictionary.

“Whaa, who, Sohyun?”

The person who was trying to wake Junhong up chuckles. “Dude, I’ve been called Sohyun for like, two times, do I seriously look or sound like a Sohyun?”

“Hyung!” Junhong cries out, immediately recognising the deep, husky voice of his most favourite hyung ever. Squinting against the sunlight, he spots Yongguk smiling at him, and he blushes.

“What are you doing here, hyung?”

“Checking up on my most favourite dongsaeng in the world, what else?”

Junhong pouts. “Eh, don’t kid me hyung. If I was your most favourite dongsaeng, you wouldn’t have let me ride the bus every morning.”

Yongguk shakes his head. “But at least the bus gave you a new friend.”

“Friend?”

“That Sohyun girl,” Yongguk smirks, pulling out the empty chair beside Junhong’s seat. “You guys look cute together, you know...”

“There’s nothing between us,” Junhong blurts, and Yongguk’s smile just grows.

“Oh, don’t deny it, you don’t know―”

“You don’t know either!”

Yongguk’s smile drops at Junhong’s sudden fiery outburst, and suddenly the entire atmosphere turns cold. Junhong’s eyes widen, realising what he just did.

He needs to escape, fast.

Ignoring the small voice in his head which tells him to just laugh it off, Junhong kicks away a chair blocking his path and runs out of the classroom.

Unbeknownst to Junhong, the ends of Yongguk’s lips quirk up in a tiny smirk. “That kid’s crushing, all right. Just look at all that testosterone.”

Sohyun plays around absentmindedly with her straw, bending it in halves before letting it go and stabs it into her untouched milkshake.

Hyorin notices it, and raises an eyebrow. “Yah, something troubling you?”

Sohyun immediately shakes her head, a little unnaturally too fast for Hyorin to believe that nothing is wrong.

“Tell me,” she demands, stirring her own milkshake.

Sohyun shakes her head, and Hyorin’s lips purses into a tight line, determined to find out what is troubling her dongsaeng so much.

“Tell me!”

Shin Hyorin snatches away Sohyun’s milkshake, splattering the latter’s hands with freezing, creamy white liquid in the process. However, Sohyun seems to be lost in thought, the sudden wetness on her hands unaffecting her, not a single bit.

Hyorin starts to panic. The only other time when Sohyun is like this...

“Is it that Kim Himchan dude?”

That catches Sohyun’s attention.

The younger girl immediately looks up, her eyes widening in shock before she realises that milkshake is on her hands and grabs the napkin, dabbing nervously at her hands, all the while avoiding eye contact with her unnie.

Hyorin’s eyes narrow. “Tell me, you ungrateful brat called Jung So―”

“Do you really like Bang Yongguk that much?”

Sohyun claps her hand over afterwards, shocked at what she’d just uttered.

Hyorin lapses into a silence as she processes Sohyun’s words.

Do you really like Bang Yongguk that much?

Usually, she would have given Sohyun a noogie on the head because she called someone older  than her informally, but somehow, the way Sohyun had been so hesitant to even ask her such a simple question...

Hyorin bites down gently on her bottom lip as she stares into her strawberry milkshake, which by now has all melted into a light pink, gooey fluid.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to answer―”

“I... really like him but,” Hyorin starts off hesitantly, cutting Sohyun off.

“But I don’t know...” she whispers helplessly at the end.

Sohyun hitches up her bag strap as she hurries down the darkened alleyway. She is sure she’d heard something; like someone following her...

She turns around sharply, just in time to spot a familiar, tall boy jerk his head downwards. Letting out a small sigh of relief when she recognises that messy, blonde head, she yells in exasperation.

“You almost scared the out of me!”

The boy freezes, before he lifts his gaze warily. Choi Junhong stuffs his hands into the pockets of his jeans before turning away, without a word.

“Yah!”

The smaller girl turns around and starts running towards the retreating figure, stopping when she is just a few centimetres away from said male. Junhong keeps his silence as they both walk in the opposite direction from where they were heading.

“Choi Junhong―”

“Look, I’m sorry, okay!”

Sohyun is stunned into silence with Junhong’s abrupt apology, before a small smile spreads across her face.

“What’s there to be sorry about? There’s nothing wrong about it.”

Junhong looks up in surprise. “I just...”

“Who cares what’ll happen in the end? You never know. Anyway, we are still friends, right? The best of friends?”

“But...” Junhong shrinks away when Sohyun lifts her clenched fist.

She rolls her eyes. “Bro fist, you wimp.”

Junhong blinks before a small grin spreads on his face as he ‘bro fists’ the smaller girl.

“Oh, and by the way,” Sohyun smiles devilishly, “nothing’s ever wrong, especially if it’s just a feeling.”

Junhong’s cheeks redden. “Yah!”

It’s like maeil maeil everyday yeah~

Jang Kyumi groans, free hand randomly smacking the bedside table trying to locate her phone, and when she finally does, she hurls it across the room and pulls her blanket over her head, ignoring the sound made by the contact between phone and floor.

Teen Top abruptly shuts up, restoring all peace and harmony to the silent environment.

She sighs softly, satisfied, before sitting right up again and pushing herself out of bed.

That’s right; she almost forgets, when her alarm rings, Jang Kyumi is a dead student.

Somehow wondering why Jongup didn’t wake her up today, Kyumi assumes that the boy probably is sleeping over his own alarm again. She skids to a stop outside Jongup’s room before banging her fist on it.

“Jongup! Yah, Moon Jongup! We’re la―”

The door falls open on her third bang, and Kyumi freezes, her fist still raised in mid-air.

He’s not there.

Kyumi frowns before she runs down the stairs, jumping two at a time. “Moon Jongup?”

The house seems oddly quiet, and for no reason at all, Kyumi feels empty.

Empty inside.

She slowly drags herself to the toilet, pulling out her toothbrush moodily.

That is when she notices the bright pink Post-It on the mirror.

I'm going to go somewhere today. Don't worry about me. ― Jongup ^ ^

Despite the added emoticon at the end, a sinking feeling churns at the bottom of Kyumi’s stomach.

She can’t help but feel uneasy.

Somehow, the innocent emoticon seems to hold so many other meanings. Kyumi pulls the Post-It off the mirror and folds it into neat squares before stuffing it in her pocket.

___________________________________

a/n;