silver lining » wonwoo

twelve;

It was Thursday when he returned to school.

After getting admitted to the hospital last weekend, he had taken a few days off to rest at home. During that time, Yiseul also hadn't got the chance to see him, let alone say a single word to him.

Seeing him back was enough to put all her worries aside, though she was aware that there had been some whispers in the class about what happened at the weekend. It sure made her jittery, and the fact that Wonwoo was acting differently that day had caused her tension to go through the roof.

He was, of course, not much of a talker, but there was not a single smile bloomed on his face. Though, to avoid her negative thoughts, she convinced herself that maybe he was not feeling that well yet.

"Fainted at the amusement park? How?"

"What's with the matter with him, anyways?"

"He was with whom? Yiseul?"

"As in Yiseul in our class? Are they going out or something?"

"I can't believe he fainted on a date, that's embarrassing."

Yiseul clicked her tongue at all the comments. That was enough for her. Those words she had been hearing in class since this morning had totally got into her nerves.

If these kids couldn't mind their own business, then the least they could do was shut their mouth instead of doing this unfavorable thing. Smacking her table, Yiseul got up from her seat as the class fell into total silence.

"Seul-ah, calm down," Daeun whispered, tapping on her hand.

"You—"

Her words stuck in her throat, and it wasn't because she lost her courage to speak halfway. It was because Wonwoo just casually walked out of the class, as if nothing was happening and it caught her off guard.

In the meantime, Soonyoung came up to her side, saying, "You go after him, I'll take care of this mess here."

Without a second thought, Yiseul did what she was told. She rushed out of the classroom, toward the exit door. To her luck, Wonwoo was still in her sight as he walked fast through the empty hallway.

"Wonwoo," she called, but he was only slowing down.

The second time she called louder, Wonwoo stopped dead in his track and turned around. She could easily read a slight gloom on his face, causing a pang of pain to rise deep in her chest.

She walked forward slowly, careful in each step she took, afraid that her step could cause yet another wound in his heart.

Yiseul stopped when she thought she was close enough to talk in a normal volume without having to shout at him. But the boy took his turn to walk closer to her.

As Yiseul watched him dragging himself toward her, his eyes were fixated on the ground. His head was hanging too low that he didn't seem to know where he was going.

And instead of stopping, he kept closing the gap between them until there was a thump sound heard.

A strong smell of woods and vanilla struck her nose when Wonwoo abruptly dropped his head on her shoulder, causing her eyes went the widest they had ever been.

Being much shorter than him, he was practically bending down and Yiseul could see how his back rose and fell every time as he breathed.

Yiseul was standing rigidly. As awkward as it was, she didn't want to make him uncomfortable by a single move she made. So the two of them just stood there with nothing but the sound of their breaths racing in the empty hallway. Maybe it was a good thing to let him lean on her for a while.

"Why didn't you come see me when you visited the hospital?" he murmured.

Oh that. True that she didn't get to see him the night she visited the hospital. It was already late when his mom had done telling her everything, and the rules said there should be no more visitors past 10. Eventually, she was forced to leave and let him rest for his own good.

Sighing, she answered, "It was late at night and I didn't want to bother you. You needed some rest."

Silence took over yet again as Wonwoo rubbed his face against the fabric she was wearing and breathed heavily.

Every breath he took sounded like it was painful which urged her to pull him into an embrace. Until she remembered that any kinds of PDA were strictly prohibited at school, and she reluctantly lowered her arms and put them back on her sides.

"I'm sorry for making you go through all this mess. I'm sorry for everything, I really am," he mumbled, his voice was almost inaudible. And as if he was trying to regain his composure, the boy took one deep breath before lifting his head up and shot her a smile. "Just, would you still be my friend?"

"Of course I do, you fool! Why would you think I'd stop being friends with you? Stop being illogical!"

For some reason, she ended up scolding him just because he thought that he would lose friends over what had happened.

Her emotions exploded and she just felt like crying. Not until Wonwoo broke into a fit of giggles and she laughed along, although she didn't know what they were laughing at.

"Aren't you the illogical one here? Why are you crying out of the blue?" he backfired, stopping himself from laughing as he stepped closer to her—as if he wasn't close enough already.

Leaning forward, Wonwoo brought his hand to wipe the tears that pricked her eyes. He was focusing on wiping her tears softly, as if she was as fragile as snowflakes.

She thought, the gap between the two of them couldn't make the butterflies went wilder in her stomach, but she was wrong. The time his fingers came into contact with her skin, her heart almost jumped out of her chest.

"I hope you don't take what those people say into heart," she said, trying her best not to stutter.

"I'm picky enough to let what other people say into my heart," he replied.

"Then why did you storm out of the class?"

"I didn't want to see you getting into arguments because of me," he said, pulling away as he smiled.

She returned his smile in a heartbeat. Something about what he said had caused warmth to overflow her heart and she couldn't stop smiling.

"Yiseul-ah, can I make up for what happened at the amusement park?"

*

/screams internally/ i've been coping up with the stuffs in the real world and im lying if i said they don't stress me out :') but anyways wattpad layout on pc is so pretty omg and happy belated carats day & valentine's day! i hope you guys have a nice day <3