Silence ○ Lee Haechan

○ 37

"Gosh I'm so over work, I swear to god I'm turning into a old person with how much my back hurts," Mari complained as she made her way from stacking the lolly isle back to the counter- hand placed on her lower back to help soothe her aching muscles.

Byungho laughed at the girl, not even bothering to look her way as he continued to stack the drinks fridge.
"Well if you didn't slouch as much maybe your back wouldn't hurt as much."

Mari stopped in her tracks to deadpan the boy on the opposite side of their small convenience store.

Humming in annoyance as she sat down on the chair behind counter, "I hate that you're always right."

"What can I say, I'm just that great," Byungho said, flicking his imaginary long hair making Mari chuckle.

The two fell quiet with the stores radio acting as background noise.

Placing her chin into her palm in boredom, Mari began to play with a pen, pushing it back and forth.

Her eyes dropping from fatigue as not one customer has come in within the last hour. Leaving just her and Byungho to stack the shelves.

She was about to close her eyes when she heard Byungho yell out an "OH," causing her to shoot up in alert.

Eyes wide in shock as she looked around the store.
"Weren't you supposed to tell me about the sleep over you had the other weekend?" He asked and Mari slumped in her seat, no longer in shock.

"Oh, yeah. Nothing much happened," she said, continuing to play with the pen.

"What do you mean nothing happened? Girl, common tell me everything, your life is so much more exciting than mine and I need drama. Was there any drama?" He asked, moving his way closer to the girl.

Mari sighed and stood up, walking towards one of the isles to continue stacking.
"Honestly not really. Got drunk with the others- bar Jaemin- we put on face masks and played beer pong and watched a movie. That's about it."

Byungho looked at her incredulously as he slowly placed another packet of skittles on the shelf.
"Right okay, so face masks and beer pong. What about that guy who came into the shop that day- the one with the girl."

Mari looked up at him confused, "how? Did you see him?"

"Boss told me to go through the security footage and I saw you two talking. I couldn't hear what you guys said though," he stated and Mari was glad that he couldn't.

"What about him?"
"You two talked like you knew each other and I don't know, you looked kinda standoffish to him."

Mari closed her eyes briefly, taking a moment to herself. It was bad enough that he saw them talking, knowing now she will have to give him a little bit of back ground on who he was.

"He was a friend from Jeju," she stated simply and Byungho nodded slowly.

"Was... and was he at the party?"

Mari stopped her stacking to look up at the man across from her.
"What up with the 101 questions, Jesus. Yes he was at the party," she snapped, getting frustrated with his questions.

Questions that made her feel enclosed in a tight space. Not wanting to answer them and feeling trapped within the walls of the store.

"I'm sorry Mari, I didn't mean to push," Byungho stated, only now picking up on the distressed disposition of the girl and feeling instantly bad.

"It's okay," she spoke in barely just over a whisper, hand flattening down her hair as she places the boxes down.

"I'm just gonna go to the toilet real quick," She exited through the back door into a small alleyway, walking towards the bathroom and closing the door.

She flipped the toilet lid down and sat on top, resting her face in her hands as she meant forward.

You're fine, stop overreacting. He was just asking questions.

Yet she was brought back to that night regardless- to those feelings.

The ones she hated and she was scared. Scared she knew what they meant.

She had become so accustomed to hating him yet these feelings contradicted that and that scared her.

Maybe it was easy to ignore and be blatantly ignorant towards those feelings and change it's meaning. Maybe then she wouldn't have to be scared of it's meaning if she already convinced herself otherwise.

That the things roaming her stomach were wasps and not butterflies. If they even were butterflies.

The vibration of her phone in her pocket brought her back to her surroundings. Taking a deep breath and running her hands over her face and to the back of her head to where her pony tail started.

Pulling her phone out of her pocket and pressing on the notification seeing it was a text message.

Jinyoung :)

Hey Mari?

Heyy
What's up?

So I was just wondering

Yeah?

If you perhaps wanted to um
Y'know
Kinda like
Hang out Saturday...

And just like that, all her thoughts and feelings towards Donghyuck disappeared and was replaced with what she definitely knew where butterflies- and she was not afraid to change their meaning.

Biting on her lip with a smile pulling at the corners she typed away.

Yes!
I mean
Yeah sure
I'd love that

Perfect!
I'll pick you up at 5 :)