keep a place for me. otl

you came out of the blue

Soo-ae has a hard time processing her new relationship. She isn't convinced it won't turn to vapour in her hands, or disappear the second she looks away.

Is this is what a genuine relationship feels like?

-'♡'-

<GO EUNHYUK>
gm
go out with me today?

The messages sit prettily on Soo-ae's phone. It's the first thing she sees that morning. For a second she's confused, and thinks last night might've been some elaborate hoax, or a dream she conjured. But his name stands out in her notifications, making itself known. The two of them are okay again. They're more than okay.

When she gets up to get ready, Soo-ae feels light on her feet, like they just barely brush against the floor instead of press under gravity with her full weight.

<SHIM SOO-AE>
sure! :)

-'♡'-

It's not until they leave the street vendor with their fish cakes that Soo-ae realizes she is on a date. Okay okay... maybe "go out with me today" should have been a dead give away, but Eunhyuk was blunt and spoke very literally sometimes! And Soo-ae was still having a hard time grasping the legitimacy of this new reality where the two of them are genuinely together.

His hand envelops hers the entire time. It's such a foreign sensation to be wanted all the time, to not wring another person dry just by being herself. She almost cringes from it, but she never wants it to stop.

They weren't too far from her apartment complex, and so it shouldn't come as a shock to her when Ra-im is around the corner walking with some other kids.

She and Eunhyuk both stop in their tracks. Ra-im's eyes are wide as if she can't believe what she's seeing. As always, she finds her composure gracefully.

"Oh, hello, funny running into you here," she doesn't look Soo-ae's way, dismissing her.

Eunhyuk simply mutters, "Yeah," and offers nothing more.

A boy beside Ra-im with highlights gives them a smug look, "When did this happen?"

Maybe it's ingrained into her head to expect disrespect, because despite his confession the day before, Soo-ae is stunned when Eunhyuk speaks.

"Yesterday. We're going now."

Ra-im's face is a statue, hard and stoic.

"Only yesterday?" The boy says, "What was the last few weeks then huh? Oh I bet—"

"Shut up," Eunhyuk says with mild annoyance. His friend feigns offence.

"Rude as always, you're gonna make me cry, you know that?"

Eunhyuk smirked, "Looking forward to it."

"JINYOUNG DO YOU SEE HOW HE TREATS ME!" He whined to another guy with them.

"Oh stop being ridiculous," her sister laughs.

The group of them erupted in conversation, Soo-ae watched as if on the outside of a two way mirror. She could only see them and they could only see themselves.

This is Ra-im's world. Her friends are his friends, there is a string that ties them together, something that keeps them in orbit. Soo-ae can't deny this. She does not belong to that crowd, and would look stupid trying to force her way in.

Don't forget who you are. Don't get ahead of yourself, she thinks. Another, angrier part of her demands, Who am I? Finally, Not one of them.