Chapter Text
“Whatever,” says Seungcheol, switching his alarm off.
“Whatever,” says Seungcheol, squeezing some paste on his toothbrush.
“Whatever,” says Seungcheol, opening the new cereal box with a cutter.
“Whatever,” says Seungcheol, pouring milk into his bowl of cereal.
“What’s whatever?” says his elder sister, entering the kitchen, and cleaning her glasses with the edge of her sleep shirt.
Born as Choi Seungyeon, but eternally ‘noona’ for Seungcheol, she is almost a decade older than him. She is an Adult, so when Choi Seungcheol became one, and got admission far from home to the big bad Seoul, their parents were fretting for the baby to feel comfortable in the new city, and her having a job and an Adult life at Seoul, was a relief to both of them. Naturally, a twenty year old man and his twenty-eight year old sister became roommates all over again, just like when Seungcheol was in middle school.
“Whatever,” Seungcheol mutters, shoving a morsel into his mouth.
“Are you a Pokemon? What is whatever?”
Seungcheol lets out a deep sigh.
“Ok, what happened?” His sister says, immediately sitting by him at the table and wearing her glasses.
Seungcheol looks at her with sombre eyes before he takes a breath and sets off into a long whine.
“Nooonaaaaaa,”
In the same tone, the noona replies, “Whaaaat?”
“You know the girl I was talking to you about?” Seungcheol says, slapping the table dramatically, “I confessed to her yesterday,”
“Ohh, did she… reject you? Is that why you are like this?”
“I wish,” Seungcheol says, and frowns unhappily. “I seriously don’t know,”
“Then what happened?” says his sister.
Seungcheol takes a moment to collect himself.
“She said, ‘whatever’,”
His sister sits dumbfounded for a few seconds. She says, “Is this some… MZ dating etiquette?”
Seungcheol huffs, not appreciating the joke. “Go! You have to get ready for work,”
“Right,” His sister says, “But are you okay?”
“The only emotion I’m feeling right now is confusion. I think.”
“Yah… Talk to her again, okay?” Seungyeon says, getting up and checking the wall clock once, “Talk properly, what is this confusing answer?”
“Yeah… Yeah…” says Seungcheol, waving his hand.
Looking at his dispirited face, the elder sister keeps her hands on her brother’s shoulders. She says, “Let’s have take out today, okay? My treat,”
“Wow, you were never this cool all those years ago,”
“...I was a high schooler with no money, what the fuck. I’m assuming this is a no, then.” she says, pushing him away and going to her room.
“No, no! What are you saying? I want to eat take out!” Seungcheol calls out.
“Say ‘Sorry, o great noona of mine’,”
Seungcheol takes a moment for his dignity. Then he says, “Oh great noona of mine~ I’m sorry, please buy me good chicken,”
“Okay~ my peasant brother,”
“Noona!” Seungcheol yells.
The situation is pretty simple. Seungcheol just needs to ask the girl what she meant by ‘whatever’, but the thing is, they have an unnamed relationship from the start. What if everything gets awkward, she says no, and Seungcheol doesn’t get to meet her again? And Seungcheol doesn’t want to leave her!
You’ll look at Yoon Hani and you’ll know.
The first thing you’ll notice is her height. She has mile long legs and arms, with shoulder length black hair, a delicate flower-like face and features. She always wears cute pastel coloured jumpers or hoodies (sometimes fuzzy ones) with mostly knee length skirts or wide legged pants. She has soft dewy makeup all the time, and she always always wears dangly and cute earrings. Personally, Seungcheol gets dumbfounded when he looks at her.
That’s what almost happened to him when he first saw her anyway, at the fresher’s party a month and a half-ago. It was an unofficial one, with the seniors arranging one for them, and of course there were drinks involved. Because it was in a club, the lights were dim, but regardless of that, Seungcheol’s gaze landed on a person wearing grandma-esque clothes.
Such conservative clothing was a sharp contrast with the clothes worn by other girls, and while neither type of clothing is bad, a chequered sweater and long grey skirt in a party really piqued Seungcheol’s interest. He was in the midst of a group of freshers, nodding along to what they were saying, so when he excused himself, one of the boys said, “It’s not even the second week of college and you’re trying to land a girl? Bold, Choi Seungcheol,”
They were acquaintances only for a few days, but Seungcheol didn’t mind this teasing. “Oh, shut up,” said Seungcheol and he was on his way.
The girl was getting a drink at first and soon she was merging with the wall, stirring her drink and sipping once in a while, absolutely not interested in being there. She must be an introvert, nervous to talk to others. Seungcheol felt a bit nervous too, but wiping his sweaty hands on his shirt, he marched forward, wanting to — yes — land a date with this girl.
With the girl approaching, Seungcheol could see her features clearly under the blue, purple and pink lights. She was one lovely and pretty girl indeed, from afar and from the close-up as well. Big dark eyes, a straight and small nose, high cheekbones and thin but rosy lips. Her hair was amazing as well, black like ink and silky to the extent that no matter how much she tried to push it back, her hair would cover her face when she ducks.
When Seungcheol reached her at last, the girl looked at him with wide eyes, surprised at a man getting closer to her, before turning back to her drink. Her hair covered her face again, and with a thin and pretty hand, she pushed it back.
Seungcheol felt something unexplainable, looking at this girl. After a few moments to himself, with a voice loud enough to hear over the music, he said, “Have we met before?”
The girl looked a little taken aback, but glancing at him up and down, and she hid back in her hair and said, “That's a really bad line. You must know this,”
Seungcheol started sweating. He wasn’t trying to flirt like that. Like yes, he came here to flirt, but not in such a bad way! He tried to justify, saying, “No! I mean, no I really think I have seen you before,”
“...In heaven?” The girl guessed, looking like she was cringing a little bit.
Seungcheol cringed three-fold. A bit embarrassed, he said, “No I mean you look like someone I must have seen before”
After a pause, the girl said, stirring her drink, “You're cute, I'll give you that, but you need to work on your charms,”
“My charms are fine,” Seungcheol said, a bit sulky.
The girl looked him up and down again. “I can see,”
Seungcheol felt a bit hopeless, and because his first college level flirting failed, he ended up just asking in desperation, “Can I have your number, please?”
The desperation turned out to be good for him, because he did end up texting Yoon Hani over the days. It didn’t go that well, because either Seungcheol was really bad at ‘charming’ indeed, or Yoon Hani was hard to talk to. Seungcheol thinks it is both. Take example of this text conversation from early march.
Wa, I have hardly heard a girl being named Hani, you know
I see.
Well, of course there’s EXID Hani
I don’t know her.
You don’t know EXID Hani?
What is EXID?
…
They did not have common things to talk about, be it in early March when they met or right now in April, and that’s exactly why Seungcheol tells himself to make peace with silence. He should talk to her, he thinks.
But no! A week passes by and Seungcheol never confirms what she meant by ‘whatever’. Seungcheol likes Yoon Hani! He doesn’t want to not see Yoon Hani! So dragging this ambiguous relationship, Seungcheol does anything he can to see her.
Today, he zooms out of class in excitement of seeing Yoon Hani again, suppressing the skip in his step and the smile on his face. There’s still some time before her class gets over, so he goes to the coffee shop to get something for both of them. With drinks on both hands, he stands near the building just in time for the students to pour out of the entrance. Seungcheol hardly knows any one of them, because their fields are too different to run into each other, so busies himself by not making eye-contact and searching for a Hani-shaped person among them. Hani is easy to find, all tall and… pouty?
Seungcheol lets out a concerned hum. Hani finds him by the side, gives half a glance to Seungcheol and the drinks, and stalks over there.
“Thank you,” She says, frowning as she takes the drink. Seungcheol makes her switch the drink, because his own is a caramel one, not the one Hani likes. Hani takes a sip from hers and immediately sighs.
Seungcheol has never really seen her like this. Hani is always reserved and composed so this is quite sudden. He wonders how to ask her.
“My brain is not braining— ah again with the brain!” Hani says to herself. “It’s like I’m back to high school with the brain parts and everything. Why do I need to learn about neurons and all that all over again? Fucking hell,”
Seungcheol gets a little giddy. Is Hani ranting to him? She’s so cute.
“Why’re you learning all that though?”
Hani lets out a long sigh and sips her drink. She says, “Because we’re learning about how emotions occur, and from which part of the brain,”
“Ahhh, you guys have it hard,” Seungcheol says.
“Let’s have lunch, I’m famished,” Hani mutters, frowning and Seungcheol follows her easily, feeling very excited. This is a new side of Hani. Annoyed but cute Hani!
At the end of lunch, they don’t talk too much. Seungcheol is content with eating and watching Hani eat — she’s just as cute while eating, thank you — so he is alright. But when the bill is paid and they go outside, Seungcheol feels a bit sad. Well it’s not in his hands.
He says. “Don’t you have the class far away?”
Yoon Hani looks at her watch and jumps. “Oh, right! I’ll leave,”
“Yeah,” Seungcheol says, stuffing his hands in his pockets. Yoon Hani crosses him to catch a turning, but for a second, looks back.
“Choi Seungcheol,”
“Yeah?” Seungcheol asks, blinking. Is this some initiation? It’s always Seungcheol who talks of meeting plans. Does Hani want to meet him out of her own?
“How much was the frappe and everything?”
Deflating a little, he waves his hand. “Don’t worry about it,”
“No, I’ll pay back,”
“No, take it as my treat,”
Yoon Hani shakes her head.
“Then…” Seungcheol says, “You pay the next time,”
“Okay,” Hani says, nodding and going back on her way. “Bye,”
“Bye…”
As Yoon Hani leaves and Seungcheol watches, he cannot help but sigh. It looks like they have made plans to get drinks again, but quite obviously, it is something he’s just hoping on. He wants to do some couple stuff, but as days pass by, it seems more like a friendship thing, at least with the way Hani talks with him. What is he going to do now?
In the next week, still no routine is set. Sometimes Seungcheol asks her to hang out at cafes or stroll parks or walk to classes, or spend lunch time together. But that is the extent of it. One day there’s a seminar at building C, which is usually occupied by Psychology students, so Seungcheol tells Hani so. Hani doesn’t have a class at that time, so she just texts him back ‘Ohhh’.
Ah well.
He attends the seminar half-heartedly, not because he is bummed out, but because the speaker is really boring, some bloke from a start-up who wants to talk about the importance of an entrepreneurial spirit. Like, it’s boring. When the seminar ends and he exits the auditorium, he lets out a huge sigh.
In his frustration, he walks fast out of the building, ready to pester Mingi or Minhyun to go to some internet cafe, but then from the corner of his eye, he sees a familiar green sweater. Frowning, he turns to see… Yoon Hani! In an open area with tables and chairs for students to sit and do group work (or just chat), he sees Yoon Hani at one table, writing on a notebook. Looks like she’s writing formal notes from her scratch ones.
Approaching her, Seungcheol mumbles, “Yoon Hani,”
“Oh you came,” Hani says, glancing up at him once, and then stuffing her pens back in her pouch. “I was waiting for quite some time. Didn't you say it would get over at 4?”
“Yeah… the speaker just dragged it on,”
Hani nods, now stuffing her books in her tote bag. “I need sugar,” she announces.
“Okay,” Seungcheol says with a smile. Hani was waiting for him. He subconsciously makes puppy eyes at her. Hani waited for him!
“Oh, wait um,” Seungcheol says, a little unsure. He was going to shoot some heat off at the arcade or somewhere but he cannot go with Hani, right?
“What is it?” Hani says, wearing her bag and standing in front of Seungcheol.
“I…” Seungcheol starts. Oh no, he doesn’t have it in his heart to reject his pretty girl. “Um,”
“What? You had somewhere else to go?” Hani guesses.
Seungcheol nods slowly. He says, “I mean… it’s not something I have to do for sure. I was planning to go to the gaming cafe, actually,”
“Ahh,” Hani says. There is hardly a hint of what she’s thinking, but suddenly, she says, “I can’t come?”
Seungcheol panics and waves his hands. “I didn’t mean that you can’t! I thought you might not be interested,”
“Well I’m not into games much,” Hani admits, pushing her lips out in thought. “But I won’t mind,”
“Ohh,”
“Can’t I come then?”
“Of course! What are you saying?” Seungcheol says, feeling his heels lifting off the ground in happiness. Maybe he won’t call his friends after all! Hani is hanging out with him.
Hani has a small smile on her face. As stay start walking, she says, “But seriously, let’s get a doughnut or something first,”
“Sure, sure,”
“And how did the seminar go?” Hani asks.
Seungcheol looks at her like she has just landed from heaven.
“What?” Hani asks. “I don't know much about this but it might have been good for you business students, right?”
Shifting aside the awe of Hani asking him about him, Seungcheol says, “Oh it sucked! The guy went on talking about passion and hard work and ‘standing up despite how many times life knocks you down’. And guess how his company is successful? Daddy’s money,”
“Really?” Hani asks, laughing.
“Yes! Not a top-tier chaebol family, but he’s a trust fund baby. I searched in the middle of his speech and it turns out he’s got land and property from his parents.”
“Ooh,”
“And one time this one student asked about how to console oneself when a business fails bla bla and this guy started monologuing like he’s some poet. Why was everyone so moved? He was spewing bullshit!”
Hani giggles as he keeps on ranting.
It takes some time for Seungcheol to realise that hey, Yoon Hani is not totally uninterested in him. She listened to his monologue the entire time they bought doughnuts, rode the bus and reached the PC bang. She is also currently indulging in his games at the PC bang and so suddenly, when Seungcheol gets this realisation, he also thinks it might not be fair.
“Are you sure you’re having fun?” He asks, popping a headphone out. Hani copies him to listen to his question and chuckles.
“It’s fun,”
“Really, really?”
“Really really~” Hani answers. “My younger sister plays a lot. Our family used to move around the country a lot due to my parents’ job, and because my sister is an addict, she always wants to explore arcades and PC bangs and bowling alleys and everything. So I have hung out in such places a lot,”
“Oh, your sister sounds cool,”
“She is cool,” Hani agrees.
“How old is she?”
“She’ll turn fifteen next month,”
“Uwa,” Seungcheol says, and repeats, “Uwa,”
Hani laughs at his reaction, saying, “What? Why?”
“No just— two sisters is such a cute concept. I have an elder sister, you know? And for the longest time when my mother was pregnant again, she wanted me to be a girl,”
“Ohh,” Hani says.
Feeling the conversation fizzle out a little, Seungcheol says, “Shall we continue?”
“Yes~”
It has been around three hours since they started gaming and feeling that it would be dark right now, Seungcheol proposes the idea to retire for the day. When they finish with the payment and come to the entrance, Seungcheol looks outside with surprise.
“Um, okay,” Seungcheol mumbles, stretching his hand out and feeling raindrops on it.
Yoon Hani, who joins him half a step later, looks at him, then rummages through her tote bag, pulling out an umbrella. She unfolds it and tips it towards Seungcheol, as if to share with him.
“Oh, thanks,” Seungcheol says, blinking. Yoon Hani holds the umbrella over them, and Seungcheol feels a little awkward getting under, so he grabs the stem. “I'll hold it, if it's okay,”
Yoon Hani gives him a look but doesn't say anything, dropping her hand. Together, they walk out in the rain and Seungcheol hovers behind Yoon Hani. He knows it will happen but he still bites his lip when his shoulder gets drenched. He's a broad man sharing an umbrella with a social-distancing girl. It is bound to happen. But still, Seungcheol makes sure Yoon Hani isn't getting drenched. It's her umbrella after all, and he'll not let her get drenched anyway.
While Hani hasn’t been concrete about their relationship, from the very start, even when they were just hanging out, she did say something about not liking touches. She said something about how only family and close friends are okay, and that sometimes the reason she wears baggy clothes is not because of the cold or protection from sun, but because she has to travel in crowds and doesn’t like the accidental touches. Seungcheol respects her decision, and has even started calling this the No Touch thingy inside his mind. The No Touch thingy is applicable even when they are sharing an umbrella, so Seungcheol struggles a little with his bigger body.
Even Hani seems awkward, drawing her shoulders close to herself. They are still a block away from the bus stop, so halfway down the route, Hani says, “It’s… okay if you hold onto my bag,”
Thinking that she meant ‘holding her bag’, Seungcheol says, “Oh, give it to me,”
“No, I mean,” Hani mumbles, hardly glancing at him, “Holding onto… from behind,”
Seungcheol doesn’t understand for a moment, but then reaching behind Hani, he clings to a corner of her tote bag. In this position, it might appear that Seungcheol has his arm around her, but it’s just an illusion. This way, however, his shoulder hardly gets drenched, being closer to Hani. Timidly, he says, “Like this?”
Just as timidly, Hani says, “Yeah,”
Seungcheol doesn’t forget that particular moment for a couple of days. It was raining, right? So the weather was chilly, and even though Seungcheol wasn’t touching Hani, he could feel her phantom warmth against his arm. Maybe it was his own imagination, but that particular incident has led to Seungcheol… yearning for her. Welp.
Not in a sleazy way! Seungcheol is a very cuddly person. He can spend hours wrapped around his parents or sister or his school friends or so. Even if it has only been a month in college, he has already started clinging to his new friends. It is just how he is. One can say it is his love language, or even a measure of how close he feels to someone. Hani obviously isn’t that close to him, but Seungcheol yearns to be close to her, damnit! He wants to put his arm around her shoulder or waist, maybe play with her hair, or randomly pull her cheeks. But he realises it won’t be happening, so he tries his best to suppress such urges. It usually works out well. Hani and he hang out and Seungcheol keeps his hands in his pockets or behind his back to not accidentally reach out.
One day, Seungcheol is walking out of the class when he is randomly approached by a guy in the hallway.
“Hey, Yoon Hani is your girlfriend, right?” This stranger says. “I have seen you guys hanging out together,”
“Uhhh,”
“Anyways,” The guy says, brushing the reply away and brandishing his phone. “I have news,”
Seungcheol is very confused, and he flinches when a voice comes out of it. “Yah, he said it again, so desperate,”
The guy next to Seungcheol points at the phone and says, “This is my friend, he’s reporting live from the drama,”
“What drama?” Seungcheol says. Feeling that this is something serious, he sternly says, “What is it about Hani?”
On the phone, the friend says, “Nah, not desperate, he’s saying it quite egotistically,”
“Damn, really?” says this guy, then he turns to Seungcheol, “Calm down, she’s just getting confessed to from a guy and there’s a crowd and everything, so I thought you should know,”
Seungcheol feels uneasy for some reason. At first it is for himself, feeling a bit insecure, but then he thinks of Hani. Hani must not like crowds. What if she’s uncomfortable?
“Where is this?” He asks.
Noticing the serious tone, the guy says, “Are you going to fight or something? Ey, drama-like. My friend said it’s near the pegasus statue—”
“—Heol, Yoon Hani is annoyed, I should have taken a video ins—”
“—No videos, okay?” Seungcheol says into the phone, then turns to this guy, “Near building E?”
“Yes—”
“—Heol, Yoon Hani is seriously irritated!”
Seungcheol doesn’t listen anymore, but realising that he’s on the other side of the campus, he breaks into a run.
All types of thoughts race in his mind in the meantime, but by the time he comes near the statue, there’s no crowd. He huffs and puffs as he looks around himself, but finds no Hani. He pushes his bangs away from his face and looks around once more. A little worried, he calls Hani.
“Hel—”
“—Where are you?”
“Cafe”
“Ah,”
They were supposed to meet in the cafe only, but Hani must have been stopped enroute. From the phone, Seungcheol cannot gauge how she’s feeling. Hani doesn’t say anything else.
Seungcheol says, “Okay, coming in five,”
As Seungcheol comes closer to the cafe, he sees Hani sitting by the windows, and frowns. She’s not okay indeed. Hani is shaking her body back and forth on the table, all the while sipping her drink with a straw. She sounded chill on the phone, but looking at her like this, it seems like she’s sprung up.
Adjusting his jacket, Seungcheol enters the cafe. Yoon Hani keeps oscillating, even when she notices Seungcheol. He approaches her while making eye contact and brings his phone forward, pressing it against her shoulder to stop her from shaking more.
Hani stops, pops the straw out of her mouth and mumbles, "Thanks, I needed that,"
Seungcheol sets his bag on the side and sits down in front of her, saying, "What happened exactly? You had a whole crowd around you and everything,"
Hani's eyes widen. She says, "How did you know? You weren't there though,"
"Someone said in the passing, something about someone talking with you, you saying something, and then getting irritated,"
Hani visibly cringes, shaking her shoulders. "I just wanted to leave quickly,"
"Figured," Seungcheol says, and patiently asks, "What happened though? Just so you know, I have a black belt in taekwondo. Say the word and I'll set him straight,"
"I… That's not what… that's exactly why it was a long conversation," Hani mumbles, looking at her drink. "I don't like stuff like that…"
"What do you mean?"
Hani sighs, mulling over how to say it. She keeps her hands on the table and says, "Fine, this guy asked me out, okay? He was like let's go on a date and I was like… no?"
"Oh," says Seungcheol, frowning subconsciously but straightening his brows at once. This is a little confusing. So Hani is in fact capable of saying yes or no instead of…’ whatever’. Huh.
"An— And he didn't go away," Hani says, grabbing hold of her milkshake and fidgeting with the straw, stirring the drink over and over again. "I said 'no' and he's like a little date won't hurt and what not. I said no again and he goes 'well it's not like you have a boyfriend' oh shit,"
In her way of explaining, Hani accidentally removed the straw and the poor straw looks soggy and deformed.
Seungcheol, who is totally totally unaffected by what Hani just said, stands up and says in a hopefully even tone, "So it was a paper straw, huh? I'll go get you a new one,"
"Thanks," Hani mumbles, and soon after receiving the straw Seungcheol tosses into her hand, she says, "What was I saying?"
"...Not having a boyfriend?" Seungcheol says with literal pain in his chest with each word. He sits down timidly. Is this a hint? Is this going to be the awkward goodbye scenario at last? He’s a bit scared.
"Right! He was like ‘it's not like you have a boyfriend’ and I just!" Hani stops, looking at Seungcheol and blinking. A realisation passes through her. She brandishes a palm in front of herself, saying, "Don't take it the wrong way okay, this is what I'm trying to tell you. He said that and I got a little angry. I mean, I was already a bit frustrated, but when he said this, I got angry,"
"Okay," Seungcheol says, nodding slowly but not really understanding.
"The thing is, why should it matter?" Hani says, lightly hitting her fists on the table, "Why should it matter whether I have a boyfriend or not?"
"So he knows that you're taken, right?” Seungcheol says, shrugging. “So he'll back off,"
Hani looks at him with a blank face for two seconds before she sighs. "Choi Seungcheol, that's what I'm saying. What's with this whole thing? He'll back off if I say I have a boyfriend? Shouldn't he back off because I said ‘no’?"
"Ohh…" Seungcheol says, getting it a little. "Like that…"
"Yeah," Hani says, sighing and putting her new straw in the drink. "Nevermind that, it just personally vexes me. Let me just forget about this. Go get your drink or something,"
Seungcheol nods, and doesn’t like the way Hani dismisses the topic. What if that man comes and disturbs her again later? He says, "But did he trouble you too much? I can have a talk with him, if you want,"
Once again Hani gives him a blank stare. Then she sighs, and Seungcheol feels like… Hani is disappointed? Hani just mumbles, "No need,"
Seungcheol has an inkling that he has done something wrong. Oh no, he doesn’t want to upset Hani!
"Wait, what did I do?"
Hani just shakes her head.
A little unsure, Seungcheol asks again, "...What is it?"
Hani sighs again, staring at her drink. "Figure it out yourself," She mumbles. "And go get yourself something,"
"Yeah, um," Seungcheol says, standing up with a sulky mood. He is puzzled again. He didn't say… anything wrong though? Why does Hani look so disappointed?
Slowly, he goes and stands in the line and mulls over his own words. He seriously didn't say anything out of line though? He just said he’ll talk to the guy if she wants. Sighing by himself, he flicks his gaze to the board above the counter, deciding what to drink. He doesn't feel like eating anything so he skips that. When it is his chance to order, he says, "I want a— wait,"
"Sir?" says the person behind the counter as Seungcheol freezes.
"Excuse me," Seungcheol says to him and walks back to their table.
"What happened?” Hani says, noticing that Seungcheol has come back. She also takes out her purse. “Wasn't it your chance? Do you need change?"
Seungcheol shakes his head and says, "Sorry, I want to say sorry,"
"Oh, um," Hani says, putting her purse away. Awkwardly, she says, “Let’s not do this…”
Seungcheol shakes his head in determination and gestures at himself with a hand. "I didn't get it. And you didn't say it explicitly because well, you're polite, I guess."
“Um”
Seungcheol takes a moment to say it into words. Slowly, he says, "Why… should it matter whether you have a boyfriend or not for him to back off? And similarly why should I go and talk to him for him to back off?"
"My ‘no’ should be enough," Hani finishes for him, nodding and looking at her own hands intently. "Yeah, um, that,"
It must be like that from a girl’s perspective, Seungcheol has realised now. As a man, he was just trying to protect this girl, just like how he would protect his noona, but be it this girl or his noona, they might feel a bit differently about it, right? It can be pretty dehumanising for them when people fight for them like they are a prize. And Hani is right, the man should have backed off when she said ‘no’. Why should any action or the mere presence of Seungcheol as her boyfriend be needed to navigate in this situation? Hani must be feeling uncomfortable with his words. Maybe she was disappointed because Seungcheol said something like this.
“Sorry,” Seungcheol says again. He won’t say anything like this from now on.
“It’s okay,” Hani mumbles.
Seungcheol pushes his lips a bit. Hani is avoiding eye contact. Maybe she’s not good at saying things like this. Seungcheol suggests, “You can tell me such things truthfully, you know? I’ll try not to do it then. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
"Uh huh," She says, still watching her hands.
Seungcheol pouts some more. "If you feel offended, just tell me, I'll mend my ways,"
"Mhmm,"
"Yoon Hani,"
"Mhmm?"
"Can you look at me?" Seungcheol says.
The whiny tone makes Hani let out a laugh. Maybe it’s good that he’s whining, because Hani flicks her gaze up, makes eye contact with Seungcheol for exactly half a second, before looking back at her hands.
Seungcheol thinks he should give up on trying to look at her cute face. But still, he asks, "Are you really that awkward or are your hands that attractive?"
Giggling, Hani says, “My hands are very attractive,”
Seungcheol rolls his eyes, but he’s smiling as well. He’s a little bit fond of this girl. Screw that, he’s really fond of her, and while he has this urge to protect her no matter what, he’ll take some time to understand what she wants first.
“Whatever,” He says, leaving the topic, but remembering something, he snaps his fingers. “That reminds me, what was up with you when I confessed to you? What the heck is ‘whatever’? You could have said yes or no like this time,”
Hani freezes for a few seconds, before groaning and burying her face in her hands.
“Huh?”
In a muffled voice, she says, “Don’t remind me of that! Fuck,”
Stupefied, Seungcheol says, “Yah…”
Hani groans again, saying, “I am so embarrassed right now, go away,”
Seungcheol laughs, reaching to move her hands away, but stopping and carefully pulling at her bracelet instead. “Yah, answer me,”
“I was nervous, okay? Got your answer? I panicked and just said that. Then I couldn’t undo that so I kept mum. And don’t call me ‘yah’”
“Sorry, sorry, a slip of tongue,” Seungcheol says, and his face warms up. To curb a stupid grin from taking over his face, he keeps his fist against his mouth. Sounding rather soft, he asks, “Really?”
Hani notes that tone of his, and sinks further into her hands. She takes a moment, but soon, she parts her fingers so that only one eye is visible and nods.
Seungcheol can practically fly right now. Hani wasn’t saying ‘whatever’ because she was uninterested! The cutiepie just blurted that out in panic. He wants to ask for details, like what was she thinking exactly, how did she specifically blurt out ‘whatever’ while looking all cool and collected and so on. But he just smiles behind his hand for now.
Looking at his happy expression, Hani just sinks further into the backrest. Still refusing to show her face, she says, “I’m saying this for the third time now, go get yourself a drink!”
Seungcheol purses his lips, throws Hani a smile and turns on his heel. “I’m going, sheesh,”