Characters: Kibum, OC, SJ
Rating: PG
Chaptercount: 34/36
Summary: Soojin meets a guy who turns her world upside down but then there's a few dozen others as well.
A/N: This is one of my most beloved novels (not that I wrote THAT many, but still) and I think I will forever cherish the characters in this. This story also helped me shape my view on the different members and is the first of few stories in which I used first person.
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As I got into his car, I noticed his expression and therefore immediately started a conversation with him the moment he sat down as well.
“What?” I asked him with a slight frown. “Why are you looking at me like that?” He sighed and shook his head.
“Nothing, just thinking of how useless you can be.” he then retorted. I huffed, pushing his shoulder and turning my face away from him offendedly.
“Says he who doesn’t even know how to throw a ball in a goal.” I snapped back. He chuckled.
“I missed that.” he suddenly confessed rather unexpectedly. I frowned.
“Missed what?”
“You being your Snipe self. No one can insult me like you do.” he explained with an amused smile on his face. I shot him a disbelieving look.
“Well no one can destroy a relationship like you do.” I then scoffed, but the only thing I got out of it was him laughing out loud.
“Ah, but that was not solely my fault. Besides, if it wasn’t for me, you two might never have met!” he protested, grinning happily. I could only stare, dumbstruck. When I finally regained my composure, I cleared my throat.
“We have been in the same class ever since kindergarten.” I deadpanned. Heechul pursed his lips at that revelation, his eyes shooting to mine.
“Oh..” he then mumbled, before his eyes widened a little in surprise. “Since kindergarten!? Why did you never talk before?”
I grinned at him. “Who says we didn’t? Now hurry up and drive, I’m hungry and you don’t want to keep unnie waiting.”
He took my advice for granted, turning on the engine and calmly setting off to his home. It was strange yet awfully familiar to walk into the castle that was his house. Yet I didn’t get much of a chance to be marvelled by it all, because mere seconds after the front door closed again behind us, Hangeng suddenly appeared out of nowhere and gave me a big hug. Needless to say he almost made me jump in surprise coming out of nowhere like that.
If ever I felt more welcomed than at that moment, I at least don’t remember it. It was like coming home to family after some absence. The moment we walked into the living room and Heeyoung unnie saw me, she jumped up and came over to hug me. To my surprise, mere moments later, Jongwoon walked into the room as well, stopping with a surprised expression as he noticed me.
“Oh.. Soojin.. I didn’t expect you to be here.” he said, smiling at me immediately after and coming up to ruffle my hair. “Haven’t really seen you around lately.” He eyed me accusingly, but the smile still playing around his lips showed me he wasn’t really that discontent. I blushed and looked away.
“Busy with uh.. exams.” It was half a lie, and I could see Heechul’s frown as he heard it, but I hid my face behind my hair, so Jongwoon wouldn’t to notice anything.
“Ah yes, these exams.” he muttered, shaking his head disapprovingly. “Bummie suddenly doesn’t have time for anything but work and studying either.” The mention made my heart clench, causing me to get tears in my eyes, but once again I managed to repress them before looking up so that no one would notice a thing. I managed to escape the seemingly never ending hugs and touches after only five minutes.
Instead of just sitting down on the couch, we all moved to the dining room, taking our seats at the table so that we could get to eating. Heechul took the spot next to me, and Heeyoung and Jongwoon sat down opposite of us, so when Hangeng came in with the food, he could pick between the two heads of the table. He settled for sitting down at my left, which was also his noona’s right. The food was some specialised Chinese recipe according to Hangeng and I really enjoyed it. As we started eating, I decided to not let an awkward silence settle, and therefore spoke up.
“So what happened these last weeks?” I wondered, trying for a light atmosphere. My words immediately caused them to launch into a bunch of talking about the previous weeks; how both Hangeng and Heechul were in the middle of exams like I was, how Jongwoon was juggling studying and working to be able to have some spare money for the holidays and how Heeyoung had finally left the company to her co-workers, now trying to find a job more to her liking.
As they talked, I kept watching the couple, noticing how they were still as close as in the beginning, the occasional exchange of loving glances, the soft touching of hands or shoulders in a sign of ‘I’m here for you’ and more of the cheesy stuff that gives couples the right to be called couples. I felt my heart clench at that idea, but right before I could think deeper into the whole couple thing and how happy they should be, a hand touched my own and I turned to see Heechul smiling knowingly at me.
“Don’t go that way, Snipe.” he mumbled while Jongwoon was still in the middle of talking about his job in his father’s garage. As he gave my hand a soft squeeze, I managed to smile back at him, glad to have been jerked away from the thoughts that would have probably sent me off into a depression again.
When Jongwoon finished and they asked me after my life, I managed to quite happily tell them about having gamed and my mother going crazy over it, about Yumiko still living with us, having only two weeks left until she would have to leave, about my father planning to take a week of holidays to take my mother somewhere and all kinds of other general things, never ones trailing to the subject of Kibum.
They listened, making some comments to what I said and keeping up a nice conversation for quite a long amount of time. In the end it was Heechul who noticed the time, asking me if I had to go home. Even though I had enjoyed the day and their company, I still agreed on leaving, because I didn’t want to risk suddenly bursting out into tears in front of them after all. So we said goodbye to Heeyoung, Jongwoon and
Their lack of questions about Kibum had made me wonder if and how they knew we had broken up, but possibly the two of us never being together anymore might have had something to do with that as well, or maybe they were just not talking about him because I was obviously avoiding the subject at all costs. That’s when I realised something; How did Heechul find out I was no longer together with Kibum? Yet I felt quite sure that I wouldn’t want to know the answer to that question, so I never asked it.
Some twenty minutes after leaving Heechul’s place, we reached my house, where everyone seemed to be home again already as well. Normally I would just get out, tell him goodbye and walk away, but for some reason I couldn’t that day. He had been giving me so much support and warmth throughout the day, and it had been so long since I had actually spent some time with someone, that instead of getting out, I turned to him.
“Heechul..” I mumbled, not sure how to put my thoughts into words. He merely smiled at me, however, turning off the engine and unbuckling his seatbelt.
“Of course I’d like to come in.” he said, flipping his
“Oppa!” it sounded and as I turned around I saw my neighbour Sanghee coming towards us. She immediately leaned into him upon reaching us and pressed her cheek against his, while he shortly put his arms around her middle. I looked at their greeting in surprise, wondering when they had started to get this close. Probably, I answered my own question, while I was hiding away from the world.
“Hey Sanghee-ssi.” I greeted the girl, who turned to me with a smile.
“Soojin-ssi!” she told me happily. “How have you been? I didn’t see you for a long time!”
“Been good. Yourself?” I replied, smiling lightly. She seemed to be in a very good mood that day and somehow her happiness was infecting me as well. So when she grinned widely at me as she replied, I allowed myself to give her an almost equally wide grin in return.
“Good too. I took your advice and found that Heechul oppa is a very nice guy. So now I have a lot of friends and a lot of jealous high school girls.” she piped, patting Heechul’s lower arm. The guy seemed to be very happy with the compliments he was getting, having a satisfied smile on his face. She suddenly turned to him as she continued talking. “But oppa, I’ll let you go inside. I just wanted to ask when I had to be at the sports complex this Saturday, so I won’t be too late.”
Heechul sent her a reassuring smile. “That’s okay. I’ll come pick you up.” he told her.
“Oh.. Sure.. But then what time? That way I can make sure I am up and ready when you get here.” she kept pushing anyway, making me stifle a chuckle.
His grin grew wider as he looked at her. “I don’t know yet what time. But don’t worry, I’m great at waking people up.” He told her, turning to wink at me. “Snipe knows all about it.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, don’t worry, Sanghee, I’ll come wake you before he does. No one deserves waking up to the horrible image of Kim Heechul’s face.” I expected Heechul to be offended, but instead he was giving me a hopeful look.
“Are you going to come along too?” he wondered, making me freeze.
“I don’t know. Lots to study. Ask me again on Saturday.” I evaded the question. “Anyway, I have to go inside. See you around, Sanghee.. If not during the week, then you’ll see me bursting in this Saturday.” With those words, I quickly fled the scene, walking up the few steps to my front door and getting out my key. I heard Heechul say a quick goodbye to my neighbour, following me inside and closing the door behind us.
My mother came almost immediately, probably to ask me out about leaving, but when she noticed I had a visitor, she fell silent and merely welcomed me home and had some small talk with Heechul. Our next obstacle was Yumiko, who came running out of her room and caught me at the top of the stairs, completely not caring that Heechul was around as she squished me in her arms. Looking past her, into her room, I saw Zhou Mi sitting on a pillow against the wall. Having seen her with Sungmin only earlier that day, I immediately realised Yumiko still hadn’t picked yet.
Zhou Mi raised a hand and waved at me, sending me a friendly smile. Part of me was happy to see me, the part that made me raise my own hand and wave back with an equally friendly smile, even though I was still being squished, yet another part wanted to close my eyes and run, because seeing Zhou Mi reminded me of the one he was sharing an apartment with and it took all my self-control not to ask how he was doing and if there was a slight possibility that he was missing me.
The red-haired Chinese seemed to understand, however, because his expression got slightly sympathetic and he mouthed an ‘He’s okay.’ to me, shrugging lightly as if to apologise for not being able to tell me any more than that. I closed my eyes for a moment before pulling out of Yumiko’s grip, putting on a seemingly unaffected expression as I looked at her.
“Not that I’m not happy to be home, Yumi, but I see you everyday, is this your new way of greeting people?” I asked her, sending her an amused smile. Of course she saw through my pretence as if it was nothing and she sent me a smile back.
“No, I was just playing truth or dare with Zhou Mi and he dared me to run out and hug the first person I saw, which happened to be you.” she retorted, and I knew she was lying for my sake, causing a soft smile appear on my face. She retreated back into her room and I walked on to mine, letting Heechul enter after me before locking the door. The moment the key turned and the lock clicked into place, I felt his arms slip around my middle and his head rested against mine, his breath warm on my skin.
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