It had been a few days since Hyerim had interacted with Haechan. Three days, to be exact. No, she wasn't counting.

Ever since that Monday when they had lunch together, he hadn't come to find her again. She felt stupid, walking out of class, expecting to see a cheeky grin awaiting her outside, but to no avail. Their lunch session was probably just a one time thing.

She had slowly conditioned herself over these three days to stop waiting for him during breaks. She reverted back to her old spot at the rooftop of the arts building, not wanting to deal with the noisy, crowded cafeteria without him by her side. She had slowly conditioned herself to get used to loneliness again.

She didn't miss him though.

Of course not, she thought to herself as she marched to the the familiar C3 room where the club meetings were held to do some editing of her sports column. The past two editions of The Neoletter had done pretty well, the second one doing significantly better than the first as it had the warmup Haechan pictures that Hyerim took.

Opening the document, her heartstrings tugged a little as she looked at the picture she took of Haechan in the middle of his warmups. He was glowing - smiling radiantly as he looked to the left of the camera at something, in the midst of skating around. Hyerim didn't want to admit it, but she missed him. She missed him, his voice, his smile, his laughter, his touch.

In her 17 years of living, being with him was one of the only times when she truly felt alive.

❆

In the familiar cold rink, Hyerim sat waiting for the game to start along with all of the other students. Mark sat next to her, munching on a hot dog. Finally, the players entered the rink, skating around and interacting with the audience. Haechan was his usual flirtatious self, winking and blowing playful kisses towards the fawning audience. Several screams, squeals and "aww"s could be heard, mainly from the cluster of girls to their right as they stood up on their seats waving around their signs to get the boy's attention.

"Want a bite?" Mark asked next to her, offering the hot dog. She gratefully accepted,  biting off a chunk of the hot food, fanning her mouth as she chewed. 

"Hot," she complained while scrunching up her face, making the boy next to her laugh.

"Oh dude, I'm sorry I should've told you," he said in between giggles as she comically hit him on the chest. He feigned pain, leaning back on the bench while clutching his sweatshirt.

The two of them bickered and joked during the game, barely paying attention to the skaters. Hyerim would've forgotten to take pictures if it weren't for Mark hurriedly reminding her as the game was ending with the Gators once again taking home the win.

She hadn't laughed like that in a while. Mark was refreshing - his youthful nature, big grin and silly fits of giggles made her smile and temporarily forget her stresses. Hyerim was aware that he was quite popular amongst the girls, but he was popular for a different reason. He was genuine, always caring. He was the type that you would bring home to your parents, the type that your mum would tell you to marry when you were younger. She could see why Mark was attractive amongst other girls.

The game ended, and the crowd started pushing through the rink doors, eager to exit. Hyerim lost Mark in the crowd, his voice fading away as they got separated. She didn't bother to fight with the other people to get to the exit first - they were all going to get out anyway. Lingering at the back of the crowd, clutching her tote bag, she patiently waited for the crowd to thin.

"Didn't know you were dating Mark Lee."

Her heart erratically skipped a beat at the familiar voice, and she turned around to see none other than Lee Haechan, still in his hockey gear, hair tousled and messy from the helmet that he had sandwiched under his arm. His gaze was unreadable.

"You need to stop sneaking up behind me like that," she tried to joke, swatting at him with her hand. He ran his fingers through his hair, smoothing it a bit. The action made her words falter. How can someone be so fucking attractive?

"If I knew you had a boyfriend, I wouldn't have..." His voice trailed off as he shuffled awkwardly, now looking at the ceiling, at his feet, at the benches to his left, anywhere but her. Hyerim furrowed her eyebrows.

"Haechan, I-"

"Forget it. Get home safe," he interrupted, shooting her a tight-lipped smile, walking past her to the exit. His padded shoulders brushed past her, the contact sending a shiver up her arm.

What the hell was that?

❆

"And now he thinks we're dating," Hyerim finished, slouching down in her chair in the club room. Mark let out a loud laugh, shoving a potato chip in his mouth.

"He's jealous."

"Can you be serious for one second?" The girl rolled her eyes, scowling, but Mark's eyes widened.

"I literally am. He's jealous."

"The man barely knows me." Fed up with his antics, Hyerim turned around in her wheely chair, and looked back at her screen where she was editing her column.

"Did you not try to tell him that we're just friends?"

"Do you think I didn't try? He cut me off and then walked away, and I wasn't about to yell after him." She huffed, bottom lip sticking out, getting upset thinking about it. He didn't even give her a chance to explain herself.

"I'm telling you, he's just being a bitch 'cuz he's jealous. There's nothing else to it," Mark told her as he threw a wad of scrunched up paper up and down in the air.

"Can you stop saying bullshit and do your work?" The girl shot him a glare, and he dropped the paper, raising both hands to surrender.

"I thought I was the club leader," he grumbled, but still obediently scooted over to his cubicle.

A blissful silence ensued, no one talking except for the sounds of the keyboards clicking. But that was soon interrupted.

"Just talk to him dude."

Hyerim closed her eyes and reopened them, trying to ignore him.

"He's jealous."

She didn't respond.

"Dude."

"Okay, shut the fuck up. I'll talk to him in a few minutes okay? If he's still at practice," the girl gave in, checking her phone to look at the time. "You're so annoying."

"You'll be thanking me for this."

❆

Hyerim stood awkwardly in front of the doors of the arena, backpack slung over one shoulder. She mentally cursed Mark for being so damn persistent, and herself for giving into him. She could see the boys on the rink playing a practice rink through the glass doors.

Lifting her hand towards the door handle, she pulled to open it, and tried to slip into the rink as quiet as possible, but to no avail. 

"Hyerim-ah!" 

Jaemin skated towards the barrier, crashing into it to wave eagerly at Hyerim, who hastily waved back, cursing him in her mind for being so eagle-eyed, and so loud.

"Hi Jaemin. Um, when do you guys get a break? I just need to talk to Haechan." She fidgeted with her fingers, already feeling embarrassed. She felt like one of Haechan's desperate girlfriends, chasing him down to talk to him, to plead him for forgiveness.

"We can have a break right now." Jaemin signalled to his team who were staring at him curiously. "He's over there," the boy craned his neck around and pointed towards the other side of the rink, where the boy stood facing the bench, bending down to look at something. "But he seems to be a lil busy right now."

Squinting her eyes, she could now see why he was bending down.

A girl.

Long blonde hair, big brown eyes and peachy pink lips, with a white fitted polo shirt and a short grey mini skirt that was hiked up her thigh. Underneath him, manicured hands on his shoulders, massaging them while he leaned down to whisper something in her ear.

The sight made her sick.

But her feet carried her towards the couple, and as she neared, she could see the display of hickeys littered on the blonde boy's neck, the lip tint that was slightly smeared on the white of his uniform, his hands that were placed on either side of the mystery girl.

Hyerim stood awkwardly to the side. This wasn't what she had rehearsed in her mind earlier on the way here. Her mind blanked. She wished Mark, with his stupid big smile and his wad of paper was next to her right now, telling her whether she should leave or stay. Her brain chose the latter, keeping her feet planted on the ground a few feet away from the two blondes.

The girl was the first to notice Hyerim, her big eyes with grey contacts narrowing at first, then widening. Feigning.

"Baby, there's someone here for you," she said, pinching his uniform sleeve and tugging it while pouting and looking up at him.

After what seemed like a year, Haechan detached his plump lips from the girl's neck and turned to face Hyerim. He stalled, the impish grin wiped instantly from his mouth, his eyes losing the darkened lust. Straightening, he pushed himself off from the girl, running a thumb over his lips.

"Hyerim."

"I can go, if you want. You seem busy." Hyerim shot him a glance and turned to leave, but he touched her upper arm gently.

"Wait...Did you need anything?" Hyerim turned back around at the boy's words. She examined his expression - he seemed genuine enough. However, she couldn't miss the glowering stare that the seated girl gave her. Averting her eyes from Haechan to look at the blonde girl, she gulped as the girl scowled at her, before standing up. Haechan also looked behind him at the girl.

"Dayeon, give me, like, five minutes. I'll be back."

And with that, he pulled Hyerim by the arm and lead her towards the exit of the arena.

i died for like 2 weeks bc of exams but im back and better than ever