While Hyuk was enjoying his sweet time, the person in question also excused herself.
Yeo Ri was worried that Hyuk was gone for too long, so she decided to go out to check up on him. He was still a recovering patient, so she was more conscious of his health than ever before.
"Oppa—" Yeo Ri was about to call out to him as she spotted the man leaning against one of the pillars outside the library. He seemed to be absorbed by something on his phone, a rare smile on his face.
Yeo Ri pouted slightly. 'Was he chatting with another girl?' She wondered what was it that was making him look so happy. Just because their current relationship was rather ambiguous and complicated, it doesn't mean that Hyuk was allowed to hit on other girls, she thought sulkily. She was not yet prepared to give him up to someone else though she knew that it was inevitable.
Just as she had done to Gun earlier, she crept quietly behind Hyuk. He didn't seem to have noticed her, having been too taken by whatever he was looking at on his phone.
"Oppa!" She tackled him from the side. "What are you doing?"
"Sh—f—! You surprised me!" Hyuk flinched at her guerrilla attack. He hadn't expected her to come at him so suddenly, and he almost dropped his phone.
Taking advantage of his flustered state, Yeo Ri quickly snatched the phone from his lax hand, "What were you looking at?"
"Hey, give it back!" Hyuk moved to catch the girl before she could see what was on the screen. His heart sped and his stomach sank as he thought of what she would think if she saw the stalker-ish pictures.
"Try and catch me if you can—" Yeo Ri hurriedly scurried away before he could even grab her. While her legs were moving, she couldn't help but glance at what was keeping him outside.
Seeing the picture on the screen, Yeo Ri froze. She stopped running and continued to stare at the picture for a very long time, her eyes wide in surprise.
Soon enough, Hyuk caught up to her. "Hey—" seeing her still figure, a feeling of anxiousness rose within him. What would she think of him now that she found the picture? Or the other pictures? It was a good thing that he decided to delete most of them earlier. At least she wouldn't think that he was that obsessed.
"Y-Yeo Ri-ah, I can explain..." he stuttered.
While Hyuk was pondering on how he could word out his excuse, Yeo Ri was standing stock still, a blush slowly permeating her cheeks. Yeo Ri couldn't help but feel embarrassed as she looked at the photo.
It was a very well-taken picture; almost as if it was straight out of a photoshoot. She did not know whether it was due to Hyuk's skill or something else, but Yeo Ri actually thought that she looked very pretty in the shot. Yeo Ri had never thought that she was that pretty, but seeing the picture, she couldn't help but praise herself.
Hyuk was facing her back, so he was unable to catch the sight of the girl's reddened face.
"Y-Yeo Ri-ah, I—"
"...Oppa," Yeo Ri turned around, head lowered, as she called out to Hyuk.
The man immediately shut his mouth, waiting for her next words. A rare flash of panic crossed his face, making him look less threatening than usual. Yeo Ri almost smiled at the thought. 'See, he is very cute, after all,' she said to herself with amusement.
"Oppa, what is this?" She asked, masking the sweetness in her heart with a poker face.
"T-that, I—" Hyuk lowered his head guiltily, "I—" he was finding it difficult to explain it to her.
"If you wanted a picture of me, you could have just asked," she said with a slightly resentful tone. She glowered at him with a pout and furrowed eyebrows, looking rather discontented.
"I—huh?" Hyuk paused at her words. He found himself being dumbfounded by her words. 'What? Wasn't she angry?' He thought doubtfully.
He stared at her with a blank look.
Yeo Ri found his reaction funny, and the corner of her lips raised into an amused grin. "Come on, Oppa. Let's take a picture together," she says as she dragged him over to an empty bench in the vicinity of the library.
One of Yeo Ri's favourite pastimes was taking self-portrait photos, and she often borrowed Gun's phone to take them. Of course, for the sake of conserving memory, she ended up deleting them.
She positioned the phone into a selfie pose, and stuck close to Hyuk. With practised ease, she took a few pictures in quick succession.
After taking a couple of shots, she browsed through the newly taken photos and frowned. "Oppa, you should smile a little," she remarked.
In one shot, he looked confused, and in the others, he was either not ready or he had a weird expression on his face.
"...Sorry," Hyuk apologised amidst the surreal feeling he was experiencing.
Hyuk was rarely on the other side of the lens, so the most he could do was flashing a small, awkward smile towards the camera. Aside from that, he couldn't help but be distracted by their closeness. Yeo Ri was practically stuck to his side, and their cheeks had touched on multiple occasions.
"Okay, final shot," Yeo Ri says, getting ready to finish up the we-fie session. "One, two, three..." she counted. Inside her mind, she smiled slyly.
Just as the phone was about to take the picture, Yeo Ri quickly moved and planted a kiss on Hyuk's cheek, taking him by surprise.
"Hey, what are you doing?!" He erupted, ears reddening from embarrassment.
Yeo Ri replied with a light laugh. She ignored the look he was giving her, instead checking the picture she had just taken.
Luckily, the shot did not end up in a mess of blur. The phone proved to be of good quality as it was able to capture the exact moment of when Yeo Ri kissed Hyuk and his eyes had widened in surprise. The tip of his ears were beginning to grow red from the realisation of what was happening.
Yeo Ri grinned happily at the nicely taken picture. "Doesn't it look nice, Oppa?"
"...You!" Hyuk felt like he was about to burst but at the same time he was also feeling speechless. How could this girl do something like that in broad daylight? What if someone saw them? Even worse, what if someone they knew saw them?
"What?" Yeo Ri tilted her head, acting innocent. "Anyways, don't delete them, okay?" She returned his phone back to him with a warning.
Hyuk covered his face with one hand, hoping that his blush would go away. 'This girl...'
He sighed ruefully in his mind. It was because she kept doing things like this that he couldn't help but fall for her.
'Stop it, Lee Hyuk,' he roared at himself inwardly. 'Don't go down the hole any further. You can never have her!'