PᴏV Sɪʏᴇᴏɴ

Now or never, I thought. Minji was with Yoohyeon again and her mother was walking cherry, so no one was home. I got up and walked downstairs into the living room. My heart beated faster thinking about what I was going to do.

You could just ask, I scolded myself. But you decide to risk her mom's trust in you just for that. I ignored the voice in my head and carefully took Minyoung's handbag. I quickly opened it and took a few bills out of her wallet before putting it back.

I hectically put the money in my pocket as I heard steps from outside and scurried into the kitchen. I took a glass and filled it with water right when the door was opened. I was sweating, but relieved. That was close.

Minyoung entered the kitchen to feed Cherry and looked at me with a confused face since my hand shaked a bit while drinking. "Is everything fine?"

I nodded and put the glass in the dishwasher. "Yes... I wanted to tell you I will go out for a few hours, so don't worry about me." I smiled and left the kitchen quickly without waiting for her to reply.

I put on my shoes and took my jacket before leaving the house in a fast pace. I walked until I couldn't see it anymore and sighed. Then I counted the money I had stolen, still feeling a bit bad but not regretting it. 340.000₩ should be enough, I thought.

My knees were still shaking when I got into the bus which would bring me to the central station. What happened to me? Will I become a thief or what? I chewed on my lips and considered returning the money for a while before shaking my head.

The bus arrived at its last stop and I got out. I looked when the next train to Daegu would depart, which was about fifteen minutes. I walked to the right platform and bought a ticket, then I waited.

I texted Handong and told her I would arrive in about an hour. The rest of the time I spent watching a video on YouTube.

-

I left the train and watched out for a blue head after messaging her that I arrived. After a while of wandering around she texted me that she wasn't there yet so I decided to wait outside to get some fresh air and escape all these people. I realised I had never been in a train station all alone.

I sat on a bench outside a bit further from the building and waited for her. After a few minutes I spotted a blue haired girl heading towards the station. She didn't seem to notice me so I got up and paced towards her.

I made sure it was Handong and then walked faster. When I reached her I wrapped my arm around her shoulder, making her flinch.

"Whoa you scared me," she scolded me.
"I'm happy to see you too," I just replied.
She went and hugged me before looking at me strangely.

"Is something off?" I asked.
Handong gasped. "You cut your hair! I knew something changed."
I grinned. "Yeah. Your hair could use a glow-up too," I teased her.

"Are you telling me my hair looks bad?
"No, but it's way to long in my opinion."
"Forget it. I'm not cutting it."

-

Handong looked at me angrily through the mirror as she sat on the hairdresser's chair, her hair up in a towel. I just grinned.

"You're gonna pay for this," she mouthed at me.
"At least you don't have to pay it yourself, right?"
"Doesn't make it better."
I chuckled. The hairdresser asked how she wanted her hair and she answered in an annoyed tone.

"Make me a cut like she has." Handong pointed at me. The hairdresser looked at me.
"Wolfcut?"
The blue haired girl just hummed.

The hairdresser nodded and began to cut her hair. I could see that she was close to tears. After a few minutes that felt like ages it was done. The man showed Handong her hair and she hummed.

"Looks better than I expected," she said, sounding honest. I smiled and she glanced at me.
I paid the hairdresser and we left the hair salon. After we were out of sight, Handong hit me on the arm.

"Ouch!"
"I said you're gonna pay for this, so you will. Just wait."
"I'm so scared," I said sarcastically.

"My poor hair," the other girl whined. "What will my non-existent friends say to this?"
"They would say: 'Whoever did this to you did a good job'."

"Oh I have an idea," Handong said in a mischievous tone. She dragged me over to another hair salon that she spotted. "You wanted me to cut my hair like you? Great, then you're gonna dye it like mine."

"What? No way!" I protested and tried to escape her grip, but failing.
"Yes way."
"Can you please think about this? I don't want to ruin my hair!" Now it was my turn to whine.

"I didn't want that too. This is my revenge, and you're gonna play along, just like I did. And you have enough money, so you're gonna pay yourself, because I am broke as fuck."

A hour later we left the salon and Handong giggled the whole time. "See? It doesn't look that bad!"
"Please! I look like a smurf!" I complained.
"Then we'll look like smurfs together!" the other girl laughed.

"My poor hair," I whined again.
"Well, it's your own fault. Don't blame it on me."
I just hummed in response. I was grumpy for a few minutes but told myself it wasn't that dramatic.

"So what do we do now?" Handong asked and linked her arm with mine. I could see people were looking at us strangely. Well, I would do that too if two girls with exact same hair would walk past me.

"I don't know. I weren't here for a long time. Did something change?"
"It's exactly the same as five years ago," the other girl admitted. "What could happen to a city in the span of five years?"

"What a pity," I said. "Let's go eat something. I didn't have breakfast today."
"Sure. Where do you wanna go?"
"Maybe the café next to the school?"
"Good idea."

-

After the waiter brought us our food, it was silent for a few minutes. I reminisced about all the moments I had experienced here. Even if it just was us studying here or having a talk, I kind of missed it. I sighed.

"Is something up?" Handong pulled me out of my thoughts.
"You know... Sometimes I wish to go back here. Seoul is cool, but... I like it better here, since it's my hometown and the only friend I have ever had lives here." I poked around in my food.

"So Minji isn't your friend?"

"She is... Kinda. I just know you longer. She's just a normal friend to me. And lately, she doesn't give me that much attention anyway since she got a girlfriend. I guess I'll never be more to her than a good friend, even if it hurts to admit that."

"You never know," the other girl said and I looked up.
"Know what?"
"Well, I think with your new hairstyle you look like... Really good. If I were a guy, I'd fall for you immediately." She laughed.

"If you were a guy," I responded, "then you would be very unlucky if you'd fall for me."
"Why would I?"
"Isn't it obvious that I am not exactly into guys?"

Handong shrugged. "Now that you say it, it's kinda obvious." She laughed it off. "To be honest, you never gave me straight-girl-vibes."
I chuckled. "Luckily not."

"I have to admit something," the other said.
"I'm all ears," I replied and put my fork away.
Handong coughed. "Well, I have been questioning my sexuality a lot lately, you know?"

I made a surprised face. Handong? Not straight? Now I was interested. "How come?"
She shrugged again. "I don't know." She leaned closer to me and whispered: "I think I have a crush on someone."

"Who is it?" I whispered back. "Who's your gay awakening?" I chucked and Handong blushed. I gasped. "I have never seen you blush. Who are you and what did you do with Handong?"

"It's not funny, dummy."
I looked serious again. "Now tell me."
"No."
"What do you mean 'no'?"

"I don't want to tell you. You'll probably laugh at me."
"Oh please. Why should I?"
She sighed. "Fine. Do you remember Ms. Nam?"

"Ms. Nam? Yeah, why?" Then I gasped.
"No, no, stop what you're thinking! So, she has a daughter and... She's kinda cute. She's now in my class."

I lifted my eyebrows. "Oh, oh, see. The daughter of a teacher... Not bad. Is she at least smart?"
"She's the best in class. She even overtook me. That's unfair. She just took my place." Handong rolled her eyes. "But I gotta admit that's hella attractive."

I chuckled. "That's interesting."
"Can we now change the topic? Let's talk about your 'gay awakening' or how you called it. Who was it?"
"I thought you knew?"

"How should I know?"
"We chatted everyday the last few weeks and you wanna tell me I didn't mention that?"
"Not that I can remember."

I sighed. "Isn't it like... Obvious?"
"No, not really."
"In my whole life, I have only had one crush, and I still do have a crush on her."

"Oh, wait... I need to think."
"Then think faster," I said in an annoyed tone.
"Was it Minji? That girl that had the idea of getting us two in contact again?"

I clapped my hands two times. "Was it that hard?" I picked up my fork again and continued eating.
Handong pouted. "Don't bully me."
"Excuse me? You're the one who bullied me all the time!"

She waved it off. "Let's not talk about this."
"You remember when I told you Minji had a girlfriend now, right?"
"I'm not that dumb."

"You'll never believe who it is."
"Who?"
"Yoohyeon," I said and she lifted her eyebrows.
"THAT Yoohyeon?"

I nodded and took a sip of my drink.
"Wow. The world's really small."
"Indeed. And you know what's funny?"
"What?"

"I moved to Seoul in 6th class and I have a crush on Minji since then. Do you know how it felt when she first got a boyfriend, dated him for three years and now she has a girlfriend?"

Handong hummed. "That must've hurt."
I nodded. "It did."

For a few minutes we were quiet and finished our food. I paid and we went outside to sit on a bench. We could've stayed in the café but I needed some fresh air.

We talked for a few minutes, when suddenly Handong froze and looked past me. I also looked and saw a girl walking in our direction. I looked at Handong again and smirked.

"Is that her?" I asked, but she didn't reply. "Dang, you really do have a crush on her." I rolled my eyes, even though I understood her. "You should stop staring at her. What will she think of you?"

Handong still didn't react, so I lightly hit her, making her flinch.
"What?"
"Stop staring, I said."

"Pff," she made, but then looked away.
"What is her name?"
"Huh?"
"Are you deaf?"

She rolled her eyes. "Her name is Kazuha," she replied. "Why do you ask?"
"Oh, look, she noticed us," I said. The girl was now indeed walking towards us.

When she reached us, Kazuha said: "Oh, hey, Handong. I didn't expect you here," and sat on the bench next to us. I could see that the blue haired girl seemed nervous.

"Hm, that's funny," Kazuha said and chuckled.
"What is funny?" I asked.
"I have never seen two people with the exact same hair together."
"It was her Idea to dye my hair," I said and pointed at Handong.

She glanced at me. "She forced me to cut my hair. I just got revenge."
"Interesting. Who are you?" Kazuha asked me.
"Siyeon, her friend." I smiled lightly.

"Nice to meet you, Siyeon. Do you live here? I've never seen you."
"I used to live here but I moved away a few years ago. I live in Seoul now. I just came to visit Handong."

"I have never been to Seoul," the black haired girl admitted. "How is it there?"
"Kinda boring. There's no big difference from Daegu, actually."

Kazuha hummed. "My mom forced me to go out, but my friends don't have time today. Can I hang out with you two today?"
"Sure, if Handong has no problem with that." I toasted Handong who had zoned out.

"Hm? What?" She looked at me confusedly.
"She asked us if she could hang out with us today."
"Oh, eh, sure."
Kazuha smiled. "Thank you, guys."

The next two hours we walked through the city and now and then entered a shop. I noticed that Handong was mentally absent almost the whole time, so Kazuha mostly talked with me.

She was really nice, to be honest. She told me many things about her, while I only talked in brickets when it came to me. I could understand why Handong was crushing on her. Kazuha was pretty and nice, but not really my type. I would love to be friends with her.

Kazuha looked at her watch. "It's almost six," she noticed. "I should go home."
"Me too. Just that I need to take the train back," I said and chuckled.

"I am sure that Handong has no problem when we bring you to the central station." The black haired girl smiled.
"I don't," Handong added.

So they accompanied me to the train station and waited with me until the train arrived. I hugged Handong and shook Kazuha's hand before I got in. I waved at them until I couldn't see them anymore.

An hour later I left the train again and walked to the bus station just to notice that the next bus would arrive in ca. 30 minutes. I sighed and sat down on the bench to wait.

I turned on my phone and saw that I had a lot of messages from Minji, but I decided not to react to them. I spend the time playing a game on my phone.

I was the only passenger in the bus. Why did it feel so different taking the bus at night? It was a strange feeling, but not a bad one.

I got out at my stop and walked home. The whole time, I had that weird feeling somebody was watching me, but everytime I turned around I could see no one, so I decided to ignore it.

Only a few minutes later I finally reached the house and unlocked the door. Minji immediately showed up and came running to me. I closed the door and she hugged me tightly, surprising me.

"Where have you been?" she asked in a worried voice.
"I just visited Handong," I justified myself.
"Are you crazy? I thought something serious had happened!"

"Well, it did," I said and pointed at my hair. "Revenge for me forcing her to cut her hair. You wouldn't believe how people looked at us. As if we were aliens." I chuckled.

"You know what I mean." She glanced at me.
I sighed. "I had fun, and you?"
Minji rolled her eyes. "Me too, at least until I came home and you weren't here."

"Well, you have to accept that I don't want to spend my whole day laying in bed. And you should be happy that I managed to get up and do something, because I indeed thought about just staying home today."

"Sorry. I was just worried." She took a few steps backwards and returned to the living room.
Great, now I hurt her, congratulations, Lee Siyeon. I sighed again and went upstairs to go to bed.

—————

Yes, I am actually alive. This chapter has over 2700 words and took me three days so you better not be complaining. I'm not really happy with it, tho.

P.S.: Yes I know that Kazuha is a japanese name but who cares.

P.P.S.: This book is almost finished. I don't think it'll be more than five chapters to go.

P.P.P.S: Bye.