We sat facing each other and I stared right at him.  “Fine!  What you want to say?” I asked in an annoyed tone.

“That night when you called,” he began and I took in a deep breath.  I did not like going back to that time.

“I had just debuted.  And we were partying.”

“Sorry I disturbed you when you were having fun then” I said sarcastically, with the bitterness of all these years very apparent in my voice.

“Damn it Ji-Ara, let me explain” Taemin said a bit frustrated.  I held my hands up in the air “Ok fine”

“We,” he paused and looked at me weirdly “by that I mean my members and I, were still underage, so we could not drink.  We wanted to try, so we snuck a bottle of alcohol in our dorm and partied between us.”

When I still looked at him without saying anything, he took in a deep breath, and said “I was drunk when you called.  I did not know what had happened here” he could not look me in the eye and I just sat there, unable to process what he had just said. 

“You are also a liar now” I commented after a while.

He looked at me confused.

“You knew what happened Taemin.  When I said it was urgent, you said that I needed money” I said heatedly, still remembering the disgusting tone in which he had said that.

“I did not know.” He said angrily.  “You think something like this would have happened to Ajumma and I would refuse to help?”

I looked straight at him “Yes” I said and I could see the hurt in his eyes.

His hand turned into a fist.  “Damn it, Chubby.  I was drunk.  I did not know what I was talking about.  All I knew that night was that my best friend called me after three years, coincidentally on the day my group became a huge success and money started flowing in.  What else would I have thought?

I stared at him.  “What?” he asked angrily.

My eyes misted.  “You just called me Chubby”

He seemed to calm down as his expressions turned soft again, much like the young boy i used to know.

“You are a celebrity now, so you know how when you are successful, folks who did not like you suddenly become the nicest person on earth!  And people I knew there started behaving like that.  So when you called, I was hurt that you were asking for money too.  And not about me.  I was angry that all the three years you ignored me.”

“How would I contact you Taemin? Whenever I called you were always busy.  Your manager always said you were busy or tired.  After a while I stopped calling, thinking you would call, but you never did.  And when you called your mother during the day, I was at school, or at work.” I stated, my head confused.

“I know you worked after school.  But my mum said you were working even on weekends.  I thought it was her way of telling me you did not want anything to do with me.” He said and I could not stop the tears from falling.

“My mum’s health started to deteriorate around that time.  I had to work weekends as well if I wanted to buy her medicines.” I said, not being able to look at me.

“And you were stubborn enough to make my mother promise not to tell me anything.” He stated and I nodded, both unable to look at each other.

Within seconds there was a weird silence.  Realization dawned on me that he was, after all, still my best friend.  We both misunderstood the situation.

I heard movement and as soon as I looked up, he leaned down and hugged me. “Sorry I was not there when you needed me”

“I’m sorry too” I said between sobs.

“Ji-Ara” he whispered in my ear.  “Hmmm?”

“You stink!” he said and I broke the hug.  I could see his eyes twinkling – mischief!

“Jerk” I said and proceeded to tickle him.  It used to irritate the hell out of him when I would do that, now he just stood there. 

“Got over it” he said and stuck a tongue at me. “Let’s see if you are still ticklish.” And I screamed out of the kitchen, bumped into Anna and fell on my .

“Jeez!” she shouted.  As soon as she got up, not noticing Taemin yet, she glared at me.  “If those pancakes are ruined, young lady, you are D.E.A.D!” she said and looked around and gaped at Taemin who was leaning on the kitchen door and smiling, as though he did nothing wrong.

Anna looked at me and i smiled at her.  At her raised eyebrow, i said, "It's a long story"

She shrugged and bowed to Taemin, who bowed back.  "Hi" she said shyly.  I could not believe what i was seeing.  Anna, being shy! Did she like Taemin?