Chapter 112: What Could Have Been (Volume 1 Epilogue)
A girl swung her legs as she half-heartedly paid attention to the television.
She sighed, feeling utterly bored.
Then, a young man came down the stairs, twirling a set of keys in his hand.
The girl, noticing the man, shot up into a proper sitting position. "Oppa, where are you going?"
The young man was slightly startled, but did not get angry at the girl. He smiled slightly, "I'm going out to meet my friends," he told her truthfully.
The girl smiled prettily while batting her eyes, "Can I come too?"
The man smiled helplessly, "Why would you want to come? It's just a couple of us guys hanging out together. You'll definitely find it boring."
The girl whined, "But it's so boring at home! I have nothing to do!"
"Yeo Ri-ah..." The man sighed. The girl could be so childish sometimes.
"Oppa, please?" She gave him a puppy-dog look, which she obviously knew was his weakness.
The man hesitated for a while, but in the end, he relented. "Fine. Go and get dressed; I'll wait for you."
"Yay! Thanks, Oppa!" The girl cheered happily, running to her room to get dressed.
"Don't run or you'll fall," the man reminded her. He chuckled in amusement. He could never say 'no' to her. Fine, it was his fault for spoiling her so much!
A few minutes later, she returned to his side, wearing a newer and prettier dress, and even added some lipstick on her lips.
The man frowned, "Is that makeup? Hey, you're too young to be wearing makeup!" He chided in dissatisfaction.
"Why not?" She pouted at him. "It's just lipstick! I'm fourteen; Everybody in my class wears thicker makeup than this to school," she grumbled.
The man rolled his eyes, "Fine, you win. Do whatever you want." Then, he pinched her cheeks, "Aigoo, you spoiled brat! What am I ever going to do with you?" He asked rhetorically with an affectionate tone.
The girl pushed him away with a glare, but they both burst into laughter afterwards.
After the banter, the man drove the two of them to the agreed restaurant where he would meet his friends.
It seemed like they were early, so the man went ahead and found them a seat first.
Soon enough, a familiar face popped into the restaurant with a grin.
The new arrival walked towards the two, "Oh? Yeo Ri also came, huh?" The man greeted them cheerfully. He ruffled her hair familiarly.
"Ah, stop it!" The girl glowered at the man. "In Guk-oppa!" She scolded him with a whiny voice, clearly annoyed after the man ruined her nicely-combed hair.
The man apologised with an unapologetic face, "Sorry, sorry."
In Guk settled in on the seat next to Yeo Ri. He looked around as if searching for someone. He then turned to the other man next to Yeo Ri, asking, "Where's that guy?"
The man shrugged, "You know him. He's never on time. I keep telling him to get a new bike, but he says he can't afford a new one right now. And he's been saying that for almost two years! Is he kidding? What kind of bike is he going to buy? A gold-plated one?"
"Woah, woah, calm down!" In Guk laughed. "Ah! There he is!"
The three's gaze darted to the area that In Guk had pointed.
"Hey, why are you so late?!" The man scowled.
In Guk felt that he was overreacting, but he merely smiled as he felt that it was amusing to see his reactions.
"What late? We're supposed to meet up at ten; it's only 9:58!" He defended himself. Gruffly, he dragged the other person following him and sat down across the trio.
"Ah," the man exclaimed. He looked at his sister, "Yeo Ri-ah, it's the first time you've met him, right? This is my friend, Hyuk." The man kicked Hyuk's leg from under the table, "Oi, introduce yourself."
Hyuk glared at his friend, but did as he was told. He turned to look at his friend's sister, and was suddenly blown away.
"..."
"...Hyuk?"
"..."
"Oi!" Once again, Hyuk's leg was kicked, startling him out of his trance.
"Ah... I'm Lee Hyuk," he introduced himself with a slightly awkward gaze. Then, as if he had remembered the person he brought along with, he introduced him as well, "And this is my younger brother, Lee Gun."
Yeo Ri blushed slightly as she giggled in amusement. The man was acting so bashfully despite his angry-looking countenance. It was kind of cute. "Nice to meet you, Hyuk-oppa. I'm Jin Goo-oppa's little sister, Heo Yeo Ri."
Jin Goo glared at his friend who was ogling his sister. "Oi, Lee Hyuk, you better not be thinking about scoring my sister! She's only fourteen," he warned, kicking the guy's leg once again.
Hyuk glared at his friend, wincing from the pain. Hotheadedly, he spouted, "Who wants to date your sister?!" Of course, in his mind, he had already told himself to wait for a few more years before hitting on her.
Yeo Ri tilted her head at Hyuk with a disappointed gaze, "You don't want to?"
"Ah—no—that's not what I mean—" Hyuk froze, then panicked.
"Pfft!" Lee Gun, who had been quietly observing, could not hold back his laughter. It was the first time he saw his brother looking so flustered before.
Hyuk whipped his head to glare at his brother, his ears turning red, "You shut up!"
"What?" The younger boy defyingly jutted his chin at him.
The three guys tag-teamed and made fun of Hyuk for a few minutes until he finally could not stand it and threatened to beat them up.
"See, Yeo Ri-ah? This guy is so violent. Just a bit of teasing and he says he's going to beat us up. So scary!" Gun says to Yeo Ri with a faux-serious gaze.
Yeo Ri laughed, feeling amused.
"Lee Gun!" Hyuk called out, "You watch out; I was being nice by bringing you along since you don't have any friends, but this is how you repay me?!"
Gun rolled his eyes, "Who says I don't have friends?! Don't make things up on your own."
Yeo Ri felt that they had already teased Hyuk enough. She tried to rein in her laughter with tears sparkling in her eyes, "Okay, okay, that's enough. Sorry, Hyuk-oppa."
"It's fine." Hearing the girl's pretty laugh, Hyuk felt that it was worth getting teased by his dumb friends.
The five had loads of fun together.
Finally, it was time to go home.
Inside the car, Jin Goo glanced at his sister who was sporting a daydreaming look. "Hey, you better not be thinking about going out with him."
"But why?" Yeo Ri blinked at him innocently.
"You—" Jin Goo, seeing that face, knew that she was definitely not going to heed his words. "Never mind. If you go out with him, I'm going to tell Dad!"
Yeo Ri glared at him. "Why?! That's so unfair! I didn't say anything when you snuck out to see your girlfriend!" She protested.
"Wha—?! How did you know that?!" Jin Goo was so surprised that he almost swerved the car.
"I'm going to tell Mom that you're bullying me!"
"Hey, hey, hey, let's talk about this properly, okay, Yeo Ri-ah?" He paled, "Hey?! Drop that phone! Yeo Ri-ah! Okay, okay, you win! Oppa is sorry! Yeo Ri-ah!"
Secretly smiling victoriously, Yeo Ri harrumphed and ignored Jin Goo for the whole duration of the ride.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
ihateyounot
ihateyounot End of Volume 1: Angel.
Thanks for reading until this far. The next arc won’t be so tragic.
P.S: Will be taking a short break from writing. Updates will resume on the 19th.
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