Two weeks passed and this Kim Jongin happened to show up quite frequently. Somehow he always managed to come after I had gone out for myself or just gone to another class that I didn’t have together with Yixing. Most often Jongin just wanted to talk, sometimes he asked if I had eaten and offered to eat lunch together: an offer I every time had to turn down since I actually had eaten just moments before. Every time. And somehow, the thought of going out for lunch together made me feel somewhat uneasy. Not that I didn’t appreciate his company, but it just felt like I was deceiving someone. Which I possibly couldn’t have done. Nope, no one to break promises to. Except Sujin, but she would be entirely for it so I wouldn’t have to worry about that. But the thought just roared ”wrong!!!” in my face, so I couldn’t do it.

       Yixing had stood by his word by taking up my free time, which now mostly consisted of studying, hanging out with Sujin and Inna, and spending time with him. And I was happy doing so. I learnt lots about him and he learnt lots about me and in just two weeks we knew more about each other than we had ever known about another person before.

       But on this particular day, I had absolutely nothing to do. Nothing. Not even cleaning my room (and that’s a rare sight, I promise you). And in the time of nothingness, I decided to just take this day off to spend it with myself. I fetched a bowl of goraebap before sinking down into the sofa and pressing play on my favourite drama. Apparently this girl was supposed to go to China but a guy was holding her back from going and so on. The soft cushion supported my head and in all the softness around me, I wondered what it would like to live in China. Maybe Yixing would tell me more about it. What was he doing? Did he ever feel lonely? Did he eat properly today? And suddenly my head was full of concerns about whether Yixing was happy or not at the moment. I shook my head to get rid of the thoughts. Nope, I was going to spend this day with myself. I returned to my drama.

       The hours passed by and the feeling of being alone soothed the stress I had been under for a long time. I saw the screen of my phone light up to notify me that I had received a text, but I didn’t really bother to check it. A couple of minutes passed and the phone started buzzing angrily a few times before it went silent again. I reached out my arm to lift it from the table and the screen.

       6 unread messages.

       I typed my password to see what Sujin could possibly had wanted to tell me today.

Received 4.26 PM

Hey Hyejin-ah, would you fancy tagging along to the cinema 2nite?

Received 4.32 PM

Yah Hyejin-ah, you have to reply, we’re booking the tickets now.

Received 4.33 PM

Srsly, you have to reply now.

Received 4.33 PM

HYEJIN-AH CHECK YOUR PHONEEEEEEE

Received 4.34 PM

Hyeeeeeeejiiiiiiin-aaaaaaaaah

Received 4.34 PM

Okay so we booked tickets now and stuff so either you come or you tell us so we can invite someone else

I sighed and started typing a reply.

Sent 4.35 PM

I was watching my drama. I feel like I shouldn’t go for more films today.

Received 4.36 PM

YAH! We were already considering if you were still alive! On the verge on planning your funeral! But seriously, come, it’ll be boring without you.

I sighed again.

Received 4.36 PM

I can hear you sighing from here.

Sent 4.36 PM

Fine then, I’ll come. What time?

       Sujin and Inna had decided on meeting outside the cinema in Myeong-dong at 6. Basically I had time to find some decent clothes (aka not my baby blue sweatpants and oversized black t-shirt showing the 10 expressions of Darth Vader), put on some simple makeup, yell to my mom that I’m going into town to meet my friends and run to the bus station, just to catch the bus right before the doors closed.

       I found myself a seat and plopped down. I looked out the window, past my reflection and out on the trees whizzing by. 10 minutes later, the bus stopped and “Myeongdongyeok” blasted out in the speakers. My station. As I stepped off the bus, I spotted Sujin and Inna on the other side of the road, by the entrance of the cinema. They were talking to someone, so I went over the road to sneak up on them from behind.

       “I’m here!” I exclaimed and stuck my head between Sujin and Inna’s shoulders, causing both of them to twitch forcefully and yell of the shock. When they realised it was only me, Sujin loosely hit my shoulder.

       “Yah!” she said with a shrill voice and shortly after burst out laughing.

       I snorted, amused by her reaction. I looked forward on who they had been talking to and stiffened. A boy in our age was standing right in front of me. The boy with dark, fluffy hair, mahogany eyes and sharp eyebrows: Jongin’s friend. What is he doing here?

       “Um… Hi.” I lifted my hand in a small greeting and he looked at me as if I was an alien. Then his gaze softened and he raised his hand in the same manner.

       “Hi,” he said with a much lighter voice than I had expected. “I’m Sehun. We met the other day I think?”

       I felt my face go warm, and I hoped wholeheartedly that it wasn’t all red.

       “Um, yeah, I think so. I’m Hyejin.” I tried not to stutter, but failed.

       ”Yeah, I heard.”

       Sujin and Inna had gone quiet and looked at us with curious eyes.

       ”So… Why are we waiting here?” I asked to break the silence.

       “We’re waiting for some others.” Sujin simply said and crossed her arms over her chest.

       “Hey, we’re sorry we’re late! This guy got lost and then we couldn’t find our way back to the metro, so we had to ask some people and-” two shapes were walking in a fast pace towards the small circle of people and stopped in the middle, breathing heavily.

       “I told you we shouldn’t trust JUST intuition.” a deep, familiar voice said.

       “I don’t have any internet left on my phone! I can’t just walk around searching for wifi all the time just to find the way!” another, less deep, but even more familiar voice countered.

       At least, now I didn’t have to worry about getting a red face, because I felt all the blood in it disappear. Well, .

       The tallest boy with the golden curls looked at me and pointed with a slender finger at my face.

       “But, but, but! It’s you!” he exclaimed and looked from you to Jongin, back to you and to Jongin again.

       “Yeah, it’s me. What’s with that?” I asked as nonchalantly as I could.

       The boy squinted suspiciously towards me one last time before his expression softened. The wrinkles on his forehead smoothened and the corners of his mouth were dragged upwards in a shining smile, showing many of his white, glittering teeth.

       “Ah, nothing,” he laughed in a nervous manner and scratched the back of his head. “I’m Chanyeol by the way. I heard you’re Hyejin.”

       I nodded as a small gesture of confirmation.

       “The film starts soon, maybe we should get inside,” Sujin pointed out and everyone agreed, so we went inside.

       “So, we were a bit late when we booked the tickets… So we don’t have seats next to each other, unfortunately,” she said and winked to Inna who smiled back. Those two were up to something again.

       “So, we’re sitting together as two and two. So I and Inna are sharing two seats. The next two are for Sehun and Chanyeol.”

       Sehun and Chanyeol laid their arms over each others’ shoulders and high-fived each other with their free hands.

       “And the remaining,” Sujin continued. “Hyejin and Jongin have to sit next to each other.”

       For the second time today I felt my face go warmer, but could do nothing but to nod.

       Jongin smiled and grabbed my arm.

       “Come on, we have to hurry to not miss the film,” he said enthusiastically. I sighed and looked at Sujin who just gave me an unhelpful gaze, telling me to just follow. So I let myself get dragged away.

       At last Jongin and I found our seats and sat down. The whole situation felt very stiff to me: I didn’t know if I was supposed to chat with him or something. But for simplicity, I chose to do nothing. The thing was, I didn’t dislike this boy. In fact, I liked him very much, we were very similar to each other in most aspects. But the fact that I had guessed that his feelings towards me were something else than friendship (that’s what I had figured out during the two weeks of us knowing each other), didn’t exactly make it less awkward.

       The film started and I realised I had no idea what film I had agreed on watching. Should I ask him? I decided to do so.

       “Hey, do you even know what film this is?” I whispered as the lights dimmed and the introduction screen started rolling.

       “Nope, no idea.” he whispered back and I snorted in amusement. Seriously, we had gone to the cinema without even knowing what we were watching.

       Pretty soon it turned out to be a horror film. And one absolutely terrifying so. As a bloodshot clown face popped up on the screen, I felt a hand grab my wrist tightly. The hand was soon after removed with an almost inaudible “sorry” following. Judging by his voice, he was on the verge of completely freaking out.

       “It’s okay,” I whispered back and I could almost hear him smile. As I had just relaxed, another horribly deformed face turned towards the audience in a very unexpected manner and I yelped from the shock, unconsciously clutched to whoever sat next to me, which I only seconds after realised was Jongin. Again.

       At that point I stopped caring and I just continued to cling to him for dear life. He hushed softly and tried to calm me down, patting my back, whispering it was okay to be scared. When I realised what was happening, I also realised that tears were running down my cheeks, and started giggling. Jongin gave me a “what the hell is happening” look, but seemed to not really search for an answer, so he just snorted and let me be. I sunk back down in my seat and closed my eyes, having gotten enough of the jumpscares. I sat like that for the rest of the film, slightly opening my eyes from time to time to keep track of the story.

       I stumbled out into the foyer and sat down on one of the many benches standing lined up for cases like me who were a bit more than averagely sensitive to horror films. My legs were all wobbly and my brain felt mushy. The others came out of the theater, laughing and pulling jokes. Jongin came up to me and took my hand.

       “How do you feel?” he asked.

       I looked up into his eyes that were filled with concern.

       “I’m okay,” I said and took a deep breath. “I just need to take it easy for a little while.”

       “Do you want to go outside?”

       “Maybe that’s a good idea.” I agreed and tried to stand up, supporting most of my weight on Jongin. Sehun and Chanyeol came running to assist us and Sujin and Inna just stood on the side, smiling like idiots.

       “Yah, I thought you two were my supporting friends?” I scolded them and they laughed.

       “Nah, I think you’re fine.” Inna eyed me and turned to Sujin to give her a peck on the cheek; an action that made Sujin blush.

       I giggled as Jongin and I stepped outside.

       “Did you see Sujin’s face over there? They were so cute together!” I said, smiling up to my ears.

       “Yeah they were…” he said with a voice that strongly indicated that his head was full of thoughts. I turned to him.

       “Are you okay?” he asked as his eyes came back to the present, now concerned.

       “Yeah, just a bit wobbly, that’s all.” I said and tilted my face down to hide my embarrassment.

       As I kept my face down, I felt a strange presence behind me and I shivered. Something was wrong.

       “Hye-!” I heard the syllable merely as a sharp shout; a voice it felt like I had known for my whole life (although I hadn’t). But I never heard the continuation. Maybe the shout wasn’t meant for me, maybe someone who sounded very much like this person was calling for someone else whose name started with ‘Hye’. At the same time as I hoped, I was also disappointed because I had a feeling I wanted it to be me. But as I slowly turned around, I only saw the back of a dark-haired, fairly tall boy – a boy I definitely recognised even in the poor lighting – disappear into the darkness.

Finally I'm back from interrailing and editing this chapter! I didn't feel that satisfied with my first draft so I had to rewrite it. Anyways, this chapter was rather fluffy, I guess the following chapters will add on more to the storyline.

Stay awesome everyone!