HYUN [ JJK ]

38

When Jeongguk's car came into Jaehwa's view, she couldn't hold herself from grinning sheepishly. Through the tinted mirror, she could see how furious yet bizarre Jeongguk looked at the moment, and she knew she was going to be bombarded with tons of questions once she got into the car.

"Why didn't you tell me that you go to the same university?!" Jeongguk exclaimed as soon as Jaehwa plopped down on the front passenger seat.

Putting on the seatbelt, she then raised an eyebrow. "Surprise!" Jeongguk sighed upon her remark, which somehow disappoint her to see how the effort to lift the mood up didn't faze Jeongguk even at the slightest. "Well... I thought Hoseok had told you."

"Hoseok?" Jeongguk asked quizzically, a frown etched into his forehead.

"I stumbled upon Hoseok in the library last week." Jaehwa glanced at Jeongguk, saw how he nodded lightly as a sign of acknowledgement. "Anyway, it's not even a big deal. So what if we go the same university? It's not like you'll pay for my university fee."

Jeongguk snickered as he turned to Jaehwa's direction, couldn't help but to flick her forehead for the nth time since they knew each other. Groaning in pain, Jaehwa rubbed her forehead but instead of comfort, what she got from Jeongguk was a high-pitch laugh, filling the air inside the car completely until Hyun who was sitting at the backseat craned his neck to look at Jeongguk.

"But you know..." Jeongguk trailed off, switching on the blinker before he checked the reflection on the side mirror. "The temperature of earth is gradually increasing." He paused again, lips were pursed out of habit as he turned the steering wheel and stepped on the gas pedal.

"So?"

"We should start carpooling." He finished off, stealing a glance at Jaehwa only to find out that she was rolling her eyes playfully upon his statement.

"You are struggling to look after Hyun and now you have the audacity to look after me. No, thanks." Jaehwa deadpanned, sarcasm lacing her voice. "Yerin won't stop talking if she finds out we go to the university together. I had enough of her shipping us together."

"Yerin? Your friend? She shipped us together?"

Jaehwa nodded furiously before raking her fingers through her hair. "24/7."

Jeongguk hummed, a breathless chuckle then left his mouth before he turned towards a street which Jaehwa had never known. Nevertheless, she remained in her position, no words were uttered because all she wanted was food (she had been keeping her stomach empty since Jeongguk promised to buy lunch).

Few minutes later, they ended up at a mall and that was the moment Jaehwa knew that he indeed wasn't joking. She hadn't stayed at his apartment for quite a  few days to know if Jeongguk was still gambling but for the time being, she chose to push that thought to the very back of her mind, didn't want to ruin the moment when it was crystal clear on Jeongguk's face that he was excited about this outing. Jaehwa took the baby bag from him while he leaned to pick Hyun up from the baby's car seat, cooing voices erupted from Jeongguk's lips as he pulled the little boy closer to his embrace. Just when she was about to walk away from the car, Jeongguk leaned in again to reach for something, and Jaehwa just had to scrunch her eyebrows together when he pulled out a camera bag, the one she saw when Jeongguk left his apartment for a group discussion.

"Jeongguk." She breathed, scanning his hand which was busy checking the content of the camera bag. "Why are you bringing a camera along?"

Jeongguk who was squatting on the ground looked up at Jaehwa. "Hmm? The camera?" Jaehwa saw him putting on the lens with one hand, another one hand was around Hyun's torso to keep the little boy close to him. She had never known someone who was a film production major before, and now that Jeon Jeongguk was just before her eyes, attaching things she herself had no idea what they were to the digital camera, Jaehwa just couldn't tear her gaze from his hand. "Sorry. What did you ask just now?"