“Do you see me?” Anika said into the phone, turning slowly in a full circle near the park entrance. The late afternoon sun spilled across the pavement, warm and golden, and she shifted her bag higher on her shoulder as her eyes scanned the area. It had only been two days since she got back from her trip, and this was the first time she and Seonghyeon were meeting again.
“Where are you?” she added with a small laugh. “I swear I don’t see you.”The call ended abruptly.Anika froze. “Hello?”
“BOO!”She jolted, spinning around fast. Seonghyeon was right behind her, barely a few steps back, doubled over laughing like he’d just pulled off the greatest prank in history.
“Bro Seonghyeon! That is not funny!” she said, clutching her chest.He straightened up, still smiling. “You should’ve been paying attention.”“I was literally looking everywhere you were hiding.”she shot back“I wasn’t hiding.”“You were absolutely hiding.”
He just laughed again, shaking his head like they were picking up an argument they’d had a hundred times before. “Welcome back” he said a little softer this time.That made her expression shift, just slightly. “Thanks. I see you’re in a better mood now.”
He looked at her for a second too long, like he forgot what he was about to say, then smiled. “Yeah… I am.”Anika lightly bumped his arm and started walking, and he fell into step beside her without even thinking. The park around them was alive, kids yelling near the playground, couples looping slowly around the lake, trees shifting gently in the breeze.
She talked as they walked about her trip, the funny parts, the annoying parts, the moments she knew he would’ve teased her for if he’d been there. Seonghyeon listened the way he always did quietly , laughing when she exaggerated, asking small questions that made her keep going.At some point, she suddenly stopped.“Race me,” she said, pointing toward the open field.Seonghyeon looked at her, already amused. “No.”“Come onnn” she dragged out, stepping in front of him. “Just one race please” she said jumping around him.
“I don’t really Threetwoone go.”He took off before she even finished properly.“Hey!” she yelled, laughing as she sprinted after him.
He didn’t get far. She caught up beside him almost instantly, because she had always been the faster one anyway, and that was something neither of them ever said out loud but both fully knew.They slowed down in the middle of the field, both of them laughing too hard to pretend it was serious anymore. Anika bent forward, hands on her knees, catching her breath with a grin she couldn’t hide.“I won,” Seonghyeon said between breaths.
“You literally cheated,” she corrected immediately, still smiling.“I started strategically.”“No you did not.”“Yes I did.”She rolled her eyes, but she was still laughing as they straightened up. Seonghyeon bumped her shoulder lightly, and they started walking again.
The sun was lower now, softening everything around them.“Should we head to the studio?” he asked.“Yeah,” she nodded. “We can make something like we used to.”
He smiled a little at that. “Yeah… like we used to.”They reached the studio later, falling into it easily the way they always had. Seonghyeon pulled up a beat he’d made a while ago with Martin, and Anika immediately started messing around with ideas, humming random melodies, scribbling lyrics that didn’t make sense at first but slowly started to.
They laughed a lot more than they worked, throwing words at the beat, stopping just to tease each other or argue over tiny details that didn’t matter.For a while, it felt normal.Too normal.Then Seonghyeon’s phone lit up.
The name sat there , but his whole energy shifted the second he saw it. The room didn’t feel the same anymore. He stared at the screen longer than he meant to, jaw tightening slightly as he remembered.Right. That was why he was here.He set his phone down, exhaling slowly.
“Anika,” he said, his voice careful and lower.She looked up from the notebook. “Yeah?”He hesitated, like the words didn’t want to come out cleanly. Then he forced them anyway.
“I don’t think… our friendship will work.”The silence that followed was immediate.Anika blinked once. Then again, like she was trying to make the sentence rearrange itself into something else.“Oh,” she said quietly.
Seonghyeon’s hands flexed slightly at his sides. “I’m sorry.”She shut her notebook slowly, like if she moved too fast he might say something and he’ll miss it . Then she stood up.“Okay,” she said, voice steady in a way that didn’t quite match her face. “I understand.”
He opened his mouth like he wanted to stop her, or explain, or say something better but nothing came out .Anika nodded once, then grabbed her bag.
And she left. She stood outside for 10 minutes hoping he would change his mind and look for her, but he didn’t, she knew he wouldn’t.
