"Yah! What was the meaning of dragging me like this?" Mirae demanded as she tried to kick her feet, disrupting some old people that were sleeping. They gave Mirae a dirty look, making her shut her trap. She glared at Hongbin who just smiled, mockingly at her. Mirae crossed her arms as she turned her head to look out the window, not wanting to talk to Hongbin. She felt violated. Who did he think he was?

Hongbin kneeled a little over to see the expression on her face, and stifled what could have been a major laughing fit by slapping his hand against his mouth. Mirae's face was skewered into some strange fashion in an attempt to not yell, but it really looked quite comical. Hongbin peered at the window through which Mirae was staring out of, and pressed the button to let the bus driver to know of their stop. 

When the both of them had gotten off, Mirae's face was restore back to normal as she took a breath to scream, which Hongbin interrupted by pointing to the building on the opposite end in an attempt to distract Mirae. It had worked.

"Where are we?" she craned her neck to see the building, however, from its immense size, she was only able to pick up some words. She scanned the scenery in front of her, where a family was walking; a little girl was holding an inflatable killer whale doll. Mirae also saw a sign outside of the building that read about some new species of octopus that was open for an exhibition. She turned to a rather excited Hongbin. They were at the aquarium? Why?

Hongbin looked to meet Mirae's eyes, before smiling and grabbing her hand. "Lets go."

*     *     *

"Oh my gosh look at this fish, it has spikes and stuff!" Mirae exclaimed, gently touching the glass. The fish floated ever so slightly in the water, moving its spikes while little bubbles floated around. Hongbin took a look at the fish before rolling his eyes. "It's a lion fish, you dimwit." he said, trying not to make it sound like he was insulting, but Mirae couldn't care less, she stared at the beluga at the tank as it swam by, completely and utterly fascinated by what she saw. Hongbin was amused by her reaction, and observed her little quirks. Like the way her eyes would light up whenever she saw a bunch of seals playing, or watching the dolphins swim by, their voices echoing through the glass. Hongbin smiled to himself. The room was dark where they stood by a 30 foot tall aquarium tank, so Mirae couldn't have possibly caught him staring at her, besides, she was lost again in her own little world. That made Hongbin chuckle underneath his breath. He noticed Mirae wasn't as weird looking as she would perceive to be. Actually, she was quite gorgeous in her own unique way, with her enormous eyes glistening from the reflection of the water through the glass. Hongbin noticed that one of the traits he seemed to be mesmerized by her interesting way of observing things. He realized that Mirae seemed to always look at things through a simplistic point of view; not trying to make things seem harder than they actually were. He liked that about her. She showed beauty in simplicity. Hongbin wondered how he did not notice her this way before? Ken...he was the one who saw it first. He was the one who saw her as something, and he was the one who deserved her. This little thought made his heart plummet. He didn't know how long it would take to get over her. 

"Hongbin?" she turned to stare in his direction. Hongbin woke up from his thoughts, "Yeah?" he responded. 

"Why aren't you saying anything?" she asked. Hongbin gazed towards the aquarium. Smiling, he joined Mirae, pointing at a fish, "Oh my god, look! Its so fat!" he joked. To his surprise, Mirae laughed. Hongbin seemed to like the way she laughed; another thing he hadn't noticed before. "No way! It's just big-boned." she played along, "All fish are beautiful! Fat or skinny!". Hongbin and Mirae laughed in unison. 

Throughout the rest of the time, spending time around the aquarium, they were laughing and talking about useless and bland topics, but for some reason, it was a lot of fun for Mirae. This was a lot of fun she had in a long time. Since there was only a few people within the aquarium, and usually just old people, nobody seemed to bother the both of them at all. Mirae was having a grand time as she absorbed all the interesting sea animals around her. They had lunch, where Mirae couldn't eat properly because she was laughing too much.

The two of them walked towards the octopus aquarium, with their noses pressed up against the glass, making random commentary to the octopus. 

"Oh god, look, that octopus acts a lot like Leo hyung!" Mirae joked, pointing towards the loner octopus and the rest of the other sea creatures happily floating around it. The octopus looked miserable. Hongbin laughed, noticing a crazy jellyfish, "Oh, and look! That one looks like you!" 

Mirae turned to look at the jellyfish and smacked Hongbin's arm. "Yah! That doesn't look like me." she argued, but smiling. Hongbin nodded. "Yeah it does! Look! It has your long hair and, oh, no brain. No surprise there." he joked. Mirae smacked him again. "Don't you ever have anything nice to say?" she pouted. Hongbin looked at the Jellyfish, pursing his lips. "Well, the Jellyfish is sort of beautiful." he mumbled, "They are actually really graceful creatures." Mirae flushed a bit. "Y-yah, what are you saying." she shook her head turning towards the aquarium glass, her cheeks, fully flushing. She could hear her heart pounding against her eardrum once again, while her stomach started to clench into a tiny ball. She didn't know how to respond. Especially since he was the one who proposed to be just friends. How could he when he was complimenting her out of random? 

Hongbin took a step towards Mirae. She turned around, her head cocked, with a confused look on her face. Hongbin smiled, before taking his chance. He kneeled down and softly pressed his lips against hers. As he did so, he slowly kissed her, gently. Mirae couldn't think but instantly responded to the kiss. her palms on his chest as he gently placed his hands on her waist. Hongbin started to deepen the kiss, kissing her passionately. Mirae felt like something was missing. The guilt. It was somehow no longer there, and that scared Mirae. However, she couldn't think straight as she inhaled in his sweet scent, allowing him to go on. Hongbin kissed her, but suddenly out of the corner of his eye, he saw someone standing behind them. Who it was made Hongbin's heart squeeze from shock. He let go of Mirae, who looked a bit dazed. Mirae wondered why he had broken the kiss. She saw the look of horror on his face, while he stared over her shoulder. She whipped her head around to be met by a pair of eyes that were filled with deceit and betrayal. Ken. 

"K-Ken?" she stammered. Her brain felt like slime, and she couldn't see straight. Ken stood there, completely shocked and completely speechless at what he had seen. He felt like his heart had momentarily stopped as he tried to take in everything that was happening. Mirae. His Mirae was no longer with him? Ken allowed his gaze to set on Hongbin who looked miserable and completely distraught. Mirae thought she was about to cry from all of this happening so simultaneously. 

"Okay, um, well excuse me." Ken spoke softly, before turning on his heels to walk away, with his heart in a million shards. He still couldn't exactly process anything but he felt a recurring sting in his body.

Mirae exchanged looks with Hongbin, before running after Ken.

"Ken, wait!" she called after him. He probably did hear her, but Mirae didn't blame if he didn't want to talk to her. Suddenly, the guilt filled in with a nauseating kick into her abdomen. How could she be so stupid.

She called out for him, as she ran past people trying to get to Ken, who swiftly disappeared down the dark corridor. She kept running, trying o catch up to him, when she finally caught up to him as he walked further down the dark alleyway. She ran in front of him and stopped him. She was out of breath. "Ken..." she tried to look at his face, but to no avail. His head was pointed down towards the ground. It also didn't help that it was dark. "Ken?" she took a step toward him. 

"Mirae. please don't." his voice was weak, and bit shaky. Mirae's face was filled with concern as she tried to understand what Ken was feeling. Though it was quite obvious what he could be feeling, Mirae was frightened that he showed no emotion. It was not like him at all. 

"No, Ken. You need to listen to me." she gulped, her voice had become shaky as well. She took a deep breath. "I'm not going to deny what had happened back there but I-"

Ken interrupted her. "You what? Mirae, there is no explanation for what you've done. I don't know why you would do this but it really did hurt. A lot." he wasn't lying. The look on his face of agony and betrayal seemed to sting. Mirae winced. 

"I..." she was trying to find the right words to say. Ken stared at her, before sighing. "I knew this would happen one day. " he turned his head to face the aquarium, anything to distract him from her. Mirae knitted her eyebrows together. "What do you mean by that? What did you know would happen?" she tried hard for him to face her, but he just avoided her eye contact. 

"Nothing. It was clearly a mistake coming here. I'll talk to you later, Mirae. Right now, I don't want to hear anything." He patted her shoulder, not looking at her face. He walked around her, and disappeared into the dark hallway. Mirae watched him go, her heart stinging. She cursed at herself. The stinging left her heart and now was in her eyes. She tried not to cry, while she curled her fists clutching at her skirt. What had she done?

She felt a tap  on her shoulder. She turned around to see Hongbin, who looked concerned. He knew from her face, that she was trying hard not to cry; the look on her face was quite obvious. Without a word he embraced her, letting her tears drench a small spot on his shirt. The only noise that could have been made out was the occasional sniffle.

Mirae couldn't express the self-loathing she was feeling. Everything didn't seem like it was real. She didn't care about the consequences or the fact that they might not ever be together again. The fact that she had managed to hurt someone who was so good to her. Mirae couldn't help but think that she probably wouldn't have felt so much remorse if he had yelled at her. She deserved to be yelled at, called names, be mocked. Anything but the look of suffering that had shadowed his face. That mad eher feel ten times worse. She couldn't help but feel that this was all her fault. It was. Why wouldn't she just have been more honest? All Mirae could think about was Ken at that moment, how hurt he must have been at what she had done. Like a fool, she always messed up everything. Always.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled into Hongbin's chest, her voice a low whisper. Hongbin rested his head on the top of her's, patting her back to calm her down. 

"I'm sorry too."

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A/N: Ha! "Just friends" my !

Ugh, I've been suffering from so much writer's block lately, I don't know what to do T_T It just keeps coming back and it's such a curse.

Summers are so oring, I need to get out more and get some inspiration. Or maybe I can just go onto tumblr. 

Anyways, thanks for putting up with my annoying shennanigans, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!