"You have to tease the ones that you’re closest to” – Parvesh Cheena

***

“Jessica? In a fight?” she burst out laughing, not containing herself one bit.

She didn’t usually find anything that funny to make her laugh so much, but how could she not laugh at that?

Tiffany couldn’t believe her ears, but when she saw that Seunghyun was being serious, her jaw was wide open, her eyes in surprise.

Seunghyun never heard her laugh, not for real anyway so when she did, he looked at her unsure. Was she not feeling well? Was he not feeling well?

“Jessica would never get into a fight. Maybe a slap here or there, but a fight? Never.” She said convinced, she knew her best friend to know she wouldn’t do something like that.

“There was blood as well, it was pretty big” He stated what he heard from some guys.

They were walking down one of the corridors of the building, they had some forms to fill in about an upcoming trip. Tiffany would have done it herself, but it required both of their signatures.

As Seunghyun glanced at the windows, he spotted Jiyong and Jessica walking out of the school gates so he tugged Tiffany’s arm, indicating the two.

The girl immediately opened the window, shouted Jessica’s name over and over but it was too far for her to be heard.

What Jessica okay? What happened? Questions were eating her up, she wondered if she run fast enough, maybe she could get them.

“She’s going to be fine” the guy next to her softly said, seeing her worry.

He might not be the Tiffany’s biggest fan, but the two girls had a genuine friendship, he could see as much.

“How do you know that?”

“She’s with Jiyong, don’t worry” Seunghyun said, as if that was meant to mean more than it did.

“Okay, I’ll call her later then” she just replied, deciding to let it go.

It was half past five when they finally finished every single paper for each of their classmates, so many sheets and things to fill in, Seunghyun wondered if Tiffany usually did all that by herself.

Guilt went through his mind, if things were reversed, he would have been pissed off but why did she not complain or say anything? He thought.

“You can go home, I’ll put these in the office” he told her, he felt like he at least owed her that.

Tiffany just nodded, too tired to even say anything. She saw a packet of cigarettes sticking out of his trousers’ back pockets when he turned around, her face in a frown. Her dad was at home these days therefore she couldn’t smoke at all, she couldn’t risk him smelling it on her even if she was really careful.

Seunghyun went over to the teacher’s office, only a few teachers were still present so he just handed the paperwork to one of them and went down to ground floor.

While taking his shoes out of his locker, something slipped out.

Huh? A letter?  He wondered for a second, staring at it but then realized what it was, then groaned.

“Ha, who’s the lucky girl then?” Tiffany went up to him, smiling amused.

Seunghyun just snorted, and waved his hand to dismiss the question.

“Why didn’t you just go home?”

“I didn’t want to walk by myself” he looked at her confused, did she expect them to walk together?

“And since when are we that close?”

“Wouldn’t it be awkward to walk in the same direction but ignoring each other?” That settled it, he had to admit she had a point.

They started walking, Seunghyun reading the latter but after even a line, he couldn’t read any more. “Eugh” he muttered.

Tiffany curiously looked over to it, but he was too tall for her to see so she just snatched the letter from him and started reading it out loud.

“Dear Seunghyun Oppa” she laughed, “Oppa? She’s got guts”

“My name’s Park Mihyun, of Class 1-D. Aww, a freshman! You’re really handsome Oppa, I stare at you all the time Okay, this is a bit stalker-ish don’t you think?”

“Oh, it gets better” Seunghyun sarcastically said.

“I bet it does! What’s with Oppa in every sentence? Oh! Her punctuation is not that great” The girl pointed out, Seunghyun rolled his eyes; of course she’d say that.

“Oppa, I really really like you. Do you want to go out with me? Please!” Tiffany’s voice went high pitched, making fun of the poor girl.

“Are you going to say yes?” she asked. For the first time, she actually had the upper hand on him. It wasn’t every day that she could mock Choi Seunghyun.

“Ugh, are you kidding me?” Tiffany just laughed, putting the letter in the pockets of her coat. She had to keep the evidence.

“Why not? You, with a cute little freshman, hand in hand, walking to school together, eating lunch together, all lovey-dovey, would you make an adorable couple?!”

Seunghyun could only cringe at the thought, Tiffany clearly was having her fun with this but really Seunghyun was actually terrified.

“Oppa! Can I hold your hand? I’m really cold” she continued, waving her hand.

Two can play this game, he thought, grabbing forcefully her hand; he then raised his eyebrows as to dare her to challenge him.

She tried to pull her hand away from his but he was too strong, her small hands were completely trapped in his.

Her hands were warm and soft, contrasting his cold hands from the weather.

After a pull and push from both sides, Tiffany tried to use all of her strength to free her hand but her efforts were useless and it only left her hand hurting from Seunghyun’s squeezing and breathless.

She gave up, leaving their hands dangling between them, each taking turns to swing their hands up and down like children.

As they had to cross the road, their hands were still intertwined casually until they got to Tiffany’s apartment where Seunghyun let go and carried on to his own home, neither of them saying anything, just a small wave from the girl and nod from the guy.

***

Jiyong messed up in practise that day.

He couldn’t hit the right note even after hours of trying, got the wrong moves of a dance they were learning for the past month and he even forgot the lyrics of a song he wrote.

“Go home Jiyong” they finally said to him, there was no point in being there with his body, his mind was obviously somewhere else.

It was his first time being kicked out of practise.

He would have been upset and disappointed but really, he couldn’t wait to get on his bed and forget everything.

He liked her.

What was he supposed to do about that?

It was also his first time liking someone.

Usually, he’d hear people around talking about their crushes, he was never the one talking about how much he liked a girl.

Challenges were always welcome for Jiyong but this one, he was completely clueless.

She didn’t like him anyway, what was he making a fuss about?

It’s probably because I’m never close to girls like I am with her, he thought.

“Is she okay? I should check up on her” he murmured to himself as he walked home, his phone on his hand.

Everyone had everyone’s phone number, contacting her wouldn’t be hard but then again… would it be weird to call her out of the blue?

He looked at the number on the screen of his phone, his head deep in thought.

To the hell with it.

“Hello?”

***

Hey guys! :)

This chapter is shorter than usual, but I'll update really soon anyway!

I think I'm becoming more biased towards TopFany, haha

I haven't really revised this chapter as I should have, sorry.

I will edit it later for any grammar mistakes!

What do you think then? Heh, Jiyong's first crush :D

Minnie x