A few hours later...
At the cafeteria...
"And just like that, I left the witch furious as I walk down the hallway like my own catwalk," Grace says in a proud manner before she takes a bite of her peanut butter and jelly sandwhich. She told the others about her encounter with Bianca this morning, in which Bianca started threwing insults at her, yet she gave the girl the taste of a savage comeback.
"Serves her right for her stupid behaviour," Ara states before she takes a sip of her orange juice.
"I'll say," Zach adds.
Meanwhile, Junghwa just sit in silence as he gets lost with his tuna noodles. Grace, who didn't knew about Junghwa's break up, stared at him for a while with a puzzled look, wondering what's wrong with the guy.
"Hey, Junghwa, are you ok?" Grace asks.
"Yeah," Junghwa answers in a flat tone, getting the attention of both Ara and Zach.
Hearing that, Grace just nods her head, not trying to think too much. Ara, on the other hand, didn't want to make things too awkward, and thought about throwing a random question for Grace to light up the situation.
"Ok, so how are you and Peter these days?" Ara asks, before taking another spoon of her rice and stir-fried chicken.
"We're good, though he's gonna be busy with his exams next week. I'll just try to give him some spirits about it," Grace states.
"Oh," Ara says, in a rather flat and awkward tone, as her mind still wonders around only one person, which is Hwang Junghwa.
A few hours later...
As the final bell rang, all the students starts to departure, can't wait to go back home, not for their homeworks, but more likely to have the rest they could get after the homeworks. Grace decided to go home with Peter. As for Ara, she wonders about where Junghwa is since he's no where to be seen.
"Where's Junghwa?" Ara asks Zach as the two walks out of the school building.
"He decided to go home earlier. He didn't want to waste too much time with the homeworks," Zach states, remembering that they did have a lot of homeworks for today.
"Ah I see. That's kinda discipline of him," Ara says.
Zach smiles. "Yeah. Anyway, would you like to catch a ride with me?"
"Sure. Knowing that I'm also in a rush," Ara says with a small smile.
"Then let's go," Zach says as he leads Ara to his car. Deep down, he felt a little burst joy dancing in his heart, in a simple action of having to spend a bit of time with her as he drives her home. Though the sassy still hasn't agree with his intentions of a further relationship, for now he could only be happy for the moments he could share with her as best friends.
A few hours later...
9:20 PM...
At Ara's house...
"Finally, done," Ara says as she puts down her pen and closes her math textbook with an exhausted tone. After doing her homeworks for hours, she finally finished all of them and is beyond relief.
Ara gets up from her seat, stretches her arms up in the air as she bends her back a bit. All that sitting for hours has made her back feel tired. She finally walks to her bed and lies down, in a moment to take a rest for all the tiredness.
"What a day," Ara says to herself.
As Ara continues to have her moment in peace on the bed, her phone suddenly rings from her study desk. She sighs, just when she's having her resting moment, someone has to randomly call her at this hour. Yet, Ara's not one who likes to ignore calls. She found it a bit impolite. By that, she gets up from her bed and walks over to grab her phone from the desk. To her surprise, she sees Hana's name displayed on her screen.
"Hello, Hana," Ara says as she picks up the call from her cousin. She's a bit curious about why her cousin would suddenly call her. Maybe she wanted to say her farewell earlier. After all, she'll be leaving LA in two more days.
"Hey, Ara. How are you?" Hana asks in a low tone, which seems unfamiliar to Ara, since Hana is known for her signature bubbly tone.
"I'm cool. Just facing reality everyday, nothing much," Ara says. "How about you?"
"I'm fine, but I want to ask you, if you could help with something," Hana says. "I hope you don't mind."
"Sure. What is it?" Ara asks, curious about what her cousin has in mind.
"I want to see Junghwa for the last time, before I'll be leaving in two days. Yet, I don't think I can call him and bluntly ask him. I'm scared I'll just get too emotional on the phone," Hana says, her voice already starting to change as tears starts to fill her eyes.
"Can you please tell him that I want to see him tomorrow night?" Hana asks.
Hearing that, Ara became speechless for a moment. Again, she is given the duty to tell her best friend that she likes about something regarding to her cousin. Ara thought that she finally had the vision of them out of her mind, knowing that they had broke up. Yet, her cousin is now asking for her help to meet them up together, which leads Ara to question her own "triggered" old feelings.
Yet, Ara understood, that this could be the last time the two ex lovers could even see each other. She didn't want to hold back two people who loved each other, by that she knew, that she had to do the right thing which is the hardest, and that is to meet them up together, for the last time.
"Ok," Ara says. "I'll tell him tomorrow."
"Thank you, Ara," Hana says in a thankful tone, yet her voice still sounds low.
"You're welcome," Ara says, with a heavy yet relief heart, knowing that she is glad that she chose to help her cousin, with the hardest thing to do.
The next day...
At school...
Junghwa is searching his locker for his science book. As he continues to search the locker, he hears a familiar voice calling out his name.
"Junghwa," Ara says as she walks over to him. "Good morning."
"Morning, but it's not everyday you would give me a morning greeting," Junghwa says with a rather wondering tone.
"Oh come on," Ara says before bursting out a nervous laugh. She sense that Junghwa probably thought she has something important she wanted to say.
"Ok, Kim Ara. What is it that got you behaving unusual?" Junghwa asks.
Hearing his question, Ara takes a deep breath, knowing that she'll be needing some comfort for herself to say these words, since she could sense the emotional roller-coaster both of them would experience. Add Hana, and it will be a roller-coaster of three. Yet, she forces herself to do it anyway.
"Hana called me last night. She wanted to see you tonight, before she's leaving LA," Ara says.
Hearing that, Junghwa's hands stops with his search for the science book. Slowly, he turns his head to face his best friend. His eyes are filled with mixed up emotions, just as emotional as Ara's. Yet, Ara could also see the disappointment written all over his face, complete with the heavy sadness in his eyes.
"I'm not going to see her," Junghwa says as he slams his locker shut and walks away, leaving the now surprised Ara to stood in silence.
"What the hell? Jay Hwang, wait," Ara says as she runs after Junghwa who is walking through the hallway. She finally catches up to him.
"This is your last chance to see her," Ara says to Junghwa.
"After I got my life back together. No way," Junghwa says in an upset tone.
"Junghwa, she'll be leaving LA in two days. Hana just wants to see you one last time," Ara says. "What's so hard about that?"
"It's hard because I don't want to go back," Junghwa says. "I'm done, Ara. I want to start a new life."
"Can you just see her for one last time?" Ara asks. "For crying out loud, Junghwa, you guys loved each other."
"It's not that simple, Ara," Junghwa says, this time in a slightly higher tone, making Ara a bit shocked.
"We were in love, to be correct," Junghwa says. He finally stopped with his steps, with a flat face and eyes still filled with sadness.
"But it's over," Junghwa adds.
Hearing that, Ara felt her heart sink down in sadness, seeing Junghwa starting to look broken again. She wanted to blame herself on one side, for pushing him to far to meet his ex. Yet, other than the fact that Hana wished to see him one last time, deep down, Ara knew that Junghwa still cares for Hana, and despite his chaotic fear of her presence, he had a small desire to just see her, even for the last time.
To be continue...