A/N: Thank you winchz for upvoting!!!!     

           A couple more weeks passed by, and Jihyo had come to dread Mondays. She spent a lot of time and energy to avoid any opportunities in which she might be with Gary alone, and that coupled with the fact that Gary was also taking great pains to avoid her as well, dropping his eyes immediately if they were to make eye contact and staying incredibly silent whenever she was around made her feel more tired than she normally did after the end of filming. But what tired her out more than that was how she couldn’t stop thinking about him.

           She thought of him all the time. She thought of him when she drank an Americano, when she saw billboards of his face around the city, when a fan gifted her with a stuffed collie dog just like the one she gave Gary when he was sick, when she passed by their usual bar, and especially when they filmed for Running Man. Even when she wasn’t on his team, and even though she made efforts to dodge situations in which they had to be together, her eyes strayed to him automatically, wondering what he was up to, what he was thinking, and how much she missed hanging out with him.

She thought of him even when doing things that had nothing to do with him. Her mind just drifted to him when she was trying to memorize her script, making her lose her concentration. His face appeared in her mind when she sat at home, giving herself a manicure and feeling bored and lonely.

Fed up with how much Kang Gary dominated her thoughts, Jihyo marched herself to Kwangsoo’s condo, hoping that her friend would be able to diagnose why she was this way and somehow cure her of the curse she seemed to have, but when she flung open Kwangsoo’s door (she knew his passcode, of course. They all knew his passcode), she nearly stumbled over in shock to see Jongkook seated in the living room instead. He looked up at her in surprise.

“Oh, Jihyo-ya.”

“Oppa, what are you doing here?” she asked, eyes round. “You scared me!”

Jongkook shrugged and pointed at the TV. “Watching the game.” She turned to look at the TV and saw the basketball players running across the screen.

“Oh.” Of course. She recalled often overhearing the boys talking about getting together to watch different kinds of sports. She just hoped that this little get together wouldn’t include Gary. “Is it just you and Kwangsoo today, oppa?” she asked tentatively. Jongkook nodded before focusing his eyes back on the screen, and her shoulders relaxed. Kwangsoo came in then, bearing a can of coke and a large protein shake. His eyebrows rose when he took Jihyo in.

“Well, hi, noona. Nice of you to ring the doorbell,” he noted sarcastically, handing Jongkook the protein shake.

“Oh please, Kwangsoo. Everyone knows your passcode.” She took the liberty to seat herself on the couch opposite Jongkook and took off her bag.

“That doesn’t mean that you guys can just come tramping inside my house like you own the place!” Kwangsoo protested. “Whatever. Anyway, what are you doing here?”

“I..” she began, eyes darting to Jongkook, not willing to bare her soul to Kwangsoo when one of Gary’s best friends was around, even if he looked as if he was still deeply absorbed in the game on the TV. “I needed someplace to go… something to do to… to get my mind off things,” she finished lamely. Kwangsoo sighed.

“I guess you’ll be wanting to stay. I’ll go get you a drink then. Coke is fine?” Jihyo nodded gratefully, mouthing a thank you at him as he headed back into the kitchen, muttering about how he might as well prepare some snacks for them as well, since there would be another person there who actually ate snacks. She glanced at Jongkook, but his eyes were still fixed to the screen. Surely he knew how Gary was doing. There was no harm in just asking, she thought. Even if he was close to Gary, he wasn’t one to pry or gossip, so he’d be okay to talk to. She watched the little figures moving across the screen with Jongkook in silence for a while, but curiosity got the better of her.

“Oppa.”

He made a sound to let her know that he was listening.

“How...how’s Gary-oppa these days, do you know?”

He looked over at her then, already beady eyes squinting even more in suspicion. “You should ask Gary that himself, if you’re interested.” He turned back to the TV, barking commands at the players when they made a mistake in their play even if they couldn’t hear him. She let out a sigh. So much for him not being nosy. So she tried to focus on the game once more, but her mind once again filled with thoughts of Gary. She could hear the sound of the microwave being from the kitchen, and after a moment’s hesitation, she worked up the courage to ask Jongkook another question.

“Oppa.”

“Wae?”

“Oppa, what does it mean if you can’t stop thinking about a person, and you miss that person so much that you feel like you’re going to die, and you just want to… to hang out with that person all the time?”

“Hmm,” he said without taking his eyes off the screen. “Well, that means that you’re in love with that person, right?”

She almost fell backwards in shock. In love with him? She was in love with Kang Gary? The one everyone, and she meant everyone- the PDs, the fans, the media, the members, the scriptwriters- tried to push at her? The one man whom she swore she could never be with, since she couldn’t just give in and let them control her love life too? Him?

“In love?” she sputtered. Jongkook looked over at her, eyebrows furrowed.

“Yeah, in love. That’s how you feel like when you’re in love. What, are you trying to reaffirm your feelings for your boyfriend or something?”

She stood up numbly and grabbed her bag.

“Oppa, I’ve got to go.” She hurried to Kwangsoo’s front door, fumbling a little with the latch and doorknob in her haste.

“Where are you going?” Jongkook called after her, but she paid him no mind, finally unlocking the latch and turning the knob. As she was swinging the door open she could hear Kwangsoo ask Jongkook, “Why’d she leave?”

“I don’t know,” she could hear Jongkook reply as she was exiting the door. “She just asked me two questions and left.”

She slammed the door shut and ran all the way down to where her car was parked in the lot. She sat in her car frozen, unmoving, for a good long while.

In love? With Kang Gary? Her brain screamed. No way. She took a deep breath and stuck her key inside the ignition. For the first time since Gary had confessed to her over three weeks ago, she willingly conjured up thoughts of him.

She thought of the way he smiled whenever he handed her a cup of Americano during break. The way he took off his cap to run his fingers through his hair whenever he got nervous. The way he laughed whenever the members did something stupid or made fun of Kwangsoo. The way his eyes glinted whenever he told her a pickup line as her Monday boyfriend. The way his shoulder rubbed against hers slightly when they walked together. The way he had patiently cared for her and treated her well for the past four years, working hard to be her friend and getting to know her, hanging out with her and talking to her whenever she felt lonely.

She put her hand to her heart. She knew what that irregularly fast heartbeat meant.

She, Song Ji Hyo, liked Kang Gary.