Jokes are meant to be funny, not vibe-killing. And with that, they all shook their heads upon seeing him laugh on his own. "Sorry." he quickly stopped himself, violently shaking his head as well to rid himself of the laughter he felt.
'I can't with these three...'
"All jokes aside, why would your grandmother put strawberries in the pastries?" the blonde-haired male averted his attention.
"That... I don't know for certain."
Ji Eun whipped out her phone and dialed her grandmother's number.
"Shoot! I just recalled that she doesn't have a phone right now. It was stolen."
Her oval-shaped face turned roundish with her pouting lips and puffy cheeks from the devastation she expressed. Byungchan looked at her with concern in his eyes.
"It's probably because I've been gaining weight lately." she snapped her fingers in front of them, remembering that the elderly woman wanted her to avoid consuming lots of calories from the pastries she brought every day.
"There are a few in here without strawberries in them..." she nonchalantly grabbed what she could only eat and munched on it without a care in the world, chewing the food in her mouth with crumbs all over her glossy orange lips.
The eldest friend among the four took a tissue from the table, passing her a few pieces which she refused. "Stop acting like a child just because you've got people taking care of you." he carefully wiped her lips with a brink of force.
"Thanks a lot." she arrogantly rolled her eyes and continued watching the movie on-screen that the other two chose.
"It's normal to feel warmth in your heart, Song Ji Eun." the pale-looking male with his crow black hair sincerely advised her.
They both gazed at each other with overflowing and genuine care for one another.
'For the first time...' she didn't fall in love so easily with a guy she grew closer to.
'My heart still belongs to him.'
Ji Eun suddenly remembered someone special to her, a person dearest to her. "I miss him." she whispered to herself. Her eyelids became heavy, and she grew quiet for the rest of the evening.
Jihyun noticed this and knew exactly why her mood changed. "No one has been able to contact him." the other girl wasn't making eye contact because she could only feel bad about her now ex-boyfriend.
"He has gone away quietly, never ended things with me either, but I know that his disappearing meant one thing." that their relationship would be over then and there.
They have all tried for weeks now.
'But he is just beyond our reach.' she couldn't help but feel worried for Kim Young.
The next day came with Seoul Global High in its ending phase. The school year is about to be finished as most senior students are already settled for graduation, meanwhile, the School Arts Hall Theatre is yet to breathe in relief with their activities.
"Is everything set for the backdrops?"
Ivy burst through the door of the theatre as the first performing group of students stood on the stage for the last two days of practice before the rehearsal day.
"Madam Ivy." the choreographer put the woman in place with just the call of her name.
"You could have at least said it completely in words." she followed the choreographer's hand gesture and proceeded backstage, where her stepdaughter was.
The group on stage continued their dance routine with ease.
"No, no, no!" the mentor instructed the costume designer to adjust the length of the costumes.
"There aren't supposed to be any feathers on this dress because the story is about a puppet and her puppeteer!" she was raging as there was only a limited amount of time left before the final day.
"It can be fixed, but apparently, someone asked me to change it!" the tailor in charge of the creation of all the costumes was also in anger because of how big the event meant to everyone which is in a few days with so much left to do.
As well as the fact that someone anonymously asked for the change to be made had caught them both off guard.
"Where is my daughter?" Ivy barged into every single dressing room with her haggard-looking garnet red hair. "I'm here." Honey Lou entered through the door with her ballet shoes in hand.
"Are you done practicing now? We have got so much to do before the family dinner tonight." the woman shut her olive green eyes upon hearing the screeching sounds that came from backstage, where the technical team managed the technicalities.
'What an earsore.' she brushed back her hair, and it appeared neatly straight now, on the other hand, her stepdaughter could only keep her mouth shut after the heavy workout she had to go through in order to prepare for the difficult moves they had.
"I'll wait for you in the car, and if anyone asks where you're going..." the woman looked at all the other girls in the room, dead in the eye with her fierce gaze before smiling and glancing at the denim blue-colored almond eyes of the girl in front of her.
Those blue eyes that couldn't look straight back at her, considering that the girl had face blindness.
'I can never get used to these eye contacts with people.' she nodded at the woman and proceeded to the shower room.
Honey opened her locker door and took out all that she needed. She tiredly occupied one of the stalls and locked the door with the water running almost immediately as soon as she turned it on.
The water soaked her bare body and replaced the sweat with cleanliness while the hot tears streamed down her cheeks.
'I'm crying again.' she thought to herself.
She shut her eyes and began to scrub her body without missing a spot.
An endless feeling of sadness and confusion filled her mind, causing her to wrap herself up in her arms from the struggles in keeping a sound mind.
A sound mind free from any dangerous thoughts.
'Thoughts that pull me back deeper into the abyss.' it took her almost 30 minutes before she finished showering and getting refreshed from the intense workout that she had done for the performance preparations.
Honey left the shower room to go meet her stepmother in the car without any words of acknowledgement.
They both drove away from the school, and Honey was appointed to meet with a hairstylist who would decide what hairdo or makeup she was going to have on the day of the performance. "She looks well-groomed, Ms. Ivy."
"I know that, I worked so very hard to achieve this version of my daughter." the woman responded as she caressed the girl's ginger burnt brown hair, pushing her to take a seat in front of the mirror. Honey felt trapped in the arms of the woman.
She couldn't resist letting her stepmother change her hair and put makeup on her just when she was still in New York.
Under the control of her guardians, who are now also in the same country as her.
'No. NO.' only then did she realize what her life would become if she let this happen again.
"Remove this awful brown hair and turn it back to its original state, will you?" Honey's eyes grew wide, and her lips turned as pale as a fish's tail.
It was as if her voice couldn't come out, even though her actions indicated that she resisted the change in her hair color.
"Strap her onto the chair if you must." the woman took a magazine from one of the racks and suddenly remembered her son.
'Strapping those kids on a chair always works, or at least it did to Soojin.' she was unbothered by the staff who were keeping Honey locked on the chair despite her resistance.
"I'm glad we don't have any other customers today..." the receptionist muttered, seeing all the chaos inside the beauty salon that had been closed already, she remembered how little their first chained customer was hard to deal with years ago.
"Oh, how I miss taking care of his blonde springy hairlocks..." the receptionist happened to make eye contact with Ivy, and she raised her eyebrow, which made the receptionist get back to working.
However, the receptionist disappeared the next day.
"She suddenly resigned. Put up a sign that says we're hiring!" the boss instructed as soon as they arrived at the office.
Honey Lou did not speak a word since the day before, she managed to free herself from being chained to the chair, unluckily, the process of change in her hair had already been over.
"How do you like it, Miss?" they visited the salon once more for the makeup testing, and yet, she had not spoken back.
"Honey is speechless that she can't say a thing~" the woman with red hair answered in her stead, urging her daughter to take a seat again on the same exact chair as the day before.
"Prepare the chains in any case she resists again." the staff did as the woman said, but Honey was stone cold still so the chains were unnecessary now.
"What kind of makeup do you think would suit a puppet?" her stepmother took command.
Another day ended without a word from her shut-up mouth.
Without a single complaint from her gritting teeth.
Without a sound of whimper from her glued lips.
And not a blink of her eyelids from her glaring reddish eyes.