cupid's bow ; park sunghoon

chapter 7

There was a muffled beeping sound somewhere, annoying Mirae as it didn't seem to stop. Her head was throbbing. She turned around in her bed and found the source of the shrill sound - her phone. It was her alarm that she forgot to turn off, and now she was forced awake at an inhumane 8AM on a Sunday. She stopped the alarm and tossed her phone to the side, closing her eyes again to get some more sleep. A buzzing sound made her eyes twitch again but she decided to ignore it for now.

About two hours later, Mirae was shaken from her dream by a buzzing sound again. She groaned and searched for her phone to check the time, and to see if the sound was coming from there. And it was indeed, she got messages from two people.

***

Jake groaned in frustration as he turned around in his bed. In his hand was his phone, the chat opened with Mirae's conversation. He tapped on his screen, forming sentences but erasing them right after. What was wrong with him? He had no problem texting Mirae at all. Why was he so conscious about what to write now?

Memories of the night before came rushing back, where Mirae suddenly hugged him out of nowhere. Not only once, but twice.

Sunghoon, Heeseung and Jake accompanied Mirae back to her home since she was drunk and they wanted to make sure that she got home safely. If only Heeseung wasn't as drunk as Mirae, bringing her home would have been easier than the other two guys thought. Heeseung and Mirae kept wanting to fight with each other and the other two had to keep them from doing something seriously bad. Heeseung practically clung onto Sunghoon, so he had to take care of him, even though he wanted to look after Mirae. Instead, Jake had to be the one to make sure that she was okay on the way. It was a relief that her home was near campus, it was definitely a hassle for the other two. Any longer and Sunghoon would have probably snapped at the oldest one for being so annoying.

As they finally reached the apartment complex where Mirae lived, they wanted to bid goodbye. But before the guys could turn around and leave, Mirae launched forward and wrapped her arms around one of the guys. Sunghoon stilled. Jake's eyes widened.

At that moment, Sunghoon unconsciously clenched his jaw. If he could, he would've thrown Heeseung to the side to remove Jake from Mirae's grip. He didn't know why but the sight of the two of them hugging like this irked him. Unfortunately for him, Heeseung was clinging onto him like a koala, smiling from ear to ear as if nothing could ever bother him.

Just like before, Jake freezed on the spot as he felt Mirae wrapping her arms around him, pulling him into a tight hug yet again. She was smiling and whispering in his ear. "Thank you for today~ You should come over again!"

That's when he realized that she probably thought he was Sunghoon. He felt a sting in his chest for reasons he couldn't comprehend, but he brushed it off to focus on getting Mirae off him, even if he liked her embrace. "Mirae, you should go in," Jake let out a nervous laugh and removed her hands from his shoulders. He surely felt Sunghoon staring holes in his back and he didn't want him to misunderstand at all. After a little more drunken bickering between Heeseung and Mirae she finally went inside.

Jake's fingers hovered over his screen, contemplating on sending her a message or not.

Hey Mirae, how are you now?

Deleted.

Yo, you still drunk?

Deleted.

Jake sighed. Nothing seemed to sound good. He tossed his phone on his bed and covered his face with his hands. Why did he feel so conflicted? Mirae likes Sunghoon, and Jake just wanted the two of them to get together. She was the first person Sunghoon invited to their lunch so he thought he must've liked her too. Or at least consider her as a friend. All he wanted to do was play cupid, so why did his heart start beating faster at the thought of Mirae hugging him?