alters » nct dream

53

"jeno,"

the voice of the girl he was waiting for reached him as he turned to his side to find yunhee smiling at him. "oh hey," he greeted as she walked closer to the man who were leaning against the railing of the kids' playground.

"have you been waiting for long?" asked yunhee, joining him as she leaned on the railing, next to jeno.

the two childhood friends had agreed to meet up at the place they used to spend most of their time with together. he smiled, shaking his head lightly before replying, "it's only been a few minutes."

"wow, this place didn't change at all," said yunhee, staring far to the children playing.

"right?" said jeno, reminiscing the time when he would come to the playground to meet his only girl friend. he was brought back to his senses when the sight of yunhee walking closer to the swing entered his view. he didn't hesitate and followed the girl right behind.

as she sat herself on one of the rusty swing, jeno joined to sit on the other swing. lightly kicking their feet of the ground, making them swing.

"careful, the swing doesn't look that strong anymore." said jeno as he noticed she was swinging harder as more time passes.

she turned her head to look at jeno who subconsciously had a worried look on his face as his eyes were locked on her. she smiled as she replied, "it wasn't that strong either back then,"

they both laughed, knowing exactly what she meant by that. "hey it feels like i saw it happened just yesterday, it's so fresh in my memory," said jeno. they continued laughing before he questioned, "it must've hurt, right? it seemed like it was really painful,"

"of course it was! i still have the scar too." said yunhee. her brain replayed the memory of her falling from the swing when she was younger, getting a deep scratch near her left eyebrow.

"but if it wasn't for that scar, i wouldn't have recognized you when you came to nct," said jeno.

"good that i have the scar, i guess?" joked yunhee, laughing along with jeno.

the two continued to swing in their seats in silence - a comfortable one at that. their eyes locked on the figure of the children playing in the distance.

"15 years ago, that was us." said yunhee out of the blue. she had her eyes on the little girl crying by the slide as a little boy comforted her.

"you did cry a lot back then,"

"hey! no i didn't,"

"yeah you surely did." said jeno, "i remember always having to comfort you so that your mum wouldn't think you're crying because of me,"

"nah, she never thought of you that way. she liked you even then." shared yunhee.

"how is she, by the way?" asked jeno. 6 year old jeno often came over to her place for snacks as the two had an indescribably close friendship.

"she's good. sometimes she asks me how you're doing. i guess she forgot that we lost contact of each other when i moved away." said yunhee, turning to look at the boy who were already looking at her.

"i'm really glad we found each other again," said jeno, keeping eye contact with her as her lips curved into a smile.

after holding it for a while, yunhee broke off the eye contact as she said, "we should go somewhere else. the kids are gonna come at us angry."

he laughed, before following her walking out of the playground. she then halts to a stop, turning around to face jeno who were walking closely behind her, a surprised look on his face at the close proximity of her face with his chest.

"you should lead the way. i don't remember much about the town anymore," said yunhee, backing a few steps as she eyed the nervous jeno.

"yeah, sure." said jeno, walking in a line with yunhee with his hands tucked in the pockets of his coat. "do you have anything you want to do?" asked jeno.

"not really,"

"should we get cotton candy?" asked jeno, seeing her eyes lit up in an instant at the mention of their favorite childhood snack. he laughed and before she could answer him, he said, "let's go. i know a place,"

the two continued to walk side by side, conversing about the past they used to share together and catching up with each other before jeno stopped by a cotton candy cart.

"i can give couples two portions of cotton candy in one stick. would you like to have that?" asked the man after jeno requested to have two cotton candies.

"no, it's fi-"

"yes sure, that'd be great." said jeno, his voice cutting the girl's words. yunhee stepped away, eyes locked on jeno as he patiently waits for their cotton candy.

as soon as the cotton candy was in his hands, the two continued walking together, no specific destination in their mind. they were just genuinely enjoying the walk together.

"why did you order the couple cotton candy?" asked yunhee out of the blue. not that it bothered her, since they used to share their foods all the time when they were younger.

"hm? why not. that's how we did it when we were just kids." replied jeno, though he was a bit worried his choice may have bothered her, "does it bother you?"

yunhee laughed, "no, of course it doesn't. i mean we spent a lot of time doing things together a long time ago but we also spent a lot of years away from each other. but maybe deep down, nothing even changed."

"what about you? what happened to you when we were away? did anything big happened?"

"well," yunhee started, "met my first love, got my first heartbreak, met eunha. who would've known it would lead me back to you, right?"

"hey, was that person really your first love? i mean-"

"jeno!!" screamed yunhee, making the boy flinch before he laughed at her reaction. "you didn't have to call me out like that, you know?"

"so he wasn't your first love, right?" laughed jeno, "are you just pretending i don't exist?"

yunhee sighed, knowing well he wouldn't stop teasing her anytime soon. "that's enough, lee jeno. i admit it, okay? he wasn't my first love."

"i was about to feel hurt that you said you met your first love when we were away. i wanted to shrug it off and thought 'ah maybe her feelings changed'," jeno joked. they both knew her first love was jeno. it was evident even when they were younger that she had a crush on him but he was too scared then to cross the friendship line. after all, what do they know about falling in love? his deep thoughts were interrupted when he received a call. "hold on," he said before walking a few steps away to pick up the call.

"my feelings didn't change, jeno." mumbled yunhee. "it feels like i'm spinning and when i turn around, you're still the same." she was sure jeno didn't hear her as he was too focused on the conversation on his phone to even notice she was staring at him. as he walked back, she had her eyes locked on him with a smile curved on her lips.

"sorry, chenle called me to tell they have something to give me. we still have time for ourselves though," said jeno and they continued to walk together.

"hey, do you want to know something?" asked jeno, his eyes locked on the path he was taking, "you're the chapter that opened right after i closed the chapter that was so hard for me to end. i'm really grateful we're reunited, yunhee."

• • •

any song guesses for this chap?

might go on a hiatus soon due to uni but here's a pre-written chapter :))

- ayraa