Ara dropped her jaws upon hearing Zach's sudden confession. She felt her heart almost drop by the shocking words Zach just said. Like an unbelievable dream, she really thought that she probably hasn't woke up from another crazy dream. She wish she really misheard what he just said.
"What? Zach, what do you mean?" Ara asks in confusion.
"I like you, Ara," Zach says. "And I want us to be a real thing."
Ara became spechless. Her lips are  sealed with all that Zach just said. She didn't expect him to actually want to turn their relationship into a real thing, when the original plan was only started to annoy Tracy, nothing more. Never in her mind that she thought about turning whatever she had with Zach into something more. Despite sharing their second kiss last Saturday without any plans, Ara never found a romantic type of attraction towards Zach, other than the fact she only see him as a friend, and never even thought to turn their pretend relationship into a real relationship, but Ara also didn't want to jump into a relationship too quickly with Junghwa still messing with her head and heart.
"Can we do it, Ara?" Zach asks.
"Zach...this is way too fast," Ara says. "More likely, don't you think it's a bit too much?"
"How can it be too much?" Zach asks.
"We're friends, Zach. Gosh, we were only pretending to be a couple in the first place," Ara says.
"Then why don't we just turn into a real couple instead?" Zach asks.
Ara sighs. If there is one thing that she knew she would avoid the most at this point, is to get involved in another love roller-coaster. She had enough of an experience of falling in love with Junghwa, who is both her best friend and her cousin's boyfriend. While still trying to accept the fact and move on from him, she didn't want to jump into another type of romantic relationship with Zach, who is also her best friend. It's enough that she fell for one best friend. Falling for two would only cause more trouble.
"Can we just be friends for now, Zach? I had enough of an emotional roller-coaster to deal with," Ara says. "I'm still trying to forget about Junghwa."
Zach sighs. He didn't really like her answer, but knew well that he couldn't force, especially knowing what she's been through. Her sudden confession regarding Junghwa last Saturday really surprised him, and made him see Ara in a different view than before. Deep down, he knew how the girl is a strong lover. She doesn't let go of what she loves too easily.
"Ok, I understand," Zach says. "Though I personally think it's gonna be quite hard for you to forget him, since you're still seeing him often."
Ara roll her eyes. "We're literally in the same school building, plus he's my piano tutor. I have to see him."
"You got a point," Zach says.
"Ara!"
From a distance, Ara and Zach could see a cheeky looking Junghwa waving to them while standing next to his car. While Ara just felt that he was trying to get attention, somehow Zach felt sort of annoyed looking at Junghwa's action, much to his confusion of his own feelings.
"Yeah, I'll be there in a sec," Ara says. "I gotta go. See you later, Zach."
Ara rushes off, leaving Zach before he could even say goodbye to her. He watches as Ara approaches Junghwa, making him feel more irritated inside at the sight of the two teenagers. He didn't get it why Ara would still want to have further interactions with Junghwa, knowing that it's only gonna hurt her more. Sure, she has piano lessons and he's the tutor, but that doesn't justify her coming back to what hurt her.
A few hours later...
At Junghwa's house...
Ara's POV...
I continue to play the piano as Junghwa instructed. Though my mind is still distracted with the thoughts of Zach's sudden confession, I tried to not let it distract me too much. I have to focus on my lessons, which I probably only have a few left since I'm almost an expert now. As I finish the song I was playing, Junghwa starts clapping his hands while his lips forms a smile his face.
"That was great," Junghwa says. "One more lesson and you'll be a piano prodigy."
"Thank you," Ara says. "So we only have like one more lesson?"
"Yeah, which is tomorrow," Junghwa says. "Finally I can sleep earlier."
Ara rolls her eyes as Junghwa starts laughting at his last sentence. He was trying to crack a silly sentence hoping to make Ara laugh, but turned out she only felt annoyed.
"Yeah right. I can finally have more time to do my homeworks," Ara says. "For your information, last minutes work sucks."
"Haha, of course," Junghwa says. "By the way, did Zach wanted to talk to you earlier?"
"Actually yeah," Ara says.
"Did he ask you to be his girlfriend?" Junghwa asks. "As in, a real girlfriend."
"Well, yeah. But I turned him down. I got enough going on in my mind already," Ara says, though for a second she wondered why did Junghwa asked her that question after knowing that she's still in the process of moving on from someone she can't have. Besides, how did it even know what Zach asked her?
"Wait, how did you know that Zach asked that?" Ara asks.
Junghwa chuckles as he rubs the right side of his head. "Because I was the one who asked him to ask you that."
"What the hell," Ara says in a surprised tone. "Hwang Junghwa, what is the meaning of this?"
"I remember about what you said at the bowling diner. Since you and Zach are currently pretending to date, I thought why not suggest for the two of you be a real thing? Hopefully it'll help you forget about that guy," Junghwa says.
Junghwa stares at Ara with hopeful eyes, yet to his surprise, her face starts to look furious upon hearing his explanation, which quite shocked him.
"What the hell, Junghwa! And this was suppose to be your plan of an attempt to cheer me up? Did you really think I was that desperate that you had to ask Zach to date me?" Ara asks in a furious tone.
"Woah, Ara. I was just trying to cheer you up. I didn't expect you to be this mad," Junghwa says with a surprised look. For her to get furious was the last thing on his mind.
"What did you expect? Did you thought that I really needed another man to pretend to really be in love with me just to forget about one stupid guy?" Ara asks.
"Ara, I was just-"
"So that's exactly what you thought," Ara says. "Junghwa, I can't believe that mind of yours could be so shallow."
"Look, Ara. I was only trying to cheer you up. I remember you looked really sad back there at the bowling diner," Junghwa says. "I had no idea you would react like this."
"Well, that was a terrible idea. It didn't help at all," Ara says. Slowly, she tries to calm herself down after letting out all her fury.
Junghwa sighs. He felt guilty that his idea didn't seem to make his best friend feel better, yet only set her up on fire. He didn't expect her to get so furious, when he only intended to cheer her up.
"Sorry if that was a bad idea," Junghwa says. He turns his vision down to the ground out of feeling guilty.
Ara sighs. She stares at Junghwa who is staring at the ground. It's not everyday she could see Hwang Junghwa feeling guilty, so it kind of surprised her when he actually did. That guy could seem so insensitive and childish, it's hard not to see a smile on his face. Yet now, not only did his smile disappear, but his eyes also avoided her completely.
Ara sighs. "It's ok. Let's just not think about it."
Silence fills the moment between the two teenagers. Slowly, Junghwa starts to turn his head back up, only to see Ara still standing in front of him, looking at him with an empty look. Her brown eyes now no longer shows a look of fury, yet a look of sorrow can be seen obviously just from her gaze. Seeing this sight, Junghwa could feel his heart feeling hurt.
"I shall go," Ara says as she turns around from Junghwa, ready to head to the front door.
"I'll drive you back home," Junghwa says.
"No thanks. I can walk," Ara says.
"I'm gonna go to pick up my mom from the hospital after. I could drop you off first," Junghwa says. "What do you say?"
Hearing this, Ara turns around to face Junghwa again. She stares at the young boy who again gave her mixed up feelings. Confusion, fury, sorrow, yet she couldn't lie that there's also love and affection included in the mix. Sometimes she could run away and not see him, but again knew that she always wanted to see him as she can. Remembering that tomorrow is her last lesson made her feel sad. She knew she's gonna miss all those days of practice, and all the times they've spend together. Just thinking about it right now already breaks her heart. Deep down, she's afraid that Junghwa won't have anymore time for her when the lessons are over, knowing that he'll probably be too busy with Hana.
"Ara, are you ok?" Junghwa asks as he notices that Ara is starting to look more sad.
"I'm fine," Ara says. "Ok, let's go."
With that final word, Junghwa grabs his car keys from the table and walks over beside Ara to head to the front door. In his mind, he still curious about Ara's unstable emotion which caused her feelings to be a mess. He felt bad for the girl.
A few hours later...
8:17 PM...
At Ara's house...
After a peaceful dinner with her parents, Ara is now doing her homework in her room. After all the chaos that happened today, she finally felt relief to be alone for a moment, just to do her homework without having to think about anything else. For now, she only wish to be alone.
As Ara continues to do her homework, she hears the sound of knocking coming from her door. She assumed that it was probably her mom.
"Come in," Ara says.
Opening the door, a middle-age woman with short curly black hair enters the room. Ara didn't bother to turn her head since she's too focus on her homework.
"Doing your homework, Honey?" her mom asks.
"Yes, Mom," Ara says.
"I see. Well, your friend is here to do some homework with you," her mom says.
Hearing this, Ara turns her head to see her mom who is still standing near the door of her room. She raises one of her eyebrow as she stares at her mom with confusion.
"Who?" Ara asks.
Hearing that, Zach enters the room and stood next to Ara's mom.
"Ok, I'll leave the two of you together. Bye," her mom says as she exits the room, leaving the two teenagers to stare at each other in silence.
To be continue...