lost and found || hvc

VII upside down

"Jess, wake up!" a loud and familiar voice, that was (very rudely) disturbing my peaceful sleep,  cheered. "It's time to rise and shine, darling," it continued while imitating a British accent and failing terribly. Once my brain registered it as Alex it also chose to ignore it and I turned to face the wall.
"It's a lovely day, you lazy head," Alex said while abusing me with a stuffed animal. "Let's go out for breakfast."
"What time is it?" I replied rather incoherently after a few minutes of trying to fight Alex of my back.
"Ten thirty," she said while jumping next to me on the bed. "And I'm hungry."

What was funny about the situation is that it was usually completely reversed: it was me who most weekends had to drag Alex out of bed while she was going through a major hangover and to fill her up with caffeine so that she could at least try to seem normal in front of her parents. Mine almost never noticed Alex's hungover state (thanks to my excellent distracting skills, cooking them breakfast usually did the trick), which was why almost every single weekend during the last few years were spent in my residence. It had become such a routine no one never questioned anything when there were two of us sitting at the table instead of one. My parents trusted me, since they knew I wouldn't do anything that would lead to either of us getting hurt, which made it way easier to hold Alex together at my place before she was feeling good enough to head home. I'm sure they had at least some hunch about what usually went down during the nights but they never said anything. So that is why seeing Alex up so early and eager was really not registering in my brain, especially since she had not been home yet when I fell asleep after spending a hour in the bathtub trying to process all the new things I had experienced and locked inside the messy brain of mine. It was hard, and Hansol's smile kept sneaking into my mind despite of my efforts to drown it into the still water covered by pink bubbles. I ignored Wonwoo's texts, since I didn't want to talk to, see or hear of anyone who could potentially mess with my head and feelings any further. "I like Wonwoo" I told myself repeatedly in a light whisper, and I knew it was true: he was cute, thoughtful, funny, hot. He made me smile and his touch made my stomach jump (literally, I felt as if my organs were raving at Coachella). But I knew Hansol wasn't just a random acquaintance, no matter how much I wanted him to be one: he made my head hurt and he didn't need to even touch me to get my organs raving. I just didn't know yet why it was that way. I never reacted so strongly to people so quickly; with Hansol, it was definitely something at first sight. He was kind of excruciating, and even small things about him, like his overly confident behaviour, got me so worked up my body really didn't know if I wanted to punch or kiss him.

"Alex," I then said after a few giant yawns and she lifted her head up from her phone. "What exactly did you take to be awake this early on a Saturday morning so excited?"
Alex rolled her eyes and shook her head while she continued scrolling down her Instagram feed.
"Really, I'm worried. This is nothing like you" I said with the best impersonation of our high school principal's voice, as that was one of his favourite sentences to say when anything in our school got out of control: students, teachers, and even gardeners. He was kind of a inside joke between the students of the school and me and Alex always imitated him in situations like this. And as I expected, it made her smile.
"I didn't take anything," she started and then paused for a while, clearly wondering about what to say next. "I just had a very, very nice sober night with Joshua. We talked for hours on Mingyu's roof before it got too cold and I came here. I couldn't find you anywhere at the party, but you were asleep here and I didn't want to wake you up. I guess I was just too excited to sleep any longer," she said and shrugged her shoulders before her lips curved into a shy smile I had never seen before.
"You're so in love," I said while poking her shoulder in a teasing manner. "Let's go get food so you can tell me all about it."

--

There was a little coffee shop just around the corner from our dorm. It was always half empty, smelled like peppermint latte and had light blue fake leather covering the couches in the booths circling the room. Me and Alex had found the place one night when we had been craving lattes and were too tired to go anywhere further. We had also felt like trying their croissants, and boy were those good. No suprise those were what we ordered this time too, along with big lattes and a fruit bowl to share (they served those during mornings and we always took one to share to feel like we were eating healthy). We sat at a booth near a window and ate for a while in silence.

"So, tell me all about your night," I said while throwing the last piece of my croissant into my mouth.
"Well, there isn't really anything specific to tell," Alex said and took a sip of her latte. "We talked about New York, his family, my family, school and life in general. It was super peaceful and cute, I can't even describe it. And then we kissed for a little bit."
"That sounds nice," I said and wiggled my eyebrows up and down. "You're soooo smitten you little kitten."
"I really don't know what to do with myself," she said and gave out a chuckle of disbelief. "I've never felt this way before, I feel so weirdly happy it kind of hurts. I know that sounds cheesy as hell but I don't really even care anymore."
"I think you're in love, honey," I said and shook my fork in front of myself. "Just remember that I want my maid of honor's dress to be light blue."
"Well what about you and your boy?" Alex said and I instantly gave out a groan, and she looked confused.
"Well, it was all okay before that Hansol guy appeared," I started hesitantly. "That guy just gets me so worked up I don't know what to do."
"Hansol as in the hot guy who showed us where our dorm is?" Alex said and raised one eyebrow.
"Yeah, that's the one. He's so confusing, I've only met him a few times but he tries to act as if he, like, knows all my secrets," I said, my speech speeding up. "He just makes me feel so annoyed and also a little nervous I guess."
"Maybe you like him," Alex said and shrugged her shoulders as if it was nothing.
"Alex, you know I like Wonwoo, though. I've been talking about him for so long," I said, feeling a bit attacked after what Alex had just said, since it had been previously only a very secret, denied thought of mine I had been trying to shake off.
"It's possible to like two guys at the same time. Remember me, Bryan Atkinson and Alan Bridge?"
"Alex, you were seven."
"Still," she said and looked annoyed while she placed a runaway hair back behind her ear. "The point is, maybe Hansol is just someone who interests you on some level and will eventually stop bothering you, or maybe not. But if you feel like Wonwoo is the guy for you, then you should stick with that and see what happens."
I nodded and drank the remaining drops still at the bottom of my coffee cup.
"But if you think Hansol is just plain annoying then I probably heard wrong when you mumbled his name in your sleep last night."

// a.n hey guys, i'm finally on my summer break and i have time to update this story regurlaly, i will try to update at least once a week!! i hope you enjoy this chapter, i've been working on it for a while and thinking a lot about the course i will take with this project and i have a lot of scenes and ideas ready! as always, comments, questions and requests are welcome!! i appreciate all of the reads and votes and comments so much ❤️

ps go check out my tumblr for short scenarios and other fun stuff, requests are open there for anything really! @ vvlicious