--Honey Lou's Point of View--
Sora's name appeared on the screen while I was busy doing my notebooks. I stopped designing them for a moment and answered her call.
It wasn't necessary to put some effort into what I was doing since we wouldn't use these much.
But I would have really liked studying if they encouraged us to write like this…
"Hey, Young." I waited for a response.
Sora must be occupied right now so I continued making the notebooks look presentable.
At least the subject teachers wouldn't be bothered when they check my homework, school work, or whatever it was called around here.
"Are you coming?" Sora asked, and she responded after a whole minute.
I pondered as to what I should say before replying to her, it was not that I didn't wanna hang out with them but I just wanted to do this first and be prepared since I wasn't homeschooled anymore…
I don't get to call the shots and create a deadline of my own. 'Other than avoiding you know who.'
"I'll think about it."
She snorted again as the words left my mouth. "But you agreed earlier." my friend whined.
Just how was I going to say no to this girl?
"Once I finish this essay that was given to us I'll come by 4:00 PM." now she knows the tasks I have to do by the end of the day, they may not care about our grade results but I was not gonna flunk at all...
There was no certainty that the excuse worked out though.
"Sure sure, I will tell the others about that. See you later!" she bid farewell before hanging up the call.
Now, I'm stuck with the expectation of showing up tonight… Moving on!
Usually, I never use the terms 'Bye' or 'So long' since we'll most likely see each other again, and Sora probably got used to it by now, seeing as she had already adjusted to avoid such words.
'Not sure why though, but it felt like those words meant that we won't see each other anymore.'
Well, this is irritating!
The stickers didn't look right and the colors weren't in sync at all…
Better get back to work then, I must fix every error!
'I'm hungry.' I thought to myself right as I stood up to clear all of the trash.
I left my study room and went to the kitchen to find something to munch on.
'All there was… Emptiness...'
It only meant that I had to go out and buy a thing or two from the convenience store.
I also needed to get a few more things to last me about a week or so.
But how come I survived living here when I had nothing in the kitchen?
Wouldn't I have starved yet by now?
'Oh, right! I am famished...' but I did spend my time eating outside.
I didn't forget to bring anything so I was set to leave, I placed a black hoodie on top of my white dress and then brought my phone with me as well as the keys to the house before leaving.
There was a store not so far from home so I quickly went towards the west outside the neighborhood and took everything I needed such as a pack of tissue rolls though I still had a lot of that.
I forgot to grab a shopping cart!
My eyes roamed around and as I was about to return the tissue rolls, a dirty blonde-haired stranger handed me an empty cart, it was small but it'll do.
"Thank you!" I quickly grabbed the tissue rolls again before leaving the short aisle.
Tubes of ice cream, as well as snacks that I wanted at the moment, all went straight in the cart.
Also, a few other instant foods that I can either cook or heat up instantly.
Then I walked up towards the counter and waited for my turn as the straight blonde-haired dude paid for his items, and whilst the cashier was checking out each product, I noticed a key detail.
Something seemed familiar about him although I wasn't sure what it was since his figure was kind of different from the last time I met him. 'Who was it again?'
I couldn't hold the questions in and brought up the topic right after the price came out.
"Do you go to SGH too?" I shyly tried to talk to him.
Unfortunately, he didn't respond whatsoever so I immediately shrank back into my spot and watched the kind dude in front of me leave.
I simply gave him the exact amount of bills I needed to pay for the items I bought after he punched the barcodes one by one. 'That was so humiliating.'
Was it weird of me to get curious and ask? Was he perhaps one of Sora's friends? I mean...
There were textbooks over there on the other side of the counter which looked to be the same ones from our school though we rarely used textbooks.
Could he be that straightforward guy who pointed out Haesu? I see, he isn't an approachable guy and is often just icy cold towards other people, he must be that cousin Sora once also mentioned.
Yeonju Lee, that's his name.
As soon as the guy had placed them all inside a paper bag, I left heading straight home to finish up the essay we were told to do before I met with the others.
Time check (3:20 PM)...
I started packing up everything I would be bringing with me to the café and cleaned the rest of the mess I might have left as I did the arts and crafts to design my notebooks, then the papers which I saved to reuse for something I planned on doing, after that, I got ready for the get-together they had.
After grabbing the Polaroid camera and stuffing it inside the string bag, I left and then locked the door. Running as fast as I could to get there in time.
Even though I did say that I wouldn't meet with them, there I was, on the way to Bloom Café despite not being comfortable with the number of people there.
'I truly hoped that there weren't any dogs in this neighborhood...' I tried to pay attention to the places, people, and vehicles surrounding me as I crossed the pavement.
"Be careful, dear!"
I heard a sound from the house near the end of the neighborhood and slowed down a bit to take a look.
'It was Ms. Haejin, the woman who also lived close.'
Her house was only a few blocks from my place so I guess that what I was doing isn't enough to say that I was anywhere near my destination.
Fortunately, as I ran into a crowd, I didn't drop anything so I proceeded running, carefully this time.
The fact that I might get hit by a vehicle or a person while I was rushing to get there was stuck in mind, cars honk a lot when they're in a hurry too, and another thing that was bothering me is the fact that I was running when there was plenty of time to spare...
'Red light!'
I came to a stop as I saw the sign, also noticing the vehicles going at high speed once there weren't any more pedestrians crossing.
I lifted my gaze upon the sky, the stars were barely visible during this time around yet I could already see a few that were starting to shine, twinkling above me, and even the clouds were far different from the ones back in New York.
'The clouds are mostly covering up the entire sky so there's a chance that it will rain.'
If I were being honest, the beauty of this world appeared to be one of the slowest to fade away.
It wasn't like the other places I had gone to before… People knew how to preserve life here.
Moving on from that topic, Bloom Café was just across the road, I made sure to check if there were any upcoming vehicles from either left or right before walking ahead.
Out of the blue, near the entrance, someone grabbed my hand and brought me over to the side where it was dark. There were two who wore matching black, and one spoke to me.
"Hey, can you do us a favor? Just this once."
A very familiar voice started the conversation although I didn't think it would be fair to simply do them a favor without introducing themselves, and let us not forget what she did to me just this morning.
"Tell me who you are first then I'll consider..."
I responded, Haesu should learn how to act properly before asking for a favor.
We barely knew each other and aren't close enough to have a casual conversation, not after what she did.
"You little-" Kim Young cut her off before she could even finish the sentence.
"We need your assistance, Honey Lou." he replied on behalf of his girlfriend who was currently struggling under his grasp to prevent having any more fights begin again.
"If you don't mind, please cover for us." the guy added, the fact that they both smell alike proves that they were, indeed, a couple. 'I believe this is about getting away from the others.'
And getting a chance to finally have time for themselves. 'Alone.'
Haesu might've not expected that I would turn out to be the one who can help them in this situation.
I guess this was my opportunity to prove to her that I am different from how she remembered.
In other words, I did not have to change and that there was nothing wrong with me, to begin with.
'It was all a misunderstanding, that's what it was.'