Hwayoung scribbled furiously into her notebook. Her fingers had splotches of blue ink, yet, the writer didn't bother. It was getting on Aera's nerves as she watched her friend rub her sweaty palms on her cream coloured cardigan.
"Yah!" Aera's voice boomed in the busy cafe, catching everyone's attention except the one's she wanted. "Cho Hwayoung!"
"What?" the other woman asked, her head still bent over her notebook. Aera sighed, "You are ruining your clothes, you know?"
Hwayoung only lifted her head to look at her friend once and then down at her light cardigan, now decorated with blue spots, before going back to her work. Aera could only throw her hands in air, exasperated at her friend.
"You are really no fun," Aera declared, slurping on her milkshake loudly. She giggled, satisfied when she saw her friend glare at her for disturbing her.
Just when Hwayoung would have scolded Aera, another voice, a manly voice cut right through.
"Hey, guys! I'm so sorry for being late," said the man dressed in a police uniform. Aera smiled brightly, hugging her friend. "It's okay, Doyun," Aera started consoling him. Hwayoung wasn't having any of it though.
"You are late, Doyun. Again!" The said man grimaced at his other friend's monotonous words and serious eyes. "Hwayoung, Doyun is a busy man," Aera said, trying not to make things worse.
Everyone knew Hwayoung didn't like being late. And she especially didn't like it when the person was late when her mind was overflowing with ideas. However, they also didn't know that she was a master prankster.
Seeing Doyun's apologetic face and Aera's concerned eyes, Hwayoung couldn't keep it inside long. She burst out laughing laughing, leaving her other two friends to gawk at her as if she had grown two heads.
"You should see your faces. As if you saw the PE teacher!" she said, banging her hand on the table, still laughing hard.
"Hwayoung-ah, you are really unpredictable," Doyun said, shaking his head with a smile on his face. "I should have seen it coming," Aera said, not quite able to control her own smile. "She didn't become such a successful writer for nothing."
"Aye, stop declaring that to the whole world now," Hwayoung said, sipping on her coffee. "At this point, this girl is going to get me into trouble with her big mouth."
Doyun dramatically clasped her shoulder, putting his other hand on his heart. "Don't worry. Your brother will keep you away from trouble." Hwayoung could only roll her eyes before pushing his hand away.
"Oh, puh-lease! I don't need you two idiots to get me out of trouble. You guys are trouble!" That made the duo burst out laughing, added with her comic expressions, they just couldn't stop.
For the rest of the evening, lively conversation flowed as they shifted from cafe to a restaurant for dinner. Friendly banter and insults were thrown as old memories resurfaced. They were nostalgic of course, but glad to have passed the college phase successfully.
A few drinks later, Hwayoung took her leave. Doyun offered to drop Aera off at her house as it was dark and he didn't want her to go alone.
"Did you have fun tonight?" Doyun asked, wanting to hear her pleasant voice some more. "Of course, I did. It's always fun when we meet up," Aera replied, smiling at her friend.
"So, anything interesting? I heard you are having an exhibition again," Doyun said, alternating between looking at the road and the woman in the passenger seat. He watched Aera sigh and her face falling. He didn't like to see her sad.
"Yeah. Just the normal, you know. Nothing big." Doyun couldn't help but clasp her hand, squeezing it in comfort. That brought her smile back, though not as bright as before. His heart however, threatened to come out of his rib cage when she laced her fingers with his.
"Aera?" He asked as soon as she got out of his car. That made her stop and turn around. "Yeah?"
Aera sensed that he was quite nervous with the way he was biting his lower lip and ran a hand restlessly through his hair.
"I wanted to ask you something." Aera tilted her head, not really knowing why he was suddenly behaving like this. "What is it?"
Doyun took deep breaths several times, trying to calm his fast heartbeat but it wasn't helping. So, he just blurted it all out.
"I want to take you on a date."
~~~~
A/N:
What do you think about this new development? 👀
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Brush Strokes ✓
Fanfiction"It's tea. I didn't add poison to it. If that's what you are thinking." ⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅∙∘☽༓☾∘∙•⋅⋅⋅•⋅⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅ Lee Aera has never had it easy in life. Struggling in the cut-throat industry of art where you either get noticed or...
