Ruffling your hair, you stared at your phone laying there on your bed. You were contemplating on calling your best friend Jiho, or known by many as Zico. Sighing, you leaned onto the headboard of your bed and closed your eyes. Today while you were on a mini shopping spree, you ran into his girlfriend, and you didn’t like what you saw.

Entering the cute boutique, you saw Jiho’s girlfriend, Eunji holding onto some clothes for her, and some clothes that looked like they belonged to a man. Happy that you’d get to see Jiho after what seemed like forever and a day, you started to walk toward her.

As you were about to call her name, a man walked out of the dressing room and walked toward her. Confused and a bit taken aback, you stopped and decided to hide in one of the aisles. You watched as he strode toward her and smiled, asking how he looked.

“Oppa! You look so handsome!”

‘Okay, calm down. Maybe that’s her brother, or cousin, or friend or something.’ You thought to yourself, watching them intently. The man leaned down and seemed to kiss Eunji with a passion, and she seemed to return it. Something you’ve never seen her do with Jiho.

‘Okay.’ You thought. ‘Definitely not related to her, and not just a friend.’

Biting your lip, you shook your head. Shocked was the first thing that came to your mind. Honestly, you thought Eunji was the one for Jiho just as much as he did. Sure, she wasn’t always there for him, not as much as you were. But she tried, that was the only thing that mattered, right?  So, how could she cheat on someone as wonderful as Jiho.  

Suddenly, filled with rage, you walked out of the aisle, pretending not to see Eunji. Turning, she saw you and quickly pushed her, second boyfriend back into the dressing room before calling out your name. Letting out one more angry sigh, you turned around smiling.

“Eunji! What are you doing here?!”

“Hi! Oh, I’m just shopping, you know! The usual!”

Nodding your head, you looked at the clothes in her arms, and back at her. She just smiled and titled her head. “Interesting, are you here with Jiho?” You said, pointing to the men clothes in her arms.

“With Zico? Oh, no. I-I- I’m just shopping for him, you know since he’s busy and stuff.”

“Oh, I see. It looks like you’re buying him clothes that are too big for him though..”

‘O-o-oh is that so!? Wow, I should go put these back and get the right sizes! I’ll see you later! I’ll tell Zico you said hi!” Eunji said, a bit too fast for your liking. Nodding your head, you looked at her hand and noticed that the couple ring Jiho bought her was nowhere in sight.

“Yeah please do, it was nice seeing you. I hope you find your ring, you know how Jiho likes it when you wear it.”

Eunji nodded before quickly turning around and disappearing into one of the aisles. Looking at the dressing room door, you glared as boyfriend number two came out. He glanced toward you, awkwardly laughed and ran off in the same direction as Eunji.

“Hoe.” You said aloud before walking back to your apartment, deciding how you should tell this to Jiho.

Letting out a yell, you smothered your face into your pillow. “I need to tell him, but why do I feel so uneasy..” Rolling onto your back, you grabbed your phone from under you and glared at your screen for what seemed like an eternity. Finally getting the nerve, you dialed Jiho’s number.

The phone seemed to ring for hours before he finally picked up.

“Hello?”

“Hey! What’s up?”

“Oh hey! Nothing much, just chillin’ with my girl. You?”

The thought of Eunji in Jiho’s room made your blood boil. How dare that cheating little witch still show her face around him, especially after basically getting caught.

“Oh, interesting. Look, Jiho, I need to tell you something.”

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

Smiling, you glanced back up at your ceiling biting your lip. You always did love how he was always so protective and worried about you. Ever since you two met in middle school, you’ve always been best friends. He was there for you, and you were there for him.

“You know I love you, right?”

“Of course, I do!” He said laughing. “Now come on, tell me what’s wrong.”

“Jiho…. Eunji, she’s..”

“Yeah, what about her?”

“Today… I saw her, with another guy..”

“Uh huh.”

Closing your eyes, you placed your hand over your chest and swallowed hard.

“I mean, it wasn’t her friend or sibling or anything. It couldn’t have been, I mean I’m pretty sure no one sticks their tongue down their siblings or friends throat.”

After five long, silent minutes, he finally spoke up. But his tone seemed more angry than upset.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“But I saw h-“

“Sure. Did you even ask her about it?”

“No, b-“

“Just shut up. You’re supposed to be my best friend. Why are you trying to make me break up with her. You’re supposed to be happy for me.”

“I am your best friend, and as your best friend, I’m trying to protect you!”

“Yeah okay. Look, just because you don’t have a love life, that doesn’t give you the right to ruin mine. Good night.”

And with that, he hung up on you. Sitting up, you scoffed and how stupid of an argument you just had with your closest friend. You knew he really liked Eunji, but you didn’t think that you could lose your friendship because of it. Irritated and disappointed in Jiho, you grabbed your phone and sent him a text message.

‘I can’t believe how stupid you are. She never wears her ring when she’s out, where do you think she gets all her fancy clothes from? Her low paying job as a dishwasher in her uncles restaurant? Where do you think she was when you needed someone there for you, but couldn’t make it. Who has been with you before you were Zico, and never lied to you, no matter how bad the truth hurts?’

After sending the text, you turned your phone off and buried yourself into your bed. Quietly sobbing your wrapped your blanket around you even tighter. Of course you loved Jiho, of course it was more than just a best friend love. Yes, you fell in love with him. Not Zico, but Jiho. As typical as it sounds, you fell for your best friend.

But unlike all the girls in the movies, you decided that being friends with him was best. You’d rather have him as the one you could run to when you had a bad day, than the awkward friend that you use to date but it never worked out. Honestly, him being happy made you happy and you were okay with being hopelessly in love with him.

You not having a love life was also his fault. You tried dating other guys, but it always ended a month into the relationship. Why? You didn’t even know. Maybe it was because no matter how hard you tried to push the feelings aside. None of them were ever good enough.

They were never Jiho.

Waking up, you sat up confused and looked around.

“Why does it smell like food…”

Shaking the thought out of your head, you walked toward the bathroom and cleaned up. Walking back to your bed, you grabbed your phone and turned it on. You saw that you had a couple missed calls and texts from Jiho. Not even bothering to look at any of it, you deleted them and walked toward your kitchen.

Jumping, you crossed your hands over your chest when you saw someone standing in your kitchen and cooking breakfast.

“WHAT THE FU-“

The figured turned around, and you saw that it was Jiho. Narrowing your eyes, you glared at him before turning around and stomping to your room. You slammed your door and sat on your bed. “Who does he think he is.” You mumbled. “Thinking he can just come here and cook after YELLING AT ME FOR BEING A GOOD FRIEND.” Screaming you threw your pillow at the door.

“Hey, open the door..” You heard him mumble while trying to open the door.

“NO.”

“OPEN.”

“NO.”

“OPEN. THE. DOOR.”

“I. SAID. NO.”

“GIRL, IF YOU DON’T OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW.”

“WHAT. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO, YELL AT IT FOR BEING A GOOD DOOR AND STAYING LOCKED?”

Groaning, you brought your knees up to your chest. Hugging them tighter to you, you frowned. “This is so stupid.” “I know.” You heard Jiho say through the door. “SHUT UP. I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU THINK.” Sighing, you walked toward the door, pressed your back to it and slid down to the floor so you were sitting in front of the door.

“Go home Zico.”

“Since when have you started calling me Zico?”

He said, sliding down so he was sitting like you, on the opposite side of the door. Jiho leaned his head against the door  and closed his eyes before taking a deep breath.

“You were right about her. I checked her texts and saw that she was just using me for my fame. She liked Zico, not Jiho.”

You resisted the urge to open the door and hug the pain away from him. Even though you felt bad that he got used, he still yelled at you for telling him the truth. Shaking your head, you cleared your throat.

“I told you.”

“Yeah, you did.”

‘Is he crying..’ You thought to yourself. Groaning, you ruffled your hair and stood up.

“I hate you, a lot.”

“Wha-“

Before he could finish talking, you opened the door and looked down to see Jiho laying on the floor and looking up at you. He gave you a weak smile, and you saw just how broken he seemed. His eyes were red, all the color seemed to have drained from his face. Frowning you kneeled down next to him.

“Don’t cry over a hoe like her.. She isn’t worth your tears.”

He laughed before sitting up and looking at you straight in the eyes.

“I wasn’t crying because I lost her. I was crying because I thought I lost the most important thing in my life.”

“Hello Kitty…?” You asked titling your head.

“No.” Jiho said flicking you on the forehead.

“Then what?”

“You.”