-November-

--Chatroom 929--

: Did you hear? Kim Hana's going out with Choi Siwon.

: Please. Everyone knows that. My mother knows that. But I kinda thought she had a crush on Xi Luhan.

: Why did you think that?

: I don't know. She's always like, staring at him.

: So is half the female population of Orchard Hill. And some of the male.

: Whatever. There's just this vibe whenever they're in a room together.

: Okay whatever you say. But Hana and Luhan? That would never happen.

: Why not? I think they'd be kind of cute together.

: Firstly, he is a Crestie and she is a Norm. It's just not done. And secondly...

: ??

: Secondly, Seul Mi will scratch her eyes out.

: Why? You think Seul Mi likes Luhan?

: Is it not obvious? She's just waiting for him to wake up and smell the soulmate.

: Whoa. So why doesn't Luhan ask her out?

: Because. He is a guy.

: Which means?

: Which means he is, by definition, oblivious.

Hana:

It's the second week of November and the first day of basketball practice. By Friday, Coach would have to cut the thirty one hopeful players down to a final roster of fifteen.

I casually checked my competition and saw a lot of familiar faces - girls I had played with on freshman year. I think I had a pretty good shot of making the team.

"Yah, Kim Hana! Come shoot with us," Sooyoung shouted, waving me over. Sooyoung was a Norm senior who I'd always thought was the coolest girl on the team. She was one of those girls who wore sweats practically everyday but looked good anyway. 

Plus, she had a smile for everyone all the time.

I jogged over to join her and her friends, slapping a few hands and feeling lighthearted, ready for a workout. 

Just then, Seul Mi walked into the gym. My gut twisted with nerves, which just annoyed me. I'm not going to let her make me nervous. She had no power over me. If anything, I should be pissed off at her.

Coach gave one bleat on her whistle and shouted at us to grab some water before we got started. I'd just dropped down on the bottom bleacher and fishing my bag for  my water bottle when the toes of Seul Mi's sneakers suddenly lined up with mine. My stomach hollowed out.

"Hey," She said. Her foot twisted so that the side was to the floor for a second, then righted itself.

She helf a ball loosely between her crossed wrists and her stomach. 

Her dark hair was back in a sloppy pony tail, long bangs half hiding her eyes. How she played ball with her hair in her face all the time, I had no idea.

"What do you want?" I asked, standing.

We were exactly the same height, always had been.

"Whoa." She held her hands up and backed up a step. "What's with the angst?"

I rolled my eyes and laughed dryly, and slammed her shoulder with mine as I walked by.

"What's your problem?" She asked. I whirled around. "What do you want, Seul Mi?"

She blinked a few times and appeared surprised. Had she woken up with amnesia this morning? Did she have zero memory of the past two months?

"I just thought since we were gonna be on the same team together it might be time to call a truce, that's all."

"A truce." I repeated acerbically.

"Yeah, I mean --"

I took a few steps towards her. "Okay, you want a truce? How about you start by apologizing for the lawn jockey?"

"What?"

"I know it was you."

"Alright fine. I'm sorry. The lawn jockey thing was stupid," She said.

I paused. At least we were getting somewhere. She dribbled the ball over and held it out to me on her palm. "We cool?"

She had to be joking. Like one apology was going to make up for everything. For freezing me out, for insulting me over and over, for ostracizing me for something over which I had zero control. I took a deep breath and held it.

"No," I said. "I wanna know why. Why have you been so awful to me since I've been back?"

She laughed contemptuously and shook her head, dribbling the ball left to right.

"I'm serious." I stole the ball with a resounding slap and held it against my chest. "What the hell did I do to you?"

She looked at me, pushed her bangs out of her eyes, and clicked her teeth together twice before she answered.

"I know what you and Baekhyun did the night you  moved away. I was there."

The edges of the room blurred, and the laughter and shouts seemed to echo between my ears.

"What..?"

She crossed her arms over her chest and cocked one knee, looking off towards the scoreboard. "My parents were arguing as usual and I heard my mom say something about how you guys were leaving that night. I tried to call you, but it went to voice mail, so I snuck out and rode my bike to your house. I couldn't let you leave without saying goodbye."

She stared at me, an accusation in her eyes. My heart thumped with guilt. I'd really hurt her by not calling.

"I opened the front foor - your parents were fighting too, so they didn't hear me - and when I got to your room....there you two were, writhing on top of each other on your bed."

Her lips screwed up in disgust as she looked me up and down. I felt nauseous as the memory of that night swirled through me. I'd been avoiding thinking about it since I'd been back, but now here it was, in vivid High Definition.

Baekhyun's breath on my face, his hand on my cheek, the scent of rain on his clothes. 

He's ask me to go out with him just a month before, and I'd said no. I'd said I thought of him as a friend. Two weeks later he and Krystal got together and were all lovey dovey and inseparable.

Krystal had been in love with him forever - had always thought they were destined to be together - so everyone was happy for them, but I had felt a little....jealous. I mean, one minute he was saying he liked me, then next second he was all in love with her.

But even so, I never would have done anything about it.

Even then I knew my feelings were stupid - I was just wanting what I couldn't have. But then, everything fell apart.

"How could you do that to Krystal?" Seul Mi asked. "How do you even live with yourself after you stab someone in the back like that?"

"Seul Mi, I know how it looked, but honestly, it was just a kiss--"

"A very long, very horizontal kiss." She said, snatching the ball back again.

"I know. But it was the worst night of my life. I didn't know what was going on. My parents were screaming at each other, and my dad yelling at me to pack and I didn't  even know where we were going and why. All I knew was that he screwed up big time and he'd lost our house and everyone was mad at us and we were never coming back.

And Baekhyun took the shortcut over and climbed up to my room, he was all upset saying all this stuff about how he was going to miss me and he wished I'd said yes when he'd asked me out and all this crap and we just....kissed."

Seul Mi stared at me. She was trying to decide whether or not to believe it.

"I'm telling the truth, Seul Mi." I said. "I would never do anything to hurt any of you. You know that. I was just...I wasn't me."

She opened to say something, but the whistle blew.

I felt like the real world with all its lights and sounds and colors was suddenly flooding in on me. It made me temporarily dizzy, and I had to shut my eyes. As the players lined up for drills, Seul Mi and I didn't move. We stood in the middle of the court, facing off.

"Why haven't you told her?" I asked. "Why did you keep it a secret?"

"Coz it would kill her," Seul Mi answered. "I have a little thing called a conscience. That's why I didn't mail your invitation to her sweet sixteen with all the others. I didn't want you and Baekhyun hooking up in the coat room or something on the biggest night of her life."

So that explained it. The sweet sixteen confusion. Seul Mi had taken matters into her own hands.

"We would never have done that." I said, my voice a croak.

"So you say." She looked down, bounced the ball once then caught it. "Anyway I figured keeping your secret made us even."

"For what?"

"You kept my secret and I've kept yours." She said.

Right. Her secret. I was the only person in the world who knew what really happened the night her brother, Seul Jun, ran away. I knew her father came home drunk and went nuts when he found out Seul Jun had crashed his mom's car. I knew that whatever threats he was making had scared Seul Mi enough to run to my house and call the police. Her dad was arrested and thrown in jail for the night to sober up, and her brother was gone by the time their dad got home.

But Seul Mi's father got mean. He started drinking more  and said if he ever found out who called the police on him that night, he'd kill them.

I could see Seul Mi trembling with fear that night in my dad's home office. She made me swear not to tell anyone. She blamed herself for her dad's humiliation and brother's leaving. 

"Do you....did Seul Jun ever...?"

"Come home?" She said. "No. He emails me once in a while, but that's it. He made me promise not to tell my parents."

So that's two secrets I know now.

"Where is he?"

"Apgujung." She eyed me up and down. "If you tell your mother this, I'll hunt you down and kill you."

"I know. I know how to keep a secret. I think that means I'm not the worst person in the world."

Seul Mi exhaled through her nose, then cracked a small smile. "Maybe not the worst."

So that was our truce. We knew something about the other we didn't want anyone else to know.

Wasn't much. But I would take it.

A/N:

OBVIOUS MUCH, OH SEHUN.

 

SWEAR I'VE SEEN YOU BEFORE, I THINK I REMEMBER THOSE EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES

 

Well daz great. Baek's hand is prettier than mine. 

...

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