ROUGH

Minah’s mom had a lot of botox. 

Which, I mean, was understandable because it’s not like we all age in reverse. She had just had a lot of work done. I sound like a horrible person for saying that but it was true. 

In all fairness though, she was really nice, and that means a lot in my book. Sometimes I spend various holiday breaks at Chorong’s house and you would not believe the amount of yelling that takes place between her and her parents. Or maybe you would believe it. Yeah, you probably would. And it’s not even like they’re fighting with each other, it just really looks like it. And sounds like it. 

And even though Minah’s mom had botox, she was still ridiculously pretty. It must have been a Jung-family thing. They were all quite attractive. 

Anyways, Chorong, Jongin and I were all late to brunch, which was being held at some sort of hotel but it was also some kind of castle-esque building instead of the apartments that I was used to. Everyone was also wearing pastels while I was in plain white crop sweater, much to Chorong’s dismay. I’d also really liked that sweater until now when I looked like I hadn’t gone shopping since 2003. Yeah, I hate my life. 

At least my face had finally stopped bleeding. It had taken awhile and I had caked chapstick over it so the scab would be less visible, but at least I wasn’t leaking anymore. 

"You made it!" Minah leaped up from her chair to hug Chorong and I, leaving Jongin to fend for himself. He didn’t seem all that bitter though. "What about Joonmyun?" That was kind of Minah to pretend like she cared where Joonmyun was. 

"He didn’t want to be here." Chorong never sugar-coated things. Besides, it wasn’t like it was a surprise that Joonmyun didn’t like Minah and vice versa. 

Minah feigned disappointment before grabbing my arm and dragging me towards the table. “You remember my mom and dad, right?” She didn’t even give me a chance to answer. “And my sister, Krystal. And you remember Kyungsoo and Yixing, obviously,” she waved her hand in the general direction of the last two. 

I blinked. It was a good thing that I had decided to wear my glasses today. Alright, there was Minah’s mom, who looked the same, and her dad, who also looked like everyone else’s dad. Seriously. He looked super generic. And then there was Krystal, who was two or three years younger than Minah, with blonde hair and was a few inches shorter. Kyungsoo was a given since I saw him all the time. And then there was Yixing. 

Oh my god it was Yixing. 

And I could finally tell what he looked like since there wasn’t a small mob of people around him. Yixing had brown hair and brown eyes and … well … he just looked so … normal. The way that everyone described him made it seem like he was this mystical creature but no, he was just Yixing. And he was obviously attractive because he was friends with Minah. Minah wasn’t friends with ugly people. Not that I was attractive. That was why she left me behind on her popular adventures. 

Wait a minute? Why was Yixing even there? He wasn’t the best man. Which lead me to (once again) wonder why Chorong and I were there too. It wasn’t like we were doing anything important. 

"Here, you guys sit here," Minah instructed, forcing me down into a chair. "Guys, this is Avery. Well, Yixing, this is Avery," she introduced us hastily before scurrying off. "This is going to be so lovely!" 

For once, I didn’t say anything. Probably because I was too busy trying to figure out what was going on. Minah’s parents were sitting on opposite sides of each other at the head of the table, which was where Minah’s seat was. But then it got weird because there was a great rift in the table, which was where the rest of us were. Like seriously. Two separate tables. It was a wounded-deer type situation already. 

At the second table were the rest of us. Chorong and Krystal sat on either side of me and across from us were Yixing, Kyungsoo, and Jongin. It was probably one of the weirdest setups of my life. It was kind of like one of those blind date type things even though there was a large chance that half of the people there were already in some sort of relationship. I didn’t know if Yixing or Krystal were dating someone but it didn’t surprise me if they were. Why were we even invited if we weren’t even going to sit together? I mean, we weren’t sitting that far apart, but still. Not cool, Minah. 

"Hi, I’m Yixing," he greeted me. He must have been surprised that I didn’t already know who he was. I didn’t leave my room very often. He did shake my hand, though. That never happened. 

"I’m Avery." Hey, I didn’t even stutter! My social skills were getting better! Or not that much better because I failed to say anything after that. 

Yixing launched right into conversation with Chorong, probably not able to stand the awkward silence anymore, while Krystal stared intently at Jongin. I was still looking around and trying not to rip my mouth-scab off again. 

"What happened to your mouth?" Kyungsoo cocked his head to the side with genuine interest. Man, he noticed! That meant that my chapstick war-paint didn’t work. I should have used BB cream. I should have owned BB cream. 

"She kissed me!" Jongin practically screamed. 

"You what?” Krystal gave me The Look. I was getting that Look a little too often for my liking. 

"That-that’s not true!" Of course, I stammered that one out. I looked around, horrified. Krystal was still giving me the look, Chorong was giving me the ‘what-the-hell’ look, Yixing was giving me the ‘I’m-not-going-to-be-her-friend’ look, Kyungsoo had his eyebrows scrunched up and Jongin was just sitting there looking all smug. 

"We kissed. She kissed me. Hard." He gave me a mischievous grin. 

I swear that Krystal was going to reach across the table and scratch my eyes out. What the hell, Jongin? “We didn’t kiss each other. We bumped heads. I busted my lip open. There was no making out taking place.” 

Of course, I was drowned out by Krystal going on a rant about something. Did her and Jongin have a thing once? Judging by the look on his face I was going to have to go with her being obsessed with him and him being thoroughly creeped out by her. Been there, done that. Still, that didn’t mean that he had the right to say that he and I had kissed each other. Because that was a felony. 

"It was an accident," I tried to tell Kyungsoo but Krystal’s shrill voice was covering mine up. 

He squinted at me, shrugging his shoulders. Damn you, Krystal. 

The four of us spent the next three minutes listening to Krystal scream at Jongin (about nothing, by the way, because she even confirmed that the two of them never dated and at that point were probably never going to) until Minah got the waiters to come and smash our tables together. Which wasn’t solving anything but still. 

Then Minah, who had moved her chair so that she was now sitting next to Kyungsoo (read: practically on Kyungsoo’s lap) decided that she was going to give a speech about, well, herself. I mean, I’m sure that it was leading up to how much she loved Kyungsoo and all, but she was currently in the middle of talking about some kid that she ‘married’ when she was in third grade. 

Safe to say, no one looked that interested in anything that she had to say. Her parents were staring at their daughter with a glazed look in their eyes, Chorong and Yixing looked bored out of their minds, Jongin was texting (not even discreetly, if I may add), Krystal was shooting him death glares, and Kyungsoo was mouthing ‘what happened?’ to me over and over and over again. I was glad that he didn’t believe whatever Jongin had said.

I bumped the heel of my wrist together in an attempt to mime out what had happened between Jongin and me. I didn’t know how to get any clearer than that. Well, there was always speaking but we all knew how that never worked in my favor.

For some reason, Kyungsoo’s response was to burst out laughing. Because Minah was still speaking he did his best to hide it behind his hand, but his shaking shoulders were a sure enough giveaway. What the hell? I didn’t even do anything funny.

Minah talked for another good thirty minutes (I’m not kidding. And she never even mentioned whatever it was that happened with that guy who cheated on her. Which really was the only part of her speech that I wanted to hear) before we all ate and her parents talked about more stuff that had absolutely nothing to do with me.

And I know that it sounds horrible that I wasn’t paying attention to whatever it was that they were talking about, but it was seriously that boring. And it was early and my face hurt and every time Kyungsoo would look at me he would start laughing and I had no idea why and it was making me really self-conscious and I really just wanted to know what relevance Yixing had to the situation because I had never (literally) seen him before that moment. And I had a massive paper due because it was almost the end of the year and I was supposed to be going home. United States home, not Hanyang Campus home.

Yeah, I was going to have to talk that one over with my parents. I felt like there was no way that Minah was going to let me back out of being her maid of honor. Which I was still confused as to why I was doing that instead of Krystal.

Finally, after what felt like a small eternity, Minah stopped talking. Was it over? Was that all that was going to happen?

"So when is this wedding actually happening?" Chorong spoke up first. And I’m pretty sure that she was being sarcastic and didn’t actually give a squash about when the wedding really was. But it was a good question for the rest of us.

Unfortunately, that set Minah off again. “Well, Chorong, I’ve been thinking …” 

"This is boring," Jongin groaned, setting his head down on the table.

"I don’t even know why I’m here," Yixing noted. Yeah, I didn’t know why he was there either.

"Jongin Oppa, you never texted me back," Krystal whipped out her iPhone (I really needed one of those) and waved it in his face, which made no sense because his head was currently resting on his empty plate. "You never text me back!”

"Maybe that’s a sign," he replied curtly. Poor kid. I actually felt kind of bad for him. I had never seen him try to avoid a female before.

Krystal was not satisfied with that answer. “A sign of what? Oh my god, Jongin Oppa, are you cheating on me?” Boy am I glad that I wasn’t seventeen. Of course, my life as an eighteen-year-old was nowhere near as exciting as Krystal’s was because no boy really ever bothered to talk to me. 

"Krystal, we were never dating in the first place," Jongin mumbled from his plate.

"Well, we obviously had something. Or at least I thought that we had something.” Krystal was really big on emphasizing her words. That was so seventeen­year­old­girl of her. “Is it someone else?” Well, it sure wasn’t her.

Or Naeun. “Is it her?” Krystal shot a pointed look at Chorong. What?

Oh, squash, that