Two Hearts- Maknae, Saranghaeyo (Chapter 4)
Chapter 4
Inside the room, the party was dying down and most of the people in the throng of talented and famous college kids were just about ready to head on back to the dorms. Eunhyuk and Hyoyeon had already left, the guy playfully giving his girlfriend a piggyback ride out the restaurant. Siwon and Shindong were helping Tony out with cleaning up the room, even though the older man insisted that the restaurant staff would get to it.
Jessica was perched in a chair, lost in her own thoughts. Sooyoung sat down by her and Jessica glanced over and gave her a weak smile. The Chois and the Jungs had merged together through a marriage a few generations before so they were cousins. Jessica was as close to them as she was with her own sister. Sooyoung was her cousin, roommate and one of the few people she actually trusted.
“So. Seohyun, huh?” Sooyoung commented. Jessica looked away and said, “Well, I guess you learn something new everyday.” Sooyoung remarked, “Hey, I’ve met Seohyun or, well, Joohyun before at a party and I think she’s a lovely girl.” When there was no response, the tall, younger girl sighed and went on.
“Sica-unnie, are you still going to continue this? I know this is how you cope and…”
“How I cope? Please,” Jessica snorted. “I don’t care about what other people think.”
“But Unnie, I’m worried about you. I’m worried that you’re going to get caught into something you won’t be able to get yourself out of so easily. Seohyun doesn’t have any idea of what goes on here- I don’t want either of you-…”
It was Jessica’s turn to sigh this time. “Look, Sooyoung. I’m going to hold my own judgment of her. And you really shouldn’t worry so much. It’s just a one time thing, that’s all.”
“A one time thing that’s lasted through summer.”
“Whatever. And, well. It explains a lot about how he was.”
“Yeah, I remember. All he did was hang out with the guys, rarely ever talked with us. It took a lot for us girls to get his attention, but so many girls went after him. Like you.”
“Hm.”
Sooyoung was about to say more when Sungmin’s high voice rang out through the room calling her. A brilliant smile formed on the younger girl’s lips and she stood up to go to him, saying to her unnie as she left,
“It wasn’t that he was awkward though. It was probably because he had a promise to keep.”
Sooyoung bounced over to Sungmin who enveloped her in an intimate hug, leaving Jessica alone with her thoughts again. After a minute, the blonde-headed girl sighed once more, stood up and went off in search of a drunk Heechul.
There was a silence. He took a step closer and Seohyun could see that it really was Kyuhyun, in the flesh, with a stunned expression on his face.
“S-Seohyun?”
He had grown his hair out a bit from the last time she’d seen him. Brown wavy bangs hung almost right above those dark mysterious eyes. His face, the one she knew so well, slowly changed from a look of surprise to one of pure joy, his lips curling into a smile.
Seconds later, Seohyun found herself enveloped in slim but muscled arms and then practically hoisted into the air.
“Seohyun! Seohyun!”
A bubble of laughter and tears burst through Seohyun and she cried out his name:
“Kyuhyun!”
The flow of emotions they had held inside for so long was finally set free. Kyuhyun set Seohyun down and hugged her tightly, engulfed in her scent. Then, Seohyun moved her foot forward slightly and managed to accidentally entangle her legs with Kyuhyun’s and in the end, they both collapsed onto the grass, both bursting out into a fit of giggles and still in each other’s arms.
“…Did you miss me, Kyu?”
“Of course I missed you, Seohyun. I thought of you all the time- it drove me crazy when you didn’t reply to any of my emails for a year.”
“I’m sorry…the internet in the U.S…”
“Yeah, I know, it’s not your fault…I just wish you could have been here last year.”
“Me too.”
A comfortable silence settled around the two best friends/lovers as they lay there on the grass in the setting of a sleepy college campus. Seohyun wished she could just stay there forever, lying on his chest, with him occasionally turning his head to kiss her lightly on the lips or forehead and just listening to his heartbeat. One of her favorite sounds in the world.
The next morning, Seohyun woke up in an unfamiliar room and it took her a whole minute to remember that Kyuhyun had carried her sleepy self back to the dorm room (much to the delight and teasing of her unnies) and left her in the room she shared with Hyoyeon. Her unnie was currently trying to wake her up right now (her biological clock still hadn’t begun working properly yet) and one look at the clock told her she was going to be late to her first class if she didn’t get out of bed immediately.
After fifteen minutes of intense rushing and frantic scrambling to get all their things together, all nine girls were ready for their first day at their classes. At a prestigious university such as SME that is affiliated with the entertainment industry, obviously much of the classes were performing arts centered. For the most part of the day, the members of the newly formed Girls’ Generation mingled with the other students on campus, used to the amount of attention they attracted. However, around three to four hours each day was devoted purely to practice for upcoming performances- performances that were on their way to becoming international.
It was an entirely new experience for Seohyun to be congratulated, greeted and gawked at nearly every minute of her time in public. Apparently, high hopes and expectations had been placed on the new rookie girl group on campus.
Being one the younger members of the group, Seohyun attended most of her required courses with the other sophomores in college. There were times where she saw some of her older unnies in one of her classes and one time, she excitedly found out that Kyuhyun was in the advanced History seminar she was taking. In the end, all the special college bands saw each other sometimes during their practices in the special training building on the far north side of campus.
Girls’ Generation had two special teachers to help them with practice everyday for their upcoming debut. Miss Kwon BoA was the vocal instructor. A woman in her late twenties/early thirties with a smooth, pretty round face and pin straight brown hair, she was also an alumni of the university and had already established her status as an internationally recognized solo artist. In her down time, she came down to the university to coach the girls on their vocal abilities.
She spoke in a calm and tranquil manner, but Seohyun could only stare in awe whenever she did a demonstration at how powerfully emotional her vocals truly were. When BoA had them all sing parts of a solo on their own, she felt increasingly nervous and insecure, especially when she heard Taeyeon and Jessica ad lib beautifully to the music. However, when it was her turn, she felt her fears melt away with the music and from deep within, came the melodious voice she would eventually be extremely well-known for on campus.
When Seohyun was done, BoA gave her a small smile and Seohyun immediately felt a rush of pleasure and pride. After giving her some tips on how to possibly improve her techniques, Seohyun went back to her seat as Tiffany took her place and when she returned, Yoona and Yuri squealed at how awesome she sounded.
Afterwards was dance practice with Miss Lee Hyori, who was nearly a complete polar opposite of BoA. With her shimmery, wavy dyed brown-blonde hair and angular face, along with her loud, energetic and outspoken personality, she intimidated Seohyun at first. Later, she started to warm up to her dance instructor who always encouraged her, even when she messed up.
So far, it had been about two weeks since Seohyun had first arrived at SME and although she was exhausted, she was loving every minute of being there. She had grown especially close to her unnies, who never failed to give her advice whenever she was lost. Most of all, she loved whenever she and Kyuhyun could spend time together, although yesterday she hadn’t seen him at all in her history seminar, which Seohyun found strange.
She noticed that the stock of food in the fridge was running low and after getting contributions from the other girls and directions to the nearest convenience store, Seohyun went off to the store. Humming to herself, she picked out the best groceries she could find with ease- she did have practice accompanying Kasumi to markets frequently.
Seohyun stepped outside and stopped, inhaling and exhaling greatly. The sun was shining brightly and the crossover urban/suburban scenery had never looked so encouraging to her. Just then, she felt someone bump into her from the back and squeaking, Seohyun tumbled forward and ended up with a carton full of broken eggs.
“Omo!” Seohyun regained her balance and turned around, ready to scold and complain to whoever had just bumped into her- but stopped short when a familiar face stared back at her. It was the boy she had met on her first day- the one who had helped her get to the correct campus. “S-Sorry,” he stuttered, then did a double take when he recognized her. “Hey…I know you. You’re still clumsy as ever huh.”
Seohyun blushed in slight outrage and said, “Yah! You’re the one who broke my eggs!”
“Right, right, sorry, didn’t mean that- here. I’ll buy another carton for you, alright and call us even?”
Seohyun was about to open her mouth to protest when she heard a girl’s voice say behind her: “Seungri-ah- who are you talking to?”
That voice! Seohyun turned around and the girl gasped. “J-Joohyun?!”
“Sandara!”
Seohyun immediately set her groceries down and ran to embrace the unnie she hadn’t seen in a very long time.
The boy named Seungri awkwardly stood by the side, confused and asked, “Um…what’s going on…?”
While Seungri was on line buying another carton of eggs to pay Seohyun back, the two childhood friends were chatting excitedly with each other. The Parks were a family friend of the Seos and Seohyun and Sandara had played together often. Sandara, or Dara, as she was often called, was about two years older than Seohyun and when she had left for college, Seohyun hadn’t heard from her since.
“So I heard you were accepted into SME- AND placed into a college band, on the spot, just coming back from America! Good to know you’re still the nerdy little genius I know.”
“Unnie!” Seohyun blushed. She glanced at Seungri who was still waiting on line. “Um, unnie- who is he and how do you know him?”
“Oh, Seungri? He’s my brother.”
“Eh?!”
“Well…not quite. He’s my younger half-brother- he and I have the same mother. I never told you, huh. Well, it wasn’t like I saw him a lot. And you remember my dad- strict and old-fashioned. He rarely ever let Jiyeon and I see our mother ‘cause he was so mad at her for cheating on him and then divorcing him. So when our mom did visit, she brought Seungri with her. His dad is a member of the Lee family, the same one that founded SME. Now, he’s in the same university as me and we pretty much see each other everyday. We’ve grown pretty close now.”
“Where DO you two go to college anyway?”
“YG University. Right across the street from SME, basically.”
“I see…how’s Jiyeon, by the way?”
“She’s pretty good- in her senior year in high school. She hopes to get into YG, but honestly, I don’t think that’s happening any time soon.” Seohyun giggled along with Dara as she remembered her spacy and somewhat slow little sister Jiyeon.
Seungri had finished paying and headed over to the girls. “Here you go, Seohyun-ssi- sorry for breaking them before.” Seohyun smiled at him and said, “No need to apologize- it was my fault for blocking people from coming out in the first place- but thank you anyway! See you guys later!”
As Seohyun hurried off to her next seminar, the two siblings watched her, Dara’s eyes sparkling with reminiscent happiness. “She’s still such a kid...” she muttered to herself, smiling.
“Noona!” Seungri said suddenly. “How come you never told me about her?” “What are you talking about- of course I told you all about her, remember? The stories of me and Joohyun playing pranks on other people?” Seungri said, “Oh right…she goes by another name now.” He looked away and Dara made a mental note on how her half-brother’s face had suddenly turned pink.
“Seohyun…what a unique name. Kyuhyun came up with it, according to her. They’re still so into each other it’s adorable…” Dara turned around and realized that her younger brother was still standing there, gazing in the distance. “Yah, Seungri! Hurry up, you don’t want Jilong-oppa to chew you out for being late again, do you?” He took one last long look into the distance, shouted, “Coming!” and jogged off to catch up with his noona, his face flushing bright red.
*flashback*
“Mmm…Kyu…”
“Sica. Get off.”
“Where could you possibly need to go in such a hurry?”
“Advanced History seminar. Jessica, would you kindly please stop gnawing my neck. It’s going to leave unpleasant bruises and I really don’t want people to get the wrong idea.”
“So what? They’ll think Seohyun did that to you.”
“That’s it.” He roughly pushed a shocked Jessica off and straightened his clothes out. “This has gone way too far. You claimed that you needed help last semester and so I comforted you, hoping you’d feel better. But now I see that I’m no better than that Jaebeom or Jonghyun or any of the other poor suckers you’ve used. And you are not dragging Seohyun into this either.”
“Pft. And how are you going to explain this to her when one day, oh I don’t know, an accident happens?”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“You see that security camera over there? One of my connections thoughtfully unplugged the wires so it’s currently not working. But one simple text is all I need to send and…”
“I don’t even know why I agreed to help you in the first place anymore. You’re not even trying to confront the problem you have.”
“Oh really. And what is this so-called problem?”
“You’re too scared to talk to him- you’re just a typical coward who’s afraid to get hurt…”
“Don’t EVER mention him again, even indirectly.”
“I’ll mention him however I want. Now if you excuse me, I have an Engineering seminar to go to and practice to squeeze in for the rest of the day. I’ll be there for you, Sica, but only in the way you really need it, not just you trying to bury your fears by coercing me.”
She glared at his retreating figure and muttered, “You’ll come back. They all do.”
A/N: awwww man i procrastinated so much on writing this time T_T dear readers i'm so sorry for the SUPPPERRR late update but meh, i've just been so busy D:
Update: Surprisingly, I'm starting to find much more time to write now- really reallyyy hope i'll be more consistent with writing >.>
Also- i have ideas for a really cool MinYul fic! :DDDDD its cause i've been playing Sly Cooper on playstation too much keke ;D but yeah
Till then everyone! Comments/Constructive critcism greatly appreciated <333