before & after ‣ 엔하이픈

036 ; present

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AERI

Aeri woke up to an empty house. Her brother was nowhere to be seen and judging by how there's no booze scattered around the coffee table, it seemed her mother must have sought some comfort elsewhere.

Without even checking if there was any food in the fridge, as soon as she finished getting dressed, she headed out of the door because the silence was off-putting. She didn't expect to see Sunghoon outside her home that day because he had a game and had to prepare early in the morning. She knew that because he called her late at night to tell her about it and for some odd reason, the conversation went on for two hours.

She decided that the cold weather made it perfect to walk all the way to school. That walk ended up becoming the calmest thing she has experienced throughout the week, and if she were to be honest, she was glad it was about to be over. But it was naive of her to think the next would ve anymore better than this one.

Stepping foot into the gates of the school with everyone looking at her before going on with their business, she knew her tranquility was over.

"Aeri! I didn't know you were going to watch today!" Haesu was the first to welcome her arrival. "I thought you would skip."

Aeri snickered. "I got coerced into going here." She says, pertaining to her conversation with Sunghoon last night when she shared her hesitance in attending. "Where's Seeun?"

"She wanted to buy snacks first while watching. Do you want anything? I can have her buy you some." Haesu says about to pull her phone out while they walk to the open field where the game was going to be held.

As they walked, Aeri saw for the first time some of the players theirs was about to go up against for the soccer game. They were talking to a staff of her school about something, but their attention was stolen when she was going to pass by them. They all nudged each other as she kept her gaze at them, trying to guess if these guys were good enough to go against Sunghoon and Jake.

They, but one of them (who was actually the only good looking one) waved at Aeri. She scoffs. Fools.

"The other guy is Park Jay. Rich family." Haesu says when she sees Aeri looking at him.

Aeri rolled her eyes. "I'm not interested." She answers while she kept walking.

They reached the open field and saw that most of the seats were almost taken, and because Aeri was no longer a beloved person, finding a place was going to be a challenge. They searched for a space that fit the three of them, but they couldn't find a place to squeeze themselves so they were going to settle on standing at the side. However, before she could walk to where they could stand, someone called for her.

Turning around, she locks eyes with Sunghoon who grinned triumphantly at the realization of her mere presence. He was already in his jersey and it had the number '14' on it. She never learned why. "I guess calling you at 12am is another way of making you do something."

"Not funny." Aeri glares, remembering how he kept her awake. "What do you want?"

"Do you guys need seats?" He asked.

"No—"

"Yes!" Haesu was quick to intervene. "We terribly do."