a week later...

~[HAEYOON]

So much happened, so much changed over these few months.

Never had I thought that I could free myself from the clasps of Seolhyun and Yerin, but now I could.

Never had I thought that I could be friends be Jeonghan again, never had I thought that he would trust me.

Never had I thought that I could get get back my reputation and respect.

But now, it was all there. And thanks would be too less to describe my gratitude to the one and only person who made all of this possible, Joshua.

The other day he revealed to me the real reason of him shutting me off all of a sudden. Turns out that the texts I sent him on the day I had gone out with Jeonghan were actually read by his dad and since his dad and Yerin's dad are business partners so they wanted both him and Yerin to be "best friends" and thereafter they can handle the business as partners as well later on. He was limited by his dad's dead-end consequences so yeah he had no choice.

Talking of Jeonghan.

Well, I don't know why, he is so weirdly quiet. I mean, I was aware of his anger and everything but still I forgave him. Shouldn't I be the one who should cut off ties with him? But then again, I just can't disown my childhood best friend like that.

Today is the day where we'll be going to the Cypress Woods for our 3 days-2 nights excursion. And as usual, I'm running to the school campus.

"Haeyoon hurry up! Why are you so late?" Mrs Hwang scolded me as she saw me running.

"Sorry ma'am." I bowed apologetically as I entered the bus looking for a seat.

Crap. All I saw were asses on seats. Isn't there an empty one for me?

Until I saw a hand rising up and calling me out, well technically embarrassing me.

"Hola Cecilia, you got a seat here!"

Joshua Hong, the usual. As much as I love him, I still can't stand his weirdass gothic nicknames.

Shaking my head, I went and sat beside him and that's how our journey started.

"I swear I'll perform an autopsy on that little brain of yours someday." I said flaring my nostrils while all he did was give me his signature bunny smile.

"I'll punch out your teeth too!"

"But then again you'll be crying out because you'll hurt your hand."

"You think I'm that fragile? Huh excuse me sir, I have strength, you know?" I said while folding my biceps to show him my muscles.

Heh.

"Oh my, I'm so scared!" he said making a frightened face to which I responded by a victorious grin.

"The WWE fighter who won two matches against SpongeBob and Doraemon is here."

What the now.

I instantly started hitting his arm, well not too hard but not too light as well.

"Aish sorry sorry! I promise I won't tease you again! Ow! It hurts!" He winced his eyes.

"Serves you right for telling me I'm weak." I hmphed, "does it hurt?"

His eyes got rounded for a split second but again went again to normal as he said, "Ah yes, here." He pointed to his chest.

Wow. He is literally checking my limits now? Seriously?

I felt blood rush up to my cheeks.

"What's with those reddish cheeks?" He asked making me purse my lips as I looked at him.

"N-nothing. You're a weirdo Mr. Honk Honk." I said, trying to dilute the tension inside me.

"I know. It's not wrong to be crazy you know? Anyways, here." He handed me a packet of chips which had an Angry Birds cartoon on the packaging.

"Look who watches Angry Birds still now-"

"I don't watch it that much but it's fun watching it sometimes." He said stuffing his mouth with chips.

"Ah yes, they're fun to watch. My favourite is Terence. What's yours?" I stuffed in more chips.

"Matilda."

"Why?"

"She's very careful and wise in wiping out her enemies. What's your reason for liking Terence tho?"

"He is super wise and thoughtful in his decision and he's so strong! I love his vibe."

"No wonder, you resemble him a lot."

"So for you resembling Matilda."

"And how is that? I don't even lay-"

"Try understanding the fact of laying explosive eggs in real life rather than taking the words literally. Now let me sleep or else I might have motion-sickness."

"Haha okay. Goodnight!" He chimed while I faced the window to sleep.

But he resembles Terence as well.

|•|

~[JOSHUA]

I was listening to music when suddenly I felt a weight on my shoulder that made me rurn around.

My eyes softened when I saw Haeyoon peacefully sleeping with her head on my shoulder.

Terence and Matilda.

Can it be true for us as well ?

She acts like a stubborn meanie but in reality she's a huge fluffball. And this unique personality of hers makes me wanna hug her tightly so ever more.

There was a little commotion going on our bus. Turns out someone had spilled juice over someone's pants.

Not being bothered much about it, I continued listening to music again as I faced her again only to find her slowly squinting her eyes due to the noise disrupting her sleep.

I took one of my earphones out and gently put it in her ears as I reduced the volume to its lowest. Her eyes seemed to relax out once again.

My eyes trailed down to her hands. To my surprise it was on my thigh.

I looked at her again. She was still sleeping.

I don't know what happened within me but I gently interlocked my fingers with hers as I smiled to myself.

Tough, but not impossible for it to come true, right?

I don't know when and how slumber engulfed me in its embrace even though my heart paced at an super-fast speed.

...

2 hours later...

~[HAEYOON]

I woke up randomly only to feel a weight on top of my head.

From the corner of my eye I found him sleeping on my head.

Wait a min.

Wait whAt-!?

How the fuck did I end up sleeping on his shoulder?

My generic response would be shrieking out but since he was sleeping I gently pulled myself out of it and let him have my shoulder instead.

I looked at our hands and my eyes widened as well.

Since when did I become so creepy while sleeping.

I looked at him.

How can a person look so perfect even while sleeping..

"Alright students start wrapping up your belongings. We're almost at our destination." The teacher's voice brought me out of my daydream.

I nudged Joshua to wake him up but he won't move a muscle.

Damnit.

Letting out a sigh I let him continue his nap as I proceeded to take off his earphones and untwine our hands.

Wait a minute. What's that?

From an unbuttoned part in his sleeve I saw a reddish-brown mark peeping out.

Unable to hold in my curiosity, I rolled up his sleeve a little more to get a clear view of it.

My eyes literally popped out on what I saw. A big red scar that resembled a burn.

Did he have any mishap?

"Uh did we reach already?" He woke up and yawned as he automatically rolled down his sleeves.

"Uh-um no not yet. But a-almost..."

He nodded and looked at me and asked, "When did you wake up?"

"A-around like 10 minutes ago? Here, your earphones by the way." I handed him back his earphones as I still tried to process what I saw.

Should I ask him? But won't it ruin his mood?

And once again Mrs Hwang's voice brought me out of this situation.

"We've arrived at our destination. Please carefully get down and wait in front of the bus. Nobody is allowed to leave without mine or Mr Lee's permission." She said as everyone started getting off the bus so did we.

As instructed we all stood in front and waited for the next instructions.

"Alright, everyone is here. Now let me explain the rules. Girls and boys will be divided into two teams. All of you team up first." Her statement made many groan out.

"Good luck champ." He whispered into my ears as I watched him go to his team with a bunny smile.

I responded him with a thumbs up and a wide grin.

"Now follow me everybody." And we all started following her footsteps into the deeper woods.

We reached an opening. Turning to us Mrs Hwang announced again, " This building is for your night stay here. I'll be assigning you roommates and room numbers You can change or freshen up and re-assemble here in 30 minutes. The list begins with Hyejoo and Areum....."

I fervently prayed to god for a decent roommate.

"Sihyeon and Haeyoon room no.16. You guys can go. The staff will guide you the way. You got 30 mins to keep your things and come back here." She said as she motioned us to leave.

We bowed to our teachers and left.

"I think we never introduced ourselves despite being in the same class. Hi I'm Sihyeon, nice to meet you." She said with a smile.

"I'm Haeyoon. Nice to meet you too. Hope we can get along."

"Surely! Friends?" She reached her hand out for a handshake which I accepted with a smile.

The staff showed us our room. Without wasting a minute, we changed our school uniforms into something casual. I chose a normal white tee and skinny ripped jeans to go with and tied my hair into a bun while Sihyeon chose a red chequered mid-length skirt with a white cropped shirt with heels.

"You look cute." I complimented her.

"O-oh thank you. You look stylish too."

We laughed. Obviously my outfit wasn't any stylish but bleh, jeans and white tee never go out of fashion. Prove me wrong.

"Let's go now." And with that we exited and rushed to the field.

On reaching, I found everyone else had already assembled. My eyes immediately started searching for that one boy and there he was, looking at something in the forest.

Thankfully his back was facing me or else it would have been so embarrassing for me if he saw me gawking at him like him.

Well, how can I stop staring if a person has such a greek god sculpted back? Definitely not my fault.

"Alright, we know you're hungry but before that we'll play a game."

Another wave of groans.

"Both the teams have to collect the rarest stones from the forest. Whichever team collects the most number of stones within one hour will get lunch. The loser team will have to cook lunch. The rules of the game are, number one, do not cross the yellow line. I repeat do not cross the yellow lines. The yellow lines are your maximum limit and you're not allowed to go beyond that. Number two is no cheating. You're not allowed to snatch people's collection. If you're caught you'll have to go for one more round. Is that clear to all?" She announced and all of us bobbed our heads.

"Good. Now everybody go! Your time starts now!"

We all scramed off to different directions.

So this is what you call a treasure hunt?.

...

By now, I had collected only 5 stones. I found the 6th stone and was about to pick it up when all of a sudden I heard faint cries.

I tried to ignore it at first and picked up the stone but unfortunately it started icking me off.

I started walking towards the direction of those cries.

At last, I finally reached the exact location.

I saw two guys bullying a girl. One of them was even recording it on his phone.

No sooner had the rage overpower me than I sprinted off in that direction and tossed away the phone from the guy's hands as I stood protectively in front of her.

Both of them stopped momentarily before they smirked demonically.

"Oh look who's here? Wow the prostitute is trying to be a hero."

Ouch.

"One more word and you both won't be able to walk again. Scram."

"Really? Why? Didn't you get any client today? What if we-"

THUD!

I punched him as hard as possible which made him fall down with a thud!

"You little rascal-" The second guy was advancing to hit me but the first guy motioned him to halt.

Dusting off his pants he said still with his smirk on, "Leave her now Yunho. Looks like someone didn't have a great day." Eyeing me he spoke again, "And you, better watch out." He walked out with his friend leaving me fuming in anger.

Controlling my inner rage, I turned around and asked the girl, "Are you okay?"

She nodded her head wiping her tears as she said, "I-I'm sorry you had to-"

"Aish why are you saying that? Don't say that, you're not the one to blame. Let's go back."

"But the stones...?"

I sighed.

"How many have you collected?"

"14."

"That's enough. You're coming back with me. No buts." Saying this I dragged her out of there.

...

TIME SKIP~LUNCH

We're now having lunch prepared by the boys since they lost the game.

Serves them right.

"Eeeh! Who made this?" Ryujin shrieked out as she displayed a piece of a burnt bunggeoppang like some stinky underwear.

"Uhm..I made that." Ni-ki shyly answered which made everyone laugh.

I took a bite of my chicken. Closing my eyes I swallowed it with a hard gulp.

"Um, who made this chicken?"

"I did." Joshua answered with a proud grin.

"Did you perhaps add mayo in here?"

"Yeah I did. Why what's wrong?"

And there we go with another round of laughing our asses off.

"I guess you now have your answer." I said controlling my laughter.

"Yeah yeah whatever at least it can keep your stomach full for some time." He stuck his tongue out.

"But you should definitely send your recipe to Gordon Ramsay. Hell, he hasn't discovered it yet!" I teased him back.

"Noh, I don't share secrets, hmph!"

Mayonnaise chicken. Is it right to simp on food?

Only if it makes sense and taste. Tsk.

...

TIME SKIP~2:34 a.m.

For some unknown reasons I couldn't sleep and kept tossing around in my bed. Maybe because it wasn't my own bed.

I glanced over to Sihyeon. She's sleeping soundly.

I wanted to text Joshua to see if he was awake but quickly brushed it off thinking he might be tired and sleeping too.

But still I hadn't forgotten about the burn mark on his arm.

I got up.

Sliding onto my slippers, I unlocked the door and went out for some fresh air.

Finding a big rock not too far from the building, I sat on it.

"Woah..." it slipped from my mouth as I wondered at the dark beauty of nature.

"What are you doing here?" I jolted up hearing the voice.

I turned back to see the person. It was Jeonghan.

"Oh just..just needed some fresh air. What about you?"

"Same. But it's unsafe to be out at this hour..."

"Oh c'mon we're in the premises. What can go wrong?" I sat down and patted the seat beside me.

"Yeah but..." He trailed off his words as he sat beside me.

"So who's your roommate?" I said changing the topic.

"Joshua."

"Oh. Don't tell me he's the reason you're here."

"Oh no no! He is sleeping."

"And you can't?"

He looked at me with a sad smile.

"Why?"

"Certain things just keep me bugging up."

"Like?"

"Haeyoon have you ever had that euphoric feeling whenever you see someone?"

I thought for a while.

Yes, I do feel. I do feel that whenever I see and am with Joshua.

But should I tell him that?

"No. Why are you asking me that?"

"Exactly, because that's something for you to still find out yet." He smiled and left leaving me in glitch mode.

Books and now my own life likes to leave me on cliffhangers? What's wrong with this human race, I wonder.