For BabySpirit67

From Secret Santa

Prompt: Little did I know, that you will be so important to me. 

Pairing: Myungyeol

One of the Most Important Things

I neglected him. He was my best friend and possibly a lover that would give me nothing but happiness and I neglected him. Thinking back on it now, I see that it was pretty obvious that he liked me. The problem wasn’t him, it was me. I was so into this girl that I hadn’t noticed.

Flashback

School was boring, as usual. So, me and Sungyeol were passing notes to each other about anything. The notes sometimes contained messages of our classmates while other times just had random and funny doodles.

We were best friends. Sungyeol and I have been through so much together, ever since we were children. And now, we go to the same high school, in the same class. It really seemed like we were meant to be best friends.

“Class, calm down, please!” Our teacher, Mrs. Lee demanded. No one listened though. We were too busy doing our own thing to actually notice anything. She tried again anyways, not like she had a choice. Still, she got no response from the class. So, she went to her last resort. Which unfortunately was scratching metal against the chalkboard to make an unbearable screeching sound. That got our attention though. “Now that I have your attention, I’ll introduce you to the new student.” She says. We look to the new girl who stands at the front of the class. She’s really pretty, I have to admit. And she is also my ideal type. Long wavy hair with an innocent face, just my type. “Please introduce yourself.”

“Hello, I’m Naeun.” She gives a sweet smile to the class. The smile makes my heart melt. She is so cute I think to myself. Sungyeol must have noticed my expression because he gave me a weird look.

“Class, get along with her, alright?” Mrs. Lee asks us. We all nod and she tells Naeun to take a seat next to me. I raise up my hand so that she knows who I am and watch as she walks up to her seat. Unfortunately, I can’t help but let my eyes wander to her swaying hips that are moving so seductively as she comes and sits down in the seat beside me.

“Hello, my name is Myungsoo.” I introduce myself to her. She smiled at me before getting out her stuff to start the day.

“Dude, you’re being so obvious…” Sungyeol shakes his head at me as the teacher starts the lesson for the day. I glare at him, which he ignores, before getting my stuff out to take notes on the lesson.

Throughout the class, I helped her to understand some of the material that we were learning. Her old school wasn’t as advanced as ours, so she hadn’t gotten to the subject yet. I was happy to help her though, if that meant I could get closer to her.

At Lunch

We got out lunch from the school cafeteria before taking a seat at our usual place with our friends, Sunggyu, Dongwoo, Woohyun, Hoya, and Sungjong. Clearly Woohyun had noticed me smiling like an idiot. According to Sungyeol though, everyone noticed it. “What’s up with you, Myungsoo?”

“He’s in love with a girl that just came into our class.” Sungyeol scowled before I had a chance to answer Woohyun’s question. I look at him questioningly, wondering what was with that scowl as he answered. He ignored me though. “Oh, Myungsoo, look. Your crush is coming here now.” I looked to see and she wasn’t. But it did make the guys burst out laughing.

“You’re right, Sungyeol.” Woohyun nods. “He is in love.”

“Very funny, guys…” I grumble, not to happy with their antics. They were good friends, but they really could tease you if they really wanted to. Just ask Sunggyu, he is the victim of our teasing the most.

“Myungsoo, she is actually coming.” Sungyeol told me.

“Stop teasing me, Sungyeol.” I retort, taking a forkful of noodles into my mouth and eating it.

“Hello.” I heard a familiar female voice say to me. Looking over my shoulder, I see Naeun. Sungyeol was right, she was here. I gave her a surprised look which made Sungyeol burst out laughing hysterically.

“Um… Hi.” I smile at her.

“I have no one to sit with…” She starts. “And, you were so kind to me in class, Myungsoo. Can I sit with you and your friends?” I look at the rest of the guys and they shrug, telling me that they didn’t really care if she sat with us or not.

“Yeah, sure.” I nod. She smiles sweetly at me before sitting down beside me, much to Sungyeol’s disappointment. Noticing his frown, I face him. “What’s wrong, Sungyeol?”

“Nothing.” He waves it off, looking back down at his food before eating it. I blink at him with worry. Is he okay? I think to myself.

“Myungsoo?” Naeun calls to me, pulling me out of all thoughts about Sungyeol.

A Week Later

Naeun and I had gotten much closer. I think by now we are as close as I am with Sungyeol. This fact made Sungyeol angry, I think. He didn’t even talk to me anymore and it bugged me so much.

“Sungyeol, talk to me.” I insist one day. “Please, it’s killing me that my own best friend isn’t talking to me.”

“Why don’t you just go talk to your girlfriend?” He retorts.

“Girlfriend?” I ask. “Where in the world did you get that idea?”

“Oh please, you two are always together!” He points out. “I haven’t seen a guy and a girl that close unless they were dating.”

“She’s not my girlfriend.” I insist.

“You do like her though…”

“You like me, oppa?” I hear Naeun’s voice ask. Turning around to face her, I see that she’s smiling at me like usual. That gives me the confidence that I need.

“Yes, I do like you.” I admit. “More than a friend.”

“Well then… Would you like to be my boyfriend?” She asks, making me give her a surprised look. “I like you more than a friend too.” She explains to me. I look at Sungyeol happily, but he just frowns more at me before walking away. I blink in complete confusion. Isn’t he happy for me? I thought. What kind of best friend wouldn’t be happy for his friend getting someone they liked? It made no sense. But, I decided to worry about him later. Looking back at Naeun, I smiled brightly.

“I would love to be your boyfriend.” I answer.

After school though, I went to Sungyeol’s house to see if he was okay. I know he didn’t particularly like Naeun, but I wanted them to get along. For my sake at least. His mom opened the door after I had knocked. She smiled warmly at me and let me in, telling me that Sungyeol was in his room. As I was going to his room, I passed by his younger brother who smiled at me warmly too. His family was so nice to me because I was his best friend.

When I got into Sungyeol’s room, I found that he was studying for the test we had next week. “Sungyeol.” I call to him, making him look up at me. Bad move. As soon as our eyes made contact, he scowled with hatred and looked back to the book he was reading. “What’s wrong?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know.” He retorts.

“But, I don’t know…” I reply, blinking at him with confusion. He sighs and looks at me. This time it’s not a look of hatred, it’s one of sadness.

“Myungie…” He starts, saying my nickname rather cutely. “I don’t like Naeun.”

“I know.” I nod. “That’s why you two are going to hang out tomorrow to get to know each other better so that you two…”

“I don’t like her because I like you!” He interrupts me. “I like you way more than just a best friend…”

“Yeollie…” I start, but I don’t know what to say. What do you say when your best friend confesses to you after you get a girlfriend?

“Just don’t…” He shakes head. “I know you love her a lot more than you love me, so just go.”

“That’s not true. I love you too!”

“Not the way I want you to!” Sungyeol replies angrily before making himself calm down and turning his gaze away from me. “Just go…”

I did as he told me to, thinking long and hard about what he said as I walked home. I realized that he made it pretty obvious. Ever since we got into high school, he has been clingy with me. He also sometimes made lunch for me, which I took as a friendly gesture but now realize that it was out of love.

Stalking up to my room with my head hung low, I flung myself on to my bed, hoping that our friendship would go back to the way it was before.

Present

It hadn’t been that way at all. He stopped talking to me, texting me, calling me, even sitting next to me. And to be quite honest, I missed my best friend. A lot. The others looked at me and saw the sadness, I’m guessing. “What happened between you and Sungyeol?” Sungjong questioned. I was going to answer, but he beat me to it.

“Nothing, Sungjong. Just leave it, okay?”

“Um… Sure hyung…” Sungjong agreed with hesitation. Sighing, I stood up from the table that we sat at before walking away from the group. I just wanted to be alone right now.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t even get that sanctuary. Naeun came up to me and sat beside me. “What’s wrong, oppa?” She asks me. I shake my head, silently telling her that nothing was wrong. But it was obviously a lie. Everything at this moment was wrong. “Well, okay… So, can we go out on a date today?”

“Not today… I have a lot to do at home.” I lie to her again.

“Okay…” She nods. She looks sad, but honestly, I don’t think we can have a good time if one of us is down anyway.

After School

I went to the café that me and Sungyeol loved to go to when we just wanted to talk to each other alone or whenever we were upset. It was pretty sad, sitting at a corner table all alone. Not like anyone cared what I did though, so I let my wander to the events that lead up to Sungyeol and I not being friends anymore.

It was my fault… If I had noticed his feelings for me and not have fallen for Naeun, things would be different I conclude to myself. This was frustrating. I really just wanted to fix everything so it would go back to how it was before we had met Naeun.

Next Day

As soon as I walked into the school building, Naeun caught up to me, looking pissed. “You had a lot to do at home?” She asked, repeating what I had told her yesterday as my excuse for not going on a date with her.

“Yes, I did.” I nod, keeping up the lie so she wouldn’t be angrier than she already was. Bad idea. She got angrier than she already was.

“Don’t lie to me, oppa. I saw you at a café last night. You were there for hours.”

“Were you stalking me?” I ask, a little bit scared to find out.

“No.” Naeun shakes her head. “I work there.” Okay, that caught me off guard.

“What?”

“I was going to take off that night, but when you said you had things to do at home, I told them I could come in. I work in the back, but when I came out to restock some baked goods, I saw that you were at the corner table.” She explained. “Naturally, I was furious that you lied to me, but I assumed you were only there to get a break or something. When I came out for the second time though, you were still there! And that was an hour later.”

“I…” I didn’t know what to say. Nothing I could say without looking completely guilty, because I was.

“I don’t date liars.” She cut me off and got straight to the point. And I knew what this meant. “Lets break up, okay?” The bell rang and she started to walk away from me before stopping and turning to face me again. “I hope we can still be friends.” With that, she left for her first class, leaving me heartbroken. Not only had I lost my best friend, I had lost my girlfriend too.

Through my first and second class, I couldn’t concentrate. My mind wasn’t wandering to Naeun, but Sungyeol. I don’t know why, but I guess I realized that he was always there for me unlike Naeun. He understood me the best. And I gave him up for a girl.

The bell rang, startling me out of my thoughts. Ignornig the teacher who was calling for me, I went straight to a secluded part of the school and sat there by myself.

It felt like our lunch hour was forever until a cupcake was within my line of vision. Looking up to the holder, I found Sungyeol. Taking the cupcake from him, I watched as he sat beside me. “Need someone to talk to?” He questioned me. I gave him a questioning look and he smiled. “I saw how upset you were in class and knew it was about Naeun. I went to talk to her and she told me that she broke up with you, so I’m here.”

“Sungyeol.” I cry, hugging him tightly. I feel his arms wrap themselves around my body, comforting me in his hug, even though I wasn’t crying or anything. There was no need to cry over Naeun, not when I had Sungyeol.

He held me a while and my back comfortingly before pulling away. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” I nod. “I’m not upset about Naeun at all.” He blinks at me with confusion.

“Why?” Without answering him, I pull him closer to me. But not for a hug. For a kiss instead. When we pull away from each other, he looks at me with even more confusion, but there’s something else in his eyes. Hope. Hope for being more than just my best friend.

“Because, you’re more important.” I answer with a smile, kissing his cheek affectionately. “I’m sorry it took me so long to figure out, but it’s true. You mean the world to me.” He smiles brightly and hugs me again, this time out of happiness. He really is one of the most important things to me I thought happily.