SO EUN'S POV

I run to Yongmi as soon as Yongmi enters the class. She takes few steps back, looking bewildered. I laugh, Yongmi is the cutest when she is shocked.

Linking my arm with her arm, I walk her out of the class.

“Wait, wait, where are you taking me?”

“The rooftop”.

She breaks herself from my grasp and widened her eyes. “Why the rooftop?”

“That seems like the best place gossip?”, I furrow my eyebrows. Why does she look so shocked?

“It is… But why out of sudden? We usually just gossip in class”.

“Yea but not this time, Yongmi. What more when Wooyoung is just sitting behind us”.

She squints her eyes. “Did you do anything that Junho shouldn’t know about?”

“I didn’t do “it” whatever youre referring to. But this is definitely something he should never know. And youre the second to know, only if you let me take you the rooftop and spill everything”.

“Why am I second? Whos the first one?”.

“Youre curious as heck now, right? Okay, just follow me”.

I take her hands and lead her to the stairs that could bring us to the rooftop.

I expect her to be awed by the view from the rooftop but as soon as we arrived on the rooftop, she looks around, as if trying to confirm that nobody is there, to listen to our conversation. But somehow… somehow that doesn’t look like it. She looks anxious.

She catches me looking at her and smiles awkwardly. “Im just worried somebody is hiding up here, you know you have quite a number of secret admirers”.

“Kwon Yongmi, youre really suspicious. What do you hide from me?”.

She freezes for a sec before breaks into a smile. “Ehey, what do you mean by suspicious, come on now~”.

I open my mouth to demand an answer but she cut me off.

“So tell me what happened”, she says as she drags my hands to the corner where old tires are recycled and used as chairs. Im doing everything I can to hide my baffled expression… she doesn’t bring me to the nearest bench, which is located just next to the door of the stairs. It is definitely not an ideal place to tell secrets, because people could come and eavesdrop anytime. She knows this rooftop well but she once told me she has never been here.

And then realization hit me like a stream of cold water.

Shes been lying to me this whole time.

I’ve always considered her as my best friend, even though I only see her in school. I do have some other friends I am close with, but I don’t share my problems, secrets with them. With Yongmi though, I don’t think I have keep anything from her. Even Junho sometimes envy her to death. He says I actually am in relationship with Yongmi instead of him. Ridiculous yet somehow makes sense. Most of the time, I prefer having meal with Yongmi instead of my own boyfriend. Not that I am not comfortable with him or anything, it is just I love spending my time with her. I only get to see her in school anyway, I could still meet Junho after school.

I don’t even know where Yongmi’s house at. She said its just near the school, she prefers walking every time I offer her ride home. But also every time I ask if I could come over, she never fails to give excuses. She usually says that she has too many younger siblings, and her house is small it would probably make me feel uncomfortable. It hurts that she seems to think that I would become indifferent if I see how poor her family is.

I take a deep breathe, trying to wash away unnecessary thoughts. Maybe it is nothing. Maybe Im just being paranoid. Maybe it is just her being the genius her, always quick to grasp the situation, the surrounding.

We sit down on the recycled tires. She blinks her eyes a few times, looking at me with her puppy eyes. She has a pair of beautiful eyes, its hazel in color. Her eyes are so clear that one could see her emotion through it. And now I see nothing but curiosity flashed through her eyes.

“I don’t know how to start”, I sigh.

“Is this about Junho? Or? Wooyoung? It’s okay, slowly. We won’t leave this place until you spill everything”.

“Well… Okay… I… You know I actually feel really guilty about not telling you about this first. The first-“

“Omg I totally forgot about that! Gosh okay, um who is that first person??”

I curse under my breath.

“Chansung”.

I watch as her face go from confusion, to recognition to disbelief. drops open. “No way”.

“Yes way. It just, happened. I don’t know. He is surprisingly friendly during our mentoring session”.

“Girl the whole school knows how cold he is. Well, okay, maybe youre an exception. But that’s it? Just because he is friendly towards you, you spilled whatever your secret is to him? So Eun why oh my god”, she closes her eyes, as if trying to process everything that seem harder than mathematical problem.

“Yongmi, you haven’t listened to my reasons”, I grab her hands