Today marks the third week of Minseok not speaking to me, and way more than just three weeks of Baekhyun not speaking to me.

To say that I feel like wouldn’t be fair, because I’ve been smiling and laughing a lot despite everything because having Somi back in my life made things better, even if it’s just by a tiny bit.

Surprisingly, Sunyoung and Somi gets along extremely well, and Taeyeon and Kyungsoo is finally starting to enjoy Somi’s company. The only new addition to my circle of friends is just her, and it upsets me sometimes knowing that Somi had spent all these years by herself—even though she had Baekhyun and his friends, they will always be Baekhyun’s friends and not hers.

“I’ll have the cheeseburger and some fries please,” Somi orders her food, reeling me back into reality. I repeated her order hastily, to stop her from questioning me about what’s on my mind. The waitress repeats our orders before leaving at the same time Jaehyung arrives and takes a seat next to Somi in front of me.

“So what did I miss?” he asks, flipping through the menu casually.

“You missed out on miss Yoon spacing out angstily here,” Somi answers, wiggling her eyebrows in my direction. Jaehyung frowns at me, and I raise both of my hands to stop them from teasing me any further.

“My parents are coming by sometime soon and they’re not telling me when,” I say quickly, “it’s mandatory for me to be this broody!”

Jaehyung and Somi shares a knowing look, and both of them doesn’t press on the matter.

“Do you want me to come to your house and crash like I always do?” Jaehyung proposes, a serious look etched on his face. “You know I’d offer to come with, but your parents probably hate my , so,” Somi adds with a cheeky smile on her face, reaching over to hold my hand from across the table.

The nostalgia of the current situation hits me and I surprise myself along with Jaehyung and Somi with the giggle that escapes my mouth.

“I just find this situation eerily similar to our highschool days where we’d eat at McDonalds after school and talk about all of our parents,” I smile at their dirty looks, and both of their facial expressions quickly morphs into a more relaxed one.

“Time really flies by, don’t it,” Jaehyung chuckles, and Somi leans her head on Jaehyung’s shoulder with a tiny smile on her face.

For a moment, it feels like nothing in the world can make me feel any less happier than I am now, staring at my two best friends who I know will always have my back no matter what. Even when time has separated our friendship for quite a while, the undercurrent of comfort and familiarity I share with these two will never fade away.

Unfortunately, the moment is short lived when a handsome stranger stops in the middle of his way just to look at me and call for my name.

“You’re Yoon Minhwa, right?” the man asks again, and both Somi and Jaehyung sends me questioning looks which I reciprocate the same way.

“Sorry, but you are?” I reply, unconsciously shrinking back into my seat sensing the eagerness of the stranger I’ve never even seen once in my life. He looks confused for a split of second, and I can see Jaehyung’s protective instincts kicking in when he eyes the stranger like he’s ready to throw a punch or two in a heartbeat.

“Oh! I didn’t mean to scare you,” the stranger’s expression softens, taking a step back from where he’s standing to avoid Jaehyung’s hostile glare, and walking around the table to get to my side.

“I’m Jongin, Kim Jongin. The dancer dude, Baek hyung’s friend?” he offers his hand slowly. I eye both Jaehyung who looks far from pleased at the mention of Baekhyun’s name, and avoid looking at Somi entirely.

Hesitantly, I take his hand and shake it, forcing a polite smile onto my face which ends up coming out as a grimace. The idea of Jongin doesn’t exactly trigger the best memories of my life, being that the day I was supposed to meet him ended up being the day my relationship with Baekhyun came into a devastating end.

Jongin sends me a boyish smile, completely disregarding the fact that none of us looked pretty welcoming at the sight of him.

“Sorry that I couldn’t make it that one time, but I couldn’t reach you because I didn’t even know how to, and Baek hyung wasn’t so keen on sharing your contacts with me,” Jongin says apologetically, and I send him a reassuring smile.

“Look, I have to go now, but I’ve heard that you’re an exceptional dancer, and I’ve actually done a little bit of research and turns out typing your name in youtube will lead me to your old videos. It would be a pity if you don’t polish all that talent before you become old and rusty,” he pauses to fish something out of the pocket of his pants, “but here’s my studio’s business card and give it some thought, yeah?”

Jongin disappears in a blur before I can even come up with a coherent reply, and I’m left with a small yellow business card placed on my right hand with Jaehyung and Somi throwing me confused looks which I don’t know how to react to.

A beat of silence washes through the three of us, and the business card is still perched on my frozen hands, unable to do anything.

“Despite everything else,” Jaehyung says calculatedly, “learning to dance again would be a great thing to do.”

“I don’t know, Jae…” I trail, staring at the innocent paper still perched on the palm of my right hand.

“I think it would be a great idea, actually. I’ve heard from around that that Jongin guy is a big deal, so,” Somi adds quickly, taking me by surprise.

Uncomfortable with where the direction of this conversation is going, I tuck the business card into the back pocket of my jeans quickly and send both Jaehyung and Somi a tight smile in hopes of getting my message of not wanting to continue this conversation across.

There are just so many things wrong with it, from the probability of my parents finding out about me dancing again, to the possibility of being intertwined with Baekhyun who hasn’t made any move to contact me for weeks for being in contact with Kim Jongin who happens to be his close friend.

“I’ll take it into consideration,” I lie, and even though I know both of my best friends don’t buy it, they don’t say anything.

***

“He hates me, doesn’t he?” Somi asks out of the blue, catching me by surprise.

She’s facing the night sky with her hands propped behind her body to support her leaning body, rendering me unable to catch a glimpse of her eyes to take a guess at who who she’s referring to or what is actually on her mind.

“What are you talking about?” I ask, defeated, mimicking her posture and proceed to stare at the night sky like what Somi is doing. We are sitting on the campus’ soccer field, comfortably perched on top the freshly mowed grass, waiting for Jaehyung to finish his schedule for the day.

“You know who. That broody guy you’re always practically attached to the hip with? Kim Minseok, the one and only,” Somi elaborates, eyes still trained on the night sky that unfolds beautifully before the both of us. My heart skips a beat at the mention of his name, the reality of us not being on speaking terms returning back to me in full force.

“He doesn’t!” I interject a little too hastily. “I mean, why would you think so? Minseok is probably one of the most level headed man I’ve ever met in my life. He’s not one to judge,” I reason.

Somi giggles at my reasoning, and turns to actually face me.

“It’s just that ever since I’ve started hanging out with you again, he’s never around you anymore. Maybe he’s not judgemental, but the possibilities of him not fond of me isn’t exactly a hundred percent out of the picture, no? I don’t know, even Taeyeon and Kyungsoo who are supposedly your friends too don’t seem so thrilled with the idea of me,” Somi explains from her point of view.

I laugh at her last sentence, at th