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chapter 59: ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
"how do you feel jiji? can you walk on you own? do you need my help?" mingi bombards the girl with questions as they all left the hospital. it was a saturday and jihyun was finally discharged from the hospital. seonghwa, of course, has to take her home and san, mingi and yunho offered to come along while the rest are already at seonghwa and jihyun's place.
she was advised not to do strenuous activities or anything that may worsen her condition. when she heard that, she almost sighed when she thought of mina but yunho reminded her that mina was already out of her life and that jihyun has nothing more to worry about from now on.
"you guys wanna go to the arcade?" she hopefully questions as they stop in front of seonghwa's car. a series of negative responses were erupted and jihyun only pouts, getting into the passenger seat of seonghwa's car.
"you need rest, ji. you know how competitive you get whenever we go to arcades. plus, our graduation prom is friday and i don't want to attend without a date," san states as he tries to get comfortable in the back seat with two giants sandwiching him.
seonghwa narrows his eyes at the boy through the rear view mirror, laughing as mingi and yunho starts teasing him. jihyun only looks down at her lap, a shy smile making it's way onto her face. san smirks smugly at this while he tries to stop the two giants beside him from nudging him.
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"welcome home!" jihyun gasps, eyes widening in surprise when she sees the rest of the boys in front of the entrance, welcoming her home. jongho runs up to the girl, enveloping her in a hug not too tight considering her injuries.
"i missed you, noona!" he snuggles up tighter into her embrace and jihyun chuckles, ruffling his hair when he pulls away. "you just saw me yesterday, jongho." she states matter-of-factly.
"i mean, i missed seeing you outside the hospital!" he grins at her, helping her walk into the house while the other boys follow in. "what are you guys doing here, though?" she asks them all once she got comfortable on the couch.
"hey! do you not like our company?" hongjoong furrows his eyebrows at the girl, trying to look angry but failing when she chuckles at how cute the older is being.
"it's not that. i mean, oppa won't let me go to the arcade so i doubt i'll be able to do anything fun with you guys today," she explains in a sad tone.
"who says we can't do anything fun at home? it's saturday and you know what that means? movie night!" san cheers and the boys agree, already starting to suggest the movies they could watch.
jihyun stands up from the couch in the midst of their discussion, wanting to quietly go up to her room to rest a bit before their movie night started. her plan fails miserably when all pairs of eyes darted towards her pathetic figure trying to get up.
"ji, where are you going?" yeosang takes the initiative to ask what everyone else wants to know. "guys, chill. i'm only going up to my room. it's like two hours until sundown, i'm gonna rest a bit if you don't mind. i miss my bed," she tells them, moving past jongho and making her way to the stairs.
"i'll help. you guys can continue planning." san stands up immediately, walking towards jihyun. wooyoung makes a knowing face at his best friend, smirking at him.
jihyun yelps in surprise when san swoops her off her floor and lifts her up bridal style. the boys go crazy at this, all teasing san as he makes his way up the stairs with jihyun in his arms.
"san, let me down! your arms are gonna fall off due to my weight!" she slaps his arms to try to get him to put her down but he doesn't seem to be budging. "relax, ji. i give you piggybacks all the time," he replies her, going up the stairs slowly to prevent any accidents.
"that's different! you have your back as extra support," she whines, wanting him to put her down. "well, i can't give you a piggyback now, can i? i don't want to hurt your ribs. you're not even that heavy so stop complaining, we're almost there." he chuckles when she huffs in annoyance, mumbling something about how her ribs don't hurt anymore as she leans against his shoulders.
when he reaches her room, he closes the door with his foot then proceeded to gently place her on the bed. he then plops face down on the bed too, next to jihyun. jihyun laughs, trying to push him off the bed. san turns to her, a mischievous look on his face before tickling her.
the girl bursts into loud laughter as she swats his hand away. "ow, ow, san, it hurts." she makes a pained face, alerting san and he immediately stops. "i thought you said it doesn't hurt anymore!" jihyun laughs, attacking san back when he lets his guard down.
"sike," she laughs, still tickling san. "that's not fair! you tricked me!" he says in between laughs, thrashing around on jihyun's bed. he then grabs both her wrists with his hands and the pair of best friends ended up stopping their tickle fest, staring into one another's eyes.
"i like you," jihyun suddenly blurts out, wanting to slap her hand against her mouth for speaking her thoughts out loud if her wrists weren't in san's grip. instead, she could only widen her eyes in surprise at her own random confession. san gives her a look of amusement before making them both sit up on the bed.
"i know," he smiles at her sweetly, flashing his dimples that she loves so much. "but i don't like you." he says and jihyun is left confused by that. did he move on already? but they promised to wait until after finals. did he get tired of waiting?
"i love you." he simply says before leaning in for a kiss, one that he's been dying to initiate when their label were certified as more than just friends. but he didn't want to overwhelm her since he knew it was her first, knowing that with yeosang, kissing on the cheeks was the furthest they went in their relationship.
but he couldn't help it. the girl he had been in love with for months was right in front of him, looking as beautiful as ever. how could he resist? he was scared of what the girl might say but when he felt her responding, he smiled, cupping her face.
he could feel her finger tracing his dimple and he remembered her once telling him that his dimple was one of her favourite things in the world.
the kiss wasn't that long, and it certainly wasn't the kind you'd see in movies these days, but it was wonderful in its own way.
he could feel something melt inside him that hurt in an exquisite way. all his longings, all his dreams and sweet anguish, all the secrets that slept deep within him came awake.
they pulled away after a few seconds, hands still on each other's faces, staring deeply into each other's eyes. "i love you so much, park jihyun. more than you'll ever know."
