Joochan thankfully finished the soup without getting him, Minhee, and the house in danger, and for that he was really relieved. He decided then that he should go up and see Minhee again to know whether or not she's awake or not yet.
He stops in his steps abruptly as he hears no noise coming from his room, indicating the Minhee is still asleep. Joochan leans on the wall and observes her. Checking up on her peacefully sleeping on his bed, made Joochan realize a lot of things.
One, Minhee is one cute girl when she's not being a sarcastic bitch while sleeping like she is when she's awake.
Two, she murmurs in her sleep which he found adorable.
And three, he could back it up with his heart beat, that he's now fallen in love with her.
"I can't believe you're the one my heart is looking for," Joochan whispers to nobody in particular, gazing at a sleeping Minhee, mouth slightly parted, hair all tangled up messily but still managed to look elegant as if it was styled like that, her fetal position and the drool on her lips. Even in the state she's in, she still looks gorgeous. Realizing what he had just said, he shakes his head in embarassment. "I can't believe I just said that."
He advances towards the bed and grabs a nearby chair to drag it near you and sits down. He pulls the covers to keep you warm and fixes the hair covering your face.
Joochan smiles to himself, remembering the young Joochan who did the same thing when they were still kids.
Joochan runs giddily to their neighbor, happily pressing the door bell way too many times that Mrs. Han ran hurriedly outside to attend to the ruckus happening outside.
"What's the noise about? Who is---Is that you Joochan?" Mrs. Han stopped short as she recognized his small figure. "Why, of course it would be you! Come in here, lad."
She opened the gate for the little boy and he hurried to the door. Joochan glanced from left to right, but there was no sign of the girl he always played with.
"Mrs. Han? Where is Minmin?"
"She's in her room, dear."
"Can I come inside her room?"
She smiled. "Sure, but I warn you, she's a heavy sleeper. You can't wake her up, only she can wake herself up."
"Then I'll be the first one to wake her up!" The boy said with a determined look.
She patted his hair, chuckling as she did. "Good luck on that."
Carefully, Joochan opened the door so he wouldn't wake her up just yet.
"...Minmin?" he peeked in, scanning the room. And there on the bed sprawled Minhee, in all her childish and messy glory. Joochan chuckled at the sight, tiptoeing to her bed.
"Minmin, get up," he whispered into her ear, lightly poking her arm. "Let's play."
She rolled to the other side. "Urhhgh..."
Joochan grinned at how adorable she looked. Still filled with determination, the boy hurried to the other side and did the same thing. "Minmin, I want to play!"
Minhee buried her face more into the pillow.
"Don't you want to play with me?" the boy pouted.
Heeding no response, Joochan decided on just waiting for the girl who was dead asleep on her bed. He dragged a nearby chair towards the bedside and stared at her sleeping figure. He fixed the way the blanket cupped Minhee, and he brushed off some strands of her short hair resting on top of her nose.
"Minmin," he tried again. All he received was a snore.
"You're not gonna wake up yet, right?" Minhee still didn't give signs of waking. "If not, then I'm going to tell you something first."
He heaved a deep breath before continuing. "Minmin, you're really special to me. I'm thankful that I have a neighbor and a friend like you. You made me happy. Thanks for always playing with me."
Joochan peeked again at the sleeping girl's face to check if she was awake. When he assumed she still wasn't, he continued. "You know what, Minmin? I admire you for being brave, for sticking up for me, for being strong, for being energetic. I like being friends with you because you helped me through a lot, in school or outside. So I hope that we'll be friends forever...I like the idea of us growing old together in the future, wouldn't that be sweet?"
He was about to give up when he saw her momentarily open her right eye.
"H-hey! You're awake! Why won't you get up now?" His cheeks flushed red as he realized Minhee had heard him talk about embarrassing things.
She groaned again, this time in frustration. "But I don't want to get up yet..."
"I want to play with you!"
A cute but annoyed grunt escaped her lips, squinting her eyes to finally take a glance at him. "Chanchan..." she mumbled.
"Hmmm?"
She patted the empty space next to her. "Sleep beside me first. I'm too tired to move.."
"But---"
Before Joochan finished complaining she yanked the boy's shirt, making him fall on the bed beside her. She chuckled as he winced from the fall.
"Minmin, why would you do that?" Joochan complained, even though he knew he enjoyed it.
She just smiled at him, and unknowingly the boy blushed at the sight, flustered. He got up the bed so fast and faced the wall, not wanting to make eye contact with her. "If you're not gonna play with me then I'll just leave."
Minhee immediately sat up. "Okay, okay, you win."
As Joochan looked back, he goes red. I like the idea of us growing old together? What did his young self mean by that?
He didn't know the answer and yet he got flustered just by the thought of it. Joochan glances back at Minhee, and sighs.
He really missed having her beside him all the time when they were kids. He wished he could go back, to when it was all happy, but he knows the world doesn't work like that.
Minhee was someone he depended on, especially since he admits he was a weakling before (still is now, but not that much as in the past), he relied on her on basically everything. She was the only one he considered family besides his mom. And that was saying a lot, he didn't let himself open up to people. His world was so small. To think that he let Minhee enter his small world of his, Minhee was indeed special to him.
It hurt him when it came to the point when he needed to remove her from his world, even if he was reluctant to.
"I'm sorry, for leaving you back then..." He whispers to the girl in front him, still lying peacefully on his bed. "I really didn't want to go, but I had no other choice."
He stopped himself before he ignorantly confesses what happened before when Minhee isn't awake. He wanted to explain everything to her, but now was not the time. Joochan gets up from the chair and decides to wash up a little bit since Minhee still has no will to wake up.