That night I could barely get a wink of sleep. I had butterflies floating around in my stomach from the moment I left the auditorium until I reached the dorm room. Whenever I thought my heart had calmed down, the butterflies inside me would all of a sudden emerge again as the thought of Daehyun flashed through my mind. I touched my lips cautiously and a smile crept along my face. My mind wandered to our scene in the auditorium. I pounded my innocent pillow with my fists in frustration. My face started to heat up at the thought and remembering the whole incident.

Dear Minhyuk oppa,

I think I’m going crazy. My head is spinning, my heart is racing. My stomach feels fluttery whenever I start thinking again. He is definitely doing this on purpose.

The next morning

I thought I must have fallen asleep pretty late. All night I would fall asleep for about thirty minutes, only to wake up soon after. It went on like that all throughout the night, making my morning completely restless. I rolled my body toward my bedside drawer, seeing my journal on top rather than inside like it should have been. Sunhee came out of the bathroom rubbing her long, wet hair with a towel.

“Oh, you’re finally awake.” She commented. I looked at her with my sleepy eyes then glanced at the clock. It read 8:35 a.m. That was the latest I have ever woken up in my twenty years of existing on this earth. Although some may argue that it’s still early. I never understood how some people could sleep until two in the afternoon. I let out a tired groan as I sat up in the bed and scratched my head, creating a “sightly” new hairstyle. I took the book that lay on the drawer and held it up to Sunhee.

“Did I leave this here?” I asked. Sunhee threw her towel on the rack to dry and nodded.

“Yeah. It was sitting there this morning when I woke up. So I assumed you left it there last night." I bobbed my head in a nod then put the journal back in its rightful place inside the drawer. I picked myself up out of bed and shuffled to the bathroom, grabbing my towel on the way to take a shower and freshen up for the day.

I stepped out of the bathroom wrapping my hair up in the towel. I moved into the main room to peek at my phone. The time read ten minutes to 9. Right on cue, my stomach growled, making Sunhee laugh, sitting quietly on her bed with a book.

“Tch, since when did you read?” I .

“Since forever yo!” She retorted. I shook my head as a smirk played along my lips.

“Yeah, manga. But that,” I paused pointing at the book in her hands, “is a real book with absolutely no pictures.” I mused. Sunhee raised the book in her hands in the air, preparing to throw it at me. I ducked in case she actually did throw it and hurriedly retreated to the closet for an outfit.

“Yeah you better run Lee Hyunji!” She yelled after me. I giggled at our tiny quarrel as I walked out of the closet, jeans already slipped on. I walked over to my dresser to pull out a casual shirt to wear: my comfortable blue v-neck.

“Where should we grab breakfast today?” I asked Sunhee with her eyes glued to book. Her face peered behind the text, her eyes looking at me.

“Let’s go to the café. Then you can tell me about last night, too.” It took me a second to comprehend what she was talking about. Then I remembered she was referring to my meeting with Daehyun. I felt my face start to heat up at the memory. I had forgotten all about it this morning and barely recalled it when Sunhee mentioned it.

“Hey, hey. Lee Hyunji. Why is your face turning red, hm?” Sunhee wiggled her eyebrows at me, accusing me of something scandalous. I rolled my eyes and groaned in annoyance at her.

“Let’s just eat.” I started heading out the door leaving Sunhee behind. Sunhee laughed loudly in the distance at my apparently amusing reaction.

At the café, there was a surprisingly large amount of people. Well, it wasn’t completely packed since there were still a number of tables vacant. However, the to-go and pick up line were crowded, traffic near the entrance piling up. Sunhee and I managed to squeeze our way through the crowd without angering anyone with our haste. We sat at a  table nearby a window viewing the busying streets. While waiting for our orders we made small talk.

“So about yesterday,” Sunhee eased in. I put my glass of orange juice down and gave her a small glare. She giggled at my response and nudged me across the table. “Tell me...” she whined. I let out a small sigh at her constant interest between Daehyun and me.

“Why do you care so much anyways?” I said defensively. To my mistake, that only made her want to know even more, causing her to pry.

“Why are you so defensive?” She wiggled her eyebrows at me again, making me want to sock her in the face. I was feeling a little grumpy obviously. I turned my head in another direction, averting my eyes to anywhere except Sunhee herself.

“We kissed.” I mumbled almost inaudibly. Not a sound was heard from Sunhee, so I cautiously turned my head to face her again. When I saw her face, her lips were pressed hard against each other, and I knew she was desperately trying to hold in a laugh. I looked at her wide-eyed, because of displeasing appearance. I scowled at her and returned to my food which was starting to get cooler. Finally Sunhee released her long awaited laughter, but very quietly so that the whole café wouldn’t hear her. She started pounding her hands on the table, grabbing attention from the table next to us. “Yah, shut up. Those people are staring.” I warned her giving her a small kick. Sunhee brought her hand up to to stop herself, but I could see her eyes start to disappear again as she replaced her action of laughing with squealing.

After a few minutes, she finally calmed down. Sunhee was one of those people who laughed at something for the longest time. Even when she forgets what was funny in the first place, she’d laugh at the thought and memory itself. A very bubbly and giggly girl she was.

“Have you calmed down yet? You weirdo.” I mumbled the last part. Sunhee stayed quiet and smiled at me suspiciously.

“Okay, seriously now. Tell me what happened. All the way from the beginning.” Sunhee said when she caught her breathe. She started massaging her cheeks which were red from all her laughing. I raised an eyebrow at my friend, wondering if she really did gain her mentality again. Sunhee sensed my uneasiness and waved her hand for me to start.

I told her everything she wanted to hear. I answered all her questions. From what Daehyun said, to how I reacted, and how we even got to a kiss. Sunhee nodded her head when I finished. This time, she furrowed her eyebrows at me giving off a different aura than before. She was much more flustered than excited or bubbly.

“Daehyun,” she paused as if looking for the right words to say, “seriously is a weird guy.” She finished. It was anti-climatic I know. I thought she’d think of something worse (?) to say, especially since I told her about him planning the whole scheme of making me suffer slightly to get me to reveal my feelings for him. I looked at Sunhee quizzically, waiting for her to say something else. “You guys are perfect for each other.” She finished. I looked at my friend; mouth slightly ajar at her words.

“Come again?” I asked trying to understand her. Sunhee sighed at my obliviousness.

“Both of you are mysterious people.” I looked around the café still not understanding her. I hinted to Sunhee to elaborate due to my confusion. “I just don’t understand you two! I mean, who comes up with these…these schemes to figure out each other’s feelings?” She exclaimed at me. I thought about her argument for a moment, pondering. Then I laughed, understanding how ridiculous everything Daehyun and I did was. Sunhee laughed along with me not because she was making fun of me, but because she got her point across to me. And the fact that I understood made her happy, or more so relieved.

“Welcome back Hyunji. Don’t do anything like that again or I will seriously slap you. You and Daehyun are exhausting, I swear.”  

When we arrived back at the dorm, I saw my cell phone on the dresser flashing. I pouted at the item then searched my pockets. I indeed left my phone there since this morning. I walked over to check what it was and found that I had two missed calls. Both from the same person. Sunhee walked in behind me and closed the dorm door.

“Hey did you get a message from Daehyun?” Sunhee asked. I shrugged my shoulders and unlocked my phone to check if Daehyun left any message. There was no text but only a voicemail. I listened to it attentively. When it finished, I frowned a bit at how vague it was.

“Yeah, he only said he needed to talk and to bring you along.” I faced Sunhee. Sunhee imitated my puzzled expression and stared back at her phone.

“Youngjae just texted me saying almost the exact same thing.” She said. We looked at each for a bit wondering what to do. We laughed together at our pointless pause because we both knew we should just go. I called Daehyun back- he picked up at the first ring.

“Hyunji!” He yelled. I pulled the phone away from my ear at the sudden scream.

“Daehyun!” I yelled back. Daehyun laughed on the other side of the line.

“Hurry and come!”

“Maybe if you told me where to go I would!”

“Come downstairs!”

“Okay! Why are we yelling?” I finally asked with a small giggle. Daehyun giggled as well at our little game.

“I don’t know. But hurry up!” He started again. I scoffed into the phone and told Daehyun that Sunhee and I would be down soon.

“I’ll move extremely slowly just for you Daehyun-ah.” I teased before hanging up on him. Sunhee raised an eyebrow after listening to the conversation with a grin plastered on her face. “Oh don’t even start Choi Sunhee.” I walked by her and shoved her shoulder before exiting the door. Sunhee laughed and followed closing the door behind her.