The next day...
10:30 AM...
Ara's POV....
I stretch my lazy arms out as I yawn, with my eyes still struggling to open. Though I had a good sleep last night, I felt like I've been sleeping forever yet my body still feels exhausted. I grab my alarm clock from beside my bed to see that it's alreasy 10:30 AM.
10:30 AM? Man, I thought it's still 7 or something. I thought.
I get up from my bed and rub my still sleepy eyes. I walk up to my dressing table and grab my yellow scrunchie, before tying my hair into a high ponytail. I take a look of myself in the mirror, my eyes looked like I still needed more sleep, but my body tells me that I wouldn't want to skip brunch. Well, it's time to start a fine Sunday morning.
Downstairs...
I walk downstairs to see my mom preparing some fruits in the kitchen, I walk up to greet her before walking to the dining room.
"Morning, Mom," I say as I pull out the chair to take a seat in the dining room.
"Morning, Ara. Brunch is on the table," my mom says from the kitchen.
"Yeah, thanks," I say as my eyes starts to study the dining table. Mom cooked some japchae along with some Korean fried chicken, which looked yummy as always. As for my dad, I assumed he's washing the car in the backyard since it's Sunday.
I grab my chopsticks and starts to have some japchae. Feeling hungry, I decided to eat more than my usual portion. Other than that, I assume I would need a lot more energy if I want to finish all the homeworks. Mr Smith surely gave us too much work this time.
A few hours later...
2:30 PM...
I twirl my pencil as I stare at the math homework I haven't finish since an hour. I knew that chances are I'll get bored and that's why I called Grace earlier and thought we could do our homeworks together, but she told me she has a date with Peter today. Oh well, that leaves me alone.
"Ara..."
I turn my head as I hear my mom's soft voice tinkles my ears. I see her standing in front of my room, smiling at me with her usual smile. Literally the smile I always see everyday since I was a baby.
"Yes, Mom?"
"Junghwa is here. He's gonna do his homeworks with you," my mom says as she moves aside. Entering the room, I see a tall male figure walked inside with a white t-shirt and black jeans on. My heart almost skip a beat when his vision meets mine. Yup, I really didn't expect to see Junghwa today, especially for a homeworks date.
"I'll leave the two of you alone," my mom says before she exits my room, hence leaving the two of us to stood in silence.
"Stuck with math?" Junghwa asks, a bit playfulness can be felt in his tone, but it's not really like his usual style. I found something a bit different today, regarding his voice. He almost sounded more...soft.
"Yeah," I say. "You got that right."
He smiles as he puts his backpack on the floor and takes a sit on top of my fluffy carpet. Seeing his action, I grab my math book and get up from my study desk, hence joining to sit on floor as well. Well, I found it to be awkward if I was to sit on the study desk while he sits on the floor.
"So I heard you and Zach had a sweet date last night," Junghwa says.
"A friendly date to be corrected," I say. That was fast of him to know the info, since Zach haven't post anything about last on social medias. What can I say, Zach might be social but he's not too fond of social medias.
Junghwa chuckles. "He didn't add the friendly part."
"I assumed he forgot to add it," I say it a rather sassy tone this time.
Hearing that, Junghwa only lets out a small chuckle as he opens his math book. Though I didn't expect to see him at this point, and he didn't even bother telling me that he's coming over, deep down I could feel a small pinch of happiness dancing inside my heart. Yet, I could also feel some leftover feelings starts surfacing back whenever I took some small glances of him, in which I struggle to distract my mind with his sight that kept making my heart crazy. I'm done with anything related to love and right now I just want to return to the time when I only see Junghwa as a friend, nothing more, but never less. I don't like the fact that my mind still gets lost everytime I stare at him too long, or when my heart starts getting excited just by hearing his voice. All those thoughts and feelings are just making it harder for me to erase all the desires I should never have towards him in the first place.
Focus, Ara. Remember, he is just a friend. Nothing more, never less.
A few days later...
Wednesday...
After school...
"I'm just glad to know that he's ok," Grace says as she walks along with Ara as the two exits the school.
"That's good. I guess exams really can be a pain at times," Ara says. Grace told her that since Peter's exams are coming, he had been busy studying and the two haven't had too much contact as usual. Yet, Peter did told Grace at some points that he's doing well and that he's just waiting for the exam to be over.
"Tell me about it," Grace states. "Well, I gotta go. See you tomorrow!"
"See you, Grace," Ara says as she watches Grace runs to the car, in which her mom had picked her up.
"Going home?"
Ara turns her head at the sound of the familiar voice tinkling her ears. She sees Junghwa standing behind her, smiling at her with his signature smile. Ara blinked a few times of confusion of his sudden present, yet managed to put on a calm face eventually. She didn't want him to sense that she's all confused.
"Yeah," Ara says in a casual manner. "And you?"
Junghwa chuckles. "Same thing, but I was wondering if you could join me."
Ara raises her eyebrow at the cheesy boy. She sense that the boy is probably bored at home and that invited her to join him for homeworks. Wasn't much of a surprise for her, since she did felt that Junghwa had been feeling more lonely ever since Hana left the states. Sometimes she wanted to be honest with herself, that it kind of irritated her that the reason he's probably looking for her most of the times now when they have no more lessons together is because he didn't want to be lonely knowing that Hana's not around. Yet, on the other side, she told herself that she doesn't have a valid reason to be mad since the two are not even dating, and that she had made it clear to herself that she will only look at him as a friend.
Junghwa sighs. "Maybe after homework, we could play the piano together."
To be continue...