Kim Jonghyun...  

We've been friends for as long as I can remember.

Being neighbors with him allowed us to see each other a lot. The one thing he knew how to do very well was to influence an individual into doing what he wanted. He knew exactly how to persuade and word his words in a way that got the person into agreeing with him. Due to this, whenever I would come over to visit him, he would somehow always convince me into finishing off his homework for him, so that we could play. Not to mention, he made me get up to a lot of mischief that I normally wouldn't have done or thought of on my own.   

Either he had a gift of being able to easily manipulate people, or I was a very naive girl, who had a soft spot for him.

As the years passed, Jonghyun had used his 'gift' to help him with forgotten assignments and such. He seemed to always managed to wriggle out of a possible detention from the teachers, and at times, even make people pay for his food. The way he would strike that charming smile that I grew use to seeing whenever he wanted something, never failed to work on the girls that swooned at his presence. I didn't see anything wrong with this, because it was just some harmless fun, right? After all, we were still friends who walked to and from school together, and it's not like he left me behind or anything.

One day, as we were walking back home, he suddenly turned around and gave me that cheeky smile that instantly told me he wanted something.

"Hyorin-ah...how about we go and get some ddeokbokki?" he questioned, well more like stated.

He then continued before I could speak, "But...I kind of don't have my wallet here with me today, so..."

I sighed, knowing where this was going, "I know, I know, I'll pay; don't worry."

He excitedly clapped his hands as he thanked me. Placing an arm around my shoulder, he pulled me closer to him, and then proceeded into dragging me off to the nearby ddeobokki stand. I couldn't help but smile at the close contact that was happening, and seeing him smile made my heart flutter with joy.

As we reached the markets and lined up for the spicy rice cakes, I spotted two familiar females who seemed to be in a heated discussion, while another appeared to be attempting to split the two girls apart. My eyes immediately widened in panic when I saw one of them shove the other one back.

Jessica stumbled back a bit, before finally falling down onto the cold surface. She whipped away her blonde locks and glared at Yoona, who flipped her dark hair away, as she stood there with a smug look on her face. Taeyeon was now yelling even more than before, and she looked furious. A snicker from the male who had his arm around me averted my attention back to him. I stared at Jonghyun as an amused expression appeared on his face.

"Did you do this?" I hissed.

He looked away from the three girls, and then looked at me, his mouth twitching into a sly grin, "Maybe."

My mouth dropped in disbelief, "How could you do that to them?!"

He shrugged, "I didn't expect them to be so gullible. Besides, don't you think that this is kind of entertaining to watch?"

I stared at him with my 'are-you-kidding-me' look, but all he did was just grin at me.

The frustration building up inside of me had exploded; this was the last straw. Pushing his arm off of me, I took a step back which caused a puzzled expression to replace the amused one on his face. Looking back at the three fighting girls, I sighed before focusing my attention back to the boy in front of me. It was a shame to see those three over there fight and argue at each other like that, considering how close they all are with one another.

"This is wrong, you can't just play around with people like that," I said in a stern tone, "If you keep this up, you'll eventually be all by yourself, because no one would want to be friends with someone who does these kinds of terrible things."

Jonghyun stepped out of the line so the people behind could go and order their food first, and then walked a little closer to me, "But I'll always have you.”

I was taken aback by this comment, and I think it was rather obvious on my face, because a tiny smirk crept onto his face. He went on, still in that casual tone, "We've known each other for so long; I know that you will never leave me."

I knew he had a big ego, but honestly? The cockiness in his voice didn't help either, as it was making me want to slap him silly. Crossing my arms, I scoffed, "Well you're wrong. I don't like what you're doing, Jonghyun."

And with that, I turned to the opposite direction and began to move my feet away from the jerk known as Kim Jonghyun.

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Ever since then, I took a different route to school to purposely avoid a certain brunette with blonde tips. I disliked myself for almost giving in to what he said, and going back to him. I admit that it felt emptier than usual to not speak to the Tyrannosaurus look-a-like. But every time I heard his words repeat in my head with that know-it-all manner, I knew that I just had to stand my ground and show him how his manipulation game didn't work on me.

When I reached the classroom and sat down in my seat, I could hear people whispering, and no doubt were they about the one I was avoiding, and why we weren't talking. The whispers immediately stopped when the teacher came, thus making everyone quickly scramble back into their spots.

———————————————.

Throughout the whole lesson, I couldn't concentrate. I couldn't concentrate, so I found myself eavesdropping at the conversations of the students nearby. Jonghyun's name was mentioned and this caused me to sigh. I stared at the text book in front of me and couldn't help but wonder how he was doing. What was he feeling right now? Happy? Sad? Well whatever it was, he probably wasn't feeling as uncomfortable as me.

My ears managed to pick up another piece of the conversation between the two classmates in front of me, "...I told you he was no good," said one of the boys.

Hearing this made me frown, because I knew who they were referring to.

Jonghyun honestly wasn't so bad. Sure, he might be up himself at times, but that's perhaps you've fed him with too many compliments. It might look like he always had to get his way, (hence why he liked getting people to do what he wanted), and not really care about what others thought. But the truth was, some things and opinions did secretly matter to him. I was certain of this, because there was that one hot summer's day where we were both out in the city, trying to track down this art museum that I really wanted to go to.

Considering how hot it was, I was concerned that he would get annoyed at me, (and everything else) so I gave up and told him to forget about it. He didn't, and gave me a comforting smile before telling me how he knew how happy anything relating to art made me. I became self conscious with how I was sweating like a pig, but he thought nothing more of it. In the end, when we found it, I was surprised at how he attempted to take an interest with the artworks around by asking me questions.

Normally, he would wonder off elsewhere, or walk in a really slow pace when it came to these things. So to show that he was actually fascinated (or at least I thought he was) in something that I liked, made me feel really happy.

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When the last class of the day ended, I found Jonghyun waiting outside of my classroom. It stunned me to see him there, because he rarely ever came. When he noticed me slowly approaching him, his eyes awkwardly looked at the floor, as if trying to quickly think of something to say.

"Why are you here?" I questioned him, sounding a bit more forceful then I intended.

He sighed and then looked at me, "I knew it; you hate me, huh?"

I raised an eyebrow at his comment, "I wouldn't exactly say 'hate'...more like, just disappointed in your actions."

He slightly winced when he heard that, and then his gaze went back to the floor.

I went on, "But then again, why would you care since you're having fun? I know that you tend to block out what everyone else thinks, whenever you enjoy doing something."

I pressed further on, hoping to make my statement clear, "Isn't that right?"

There was a silence after that, as we both stood there. He continued to stare at the ground and awkwardly move around in his spot, while I simply stared at him, waiting for a reply. This went on for a while, and the more I watched him, the more I was beginning to feel guilty at what I was doing. This was probably the first time where I had scolded him for something, and it felt strange. The tension was suffocating me right now, so I needed to get away to think things through, and to consider whether what I had done was going to affect what we had.

Simply telling him that I was going to leave, I turned around and was about to take a step when I felt something grab me and pull me back.

His arms wrapped themselves around my body as he hugged my back. I tried to move out of his grasp but he didn't budge. My heart was racing like a jack hammer, and I could tell that my face had resembled a bright red tomato. Sure, he would occasionally poke, tickle and casually place his arm around my shoulder, but this...this was like a step above all of that.  

"Hyorin..." said Jonghyun, all of the sudden.

I flinched a little when I realized that he had lowered his head a bit, so that his lips were now right next to my ear.

"I care...I've always cared, about what you thought," he mumbled.

His arms around me suddenly loosened, but then he turned me around so that we were now facing each other; the two of his hands were holding onto my shoulder, as if he were afraid that I was going to run away. His dark eyes stared intently at my astonished ones, "I'm sorry."

The apology sounded very sincere, that it stunned me. Blinking for a bit, I forgave him on instinct, and stuttered slightly as I did so. He warmly smiled at me, before pulling me in for another embrace. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw three girls walk past, giggling at something with each other. Jessica and Yoona seem to have made up for their fight, and Taeyeon now looked more at ease being around the two.

It was good to see them together as friends again.

Pulling away from the hug, I then asked him, “Did you...do that?”

He followed where my gaze was, and then gave me a smile that told me the answer that I wanted. Grabbing my hand, he then began to lead the way out of the school, "Come on, lets go and get something to eat."

He then gave me a playful wink, "And this time, I'll be paying."