"Hyun Ae ah? Wake up."
Hyun Ae felt a soft pat on her arm, making her grunt. But then something hit her mind.
Wait. Who's with me now?
"Eh? What are you doing here?" was what had left her lips first as soon as she opened her eyes and looked to her side.
She straightened herself up and began to stretch her body. "This must be a dream, right?"
"No, it's not," Namjoon chuckled, patting her head softly as he watched her rubbing her eyes like a little kid. "We're almost at your stop. So wake up now."
"Urgh..." she grunted, falling back onto her seat, just right before the announcement of the train, stopping at her stop next.
"Imagine if I didn't follow you... You might miss your stop."
"Haha..." she chuckled softly. "Thanks, by the way."
*
"Hyun Ae ah? Hyun Ae?" Namjoon called out, but all he could hear was just the soft sound of her breathing on his shoulder, clearly sleeping on another offered piggyback ride.
"You're really tired, what have you been doing these days?" he asked softly, even though he knew that she wouldn't hear him. He continued to carry her, in the quiet neighborhood.
He paused for a moment, his pace slowing down as he glanced up at the starry night sky, smiling.
"I don't really know much about astronomy, but if you're awake, you'll be happy to see tonight's sky," he whispered, chuckling as he continued on walking up the hill road, with a few times readjusting his grip on her, making sure she was on the right position behind him.
At this moment, he could feel her moving a bit behind him, and her arms began to tighten around his neck, making him shiver as he let out another shaky breath and thought to himself.
Why do I feel like I'll lose you anytime soon?
The rest of the walk was quiet. No more words coming out from Namjoon, and Hyun Ae was still sleeping. And it wasn't that long before her house finally came into his sight.
"Hey. We're here," he whispered as he turned his head back at her.
"Hm..." Hyun Ae hummed, as she kept moving around, and he could feel the tip of her nose brushing against the back of his neck, making him more nervous.
"Y-Ya... w-wake up now, you're home."
"Oh... okay," she sighed, finally getting off of him as he stopped right in front of the door. "Thank you for sending me home."
"Oh, it's nothing," he chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked down at his feet. "Um... I should go now, I think."
"Okay," she nodded, and then she faced her door as she rummaged through her bag and found the key. She inserted it into the knob, and after a click was heard, she turned back at him.
"Um... We're friends... right?"
"Y-Yeah... Why?"
Hyun Ae bit her bottom lip as she gestured her fingers at him, telling him to come closer to her. With furrowed brows, Namjoon stepped closer to her, only to be caught off-guard when she quickly placed a kiss on his cheek.
"A 'thank you' token from me," she whispered, scratching her head shyly, and then she giggled. "Sorry that it's an American-style token."
"No, no. I like- I mean, it's okay," he stuttered, knowing that he had turned red at the sudden action. He let out a nervous laugh as he kept scratching his head, trying to avoid any eye contact with her as he kept on standing there.
"Um... You're not going now?" Hyun Ae chuckled; tilting her head to one side, right before a car suddenly appeared from behind her.
Both of them turned to the car and it stopped right beside both of them.
The front passenger's window rolled down, only to reveal Yoongi in the car with Hoseok in the driver's seat.
"We came here to take you home, Kim Namjoon," Yoongi said, in a flat tone as he lazily stared at Namjoon, before his eyes fell to the ground, or to be more specific, at Hyun Ae's feet.
The corner of his mouth lifted up, and Hyun Ae was the only one who noticed it. She quickly shook her head then turned back to Namjoon and patted his arm.
"Go now," she smiled. "I'm fine here, you see? You've sent me home. Safely."
"Alright. See you soon," he softly sighed, patting her shoulder as he gave her a tight smile. He then walked towards the back of the car, entering it.
After exchanging good nights and goodbye waves, Hyun Ae waited at the door until the car had disappeared from her view.
She walked into her house, kicked away the sneakers that Yoongi had forced her to put on, and plopped herself down onto the sofa in the middle of her living room.
"Huh... I'm so tired," she groaned as she blankly stared at the high ceiling. Then she glanced back at the sneakers that weren't in the proper position since she had kicked them away.
She stood up and walked back to the entrance. She picked up the left side of the sneakers and began to check them. She went from one side to another, before she peeked into the sneakers.
"What brand is these- OH MY GOD. NO," Hyun Ae gasped in panic, eyes widened as she picked up the other pair, then she began to inspect the sneakers' condition, making sure everything looked fine, no defects at all.
Carefully, she put the sneakers on the topmost tier of her shoe rack, covering it with a clean cloth, and sighing heavily.
"How dare you, Min Yoongi. How dare you..."
***
"It's supposed to be here..." Hyun Ae mumbled to herself, searching through the bushes. She looked up at the tree behind her, and no sight of her thrown sandal was found.
She had been in the park for almost fifteen minutes, looking for the other half of her sandal that she had thrown last night.
"Oh, excuse me," Hyun Ae called out to an old lady, who looked like the caretaker of the park. The lady stopped in her tracks as Hyun Ae ran towards her.
"Did you see a sandal around here earlier?" she asked.
"Yes, along with a broken beehive! I don't know who hit the beehive! I had to call the exterminator this morning. I hope it wasn't your doing, young lady," the old lady nagged, her hands on her sides as she stared at Hyun Ae.
"N-N-No, it's not," Hyun Ae immediately lied, shaking her head as she chuckled nervously. "Someone ran away with my sandal last night when I was here, so I'm looking for it."
"Well, a guy asked for it from me. So I gave it to him," the lady said, tightening her gloves.
"What? What's the guy look like?"
"All black. Black cap, black mask. His skin kinda pale too."
The description was simple, but Hyun Ae immediately recognized the described person. And she was totally sure about it without any doubt.
After thanking the lady for the information, Hyun Ae began to walk away, toward the bench where she and Namjoon had sat down the night before. She let out a sigh, stretching out her arms when she felt someone approaching from behind.
"Looking for this?"
She turned around to the voice, and her precious sandal came into her view. She immediately looked at the guy that was holding it.
"Yoongi oppa," she called out. But as she was about to get her sandal back, Yoongi pulled away his arm away from her. "Give it back to me."
"My sneakers first," he demanded, holding her sandal high up above his head as she was trying to grab it.
"It's at the shop!" she whined, finally giving up on retrieving her sandal back because she knew that he would never give them back to her.
"Well, let's go then," he snickered, starting to walk away as he turned his back to her.
"Sheesh!" she grunted as she followed him from behind.
But later, she caught up to him and walked by his side. "Hey, how did you know that I'm coming here?"
"Namjoon told me everything last night."
"And WHY are you here?"
"To get my shoes back, you fool."
"You're the fool one! Why are you giving me that?! It's insanely expensive and you lent it to me as if it's just an ordinary brand."
"To me, it IS just an ordinary brand."
Hyun Ae chuckled in disbelief as she heard Yoongi's words. "Tch. Look at you," she muttered quietly, clenching her jaw.
"Hm?" Yoongi smirked; pulling out his phone then stared at his reflection on the black screen. "I looked cute today."
*
"Hey," Hyun Ae whispered to Yoon Hee as she entered the shop and walked past her friend.
She walked around the counter and squatted down, reaching for a white shopping bag, then placed it on the counter, sliding it towards the real owner.
"Here's your shoes, mister. Take it away now, because I'm getting terrified by each second when this thing is around me. I won't be able to pay back if I caused damage to it-
"You know what? I changed my mind. You can have it," Yoongi cut her off, sliding back the bag towards her.
"Wait, what?"
"You can have it," he repeated himself, pushing the bag back towards her. "Think of it as your birthday gift. Or maybe... my apology gift to you for last night."
And with that, he gave her a wink then turned around and left the café.
"I thought it was yours?" Yoon Hee asked as she walked towards the speechless girl, who then pulled out the sneakers from the bag.
"No, it's HIS! He lent it to me last night!" Hyun Ae explained. Confusion was clearly showing on her face.
"But don't you notice it?" Yoon Hee began to ask.
A question that had made Hyun Ae furrowed her brows.
"This..." Yoon Hee paused, grabbed the left pair of sneakers, and held it up in front of Hyun Ae before she continued.
"This is the same pair he had just now. Why would he buy another pair of the same shoes he had on his feet when he walked into this cafe?"
Both of them went quiet, eyes fell upon the sneakers on the counter.
Hyun Ae didn't say anything, completely frozen.
"You better wake up, sister," Yoon Hee chuckled, putting back the sneakers into the bag and pushing it toward Hyun Ae.
Hyun Ae stared at the bag. "Wake up for what?!"
*******************************************************************
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