When Hwayoung woke up again she could see the sun just rising. She jumped up and ran to the balcony. There it was. The sunrise she had longed for for years. She forgot about her worries and just watched the sun appear behind the mountains.
Looking back into their room she saw Siyeon was already gone which made her furrow her eyebrows. Siyeon was the heaviest sleeper she had ever known but why would she wake up this early?
Quickly Hwayoung changed into comfortable clothes and brushed her teeth. Not caring about her hair she put it up in a bun and made her way downstairs. The first thing she noticed was how awfully quiet the house seemed, confusing her. It would have been normal at this time but knowing how loud the boys could be she expected them to be noisy this morning too.
"Hello?", she yelled as no one was in the kitchen nor in the living room. She didn't dare to enter the private part of the house knowing her friend wouldn't go there. To her surprise even the dining room was empty.
"Hello?", she yelled again but of course there was no response. Weird. She knew in the basement was an extra room with a karaoke machine and sports equipment but Siyeon wouldn't be there, would she? A bit scared she opened the door and turned on the light. Slowly she stepped down and entered the room.
"What the hell?", she asked herself when she spotted her phone on the table despite knowing she hadn't been here. As she turned it on she noticed Siyeon had sent her a text. "Please don't kill me and just talk."
As soon as she finished reading she heard a ruffled voice coming out of the closet near the wall. Scared she opened it and then screamed.
"Jibeom?", she asked shocked. Jibeom on the other hand didn't say anything. Maybe because he couldn't. Someone had put a tape on his mouth and bound his wrists together with a rope. Confused Hwayoung. exe stopped working.
Then another voice could be heard.
"We will come back in an hour and if you still hate each other afterwards, we'll let you rot in there, okay?", Joochan said with an innocent smile on his face. "Just don't kill each other." With that he closed the door and Hwayoung heard the sound of it being locked.
"HONG JOOCHAN!", she yelled and hammered against the door not caring if she'd wake up the whole house. "I swear to god, I will make sure you'll never see the sun rise again."
"Can she even reach my neck?", she heard him ask on the other side. Then she heard footsteps and the boy disappeared.
Turning around to Jibeom again she couldn't help but laugh at this view. He was still bounded and tried to get the tape of but failed miserably while almost falling out of the closet.
"There are people who make special entrances, but you always have been extra."
Jibeom rolled his eyes and silently held out his hands to her. Hwayoung sighed and took the rope of. Then she tried to get as much distance between them as possible.
"Traitors.", Jibeom whispered making Hwayoung laugh.
"You're the biggest idiot amongst them."
Jibeom sat down on the other end of the couch not sure what to say. Of course Joochan wouldn't let them die in here but he still wanted to clear things with her. He just didn't know how to.
"Hwa.", he began making her flinch. "I want to say I'm sorry for hurting you."
"You did break my heart.", she said not looking at him. All these years she had prepared a speech if she'd ever meet him again but now she trusted her heart. "But you didn't like me in that way and that is okay. I just wished you would have talked to me afterwards. It felt like I had lost a friend I wasn't able to get back."
Jibeom was surprised at her words. He expected her to scream at him or to be angry but she wasn't. Meanwhile he wondered if he should tell her the truth. About him actually having been in love with her as well. But as soon as he made eye contact with her he knew hurting her would kill him again.
"I'm sorry. I thought you didn't want to have anything to do with me. And honestly speaking I was so busy fulfilling my dream I forgot about everything else. Even myself."
"So what do we do now?", Hwayoung asked. "Do we just pretend everything's normal again? Are we friends again?"
Jibeom flinched at this word. Friends. He wanted to be more than that but he figured Hwayoung moved on already and maybe he should too.
"Let's be friends again.", Jibeom said and for the first time the two of them made eye contact for longer than a few seconds reminding Jibeom of something. He grinned. "You listen to our songs, huh?"
"My music taste has always been great. Between, congratulations for your first win.", Hwayoung answered. "I had to find out if you reached your dream and after you debuted I just somehow became a fan."
"Then, did you ever visit any of our fansigns?"
"No.", Hwayoung laughed. "The fan inside wanted me to go but I was so afraid of meeting you again."
"Well, here I am.", Jibeom said and spread his arms. Hwayoung couldn't help but feel like all her troubles from years ago have been washed away. She knew she wouldn't trust him completely immediately but maybe they could become as close as they had been before.
Suddenly Jibeom grinned and leaned forward. "If you are a Goldenness, then who is your-"
"I can't hear you. I can't speak Korean.", Hwayoung yelled and held her hands to her ears while speaking English.
"You are still as childish as years ago.", he said.
"Well, then let's test if you got boring."
"Me? I am not boring."
"Okay, then let's get revenge on our friends."