Trapped | Hwang Hyunjin

Chapter 19

Han travels as fast as she can to the exhibition, not knowing what to expect after Jisung's call. Her heart races really quickly, and she can't help but feel extremely anxious about whatever Jisung is about to tell her.

Upon arriving at the place, she finds Jisung in a school uniform, walking back and forth in front of the building while having his right hand carrying a small, transparent, bag.

My sky blue sweater! Han gasps. So Jisung did, wash her sweater yesterday. The new sweater that he bought for her should be in the laundry basket in her apartment too, if things really did occur.

Han approaches the boy slowly, and the latter stops pacing back and forth after noticing her presence.

"Han!" He greets her rather excitedly, "I'm glad you're here!". He hands over the small bag to the girl, "First of all, let me return your sweater."

"T-Thank you..." Han doesn't know why she feels awkward in front of Jisung when she was besties with him yesterday during the call. She's more self-conscious this time, knowing that something has gone wrong.

Jisung sighs and tells her to sit on the bench located in front of the building. He intertwines his fingers and looks straight at the view in front of him.

"Hanseol."

"Y-Yes?!" She flinches a bit when he calls her name so suddenly.

"You're aware of it, right?"

"Of what...?" Han tries to act carefully—she may or may not know what Jisung is trying to imply, so she lets him take the lead in the conversation.

"Getting trapped in a time loop?" Jisung turns to look at her with an apologetic smile; something that Han does not expect.

The girl nods, acknowledging that they're both on the same page.

"How does it feel?"

Han chuckles bitterly, her eyes nearly sweating again. "It was tough to get things right with Hyunjin. Many things happened and things didn't end well until yesterday."

"Y-You thought Hyunjin's your soulmate...?" Jisung seems bewildered this time, his eyes enlarge twice bigger than usual. For some reason, he feels a sting upon the confession.

"Yeah—I mean, I'm not familiar with the soulmate idea." Han clears her throat awkwardly, feeling uncomfortable. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be saying this to you, considering that you're probably my...soulmate, right?" She internally gasps at her question. Han doesn't even know why she's hesitating to confirm.

But the only new person she interacted with, was Jisung anyway. The new figure that entered her life was him, so he should be her soulmate, shouldn't he be?

"Are you disappointed?" Jisung smiles sadly.

"Instead of being disappointed, it's more of feeling guilty." Han closes her eyes and purses her lips together. Jisung notices her state, and places a hand on her back, gently caressing her.

"Since I've always thought of Hyunjin as my soulmate, I can't help but feel attached to him somehow." Han murmurs softly, but aggressively shakes her head after, "Wait no—it's not feelings of like. More of an attraction and interest, kind of...?"

"You don't have to conceal yourself, you know." Jisung chuckles lightly, "But why had you been pursuing Hyunjin only...?"

"Aren't soulmates supposed to have a genuine friendship to solve the time loop problem?"

Jisung raises his brows, before bursting into laughter. He feels bad for doing so, but her cluelessness and misinterpretation brings laughter. "W-WHY?! Where did you get that idea from?!"

"My brother...?" Han stares at her soulmate with an awkward smile; though he laughs at her for being dumb, at least the sad atmosphere is lifted. "He had no clue though, he simply spilled whatever was in his mind. So I can't really blame him."

"Hanseol..." Jisung sighs while chuckling at the same time, "You don't have to form a proper friendship whatsoever. A proper interaction, as in getting to know each others' names, is enough."

The boy then proceeds to tell the side of his story, where he literally spent his time talking to people whom he suspected as his soulmate. It was of course, hard for him, considering that there were many visitors attending the exhibition.

"You interacted with...how many?!" Han is surprised to know the number of people that Jisung had interacted with for the past few days—he really wanted to meet his soulmate so bad maybe.

"Yeah, it was tiring though. Interacting with people is stressful, and I made sure to get their contacts too, so that it's easier to track down my soulmate after the time stops repeating." Jisung places his arms on his eyes and laughs in amusement, "Turns out that I meet my soulmate at the café, on the day when I decided to take a break."

"Oh? I was taking a break yesterday too. The whole soulmate search was tiring, so I decided to let things happen naturally." Han smiles, offering her true soulmate a high five. Jisung gladly takes it, but frowns. "But I'm surprised, why haven't I seen you anywhere in the area?"

Han shrugs, "I had been staying around the main sculpture only."

"Ah, that crowded area. Yeah, I lowkey avoided it." He admits apologetically, and earns a light slap on his arms from his soulmate.

"Did you think the time was going to repeat again today?" Han asks, admiring Jisung in his uniform. His blazer really does suit him well—she has to admit.

"Yeah, and I only checked the date after I've gotten ready."

"That was me this morning too."

The two chuckle at how similar they are—from handling things, planning on how to escape the time loop, and everything else. Thank God that Jisung decided to take some things off his mind that day, which led him to the exhibition alone, to admire art. If they hadn't been at the same time and space that day, Jisung probably would stop believing in the idea of soulmate, and Han wouldn't know a thing about it.

---------

Author's Note: HELLO! THANK YOU FOR 1K READS OMG I SERIOUSLY DID NOT EXPECT IT TO GO THIS FAR AHAHAHA

TO THANK YOU GUYS, I SHALL UPDATE ANOTHER CHAPTER IN A FEW HOURS! LOOK FORWARD TO IT >< 

ONCE AGAIN THANK YOU FOR THE READS, UPVOTES AND COMMENTS!