Querencia

23

The reality was playing with Hana.

She could not help from be bitter by the reality prepared for her. If the world never approved for her to be with Juyeon, why must they make her excited like she was the luckiest girl on Earth every time she had an encounter with him?

Why did it seem like the probability of them together was always there when it was none?

Specifically since a decade ago.

Hana was rushing towards the basketball court in her school after the dismissal of her club activity just to watch Juyeon play but the boy was not taking part. She was flustered when someone else was replacing his position, knowing that nobody was more talented than him.

She was about to leave when she finally spotted him beside the court, sitting on the ground, head lowered. He looked weak, a side that Hana never saw in him as far as they knew each other.

Though she could have ignored it, she did not.

"Lee Juyeon, why are not you playing?" she squatted down in front of the boy, asking with an intimidating tone. "You said you want to be a captain."

At that, Juyeon slowly lifted his head, his tired eyes finding for hers. He looked worse.

"I think, I'm sick", he told her very softly, very weakly which tore Hana's heart immediately.

"Since when?" Hana finally sat down on the ground, flustered as she reached for the boy's forehead. "Let me see y-"

Little did she know, she could never finish her words. Juyeon's head fell forward and landed right on her shoulder. None of them were expecting this, not even Hana. She did not lie that she was stunned by the sudden thing that happened but a part of her did hope that this moment would last forever.

She did hope for them to be something.

Earlier, when Juyeon genuinely looked worried for her, she had told herself that she could have ignored all the rumors about him and Heiji though she was hurt by what she had seen a week ago.

She low-key hoped that a chance was waiting for her. But that died down when her rival appeared in her sight.

"Ouch!" Hana hissed, too immersed in her thought that she accidentally poked her finger with the needle she used in making the bracelet made of ribbon and fabrics as instructed by Changmin.

"Be careful, can you?" Chanhee who was sitting with her suddenly burst into anger, taking out a tissue from his bag. "Let me see it."

Hana sighed, surrendering herself under his care.

"Her name only is enough to get me nearly killed."

"Don't overreact, it's just a needle, not a bunch of needles", Chanhee sassily remarked, putting some pressure on the small wound on his friend's finger. "If anything, it's Changmin who we need to kill. All these bracelet things for what?"

The boy shook his head at the nonsense idea of his best friend whilst Hana chuckled bitterly, and retreated her finger from him.

"You know how ambitious he is."

"That's the point", Chanhee clicked his fingers, agreeing with the girl's finding. It was as if, Hana had originally read his mind and he completely had read hers. "Is the Juyeon and Heiji thing still disturbing you?"

At that, Hana breathed out, continuing her task with the ribbon. She has been trying so hard to portray her image strong and uninterrupted though deep down, the crack upon her heart was severe.

"Maybe it's nothing and I am just overreacting", she admitted, her eyes started blurry as some tears were threatening to spill.

"Hana, you know y-"

"Hey, how is it going?" their discussion was then disturbed by the art boy, Kevin who seemed clueless about what was happening before he walked in, parking himself next to the girl he has a crush on. "Let me see yours."

He placed one hand on Hana's chair whilst bending his body forward till the extent his face was a few inches away from the girl, while another hand was inspecting the bracelet she did.

Chanhee noticed how Kevin took this very chance to be closer to his crush yet he never blamed the latter for doing so. He secretly grinned at the intelligence Kevin got which might suffer Juyeon shortly when he finally realized that it was not Heiji who he must have chased but his own best friend.

"I don't have any creativity, do you think this is fine?" Hana questioned, seeming not to even care about the close gap she has with Kevin.

"What are you talking about? This is good if I must say", Kevin complimented, his eyes full with hearts shooting out.

"Why do I feel like a third-wheeler?" Chanhee finally spoke up, the two were then darting their gazes on him. "Oh, I'm not talking about you guys."

Kevin felt awkward out of the blue, straightening his posture before he took a chair and sat between the two, helping them out. However, he could not resist being protective when Hana covered her mouth with her palm, coughing too hard that her tonsil might have bounced out from her mouth.

"Are you okay?" he asked as Chanhee passed a bottle of water for her. "You haven't fully healed yet, don't you?"

The girl sniffled, clearing her throat once after downing the liquid before she turned towards her male friends.

"I guess, I haven't", took a shot of the water again, and a thought abruptly popped into her head. "I can't sit here with you guys, I may make you guys sick as well."

With that, she swiftly left with some materials and the bottle to somewhere else after planting Kevin's offer about treating them both for juices in her head in which the boy said that he would be delivering it to her later.

Freebies were always a blessing.

Eventually, Hana found an empty class nearer and she ain't hesitant setting up her hideout.

Sometimes focusing had killed the time that she was unable to be aware of. And it was just then she heard the door swung open that she did not hesitate to think that it was Kevin.

How fast he could be and so easily find her?

However, she was wrong. It was Juyeon.

"Here you are", he sighed, immediately sitting across her. "How are you feeling? Do you know how worried I was and yet you never called me back."

"I barely got up, how to make a call?" her white lie was too perfect to be noticed. "I'm back anyways."

Sighing, Juyeon was dissatisfied. He could sense that Hana was hiding something yet he ain't sure what it was.

"I want to do this too", suddenly he announced, taking some of the fabric and ribbon, trying to copy her to make one. "How to do that?"

Hana did not even know why she was softened out of the blue when she was truly enraged a week ago, she even bawled her eyes out in front of Kevin. It got her thinking about what kind of spell Juyeon had been casting on her to make her all weak when they were together.

Nonetheless, she knew something was about to change when she spoke up,

"You and her, what is the status?"