23rd☀

Sarang

"I can't believer we're leaving tomorrow!" Mijoo exclaimed as she looked around the room we shared. 

"Neither can I. Has it already been two weeks? It feels like it has only been a few days," I said in return, sighing. I didn't want to leave so soon. This trip has been nothing but amazing. 

"School is starting soon, too," Mijoo said, gasping loudly before she let out a frustrated groan. "Why does school exist? Why?"

"At least there's a talent show," I said, hoping it would somehow cheer her up. I was excited for the talent show. I've already learned all the moves for Playing With Fire by BLACKPINK. I'm definitely going to enjoy myself. 

Mijoo let out another gasp. This time, it was louder than the first. "Oh no! The talent show!"

"What? What?" I asked, alarmed. 

"I don't know what song I will sing!" Mijoo said, covering her mouth in shock. 

"Sing? Does that mean..." I let out an excited squeal. "You're thinking about joining it? Really?"

"Yes." Mijoo sheepishly grinned at me. "I thought why not? It's not everyday I'll have another chance. Better try it out once so I'll have experience."

I ended up standing up from my bed just to run across the room and give Mijoo a tight squeeze. "I'm so happy that you want to join! I can't believe it has come to this point! I'm... I'm emotional!"

"Okay, okay. You weirdo. Calm down." Mijoo poked my forehead, pushing me backwards. "I don't know what happened. I was so scared but all of a sudden I feel brave and I want to do everything. I could even go swimming in the ocean and—Nope. That's a horrible idea."

"Aww, don't be like that! Anyways! I'm so happy you finally decided to join. Maybe it's Yejun's oppa effect. He's too handsome for your eyes and so everything he do or say, you will end up listening to him," I teased, grinning at her. 

"No. What... Here we go again. We're going to talk about Yejun oppa." Mijoo sighed before she shook her head. 

"What? Is he not your crush?" I continued teasing her before I sucked in a deep, wistful breath. 

"What the heck, Cheon Sarang?" Mijoo raised an eyebrow. "Must I have to bring up the story every time? What happened between Hwiyoung and I has left a scar on me. You can call it a trauma."

"So you're saying you're scared of falling in love?" I asked her, tilting my head to side a little. 

"In a way..." 

I shook my head. "Mijoo, it shouldn't work that way. You shouldn't think that way just because of one wrong event. In fact, I think that falling in love again would be the bravest thing you'll ever do."

"Oh, like you?" Mijoo teased. 

Great. I guess she found a new topic to tease me about. And it was no joke that it would be about Hansol. Again. "Maybe."

"Actually, I've never really got to hear the story fully. Why did you two break up again?" Mijoo asked. She no longer looked like she would tease me. She was ready to listen. 

Since the topics had switched over to this, I took a seat and straightened up the cripple part of my pants. "Well, you know his type of personality."

"I sure do. Sang Hyuk used to date my friend, like I told you. Whenever they would have a fight, do you know what he would do? He'd go to other girls. He'd go to his rebounds and date them. It was literally so stupid. I did my best not to punch him every time I saw him. Why would you go to other girls and date them, when you're still dating someone else at the same time?" Mijoo inhaled deep breaths. 

"Calm down. Inhale, exhale," I coached her. Maybe, if I don't succeed in life, I would be a yoga instructor. It's close to dancing, right?

"I'm... trying," Mijoo said between her gritted teeth. After she had calmed down, she nodded her head. "Okay, I'm back. When I first heard that he confessed to you, I was honestly really doubtful. I love you, but I hate him. There's that type of relationship between the two of us. He doesn't know it though."

"Don't worry, I relate to you now." I sympathetically smiled at her, hoping it'd help. 

"Yeah, so moving on. I really didn't want to ruin your happiness, Sarang. You sounded so happy," Mijoo weakly smiled. I understood her concern, but she should have warned me a little better back then. 

Okay, to anyone who would ever hear of my story, they would think I was the bad guy. But truth is, he wasn't those type of guys you'd want to deal with. I didn't know how to properly emphasize it, and maybe I'm wrong for saying all of these things, but you have to take a look in his history first. 

First of all, he was a playboy. And he would be emotional out of nowhere that it made no sense. His emotions aren't even because of his health. In fact, he was fine up until he knew he had that. Fine meaning he was his normal emo self. 

Have you ever met that one guy that you liked, but you don't understand why? Like, for example, everything he does, you just hate it. But you slightly like it, but you really don't. Have you ever met that guy? 

I'd like to refer to it as a heart malfunction. Like, it was just because of single incident or maybe the feelings of the past that made you attracted. Maybe their looks were nice, but their personality was far from decent.

First loves are always exciting. But some first loves just never work out. And the thing about first loves are that they're the first ones to teach you about what love is like. It's like an orientation before the more complicated and hard ones come. 

If so, my first love wasn't like that. Not always, at least. Sure, it was fun and exciting but over time, I found myself getting drawn away from the feeling. 

Call me crazy, but I base things on my signs. That doesn't mean I solely believe in everything they say. I only read about it just to confirm a few things, if they were true. And the thing about me being a Gemini is that I'm not loyal. I can easily lose my feelings out of nowhere that it would sound crazy. 

Try searching for it. Gemini woman. I'm sure you'll understand how I'm like by the time you're done reading. 

Going back to the real world, I looked over to Mijoo, who has decided to play her phone while waiting for me to probably snap out of my thoughts. 

Mijoo looked up from her little device and immediately, a smiled spread on her lips. "Hey, are you awake now?"

"What? Was it obvious that I fell into the world of deep thoughts?" I asked back, laughing. I got up from my bed and did a few stretches before my head turned to the window of our bedroom. "Should we do something today?"

"I don't know. I can't think of what else we can do." Mijoo put her phone down on her bed and joined me in standing in the middle of the room. 

"Let's just enjoy our day. Let's go with the flow. How does that sound?" I asked her. It felt like one of those lazy days. 

"Sounds like fun." Mijoo giggled before she grabbed her phone again. "Let's head downstairs and stare at the backyard while sitting on those swing-like benches. I always forget what they're specifically called. Oh well. Let's just go."

"Sounds relaxing," I said as I followed her out of the room. Today's concept: the last relaxing day. 

In the hallway, we came across Wonwoo, who was wearing a grey hoodie over his black basketball shorts. He looked surprised at first before he ended up smiling and giving us a wave. "Where are you guys going?"

"Downstairs. We're going to sit down in the backyard and think about our lives when we have grandchildren," Mijoo answered. Of course she would answer something like that. 

Wonwoo was speechless for the first twenty seconds before he smiled it off and shook his head. "You and your random thoughts, Kwon Mijoo."

"What? Personality is everything," Mijoo said before she walked down the stairs alone.

"What are you doing, Wonwoo? And where are the others?" I asked, slowly following after Mijoo. Wonwoo was also following us.

"They're all asleep. I think they stayed up playing games last night, that's why they're tired," Wonwoo said, chuckling before he and I walked down the stairs.

Mijoo was already outside, probably lost in her thoughts while she waited for me. As for Wonwoo and I, we were still having some friendly talks. 

"Oh, okay." It was too bad I couldn't spend any time with Hansol. It was alright. I get to spend time with Mijoo, after all. 

Wonwoo had already caught on and smirked at my direction. "I see. Were you wondering where he was?"

"What? No!" I denied, but it felt like my cheeks were slowly betraying me. So much for trying not to be obvious. 

"It's okay to admit certain things, Sarang," Wonwoo continued teasing before he let out a hearty laugh. 

"Jeon Wonwoo!" I pointed at him with my index finger before grunting and heading off to the direction of the double glass doors in the living room. Mijoo was already seated outside. 

"Took you two long enough," said Mijoo with her arms crossed. She was still staring into the distant, as if she could already imagine her life when she has grandchildren. 

I took a seat next to her on the swing and gave her a hug. "Love you too, Mijoo."

Wonwoo also took a seat and smiled silently at the both of us. 

I followed Mijoo's head direction and tried to search at the thing she was staring at. Whatever that may be. But to no avail. I had no idea what she was looking at. "Mijoo, are you deep in thought again?"

"No," she answered, but her head never moved away. 

"Then what are you..."

"I've fallen into a daze again," Mijoo answered, trying to snap herself out of it but it wasn't working. 

This was where the two of us came to the rescue. 

You see, Mijoo had this habit—if it could be called one. At times, she would stare at something—or somewhere—for a few seconds and before she knew it, she can't get it out of focus. She can barely snap herself out of it so most of the times, whenever we weren't around to help her, she would wait until she was out of it. 

I began shaking Mijoo by the shoulders but showed no effect. Next, I kept waving a hand in front of her eyes, in hope that it would do something. When I saw an improvement, I continued doing it in a quicker speed every second. By the end of it all, she was finally out of the daze trap. 

Mijoo blinked her eyes and looked around before meeting both Wonwoo and I's eyes to smile at us. "You guys... I can't ever live without you!"

"Did Mijoo forget to eat her medicine this morning?" Wonwoo teased. When I looked over to him, I noticed that he was trying to fight back an obvious blush creeping onto his cheeks when Mijoo had pulled us into a group hug. 

I only grinned in response, only to have Wonwoo look away from me. "She probably did. I must have forgotten to remind her to eat it."

"You two are whispering behind my back again," Mijoo said with a frown. "You know I can hear you right?"

"Technically, we're in front of you so we're not whispering behind your back," Wonwoo clarified. 

Mijoo had already let go off us and immediately turned to Wonwoo to give him a smack on the head. "Geez, Jeon Wonwoo! I should make you into a kimchi jeon or something."

"What?" Wonwoo burst out laughing, slightly confused all the same. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't even know. I don't even know where that came from." Despite the random words she had said, Mijoo was smiling all the same.

I loved these type of moments. It didn't require anything special. Just a bunch of friends, a fun atmosphere and... who knew? Maybe a little bit of romance, if Mijoo were to allow it. I was still rooting her with Wonwoo, no matter what. There was also Yejun, but I just preferred her with Wonwoo more. 

And that was how our last day went by. 

☀

"I'm surely going to miss you, you butt head," Mijoo said as she turned around to face Seungkwan. 

It was eleven in the morning and our flight was in an hour. I couldn't believe that we were already here in the airport, about to leave Jeju. I had so much fine while I was here, but too bad. We all had to go back to Seoul and continue on with our lives. 

Don't get me wrong; I'm excited to see Dad because I miss him so much but this trip had been so enjoyable. It was a shame that it has already came to an end. I would surely miss waking up in the same room as Mijoo and eating breakfast with all my friends. Let's also not forget the many encounters with Choi Hansol, my crush. Heh. 

"I'll miss you too, you monkey face," Seungkwan returned the greet. He stood there awkwardly for a few more seconds before pulling Mijoo into a big hug. "Don't leave, Kwon Mijoo! I know I say all these things to you but that's because I love you! Please don't leave! Stay here in Jeju  with us!"

Mijoo was taken aback at first but she laughed it off and smacked the back of Seungkwan. "Yah, you pabo! I'm coming back next holiday anyway! With my parents and Soonyoung too!"

This had caught my attention. When did Mijoo become close with Soonyoung again? I'm definitely going to ask her while we wait for our boarding into the plane. 

"Really?" Seungkwan sniffled. Okay, he wasn't exactly crying but you know the kid. He can be over dramatic at times too. "Make sure to visit! I will count the days."

Mijoo rolled her eyes before she broke into a smile. "Okay, you weirdo. When were you so clingy?"

"When I realized you're leaving," Seungkwan answered before he went back to being over dramatic. "I'll miss you so much, Kwon Mijoo! I just want to follow you into the plane and stay with you in Seoul and—"

Mijoo smacked the back of his head. "You're being noisy again."

The rest of us laughed. 

"Hey, Seungkwan. Thanks for the great times we've spent together," Wonwoo said, smiling cutely at him. 

"Yeah, man," Hansol said in English. "Thanks for all the wonderful memories. I'm definitely going to miss you."

Seungkwan was surprised at the sudden English and tried to mimic it, "Y-yeah man!"

Hansol was smiling that wide smile that made my heart flutter and said in return to Seungkwan, "Yeah, man! Definitely going to miss you."

"Def..." Seungkwan paused. "Can you repeat that again? I didn't catch it. English is hard."

Hansol was amused and repeated the English words a little slower this time, "De-fi-nite-ly go-ing to mi-ss yo-u." 

Seungkwan slowly tried to repeat his words, "Def...inite...ly go...ing to mi...ss yo...u."

"There you go," Hansol said, patting Seungkwan on the back. "You got it."

"Yay! I learned English!" Seungkwan looked real proud of himself. He turned to Mijoo and repeated the words again, "Definitely going to miss you, Mijoo Kwon."

Mijoo ended up cringing at his accent and tried to smile it off, but it came out forced. "Yeah... great. Okay then. Bye, Uncle! Thank you for such an enjoyable time here in Jeju! I'll come and visit again!" 

"Thank you so much, Ahjusshi," the two older boys greeted with much courtesy. 

Even I was surprised since they were mostly quiet. In the end, we waved goodbye at both Seungkwan and his dad before heading into the departure area where we went through different but normal procedures. 

We have forty five more minutes until our flight and Mijoo and I decided to wander to a nearby convenient store. The boys decided to stay at their seats to either rest or play games on their phones. You know, usual guy stuff.

I leaned against one of the racks where they sold different types of snacks and watched as Mijoo carefully picked something from it. "Who do you like again?"

"My K-pop oppas," Mijoo answered while scanning the entire rack with snacks. 

"No, I mean seriously like," I rephrased my sentence while grinning. It was an obvious thing, coming from Mijoo. She was always one to joke around like that. "You know, romantically?"

Mijoo lightly chuckled and nodded. "I know what you're trying to ask, Sarang. Just messing with you. And, haven't I answered this question almost a million times? No one."

I pouted. "I thought you'd feel some sort of attraction with someone already."

"Low-key, but so far, nothing. You know how fast my low-key disappears. It's practically gone at this rate," Mijoo answered, picking up a small packet of crispy seaweed, which were apparently snacks. 

"Low-key? Low-key on who?" I wasn't sure why I was so obsessed with Mijoo's love life. Maybe it's because it has been an instinct ever since I found out Wonwoo liked her. I don't really know why. 

"Yejun oppa, but it's practically gone now," Mijoo replied, heading to the cashier to pay for her snacks. 

I gasped a little too loudly and quickly apologized after startling the cashier ahjusshi. "Really? Aw, that's too bad. It's gone now."

"Yup." Mijoo made it seem like it was no big deal. Like everything was as it goes. Maybe I should learn to be like her at times too. "Come on, let's head back. I really want to sleep."

"Sleep? Are you going to rest your head on Wonwoo's shoulder again?" Then I remembered the picture I had of them. Pulling my phone out, I scrolled through my gallery and tried to find that one picture. Upon finding it, I showed it to her with a grin. "Mijoo, check this out."

Mijoo glanced at it at first with no interest but it then sparked something inside of her. She was shocked to see the picture itself and she stared at me, halting me in my tracks before we could return to the guys. "Wait, what? When did you get this picture?"

"When... you were asleep?" I said in return, shrugging before I walked towards the guys, who were engrossed in either sleep or their phone's screen. 

"Yah, Cheon Sarang!" Mijoo yell whispered, following after me. "I—Delete that picture! It'll spark up unwanted rumors!"

"Who's even going to see it? No one but me," I assured her, screen locking my phone. "Relax okay? It's cute. Let me keep it! For memories purpose!"

"What? What memory purpose? Yah, I'm telling you! Delete it now!" Mijoo continued to beg. 

Wonwoo glanced up from his phone to stare at us with a raised eyebrow. "Is something the matter? Why are you two fighting?"

"We're not exactly fighting. It's more of Mijoo begging than a fight," I clarified with a playful smile. Then my eyes wandered over to Hansol, who—at that very moment—glanced up and made eye contact with me. He smiled in response and I only tried to remain normal. 

When I turned to my right—where Mijoo was standing—I noticed that she wasn't there anymore. I looked around and found her taking a seat next to Wonwoo while looking real tired. I wanted to say something about it but I couldn't help but secretly grin to myself. 

Well, I shouldn't be one to complain. Look how sweet they were at the very moment. 

"Hey," Hansol called, taking a seat next to me while smiling. 

"Oh, hey," I greeted back, feeling jittery again. 

"It's the end of our trip," he said with a smile. 

"Yeah," I said in return, slightly disheartened. I couldn't believe that it was finally the end of this trip. It was enjoyable while it lasted. 

"Can you finally answer my question then?"

I was confused at first so I ended up staring at him for a few more minutes. "What question?"

"I guess you became forgetful." Hansol lightly chuckled. "Remember? We talked about this trip and I said I will forever remember this trip and you said it wasn't even over yet. Then I said I had a feeling that it would have a nice ending and I asked you what you thought. You replied, saying you would answer that question in the future. It should be now, no?"

Wow, I wonder how many times he mentioned said. 

I paused and let the memories from this trip play on, remembering every little thing we did here. Thanks to this trip, I was able to bond with my great friends and become closer with the others. And, if I looked a little closer, I could see the special memories spent with Hansol. No one else but the both of us, caught up in the whirlwind of our own memories. 

With a smile on my face, I answered the question of his, "The ending is sad since it involves us leaving, but the trip was very memorable for me. I loved every moment of it." 

And because I came to understand you a little better, I loved it very much. 

~Author's Notes~ 

Trying to end this book very quickly to work on my sequel story for Paper Hearts (which is probably long overdue by now) and other plans for future stories. :) Hoped you enjoyed this chapter! See you in the next one! <3