༊*·˚ fools
"you don't look too happy."
hyerin snapped out of the daze she was in to look at her uncle.
"i'm fine," she assured with a smile. "sorry, i was just thinking."
"you do that too much."
she looked back at him with a funny look. "thinking?"
"yeah. do less of it."
now she was finding this funny.
"did you drink at the office or...?"
he put his cutlery down. "you know, you hurt yourself too much and the reason you do that is because you think. you overthink. you think too much about the little things you shouldn't that are insignificant and then you end up hurt by your own thoughts. how messed up is that?"
she snickered. "i agree it's not fun. but i can't necessarily stop them..."
"do you want to talk about it?"
she shook her head.
"you know if y-"
"if i need you to call you. i know."
he smiled. "good. now eat up."
she ate then headed to her room as she fell asleep watching some series on her laptop.
˗ˏˋ 'ˎ˗
"bro, shut up, nobody wants to hear about how you can fit twenty-foue mini eggs in your mouth," myunghee snapped at dongmin.
"and nobody wants to hear about how much you love and worship itzy, especially chaeryeong, but you don't shut up about her," he fired back.
"how do you you know i always talk about chaeryeong if you aren't interested?" myunghee raised a curious brow.
"then how do you know i can fit twenty four eggs in my mouth?" he teased in the same tone.
"if you don't shut up we're going to see how many mini eggs can be shoved up your ass."
hyerin did the worst mistake and accidentally laughed at that which made their heads turn.
"do you think this is funny?!"
"i do," she spoke, truthfully. "you guys are like tom and jerry but at the same time you're perfect for each other."
"ok, that's gross. just shut up before i start puking up my homemade sushi," myunghee said and waved a hand out before leaning back on the grass field. "so, i'm actually getting along with my partner from the geography project. she's starting to talk a little more and we have similar interests, somewhat."
"yeah, i'm getting along with mine, too. she's into sports so we mostly discuss that," dongmin added.
myunghee turned her head to look at hyerin who couldn't say the same about her partner and frowned.
"couldn't you change your partner? there should still be a decent amount of time before the project finishes since you haven't even done a lot," she pointed out.
"i spoke to the teacher. he said no changes under any circumstances," hyerin reported.
myunghee looked visibly upset. "i'm sorry..."
"it's fine. i'm not going to let it bother me if i can't change it," she said. "anyway, i feel like skating after school, you guys coming?"
"yes!" myunghee squealed.
"didn't you say you had to study?" dongmin pointed out to her.
"that can wait."
"ok..."
"anyway," hyerin moved on, "we should start heading to class."
dongmin checked the watch on his wrist. "you're right."
he got up from the grass and hyerin got up next. myunghee asked for dongmin to pull her up and with his strength she jumped up off the ground and they headed to class together.
thankfully today, her geography teacher had a class planned where they didn't require to work in their groups so it was chill and she got along for the rest of the school day until it was time to leave.
"aren't you going to skate with me?"
myunghee burst out laughing. "and fall on my already flat ass? no but i'll watch you. i came here to watch not to skate, anyway."
"isn't that a little boring for you?"
"you would think but no it isn't, actually. i love seeing you skate. it's... liberating. that sounds weird but when you skate you look so free and i feel that from you... if that makes sense."
hyerin somewhat understood. in the last two years she'd grown custom to how myunghee acted and spoke so she understood her better than the average person.
"i can see what you mean. but ok. enjoy yourself watching, i guess."
hyerin wasn't sure as to what she was going to do so first she did a couple of laps before she remembered a routine she did once for a competition. it was fragmented in her mind but she remembered some important parts and went through them trying to execute them like she once did.
before she knew it, more and more parts of the choreography came back to her.
"you move so gracefully..." myunghee admired when hyerin was finished.
"thank you."
"i don't know how you do it. i don't understand how you were never in the olympics."
she chuckled. "i'm not that good."
"yes, you are! yes! you are! maybe i say that because i haven't done figure skating before but i've seen the olympics and i've seen the figure skaters and i don't see what you have that they don't."
hyerin felt honoured to have someone like myunghee speak so highly about her and about something she was once passionate about.
"why did you stop skating?" myunghee mumbled. "is it to do with donghyuck?"
the smile on hyerin's face slowly faded away. "no... he didn't have much to do with it."
"oh..." myunghee knew to not press further so just left it as that. "anyways, should we go grab a hot dog to eat?"
"i'd love that."
there was a good hot dog place around the ice skating rink since it was in the close centre of the city. they had hot chocolates and boba teas and, what they were most famous for, mozzarella sticks. hyerin and myunghee took a seat outside on a park bench by a busy street to eat the hot dog and mozzarella stick with boba teas each.
"is everything ok? dongmin told me yesterday that you seemed a little off during lunch," myunghee questioned.
"yeah, i was fine. it's just... pre-period symptoms i think." she gave myunghee an assuring smile.
"what happened with your hand then?" myunghee took a bite from her stick and pointed at the hand hyerin had burnt yesterday.
she sighed. "i went to the café i always go to, you know?"
myunghee nodded.
"i met up with one of my friends who i hadn't seen in a long time and he's friends with donghyuck, too. i sat with him then donghyuck arrived and i got up from my seat to leave but i didn't know he was so close so i ended up bumping into him and spilling the coffee everywhere. on me and on him."
myunghee rolled her eyes. "i can't even imagine his reaction."
"you can't imagine but you're about to visualise," hyerin said. "he came at me for spilling it in his favourite shirt and i had it worse because it was all over my school shirt, blazer and skirt. and that wasn't even the problem because i have more school uniform, the problem was that my hand was burning and he told me that i'd done that on purpose because i would clearly burn my own hand to harm him. i had hot coffee running down between my boobs do you know how annoying that is?"
"can't say i've experienced that, not going to lie," myunghee mumbled.
"yeah... well, that's another reason to hate him."
"such a waste of good looks," myunghee scoffed. "i don't get how renjun and all the others are friends with him. they're all so different from him personality-wise? was he always like this when you guys were friends?"
hyerin shook her head. "he used to be a sweetheart..."
myunghee licked her lips and proceeded with caution. "why did you guys stop being friends?"
"i don't... i don't know." hyerin answered honestly.
it was something she spent months thinking about when they got into the argument that teared them apart for good.
"i went over to his the next day because i..." she took a pause. "i needed to talk to him about something and when i got there, he just wasn't talking to me at all. he wouldn't let me talk in the first place, he was just defensive and told me to get out and that he never wanted to see me again." she locked her jaw to stop tears from falling as she recalled the episode. "he just kicked me out and i never got an answer as to what i'd done to him."
"what about the others?"
"jaemin, jeno, renjun and that?"
myunghee nodded.
"they stopped talking to me. i assumed donghyuck had told them something because they just backed off. they never said anything mean to me but they wouldn't acknowledge me in the corridor and wouldn't even smile at me when they saw me. jaemin... he still carried on talking to me every once in a while, he's a nice guy. gradually, renjun did the same too and jeno... but as for chenle and jisung i don't know since i hardly see them."
myunghee smiled. "jaemin's cute."
hyerin arched an eyebrow with a smirk.
"not like that!" myunghee defended. "he's not my type."
"is jeno your type?"
"my type are the ones who don't like me back." she sighed helplessly. "what can we do?"
<3
party party next chapter