Since that night, no one has ever brought the undefined topic again, but they find themselves grow closer to each other—not close as in contact, but in other things. She responds to most of the things he asks now, not laughing but not really smiling either if he says something funny, sometimes it’s only him who’s talking but he knows she listens. She might not be a good talker, but she’s a great listener. Myungsoo’s really happy with Soojung’s positive changes, and Soojung thinks that maybe one really gets better if they open their hearts, even a bit.

It’s not even only them who notice the changes, but Jinri’s too. She realises that Soojung has been opened up, not to everyone but to Myungsoo and she’s happy about it. That’s what she has been trying to do for the past few years and even though she just can’t believe it’s Myungsoo, she’s very grateful that it’s him. It means Myungsoo will get to hang with them more often, and she gets excited just by the thought that he’s going to be there every time.

“Can you, I don’t know,” Jinri hears Myungsoo says to Soojung one day. They’re in Chemistry Lab at the moment and the three of them are in a group and they have to work on a crystallization experiment. “smile?”

Jinri laughs when Soojung shots him a glare after that.

“I’m working on this experiment and if you keep distracting me, we might fail!” she says through gritted teeth as she keeps stirring the solution while Myungsoo keeps adding the magnesium carbonate into it.

“Well, I’m sorry for being so attractive that even the cold-hearted you get distracted by my charm!” he shots back but he couldn’t help but to grin seconds later. He thinks that maybe he’s already found a new distraction as well.

Soojung remains silent after that because she knows Myungsoo always has an encounter and they’ll continue arguing is she replies him. She focuses on the experiment and Myungsoo seems to get the hint she drops and starts to focus as well, meanwhile Jinri just keeps her eyes on them both because chemistry just ain’t her thing, only pretending to do something when the teacher is looking.

An hour passes and Soojung’s done filtering the crystal from any excess solution and as she waits for her turn with Myungsoo by her side, Jinri calls him and they both look up from the filter paper in her hand.

Jinri smiles sheepishly and Soojung knows she’s up into something.

“Can you lend me a hand? The teacher asks me to clean up the apparatus and it’s kinda a lot,” Soojung notices that Jinri’s playing with her fingers which mean she’s nervous and so she nudges Myungsoo on the waist, indicating him to go. Myungsoo looks down to her for a second, sighs before he goes away.

Soojung then observes the salt under the microscope, smiling to herself because it works and the result comes out like how it’s supposed to be, and when she’s done, she looks up.

“It’s unfair that you only smiling when I’m not around.”

Soojung rolls her eyes. “Does it really matter?” she leaves to her table even before he could reply.

“Of course! It’s unfair,” Soojung hears him say right at the moment when he sits between Jinri and her.

“What’s unfair?” Jinri asks.

“That she’s only smiling when I’m not around.”

Soojung sighs. Can he stop talking about her when Jinri’s around? Jinri might not be showing any hints that she’s hurting but who knows what she’s really feeling inside? Soojung looks at Jinri when she laughs over Myungsoo’s answer, trying to define any ‘fakeness’ in her laugh, but she finds none and she really hopes that it’s true.

“Why is it so unfair?”

“Because,” he says, smiling to her as he points to his smile, “you get to see this smile so often, but I don’t get to see yours as often you get to see mine.”

He feigns hurt and she really wants to smile to him at that moment, and says that maybe, just maybe, she’d smile more often only for him to see but she’s not just in place to say that, even if she wants to. She sees Jinri nods her head to her, and she raises her eyebrows.

“Myungsoo’s right. You should smile more often.” Jinri agrees.

“See? Even Jinri says so!” he exclaims.

Soojung rolls her eyes. “She agrees because she likes you and thinks that whatever you say is right!”

“I don’t like him!”

Soojung scoffs and locks her eyes to Jinri’s, with a look that literally says, “are you kidding me?”

They rem