The moon, the stars, and you. {Daerin}

VIII - What If I Told You That I've Fallen?

Danielle was awoken from her deep slumber by the sound of a notification beep on her phone. She rubbed her sleepy eyes and picked up the phone to check the notification. It was from Haerin, her best friend, and also the person she went on a "date" with a day ago. The message read, "Good morning, Elle, are you going to school today? You're already 2 hours late, just wanted to check up on you."

Danielle's heart skipped a beat as she realized she had overslept. She had passed out the night before while thinking about the events that had taken place during her date with Haerin. She couldn't control her thoughts, and hence, couldn't sleep. She tossed and turned in her bed, reliving the moments that she had spent with Haerin. Now, she had to hurry up and get ready for school.

She missed the bus so she had no choice but to run "Shit! We have exams today!" She panicked as she ran faster, as she reached the school her lips cracked into a small smile realizing Haerin checked up on her. She ran to the top floor where her class was located and immediately thought of an excuse as to why she was late.

She arrived at her classroom in a hurry, her breaths shallow and her eyes fixed on the ground. She felt guilty and embarrassed as she knew she had overslept. Upon entering the room, her professor immediately called her out, "Miss Marsh, care to explain why you were late?" he asked. She nervously replied, "I missed the bus! I'm so sorry! It won't happen again!" Her professor sternly warned her, "It better not, take a seat."

She sat next to Haerin and quickly pulled out her books. Haerin noticed her friend's disheveled appearance and asked, "Are you okay? You look like you've just run a marathon." Danielle let out a small giggle, "That's not funny! I didn't even get a chance to fix myself up!" She playfully punched Haerin's shoulder, who flinched and yelped in pain. "Ow! Don't do that! Don't you love m-" Haerin immediately put her hand over her mouth, realizing what she was about to say.

Danielle, who was unaware of what Haerin was about to say, asked curiously, "Love what?" Haerin, still embarrassed, quickly replied, "Nothing." and turned her head away.

"Fuck...Was I really about to ask Danielle if she loved me? I mean I can't say I wouldn't want to know the answer but I'm moving too fast with this." Haerin thought she was always an overthinker; an introvert. She didn't want anything that she had not planned to happen so she often quarreled with herself when she would say out-of-pocket things like what she just did.

Lunchtime was fast approaching, Haerin hoped that they could all forget about what had happened, except for Danielle, of course. Haerin believed that Danielle was someone who didn't overthink or worry too much about things. However, little did she know that Danielle would overthink every interaction they had. Danielle's mind was always racing, and she would replay every conversation in her head, analyzing every word and gesture. This tendency often led her to worry needlessly about things that were not worth worrying about.

"Shit...Was she about to ask me if I loved her? I mean of course I do, but why so soon? It's not a lie that I like that side of Haerin, but that was for sure unexpected." Danielle thought, as the bell rang she grabbed Haerin and dragged her to the cafeteria.

Haerin and Danielle sat together at a table with their friends, discussing recent events. Hyein brought up a topic of discussion, "I saw Miss Winter and Sir Jungwon together at the park a few days ago, do you think they have something going on?"

Minji quickly dismissed Hyein's statement, "Don't be delusional, Hyein. There's no way those two could be dating, that would be too risky."

Hyein, however, refused to back down, "Nothing is impossible though, you never know."

Trying to change the subject, Hanni asked, "Stop fighting, you two. What was the assigned work again?"

Yunjin was happy to answer, "Didn't you listen in class? We have to make a thesis about our favorite song."