With Hyun and the way he'd often called her a 'green goth' in mind, Luna hurriedly put on clothes for the dinner. A short black leather jacket over a dark green tank top with black jeans.
She ran down the stairs only to come to an abrupt stop with both Haemin and Hyun standing at the end of the stairs.
"Hey, your aunt asked us to come get you." Hyun said with a smile.
Haemin on the other hand, for once, was not smiling, "Just because she asked neither of us in particular, doesn't mean she meant us both." He muttered.
"You're right, but it also doesn't mean that she meant you." Hyun stated.
Luna stared at them both with her mouth slightly agape, it had started.
"Come on, lets be reasonable. Why on Earth would she ask you? Im Luna's friend." Haemin said.
Though she had thought that revealing to Haemin that she was friends with Hyun would already hurt him enough, she had to correct him, for the sake of clarity.
"We're not friends anymore Haemin. And Im sorry that you didn't know that me and Hyun have been friends for a while now." She pushed past him and pulled Hyun by his sleeve into the dining room.
"Wait, just because you changed majors doesn't mean th-" Haemin began from behind her but Hyun cut in,
"Later dude, our parents are here."
Luna didnt stop to listen to Haemin's response.
The dining table was filled with the parents all conversing loudly as if their children weren't even there and frankly the children were grateful for that.
Joy's brother was visiting from Australia so she had stayed at home with him, which was a shame because Luna wanted to introduce her to Hyun. After Jihoon, Hyun was the perfect candidate for her.
"So," Min said looking at Haemin and then at Luna who were both seated opposite to eachother,
Luna sighed heavily inwardly,
"Im guessing things didn't work out for the both of you?"
Jihoon was talking with Haemin and Hyuck's dads but looked at Min with wary eyes at this.
For a second Luna was also confused but then it hit her that at Hyuck's engagement party, Min had gotten the impression that Luna and Haemin were dating.
"Yeah, difference of opinions." Luna stated quickly before Min said something less vague and Haemin's parents caught on that she meant dating and not friendship.
Haemin didn't respond, his eyes still on his food.
Min smiled, "Oh that's okay.. kids your age go through brea-"
"I changed my major!" Luna cut her off.
The men stopped talking as well and everyone stared at her, "To Bussiness Management and Administration."
Changmin stared at her with a thoughtful look and then at Jihoon.
Mr.Kim cleared his throat, "Well of course Changmin's whole family would be masters of bussines." He laughed and so did everyone else except the youngsters.
"It is the perfect time for you to change majors isn't it?" Seyoung smiled at Luna, "Haemin, this is your last year to change it, do you have any other major in mind?" She asked him jokingly.
Haemin stared at Luna with a muted expression, "Bussiness Management seems interesting."
The grownups laughed at that, saying something about teenagers and young love, and resumed their own conversations.
As Luna and Haemin stared hard at one another, both thought the same thing,
Why are you doing this?
Hyun looked between them and knew that he had to come in between them or else they would make a scene in front of the adults and he didn't want his father getting a bad impression of Luna.
"The business major's building is right next to mine, we can walk there together now." He told Luna and she turned to him a few seconds later,
Her expression was blank as her mind slowly cleared of Haemin and she realised what Hyun had just said,
"Oh! Thats great! I was wondering if I should ask you to show me to it."
She picked up the jug of water, stealing a glance at Haemin who was playing with his food and looked so glum that she wanted to ruffle his hair to bring his smile back,
As she poured herself water, her phone which was right next to the glass pinged and the screen lit up revealing a message she had just received from Mark's number.
It said,
'Light green top and white shorts.'
And like a flip book the day of her release, played in her head. The cold rain, the endless driveway, the closed door and her Mother's ignorance.
If only they actually were just images and not memories because they brought pain as well. Tears welled up in her eyes as her own shouts from that day rang in her ears, how she had begged and begged.
"Luna."
How the door never unlocked and the curtain never moved to reveal her Mother again.
"Luna!" Hyun jerked her slightly and she realised with shock that she had been pouring the water endlessly and it had overflowed.
She stood up as the water began to fall on her lap too. Everyone was looking at her and Hyun picked up a napkin to clean the mess she had created and Haemin was already rushing to her, "Are you alright?"
"Im so sorry." She moved quickly to help Hyun clean up, blinking away the tears.
Min face palmed and sighed, "Leave it, the maid will clean up."
Seyoung glanced at her husband and then at Mrs. Kim, all of them awkwarded out by the situation.
Luna's face flushed as she halted her attempts and stood there with her hands clasped in front of her, like a servant awaiting punishment.
"Why don't we adults move to the drawing room for drinks and let the maids clean this." Changmin chuckled nervously and got up.
Hyun, Luna and Haemin just stood there as the adults left.
Jihoon whispered to her, "It's okay." Seyoung even patted Luna's back as if to reassure her as, she left.
"You dont usually space out like this.. is everything okay?" Hyun asked her.
Haemin was about to say that what did he even know about what Luna usually did but then remembered that they had been friends for a while, who knows how well they knew each other.
"You guys should join the adults for drinks, Im gonna go get ready for my shift."
"I'll walk you there." Said Haemin and Hyun rolled his eyes at him. It was clear to him that Luna and Haemin weren't friends anymore, much to his delight, and Haemin wasn't letting her go.
"No thanks." Luna walked past them both, "See you tomorrow." She smiled lightly at Hyun and went to the stairs that led to the basement.
She knew Jihoon would come after her minutes later, asking about what had happened so instead of going to her room she went to the room where Jihoon had kept his cameras.
She wanted to just lie on the cold floor and wallow in her misery. Dr. Han had told her that she needed to face the bad memories.
But the moment she turned on the light she was again drawn to the hundreds of polaroids strung across the room.
The first one she saw was a picture of Jihoon's late mother and Changmin. She was so pretty and so lively, that even her picture brought a smile to Luna's lips. She moved rows down and saw that the polaroids at the back were of students in highschool, Jihoon's friends she presumed.
She even saw Sooin Jung and Hyuck, not looking that different but the energy of youth gleaming in their eyes.
With a passive glance she looked to the others on the side and was captivated by the beauty of the girl in one of them.
It was Joy!
She was on stage smiling widely, giving a speech.
The rest of the polaroids in that row were all of Joy, in school. If they hadn't been school events, Jihoon would've seemed like a stalker.
The rest of the rows of polaroids were all Joy. Some of the same day from different angles, some from different days but of the same times as if he had just stayed there capturing every moment of hers.
Luna had once read a novel where the female lead who was a model had told the male lead who was her photographer that she knew he loved her by the way he captured her, and later she had also found out when he fell out of love because of the pictures too.
And the way Jihoon had taken snaps of Joy, shined brightly with the adoration he had for her.
He had asked for her hand in marriage because he had been in love with her since highschool, not because of points at work.
He was just slow when it came to love and didn't know how to convey it properly.