The next day...
6:10 PM...
At Ara's house...
Ara's POV...
I'm in the middle of brushing my hair while waiting for Zach to pick me up. I told him about going with me to Hana's party in which he agreed. Knowing that Hana is sweet enough that she didn't want me to be alone gave me a relief feeling. I'm glad Zach agreed to acompany me, in which Hana actually believes that we are a real couple now since the first time she saw us at Matt's party. Though Zach had asked me again whether if I was ready to start something new with him, I told him that let's just cherish whatever we have now, without turning things into something more complicated.
Meanwhile....
Zach is on the way to Ara's place. After getting a quick shower and dressing up well, his vision had been focus only on the road for the last few minutes. He was a bit surprised when he received Ara's call last night, in which she asked him to go with her to Hana's party. He  agreed with her request, not only because he was helping her portray her "boyfriend", but simply because he wanted to spend some time with her and have the experience as if they were a real couple, if though he knew they are only pretending.
Zach's POV...
While having my vision focus on the road. It's been a while since I last attended a party, but that wasn't the main part why I'm pretty excited today. Honestly, I don't even care much about parties, but what I'm really looking forward to is spending some time with Ara. Knowing that we are still currently just a pretend couple, I don't really mind that fact after she convienced me that she is still in process of self-healing. I get that she just wanted to forget about Junghwa and didn't want to move on too fast, in which I understood. Thinking about us now, I actually found it a bit funny when I realized that I was falling for her. If I rewind on all that we've been through, I want to say it all started when I kissed her in her room, when I eventually told her the idea of portraying a couple in front of Tracy at Matt's party. I didn't really realize it though, until the night of Matt's party, where she got drunk and we eventually spend the whole night together having some deep talks. While I learned about her feelings for Junghwa, she learned about my yearning for my foster mother. I found that night that we got a special bonding moment. All this time, I guess I always had this crush on her.
25 minutes later...
I finally arrived at Ara's place, only to see that she had already waited outside. Damn, I should have taken a quicker shower so I wouldn't get into some minor traffic jam along the way. Looking at her standing in front of her house with her arms crossed, I couldn't help chuckle to see her cute behaviour.
"I almost decided to walk if you didn't show up," Ara says in a sarcastic tone as she enters the car.
"Haha, sorry about that. The traffic was unexpected," I say before I let out a chuckle, in which I see her rolling her eyes.
"Whatever. Let's just get there anyway, Zachary," she says, which caught my attention since it's the first time she actually calls me "Zachary".
"Woah, that's the first time you actually called me Zachary," I say.
"Because I would rather just call you Zach, or Sungho in some occasions," she states in a sassy manner.
As I continue to drive the car, I couldn't help but let out a chuckle at the funny girl sitting beside me. Despite her cute behaviour, her look tonight made me amazed in silence when I caught a glimpse of her by chance. She decided to go with a white t-shirt with a black and white gingham pattern vest, and some black skinny jeans and white flat shoes. She decided to let her long hair flow down, giving her an elegant look. Even in a simple look, she still looked stunning.
"You look beautiful tonight," I say in an affectionate tone. Well, I'm not one who likes to hide my feelings, so I thought why not just say what's on my mind or what I feel?
"Like I'm not pretty everyday. I'm just going casual tonight, nothing special," she says in a sarcastic tone.
"Woah, I was just saying. You still looked pretty in anything, everytime," I say.
"Yeah right," she says. "By the way, since when did you got sweet with your words, Conner?"
"Since I realized that I have interest towards you," I say in a rather sassy and cheesy tone, in which I caught her rolling her eyes again at my statement. Haha, I love it when she does that.
7:10 PM...
At Hana's house...
Ara and Zach arrived at Hana's house. They see that Junghwa already arrived earlier since they see his car already parked outside the house. Ara and Zach exited the car and walks over to ring the door bell.
"Ara! Zach! Please come in," Hana says as she opens the door bigger for the two teenagers to enter.
"Hey, sorry about being late," Ara says. "This guy here got into traffic."
"Hey! That wasn't expected," Zach says in a whiny tone.
"Haha, it's ok. Come on, Junghwa's already waiting in the garden," Hana says as they lead the two to the garden.
Upon hearing Junghwa's name, Ara felt a sudden spark suddenly rushed through her heart, making her heart skip a beat. She's aware that she'll be seeing Junghwa and Hana in the same frame up close again after a while, which would be another challenge for her after the last time she saw them together at Matt's party. Yet, she had been telling herself all day that she would have to be ok with it, and not let her own feelings get the best of her like last time.
"Where are your parents?" Ara asks all of a sudden while trying to not focus her mind on Junghwa. On the other hand, she realized that she hasn't seen Hana's parents in the house.
"They're already asleep," Hana states, which kind of surprised me to know that they would already be asleep at this hour.
Hana leads Ara and Zach to the back garden, where Junghwa is already sitting there by the picnic table. The garden had been decorated with some baby pink balloons and streamers. Seeing the pretty decorations, Ara eas fascinated to know that her cousin had a pretty aesthetic taste in decorations. For a small party, she decorated the garden beautifully.
"Hey, Zara's in the house," Junghwa says in a sarcastic tone, making Ara roll her eyes at his childish action.
"Haha, hey brother," Zach says in a friendly manner.
"Ok, guys! Take your seats and let's start," Hana says in her signature bubbly tone. She takes a seat just next to Junghwa, while Ara and Zach are sitting next to each other.
The dinner goes on with everyone trying the various dishes Hana had cooked, talk, crack some jokes, while also drinking some soju. Hana had cooked some various dishes such as kimbab, kimchi, ramyeon, and her favorite gochujang chicken. The teenagers are all impressed with Hana's cooking skills, and Junghwa had been praising her since the start of the party, making her blush from time to time.
An hour and half later...
"And that's another shot of shoot," Zach says in a tipsy tone. He had been the one who drank the most soju while entertaining the others with his silly behaviour.
"Man, Zach. That's enough soju for tonight," Ara says as she grabs the bottle of half empty soju from Zach's hand.
"Haha, you guys are so cute," Hana says in her signature bubbly tone.
"Well, Zara is the new popular couple in St. Morgan," Junghwa states before he takes another bite of his kimchi.
While Ara roll her eyes at annoyance and Zach just looked like a sleepy child, Hana's smile slowly starts to fade. Usually we always let out a bubbly giggle whenever Junghwa tries to crack a joke or simply just light up the mood, yet tonight she had been feeling more and more blue as time flies.
"I hope everyone's having a good time," Hana says as she forces a small smile on her lips.
"Hell yeah. Ugh...how many shots did I took?" Zach asks in a drunken tone.
"I lost count, Zach. Damn, that's enough bottles," Ara says.
Looking at how cute Ara and Zach are behaving, Hana struggles to hold back the heavy feeling she's been carrying since the dinner party started. She has something running around in her head, making her feel more heavy especially everytime she takes a glimpse of Junghwa. She thought maybe it's time she have a word with him.
"Junghwa, can I talk to you for a minute?" Hana asks Junghwa, making him turn his attention towards her.
"Sure," Junghwa answers while giving the girl a warm smile.
"Ok. Let's talk outside my house," Hana says as she gets up from her seat. Seeing this, Junghwa follows along and the two walks back inside the house, heading to the front door.
Outside Hana's house...
Junghwa stood in silence as he stares at Hana who is looking down at the ground. He thought the girl might only want to have a private talk with him, though her behaviour got him wondering. It's almost like she didn't dare to meet him in the eyes, which was quite weird since the girl would usually stare into his eyes happily.
"So...what's up?" Junghwa asks.
Hana remains silent. She didn't let out any word to Junghwa. Instead, Junghwa only felt his hands suddenly grabbed my Hana, as she turns her head up to face her. To his surprise, her eyes are suddenly filled with tears streaming down her face.
"I'm sorry, Junghwa," Hana says in between sob.
To be continue...