before & after ‣ 엔하이픈

005 ; present

The girl stood there, the ominous feeling of earlier nowhere to be felt anymore. Like the last two people whom she used to stand there in the restroom with moments ago, she had chosen to walk away as well, only this time her destination had not been the cafeteria where Haesu and Seeun where but rather elsewhere, anywhere that doesn't seem to possess eyes that follows and whispers as she passes by. She reached the back of her school where only a few people ever seem to occupy and most who were there, were the ones who struggled to find a place in the sea of strangers possessing a weird selective attitude when it comes to friends.

By the mere sight of Aeri there, the surrounding place immediately emptied as staying within proximity of the queen bee would do more harm to their already doomed social life. For once, she was thankful of the effect she had on the people of her school, otherwise she wouldn't have the opportunity to bask in the sound of the trees rustling. 

Aeri had the curse of feeling everything at once. She was the vessel of all emotions, locked into a safe to stop it from ever bursting out. As though her only ever purpose in life was to be a punching bag of this said emotions and lose sight of what happiness truly felt like. 

"You okay there?" Aeri quickly looks over to her side and to nobody else's surprise, Park Sunghoon was there looking as annoyingly beautiful as always. She wondered why she couldn't have chosen to mess with a less handsome person, if she had done that then she wouldn't have to be in awe before she could be angry. "Your friends are a crowd." 

"They're not my friends." She confessed, looking at the buildings towering far from them that casted their own shadow as the sun slowly descends to its position of slumber.

"Figured. You didn't seem like someone who would be friends with personality like theirs." She heard him say. The second time she glanced at him was due to the smell of cigarette filling her nose, it was a scent that brought her back to her own house. The only indication that her mother was nowhere near her was the lack of booze in the aroma. 

"Since when did you pick up that filthy habit?" Aeri swatted the smoke away from her nose. 

"When I was taken into a whole different country and forced to adjust there. It takes a toll on you when you're a young child attached to your original home." Sunghoon explained, inhaling afterwards before exhaling it back to the air. "I come here every now and then but this is the first I'm seeing you here or the lack of people thereof." 

She chuckled. "They all left once they saw me. It's a talent of mine, you know? To empty places." She crossed her arms as she leaned over the wall the same way he was. "What's Haesu and Seeun doing anyway?" 

"What they all do. The same thing guys do just to catch your attention. Apparently being subtle stopped being a thing now." He scoffed as once again puffed at the cigarette. "They only toned it down when Jake went elsewhere, claiming he had to look for someone." 

Her heartbeat escalated in speed at the mention that Jake was looking for someone, and a spark of hope lit inside her that the person in question was no other than Aeri. "Is that so? How about you then? Why did you leave?" She asks, maneuvering the topic over to Sunghoon in the most subtlest way she could. 

"Because I was also looking for someone. If anyone was going to annoy me, then it's going to be you." He said, flicking her on the forehead. By then, the cigarette was long gone from his mouth anymore however the residual smell of it lingered across the air. "I'm kidding. I was only planning to smoke, never planned to bump into the one and only." 

"Next time, keep the smoke from your filthy habit away from me. It's... discomforting." She rolled her eyes as she finally made the decision of going back to school. But if she really knew Park Sunghoon, then she should've guessed she wasn't by any means going to walk away alone. "Do you never get tired of tailing me?" 

"Yes, but annoying you? No." He laughed at the end.

Aeri shook her head in disappointment, but she couldn't deny that this man tailing behind her managed to get her mind off Bora, Inah, or the conversation they all shared. Or that's what she thought before she stopped on her tracks when the corner of her eyes caught a supposed empty hallway occupied by two individuals, one of which she knew by heart. Her heartbeat had escalated to a speed faster than she has ever encountered. 

"Aeri?" Sunghoon called out to her, but her eyes remained on the two figures who didn't seem to notice that she was looking at them. "You alright?" 

Inah's words suddenly played like a broken disk in her head. 

You can act all high and almighty with the captain of the soccer team now yours to claim, but you'll never replace Bora in his life.

The ever sinking realization reached the pit of her stomach, and it churned in pain and grief. 

"He was looking for her." She abruptly says. 

He was looking for Bora. 

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AUTHOR'S NOTE :

only 20 minutes to sleep but you dream of some epiphany. just one single glimpse of relief to make some sense of what you've seen.