Chapter Text
I believe that meeting Jisung was fate; he fully changed me in the year that I had known him.
Before Jisung, I had been uptight, I rarely ever left my house. But he gave me reason to leave, to try in school, and to be social.
I enjoyed learning, with the thought of surpassing Jisung lingering in the back of my mind.
"Whatcha thinking about?" Minji said, breaking me out of my thoughts.
"Oh! Um- nothing really. Why?" I asked, as we began to near the beach.
"No reason, you just looked like you were thinking about something important," She shrugged.
"Well anyways, we're almost at the beach," Haerin said as the ground beneath us slowly started to reveal more particles of sand.
"Remember when we came here last year?" Jay said.
"Mhm, how could I forget- you guys threw me in the water," I said rolling my eyes.
We walked onto the beach and began to set our blankets and chairs down. It wasn't really a swimming type of place though- it was too rocky for that.
So instead, we all sat in a circle and just spoke to each other.
"So, now that NingNing and Chenle are dating, and Jeno and Karina are close enough, we have to bother you two. Haechan, Winter, fill us in on everything," Giselle said with shining eyes.
"In your dreams," Winter said scoffing jokingly.
"Well, basically I just kind of decided to talk to Winter, so now we talk even more often," Haechan shrugged.
"So reliable, so secretive, so trustworthy!" Winter exclaimed sarcastically, earning a laugh from us.
"I think there's something I've been kind of curious about," I suddenly interrupted.
"About what?" Minji asked, clueless.
"About you. How on Earth are you planning on graduating? You never go to class, you sleep in every day, you never do your assignments, you never-"
"I'll make Jay's dad pay the principal, simple," Minji interjected.
"Shes actually hopeless," Haerin added on.
"...Wait, people here skip school?" Jisung suddenly asked, as if this wasn't something that happened litterly everywhere.
"Jisung... people skip school in Seoul to. Hell- people skip school everywhere in the world," Mark began to lecture.
"...Haneul- I thought you said you'd be less nerdy in Seoul, what happened?" Jungwon joked.
"I don't even know- I got stuck with this guy by proximity," I said, half kidding.
"Well were you forced or swooned?" Danielle suddenly asked.
"What-"
"I mean- you told us all about him in that shirt in the eleva-" I quickly clasped my hand over Danielles mouth, and watched as the others from Damyang grew excited.
"You mean- they don't know?" Minji said, her eyes shining knowing she finally had dirt on me.
"Don't know what?" Giselle asked.
Suddenly Chenle spoke up. "OH! That's what you meant when you said she felt you up in a crammed elevator!"
"WHAT?" Karina exclaimed, absolutely shocked.
I looked at Jisung with wide eyes, "You told them! It's like you wanted them to get the wrong idea!"
"Well I didn't know you told your other friends-"
"How could I not? I could basically feel your entire ches-"
"WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME THIS?" Karina said, now standing, her mouth hung ajar in excitement.
"Now that I'm thinking about it, what else has Haneul told us that she probably didn't tell anybody else?" Jay suddenly asked.
"...Well, we did bring up that video of him dancing. Oh- by the way Jisung, we all agreed that you were hot after we saw this random video of you dancing," Haerin said nonchalantly.
"What-" Jisung began, before getting interrupted.
"I just remembered something that she definitely didn't tell anybody else- hell she probably didn't even talk to Jisung about this," Jungwon suddenly said with a menacing look.
I knew without a doubt that he was talking about Jisung kissing me.
"...OH! And how she texted us all giddy, and was probably in bed grinning and kicking her feet," Minji said, understanding what we were talking about.
"Well, what did she tell you guys?" Eunchae asked.
"She texted us right after she got home from some fair that she and Jisung had ki-"
"ANYWAYS!" I said standing up.
"Wait- what did they do?" Renjun asked, just as curious as everybody else.
"Nothing!" Jisung finally said, now realizing what was happening.
"...Wait. Did you guys kis-" Haechan started, finally putting everything together.
"Nope! Um- let's play a game you guys!" I said, looking for any type of excuse.
"Whatever, we're here to make Haneul happy, so we can just ignore the obvious," Jay said rolling his eyes sarcastically.
Eventually we ended up playing the game where we each have different names, and call out the number of times other people have to say their names.
Winner could choose to punish a looser, so I had to win at all costs.
This plan immediately failed though right after Hanni said "Haneul eight," and I missed the beat.
"I hate this game," I said, laying back dramatically in defeat.
"Sucks to suck," Haerin said as they started the next round.
They continued to play, and surprise surprise, Jisung won, but he decided he would use his reward later.
"So, now what?" Yuna asked.
"I don't know, I'm kind of tierd. Does anybody have anything interesting to say?" Jungwon added.
"Hanuel, how about you? You're the one who knows both groups best," Karina suggested. I shrugged and agreed.
"Well, I guess I'll be a little sappy then. ...I mean, it was pretty obvious that I wasn't used to living in a city, and I think it was really clear that I missed my old home. To be honest, I kept telling myself that I no longer had a home, when I first moved. I wasn't really adapted to Seoul, yet I was no longer up to date with everything in Damyang. It was my fault though- for not saying anything. Instead of figuring it out I kind of just sulked alone. But I'm glad that you guys somehow got through to me. I guess I realized that there's always going to be people who care about me- no matter where I go. And I also am grateful that even with me being so far, all my old friends still kept in touch with me. I'm sure it wasn't easy seen as I never really carried any conversation with you guys. What I really am trying to say is, I didn't make it easy for anybody, but I'm really thankful that none of you guys gave up on me."
"Well just know that we may give up on you if you fully ditch us during exam season again," Jaemin said poking my arm.
"Yeah yeah, I guess I'll still talk to you guys," I said rolling my eyes.
"Not to ruin the mood, but I still get the pick a punishment for the loser," Jisung said.
"Oh yeah, I bet you'll make Chenle do something."
"Nope, I have a better plan. Let's throw Haneul into the water," He said menacingly.
"Absolutely not," I laughed as I got up and tried to run away. Obviously I failed, it was like a twenty vs. one situation, the odds were not in my favor.
After about a minute of running, my time was up. Jisung quickly scooped me up in my arms and laughed as he started to walk towards the water.
"I HATE YOU ALL!" I screamed as we got closer to the cold ocean.
"Aww, we love you too!" Jeno snickered right as I was thrown in.
I shrieked, and before I knew it I was submerged in the water. I lifted my head out, soaking wet.
"I'm going to kill you all," I said as I emerged looking like a wet dog.
"Kill us in the morning- it's getting dark out, so we should go back soon," Danielle declared.
As much as I wanted my revenge, she was right. We packed up all of our stuff and began our trek back to Danielle's house, where we would spend the night.
"Well- you guys can pretty much sleep wherever you want. I'll get pillows," Danielle said as we walked in.
Everybody thanked her and started to settle into different spots.
"...I think I'm going to sit outside for a minute. I'll come right back in though- save a spot for me Dani," I said as I started to walk to her back door.
"Sure," Danielle said right as I stepped out.
I looked up at the sky. It was so different from Seoul. I could see every star so vividly, like each one was trying to tell me something new.
Just then the door opened again, and I turned around to see Jisung walking outside.
"Hey," He said.
"Hey."
"The stars are pretty, aren't they?" He asked, noticing that I had been looking up.
"Yeah, they're pretty nice."
"Nothing like the ones in Seoul," He decided, now craning his neck to try and see as many starts as he could.
"You know, in essence I'm just like the stars. I'm muted out at times, but I'm still fighting to stay bright."
"...That's true, but to me you're always shining," He said looking at me.
"Thanks... you know, I've been thinking Jisung. I think that I made the right choice to walk with you on the first day of school- instead of just staring at you in confusion."
"And even though I thought you were a bit strange when I first met you, I think asking if you were coming with me was the best choice I've ever made."
I hummed in agreement, and looked back up at the sky.
"...Jisung?"
"Yeah?"
"I think I like you,"
I said, smiling as I avoided his eyes.
"You think, or you know?"
"I know- I know that I like you. You're all that I think about, every single thing somehow relates back to you." I said, glancing over to see him grinning widely.
"Haneul?"
"Mhm," I said, now smiling too.
"I like you too. I've liked you since the day I first met you- when we went down the elevator together to get food."
"And you never said anything?" I said looking at him shocked.
"Well, I didn't say anything, but I did do something. You may remember, we had a whole argument about it," He said.
"Stop it," I said grinning while hitting his shoulder.
"Not anymore," He said leaning into me.
I smiled as his lips met mine, his hand finding its way to gently hold my cheek. Time felt like it stopped, and I could feel the air from his nose touch my face. His hand made my already warm cheeks hotter, the entire feeling was euphoric.
After a moment, I pulled away.
"...Park Jisung, thank you for being so perfect."
"And thank you for becoming even more than that."
To be honest, I used to think that Jisung was cold and unreadable at first. No matter how hard he tried, I kept pushing him away; I didn't know any better.
But now I get it- now I know him.
So maybe I wasn't spot on about Jisung, and maybe he wasn't right about me.
But there's no doubting this.
Maybe We Were Wrong
////