THE FRIENDSHIP STORY

“Okay, seems like that’s it. Are you going down now or do you want to stay here by yourself?” Seulmi asked.

“Nope. I’m coming down. I gotta meet up with Baek. Plus I wanna help you carry these things. How did you even manage to bring all of this up here alone?!” he carried the canvass frame stand and the canvass itself.

“He’s not so bad. He seems genuinely nice and sincere. No wonder the girls swoon over him. Some might even look up to him.”

Seulmi couldn’t help smiling to herself while she thought about the gentle giant walking down the stairs with her.

“Ah! Whoa man that hurt!”

Chanyeol had bumped into someone as the two of them were walking.

“Oh, mian! Mian. I didn’t see you.” Chanyeol bowed.

“Yeol?! What are you doing?” It was Baekhyun.

“Oh. Hyung! I’ve been looking for you! We just put the art materials in the craft room.”  Chanyeol explained.

“This is Cho Seulmi.” Chanyeol introduced the dumbfounded girl beside him.

“Oh, annyeong Seulmi-ah! I’m Byun Baekhyun. Has Yeol been bothering you?” he said as he poked at his friend.

“A-anniya. We met at the rooftop. I was painting.” Seulmi smiled.

“Yah, hyung. You really went up there? Whyyyyy?” Baekhyun suddenly brought it up.

“Tch hyung I know you know why.” Chanyeol lightly slapped Baekhyun’s cheek.

“Seulmi-ssi! We’re going to the café right outside the school, I think they serve bubble tea there. Wanna come?” Baekhyun sweetly offered.

As Seulmi was about to refuse, Hyerin arrived and said, “Seulmi!! Where have you been? I thought you’d wait for me after my class? I waited for about 25 minu—“ she hadn’t realized who Seulmi was talking to before she walked by.

Stunned, Hyerin never continued her sentence and just stood there.

“Uh… Hey! This is Hyerin. Jung Hyerin. She’s my best friend.” Seulmi saved the situation as she swung her arm around Hyerin.

Stiff as a rock, Hyerin managed a bow in response to Chanyeol and Baekhyun’s waves and smiles.

More silence came out of Hyerin as the two guys began to worry about her.

“S-so how about it, Seulmi? The two of you can come with us if you want?” Chanyeol re-offered.

“We’d love to c—“ Seulmi mouth was once again blocked by Hyerin’s hand.

“Actually, we have to go uh, somewhere, to do uhm, something…else.” Hyerin reasoned.

Seulmi had no chance to counter response.

“Well, next time then?” Baekhyun said.

Seulmi furiously nodded.

Hyerin awkwardly smiled and she took Seulmi as they turned around and walked off. She took her hand off of Seulmi.

 “Tch, that’s just not right. You totally made us sound like we were lesbian or something.” Seulmi snarled.

She started to walk without Hyerin.

“You know, we have to work on your making-an-excuse skills.” Seulmi continued as Hyerin stomped to follow her.

BAEKHYUN’S POV

FLASHBACK

“Tch, some of the girls here just want a guy in their lives way too soon. Shouldn’t they just focus on their work first?” I said after being harangued by a group of active girls.

 I argued with myself as I was walking around tying to look for my best friend.

I had scanned through almost all the buildings in the campus. I even checked all 4 cafeterias of the whole school. Chanyeol was nowhere to be found.

“Ah! What did he say again? He was talking about something a while ago....”

 “Hyung! Look up there!” Chanyeol urged Baekhyun.

“Yeol, I swear if this is another joke I’m gonna—“

“No, hyung! Just look!” Chanyeol pointed at the rooftop again.

“So? I think it’s a girl. It’s kind of like she’s setting something up.” Baekhyun observed.

“Nae, hyung. Isn’t that a painting canvass?”

“It looks like it. So what?”

“You see that, right? It’s not a ghost?” Chanyeol inquired again.

Baekhyun smacked Chanyeol’s head.

“Ah, hyung you have to stop doing that!” Chanyeol whined.

“Then stop it with your imaginary ghost girl! Tch, I have to go the bathroom. I’ll meet up with you later.” Baekhyun waved him off and left him still staring at the rooftop.

Chanyeol likes to look at things his own way. And yes, sometimes it’s pretty literal.

“Ah! He must’ve went up the rooftop! That guy.” Baekhyun shook his head and made his way to the stairs leading to the rooftop.

Then this giant bumped into him…

“Ah! Whoa man that hurt!”

….

END OF FLASHBACK

Baekhyun still had no idea as to why that girl, Hyerin acted so weird as he and Chanyeol just looked at the girls walking away.

 “Yah, hyung! What are you looking at?!” Chanyeol elbowed Baekhyun.

“Huh, nothing. Absolutely nothing.” Baekhyun replied but he knew he saw something (only not sure what) so he shook his head and ignored it.

“You’re so weird.” Chanyeol shook his head.

“Tsk.” Baekhyun was prepared to hit his friend again.

“AH! NO!” Chanyeol girlishly squealed.

“Psh. Let’s go, you little baby!”

“Yah, hyung! Seulmi’s really pretty, huh?” Chanyeol sprang the question at once.

“Nae. She’s pretty and the fact that she’s not a ghost is pretty great too!” Baekhyun answered sarcastically.

“Eesh. Her friend, Hyerin seems great too!” Chanyeol continued as the two of them were walking through the corridors.

“Yeah. She does.” Baekhyun answered carelessly.

HYERIN’S POV

“You! You! I thought you were going to wait for me?! What on earth were you doing?!” Hyerin panicked.

“Relax. You sound like my mom.” Seulmi pouted.

“Well can you at least answer me?” Hyerin calmed herself.

“Ugh, you still sound like her. But I’ll tell you. I got bored waiting for you so I headed to the rooftop to paint.”

“And?” Hyerin asked.

“So I painted!” Seulmi exclaimed. “But it got ruined.” She sighed.

“Bummer. You rarely paint.” At this point, Hyerin was more interested in what had happened to Seulmi. “What happened?” Hyerin inquired.

“Some guy yelled from behind me and I ruined the piece.” Seulmi shrugged.

“Did you know who it was? What was he doing up there?”

“You’re really interested, aren’t you?” Seulmi teased.

Hyerin smiled at her friend in agreement.

“It was the really tall guy we met back there, Chanyeol. He said that he liked having a full view of where he was and where he needs to be. What a weirdo, right?”

Hyerin smiled again. Only this time, it was different. She knew there were holes in Seulmi’s words.

“What are you smiling for?” Seulmi asked.

“You like him.” Hyerin smiled even brighter.

“No, I do not.”

Hyerin chuckled, “You do.”

“I can pop your imaginary bubble now. I don’t like him. He ruined my painting!”

“Seulmi, I’ve known you for 10 years. You’ve been my only friend for that long. I think I’d know if you were telling the truth or bluffing.”

“Ugh, it hasn’t been that long.” Seulmi rolled her eyes.

“Oh come on, don’t you remember?”

FLASHBACK

Jung Hyerin was never around a group of friends or kids when she was little. She played by herself everyday.

In kindergarten, she held on to her stuffed teddy bear while she sat by herself while the other kids play with the toys in the other corner of the room. The teachers encourage her to join them, but every time she tries, Hyerin ends up getting teased for being so quiet.

Then one day, a new little kid transferred to her kindergarten, Cho Seulmi. She was different. Seulmi’s family moved around a lot because of her dad, so Seulmi is used to interacting with people. She treated Hyerin very differently.

“Yah~Why don’t you play with the other kids?” the young Seulmi asked nonchalantly at the kid sitting on her own.

“Because they don’t like me.” Hyerin shyly replied.

“How come?” Seulmi asked again.

Little Hyerin just shrugged as she looked at her teddy bear.

“Are you sick or something?” Seulmi was extremely inquisitive even in her early years.

“A-anni.” The little girl replied.

“Then I’ll be your friend!” Seulmi cheerfully answered.

Hyerin gave Seulmi a smile.

“I like your teddy bear! What’s his name?” she said as she the stuffed toy.

“He’s Meokchi!”

“Annyeong, Meokchi!”

Then…

“HAHA! Look at that! She’s spreading her weirdness! Eew!” a really mean kid shouted and pointed at them.

Seulmi saw Hyerin’s tear run down her cheek.

Seulmi turned to the group of kids bursting with laughter. The teachers were apparently scolding the kids but it didn’t seem fair enough for Seulmi.

“YOU’RE SUCH A RETARD!” she yelled at the top of her lungs.

The teachers all gasped and stared at the little girl who had yelled.

This earned Seulmi 2 hours of time out to stare in one corner of the wall, and later that day, her parents were called in so the teachers could narrate what had happened.

“Mrs. Cho, we are concerned about little Seulmi. At such a tender age, that kind of language is much too harmful for her to be saying.” The teacher advised.

“I really am sorry, teacher. I must admit though that it is my fault. Our family has moved around too much so Seulmi must’ve heard or learned that from the places we’ve been.” Seulmi’s mom answered apologetically. “I’ll make sure she learns from this and that she doesn’t do it again.” She finished.

The teacher nodded and smiled in agreement.

“You didn’t have to do that, Seulmi. You got in trouble because of me.” Hyerin said as tears welled up in her eyes.

“I didn’t do it because of you. I did it because I wanted to!” Seulmi smiled cheerfully.

“Still…”

“I don’t like bullies.”

Hyerin took a deep breath and said, “Promise you won’t do it again!”

“But what if they hurt you again?” little Seulmi resisted.

“I DON’T WANT TO LOSE YOU! I just made a friend, and I’m not sure if I can do it again.” Hyerin’s tears flowed.

Young Seulmi giggled and said, “Don’t worry! You won’t lose me!” and gave Hyerin a big hug.

END OF FLASHBACK

“How the hell do you still remember that?!” Seulmi exclaimed.

“How could I forget?! That was the day I learned what the word, retard meant!”

The two of them laughed hysterically and wound their arms around one another.

Annyeong! This update has a bit more length to it, so I really hope you guys will like it! :D Enjoy and feel free to say something about the story, I'd appresciate it if you do! :))