“Stop it, you!” Soojung frustratingly yells at her best friend since childhood as Jongin can’t stop giving her the nerve by staring at her until they reach their apartment building. She knows Jongin isn’t stupid, but with his interrogating gaze is too much and she doesn’t plan on telling him anything for the current time.

“You work with Kim Jongdae?” Jongin asks, for hundredth times since he picked her up with his sedan.

Sighing, Soojung unlocks her apartment door and replies, “Yes. What’s with you, Kim Jongin?” When she spins her body to face him, Jongin only gives her a nonchalant shrug.

“Nothing.” He innocently stares at her. “Just, you know, it kinda remind me of Naeun and her upcoming wedding. Did he get invited?”

Wait, Son Naeun’s wedding?! At instant, Soojung forgets her cramps and her desire to cuddle on her bed badly. She folds her arms in front of her chest as narrowing her eyes at the owner of the apartment next door.

“Well, I don’t know, Jongin-ah, we just met today.” With a lot of unfortunate—she cringes at the thought. “And Naeun, Son Naeun’s wedding? When will it be?”

“Next month. Come with me?” He suddenly offers with a hopeful grin.

Soojung frowns, turns her body back toward the door. “I don’t know, Jongin-ah. And what about Hyeri? You two fighting again?”

“Well, she hates all the parties that aren’t about her as the center.” Jongin answers, letting her know about his current girlfriend and her antics.

“Good luck with that then,” Soojung rolls her eyes. “Thanks for picking me up last time, Jongin-ah. I’ll go inside first.”

“Yeah, rest well please. You looked so pale when I saw you last time, no idea if it’s because of pain or that sunbae.” He has the urge to smirk knowingly at her.

Soojung slams shut the door in front of his face.

***

It’s been almost two weeks for Jung Soojung working in HIGH Advertisement. She actually could adjust well if her period being nice to her and Youngji stopped her nonsense and Jongdae’s so called close friends stopped bothering her. Oh once again, if Goo Hara could at least give her a small smile instead of dagger every time they pass by. Soojung still has no idea what mistake she has that makes her supervisor seem to treat her this bad.

Like this time, Hara has ordered Soojung to send the company letter to all division manually instead of share it online. Soojung can only curse and whine in her mind and the pitiful look Youngji, Jinyoung and Chansik throw at her doesn’t make it better.

She comes to the editing room and is greeted by Byun Baekhyun cheerfully. Baekhyun is one of Kim Jongdae’s close friends in the company, the one who never stops teasing her about Jongdae’s misconception between woman in period or pregnancy. Soojung still hates how Jongdae could easily tell such embarrassing story like that, but it’s too late and she can’t do anything about it.

“Hello there Miss Krystal Jung,” Baekhyun grins mischievously. “Are those baby shower invitations?” He gets his voice lower down so that only him and Soojung who can hear the joke.

Soojung scowls, but says nothing. She just hands him one of the letter and spins her heels to move to the next division when suddenly Baekhyun grabs her arm.

“Wait. Where do you need to send all of these?”

“To all division.” She answers flatly.

“Where is Jongdae then?”

She frowns immediately before glaring at the guy with so much annoyance that can be visibly seen. “I don’t know. I’m not his care taker and we don’t have such a bond that makes me oblige to know where he is now.” Soojung knows where Jongdae is, because unlike her, the latter has more productive thing to do such as visiting clients for survey, but she decides Byun Baekhyun doesn’t need to know about that. “Now, if you let me, Baekhyun-ssi, I’ll deliver the rest of these letters—“

“That’s too bad.” Baekhyun does hook off his hand from her arm, but he mimics her frown. “Jongdae is a nice guy, Krystal-ssi. And I can see how adorable your baby later.”

If only he’s not older than her. If only he’s not above her by seniority too. If only he’s not her sunbae’s best friend. If only she isn’t at work now. Soojung won’t hesitate and try hard restraining her inner gangster self for giving this very guy a deadly neck slice.

Really? Since when everybody becomes her fortune teller to inform her about her love life?! With a disgust face, Soojung leaves the Byun guy right away.

***

Much to her luck, she runs into the lanky guy with wavy-almost-curly hair as known as Park Chanyeol—Byun Baekhyun’s accomplice. The duo is famous for being Kim Jongdae’s loyal supporter or in other words, they are best friend.

Chanyeol guy is freelance photographer who spends most of the time in HIGH because his girlfriend—Kim Yujeong—works here too. He is similar to Baekhyun—both are cheerful person and always nosy. How did her sunbae end up with those loud, obnoxious creatures, Soojung doesn’t know care.

“Ooh, Krystal-ssi! Nice meeting you here.” Chanyeol’s wide smile is automatically on when he sees the girl with bunch of letters in her grab. Soojung can’t help but to roll her eyes at hearing her-used-to-be-name. She really needs to confront Jongdae sunbae about this! She once was Krystal Jung, but now she’s just being Jung Soojung and she thinks it’s enough for her.

“Job visit or girlfriend visit, Chanyeol-ssi?” Soojung tries to make a small talk although what she really wants is coming back to her desk quickly.

Chanyeol gives her his infamous grin. “Of course I need to check on my baby.” Her lips get in thin line as Soojung fights the urge to cringe at Chanyeol’s cheesiness. “Wait, speaking about baby, can you help me delivering this to Jongdae?”

Her forehead creases—really? How can baby and Jongdae relate to each other? But this is Park Chanyeol and his name itself explains all the craziness he can come up with.

“I’m sorry, but he’s out now,”

“You can give it to him when he’s back—“

“I don’t know when he’s gonna be back, I’m afraid I can’t meet him today.” Soojung cuts him off, doesn’t want to give Chanyeol a chance to let her delivering stuff to Kim Jongdae. It’s not like the tall guy is in rush or something, anyway. As far as she knows, Park Chanyeol has too much free time to hang around here like some student on study tour.

“Fine,” Chanyeol pouts. “I’ll just get Yujeong to give the wedding invitation to him later.” He mumbles, but Soojung’s ears perk up instantly at the mention of wedding invitation.

“Wait, you and Yujeong-ssi…?” She gets wide-eyed looking at him in pure shock. The guy though, staring back at her, clueless.

“Me and my baby… what, Krystal-ssi?”

“Getting married?!”

“I don’t think I ever mentioned about our wedding,” Chanyeol casually grins and dismisses the offending tone she used, like he’s being married is something impossible in this world. “It’s wedding invitation from our high-school friend. So, can you giv—“

“I need to go, see you, Chanyeol-ssi.”

Soojung dashes off quickly before Chanyeol can make further attempt to force her delivering the wedding invitation to her sunbae. Although part of her doesn’t like the idea of Jongdae’s friends treat her like she’s been part of them for a long time, the other part of her feels like she’s really one of them for such a long time.

She doesn’t get to see Kim Jongdae that day and wonders if it’s really disappointment that bugs her mind for the whole day.

***

Jongin already stands by in front of her door when she comes home, waving a piece of paper toward her. Soojung looks at it indifferently before unlocking the door and walking in, and he’s tailing behind.

“Come on, Soojungie, come with me.” He begins his plea.

Soojung stops midway to her bedroom and glares at him. “I’ve said it many times, haven’t I? I don’t want to go, Kim Jongin.”

“But why? You know Naeun too, we’re at the same year!” Jongin changes his tone into whiny one, staring hopefully at tired Soojung.

“No, I don’t.” She retorts quickly. “And you have someone else who can be used for something like that. Go call Hyeri and beg her to come with you.”

“Yes, you do. You know Son Naeun, we have some classes together when we’re in college. And I’ve told you, Hyeri can’t stand for a minute not to let herself being the center of attention.”

Soojung has met Lee Hyeri in few occasions, and she decides it’s better for her not to meet Jongin’s girlfriend frequently. Hyeri is typical spoiled rich girl and Soojung is tired of rolling her eyes whenever the Lee brat opens . Mostly she says dumb things and Soojung is already being too nice pretending the girl didn’t say something awful for human brain to register. So she knows her friend’s suffer, but that doesn’t mean she’s willing to be his plus one in Son Naeun’s wedding.

“Then go with Sehun. You two often get mistakenly as married couple anyway.” She suggests, mentioning their other close friend. Since they enrolled in college, Jongin usually hangs out with Oh Sehun, and the two are undeniably close. Even sometimes Soojung feels the two hide the biggest secret from her.

Jongin pouts his mouth, striking her with his aegyeo. Many women will fall for it, but not her though. Living inseparable from him since she’s a kid, going at the same school until college, and they even dated each other at some point, that so called Kim Jongin’s ultimate charm has lost its effect on her.

She’s too immune with his pouty face.

“Don’t you know? Naeun’s husband-to-be is Kim Jongdae’s friend in high school.” He says out of nowhere, but it succeeds at stopping Soojung to leave him in the living room as she spins her heels and faces him again.

“And?”

Only to get an irritated reply from her.

“Nothing, I just want to let you know.” He murmurs, can sense the danger right away when her eyes turn into slit and watch him as if it can send a laser attack at him. “I—“

“So what, Kim Jongin, so what?! She’s gonna get married with one of Kim Jongdae’s high school friend, and I need to know? Really? Because I get to work with him in the same company and he was my sunbae in college then those all are signs for us to be together?! Seriously? Can you not?!”

Soojung loses her control, too fed up with her bottled feeling and gets her let it out at the wrong outlet. She knows Jongin is not the one to blame, but it’s like everyone keeps pestering her with wild guess and child’s joke and she’s done with it.

It’s not like she hates being paired with Kim Jongdae, it’s just… she honestly doesn’t know. She’s just tired, she guesses.

“I’m sorry, that’s not what I mean.” Jongin softly speaks up, brings himself closer to her. “I don’t know if—“

“You think you know everything about me, don’t you? But no, you’re big wrong, Jongin-ah, you know nothing about me.” She coldly cuts him off, makes him halt his step to approach her.

“Soojung-ah, really. That’s not what I mean. I’m sorry, it’s just—“

“I need to rest. Can you go now?”

He looks bewildered while eyeing her cautiously. Soojung stares back at him with her icy glare and Jongin knows better than to confront her right away. He takes a step back then walks toward the door quietly.

Soojung is ready to break into tears and once the door is shut softly, she crouches down and begins sobbing without the sound.

“What happened with me?” She whispers, sounds miserable. “You’re stupid, Soojung! You got mad at his past mistake in the wrong time, and there’s a chance he doesn’t even remember!” She mumbles to herself, between her sob.

The story her college life is the beginning of everything. She was Jongin’s girlfriend. Naeun was Jongdae’s girlfriend. She’s still not sure but maybe secret in the past is the one which triggers her outburst last time.

Secret in which only Jongdae sunbae and herself who knows—and it involves Kim Jongin and Son Naeun.