Jessica blinked several times.

“Sehun,” she exclaimed, looking quite dumbfounded. I smiled sheepishly at her reaction and saw Kyuhyun’s brows pulled together curiously.

“Anyeong haseyo,” Sehun bowed, his signature smile brightening up the atmosphere. But when everyone stood still he glanced at all of us, feeling rather left out because he was the only one in casual attire. I should’ve emphasized more on the dress code for him.

The four of us stepped into the restaurant, Jessica’s eyes not leaving Sehun for a minute. My smile was slowly fading every passing second. I tried to kill the dreadful silence, but Sehun spoke first.

“So where’s Krystal?” he asked.

I stopped dead.

“Krystal?” Jessica said, raising a brow. “She’s not here.”

Sehun blinked.

“Right,” I interfered, holding my finger up. “She, uh, she couldn’t make it at the last minute.”

“What? Really?” he exclaimed, and for a moment looked sort of disappointed.

We sat down at our reserved table, Kyuhyun and Sica on the opposite side, me and Sehun in front of them. I was holding my head down in embarrassment. The way the silence kept on growing was torturing me. Kyuhyun still hadn’t said a thing, not even a syllable.

Sehun was starting to look awkward. He kept his gaze lowered and occasionally glanced at me.

It was going to be a long night, I could feel it.

Finally, things started to lighten up as Kyuhyun spoke for the first time ever since Sehun’s arrival. I was getting a bit too anxious, but it looked like everything was going on rather smoothly. Jessica jumped into the guys’ conversations at times, and she didn’t seem to give any suspicious looks at Sehun. I was worrying too much after what Krystal said about her not ‘approving’ him.

But in the end, she couldn’t resist to ask, “So since when do you know each other?”

The bombshell had dropped, and the awkward atmosphere hovered around us.

Since when? Never. Why did Sehun even agreed to come? I DON’T KNOW. Maybe because I accidentally said Krystal was going to be here?!

“For a while now,” Kyuhyun suddenly said. I cocked my head to the side, my jaw falling as he answered the question for me very casually. “They’d been hanging out for a while now, didn’t you know?”

Jessica’s lips pursed at the thought of it, but eventually nodded. “Ahh…”

The pleasant atmosphere came back and I was relieved. All was calm. Jessica was about to put her dumpling inside when—

“Ah! Hey!”

Kyuhyun carelessly pulled it off of her chopsticks with his and tossed it inside his mouth.

“My dumpling!” Jessica’s eyes widened and dropped open. “Jerk! Give it!”

“Wae? You were going to eat the last one, and that was my favorite.” Kyuhyun gazed at her with the dumpling in his mouth as he happily chewed on it. That wasn’t going to end good.

“CHO KYUHYUN…” Jessica’s glare was firing up. She threw her arms around him and gripped his neck. “WHY MUST YOU ALWAYS STEAL MY FOOD?”

Sehun abruptly leaned back, and he gripped the edge of the table, as if that could make him feel more secured.

“Well you were eating like a pig!” Kyuhyun said through choked words. “I had to get my share before you finished it all!”

“WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!”

I heaved a loud, tired sigh as I picked on the vegetables on my plate. To even feel the embarrassment rising in me was impossible. The other half of my feelings had completely overshadowed it.

“S-Shouldn’t we do something about it?” Sehun stuttered.

“Nah, it’ll be over soon before you know it,” I told him. “Oh, and duck.”

He blinked—then came the flying mushrooms. The food fight had just started, and I wasn’t even surprised.

Jessica rose from her seat with a bowl of rice in hand. “CHO KYUHYUN, I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!”

Kyuhyun lied on the floor quickly, having the rice hit the wall instead. He stood back up and stuck his tongue out. “Heh, weak throw,” he sneered, and I rolled my eyes. Jessica held up another bowl, her eyes glaring down at Kyuhyun like she was throwing daggers through those big, round eyes.

I pitied Sehun. I should have found someone else that could handle the Kyuhyun/Jessica situation better. Gosh, I should’ve just asked Yesung instead. Poor Sehun. He was hiding under the table, looking lost, and somewhat scared.

I bit my lip. I wasn’t handling the whole thing better than I thought I could. I watched as Jessica began to chase Kyuhyun around with whatever she could get her hands on to throw. It’s not that I wanted to throw a steaming fork at Kyuhyun, it’s just that what I really wanted was the situation. I wanted us to spend time together, joking around, having fun.

Urgh, this is giving me a headache. I should’ve just canceled the whole thing.

“ERIKA, WATCH OUT!”

I heard a shout, and the next thing I knew I was thrown to the ground. I opened my eyes, seeing the whole restaurant swirling around me, and felt Sehun’s weight wrapped above me. The whole scene had stopped, and Jessica and Kyuhyun were staring at me like something bad had just happened—or almost. Jessica’s fork had landed straight towards where I had been sitting, and was pierced right through the velvet padding. I swallowed.

That. Could’ve. Been. ME.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Well,” Jessica said as we strolled out of the restaurant, “that was… nice.” She kept her poker face on, but when she turned away she crinkled her nose, seeming annoyed, and hit Kyuhyun on the arm, making him wince just a little.

Kyuhyun kept his reaction to himself. “Well,” he said as well, “it’s getting late now, isn’t it?”

I pressed my lips tightly. “Yeah.” I brought my hand up to check the time, but only to realize I didn’t have a watch anymore. “Um, Sehun,” I called.

“Y-Yes,” he replied, trying to sound confident. What happened in the restaurant must’ve given him some kind of trauma to ever go out with us again.

“Do you know what time is it?” I asked halfheartedly. I was too tired to keep my cheery face on.

“Uh…” He glanced at the watch he was wearing. “Ten-thirty,” he replied.

Kyuhyun nodded. “Like I said. It’s late.” He turned to Jessica. “I’ll… send you and Erika back,” he said. His voice seemed forced, like he was trying to control himself in front of Sehun before he and Sica start to poke each other’s eyes out again.

I declined before Jessica could even answer. “No.” She turned to me, and I corrected myself. “I mean, you send Sica back,” I said.

“What about you?” Jessica said. “Have you forgotten that you’re living with me? Did that fall gave you amnesia?” She knocked on my head.

“There’s something I have to do. I’ll be back later. Go on ahead. Okay?” I tried to sound convincing.

“Alright,” Kyuhyun said. He nudged Jessica, and she followed him as they left. I saw Jessica punch Kyuhyun hard on the arm as they walked down the sidewalk, thinking that we weren’t looking.

Once they were out of sight, I felt like I was going to scream. I think I did scream. Well, maybe just inside my head. My mind had so many scribbles running around and I didn’t know where to start.  

My problems can be sorted out later, I told myself. First things first, I should straighten things with Sehun.

I inhaled deeply and turned around to speak, but Sehun beat me to it.

“Erika,” he said. I realized he forgot to be formal to me again, but I didn’t care much about it. The look on his face was tense, as if he had been trying to sound out the whole time but couldn’t.

Well how could he with Kyuhyun and Jessica’s scene going around?

I turned to Sehun, raising my droopy eyes to indicate that I had received his call. He looked straight at me, and all of a sudden it gave me chills and I felt more and more anxious to what he was holding in and trying to let out.

“Krystal was never going to come… Was she?”

I clasped my mouth shut. I was expecting something else to come out, and that was the last thing that I would have thought of him say. 

“Huh?” I exclaimed, my voice coming out as a squeak.

Dang it, Rika, you could’ve spit out something, I don’t know, less obvious?!

I started to laugh. A little too loud.

Sehun was still keeping a straight face.

I stopped. “What? Why— W-Why so serious all of a sudden?” I asked him.

He slid his hands in his pockets, looking down at the ground as he made his way over. “You said she was supposed to come.” He lifted his gaze. “You knew she couldn’t, right? She was the one on the phone back at the store.”

Oh, crud.

I nervously looked away. I was being interrogated by a boy. How embarrassing!

I breathed in and bravely met his eyes, but silence was all I could capture. How could I even say anything when he’d already said it all for me?

He turned to make his leave.

“Wait, Sehun-ah,” I said while putting a hand in front of me to stop him. He did look back, and he didn’t have any look of annoyance at all. Just that one expression where you could call ‘cheated.’

Yes, I shouldn’t have done that in the first place. Saying that Krystal was going to be there was already considered a lie.

“Yeah,” I said flatly. He bit his lower lip, already knowing the answer. “Sorry about that.”

“Then why did you ask me to come?” His voice was back to the old, soft tone that I knew.

I couldn’t answer that, and I just shrugged. He didn’t continue to interrogate me anymore, as if he felt like he was pressuring me too much within the whole minute.

“You didn’t eat,” he said after a while. The whole subject had been turned around. He was right about that. I haven’t had any appetite for a while now and I was afraid I might become anorexic.

“I wasn’t hungry,” I told him.

My tone wasn’t so convincing. He was eyeing me. I could feel it. The way I acted was way too suspicious to him, and it seemed like he was trying hard to decode me.

I sighed, wanting to get it over with. “Look, Sehun, I’m really sorry,” I told him, “but tonight’s just messed up. Everything’s wrong.” I was to the point where I was practically scrunching up my hair and pacing back and forth on the sidewalk.

“Gwenchanayo?”

I stopped and looked up, and he was staring at me with these pair of deep eyes, looking suddenly concerned. I didn’t know what else to do. I thought bringing him along to fill up Krystal’s space would’ve helped. But even if Krystal herself was here, things might have just been the same. I would have still felt pain pierce through my chest, just like how the fork had pierced right through the chair.

My sudden depression caught Sehun off guard. He looked at me, his eyes growing wider with anxiety.

“I’m sorry for taking up your time,” I said to him and turned to leave. I could feel my feet ache as I walked in those useless heels.

“Yah, wait!” He caught my arm and spun me round. “Don’t do anything crazy!”

I blinked. Did he think I was going to commit suicide or something? But judging by the way I acted, I couldn’t blame him.

He had his hand locked tight on my wrist. I stammered through my words. “I-I just… wanted to grab some coke.”

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I was seated on the park bench and wasn’t allowed to go anywhere until Sehun came back with a bottle of coke in hand.

“Here,” he handed it to me.

I took it from him and nodded slightly, and he climbed up the bench at sat