EUN HA WAS PASSING by the dance studio, en route to the piano room, when she heard bubbly female laughter – followed by a familiar male voice.
She paused.
The girls from the dance club were giggling coquettishly, bouncing giddily on their heels as they walked animatedly with Lee Seok Min.
"You're really good at it! You should join the team!" one of them was saying. The boy threw his head back and laughed, saying something indistinguishable in response. This loosed yet another set of giggles from his adoring audience, and a girl in a neon yellow tank top even had the audacity to smack his arm with mock chastity.
Eun Ha felt her face growing hot, and her fingers unconsciously fisted on the armrests of her chair. He never acted that way around her.
Just as she moved to leave, the door beside her suddenly swung open and Seok Min and the girls – there were about four of them, she observed – strode out, all laughter and seemingly flirtatious physical contact. (He never went farther than lightly touching a girl's shoulder – and even that was an accident – but of course, dear reader, to Park Eun Ha, it all made no difference.)
She opened her mouth to call his name, but nothing came out.
"Come with us and grab a drink!" a girl offered, grabbing his hand rather boldly.
He seemed to hesitate. "I have to meet someone in – "
"Oh, this won't take long!" she reasoned, flashing him a persuasive smile. From her spot right behind them, Eun Ha saw Seok Min's shoulders droop slightly in submission.
"Fine, if that's the case..." he said.
The girls cheered and dragged him away, leaving Eun Ha unnoticed in the middle of the hallway. She stared after them for a while, considering chasing after him. But at the rate they skipped away, him helplessly in tow, she knew that she wouldn't be able to catch up to them anyway, no, not in her stupid secondhand wheelchair.
So she turned around and ventured silently to the piano room, knowing full well that her companion would be late.