Chapter 2;

Hyemi finds herself in the little garden beside her primary school playground, sighing sadly. She stares at the pink tulips before and wonders why all the other kids hate her so much. She’s not that different, but all the other kids tell her she’s weird because she likes to garden (“only old ladies do that, weirdo”). The only weird thing about her are her eyes which are dark brown, like everyone else’s, but they’ve got little dark green and golden flecks in them that Hyemi figures is from her mother. She wouldn’t exactly be able to confirm this since her mother had left a long time ago, on vacation, according to her dad. She sighs again, smoothing out her white dress. She’s not weird, it’s not weird to like to garden. But every time she says this, her classmates laugh at her and call her Garden Gnome (which isn’t even funny).

“Yah! Garden Gnome!” A shrill voice calls from behind her. Hyemi grimaces because she’d recognize that voice anywhere. It’s Byun Baekhyun, self-proclaimed hapkido prodigy even though he’s only ten years old.

“Don’t call me that.” She snaps, annoyed, but keeps her gaze locked on the patch of grass in front of her. Byun Baekhyun is in her class and she thought he was nice until she saw him laughing along with the rest of her class earlier. Nobody likes her and she doesn’t know why. She feels her eyes sting a little and she makes another face because she will not cry. She hates crying.

“Are you okay?” Baekhyun asks, worriedly, she frowns at the pair of feet currently planted right in front of her.

“I’m very okay.” She replies, refusing to look up.

There’s a long, long pause and she wonders why he isn’t saying anything, why he isn’t making fun of her or something, when suddenly his tiny feet are replaced by his slightly chubby face and wide eyes. He's sitting before her, blinking innocently and smiling sweetly, his sharp teeth showing. “Then you won’t care if I join you?” Baekhyun asks with a wide grin.

Hyemi purses her lips, “I do care. You’re mean. You call me Garden Gnome.”

Baekhyun tilts his head to the side, eyebrows furrowed and a tiny frown playing at his lips, “I didn’t want to be mean.” He says, slowly. Then his entire face lights up and Hyemi can’t help but smile a little. Baekhyun grins, his eyes turning into half crescents and speaks happily, stumbling a little over his words, “How about I be a garden gnome, too? Will that make you smile?”

Hyemi makes a face at him, wrinkling her tiny nose, “I’m not actually a garden gnome, Byun Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun looks at Hyemi with wide eyes full of disbelief, “Really? I’ve always wanted to be friends with a garden gnome,” Baekhyun sighs, exaggeratedly, “But I guess you’ll do, Hyemi.”

Hyemi blinks in confusion, “Friends…?”

Baekhyun nods, excitedly, “Yup. Best friends. Let’s be best friends.” He looks at her inquiringly, tilting his head, and she nods.

“Okay.” She says, softly, and he beams at her, smiling widely, and she thinks it’s the kind of smile that’ll stick with her forever.

But it’s like the smile on his face is stuck, steadfast, until it’s slowly melting. Everything around her is melting until she’s suddenly standing in a dark, cold room, barefoot.

Hyemi looks down and frowns at her white dress. It’s ripped and dirty, covered in dirt and mud, and then she realizes that she’s still a little girl. Hyemi can feel her heart hammering against her chest and knows that this is a Bad Place. Where is she? The only sound is the faint squeaking of a door swinging and when she looks around she realizes that she’s been here before. It’s Baekhyun’s house.

The house is empty and the wind whistles through the empty house eerily. Something tells her to go upstairs and although she doesn’t want to (because she knows she shouldn’t) her feet move on its own accord. The floorboards creak beneath her feet and when she reaches the bottom of the stairs, a cold chill runs up her spine. She shouldn’t go up there, she knows this, but she can’t stop her feet from moving. With each step, it’s getting harder and harder to breathe; with each step, everything behind her becomes an unending black hole. When she reaches the top of the stairs her chest feels heavy and the wind whips all around her, making her shiver. Her feet make their way down to Baekhyun’s bedroom and when she places a tiny hand against the doorknob, a shock runs through her body. No. She can’t go in there. She can’t, she can’t, she can’t. But it’s like she’s lost control of her own body and when she turns the doorknob, the door slams open with a loud bang.

There are no walls, nothing, just a huge tree growing where Baekhyun’s bed used to be. Wind whips at Hyemi’s hair and it takes a moment for Hyemi to comprehend that there’s someone strapped to the tree. Hyemi blinks, going dry and her heart twisting, when she realizes that she’s the one strapped to the tree. No, not strapped to the tree, growing out of the tree. It’s like the tree is growing out of nineteen year old Hyemi’s body, branches twisting through her hair and disappearing into her skin, roots sprouting out her very pores. Hyemi, nine year old Hyemi, screams when eighteen year old Hyemi opens her eyes, eyes that are a bottomless, pitch black, and snaps her neck to the side until she’s watching nine year old Hyemi.

Nineteen year old Hyemi opens and speaks, without ever moving her lips, “Come back.” The voice is grating and so, so cold and makes Hyemi’s heart twist in the oddest way. And then Hyemi feels something tighten around her neck, her wrists, her waist, and she screams because the branches are engulfing her, winding around her body slowly taking her vision with it. She’s losing air, she can’t breathe, and she can’t even fight back.

Hyemi. Hyemi-ah. Hyemi-ah…

She sees a glimpse of chocolate brown eyes before everything goes black.

~.~.~.~.~

Hyemi sits up in bed, gasping for air, and throws off her blanket because she’s sweating. She’s in her own room, she’s okay, she’s okay, she’s okay, she chants to herself, squeezing her eyes shut.

Light fingers brush through her hair and she hears a faint murmur, “Shhh, Hyemi. It was just a nightmare. You’re okay.” Hyemi gives into Minah’s touch, taking several minutes to calm herself down.

Hyemi opens her eyes after she’s positive her heart rate is back to normal, “Minah, you didn’t—”

“Shut up.” Minah cuts Hyemi off with an eye roll, “You were screaming your head off and I was meaning to wake you up for you Calculus Final anyway.”

Hyemi thinks her voice sounds entirely too shaky, “Oh right. I almost forgot.”

Minah nods, but there’s something odd flashing through her eyes, “Is this because of him?” Minah asks, softly.

Hyemi doesn’t know what to say. The first half of her dream had been an actual memory but the rest of it. She doesn’t know what the rest of it meant. Hyemi frowns a little at Minah’s worried expression, but figures Minah deserves to know. Hyemi had already told Minah everything about Baekhyun because Hyemi figures her new best friend ought to know about her old one.

Minah just sighs, patting Hyemi’s cheek lightly, “Maybe you’ll never see him again, Hye. Maybe you can just pretend your encounter with him was nothing but a dream.” Hyemi can sense that Minah’s words aren’t just hypothetical scenarios, they’re pieces of advice; Hyemi should forget Baekhyun, like she had meant to so many years ago.

Hyemi stares at the ceiling, tiredly, “Maybe.” Hyemi replies, hating the wave of disappointment that washes through her.

~.~.~.~.~

Hyemi finds herself in the university courtyard she deems the ‘Best Courtyard in Town’ because the flowers here are so much prettier than the ones in the other courtyards. She’s lying on her stomach eyeing the dahlias before her and sighs. Baekhyun goes to her university, she’s sure of it. At first she had tried to convince herself that the encounter last night had just been a dream (a nightmare) but it wasn’t. She couldn’t lie to herself any longer, not when she caught sight of Luhan and Sehun in the cafeteria barely an hour ago. They had made eye contact with her and Luhan had waved while Sehun grimaced.

That’s when Hyemi decided she wasn’t very hungry and had run off. If Luhan and Sehun were real then Baekhyun was most definitely very real. It scares her. It scares her so much. Hyemi groans, resting her chin on top of her hands. She needs to stop thinking about him. She just can’t believe her years of hard work had somehow been completely undone in a matter of minutes.

Hyemi yelps when her cell phone buzzes against her hip and she digs through her pocket until she finds it. She slides it opens and puts it to her ear, “Hello?”

“Hyemi!” Minah’s voice calls, the sounds of machines clanking in the background.

Hyemi smiles a little, “Hey, what’s up?”

“Come by the bubble tea shop. Rin wants to see you. Like right now.” Minah says, sounding slightly exasperated.

“What if I don’t want to see her?” Hyemi replies.

“Yah! Don’t be rude to your seniors!” A voice shouts, sounding faint.

Hyemi just laughs, “Fine, I’ll be there. And get back to work.”

“Wait, hold on. First, I’m on break. Second, I need you to explain something really quick.” Minah says, hurriedly.

Hyemi rolls her eyes and she stands up, brushing the grass off her jeans, and picks up her backpack. “Can’t I do it when I get there? I’ll be there in like five minutes.”

“More like fifteen minutes. You walk slowly.” Minah mutters. Hyemi makes a noise of protest as she makes her way to the exit and Minah seems to take it as a cue to continue, “It’s a Psychology question, okay, so, we’re having a test on the brain and memory. Do you remember why the brain represses…?”

Hyemi doesn’t ever remember what the rest of Minah’s question is because when she’s barely a meter away from the exit, it opens, revealing Byun Baekhyun. Hyemi thinks she must look like a blinking mess, but she can’t look away from him. Oh God.

Baekhyun smiles, softly, “I thought you might be here.”

“Hye, are you paying attention?” Minah asks through the phone, exasperated.

Minah’s voice seems to snap Hyemi out of her daze, “Minah.” Hyemi says, quietly, her voice sounding slightly strangled to her own ears as she stares at Baekhyun, who has the audacity to look amused. Anger bubbles in her chest but it’s overcome by shock and sadness and resentment.

There’s a moment of pause before Minah replies, in a low voice, “Is he there?” Hyemi makes a tiny noise and there’s a slamming noise coming from Minah’s end. “Punch him, Hyemi. He definitely deserves a knee to the but I’m going to do that later, so punch that stupid right in his stupid face. Tell him he’s stupid!” With each word, Minah’s voice gets louder and louder until she’s shouting and Hyemi has to move the phone a few centimeters from her face. Hyemi’s a little touched that Minah cares so much.

Baekhyun just looks entirely confused and a little guilty. “Min, I think I need to go. See you in ten.” Hyemi mutters into her phone before ending the call.

“She sounds…protective.” Baekhyun says, eventually, rubbing the back of his neck (which means he's nervous. Good, he better be).

Hyemi nods and crosses her arms, “Isn’t that how best friends are supposed to act?” He flinches like she’s just slapped him and she feels a sick sense of satisfaction rush through her.

His eyes glint with an emotion she can’t quite read. She may know his habits, whether she wants to or not, but she can barely read those chocolate brown eyes anymore. His eyes have changed so much, they’ve become so much more guarded and it makes her wonder why. “We need to talk.” He says, a little forcefully.

“We don’t need to do anything.” Hyemi bites back. She tries to step around him but he blocks her path. “Leave me alone. I don’t want to talk to you.”

He sighs and his voice is soft and a little pained. It makes her heart twist; it makes her want to hug him. . “I’ve missed you so much, Mi Mi.”

The use of her old nickname makes her flinch and she can clearly see the guilt glinting in his eyes, his entire expression. “Then maybe you shouldn’t have left in the first place.” She snaps, trying to shove past him.

He just grips her forearms, gently, and she can’t stop shaking. “I can’t. You have to understand. I didn’t. Please, Hyemi-ah, please.” He whispers and she hates the way his thumbs are rubbing tiny circle into the bare skin of her forearms, she hates the way his touch is making her feel. She hates being so confused.

He keeps murmuring please and she can’t stop trembling. It gets worse when he pulls her into his arms and tucks her head under his chin, whispering please Hyemi please over and over and over and over again. She actually lets him hold her for a good ten seconds before she shoves him away, steeling herself, forcing away her tears, her feelings, everything.

“You have five minutes.” Hyemi says, quietly, and is surprised to hear how steady her voice is. Baekhyun nods and gestures towards the spot she had been sitting in barely five minutes ago.

“I’m sorry.” Baekhyun replies, and his tone is so, so heavy that she’s unsure whether he’s apologizing for the past, what he’s about to say, or both. She feels like his tone is carrying the weight of the world and for a moment she wonders whether or not she wants him to unload that weight on her.

Byun Baekhyun’s eyes are hard as he looks at her and suddenly Song Hyemi is scared.

a/n: so this is what i did instead of studying for finals next week oops

anyways i gotta get to work so thank you to eveyrone who commented and subscribed and upvoted so far! I love thoughts please tell me more of your thoughts!!

also MIRACLES IN DECEMBER IS SO GOOD WOWOW I LOVE IT I CANT STOP LISTENING TO IT

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