“What are you doing here?”

I glanced at him and then continued to take down the drums. “Carrying out my punishment,” I said in an obvious tone.

HongGi walked over and I could feel his stare on me. I pretended not to notice. “Yaa, I didn't tell you to come today.”

“I don't need you to tell me what to do,” I replied, still taking down more of the percussion instruments. Sensing that HongGi was getting angry by my words, I faced him and added, “I figured that the sooner I get my punishment done, the sooner I would be able to play my guitar again. And since you don't even care if I participate in the music festival or not, I'm just gonna try my best to finish here and get practicing for my performance.”

“Tch,” was all he could respond to me so I resumed taking the instruments down one by one to rearrange them on the shelf at the end of the room. HongGi's footsteps were just behind me as I placed a drum on the shelf.

“Do you wanna help or just watch me do everything?” I asked, sighing loudly with my hands on my hips.

“Gwaenchanha, I'm sure you can do it by yourself,” he smirked. “Just a few more shelves and you'll be done!”

He was right. All I had to rearrange were the wind, percussion and string instruments. Maybe I could get them done by tomorrow. Maybe then I could continue my search for the cute bloody guy.“Yaa, where are you going?” I asked when I saw HongGi walking out the door.

“I'm getting something to eat,” he glanced over his shoulder to look at me then added, “Do you want anything?”

Was he being nice? “Ani.”

“Not even bananas?”

I stomped my way to him as he grinned expectantly at me. When I reached the door, I slammed it in his stupid pretty face. Served him right! Was it necessary for him to remind me about the bananas incident? As if I didn't have more important things to worry about! Why did he keep teasing me about it??!

*****

I sat there waiting and waiting for hours. But he didn't show up. It was really a waste of my time hoping that MinHwan would be coming to the Sugar Bowl on the night that we have spent so much time together. I sipped on my ice lemon tea and was about to leave when the welcome bell chimed and JongHoon sunbae came in with Min-unnie. I laid low as I watched them walk to the back of the cafe.

This was the first time I saw them together. But neither of them had a good expression on, they were serious and quiet when they sat down. I had to bring my legs up the chair to keep my eyes on them, though I wasn't sure why I was so curious.

They didn't even order anything, they just sat there speaking in low voices but their hand gestures suggested an argument. But then sunbae reached across the table and put his hand on hers. So they didn't break up, they were still trying to work things out. A frown pulled on my lips as I thought about it. If they haven't broken up, why was sunbae so nice to me? Was he just messing around with me? I sat straight as I thought about it again. Did sunbae treat me nicely because he wanted Min-unnie to feel jealous? Did he use me to be on good terms with Min-unnie again?

Slowly, I got up from my seat and got out of the cafe. For a while, I stood in front of the cafe trying to organize my thoughts. But try as I might to reason with myself to find another excuse for sunbae to be so nice to me ended up with one thing only. Why did he have to be so nice to me and make me –

“HyoJin-ah …”

I turned in the direction of the voice and saw my bestfriend standing not far from me. “Mi-Minari …”

“HyoJin-ah!” he ran to me and held my shoulders tightly. “Why are you crying??”

“MinHwan-ah …” I blinked my eyes multiple times, not believing that MinHwan was right in front of me, worrying about me, holding me by the shoulders. “MinHwan-ah … MinHwan-ah … MinHwan-ah!!!”

I jumped him and wrapped my arms around his neck. Tears escaping my eyes freely, I chuckled as MinHwan continued to ask if I was okay. I was happy that I could finally hold him in my arms and cry on his shoulder. But slowly my chuckles turned into sobs. I cried harder and harder but it was just to let it all out. Just to let it all out. I just had my heart broken but I already felt better. I felt relieved that I was crying on my bestfriend's shoulder and not in his arms.

*****

“Sorry I was late,” MinHwan said as he put a hand on my cheek. Then he took something out of his pocket with his other hand. It was a blue rose. “Mianhae, HyoJin-ah.”

I took it willingly, a smile breaking across my face. Then he lowered his hand and held both my hands tightly in his. His hands were warm and I never noticed how large they were compared to mine. He had long fingers too. I never knew MinHwan had grown so much in these past few years. He even had a girlfriend. He was no longer the cute monkey I knew who would climb trees just to apologize. He wasn't my bestfriend anymore. He was someone's boyfriend. It felt weird to think of him that way.

“Mianhae,” he said softly, gazing into my eyes sincerely. “Please forgive me.”

“Ani,” I shook my head and that made his face drop. “I should be the one apologizing.” I smiled weakly and he sighed, relieved. “Mianhae, MinHwan-ah. It was stupid of me to keep things from you. I'll tell you everything from now on.”

He chuckled and nodded. “I forgive you, but do you forgive me?”

“Ne,” I nodded once, smiling widely. “So no more secrets and lies, arasseo?”

“Arasseo~” he smiled from ear to ear and pinched my cheeks. “Just know that even though I have a girlfriend, you're still my bestfriend!”

It still hurt a bit to hear him say that. It almost meant something along the lines of, you're not so important anymore because I have a girlfriend to take care of. But I didn't take too much to heart because nothing was more important to me now than being able to laugh with MinHwan again.

“Oh, before I forget, I think I know who the bloody guy is!”

“Mwo???” MinHwan's eyes grew big, excited to hear what I had to say.

“But not really,” I chuckled as his forehead creased. “I met him the other day, but I didn't get his name! Ah, I know it was dumb of me!”

He groaned after I finished talking. “Are you sure it's him?”

“Ne.”

“But how can you be sure if you don't even know how he looks like? You only know that he had red hair, right?”

“Ne,” I replied still smiling. Then MinHwan raised his eyebrows at me, urging me to continue. “I'm damn sure this time because he gave me my own handkerchief for me to wipe my tears away!”

“Your own handkerchief? You mean the blue one that you gave him when you first bumped into him??!” I nodded excitedly as it slowly dawned on him that I may have finally found the bloody guy. “But why were you crying when you met him??”

“Oh,” I burst into a laugh and tried to say it as lightly as I could, “I threw a rock at him.”

“You threw a rock at him but you were the one crying??? That doesn't make any sense! But it would be weird if the guy cried too …” MinHwan reasoned, scratching his chin.

I chuckled and explained everything to him, about how I accidentally threw it in the guy's direction because I was frustrated and how I cried because he forgave me so easily that I wished it was MinHwan instead of him.

“Awwww~ you really missed me that much?” MinHwan cooed when I finished explaining. Then he crushed me in a bear hug and I just chuckled as I felt the warmth of the hug.

I had a good feeling that things were going to turn out okay from now on. We'd find the bloody guy and maybe I'd get over my crush and find myself a great boyfriend. And of course, I'd get back my guitar on Monday and get to deliver a great performance at the upcoming music fest.

But that was just my wishful thinking. As if everything would go accordingly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello! sorry no poster yet. maybe in the coming chapters!

i need to get this one thing over with before revealing the bloody guy. please anticipate it~^^

comments are loved~ subscribers are appreciated~ <3