The next morning, Luna as usual went early but she was least excited to go knowing that Haemin and quite possibly Joy too wasn't going to be there.
The doctor had advised him bed rest and that he stay out of the cold, and Joy was god knows where, her line was busy.
"How was the trip?" Hyun asked as they sat in the garden behind the shrub wall, munching on Hotteok (Korean Pancake).
"We bathed in a hot spring, which was fun."
Hyun widened his eyes, "Together?"
"Yeah, all of the club members."
"Nude?"
Luna choked on her cake, "No!"
"Oh." He smiled goofily, "I thought it was a must to go in them nude for the water to work its rejuvenating magic, thats why the genders are separate. Although some people don't mind getting butt naked in front of each other."
"Need I remind you, Koreans are relatively conservative?"
He took a sip of his cappuccino, "Yeah, you're right."
She tried Joy's number again but it was still busy,
"So, about Joy. You once mentioned her stories?"
He perked up, "Oh yeah. She's quite close to a legend. First of all, she's an international model and after that she's a badass diva."
Hearing of her like this made it hard for Luna to believe that Joy was actually friends with her.
"And that means of course that she has many rivals as well. Usually, other girls who are jealous of her or feel threatened by her, and Joy isn't exactly subtle in showing off."
Luna laughed, "Like Regina George! Although, Joy is very sincere and smart."
"Mhm. There was this one time, at the welcome party two years ago, Yohan Kim's sister who is a black belt accused Joy of hitting on her boyfriend and guess what? Joy confessed that she had! And oh the fight after it was epic. The video trended on naver."
"Yikes."
"And she and my brother's fiancée were leading track runners in highschool, always competing. Sometimes Joy was first, sometimes Sooin was first. And the word sportsmanship was in neither's dictionaries. So, once Joy hurled a chair at Sooin and she hurled a flower pot back at her, in class."
"Wow, and here I thought juvie was bad."
"Oh! And our dance teacher had a huge crush on Joy, he even asked her out after she graduated."
"Holy sh- wait, you guys had a dance teacher? Daaamn I always wanted to learn dance but our school didn't have that class."
"Don't feel too bad, Joy went to an arts school." Said Hyun casually as he drank the remaining of his drink.
"You went to an arts school?" Luna asked enthusiastically.
He smiled, yet it dared not reach his eyes, "Yeah."
Alarms went off in Luna's head, something was up with him, yet she couldn't bring herself to ask. Horridly enough, she couldn't see herself having a heart to heart with him, she thought it... lame.
Hyun looked at his watch, " Shoot. Class starts in five and my building is quite farther than yours, so I gotta go."
Luna knew that, she didn't know why he needed to emphasise that. She helped him clear up the wrappers and bid him goodbye. When she turned towards her own building, even her legs refused to go to a class in which Haemin used to be with her.
By the second class that Luna had with him, she couldn't take it anymore. She worried for him and missed him. Him getting sick was all her fault in the first place.
If Haemin could go out of his way for her sake, she could handle his mother's hatred.
So, she skipped the rest of the day and went to his house.
The man on the intercom spoke, "Yes miss, how may I help you?"
"Hi, my name is Yumi Park, I'm a friend of Haemin's from uni and I was wondering if I could meet him."
Mrs. Lee might've told security to not let a Luna Piérce in.
"Absolutely miss, come on in."
She breathed out in relief. A maid led her to his room and thankfully she had not run into his mother.. yet.
She knocked and from the inside Joy shouted, "Come in."
Both the cousins were on the couch infront of the TV, sharing a blanket and playing on the play station.
"Hey." Haemin greeted her with a warm smile and she mirrored it,
"Hi, how are you feeling?"
"Im perfectly fine, the fever went down ages ago, Joy was fussing for no reason. Come, sit."
He raised the blanket and patted the spot next to him. Luna declined politely and sat on the bean bag next to the couch.
She had had a taste of proximity once, she couldn't trust herself to be okay with being so near to him yet so far.
"I took the day off to edit the photos, thanks for asking." Joy spoke.
Luna chuckled, "Hi Joy, and yes I know. Yumi told me in class."
She watched the screen as they played,
"So, you're skipping the rest of the day?" Haemin asked.
"That's the plan, I'll go to Coffee Myungga early to make up for all the days my replacement had to work in my stead."
Haemin nodded slowly as he kept on trying to get his avatar to climb the cliff.
Joy looked at Haemin carefully and then at Luna, "What happened?" She mouthed.
Luna shook her head dismally and stared at her lap. Joy got up and put the headphone over Haemin's ears and turned the game's volume up.
He was suddenly so immersed as the enemies attacked his avatar that he was oblivious to the two girls on his bed having an important talk behind him.
"I don't think he remembers that night.. like at all."
Joy stared at Luna with furrowed eyebrows and a deep frown, "What are you talking about? Why not?"
"He must've had a fever that night and in the morning too, and I don't think Haemin is the kind of guy who would just pretend to not know."
"I know he is not that kind of guy." Joy said and after this sank in she grabbed a pillow and was about to hit Haemin's head but Luna stopped her. So, instead she ended up hitting the bed mutely like a maniac and after she was done she fell on the bed hopelessly.
"You are special to him, trust me on that."
Luna mindlessly traced the crescents on her palms, she couldn't agree on that. False hope was daft.
Joy watched her in dismay, if she couldn't get her own relationship to work, she wanted at least one of them to get a happy ending.
"Look," she placed a sincere hand on her shoulder making her look up, "Whenever I used to ask Haemin to bring over Yohan or Byeongyu at El Hueco, he always said no because his other friends would feel bad and left out. But he even let you name the place! That HAS to mean something."
"I get that. I do. He is quite obvious in his kindness. Yet sometimes I feel like he does this because of some kind of agenda or a mission." Luna said what had been bugging her for a while but she regretted it as soon as it came out of her mouth.
"You're saying he has a double meaning? Or that he's left handed?" Joy asked incredulously with a hint of annoyance that she could even think of that.
Luna panicked, "No! I didn't mean dubious.. I uh never mind, Im just bummed out that he doesn't remember I guess."
"What's the next photoshoot going to be about?" She changed the subject and Joy let her because she herself couldn't worry about a third thing,
After taking off Haemin's headphones and retrieving the controller to push Haemin's avatar off a house's roof and telling him off for stealing his turn she replied to Luna, " It's Gaeun's turn next and her wish was to simply get her hair dyed so I figured we'd all have our hair dyed bright colours and have the photoshoot in an amusement park, Yumi has already designed such bomb ass velvet outfits, we'll look absolutely rad."
"I can already imagine you rocking any colour." Luna commented and turned to Haemin, " By the way... Haemin, why didn't you want to go to the hospital that day?"
Haemin stared at her affectionately for a few seconds and it made her feel sheepish, "Because," he turned back to the screen, "I don't like them."
Luna raised her eyebrows, "Really? I thought you would find something positive in them too, like how that is where babies are brought into the world."
Joy laughed, "That is so him."
He also chuckled, "That's why I don't hate them completely.. I just don't like them because, there are so many helpless people there. So many people in agony that I can do nothing for except pray."
Luna groaned, "Oh God, Haemin." He gave her a funny look at this, "Are you running for saint?"
He looked at her through hooded eyes, "No.." and ran his tongue across his lower lip, "Definitely not."
He resumed playing, leaving her unconditionally flustered.