Eli sighed, “Okay, if you insist.”

 “I insist!” said Kevin playfully and Eli grinned.

 “Well, truthfully, I don’t know much about Mina. I was too carried away with Eunhye at the time to really notice her, but she was always there. I mean, not on our dates or anything, but at school. I think they were best friends or something like that. I’m pretty sure my friend Minwoo liked her.” He added with a chuckle. “Whenever I was going to go hang out with Eunhye at school, Minwoo would tag along, probably to see Mina.”

 “Um Eli…? That still doesn’t explain why Eunhye had to go and slap her. I mean, if she liked Minwoo then,”

 “Wait,” Eli interrupted, “I didn’t say that. I said that Minwoo liked her nothing about her liking him!”

 Kevin’s mouth formed an ‘o’ shape at the realisation. “So she liked you! Wow, you were popular even back then?”

 Eli just shrugged. “There was one period of time when Eunhye went overseas,” he continued without looking at Kevin, “and, I was really heart-broken.” His eyes flickered back to Kevin’s and away again. “Mina was there with me at that time. She was always there when I cried waiting for Eunhye to come back and she was always ready to lend a shoulder. But unlike Eunhye, she wasn’t demanding. It wasn’t as if she wanted something in return. She was always ready to just listen to me ramble on about how much I loved and missed Eunhye and how much I needed her and stuff like that.” He smiled. “During that time, we spent a lot of time together. So much, that I think Minwoo got a bit jealous and he ended up distancing himself from me. After Eunhye got back, Mina and I had a lot of in-jokes and codenames that only we could understand and I think Eunhye started to get really annoyed!”

 “Gosh, nothing worse than an annoyed Eunhye.” Eli gave Kevin a look. “What? I don’t really like her. She slapped my girlfriend! But seriously, you had such a difficult childhood! When I was around 10-ish, I was still playing with Barbies and going to the shops with my girlfriends who were only girlfriends ‘cause they were girls!”

 Eli laughed. “It must have been pretty easy.”

 “What?”

 “Not having to spend all your pocket money on some girl that you weren’t even sure that you loved…and not being able to buy the games that you really wanted” Eli responded, in a far-away voice.

 “You weren’t sure you loved her..?”

 “Well, once Eunhye left, I got a whole lot closer to Mina. It kinda felt like I was dating her. I don’t know. But it just felt good. And sometimes I wonder what would’ve happened if I had dumped Eunhye and gone out with Mina.”

 Kevin’s eyes widened. “YA! STAY AWAY FROM MY GIRLFRIEND!!”

 Eli laughed again. “Don’t worry, that was then. I have someone else on my mind now.” He looked Kevin right in the eyes. They stayed like that for a few seconds but Kevin looked away blushing. He cleared his throat and urged Eli to continue.

 “So…? Then what? Eunhye came back and…?”

 “Like I said, Eunhye started to get a bit annoyed about our secret interactions and so she cornered Mina one day.”

 Kevin’s Eyes widened. “Cornered?! What happened?”

 “I was walking to the other side of the school to go to the canteen one day, and I saw Eunhye and Mina in this secluded part of our school grounds. Eunhye had Mina up against the bricks and was sort of glaring at her.”

 Eli, hiding behind the trees managed to spy on what Eunhye was doing.

 “YA!,” Eunhye screamed in Mina’s face as she cowered. “What are you doing with MY boyfriend?! What’s up with your little sign things? And all those other code words that no one can understand?! Are you joking right now? Tell me what they mean! What have you been saying to my baby?!”

 Mina shivered. “I can’t tell you Eunhye. I can’t .We swore we wouldn’t tell anyone. We swore that only we could understand it and no one else.”

 “Well nobody’s here now so tell me.”

 “No! I won’t!” Mina yelled. “I won’t. I won’t. I WON’T!”

 For a second, Eunhye was taken aback and took a step backwards. Mina used it to her advantage and took a step forward, getting right up in Eunhye’s face. She pushed her finger into the middle of Eunhye’s chest and took a deep breath.

 “You, need to mind your own business! Do you know how sad Eli was when you left? NO! OF COURSE NOT! He told me that you told him that you would write to him every week! Did you? NO! He came crying TO ME! Every week! Telling me about how much he missed you, and how much he loved you.” Eli saw tears form in her eyes. “Do you know how much it hurt to sit there and just comfort him? I LIKE ELI, OKAY? I really don’t care what you think, but I like him too! And for the whole time that you were away, I was the one that was with him! NOT YOU! It was ME! And we went out to the beach and to the shops and played games and had fun like we were dating, and I realised that I LIKE HIM!” she was crying now and Eli wanted to reach out and hug her like she used to hug him.

 Eunhye, who had now regained her composure, scoffed. “And what makes you think, he likes you too…?” she replied in a cold, mono-tone and walked away.

 Eli could only stand there, behind the trees, and watch, as Eunhye walked away as if nothing had happened and Mina slid to the ground, crying her eyes out. He had tears in his eyes too. “I like you, Mina.” He whispered.

 “And that’s pretty much what happened. I think after that they lost their friendship and my dad got transferred in his company and so did Mina’s dad. She stayed in Korea and only changed schools, but my dad was transferred to America, which is why I came from there.” Eli concluded with a slight nod.

 Kevin could only gape. Eli smiled. “It was hard, but after I got to America, everything changed. The three of us were separated and nothing else went wrong until I came back and Mina transferred to our school.”

 “Wait, one question.”

 “Yeah?”

 “How did Mina know you were back?”

 “That’s funny actually. My dad and hers are really good friends. It was kind of coincidental that they both got transferred at the same time but they worked at the same company and were great friends. And so when we came back to Korea, my dad must have told hers. Her family’s really rich and so she used to go to a snobby high school for rich kids, but it seems like she didn’t change. She’s still as sweet as she was. Even saying ‘hi’ to me after all that.” he added with a bitter chuckle.

 Kevin raised an eyebrow.

 “I don’t like her anymore! Well I do, but not like that stupid! Stop worrying, sheesh!” Eli took a long slurp of his drink, stretched and said, “Okay, I think that’s enough story telling for one day.”

 Kevin smiled and got up to pay for the drinks.

 As they left the store, Kevin touched Eli’s arm lightly, which sent chills down both their spines, and smiled.

 “I know it can be hard talking about the past. Thanks for telling me what happened. I think I’ll understand better now, and um, if you want, you can have Mina…She probably likes you more than me anyway…” He said quietly.

 Eli punched his temple lightly and Kevin looked up startled. “Ya, keep your girl safe, and that’s all you need to worry about, deal?”

 Kevin grinned. “DEAL!” and turned to walk away.

 “I’ll call you later.” Eli yelled over his shoulder, as he, too, turned to walk home the opposite way.

 As he walked, Kevin’s smile faded and he let go of a sigh. “I should stop myself before it’s too late…” he mumbled. “I don’t like Eli, I don’t like Eli…” he chanted quietly as he walked.

 Eli’s thoughts were jumbled. ‘Kevin cared enough to give up his girl for me?’ he thought incredulously. “Why does he remind me of Mina so much…?” He mumbled.

 ---

 When he got home, Kevin opened up a new page of his diary.

 Dear Diary,

I think I like him, but should I stop…?

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okay so i hope that chapter kinda cleared up the past for you guys...? maybe...? haha

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