before you / jung jaehyun

fourteen

[ 1st april 2018, 5:35am ]

"aeri, there's someone at the door for you!" aeri's mom yelled at her from the kitchen. aeri was tying her hair up in a ponytail, the last step in her routine. with her hair tie clenched right between her teeth, she just groaned loudly, to acknowledge her mother. 

after tying up her hair, she looked herself in the mirror. checking that her uniform was all neatly placed, she smiled to  herself and then walked downstairs to the kitchen to greet her mother, eating bread while sitting on the sofa. her mother looked at her, glaring at her own daughter. 

aeri felt weird at how she was looking at her, so she just went, "what?" with a defensive tone. what was she staring at? was her skirt too short? ponytail too ugly? "kang aeri, i just told you someone's at the door for you!" her mother reminded her. aeri gasped, letting out a loud oh! before running to the door to open it. 

only to be greeted by jung jaehyun. smiling widely from ear to ear. his hands, gripping on a stalk of rose. with the bread half eaten still clenched between her teeth, her eyebrows raised, head tilted. she finally took a bite of her breakfast and asked, "what's this?" 

"would you be my girlfriend, kang aeri?" jaehyun got on one knee. the girl gasped, it was 5 in the morning and her friend is on one knee asking if she could be his girlfriend. what the hell was this? "you're sick," she just said, rolling her eyes before walking back into her home, leaving the door open so that jaehyun could walk into the house following her. 

jaehyun got taken aback, got up on his two feet and followed her into the house, closing the door behind him. "what the hell, aeri! you were supposed to cry and say yes so that i can say april fools, you dumbass!" jaehyun groaned, tailing behind her. "oh hey, mrs kang!" jaehyun waved at her mother who was in the kitchen preparing coffee for herself and husband. 

"good morning jaehyun, what are you doing on my front porch at 5 in the morning? don't you have school?" mrs kang questioned the boy. he stood in front of the kitchen table, his hands in his pocket, answering her questions respectfully. "i was supposed to trick aeri because it's april fools but she didnt fall for it. also, i'm just about to head over to class right now," 

aeri finally came out of her room, with her bag and socks on, prepared for school. "jae, i just got dumped by mark, did you really think i was going to fall for your boyfriend act?" she chuckled, putting on her shoes. "i mean i really thought it was going to work. plus, we even said i love you to each other that day," jaehyun pouted. 

"yea, as friends!" she just laughed it off, pulling the boy by his wrists, dragging him out of the house while yelling, "bye mom! i'm going now!" to her mother. today, jaehyun decided to walk aeri to school. he lied, his class started at 10am. and aeri's start at 7. so he had all the time in the world to walk her to school. 

"how do you feel about mark graduating in like- a month?" jaehyun asked out of the blue. aeri adjusting her headband, she just stopped to look over at him. "a month? that fast? god, i hope he leaves so i wouldnt see him," she chuckled, shaking her head. she just wanted to live life normally, without having to think of mark every damn second of the day.

"i hope you're okay aeri," jaehyun nudged her shoulder, smiling at her. she did the same too. "i am happy jae, i'm happy because i have you here okay? dont worry about me," she reassured him that she was fine when she wasnt. she didnt want to burden jaehyun with whatever she was feeling at that moment. who would want to hear their friend's boring love life? definitely not jaehyun. he had better things to worry about, and aeri crying over mark isnt one of them. 

after about 45 minutes of commute, the two of them finally arrived at the front gate of the school. "god, i sure as hell miss this place," he sighed, taking a good look at his old school. "take a picture then, that way you can look at it forever," she rolled her eyes, letting out a grin. jaehyun got flustered, "wow okay! what's with the attitude mrs kang?" he giggled. 

just then, while they were having their own conversation, jaehyun saw jiyeon walking into the school alone while listening to music. the two of them looked at each other. jiyeon immediately looked away because she got shy and nervous. it was the boy she had a crush on and her ex best-friend that she claimed to be stealing him away from her. jiyeon quickened her pace and hurriedly walked into school, head facing down, trying not to make eye contact. 

aeri noticed her and just let her be. "she still not talking to you?" jaehyun asked. aeri just shook her head. "it's so sick that she got to be friends with mark's ex just to get back at you for being friends with me." he told her, then rolling his eyes because jaehyun just couldnt comprehend the fact that jiyeon got so jealous and didnt believe her 'bestfriend' when she said that nothing was going on between the both of them. 

"yeah, well, people can hide evil well sometimes," aeri muttered. she was clearly still sad about her ex bestfriend. she never thought that they would argue over a guy at all. she thought they were better than that. clearly she was wrong. "hey hey hey! why the frown? come on aeri, put on a smile. it's the first day of the month!" jaehyun pat her head, trying to cheer her up. 

he then pulled her in for a hug, she needed it. "here's my special jaehyun hug, just for you," he swayed her left and right, embracing her. aeri just let it be. she needed a hug anyway, it didnt matter who it was from. she pulled away, her hair all messy. "thanks jae," she smiled. jaehyun just laughed. 

"now go to class, stupid. you'll be late, im gonna stop by the cafe before class, see you later!" he bid her goodbye before pushing her towards the gate so she could walk to class. as jaehyun watched her walk into school, he felt a certain emotion that he could not explain. was it sadness? sad because she had to go through something so awful? happiness? happy because he was grateful she was his friend? he couldnt explain it. 

[12:29PM ]

slamming her locker shut, jiyeon showed up right next to her. aeri jumped a little, almost cussing to herself. who the hell would do that to someone? she wanted to walk away and forget jiyeon, but her ex bestfriend voiced out before she could even turn the other way. 

"aeri please! can we just talk about it?" she blurted it out, which made aeri think twice about walking away in the other direction. she turned to look at jiyeon who was practically begging her to talk it out. "tell me one good reason, is it because you cant bear to see me and jaehyun being good friends and you just want to salvage this friendship so you can be close to him again? or is it because yena put you up to it?" 

jiyeon stopped her. "please aeri, i miss you," was all she said. aeri scoffed, she needed a second before she could snap back at her and put her back in her place. "and you think i dont? jiyeon, all this while, when i needed you the most, where were you? you were always talking about jaehyun or the other guys you have had a crush on," 

"you never once asked how i was doing. i had to listen to your vents and you never once listened to mine. it got so bad to the point where you threw me under the bus! you didnt believe me when i told you i meant nothing to jaehyun, and then you also became friends with my ex boyfriend's ex girlfriend just to conspire something against me!" aeri raised her voice, her voice almost breaking. 

the bell rang, which meant it was time for their last period before class ends for the day. everybody started to disperse into their own classrooms, hurrying for last period. 

"i expected so much from you and i still got nothing," she uttered. jiyeon just stood there, she knew she deserved it, the hate. that's what she gets for neglecting her own 'bestfriend' at times when she needed her most. she couldnt even form a proper sentence to defend herself because it's true. jiyeon started to tear up, because aeri was the first person she ever saw as family. 

"losing you was much harder to cope with than losing mark, jiyeon. i hope you know that," was aeri's last words before walking to her last class. wiping her tears so that jiyeon couldnt see, she walked away so fast. she didnt want to be seen as weak anymore.