The Year of Heartbreaks

Friends and Feelings

Wooyoung made a U-turn at the intersection once he hung up the call with Junho. He was driving aimlessly around the town after leaving the party several hours ago. The peace of mind he desperately hoping to find didn't come even one bit and he figured he should face his problem head on this time. He needed to talk to Haneul about this whole thing about her and Junho, and, ultimately, how he felt about it.

Too bad his effort to reach her connected to none other but the source of his problem. Whatever, he thought. He might as well talk to Junho while he had the chance. Or more like, while he had the guts to. His head was so much in a mess that he didn't care how the day would end or how his friendship with the both of them would turn out to be. He had enough of being left in the dark along with his chaotic feelings.

He needed to ask Junho about his feeling. No, scratch that. Junho needed to know how I feel about Haneul, Wooyoung thought.

***

It was a sunny day when Wooyoung spent his free time during study break playing soccer on the school field. Passing the ball to his friend, he jogged across the field to be ready for another passing from his friend. However, his feet slowed down when his eyes landed on the figure walking down the running track alongside the soccer field. Haneul, his mind called out her name.

"Yah! I'm outta here, play without me!" he patted the shoulder of one of his friends and raced towards the girl.

Oblivious of the boy running few meters away behind her, Haneul casually headed to the flight of stairs on the corner of the school yard. It was still half an hour before study break ended, she figured it would be nice to spend the time listening to some songs while watching the guys played soccer. On her left hand, a bottle of cold water safely stayed in her grip. That was, until Wooyoung snatched it away in a split second as he ran past her.

"This is mine, right?" Wooyoung asked with a big grin as he jogged backwards in front of Haneul who was still recovering from her shock.

"Yah!" she managed to shout, "Stop sneaking up on me,"

"Pay attention to your surrounding next time then," Wooyoung turned the bottle lid open and gulp the refreshing cold water as he waited for Haneul to catch up to him. The water was his indeed, as it always was. Haneul was here for him, as it also always was. He smiled on the back of his mind at the thought.

"You're done playing?" Haneul asked as they took seats on the stairs and took out her discman.

"Uh hm, need to dry up all these sweats before class," he fanned himself with his shirt to prove his made-up excuse, different one from the one he had made the day before. He couldn't believe Haneul fell for them each time because it was clear to anyone that he always stopped playing soccer midway to spend time with her. Sure, she lived with his family which meant that they can see each other all the time, but being on different classes at school somehow caused him to treasure each seconds he caught a glimpse of his bestfriend during the day. "Anyway, what are you listening to this time?" he pointed to the discman.

"Well, I'm about to find out now. Let's hope it's good," Haneul answered and then smiled bashfully when Wooyoung furrowed his eyebrows questioning what did she meant. "I actually just received this... cd mix. Someone gave it to me.." she bit her lips, nervous.

"Is that 'someone' a boy?" Wooyoung's question was answered by a simple nod from Haneul, "Who is it?" he asked again dryly.

A name left Haneul's lips, Wooyoung barely knew the boy except that he was their senior. She went on about how she knew him from the music club and got close to each other after some club activities together. Well, it didn't really matter who the other boy was, the important thing was the fact that that boy managed to do the thing Wooyoung had never brave enough to do: Confessing his feeling to Haneul.