Sunggyu was lying down on his double-decker bed at his dorm, thinking about that day at the zoo. Suddenly, his friend, Woohyun, sat down beside him and pestered him.

“Yah hyung, what in the world are you thinking about?” Woohyun said as he slapped Sunggyu’s shoulders, making him shot up from the bed.

He rolled his eyes at Woohyun. He became silent for a minute before telling him, “Nothing much.”

Woohyun could tell that something was bothering him, so he asked him, “Any problem with your life?”

Sunggyu blinked his eyes at him before telling him, “What made you think about that?” After seeing Woohyun’s understanding nodding, he sighed as he asked quietly, “How would you feel if you’re in love?”

Woohyun tilted his head sideways, no sure whether his hyung was being drunk all of a sudden, or he was being serious about it. He paused for a moment before telling him, “Well, usually you will think about her all the time. And every time you think about her, you will smile for no apparent reason.” He paused then said, “But then, if you try to deny your feelings about her, actually you’re in love with her.”

Sunggyu stared at him after he said those words. “How would you know that?”

Woohyun smirked as he slung his arms over Sunggyu’s shoulders. “Experience, dude. I did go through it before, I think.” He said as he mumbled the last few words, which earned him small punches from Sunggyu.

Ah, Woohyun… always with his greasiness.

It’s been a week since the zoo incident happened. And Sunggyu and Eunji never spoke to each other unless it’s necessary. It was boring for him as she never ever talked to him. It’s getting uncomfortable for Sunggyu. He thought… maybe they would finally be on good terms. But it seems like they weren’t.

Why won’t she forgive him? He does feel genuinely guilty for what he did.

The one hour past by fast and Eunji quickly got up from her seat, packing her stuff to go home. Sunggyu decided to follow suit. Eunji quickly walked out of the class, but Sunggyu quickly caught up with her. Eunji plainly ignored him.

Eunji then stopped and looked up as they walked out of the building. It was raining. Eunji mentally slapped herself for not bringing any umbrella or raincoats. That means she must walk to the bus stop without any cover. She would be getting wet. Without any hesitation, she quickly paced her steps to the bus stop, running through the rain.

Suddenly, she didn’t feel any raindrops dropping onto herself. She looked beside her to see Sunggyu, holding an umbrella for both of them.

“You’re going to catch a cold if you don’t want to cover yourself from the rain,” Sunggyu said to her, making her baffled. He was acting weirdly, not his usual self.

“I will be fine,” she muttered. As if on cue, she sneezed. She covered her nose and blushed. Sure, nature wasn’t taking her side today. Sunggyu chuckled; he knew she probably needs it. Sunggyu walked with Eunji to the bus stop. They weren’t talking. Awkward silence was surrounding them.

As Sunggyu wanted to say something, her bus came slowly to the bus stop. She quickly thanked him and then jumped on the bus, leaving him speechless at the bus stop.

Sunggyu let out a frustrated sigh after the bus left his sight. His plans weren’t going well today.

A week after,

Eunji just had arrived at the bus stop. Apparently, her class was canceled today but she totally forgot about it. She even had arrived at the community center but she then realized that there wasn’t any class today. Feeling frustrated, she headed to the bus stop to get back home.

Being all alone at the bus stop, she decided to read an unfinished novel that she luckily had brought. While reading, she suddenly heard footsteps nearing her. She decided to not look, fearing anyone bad would harm her. All of a sudden, she heard the voices coming very near her. She could smell alcohol reeking through the air. She didn’t like what was going on.

“Hey, it’s a pretty girl, all alone at the bus stop…” a badly drunk guy was talking rather weirdly. He nudged his friend, who was as equally drunk as himself, to look at the said girl. “It’s a pitiful sight, hey?”

She heard him saying those, and Eunji couldn’t help but to squirm on her seat. It was getting more and more uncomfortable for her. She avoided making eye contacts with them, fearing that anything bad would happen to her as she was the only sane human there, at the current time.

She gulped when she saw the two tall figures approaching her with sleazy laughter filling the air. “Hello there pretty girl, why are you here, all alone?” the other guy asked her. She could literally smell the reeking alcohol when he spoke. Chills were running down her spine.

Without any hesitation, she got up from her seat and decided to walk away from the bus stop. But her intention was halted when one of the drunken guys gripped one of her wrists. She heard them laughing. She whipped around as she tried to pull herself away, for her very own safety.

“Let me go!” she shouted, even though her voice was barely able to come out. Somehow, fear was overriding her mind and she couldn’t even speak properly. She squirmed underneath the grip.

“No no, where do you think you are going, miss sweetie pie?” the other guy said as he made his way closer to her. Eunji could feel her heart dropping down to the stomach. She tried to get away again, but she failed to do so. She could feel her tears b at her eyes.

All of a sudden, she felt the iron grip on her wrist loosen up as she saw a blurry figure through her wet eyes. When she was finally free, her legs were wobbly that she fell down. She cleared her eyes to see what was going on. She was surprised to see that Sunggyu was beating up the two drunken guys that were disturbing her.

“Now go away and get yourselves to do something more useful!” Sunggyu shouted at the guys who were already running away. Simultaneously, he massaged his hands that were a little bit due to the punches her gave. Then, he turned around and bent down to face Eunji.

“Are you alright?” he asked gently at Eunji who was shaking due to fear.

She met his eyes and stared at them for a while. She nodded slowly, although her lips were still quivering. “I… I’m fine, I think,” she stuttered. She paused for a moment as she took a deep breath. “No, I don’t think I am.”

Almost instantly, he took off his jacket and covered Eunji’s shoulders with it. He carefully helped Eunji to stand up. “I think I should send you home for now,” he said as he showed her the way to his company car that he was using. He let her sit next to him as he drove her home, with her showing the directions of course.

When they had finally arrived at her house, he helped out to the front door. She was still afraid, but it grew lesser with help from Sunggyu’s calming her down while on the way there. She fiddled with her fingers due to her being shy all of a sudden.

“Thank you, Sunggyu,” she mumbled quietly. “Thank you for helping me out just now. You know, if you weren’t there -”

“Things could have gone worse, I know,” he said assuringly. He was glad that he was there too. Who knew what would happen if he weren’t there at the same time? “It was lucky enough that I was there at the right time.” A smile crept on his face soon after.

She nodded as well. Then, silence was surrounding both of them.

“Well, I should be going now,” Sunggyu said after he coughed. “Get some rest. You would probably need it.” He advised.

She nodded again. When he was already at the door of the driver seat, she realized that she forgot to return his jacket. “Sunggyu! You forgot your jacket,” she said as she held his jacket up for him to see.

He craned his neck to see it. “Oh, you can keep it for a while. I’m running late, anyway,” he murmured the words. “Take care, Eunji.” Then, he got into his car and drove off to who-knows-where. Eunji kept on staring at the jacket at her hands, and she gripped it hard.

Suddenly, she felt a warm sensation going through her heart. And she wasn’t sure what it meant.

~~~~~

Hiatus or not, I still can't forget or abandon this fanfic haha. I just love GyuJi so much, it hurts.

-A