"Oppa, do you remember that one time you surprised me with a bouquet of pink flowers while I was waiting for you here during my second year?"

"I do. Hard to forget when you practicially screamed my ear off."

The three young adults have finally made it into the veranda of the school. It was just as they remembered it, besides the change of potted flowers that lined the walls. Nahyun had always enjoyed spending her free time in this area of the school alone, because it always put her in a state of peace, no matter how stress she got over schoolwork. A lot of happy and precious memories were shared here... A lot she spent with Jinhyuk.

Seungwoo leaned over and whispered into Nahyun's ear, "What on earth are you doing right now? This is the exact opposite of what you should be doing."

Nahyun knew she pushed past the limit. After all, she still clutched onto Seungwoo's arm, standing as close to him as she could get because she wanted to get a reaction. She doesn't know what has gotten into her, how could she be so mean? She could feel the negative energy that swirled around them because of the argument with Jinhyuk. She caused that and she hates it. She hates this predicament so much.

How much more dumb can she get because of Jinhyuk?

"I don't know. I think I panicked," Nahyun murmured back at him, slowly releasing her grip from his arm.

"Are you going for a jealousy tactic or what?"

"I'm not trying to." She dared a glance back at Jinhyuk. His attention was somewhere else, he didn't even step out into the veranda with them. He was back at the entrance, his hands stuffed into his pockets. Yeah, undoubtedly, he was irritated. "Can't you please just look at this in my shoes, oppa? He's still so angry about you and it sucks because you're my friend. Wouldn't that make you upset?"

"Does that not ring any bells to you, Nahyun?"

The lass peered up at her ex-boyfriend with furrowed brows. "What do you mean by that?"

Her response earned a very low sigh from him. She looked upon him in confusion. "There's so much I can do to help you out in this situation, Nahyun, I swear to god." Seungwoo shook his head at her before strolling deeper into the veranda.

With pursed lips, she shuffled after him. They stopped in front of a tree. Nahyun remembered it as her favorite one, because she loved sitting under its shade. There were a lot of scratched on initials from young couples before. Oddly enough, Nahyun and Seungwoo never did so.

Seungwoo ran his long fingers along the rough bark. "High school was definitely such a precious time, hmm, Nahyun?" The tone of his voice changed. There was a tinge of warmth, but also something else. He turned and grinned over at her. "Despite you being in love with someone else, I don't ever regret dating you, you know."

Nahyun scoffed at his gushy words. "I don't regret it either, except I should've been a better girlfriend."

"You were the best girlfriend."

All of a sudden, a new voice came out of no where. It caught both Seungwoo and Nahyun's attention and they turned around to its source. Right where Jinhyuk stood, an elderly woman had appeared. When the woman noticed the two of them, her wrinkled smile became wider. "Ah! I do remember you lot!"

"Oh!" Seungwoo gaped, as he made his way over to her. "School Nurse Park, right?"

"And my, it's our school's soccer star Han Seungwoo, no?" Nurse Park beamed as she met Seungwoo's outreached hands. They had a pleasant handshake in greeting. Nahyun quickly approached the group, and the nurse glanced over to her and Jinhyuk. "I do remember you two too. Younger than Seungwoo, I believe? Always joined at the hip!" Jinhyuk and Nahyun exchanged awkward looks, before they grinned over at the graying woman and gave her a proper greeting, as well as introducing themselves to refresh her memory. "That's right! Lee Jinhyuk and Kim Nahyun! Such an interesting duo, you two were. Or, still are, since you're here together! It's so nice to see you all again."

"You still work here, Nurse Park?" Seungwoo questioned her.

She nodded along. "I do! Such rowdy and careless kids need to be taken extra care of at this age! Don't you forget how ruthless you were to yourself, Han Seungwoo!" The nurse tsked at him in such a motherly manner. "Your legs okay, sonny? You would always be in my clinic because of some twisted ankle or some other."

Seungwoo meekly chuckled, he was definitely guilty. Nahyun remembered so well how many times she would visit him in the nurse clinic because of that. And yet, Seungwoo still played with all of his power. It was a shame he didn't continue playing into college.

The nurse then turned her attention on the lone girl. She snapped her fingers, all of a sudden. "You were the one that came to my clinic because you were knocked out by a rogue baseball, right?"

Ah.

That did happen.

During that time, the students were close to being let out for school that time, all revving to either go home or go to their clubs. The homeroom teacher had asked Nahyun if she could deliver some documents to a supervisor at Building 2. The shortest path to get to one building to the next was to cross the school's sports field, so it was only natural Nahyun would use that. On the way there, she did remember passing by the batting field with the stack of papers in her hands.

And before she knew it, everything had gone dark. She woke up next in the nurse's clinic with a panicked Seungwoo there besides her bed and with a splitting headache.

She had a small concussion and had to have her head wrapped for the remaining of the week. Nahyun healed just fine, although it was nice to be treated kindly because of that head injury. Plus, the baseball player that hit that ball had gifted her to free bread too as an apology.

Nahyun had to laugh at the memory. It sounded so ridiculous, what were the odds of that actually happening? That kind of thing only happened in dramas.

"It felt like I teleported in your office," Nahyun chimed. "I still don't know how I got there. It's like at the opposite side of the school."

Nurse Park looked quite surprised to her statement. "You don't know? This gentlemen here had carried you on his back all the way to my office!" She replied, gesturing over to Jinhyuk.

"Huh?" Nahyun's gaze shifted over to the now sheepish-faced boy. She pouted. How come she never knew about this? "You never told me."

"You never asked," he uttered out.

"How did you know at that time?"

Jinhyuk bit down on his bottom lip before answering. "I saw you out the window. I watched it happen from the classroom."

Nurse Park added in, "I was flabbergasted myself! This boy had such noodle arms back then but he had carried you on his back here so fast!" She then tsked at Nahyun. "You should have waken up sooner for him! Boy kept yapping on and on about if you had major brain damage or if you were going to die. I had to repeat to him over and over that you were fine for the most part! He really left just a few minutes before you woke up."

Fantastic. Nahyun felt worse than before.

No matter the amount of teases and jeers the two of them threw at each other, Jinhyuk and Nahyun always took care of one another. She wished she knew about this before. Nahyun would have treated Jinhyuk for carrying her unconscious body across school grounds to bring her to the clinic.

She assumed that he didn't care that much. Jinhyuk acted so nonchalant about it the day after the accident and basically shrugged it off, going on like nothing happened. And she was lowkey hurt because of that.

She should have known.

Fine. It was her fault, then. She was the idiot that put distance between them because she couldn't control her own conflicted emotions.

Nahyun's gaze fell. It was nice to know that their friendship truly never wavered during that time.

After a couple minutes chatting with the nurse, the three bid their goodbyes and went on to exploring the rest of the school. They exited through the backdoors, which lead them to the sports field.

"Ah, there's my old coach!" Seungwoo brought up. "I couldn't find him earlier. Let me say hello to him really quick, okay?" His gaze fell on Nahyun for a split second before he jogged off the direction to an older man was. The girl knew what that look meant, and she let out a sigh.

She shot a careful glance over at Jinhyuk, who happened to be looking at her too. "Shall we just sit on the bleachers for now?" She asked him. He gave a nod in response.

The two of them climbed the steps of the metal bleachers and settled a couple rows up. Before Nahyun could sit, Jinhyuk was quick to take off the sweatshirt that was still wrapped around her waist. When he gestured she sit down, he then laid the sweater on top of her lap. Nahyun turned away as she felt her cheeks heat up from his kind gesture.

She gulped. And just as she opened her mouth to say something, Jinhyuk beat her to it. "I'm sorry for earlier." His expression was enough to tell Nahyun that he meant it. She softly grinned at him. "I should stop being so spiteful towards your ex. I thought about it and you're not someone that judges people wrong."

"Not well enough because you're still somehow my best friend," she told him in a playful tone. Jinhyuk's expression changed to one of surprise, but was instantly replaced with a smile of his own. "I'm sorry too, for acting the way I did. I know you were only upset because you care, like you always did." Her eyes followed after Seungwoo, as he and his old soccer coach looked to be having a good time catching up. "I promise you Seungwoo-oppa is a really good guy."

"I know that, or you wouldn't have dated him for so long. And became friends with him again." Jinhyuk fiddled with his hands. "I guess I like being stubborn."

"Ah, yes. One of your top shining qualities." When the boy gave her a glance, Nahyun held up her hands in defense. "I was just kidding." The two of them sat there for a couple seconds in silence. Nahyun thought back to the Nurse Park's story, trying to remember back to that day herself. She then remembered some interesting details. "Oh, yeah. The day of the rogue baseball, wasn't that the day you were supposed to go to the art gallery with Yukyung?"

Of course she remembered that. That very morning, Yukyung had run up to her in the middle of the hallway and gushed about how she and Jinhyuk were going to the art gallery after school. Of course her stomach twisted in knots imagining the two of them alone together in an ideal date place. But Nahyun chimed with fake excitement, expressing how delighted she was for Yukyung.

"Ah, was it?" Jinhyuk uttered under his breath.

Nahyun quirked a brow, "You don't remember? Wasn't that supposed to be your official first date with her?"

Confusion crossed Jinhyuk's face. "Date? That wasn't a date, Nahyun. Yukyung asked to me to go to the gallery with her because she needed it for extra credit for one class. And, I wasn't able to meet her."

Now, Nahyun was confused. "You didn't?"

"I told Yukyung to go on ahead since it was for her anyway. I was running late and I missed the opening."

"You were? Why?"

Jinhyuk peered at her. "Because of you, idiot. I was waiting for you to wake up."

"Oh." Nahyun frowned. Did she ruin Yukyung's chance at a date with Jinhyuk? She huffed at him, "Why am I the idiot? You were the one that missed it. You should've went."

"Nahyun, you were lying on that bed unconscious with the biggest welt I have ever seen! And I did try to go, it was just that I was too late. She seemed fine with it the next day though."

"Because she's too nice," Nahyun muttered. "What happened to Yukyung, by the way? I would assume you two would have kept in touch because you were closer together than she was with me."

Jinhyuk rubbed the back of his neck. "Not really. Since she went to a different college, we haven't really talked much since senior year. But she seems fine from her instagram."

"Why don't you message her every once in a while? She must be curious on what you've been up to too," she suggested.

"I, erm, we actually made a promise not to until I do something."

"Do what?"

"Ah, you wouldn't understand. It was kind of our inside thing."

Oh.

Nahyun nodded to his words and decided to drop the topic. If she pressed on, she could regret it. There was no need in making herself salty over something years ago. That would just be pitiful... if she wasn't already. She scoffed, "Whatever then."

"Nahyun, about Seungwoo—"

Jinhyuk was instantly interrupted when the very man came jogging back to them. Seungwoo beamed at the two as he threw his thumb behind him, "Shall we go back and eat? It'll be my treat!" He proclaimed.

Nahyun nodded to the idea. Now that he mentioned it, she was beginning to feel famished from all the travel. She turned her attention back to Jinhyuk. "What were you going to say?"

"Nevermind. Let's just go."

•  •  •

The trio were completely exhausted after stuffing their faces at a good noodle shop once heading back into the city. It was a good time as any to call the night, as it was getting late and their energy depleted. Seungwoo drove them to the entrance of their university as it was an equal distance away from both their dormitories.

Seungwoo rolled down the window as the 96-liners exited the car. His eyes were trained on Jinhyuk. "Make sure you walk her home, I'm putting my trust in you, Jinhyuk."

"You say that like I'm a little girl," Nahyun huffed at the older male. Seungwoo chuckled as he gave a nonchalant shrug. "Message me when you get home, okay?"

"Sure, Nahyun. I had a good time today, and it was great being able to hang with you too, Jinhyuk."

"You too, hyung."

With that, Seungwoo pulled out from the curb and drove out into the night. Jinhyuk motioned that they start walking, so the two went. The first few minutes on their stroll to the girl's dormitory had been silent. It was a pleasant silence, as all their concerns and anger were put behind them. During their dinner, Jinhyuk actually made the effort to strike conversation with Seungwoo, and Nahyun couldn't be more enthralled about it. Two of the men she considered close in life are finally okay with each other. That was all she could ask for.

Now that the day was over, Nahyun was at ease. She was satisfied.

Eventually, they reached the entrance to the dormitory. Her heart was in the pit of her stomach. This was a good time as any to make a first move, wasn't it? She knew Seungwoo had dropped them off a distance away from her dorm building just so they can talk. It surely hadn't been a successful day on that front.

"Nahyun." The girl jolted. As she looked over at Jinhyuk, he held a surprisingly serious expression. She tilted her head, why on earth does he look like that right now? "You know, no matter how mean we can be to each other, I always hope for you to be the happiest you can be."

Nahyun blinked. What brought this up all of a sudden?

His gaze was somewhere else. He was avoiding her curious eyes. "I'm saying that if... if gaining that happiness is through getting back together with Seungwoo-hyung, you should go for it."

What?

"What brought this up?" Nahyun asked him, a pout to her lips.

"Just... because."

She let out a shaky breath, gathering all her courage. "But I don't want to get back with him."

This earned a surprised look. "You don't?"

"No. I don't. Sure, Seungwoo-oppa is a great guy but I don't see him that way," Nahyun replied in a low tone.  "I'm already pretty happy."

"But, like, he's annoyingly perfect," he uttered out, his thick brows knitted together. "He's handsome, he has a stable job, he's kind. He'll be able to support you in whatever you do. And uh... so, if you want to, I won't stop you. I will accept and support you two as your best friend. I'm serious."

"Jinhyuk, listen to me." This got the boy to look at her now. There was so much emotions swimming in his eyes. She sighed. She was going to risk it. "You want to know why Seungwoo decided to dump me? It was because I've been in love with someone else." She bit down on her lip before she mumbled out, "I'm still in love with him."

He stuttered, "Are you serious?"

"Yes. I'm dead serious. And... that guy is my best friend in this whole entire world." The world felt like it stopped. Nahyun was breathless, she finally confessed. After all her 23 years of her life, she finally told her best friend, her first love, how she truly felt about him. She was sure she was on a brink of a heart attack. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see whatever negative reaction on Jinhyuk's face because she knew she would cry if she did. "So I honest to god don't need anything else to be happy. I just need you to be happy, Jinhyuk."

It was an excruciating couple seconds. Nahyun heard nothing. Jinhyuk wasn't saying anything, and that scared her out of her wits. "Nahyun." Suddenly, she felt warmth on both sides of her cheeks. Her eyes fluttered open and realized how much closer he had become. His hands softly held onto her face. He had a smile. A bright, and handsome smile that made his eyes smile too.

"I just need you to be happy too."

A/n:
Time to wrap up! As you can guess, the fourth chapter for each of the boys will already be its epilogue. Again, this was never meant to be a full, lengthy story. Since I have three separate stories, I wanted to just write short but sweet.

Today is also Seungyoun's birthday! So, maybe I'll try to write up his chapter to celebrate it! But, I guess we'll see haha.

As usual, please do give this chapter support by voting it and leaving a couple comments! It would be very much appreciated!

Until next update~
—Bianca

PS: Speaking of Jinhyuk, he feeds his fans SO well. The amount of pictures he leaves on his IG makes me soar ❤️

His friendship with everyone is so damn precious and it makes my heart into mush!