He tried opening his eyes, but the reality of not having any energy left in his entire body was nagging at his head to keep it closed.  He didn’t have to dance so hard for a rehearsal, but he did and it made his head spin with the amount of thoughts whirling around inside it, making him feel as if he was about to throw up and break everything that could in his body.

Taecyeon placed a cold bottle of water at Junho’s forehead and then sat on the sprung floor of the practice room beside him, feeling sore with muscles aching from a long day of rehearsals.  “So, judging from the way you look -”  Taecyeon said as he took a gulp of the cold liquid in his hand.  “I suppose she hasn’t forgiven you yet.”

Junho sat up, rubbing his own forehead as if the internal pain could subside with a touch and shrugged as he wiped the sweat and water off his face with his hand.  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You look like hell.  You act like hell.”

“It’s been a week.  She wouldn’t answer my calls, my texts or even her door.”  He pulls at the neckline of his shirt repeatedly to fan himself off the heat that was slowly building up inside of him as well.  “I don’t want to care anymore.  I did what I had to.”  He casually and ever so effortlessly twists the cap off his water bottle before taking a big gulp of it.

“It’s not like you could just stop caring just because you don’t want to anymore.”  Taecyeon leans back on the mirror behind him as he stretched his long legs out.  “And maybe you just haven’t tried enough.”

Junho drank about half of his bottle.  “I don’t know what else to do.”  He tucked his legs under each other.

“Well,”  Taecyeon said with no enthusiasm at all as he scoffed and rested both hands on the floor.  “You do things for the one you like and –“

“I don’t like her.”  Junho looks at him as he cuts his nagging friend off mid-sentence.

Taecyeon eyed Junho skeptically, not buying the crap he dished him before he could continue.  “Okay.”  He dragged out the word turning it into music.  “So, let me get this straight.  Because I can’t just seem to comprehend what you just said.”  He began to clear his throat as Junho spins his bottle on the floor completely ignoring him.  “The first time you met and lost her, you were bugging me to find her like a crazy person, stalking in the library and all that crap because you, as you claim, were merely interested in her.  Then you wooed her like you were some leading man out of a movie and I believe you’d say it was just all because of Chansung’s bet.  Now that she’s angry, you groveled like a fool for a week just to have her forgive you just because it was the right thing to do and not at all because you like her.  Because you don’t, not even a tiny little bit.”  He mocked.  “Now you’re killing yourself tired…because?”

“Yah!  I’m not!  This is just how I usually am.”  Junho defended as he pushed Taecyeon on the shoulder making the taller man fall to his side.

“Idiot!  If that’s true, then stop obsessing over her!”  Taecyeon’s chin lowered as he gave Junho a dirty look.  “Should I call her?  Should I send her another text?  Maybe I should go find her in school and pretend to bump into her.  Do you think I should send something over to her flat?  I’m going to find her.  No, I think I should wait.  Has it been long enough?  No, I should just call her again.”  He did a poor performance imitating Junho losing his mind before bursting into an uncontrollable fit of laughter.

“I wasn’t like that!”  He yelled hitting Taecyeon on the shoulder.  “That was so exaggerated!”

“No, it wasn’t.”  Laughter suffused Taecyeon’s words as he shook his head.  “You’ve been sounding like that for a week now.”

Junho scratched the back of his head in irritation.  “I called her a few times.  Actually, I called her ten times every hour for a week and she didn’t even pick up one call.  I sent her different texts, but she wouldn’t reply to any of them.  I would knock at her door, but not once did she open it for me.  I guess it just bothers me that I’m being ignored this much.”

He drew in a deep breath.  “Could you blame her?”

“I don’t want to be selfish.”  Junho rested his chin on the palm of his hand with a frustrated sigh.  “Of course I know she needs time to get over what happened, but I couldn’t stop feeling that fear that she would never get over it.”

“And what if she doesn’t?”  Both men grimaced at the thought of how that could be like.

Junho raked his own lips with his teeth as he started blinking his eyes uncomfortably.  “Then that would be torture.”

“But you don’t even like her, remember?”  Taecyeon said with a scornful laugh.  “Anyway, all I’m trying to say is we’re leaving in two days.  It’ll be a long busy trip and maybe you ought to try a little harder or at least a little more to tell her what you need to before it’s really too late.”  He started to lie down on his back to look at the ceiling that seems haphazardly made or just plain undone.  “It’s okay I guess not to admit it to me, but it would be nice if you could let her know…how you really feel about her.”

“Girls are so complicated.”  Junho remarked.

“Only when we boys are playing jerks.”  Taecyeon said.

----

You noticed how it got a little colder as you sit on a chair at the dinner table to finish the final draft of your paper when your phone began to ring.  You squinted at the bottom right corner of your laptop to check for the time.  1:59 a.m.  Who could be calling at an hour so late?  Needing to finish the paper before doing anything else, you decided to let the machine get it and went back to editing your writing.  It’s due in a few more hours and you need at least an hour of sleep before going to school.  Just then after the beep, you heard your name being called.  And your eyes were directed to where your phone was.  In an instant a familiar voice you’re quite unsure if you wanted to hear or wanted to forget filled the quiet room down deep to the empty spaces in your heart.

“I know you’re there and I also know you wouldn’t pick up.  So, I hope you wouldn’t hang up or erase this message before you could even hear it.  I just need you to hear me out right now.”  There was a short pause before he could continue.  And you found yourself tucking your hair back, fiddling with it to keep your mind off the pain building in your heart as you hear Junho’s voice.  “You’re a person.  Not a bet.  Not a toy.  And I’m sorry if I made you feel otherwise.  It wasn’t my intention to make a fool out of you or to deceive you or hurt you in any way.  The bet wasn’t really about you, it was about me and Chansung being the stupid ignorant boys that we are.  I hope someday you could find the ability to forget what has happened and give me another chance to earn your friendship once again.  Because more than anything, the truth is, I regret having to lose something so real.  I’ll be leaving in a couple of days and I don’t want to –“

You weren’t exactly sure when it was when you stood up from where you were seated and moved closer to where the sound was coming from.  You clasped the receiver of the phone long enough and finally you held it close to your ear.  “Forgiving you is easy, I think that I could do.”  You closed your eyes so you could concentrate on what to say without blabbering as you often do.  “But trusting you would be a little difficult and forgetting might be a little impossible. Junho, if it’s not too much to ask, I know its impossible not seeing each other living in the same building and all, but I hope we could just regard each other as strangers from now on.”

There was a long silence on both ends of the line before Junho could whisper, “I’ll miss you.”