before you / jung jaehyun

eleven

[ 16th march 2018, 7:20am ]

mark and aeri walked to school together.

it's been roughly about a month since aeri fought with jiyeon. ever since that day where she told jiyeon to get her act together, they actually stopped talking. jiyeon felt embarrassed, for acting that way.

aeri didnt want to talk to her first, she had her own pride and dignity. plus, she knew she did nothing wrong. which was true. she had the right to tell her off. but what right did jiyeon have to be angry with her?

after jaehyun, she went to tell mark everything that happened between her and her bestfriend, jiyeon.

that night, after jiyeon left. aeri cried. jiyeon has been her bestfriend for so long. in fact, for 8 years. the fact that their friendship is falling apart because of a boy made her upset.

yes, true. jiyeon is more interested in boys than aeri herself. but because of her hormone level rising strangely faster than aeri, she promised her bestfriend that she would never let a boy get in the way of their friendship.

after jiyeon left, aeri walked over to mark's place at night. her parents thought she was sleeping, but she sneaked out. that night, mark comforted her. wiped her tears. kissed her forehead. and listened to her. something mark was always good at, comforting people.

"whats wrong baby?" mark softly whispered and he caressed her hair and pulled her into his embrace. on his bed, aeri just let mark hug her.

mark was always the smaller spoon between them. but that night, he became the bigger spoon. he hugged her so tight that every now and then she'd push him away and joke around that she couldnt breathe.

arriving school, her eyes glanced over to jiyeon who was walking ahead of her with a bunch of her other friends. coincidence? it has been a month. as a month goes by, aeri had to stand there and watch jiyeon's group of friends grow bigger each day. it hurt her.

it used to be aeri and jiyeon. now its just jiyeon and friends.

she tensed up, looking at jiyeon. her bestfriend was with other people, laughing and smiling. completely ignoring aeri's existence. mark noticed how aeri's eyes shifted to the ground, which meant she was upset. very.

so he just grabbed her hands tight. they werent supposed to show affection in public. but it hurt mark to see the girl that he loves feel like shit. mark was always like that.

"mark, not now," she whispered, trying to get his hand off hers. mark only squeezed it tighter. "look, aeri. i know you dont want me to comfort you or hold you infront of the school, or anyone in general. but you said that you're my girlfriend," mark pulled her in, his face close to hers.

people were staring.

"and we agreed to make this work. you're hurting, i know. let me comfort you. dont push me away. please– i love you," he whispered the last three words loud enough for only her to hear.

aeri couldnt help but to just kiss mark. yes, in front of everyone. jiyeon saw the scene. she was shocked. she wanted to punch both aeri and mark in the face.

to punch aeri because she said that she wanted to move on. to punch mark because she was already in the midst of moving on. but most importantly to punch both of them because it took her a month to find out that they got back together.

when she pulled away, she saw mark smirk a little bit. she couldnt help but crack a smile too. she loved mark. so much. yes, she had multiple crushes. but mark lee was different. and it pained aeri because mark lee was going to graduate soon. in fact, he was going to graduate in june.