When Night And Day Become One

|| Sixteen ||

"Is there something that's bothering you?" I finally asked him when we were taking one of our afternoon-walks that summer.

Kai looked so deep in thought he didn't even hear my question at first. I had to nudge him to get his attention.

"Huh?" he muttered absentmindedly.

"I asked if there's something that's bothering you," I told him.

He looked immediately guilty. "Sorry, Yeon, I was just thinking about something. Don't worry about it," he assured, giving me a small smile.

I eyed him suspiciously. "You do know that your actions show the exact opposite of what you're saying, right?"

"Really, Yeon. Nothing's wrong. I'm just thinking of college."

"College," I repeated. "Right. You're leaving in a month." Was everyone going to leave me?

"Hey," he said, pinching my nose. "Don't worry about it. We have phones and my schedule isn't that tight. I'll come visit every weekend. That was the plan, remember?"

I pried his hands off and pouted. "I'm just afraid that you're going to disappear on me like Lu Han did." If one desertion was too much for me to take, how would I be able to manage two?

"What are you talking about?" he asked, blinking nervously. "Of course I'm not going to disappear, Yeon," he said in a soft voice. "I'm not going to leave you, okay?" he assured me, but the way he said it, it sounded like he was telling himself more than he was telling me.

I had the vaguest notion that maybe college wasn't the only thing that was on Kai's mind at that moment.

"You better not," I huffed, walking ahead of him. Seriously, what is happening? First, Lu Han disappears, and now Kai is acting weird. Don't tell me Hannah is next, I thought, rather frustrated.

And so, Chris and Kai left for college, and the rest of the summer passed.

There was still no Lu Han in sight, so I finally started telling myself to stop expecting to see him at every corner in the neighborhood. I finally started telling myself to stop thinking about the jerk. He didn't even have the decency to tell me that he was leaving, why would I waste so much of my time for him then?

I should have spent all those times thinking about him at hanging out with Hannah instead or even by convincing Kai to go out with me more. But I didn't, because I couldn't. And I hated myself for it because it just made things more complicated in my head.

The first day of school came but I didn't give myself a chance to hope. I went to school with Hannah and I didn't even look around when we got to our classroom. I sat on my chair and buried my face in my arms on my desk and tried to ignore the noise around the room.

How could my classmates chatter this loud? I thought, quite sullen at the fact that I would have made as much noise as them if Lu Han was here. If he was here, I would have already yelled at him at whatever prank he just pulled. Aish! Stop it, Jiyeon, I told myself, shaking my head.

The reality of my disappointment sank in even further during lunch when the only member left of our lunch table was me and Hannah.

"Is the atmosphere lonely or are the two of us just so quiet?" Hannah said, and I knew that she was just trying to fill the silence.

I hit the table with my palm, determined to chase the disappointment away. "Psssh. We don't need them!"

"Yes, I think we do," Hannah said dryly, not going along with me.

"Fine, you need them then. I don't."

Hannah tsked again. "Denial will really eat you up, Yeon."

"I don't even miss them."

Hannah laughed at this and continued eating her food. Really, I don't even know why I bother lying when Hannah sees through me anyway.

When we returned to class, I did the same thing I did in the morning. I just buried my face in my arms, no mood at all to socialize.

All of a sudden, the room went silent and I could feel everyone going still. But it wasn't that that bothered me, it was the thing that was poking my side repeatedly.

Frowning and cursing silently, I lifted my head and went to glare at whatever was beside me. But to my surprise, I was staring into space. I blinked and looked around, surveying the faces of my classmates but they were all looking at me with blank expressions. It was when I turned around to the other side that something poked my cheek.

"Wha-" Whatever I wanted to say got lost in the air when I caught sight of the person who just poked me.

"Gotcha," he playfully said, proudly grinning at me.

His hair had gotten a tad longer and his face had become more dashing. His eyes were even more alive and his smile was even more vibrant than ever. And the way he looked at me, I didn't know what it meant but this was how he always looked at me, made me realize just how bad I had truly missed him.

The yearning I felt during the summer was nothing compared to what I felt now. Surprising both of us, I suddenly launched myself and flung my arms around him. "Where have you been?" I yelled, feeling all the gloom in my system finally leaving me.

Lu Han laughed that melodic laugh of his and I hugged him even tighter. "Jerk, jerk, jerk," I kept muttering. "You are such a jerk, did you know that?"

He patted my back. "And you haven't changed one bit, Yeon," he said, chuckling.

I pulled away and kicked his legs.

"Hey! You didn't have to kick me to get me to say it," he said playfully, hopping in one leg. "I missed you, too, Yeon."

My classmates laughed and started yelling stuff like "Geez, you two never stop.", "I guess we know who's going to get in trouble for the first day of school again." and "Aww, they missed each other." And that was when I realized that we had an audience. I couldn't believe that I had forgotten everyone the moment my eyes locked on Lu Han.

I glanced at the idiot in question and found him staring at me with a soft look in his eyes. I glared at him, and he just grinned.

I couldn't help feeling a bit hurt. How come he's acting as if nothing happened? Did he really even miss me like he claimed he had? And where had he been? Realizing the direction that my thoughts were heading, I scoffed at myself. When had I become like this? I gave myself a mental slap and forced myself to focus.

Focused on the fact that he was finally back.

I had never been so happy seeing one person in my life. And that was because of him.