In all my life, I have always thought I would never find anything other than basketball that could really pull my interest wholeheartedly.

It’s not that I never tried, things just turned out that way. Every time someone would ask me what my favourite colour was or what would be my favourite movie, I could always shrug and give a generic answer. Blue, and maybe whatever movie that was good in that year. Favourite song? Anything mellow and acoustic, but I never minded pop or EDM songs. Favourite clothes or shoe brand? Anything that would fit me. Favourite dish? Anything delicious. Any country I wished to visit? Anywhere would be fine. Any plans for a hangout with the boys? Any plans would do. Memorable date? Every date was the same.

I was always fine with the way things were, because I was content that way. Involved with the usual things an average person would do, and yet not that deeply-invested in them. Except for basketball. It was the one thing that could get my blood rushing, and my whole body on alert and sweating buckets all at the same time. I never imagined seeing myself highly-interested in another hobby, subject or person… until today.

I looked over to the pair sitting at the table that was closer to the isolated part of the ice cream parlour and frowned. The boy was facing our way – and I was lucky enough to have the perfect view of them – as Sun-ah’s back faced us. Even from here, I could tell that the boy dressed in all-black loved her. His whole body practically screamed it out, with the way he looked at her and the way his body leaned forward as they talked. It was hard to stay still in our table, and I knew every one of my friends itched to know the contents of their conversation. Especially since it involves our best friend that all of us were hopelessly in love with.

“Dammit,” Sung Joon hissed, “I can’t hear a thing from here! We’re too far!” He was being obvious, turning around to send glares every few seconds like his life depended on it.

Jae Hyun and Young Kwang were focused on something that the latter was typing on his phone. Jae Hyun said, “We’re on it, so shut up already.”

Young Kwang nodded at what he said, his lips sealed. He snuck a glance at the pair, before looking back down on his phone.

I glanced at the phone in my hand. Should I text her and ask? I tapped on the texting app and opened on the chat with Sun-ah, but my fingers only hovered over the keyboard on the screen. I sighed and locked my phone. Stupid willpower, why are you so weak?

Woo Bin, who sat opposite from me, tried to calm us down. “Let’s just wait for it, guys. She’ll tell us about it later.”

“But who knows what she’s decided to do about it? You said it yourself, man. That guy’s her first love, first boyfriend and everything. What if they get back together? Where the heck does that leave us then, dimwit?!” Sung Joon growled, tightening his fists on the table.

Woo Bin sighed, and massaged his forehead. “We just have to trust her.”

“Plus…” I slipped out before I could stop myself, “It is her life, Sung Joon-ah. We should respect her decisions. She trusts us as her best friends. We should behave like her best friends.”

Sung Joon grumbled in his seat as he leaned back and crossed his arms. Woo Bin reached out to pat me on the shoulder as he sent an apologetic glance at Sun-ah and her ex-boyfriend.

I tried not to let my shoulders droop as I thought more about the things I said. It was the mature thing to do, sure, but that does not mean that letting Sun-ah get back with her ex-boyfriend would be easy. We all loved her after all. Correction, I love her.

“Yes!” The small cheer from Young Kwang and Jae Hyun took me away form my reverie. The latter proceeded to shush everyone up and continued to say, “Sun-ah agreed to let me call and put her phone on speaker!”

My eyes rounded. “She’s letting us listen…?”

Sung Joon rushed him. “What are you waiting for? Call her now!”

Everyone at our table crowded over Jae Hyun’s phone as he gently set it on the table and put it on loudspeaker. Before it could even ring, Sun-ah picked it up and we could hear their conversation.

“…know I must have been pretty much a jerk forcing you like that, it was wrong of me,” the boy was saying.

I heard Sun-ah calmly disagreeing with him, “It wasn’t. Don’t be too hard on yourself, Won-ah.”

I snuck a glance over my shoulder and saw that Sun-ah had reached over the table and squeezed the boy’s hand. Seeing her phone was nowhere on their table, I could only surmise that she had left her phone on her seat and swallowed my jealousy on catching the sight of their connected hands before I turned around. Don’t get distracted and focus on their conversation, Lee Soo Hyuk!

I heard the boy sigh. “I’ve been thinking about it all this time, and I just thought… Leaving you with that kind of ultimatum was unfair to you, even if I was just going with my feelings.”

Sun-ah chuckled a little, “There’s nothing wrong with going with your feelings. We’re only human.”

All of a sudden, I felt my heart drop. From the unusual stillness from the boys, I knew they were also alarmed at that. We were all hanging onto her next words. We needed to know what she would do next, or we would all go crazy.

“I know, Sun-ah. It’s okay to be selfish when it comes to love and all, but you’re not just a lover to me. You’re my friend too, and I know I made you feel burdened with my confession.” He paused before we all heard a ruffle of clothes, “I mean, just springing up on you about my problems the other night… Thinking about it now, it feels like I guilt-tripped you into things…”

Sung Joon gasped, and from the corner of my eyes, I could see he just turned around to glare at the pair. “The mofo is holding her face! I should go over there and punch the dayligh–”

Woo Bin quickly covered his lips and harshly shushed him down, along with a rigorous shake of his head. Sung Joon was still huffing.

The huffing stopped when the boy said, “That’s why I’m here to tell you that… It’s okay to say you don’t like me that way anymore, Kim Sun.”

We all gasped. H-He knew?!

Kim Sun was still quiet which made me feel she was just as stunned as we all were. The boy continued, “C’mon. I’ve known you long enough to know that about you. You were probably gonna change your mind and somehow not reject me today, right?”

“How could you tell?” Sun-ah quietly asked.

I heard the boy release a long sigh. “Because I know you, Sun-ah. You’re just that kind.”

I couldn’t help but lift my head and witness their interaction. Sun-ah was biting on her bottom lip and her eyes looked at him with guilt and sadness. She looked like she was ready to go over and hug him until the end of time. The boy had one hand securely holding onto one side of her face, and his thumb was dearly caressing her precious cheek. I felt my heart break a little after seeing that intimacy.

“And don’t you dare lie to me because I could see you sweat and reconsider the moment you saw me outside the window,” the boy chuckled.

We all heard Sun-ah sniffle, “Of course I would, . I really love you, you know that?”

“I know,” he said with a pained smile, “but not in that special way anymore, right? The kind where you can quietly lie down next to each other and still be comfortable in your own skin?”

That got me thinking. The way he said it, it was almost as if he was hinting that she was having someone else that she loved like a lover. The question was… Who?

From where I sat, I saw Sun-ah roughly exhale and nervously chuckled as she wiped away some stray tears, “I hate you so much when you know all these things about me, Won-ah.”

“You know I love you,” he winked at her, the tense air around them slowly becoming lighter and more playful. “That’s why I’ll be okay as your friend, Sun-ah.”

She hummed as she naturally reached out both of her hands – again – to squeeze his pale hands, “Thank you, and sorry again, Won-ah.”

He nonchalantly waved it off. “Don’t mention it. Plus, don’t you think you would need a friend like me for your current predicament, hmm?”

That seemingly harmless question from Sun-ah’s ex-boyfriend made our whole table anxious. Dammit, what could it be now?!

In that fateful moment, somehow my eyes met the boy, Jung Jae Won, in the eyes and I saw something thoughtful glinting in them, “Aren’t you hiding something from your friends over there now?”

As his words dawned on us, I heard Jae Hyun curse under his breath.

Sun-ah had ended our connection.

It was pure