What am I doing here again? Hyomin asked herself for the umpteeth time.

Right, “spending quality times with friends”, they say. The girl reminded herself once again. 

So here they are at the theme park for the outing Ahreum and Sungjong planned. She appreciated the efforts of the younger ones but really, she wished she was home right now. With two jobs to juggle, three in fact if you would count the tutoring and with projects to complete, Hyomin really did not have the luxury of time.

The girl rolled her eyes because on her left, Myungsoo and Jiyeon were forced to stay close to each other and Hyomin swore things were not working out for them. The silence between them was annoying actually.

Meanwhile on her right, the new girl Chorong and Woohyun were busy flirting with each other. Not that she minded of course, or so she tried to convince herself, but they were way too chirpy and she did not like a single bit of it. Hyomin had no idea whether they have met before but was pretty certain that it must not have been a lot but Chorong is already acting like they were best friends for life. I hate her

She scoffed at Chorong’s laughter. Woohyun could not make jokes to save his life but there she was, laughing away. The girl was on her nerves, Hyomin could clearly sense her pretentious act.

Boys, oblivious creatures. Look at her big ugly smiles when she laugh.

She turned her attention to the others, no one dared to break the walls between Myungsoo and Jiyeon or at least succeeded doing so. The younger ones were trying their very best offering snacks and participating in rides but the two were not cooperative. Neither of them were close to giving in, both equally stubborn with their pride held high. Sungyeol and Dongwoo were too busy entertaining themselves, dragging Hoya along for their little adventures. The rest? Well, they settled down on chatting, making no efforts to help the situation.

What’s the purpose of this outing then? I’ll meddle myself in this mess. Just this once.

“Myungsoo arh. Let’s get some ice cream. Come on.” She gave Myungsoo a meaningful look, hoping the boy understood her intentions. Sure enough, he did and silently nodded.

“Jiyeon, come along as well.” She tucked her cousin’s shirt, beaming at her brightly.

“No thanks. You guys can go alone.” Hyomin did not miss the slight bitterness in her cousin’s tone and the emphasis of the word “alone”. Shucks, this is tough.

Myungsoo, however did not let her efforts gone to waste. He slung his arm over Jiyeon’s shoulder, giving her a side glance before saying, “We don’t have to get ice cream. There’s other stuff we can purchase.”

The girl shrugged him off, raising her volume with annoyance, “And can you please tell me why must I accompany the both of you? Look, I get your intentions alright?”

Myungsoo too, had lost his little patience with the girl. He was sick and tired of the cold war when he did not even know what triggered it. Though he was calm, his face told Hyomin otherwise, “Great, you talk as if you know what’s on my mind.”

“Hey hey, chill,” Before Sunggyu could step in, Jiyeon snapped back at the boy, “Hyomin is in your mind and I wasn’t. That’s what you’ve been hinting all the time. I’m not that dumb to realize this, I am going home. Enjoy your time with Hyomin.”

With that said, she stomped off, away from the bewildered group. Silence engulfed the chirpy atmosphere they had not long ago. Hyomin on the other hand, could barely comprehend the situation. When was she their subject of argument? And when did Myungsoo ever liked her? How did her cousin even get that wild idea? Worse still, she had become the attention of the clique after the heated argument between the two.

She glanced at the boy nervously, expecting a tinge of red spreading across the boy’s face from anger and frustration but all she saw was a blank expression. Afterwards, came a small curl on his lips as he muttered out, “she is in fact, an idiot.”

And at that moment, she knew that her cousin was wrong, “Yeah. Probably the biggest one I’ve ever known.”

Half an hour had past and Hyomin was surprised that she had not slapped Myungsoo right in his face.

“Yah! Jiyeon is all upset but you’re here enjoying ice cream? Give her a call or something?” She reprimanded the younger boy.

However, the boy made no signs of cooing her cousin, “Well, do you think she haven’t blocked me yet?” The boy held up his cellphone to prove to the elder girl. “That girl had totally cut me off from her network. I’ll see her tomorrow in school anyway, clarifying things face to face is better.”

“What did my cousin see in you? Gosh.” She threw a dirty look at him.

The boy gave her a mischievous look in return, “she had probably fell in love with this look of mine” Myungsoo took a slap to his thighs coolly before continuing, “Well, don’t worry about me when you got your hands full with Woohyun. If you think the glances you throw at them was not obvious enough, you’re absolutely wrong noona.”

He dodged the punch coming at him, whispering into her ears, “Noona, I’m rooting on you. Never liked that Chorong anyway.” The boy then walked briskly away.

“Mind your own business!” She shouted as the figure grew smaller and melded into the crowd with heated cheeks.

**

Hyomin had no idea that the commotion just now had actually hurt an unintended party, Woohyun.

The boy could only sulk in silence as Hyomin and Myungsoo left to sort out their own affairs which he most definitely was not part of. Did they not care about my feelings? The boy pouted.

Timely however, Chorong appeared before him with two cotton candies and handed one over to him. “Sunbae, for you,” The girl passed the sweet over to him with a delightful smile and Woohyun could only smile back in response.

Moments later, Myungsoo came back but without Hyomin.

“Hey, where did my Hyomin go?” Woohyun questioned Myungsoo.

From the corner of his eye, Myungsoo could tell that Chorong was particularly interested in their conversation.

Myungsoo shrugged. “Coming back soon I think. Your Hyomin is not a kid, unlike you.” The boy then pushed Woohyun’s forehead before walking away, leaving Woohyun to complain on the same spot. 

Myungsoo was wrong however, the girl was nowhere to be found and fifteen minutes later, the group began to feel anxious.

“I am going to look for her,” Woohyun declared and was about to run off when he felt a hand wrapped around his forearm and subsequently a body leaning against him.

**

A parade was all Hyomin needed to realize how much she hated the theme park. She was all alone and lost in the crowd, separated from her group. And with a battery flat phone, it did not help the situation at all. Of course, there was something that angered her even further, the thought that Woohyun had not even come to look for her.

Wow. They didn’t even realize I was lost, did they?

Idling around agitated her, but a nonchalant pair had brought her frustration to a whole new level.

**

“Sunbae, I am actually feeling faint, I think it is from the rollercoaster ride just now,” Chorong spoke, her voice weak.

“But we rode it nearly half an hour ago,” Woohyun complained, his eyes darting around anxiously in search of Hyomin.

“Can you get me soda?” Chorong requested piteously.       

Despite his anxiousness, Woohyun could not forego his gentlemanliness and agreed, albeit more than a bit reluctantly.

“Wait here,” he said curtly and promised that he would go looking for Hyomin right after.

“Hey, we found her,” Woohyun heaved a sigh of relief when they relayed that message to him.

**

“Hyomin, where were you? We were looking everywhere for you!” Soyeon exclaimed worriedly. Soon, the group came to her with sighs of relief and earned herself some naggings from the older ones.

Hyomin is definitely not a detailed person but she happened to saw them sipping from the same straw. Somehow she felt like spilling her own coke on the both of them. 

Right, I don’t see them being categorized in the looking-for-me team.

Hyomin is definitely not a detailed person but she happened to saw them sipping from the same straw. For some reason, she felt like spilling her coke on the both of them.  

Nam Woohyun, you’re doing a fantastic job being a bastard here. What kind of…

She hesitated, realizing that she had no idea what Woohyun meant to her all these while.

Classmate?  She was sure they had more interactions to be just termed as just “classmates.”

Friend? Surprisingly, she disliked the idea of them as friends. It just did not seem right to her.

Whatever he was, she did not like the way he ignored her for another girl, even though it was unintentionally. After the anger, came disappointment. She had thought that he would be the first to freak out after finding her missing. Yet, there he was looking relaxed and… less concerned than she had expected him to be.

She never knew Woohyun’s action, or rather, inaction would impact her so much and to the point where she found her own thoughts ridiculous.

“Jealous?” Sunggyu placed a hand on her shoulders and gave a look that wasn’t one to tease or rather, it was a knowing one.

Why would I be jealous? She wanted to ask the boy. However, the words were stuck in and she did not know why, as if she was caught lying.

“Nope,” the girl lied.

Hyomin gasped when she felt someone a warm breath brush past against her cheeks. “She has got him wrapped around her little finger. Noona, you are going to lose if you do not do something in return.” It was Myungsoo who had leant in to whisper into her ears.

I swear this boy will be the cause of my death and no wonder Jiyeon got the wrong idea, we were really too close.

“Get away from me,” Hyomin stated in annoyance.

“I think you need a little help noona,” Myungsoo then grabbed her by her wrist suddenly and tugged her closer to his chest. A playful glint in his eyes. 

“Hey! What are you two doing?!” Woohyun shouted from a distance.

Hyomin whipped her head over, suddenly feeling annoyed.

“You guys are going to continue flirting with Jiyeon gone hur?” Woohyun spoke thoughtlessly as jealousy took over.

Hyomin felt ridiculed and she let her expression show it all. “You cannot be serious, you jerk.”

Myungsoo was slightly surprised that his attempt at invoking Woohyun’s jealousy had actually turned out wrong.

“Hey noona, chill… and Woohyun, I was just playing with her,” Myungsoo tried to explain.

From a distance, Chorong judged that some tension must be building up between the trio even though she could not hear a single thing. Untimely it was, the girl called out. “Sunbae-nim…” Her voice was mellow and all.

Hyomin shuddered. “Forget it Myungsoo, I am not going to tolerate his childish antics. You can go play with Chorong all you want. Leave me out of this. I am going as well…” Hyomin stated and turned away.

Much to her dismay, “fine” was the only word Woohyun uttered.

“Fine!” The girl repeated and stalked off. 

**

Author's note: A new chapter for all of you patient subscibers >< I honestly do feel that I'm a horrible writer and yet you guys are still with me, I'm thankful :3 Do anticipate for the upcoming chapters *winkwink* It may seem bizarre that every one is losing their tempers in this chapter but I will try to explain them in the next. After all, some of them have reached their boiling points.