One Day || MCND

꧂ Chapter 33

Minjae's POV

I woke up to the vibrating sound of a phone. It took me a second to realize I have my back on a rocky wall and there's a weight leaning against my side. When I saw the bear handkerchief on my foot and Yeona sleeping beside me, everything that had happened came rushing back to my mind.

What the-? The first thing I thought was how uncharacteristically nice I was. I didn't know what I was doing. All I know is I was enjoying my time with her and I desperately wanted to introduce myself as that guy she was writing with during math class last year. But I was scared. I've known it was Yeona ever since I asked her to meet me behind the gym. But she didn't even suspect that it was me because the person she saw that day was Huijun-the one she likes. For all I know, she still thinks it's him until now.

In my last letter, I completely shut her off by saying I wanted to be true to myself and focus on the girl I like. That didn't make any sense and it's kind of the wrong thing to say. I just can't continue writing to her if she thinks I'm a different person. So I told her I like this girl. And it's actually her.

And because I'm a coward, I'm trying to fix that mistake by giving her hints the entire night hoping she'd get it and say something about the letters first. But I know I was relying upon mere luck. It was as if she doesn't even remember. She didn't say that she wanted to make a mural of a proposing penguin and she didn't seem interested in the heart stones. I don't even know why I thought of giving her those. I bought a bunch of them at the art store I usually go to. I'm only pretending I was picking them up. I'd be dead if she knew.

There was the buzzing sound again and I saw Yeona's phone on the sand between us. I wasn't going to get it but I saw Huijun's name on the screen and I just couldn't restrain myself. I shifted carefully so I wouldn't wake her up. By the time I have the phone in my hand, it stopped.

The screen lights up and I saw dozens of missed calls from Huijun. I blinked a couple of times to make sure I wasn't just imagining it. Since this morning, I thought something was going on. There's curiosity in the way she followed him to the elevator and the way she looked at him on the bus. If my eyes aren't deceiving me, I also noticed awkward glances and shy smiles. I'm definitely not liking it. The fact that he has a girlfriend is the only thing that's keeping me from losing my mind. Hopefully, they're still going strong. I hear him talk with her on the phone around this time every single night so I guess that's...wait. What time is it? I looked at my watch and it's almost midnight. He's been calling her nonstop for about an hour ago. I looked at Yeona's angelic sleeping face. Is she...? What was happening? I can't conclude just yet. There could be something urgent that he wanted to ask.

When Huijun called again, I answered right away.

"Hello?" He started. "You weren't answering so I was worried..."

"Hi, Huijun. It's me," I cut him off. I don't really wanna hear how worried he is for her. "She's already sleeping."

"Minjae?" It took him a while to answer and I know he wanted to ask why I was the one who picked up. I have my questions too.

"I'll tell her you called when she wakes up."

"Aren't you guys on the trip?"

"Yeah, we were just hanging out and she got tired and..."

"At this hour? With Seungmin?" He sounds like a dad. If I were him, I would want to make sure of that too.

"No...No, just the two of us." That came out in between proudly and embarrassed like I wanted to point out I'm alone with her but I don't feel like I should've. If he can easily call her in the middle of the night, then that has to mean something. I'm not even on texting terms with her.