Word count: 2391 words

The Initiation

Another month had passed since that night, it was now the middle of April. I was already half-way through the semester, which meant that I only had three months left for both my thesis submission deadline, and the end of my internship. It was seriously stressing me out too, so I went back home for the weekend, after making an appointment with my other best friend, Bae Joohyun, to catch up and go shopping on Saturday. We planned to have lunch first, then go shopping at Lotte World Mall.

I was heating up my car and about to give Joohyun a call to tell her that I was on my way when someone else called me. The name Oh Sehun blinked on my phone. “Seoyeon-ah,” he greeted once I have answered his call.

“Hey, what’s up Hun?” I leaned back on my car’s door.

“Are you home now?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Get ready, I’ll go to your house in a while, let’s go out for lunch,” he asked- no, he demanded me.

“Woah, hold it, Hun,” I blinked my eyes at his... enthusiasm?

“Sorry, I can’t go with you today, I already promised Joohyun to meet up with her,” I told him.

“Oh,” was that disappointment that I hear in his voice?

“Sorry, we can go tomorrow, if you want?” I asked. He hummed for a bit, seemingly to think whether he was available or not for the next day.

“Is it Bae Joohyun of CJ Group? The same Bae Joohyun from IBM department in our campus?” he questioned instead. I found his question weird, but I answered nonetheless. “Yes, that Bae Joohyun.”

“Oh, perfect!” I raised my eyebrow at that. “I am actually planning to invite you for lunch along with Kim Jongin too- you know, the one that is in the same dancing club as me, and Joohyun’s cousin,” he continued. And of course I knew Kim Jongin, he was Kim Heechul’s younger brother. “How about the four of us go out for lunch instead?”

Honestly, I wanted to say no so bad. Within the past month after that party, and that night, you could say that I have been unsuccessful in not letting my feelings grow. I even tried to ignore his lunch invitations, but then again Jongdae had been busy with Samsung and his upcoming deadline for his thesis and preparation for the defense, so I did not have any valid reason to not have lunch with him. I mean, I was caught lying once- I did not want to go out with him that day and reasoned that I have promised Jongdae to have lunch with him. However, Jongdae was having an emergency meeting with some Samsung executives, so I had no one to go out with. In the end I opted for a food delivery, of course, so I did not skip my lunch; but it turned out that Sehun went to the very same restaurant where Jongdae was having his lunch meeting at- and since then, Sehun always double checked my lunch schedule with Jongdae. It was safe to say that basically, I could not escape from lunches with Oh Sehun, at all. And it did not do any good to my heart.

I was also planning to tell everything to Joohyun today- I had not told her a thing about this at all because I was honestly confused myself too, but I needed to rant to a girl, Jongdae could not be my ear all the time. That was why I did not want to have lunch with Sehun, but I could not tell him the truth, right? And why could he not just have lunch together with Jongin only anyway?

“Joohyun and I planned to go shopping after, though,” I tried to reason.

“Well lucky you, you will have two people to bring your shopping bags today,” he teased me. Well, that reason definitely did not work.

I tried another one, “I have to call Joohyun first, see if she minds or not.”

“She doesn’t mind- I am with Jongin right now, and he is on the phone with Joohyun,” he told me. And there went my plan to tell Joohyun everything. I have no other reason, especially when Joohyun did not mind having two people to help with our shopping bags later on.

“Okay then,” I sighed inwardly.

“I’ll pick you up, okay?”

“No need to trouble yourself Hun, I am about to drive now,” I told him- I was actually still leaning on my car’s door.

“Turn the engine off, I’m picking you up and that’s final, see you in five minutes,” he hung up before I could reply anything. And knowing how stubborn he was, he would definitely throw a tantrum if I ignored his words. Scrunching up my nose, I turned my car’s engine off, and went back inside the house to wait for him.

“Hey, I thought you left already,” my sister greeted when I returned to the living room. I plopped down next to her on the couch, “Sehun’s picking me up.” She raised her brow at that, “I thought you’re going out with Joohyun?” she wondered. “Sehun and Kim Jongin decided to join us, and he insisted to pick me up,” I shrugged at her. Silence ensued around us as we watched the show on TV.

“You know,” my sister started after a while, “I think I agree with Jongdae.” I looked at her questioningly, “What do you mean?” She chewed on her lips, wondering on how to tell me what was on her mind. “How one of you is bound to get hurt- especially seeing how you were resolute on not falling for him,” she said slowly. I sighed at that, of course, Jongdae would have told her- what did I expect