Chapter Text
Chaewon 🐯 • POST
anyone free to hangout this friday night?
1 reply from Eunchae 🐈
u can join me and my school friends on my 1st girls' night out! we are gna hv so much fun~
Chaewon 🐯
OMG WHOA im in. are ur friends ok with me joining tho?
Eunchae 🐈
i'll check with them first :)
Eunchae added Chaewon to a groupchat 𖤐Perfect Night𖤐
Eunchae 🐈 (in groupchat)
HIHI GUYS my neighbour chaewon wld be joining us :D yall fine with that?
Sakura 🌸 (in groupchat)
ooh nice! looking forward to meeting u @chaewon
Kazuha 🦢 (in groupchat)
sureee the more the merrier hehe
Chaewon 🐯 (in groupchat)
<3
Yunjin 🐍(in groupchat)
OMGOMGOMG KIM CHAEWON IS THAT RLY U?? I MISS U SM
Yunjin? As in Huh Yunjin?
Upon seeing the vaguely familiar name, Chaewon did a double take at the phone screen. All her doubts were now overpowered by a curiosity to confirm the identity of the user. She tapped on Yunjin's name in order to view her contact information. Of course she changed her phone number. Chaewon had known that years ago after calling Yunjin's (old) number only to hear an unfamiliar gruffy voice telling her to go away. She shuddered at the thought of that, but her attention was then immediately caught by Yunjin's profile photo. Woah, she kept her profile photo from middle school? Not that Chaewon particularly liked the picture of 13-year-old Yunjin making a joint heart with their middle school classmate Garam, who was also her best friend then. It brought back memories too much for Chaewon to bear. She sighed deeply as she was about to switch off her phone, but was interrupted by a flurry of text notifications.
Eunchae 🐈 (in groupchat)
wait @yunjin u know @chaewon? WOW
Yunjin 🐍 (in groupchat)
yes... we were in the same middle school class
Kazuha 🦢 (in groupchat)
TELL ME ALL ABT IT.
If Yunjin tells, I'm dead meat. Chaewon bit her lip while reading the texts, controlling herself from saying anything potentially incriminating in the groupchat (specifically concerning Yunjin). She hated the way her excitement and anticipation for the girls' night out was suddenly dampened by flashbacks of incidents that she had tried so hard over the past 10 years to forget - all because of someone unexpected who was coming with her on this otherwise carefree gathering. Resurfacing memories and feelings flooded Chaewon's mind, to the point it was enough to make her drown in them again. No...no...NO!
~FLASHBACK~
"Students, you may now go for recess now." The 8th graders dashed out of the classroom like a horde of prisoners set free, all except for Chaewon, who was busy writing in her diary. She could feel a smile spreading slowly across her face as she put pen to paper in her neatest possible handwriting:
ᴅᴇᴀʀ ᴅɪᴀʀʏ, ɪ ꜱᴀᴡ ʏᴜɴᴊɪɴ ᴏɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴀʏ ᴛᴏ ꜱᴄʜᴏᴏʟ ᴛᴏᴅᴀʏ. ꜱʜᴇ ᴡᴀꜱ ʟᴏᴏᴋɪɴɢ ʙᴇᴀᴜᴛɪꜰᴜʟ ᴀꜱ ᴀʟᴡᴀʏꜱ. ʙᴜᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴏɴ'ᴛ ʙᴇʟɪᴇᴠᴇ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ʜᴀᴘᴘᴇɴᴇᴅ. ꜱʜᴇ ᴀᴄᴛᴜᴀʟʟʏ ꜱᴍɪʟᴇᴅ ᴀᴛ ᴍᴇ!!! ɪ'ᴍ ꜱᴏᴏᴏ ʜᴀᴘᴘʏʏʏ ♡♡ ʙᴜᴛ ᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴀᴍᴇ ᴛɪᴍᴇ, ɪ'ᴍ ᴀʟꜱᴏ ꜱᴀᴅ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴛᴏᴅᴀʏ ɪꜱ ʏᴜɴᴊɪɴ'ꜱ ʟᴀꜱᴛ ᴅᴀʏ ʜᴇʀᴇ ɪɴ ᴋᴏʀᴇᴀ, ᴡʜɪᴄʜ ᴍᴇᴀɴꜱ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪ ᴍᴀʏ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ꜱᴇᴇ ʜᴇʀ ᴀɢᴀɪɴ... :'(
But Chaewon wasn't finished yet. She decided to decorate the page with some doodles, including one of her making a hand heart with Yunjin. A heart outline was drawn around Yunjin's face before the words ᴍʏ ʜʏᴘᴇ ɢɪʀʟ were added as a finishing touch. Oh wait, I almost forgot Garam asked me to meet her to study! Chaewon hurriedly got out of her seat and grabbed her calculator and Math workbook before running down the stairs as fast as her legs could carry her, meanwhile leaving her diary opened in class...
"Oops, I just realised I left my calculator in my locker!" Garam panicked the moment she saw Chaewon take out her calculator to work on a problem sum. "Do you mind going back up with me?" Seriously? After I rushed down here to meet you? Chaewon heaved a loud sigh, but that somehow did not stop her best friend in any way, who decided to put on her signature cute puppy eyes, which they both knew was Chaewon's weakness.
"Please, Chae. I'll treat you to an ice cream later. Mint flavour, your favourite! Accompany me just this once, pleeaasse?"
"Whatever, Garam. I give up. Just make it quick, we still have homework to do." Chaewon sighed again, this time in defeat as she reluctantly got out of her seat, trailing behind a Garam who was running at a speed faster than the older girl had ever seen her run before. "Whoa. Slow down just a little."
"But you said to make it quick-"
"I didn't mean THAT quick."
Garam's locker was messy. Not just messy though. Countless textbooks, files and storybooks were all squashed inside, despite barely even fitting into the small space. And as if that was not enough, food wrappers, polaroid photos and stray pieces of paper were strewn everywhere.
"Well, good luck finding your calculator in that pigsty of yours." Chaewon side-eyed her friend who was intensely searching, flipping over every single book, file and note in her locker.
"Wait, I don't think I saw this one before." Garam pointed at a piece of pink paper folded in half that lay on top of her English textbook. Chaewon leaned in to get a closer look as Garam gingerly unfolded the paper. The girls' eyes widened in shock as they read the words written in cursive:
𝓘 𝓼𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓭 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓼𝓪𝓲𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓵𝓲𝓮𝓻. 𝓣𝓸𝓭𝓪𝔂 𝓲𝓼 𝓶𝔂 𝓵𝓪𝓼𝓽 𝓭𝓪𝔂 𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓘 𝔀𝓪𝓷𝓽 𝓽𝓸 𝓵𝓮𝓽 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓴𝓷𝓸𝔀 𝓫𝓮𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓮 𝓘 𝓵𝓮𝓪𝓿𝓮: 𝓘 𝓵𝓸𝓿𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾 ♡
~𝓨𝓾𝓷𝓳𝓲𝓷 :)
"Chae, read this out aloud. I want to know I'm not seeing things, because I seriously am unable to believe that HUH YUNJIN LIKES ME BACK!" Garam squealed. Well, Garam told me she liked someone in our class, but of all people, WHY did it have to be Yunjin? Chaewon felt the green-eyed monster rear its ugly head, stabbing her hard in her heart, leaving her with no choice but to space out, trying to comprehend the current situation. Yunjin doesn't like me, she likes Garam, who likes her back!? NO, PLEASE TELL ME THIS IS ALL JUST A BAD DREAM!
"Chaewon, you alright?" Garam asked out of concern upon seeing her best friend in a daze.
"Sorry, I have to go." Chaewon hastily excused herself before slipping into the 8th Grade classroom. She made a beeline for her table, snatching her diary from it before running off to the toilet.
Panting heavily, Chaewon shut the cubicle door. She was still suffering from the shock of Yunjin's sudden confession to Garam. As she took out her diary to start writing about everything that just happened, she noticed that the page that she had previously written and doodled on earlier was missing. The jagged edges of paper that remained were a hint that someone had torn the page out. Oh shit, I forgot to close my diary! I don't want to know just how many people saw my really embarrassing entry...forget random people, what if Huh Yunjin herself read it... Just when Chaewon thought at this point that things couldn't get any worse, she saw a small scribble at the bottom right corner on a page. It read in the same cursive font she had seen earlier: 𝓗 𝓨𝓙 𝔀𝓪𝓼 𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮, confirming Chaewon's suspicions. No nononono NOOO!! Chaewon badly wanted to hate Yunjin for disrepecting her privacy by not only reading her diary, but also going as far to tear out a page and possibly never return it. However, she knew there was no way she could bring herself to hate Yunjin, no matter how hard she forced it. It just didn't make sense. Before she even knew it, the dam broke and tears started streaming down Chaewon's face, dropping on her diary and wetting the paper.
~END FLASHBACK~
It had been 10 years since Chaewon wrote those words on her diary, but they still did not fail to wash a wave of wistfulness over her as she read them.
ᴅᴇᴀʀ ᴅɪᴀʀʏ, ʜᴏᴡ ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴛᴇ ꜱᴏᴍᴇᴏɴᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ʟᴏᴠᴇ?
Yunjin, I hate you for causing me so much pain - by making me love you through all these 10 years.