༊*·˚ fools
"psst..."
hyerin had been occupied looking out onto the field watching some of the juniors doing their physical education class that she didn't even notice myunghee's presence beside her until she sat down.
"you looked like you were in a daze," she scoffed. "is everything ok?"
"yeah, everything's fine. what are you doing here i thought you had a class?"
myunghee's lips stretched into a smile. "i went for a bathroom break but found you here and decided to see you."
"ah..."
"if you need some time alone, i can leave?" she suggested.
hyerin shook her head. "you can stay."
myunghee relaxed her body and adjusted her position knowing she would be staying for longer. the girl tucked a few fallen strands of her pin-straight hair behind her ear.
"so... did you know donghyuck got into a fight?"
hyerin's head turned at her words. "what?"
she knew; she'd seen the bruises along his knuckles the previous day even though he'd tried to hide them.
"apparently it was some guy from a different school that was trying something with his sister but the guy's dad is the school principal so it doesn't look like he has it easy..." myunghee explained.
hyerin looked back towards the field. "he can get out of the situation. he knows what he's doing."
when she realised hyerin wasn't that interested in the topic, myunghee dropped the conversation.
"anyways, i'm excited for the sleepover this weekend!" she exclaimed with a genuine happy smile.
"because you get to see my uncle or that you get to spend more time with me?" hyerin teased.
the girl's smile faded. "i don't have a crush on your uncle- how many times?!" she groaned, frustrated.
hyerin snickered. "ok, ok. you should start going back to class before your teacher nags you."
"you got that right..." she mumbled. "see you at lunch!" myunghee jumped up and walked back inside the building leaving hyerin by herself.
minutes later, on the opposite side of the school, some doors are burst open and a boy with light-ish brown hair and tanned skin stepped out looking fed up.
lee donghyuck, of course.
a footstep behind him was the school principal trying to reason with him – that's what it seemed like to hyerin anyway – while he just wasn't listening. eventually, the principal stopped talking halfway and his chest deflated as he gave the kid an unimpressed look followed by a sigh before he headed back inside the doors he'd exited.
hyerin deterred her eyes from him and back to the kids on the field for a while longer until she felt like she was good enough and picked up her bag from beside her to head inside again.
later at lunch, she was queuing up to grab choco milk from the cafeteria but she realised she was right behind renjun and donghyuck.
"what are you going to do?"
"nothing. i didn't do anything wrong. i only didn't punch him harder because jeno was strong enough to hold me back otherwise he'd be in the emergency room."
"and you'd be in police custody."
"doesn't matter as long as that dickhead stays away from my sister."
hyerin had eavesdropped into the conversation and heard enough.
renjun gave donghyuck an uneasy look while the guy just stood with his arms crossed showing no fear. typical donghyuck.
just as lunch came to an end, she was making her way to the classroom and by doing that she had to walk past the music block of the school. in one room, there was a thumping of music coming from a loud speaker and thumping of footsteps on the floor.
curiously, she peeked into the room by looking through the window and saw something she didn't expect but should've known.
donghyuck was on the other side dancing to black or white by michael jackson.
he was the biggest mj stan – or the only mj stan – in the school so she should've clocked it when she heard the familiar beat.
when hyerin saw that he was properly dancing to the song, she walked back to stand in front of the door and admire him through the window. he was good. in fact, he was really good. she may not get along with him anymore but she would never doubt his artistic abilities. she knew he was good at dancing because back when they used to be friends he showed interest in performing and singing but it wasn't an optional path for him to go down on so he never focused on it much.
when the song finished, his chest was rapidly rising and falling as he paced a little to regain his breath. it was at that point that hyerin walked off.
˗ˏˋ 'ˎ˗
"we should bake something."
hyerin arched a brow at myunghee's proposal. "you don't know how to bake?"
"but you do. and the stuff you make is good so you could teach me," she suggested with a wide and hopeful smile. "something easy."
there were hundreds of options as to what "something easy" could be but hyerin chose something really easy: millionaire shortbread.
hyerin made myunghee in charge of the caramel since it was using the stove and she was more comfortable using that since she cooked. everything else, hyerin took charge until it was time to assemble which was when she made myunghee do the majority of the stuff so she could learn.
"how long until we can eat them?" myunghee questioned, mouth watering at the sight of the delicious shortbread.
hyerin shrugged as she placed them on the counter to cool. "until they cool down so i'd say half an hour."
both girls went back up into hyerin's room and myunghee threw herself back on the girl's bed. hyerin turned on some small speakers she had on her desk and put the shared playlist she had with myunghee and checked some stuff on her laptop quickly.
myunghee lifted her head to look around hyerin's room until her eyes landed on some crochet close to her bed that she went to pick up. it was an unfinished bucket hat with bear ears.
"this looks so cute!"
absentmindly, hyerin looked at what myunghee had picked up before she did a double take. "yeah, i've been working on it for the past two weeks. i was doing some of it before you came. i have more in the closet so if you want any then feel free to take one or two... or three or four."
myunghee went to check the bucket hats and there were ten of them stacked on top of each other so she looked through each one and looked at herself in the mirror striking a pose with each hat she tried on. she picked a total of three to take for herself and when she went to put the remaining ones back, she came across a few crochet tops and raked her hands through each one as if she was going through the clothing racks at a store.
"you must have been doing this for a long time already. these are so good?" she picked out a strawberry bikini top.
"i've been doing it for two years. i used to do it more often but now it's just something i do in my free time," she answered.
"how did you get into crochet?" she questioned, genuinely interested in her friend's hobby.
"um..." hyerin cleared her throat and myunghee glanced at her awaiting an answer. "it was a way for me to get my mind off of things. crochet required a high level of concentration... it also made me realise i can't count." she slightly laughed. "counting stitches wasn't easy at first. but if you want any of the tops then you can take them, too. i don't think we're too different in size?"
didn't have to tell myunghee twice.
"anyway, have you listened to the new ateez comeback? no, you haven't i know you." myunghee walked closer to hyerin at her desk who was already typing "ateez" into the youtube search bar.
half an hour later, they were so caught up with other stuff they'd forgotten about the millionaires but when they remembered they devoured almost all the whole tin.
since it was friday, they were tired from school so although they wanted to stay up until the waking morning, they were out by half midnight at the latest.
the following day, myunghee left shortly before midday because she had some stuff to take of and hyerin also had her weekly therapy session. since it was early, and a saturday, she walked around for a little while minding her own business in her own world. since she was in her own world, her thoughts drifted off elsewhere.
to a different time.
where she used to walk with someone else by her side.
as much as thinking about those times brought her joy, it was a pang to the heart when she came back to reality and it wasn't like that anymore.
you'd think after two years she'd be over it but she never understood why he left and that was the part that hurt her most. and it wasn't just him, renjun, jaemin and the whole group followed suit without an explanation. at least with them, it didn't seem like they hated her as much as donghyuck did because they still smiled at her in the hallways and jaemin would have a conversation with her every once in a while. for that, she was grateful.
he also happened to leave just as her life went crashing down as if it had all been plotted against her.
when she realised her thoughts were going to a less pleasant place, she shook her head and came back to reality just as she was about to cross a street.
she got home and hopped onto her console as dongmin was waiting for her for them to play and they stayed like that for two hours until she went off to make dinner and he went to do homework. her uncle came home shortly after and they sat at the table together before he went to do some work and she went to her room. by the time he went to sleep, she was out.
but not for long.
at a god-forsaken hour in the morning, her eyes shot open as her heart rate went at unhealthy high speeds beating in her chest.
she wiped her palms on her bed cover and, with shaky hands, reached over to her water bottle to have a sip of water to calm herself down. thankfully tonight the nightmares weren't too bad though she struggled to go to sleep a few minutes afterwards.
<3
hyuck will appear more often soon