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Untitled
Pairing: Sooyoung/Kris
o-o-o-o-o
She’s half-amused, a quarter embarrassed and a quarter annoyed with herself for being this nervous.
It’s not like she’s about to do anything for the first time… Well, technically, not really. She’s not about to do something to cross off an item from her bucket list. She’s not about to go on some wild you-only-live-once kind of adventure. She isn’t even about to meet a celebrity or some other person for the first time either.
But she can feel the butterflies fluttering around in her stomach, making her feel anxious and excited and a tad bit queasy all at the same time. It’s an uncomfortable feeling, mind you; one that won’t let her stay still as she waits.
He has never been late, maybe save for a mere handful of occasions wherein he couldn’t help but be tardy.
In the nearly ten years she’s known him, Kris has never liked being the cause of delay, never liked not being where he’s supposed to be at the right time. She remembers him saying how punctuality has always been important to him back then. He merely mentioned it in passing but she’s always remembered.
She’s always been the one with the better memory between the two of them. But aside from that, his I’m-never-late-or-absent claim always came back to bite him in the ass whenever he asked her to time his arrival and then subsequently arrived late than the promised time.
Sooyoung glances at the clock. The moment it strikes 12:55 pm, she hears the honk of a horn outside. She wills herself to calm down, checks her reflection one more time in the mirror, grabs her purse and runs out the front door.
“Eight years later and he still isn’t a gentleman.” She grumbles to herself once she’s finished locking up her house.
He remains in the car, waiting patiently for her to get her person inside so they can go. A gentleman would normally come out of his car and help a lady by opening her door for her. But as what’s already been established, Kris isn’t quite like that.
Sooyoung takes her dandy time, if only to tick him off a little bit, and fixes the dark floral-print dress she’s sporting as she walks. From what little she can see through the tinted glass of the car, his fingers are drumming lightly against the stirring wheel. She’s sure he’s listening to a song he likes. It’s a habit of his to drum his fingers along with the beat if he likes the song.
She sucks in a sharp breath and wears a beaming smile on her face as she opens the door, noting how his fingers stop moving when he smiles back at her; small little creases appearing at the corner of his eyes thanks to the gesture.
“Hey.”
“Hey back.”
Kris waits until she’s fastened her seatbelt on before he veers the car away from her house. “How are you?”
“Same old, same old.” She fights the chuckle that’s threatening to bubble out of her lips. Eight years have passed and they still start their face to face conversations like this, especially after not seeing each other for a certain period of time. “You?”
“Same.” The blonde nods back absently before he glances her way and sends her a sheepish smile. “So… What way should we take?”
Sooyoung groans at the question; her thoughts fleeting back to the first time he’s asked the same question. She remembers it clearly, like it’s only been a few hours since it happened instead of it being around six years. They had a place they needed to get to that day; a place only she knew - and still does know - best.
Long story short, it was a case of a trip of a sheltered, information-deprived driver and a not-as-information-deprived but still not all-knowing Kris-appointed navigator. It had been her job to get them there and with a rather smug smirk, she’d done it right, sans a few mistakes here and there… but really, it was Kris’s fault more than it was hers.
But this case is different. He knows how to get there. He knows it as well as she does. If the question he’s just asked is for old time’s sake, she doesn’t know, and maybe, she’ll never want to know.
The brunette rolls her eyes; the car just having reached the gates of the subdivision. “Whichever way you want, dork.”
He chuckles and silence takes over the occupants of the car - his car. With a faint smile gracing her lips, she remembers the first time they’d talk about cars back then. She’d gone babbling about how her car had to be black and blah blah blah. But he merely said all he wanted for his first ever car was a well-operating car… that wasn’t pink.
Conversation has become light and casual the moment the car enters the main highway. The music player is still dishing out songs one after another and from time to time, they simply shut their mouths and listen to it. For whatever odd reason, all she hears are old songs; the kind she likes. She know he prefers the more current ones yet here he is, with his elbow propped against the window and his fist lightly brushing his lips, softly singing along with a song she’s sure he won’t normally listen to.
“You like that song?”
“Nope.” He pops the ‘p’ when he answers.
Her eyebrows shoot up. “Then how come you know it?”
His reply is casual, like the answer is really simple that she seems stupid for not knowing. “You like that song.”
Her cheeks heat up and she hastily looks away, miserably failing at trying to keep the smile off her face. From the corner of her eye, she sees him look her way before focusing back on the road; a smirk twitching the corners of his lips.
Sooyoung tries to ignore him in her flushed state but again, it goes in vain and she soon finds herself softly singing along with him and the music player. She’s never been proud of her singing, what with the lack of a beautiful voice but she’s more than comfortable with the company she’s with to mind.
The first time he asked her to sing all those years ago, she flat out refused.
Kris nods toward a billboard of an upcoming movie. “That looks nice.”
“It does.” Sooyoung agrees easily.
It goes without saying that it’ll be the next movie they have to watch next.
“Do you think they’ll let us in?”
He grins. “I talked to the guard the other day. We won’t have a problem.”
Her jaw drops. “When? How come I didn’t know?”
“You were stressing over a deadline. I wasn’t able to bring it up.” He turns the car right at the intersection. “Besides, no one will be there at this time.”
She stays wary a bit longer. “If you’re sure…”
“Trust me.”
Sooyoung beams. “That’s easy.”
It’s his turn to go all blushing and really, it’s a rather flattering, ego-boosting thing for a female to see that on a male’s face and know she’s the cause of it.
They fall silent yet again and Sooyoung finds herself preoccupied with all the passing scenery she hasn’t seen in quite a while. Nothing has changed, even if they are still on the road that merely leads to their destination. Everything’s still the same and right where they have always been. She idly feels like it’s only her and Kris who have changed in this whole scenario.
The car slows down, pausing at the gate of the secured property. The gate pass - it’s more of a sticker, really - on the windshield provides them with an easy entrance and the car gains speed once more as they pass the gates. Kris smiles as he takes in his surroundings and he knows without having to ask that she’s thinking of the exact same thing.
“Yup, nothing’s changed.”
It’s almost really melancholic and sentimental really as they drive through the road. Sooyoung finds it nearly silly, considering that they haven’t reached the place yet. But everywhere she and Kris look, there’s a memory to be associated with the place; either a memory only one of them has or a memory they both share.
Kris steers the car to the left and the butterflies instantly take flight in her stomach once more as she sees the building. It’s been so long and just like everything else, it still looks the same. It’s still a monotonous and intimidating as ever and Sooyoung absently scowls at that. Kris expertly manoeuvres into a vacant parking space once they’ve reached the parking lot second laters. Really, there are a lot to choose from yet he chooses this one - his favourite parking slot back then.
He kills the engine yet neither makes a move to get out of the car. For a moment, Sooyoung stares intently at the sidewalk leading to the entrance of the building. She can imagine herself -well, her eighteen year old self - standing there, watching the cars and the people come and go from the parking lot, looking for a particular car all the while.
She catches him looking at the same direction, wondering if he’s remembering the eighteen year old boy watching a slightly younger girl walk to a waiting shed from the confines of a car eight years ago.
“Hey.” He gently snaps her out of her thoughts. “Ready?”
She nods. “Always.”
They step out of the car and Sooyoung waits patiently as he makes sure all doors are locked before they begin their short walk to the entrance. He comments on how much they know the place that they can close their eyes and not lose their way and she laughs, nodding in agreement.
The guard greets them at the entrance, greeting the blonde man merely as Kris, not Sir Kris and most especially not as Ambassador Wu. He brightens up at that, knowing that in this place, all he has to be is Kris.
“You can go in, sir, ma’am.”
“Thank you.” Sooyoung smiles kindly and by her side, Kris smiles too. Even after all this years, she’s still as polite as ever.
The inside of the building is relatively dark, thanks to the setting sun and the relatively few lights that peppers the ceiling. It is mostly silent, save for some chatter here and there from people who are still in the building despite the rather late hour. They walk in silence, preoccupied by their own thoughts as memory after memory comes rushing back in; memories of hanging out with friends, tears of disappointment and relief that it’s all finally over.
They take their time climbing the steps and it does take a while to reach the top floor; the two pausing to catch their breath. It’s been a long time since they last went up those stairs. They aren’t used to it anymore.
“Ready?” It’s her turn to ask.
His hands find the double doors that lead to a certain room. “Always.”
He pushes the doors open and holds them to help Sooyoung get in. Kris silently shuts the door behind them and turns around and for a long while, they just stop and stare at the auditorium. The red, folding seats, the lights attached to the ceiling, the steps that lead from the first row of chairs to the back row, the white board… They are all still here. Like it hasn’t been a good eight full years since they first stepped into this room.
“Oh my god…”
Kris turns a giddy grin her way. “Come on.”
The blonde man jogs ahead of her, taking the steps two at a time, until he reaches the fifth to the last row. He stands at the far left corner, staring at the chairs for a while before he walks to the third seat and plunks himself on it.
“What are you doing?” She asks, unmoving. “We might get into trouble.”
“Who cares?” His shoulders lifted in a shrug. “It’s not like we can get into trouble.”
“We’re not students anymore.”
“Exactly.”
Sooyoung gives a resigned sigh and trudges up the steps, stopping at the row where he is. Chuckling under her breath as another memory assaults her brain, she sits down on the chair beside him. The janitor must’ve not come yet since the lights are still on and there are still some scribbling on the white board standing proudly on the platform in front. They’ll probably be gone before he arrives.
“What do you think was the last subject that had a class here today?”
She shudders. “I don’t want to know.”
Kris laughs fully at this. “You still don’t like what they teach here?”
“Do you?”
He snorts. “Touché.”
Sooyoung smirks in triumph before she settles more comfortably in her seat, looking ahead. Without fail, memories continue to flood right back in her mind and she smiles; her eyes moistening a bit being the ever emotional person that she is. Those memories… they are far from ordinary memories, different what she’s remembered earlier. These memories are about her, and Kris, and this classroom that started it all.
“Everything’s still the way it was eight years ago.”
She nods once, lifting the hand that sported her engagement ring to hold his. “We’re the only ones that changed.”
Pairing: Sooyoung/Kris
o-o-o-o-o
She’s half-amused, a quarter embarrassed and a quarter annoyed with herself for being this nervous.
It’s not like she’s about to do anything for the first time… Well, technically, not really. She’s not about to do something to cross off an item from her bucket list. She’s not about to go on some wild you-only-live-once kind of adventure. She isn’t even about to meet a celebrity or some other person for the first time either.
But she can feel the butterflies fluttering around in her stomach, making her feel anxious and excited and a tad bit queasy all at the same time. It’s an uncomfortable feeling, mind you; one that won’t let her stay still as she waits.
He has never been late, maybe save for a mere handful of occasions wherein he couldn’t help but be tardy.
In the nearly ten years she’s known him, Kris has never liked being the cause of delay, never liked not being where he’s supposed to be at the right time. She remembers him saying how punctuality has always been important to him back then. He merely mentioned it in passing but she’s always remembered.
She’s always been the one with the better memory between the two of them. But aside from that, his I’m-never-late-or-absent claim always came back to bite him in the ass whenever he asked her to time his arrival and then subsequently arrived late than the promised time.
Sooyoung glances at the clock. The moment it strikes 12:55 pm, she hears the honk of a horn outside. She wills herself to calm down, checks her reflection one more time in the mirror, grabs her purse and runs out the front door.
“Eight years later and he still isn’t a gentleman.” She grumbles to herself once she’s finished locking up her house.
He remains in the car, waiting patiently for her to get her person inside so they can go. A gentleman would normally come out of his car and help a lady by opening her door for her. But as what’s already been established, Kris isn’t quite like that.
Sooyoung takes her dandy time, if only to tick him off a little bit, and fixes the dark floral-print dress she’s sporting as she walks. From what little she can see through the tinted glass of the car, his fingers are drumming lightly against the stirring wheel. She’s sure he’s listening to a song he likes. It’s a habit of his to drum his fingers along with the beat if he likes the song.
She sucks in a sharp breath and wears a beaming smile on her face as she opens the door, noting how his fingers stop moving when he smiles back at her; small little creases appearing at the corner of his eyes thanks to the gesture.
“Hey.”
“Hey back.”
Kris waits until she’s fastened her seatbelt on before he veers the car away from her house. “How are you?”
“Same old, same old.” She fights the chuckle that’s threatening to bubble out of her lips. Eight years have passed and they still start their face to face conversations like this, especially after not seeing each other for a certain period of time. “You?”
“Same.” The blonde nods back absently before he glances her way and sends her a sheepish smile. “So… What way should we take?”
Sooyoung groans at the question; her thoughts fleeting back to the first time he’s asked the same question. She remembers it clearly, like it’s only been a few hours since it happened instead of it being around six years. They had a place they needed to get to that day; a place only she knew - and still does know - best.
Long story short, it was a case of a trip of a sheltered, information-deprived driver and a not-as-information-deprived but still not all-knowing Kris-appointed navigator. It had been her job to get them there and with a rather smug smirk, she’d done it right, sans a few mistakes here and there… but really, it was Kris’s fault more than it was hers.
But this case is different. He knows how to get there. He knows it as well as she does. If the question he’s just asked is for old time’s sake, she doesn’t know, and maybe, she’ll never want to know.
The brunette rolls her eyes; the car just having reached the gates of the subdivision. “Whichever way you want, dork.”
He chuckles and silence takes over the occupants of the car - his car. With a faint smile gracing her lips, she remembers the first time they’d talk about cars back then. She’d gone babbling about how her car had to be black and blah blah blah. But he merely said all he wanted for his first ever car was a well-operating car… that wasn’t pink.
Conversation has become light and casual the moment the car enters the main highway. The music player is still dishing out songs one after another and from time to time, they simply shut their mouths and listen to it. For whatever odd reason, all she hears are old songs; the kind she likes. She know he prefers the more current ones yet here he is, with his elbow propped against the window and his fist lightly brushing his lips, softly singing along with a song she’s sure he won’t normally listen to.
“You like that song?”
“Nope.” He pops the ‘p’ when he answers.
Her eyebrows shoot up. “Then how come you know it?”
His reply is casual, like the answer is really simple that she seems stupid for not knowing. “You like that song.”
Her cheeks heat up and she hastily looks away, miserably failing at trying to keep the smile off her face. From the corner of her eye, she sees him look her way before focusing back on the road; a smirk twitching the corners of his lips.
Sooyoung tries to ignore him in her flushed state but again, it goes in vain and she soon finds herself softly singing along with him and the music player. She’s never been proud of her singing, what with the lack of a beautiful voice but she’s more than comfortable with the company she’s with to mind.
The first time he asked her to sing all those years ago, she flat out refused.
Kris nods toward a billboard of an upcoming movie. “That looks nice.”
“It does.” Sooyoung agrees easily.
It goes without saying that it’ll be the next movie they have to watch next.
“Do you think they’ll let us in?”
He grins. “I talked to the guard the other day. We won’t have a problem.”
Her jaw drops. “When? How come I didn’t know?”
“You were stressing over a deadline. I wasn’t able to bring it up.” He turns the car right at the intersection. “Besides, no one will be there at this time.”
She stays wary a bit longer. “If you’re sure…”
“Trust me.”
Sooyoung beams. “That’s easy.”
It’s his turn to go all blushing and really, it’s a rather flattering, ego-boosting thing for a female to see that on a male’s face and know she’s the cause of it.
They fall silent yet again and Sooyoung finds herself preoccupied with all the passing scenery she hasn’t seen in quite a while. Nothing has changed, even if they are still on the road that merely leads to their destination. Everything’s still the same and right where they have always been. She idly feels like it’s only her and Kris who have changed in this whole scenario.
The car slows down, pausing at the gate of the secured property. The gate pass - it’s more of a sticker, really - on the windshield provides them with an easy entrance and the car gains speed once more as they pass the gates. Kris smiles as he takes in his surroundings and he knows without having to ask that she’s thinking of the exact same thing.
“Yup, nothing’s changed.”
It’s almost really melancholic and sentimental really as they drive through the road. Sooyoung finds it nearly silly, considering that they haven’t reached the place yet. But everywhere she and Kris look, there’s a memory to be associated with the place; either a memory only one of them has or a memory they both share.
Kris steers the car to the left and the butterflies instantly take flight in her stomach once more as she sees the building. It’s been so long and just like everything else, it still looks the same. It’s still a monotonous and intimidating as ever and Sooyoung absently scowls at that. Kris expertly manoeuvres into a vacant parking space once they’ve reached the parking lot second laters. Really, there are a lot to choose from yet he chooses this one - his favourite parking slot back then.
He kills the engine yet neither makes a move to get out of the car. For a moment, Sooyoung stares intently at the sidewalk leading to the entrance of the building. She can imagine herself -well, her eighteen year old self - standing there, watching the cars and the people come and go from the parking lot, looking for a particular car all the while.
She catches him looking at the same direction, wondering if he’s remembering the eighteen year old boy watching a slightly younger girl walk to a waiting shed from the confines of a car eight years ago.
“Hey.” He gently snaps her out of her thoughts. “Ready?”
She nods. “Always.”
They step out of the car and Sooyoung waits patiently as he makes sure all doors are locked before they begin their short walk to the entrance. He comments on how much they know the place that they can close their eyes and not lose their way and she laughs, nodding in agreement.
The guard greets them at the entrance, greeting the blonde man merely as Kris, not Sir Kris and most especially not as Ambassador Wu. He brightens up at that, knowing that in this place, all he has to be is Kris.
“You can go in, sir, ma’am.”
“Thank you.” Sooyoung smiles kindly and by her side, Kris smiles too. Even after all this years, she’s still as polite as ever.
The inside of the building is relatively dark, thanks to the setting sun and the relatively few lights that peppers the ceiling. It is mostly silent, save for some chatter here and there from people who are still in the building despite the rather late hour. They walk in silence, preoccupied by their own thoughts as memory after memory comes rushing back in; memories of hanging out with friends, tears of disappointment and relief that it’s all finally over.
They take their time climbing the steps and it does take a while to reach the top floor; the two pausing to catch their breath. It’s been a long time since they last went up those stairs. They aren’t used to it anymore.
“Ready?” It’s her turn to ask.
His hands find the double doors that lead to a certain room. “Always.”
He pushes the doors open and holds them to help Sooyoung get in. Kris silently shuts the door behind them and turns around and for a long while, they just stop and stare at the auditorium. The red, folding seats, the lights attached to the ceiling, the steps that lead from the first row of chairs to the back row, the white board… They are all still here. Like it hasn’t been a good eight full years since they first stepped into this room.
“Oh my god…”
Kris turns a giddy grin her way. “Come on.”
The blonde man jogs ahead of her, taking the steps two at a time, until he reaches the fifth to the last row. He stands at the far left corner, staring at the chairs for a while before he walks to the third seat and plunks himself on it.
“What are you doing?” She asks, unmoving. “We might get into trouble.”
“Who cares?” His shoulders lifted in a shrug. “It’s not like we can get into trouble.”
“We’re not students anymore.”
“Exactly.”
Sooyoung gives a resigned sigh and trudges up the steps, stopping at the row where he is. Chuckling under her breath as another memory assaults her brain, she sits down on the chair beside him. The janitor must’ve not come yet since the lights are still on and there are still some scribbling on the white board standing proudly on the platform in front. They’ll probably be gone before he arrives.
“What do you think was the last subject that had a class here today?”
She shudders. “I don’t want to know.”
Kris laughs fully at this. “You still don’t like what they teach here?”
“Do you?”
He snorts. “Touché.”
Sooyoung smirks in triumph before she settles more comfortably in her seat, looking ahead. Without fail, memories continue to flood right back in her mind and she smiles; her eyes moistening a bit being the ever emotional person that she is. Those memories… they are far from ordinary memories, different what she’s remembered earlier. These memories are about her, and Kris, and this classroom that started it all.
“Everything’s still the way it was eight years ago.”
She nods once, lifting the hand that sported her engagement ring to hold his. “We’re the only ones that changed.”