Querencia

04

Her heart skipped some beats whenever he was in her sight, butterflies roaming inside her stomach when he started talking, specifically to her.

"What do you want to tell me?" Juyeon broke the silence. "Do you have any problem?"

She summoned him, telling him that she had something to tell yet here she was, lost for words as he stood close.

"I.." she bit her lips, nervousness striking up. "I like you, Juyeon."

Silence.

Maybe it was the first time for the boy to receive such a confession. But his eyes kind of saying something else.

"Hana, I'm sorry. I don't think I'm ready for any relationship. We are just 14", a teenager Juyeon said, guilt was so obvious in his eyes. "I want to focus on studying first".

To say that she was not sad was a lie. He was someone she sincerely fell in love with throughout her life. He was the first who made her feel this way.

But she also knew nothing she could do. She definitely could not force someone to like her back.

"Can we be best friends?" she proposed, did not want to lose him twice.

Juyeon seemed to like the idea as he flashed the most beautiful smile that always made Hana melt.

"We can be best friends".

Juyeon surely had secured the friendship he had with Hana, the two were seen more like siblings than friends.

However, unbeknownst to him, the 10-year-old friendship was never the same for the girl. Her feelings since 10 years back then were still valid for him, she had never laid her eyes on anyone else until today.

It was her choice - to wait for him. She had patiently waited for the beginning of their adulthood to settle down and hoped that Juyeon would open his heart to her one day.

"I can wait", and again, she willingly told him that she would wait until his practice ended so that they could go home together. "I'll be in the library".

"Don't", but he seemed to despise the idea. "It may be ended late. Go home first without me".

"Eric is also late, no one at home anyway", she shrugged. "Just give me a call when you're done".

At that, she walked two steps backward before turning on her heels, waving her hand in the air. She knew Juyeon would reject her idea again and she did not want that to happen.

"I've been waiting for you for 10 years. Several hours more won't hurt", she smiled to herself as she started her monologue, taking her phone out to check the time.

But, she was then distracted by the wallpaper of her phone. It was her selfie with Juyeon on his birthday which he held a cake with a robot drawn on it. For him, it was a special cake because he decorated it himself.

"This is not healthy for my heart", Hana said, patting her chest to calm her racing heart.

"What is not?"

Flinching at the sudden question, she almost jumped when she realized that someone was too close to her.

"Hi..", she faked her laugh, trying to act all cool but honestly she did not. The boy who approached her energetically waved his hand, too excited that they ran into each other. "Kevin, what are you doing here?"

"I'm going to the library and seems like you too", he grinned with his thin lips, flashing his white teeth. Hana nodded, confirming his guess and he was ecstatic. "Great! We can study together".

Awkwardness freaked her. She was an introvert who rarely talked to people first, and some more it was Kevin, someone she just met personally.

She started screaming internally for Juyeon's name, hoping that a miracle could happen anytime soon.

But, she then realized, none would happen now. If it would, she might have not sat here, across from Kevin who once in a while would be glancing over her.

He seemed like he had something to say but was too shy to voice it out.

"So you are studying psychology right?" she broke the ice, sweat started wetting her palm at the idea of striking up a conversation. Kevin furiously nodded, interested in talking more to her. "I used to have a dream to pursue psychology but it's not for me, I guess".

She sighed, skimming all the books in front of her. She never thought that she would pursue this course but she believed that the future was always a secret.

"I can lend you my book if you want", he suggested, his eyes lit up brightly that could turn Hana blind at any second.

Anyhow, Hana never expected that she would feel comfortable talking to Kevin. The energy he radiated was the same as Juyeon, except Kevin was quite fast in thinking and Juyeon was the opposite.

"So, Juyeon told me that you two have been friends for quite a long time", Kevin sparked up another topic, this time Hana was intrigued.

"It started with me and Freya. The next year, Juyeon happened to be in our class", she grinned shyly, reminiscing those old days when she first fell in love with him. "How fast the night changes. It's already 10 years".

"Fate is surely unpredictable", Kevin amazed, shaking his head softly as he chuckled. "Who knows you two will be attending the same college and some more the same course".

"That is a coincidence. We never let each other know what course we had applied and it turned out this way", she was fascinated, or more to grateful that she had stuck with him all the time.

"Hana, can I tell you something?"

Such a question had never fazed the girl, she was always anxious when someone asked her like that. It was as if she had done something wrong and they wanted to list out everything.

It freaked her.

But Kevin was the one who looked anxious and she wondered why.

"Sure, what is it?" furiously blinking, she skimmed the boy across her who was once a while fiddling with his own fingers. "Kevin, is everything alright?"

And sooner Hana would find out that something might have changed from the conversation they had.