Chapter 8: Close Friends

Seohyun distracted herself from everything she was feeling with a tasty, piping hot goguma. The walk had confirmed two things. One, she definitely wanted to spend more time with Yonghwa, more time alone. She felt really comfortable with him but felt the opposite when they were with everyone else. And two, Yonghwa had no idea how much he was teasing her. Not only had he gone on and on about how beautiful she was now, embarrassing her to no end, but when he had pulled the alleyway stunt with her, she had actually wanted him to do something. Hug her, kiss her, something, anything.

Seohyun didn’t think of herself as beautiful or even pretty for that matter. She felt like she was quite plain compared to the rest of her unnies. When Yonghwa was telling her that men were paying attention to her, it had disheartened her. She didn’t want that attention yet, not when she still felt so young. Her days of being the cute maknae were over and it saddened her. Was she ready to be beautiful and y? Did she want to be considered that? She knew that Yonghwa would never understand it if she had told him what she was thinking in that moment. He knew about the pressures of being a leader but none of a maknae. Especially a maknae female whose image was to be pure and innocent. After being twice by him, she was sure that exaggerated innocence was no more.

And then the alleyway act. At first, she had been confused by his sudden outburst of randomness. Then he started awkwardly confessing. Then he had made his move, and she foolishly became entranced with what he was going to do. She liked that forceful side of him, maybe even more than his choding side. It wasn’t scary or too rough, but stimulating and manly. Then he had said the poisonous word. Or name. Go Mi Nam. But that name was better than another name.

In the end, his act had been funny to her, but in the moment, she was nothing but embarrassed. She couldn’t tell if he liked her or not, and she wasn’t about to consider anything until he proved it in some way. Reading him was so frustrating, she thought.

“Go.”

“Gu,” she added, smiling at Yonghwa’s sudden game.

“Ma. Is that still all there is to that game? So frustrating,” he said, taking a large bite of his treat.

“Go,” she began again.

“Gu.”

“Ma. Dae, it doesn’t seem to be changing,” she replied.

Back at the alleyway entrance to Minhyuk’s father’s restaurant, they met their friends who had powwowed next to the van, chatting happily. Luckily the streets were almost empty, and no one posed as a possible threat. They all looked up the minute Seohyun and Yonghwa appeared and gave casual greetings.

“What are you eating,” Hyoyeon ran up to her. “Oh, you brought us back gogumas?”

“Not really, Unnie,” Seohyun turned away.

“Yah! Give me some!” Hyoyeon demanded.

“Unnie!” Seohyun screamed.

“Sssh!” Yonghwa chuckled, looking around and making sure no one was spying on them.

Seohyun’s hand flung to , and she laughed. Hyoyeon stole a bite of her sweet potato.

“So what did you guys get us?” asked Jonghyun, leaning coolly against the van.

Yonghwa took out the dried fruit and nuts and threw one bag to Jonghyun and one to Minhyuk. Sooyoung, who was standing close to Jungshin, took the fruit from Jonghyun and groaned. “This isn’t a snack.”

“Sure it is,” said Seohyun. “Unnie, you’re just getting over a head cold. It’s good for you.”

“So you guys get gogumas, and we get dried fruit?” Hyoyeon complained.

“If you wanted different, you should have gone to the store yourself,” said Yonghwa.

Seohyun was happy that he was standing up for her. She hadn’t expected them to complain so much. Didn’t everyone like dried fruit?

“Anything interesting happen along the walk?” asked Minhyuk.

“Not really,” said Seohyun, and she looked to Yonghwa for confirmation. She hoped he wouldn’t tell them about the alleyway stunt. She’d never be able to look her unnies in the eye if he did, and it was bad enough that Hyoyeon already knew about her little wrap feeding incident.

“No, nothing,” confirmed Yonghwa. “Just a walk to the store and back. Why are you guys outside?”

“Just hanging out. Mr. Kang wanted to get things cleaned up for tomorrow. He let us eat for free and got an autograph from the girls,” said Jonghyun. “When you guys change, he’ll probably get yours too, Seohyun.”

She nodded and headed inside to change back into her regular clothes and leather jacket. Yonghwa followed. After she was back to normal and thanked Mr. Kang for the hospitality of his restaurant—and signed her autograph—they met everyone back at the van. She was expecting to head back to the dorm when she heard Minhyuk telling Yonghwa that Hyoyeon had requested to play his drums. Everyone wanted to go to the old music room.

“What?” she edged into their conversation. “You want to go tonight? ”

“Dae, why not? We all have time,” replied Minhyuk.

“Did you bring instruments?”

“They’re in the back of the van. This is the last time we’ll get together for awhile. Let’s make the most of it.”

Seohyun noted that the boys all looked at Yonghwa when Minhyuk said this. Yonghwa seemed to understand something that she didn’t. He turned to her, shrugging. “It could be fun. I’ll teach you more guitar.”

Seohyun was curious about the significance of the CN Blue boys’ looks. What did they mean by making the most of it? They must’ve been really happy to hang out with her unnies.

“Jungshin-ah, will you teach me the bass?” asked Sooyoung.

“Sure, Noona. The bass looks really cool when you’re tall,” replied Jungshin happily.

“Very true. You always look very cool,” she replied back.

“Oh, Kamsamnida, Noona.”

Hyoyeon rolled her eyes, and Seohyun saw Jonghyun snicker at her reaction.

Minhyuk’s father came outside, and everyone said their goodbyes and gave him many “thank yous” for being so nice and treating them so well. Minhyuk parted from his father last as everyone climbed into the van. Jonghyun apparently wanted to drive this time around instead of Yonghwa, and Sooyoung and Hyoyeon once again sandwiched Jungshin in the middle seats of the van. Seohyun thought about sitting upfront, but as much as she liked Jonghyun, it would’ve been awkward. Yonghwa tapped her on the shoulder.

“Sit in the back with me.”

She nodded and climbed in after him, sliding into the very backseat of the van. Moments later, Minhyuk got into the passenger seat, and they were on their way. Yonghwa casually put his arm on the sear, making her too shy to sit back. They smiled at each other timidly, and Seohyun squirmed in her seat a little.

Hyoyeon’s CD mix started up again.

Ke$ha’s “Blah Blah Blah” blared from the van speakers. Zip your lips like a pad-lock and meet me at the back with a jack and the jukebox.

Why was she so uptight? It was just Yonghwa and she was an adult, not a little girl. There was no reason to be so stiff, and she liked the idea of his armalmost being around her shoulder. She slowly edged back into the seat and tried to relax.

Think you’ll be getting this. Not not not, not in the back of my car car car—

Yonghwa’s phone vibrated on the seat. He looked down at it then glanced over at Seohyun. She had already read the name on the screen, Park Shin Hye, but he angled the phone away from her to text back. Seohyun busied herself looking out the window into the dark. Her unnies and chingoos were chatting lively with each other, making jokes and picking on each other as if they had all been close for years.

Park Shin Hye. Seohyun liked that unnie a lot, but when rumors started flying around about her involvement with Yonghwa and how their friendship was flawless, Seohyun had felt strong jealousy. During that time, she had tried to act like she didn’t care about it. There were always plenty of rumors about everyone dating everyone else, her included. But it was during a time when their divorce had still felt fresh, and she felt that she had some claim over him still. Seohyun didn’t want to feel anything bad about Shin Hye so she disregarded the jealousy and threw herself into work and kept things neutral with Yonghwa until eventually they were where they were now. Sitting in the back of the van while Ke$ha sang lyrics that Unnies Tiffany and Jessica were too embarrassed to explain to her.

Sitting with him now, knowing that he was texting her, she allowed herself to reflect on that jealousy. Maybe the rumors had been true. Maybe Seohyun was just a friend to him he wanted to reclaim, but Shin Hye was the real person who had his heart.

Yonghwa’s phone went off again, and Seohyun looked back over at him out of habit. He looked ready to put the phone away, but she stopped him.

“It’s ok. If you want to talk to her, do it. You don’t have to worry about entertaining me.”

Yonghwa sighed. “She’s just a friend. Honestly. She only texted me a joke.”

“You don’t have to explain to me. I’m no one,” she said pleasantly but quiet enough for the others not to hear. She didn’t want to draw attention to the two of them and cause everyone to become serious.

He moved closer to her. “Shin Hye is a very close friend. I’ll have other opportunities to talk with her. I want to talk to Seohyun right now while I still have time.”

They gazed at each other, and Seohyun felt strangely overwhelmed and happy at the same time.

Oh thank goodness, she told herself. She couldn’t stop the smile spreading across her face.

“Seohyun, do me a favor,” said Yonghwa. “Smile like that for the rest of the night.”

His words gave her chills. The good kind. Her smile spread wider.

Jungshin turned around in his seat. “So cheesy, Hyung.”

Yonghwa shoved him, making her laugh. She anticipated what the music room would bring.

A/N: This chapter was longer, but I decided to move that part to the next chapter. I wanted to get this up on Yooooong’s birthday, but I think I’m too late. Happy B-day, Yong! Seohyun better have wished you a happy birthday!

Please be patient with the story. Remember, there are 15 chapters all together. The night isn’t over just yet with Yongseo. Or their friends for that matter ;) I’ll fix spelling errors another time when I’m not falling asleep at the computer :D Keep reading! And thank you for clicking, reading, commenting, and subscribing!! Ps: I really want a poster for this story, but the poster place I really like isn't accepting requests. Do you guys have anyone to recommend?