"Oh."

"Ah."

Taemin and Soojung froze at their spots. They awkwardly looked at each other, exchanging an awkward expression before briefly looking away. Soojung only bowed at him and walked right past him.

Dasom, who was standing besides Taemin, clicked her tongue and shook her head. She rested her elbow on Taemin's shoulder while her eyes followed Soojung's back.

"She's a total fox, I tell you," Dasom muttered, shaking her head. "You're better off with another girl. I'll introduce you to some."

"Dasom, you're being inconsiderate," Myungsoo said from behind.

"As if. Anyway…" She shot a glare at Myungsoo. "What are you doing here?"

"I told you that I'm not leaving without my coin," he answered. "I know you took it."

"Well, maybe Baekhyun took it," Dasom said.

"He didn't. I already asked. Besides, he makes his own money and doesn't need mine. On the other hand, you always use my money. I want my coin back."

Dasom groaned, then turned to Byunghun. "Do you have a coin or two on you?"

Byunghun reached into his pocket and took out his coins. Dasom turned around and handed Myungsoo the amount that he needed. Before he left, he playfully messed up Dasom's hair, smirked, then walked away to buy whatever he wanted to buy.

Dasom groaned and tried to fix her hair. "Damn it! He might have a crush on me, but he shows no affection at all!"

"Wasn't that his way of showing affection?" Byunghun asked. He snapped his fingers. "Oh! I didn't update you on the date."

"No need," Dasom said. "I already heard the rumors."

"Rumors?" Taemin repeated.

"Yep. A guy saw you two and said that you messed up a lot."

"But it ended up well!" Byunghun exclaimed, defending himself.

"Sure, let's go with that," Dasom said, smirking. She turned to Taemin. "Want to hear another rumor?"

"Is it about me?" Taemin asked her.

"Kind of."

"Then does it associate with me?"

"Yep."

"Okay, go on. Tell me about it."

Dasom looked around, then brought Taemin and Byunghun close to her. "I heard that Soojung is being asked out by tons of guys, and she rejected all of them."

"How many is a lot?" Byunghun asked.

"Three were third-years, five were second-years, and two were first-years. Think about it: that's ten boys who asked her out in the last week!"

Taemin frowned. "What does this have to do with me?"

Dasom scoffed. "Don't you see it? She's rejecting all of them because she still likes you. She just wants to make you jealous and feel threatened about your position."

Taemin flinched. "I don't particularly feel threatened…"

"That's a lie," Byunghun said. "But woah, Soojung is pretty sly."

"I know, right?" Dasom agreed, nodding her head. She sighed and continued to walk in the halls. "It'd be nice if I could be sly. Then a ton of guys would be asking me out, too."

"You already got Myungsoo. What more do you need?" Byunghun asked. He groaned when Dasom elbowed his stomach. She raised her nose and stormed away, slightly turning red at Byunghun's statement. Byunghun groaned again, holding his stomach while turning his head to Taemin. "Did I say anything bad?"

"No," Taemin answered him. "I think you just had to watch your words."

"Well, I'm glad that Sohyun isn't anything like Dasom," Byunghun said, exhaling loudly. "Ow, ow, ow! That hurts a lot!"

Taemin smirked, but paused when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He fished it out, but was surprised to see Hyeri's number on his screen. Byunghun glanced over, reading the contact, then scowled.

"You shouldn't pick it up, bro," Byunghun said. "Isn't she Soojung's friend?"

"I agree, but I feel bad for just letting this phone ring," Taemin said. He sighed. "Who knows, maybe it's just her cursing at me for being a stupid boyfriend."

"Well, you're pretty stupid with the love stuff," Byunghun said. His eyes caught Taemin's glare. "You know what? I'm just going to excuse myself and head my way back to class. Lunch is almost over. Later!"

With that, Byunghun jogged away. Taemin looked around for a quiet place to talk on his phone. He climbed up the stairs a bit until he got into the quieter parts of the school. He looked down at his phone, took a deep breath, then accepted the call.

"Hello?" he answered.

"He picked up!"

"Oh my gosh! Hyeri, say something!"

"U-Um… This is Hyeri!" she exclaimed.

Taemin sighed. "Yeah, I know. I saved you in my contacts."

"Y-Yeah…"

"Are you with your friends?" Taemin asked. It seems awfully noisy in the background."

"Um, yes. There are two of my friends."

"Is Soojung one of them?"

There was a pause. Taemin rubbed his face with his free hand. He already knew that Soojung wasn't there. Of course she wasn't there. None of the girls who spoke in the background even sounded close to Soojung's voice.

Is this how much I miss her? he wondered, feeling a bit lost.

"No, Soojung isn't here," Hyeri answered. "Are you looking for her?"

"No, not really," he answered.

"I see," she mumbled. She cleared . "Um, I wanted to ask you something."

"A question? Is it about a book again?"

"N-N-No! Not at all." The girl cleared . "I just wanted to confirm something that Soojung told me. I believe her, but I wanted to confirm it through your words."

Taemin paused. "Okay, fine. Go on."

"Did you break up with Soojung?"

The boy kept very quiet. Then, he sighed heavily before gathering the encourage to answer her question.

"Yes, we did."

She sighed in relief in the other side of the line. A few of her friends squealed and gave her a word of encouragement to push on. There were a few excited whispers before Hyeri decided to continue.

"Um, can we meet up?" she asked him.

It was clear to Taemin that she was planning to hit on him, and he was nowhere ready to move on. All he could think about was Soojung, and every time he lifted his head, he would see Soojung somewhere in the crowd. It was crazy how he started to notice that one particular girl.

"I'm sorry, but I'm really busy today," he lied.

"Oh." She did not fail to let him know her disappointment in her short tone. "Okay. Then can we meet up next time?"

"I don't think it's a good idea to meet up with my ex-girlfriend's best friend," Taemin said, "especially since we weren't friends in the beginning."

"That's a very good point," Hyeri muttered, agreeing with him. "Okay, then. I'm sorry for bothering you."

"It's fine," Taemin said. "I need to go. I'm going to hang up now."

"Okay. I hope we can talk soon!"

I don't, Taemin thought, hanging up. 

He looked around, then caught sight of Hyunwoo and Jieun walking in the hall. As usual, Jieun was smiling and talking about something to him, while Hyunwoo remained annoyed. The only difference was that he had a small smirk on his face, which was something that Taemin had never seen before on his rival's face.

Without thinking twice, Taemin walked over to the duo and touched Jieun's shoulder to grab her attention. She stopped, turned around, then grinned at her friend. Hyunwoo turned, then scowled when he saw Taemin standing behind them.

"Hey," Taemin said, "mind if I hang around with you two for a bit?"

"No," Hyunwoo snapped.

"We'd love to!" Jieun exclaimed, grabbing Taemin and pulling him to her side. "I was just talking about something I did in the past for Hyunwoo! Want to hear it? I can start from the top!"

As much as Taemin didn't want to listen, he did want something to set his mind away from Soojung. He gave Jieun a small smile and nodded his head. Her face brightened, but dimmed once she noticed that Taemin was forcing his smile.

"Did something happen?" Jieun asked. "Is it about Soojung?"

"Mm… A little. I just don't want to think about her too much right now," Taemin told her.

While Jieun accepted his answer and continued talking, Hyunwoo looked at him in a suspicious manner before brushing away the other fake smile he had given to the two.

Soojung found herself entering a fast food restaurant a couple of hours after she was done with school and tutor. She looked around, trying to find Hyeri. When she found her friend, she beamed and skipped over to her.

"Hyeri!" Soojung exclaimed, taking a seat across from her friend. "It's been a while!"

Hyeri forced a smile. "Yep. It has."

"Did you already eat?"

"Nope. I was waiting for you, actually."

"Cool. What do you want to eat?"

"Actually, can we talk first?" Hyeri asked, extending her hand to stop Soojung from getting up her seat.

Soojung gave her a weird smile. "What do we have to talk about? Why not talk while we eat?"

"This is serious. I don't even know if you want to eat with me if you hear me out," Hyeri stated.

"Oh. This is really serious, huh?" Soojung muttered. She slowly took her seat. "Okay. Talk to me. What's going on?"

Hyeri took a deep breath. "I just wanted to confirm this again, but you officially broke up with Taemin, right?"

Soojung only forced a smile. "I don't think this is the kind of topic I want to talk about right n—"

"You really broke up, right?" Hyeri repeated. Soojung stared, but slowly nodded her head. Hyeri took a deep breath, then exhaled. "Okay. Then I want to tell you something, and I'm telling you this because you're my friend and I think you have every right to know about this.'

Suddenly, a chill ran through Soojung's spine. She felt threatened. She knew that if she sat at her spot any longer, then something bad would happen. Something bad would come out of Hyeri's mouth, and Soojung didn't want to hear it. 

"I…" Hyeri inhaled through her nose again, then locked eyes with Soojung. "I love Taemin."

Soojung stared at her, stunned. Her eyes were wide and she gaped . 

What the, Soojung thought, blinking her eyes. "Are you being serious?"

"Yes." The reddened girl suddenly acted shy. "The moment I saw him I fell in love with him. Soojung, I left him alone because I knew that he was dating you, but now that you guys broke up… I think I want to try this out. I want to fight for his affection. I know he still has some feelings for you—" Soojung felt something tingle inside. "—but I really love him. I think he just needs a push here and there to realize that he has the ability to move on."

Soojung was at lost for words. What was she supposed to say?

Hyeri seemed to have noticed Soojung's confused state. "The reason why I'm telling you this is because I want you to support me. You know, I want you to back me up on this."

Soojung's heart dropped. "W-What?"

"You heard me. I want you to help me."

"Um…"

"Please? I know that you know Taemin best," Hyeri pointed out. "Can't you help me out? I really love him. I love him so much that I'm even asking my best friend, who dated him, to help me out."

THere wasn't anywhere for Soojung to escape. She clearly couldn't talk to her out of this, especially since the blushing girl basically crushed on Taemin during the entire time they were dating. Besides, Hyeri was her best friend. Surely… Surely she would take care of Taemin a lot better than whatever Soojung offered him…

Soojung got up. Hyeri lifted her head, her eyes following Soojung's movement.

"Do you want the same thing we always order?" Soojung asked, forcing a weak smile.

"Before I respond to that, I want to know if you're going to help me," Hyeri told her.

Soojung paused before giving her another smile. "Of course I'll support you! You're my best friend, Hyeri. We'll just talk about all his likes and dislikes while we eat."

Hyeri smiled. "Really? Do you mean it?"

"Of course!" Soojung repeated.

"Okay! I want the usual thing we get!" Hyeri exclaimed. She clasped her hands together and grinned at Soojung. "Soojung, you don't know how happy I am after hearing this. I seriously thought you were going to tell me to do this all on my own, but I'm so glad that you're there to help me. Thank you so much, Soojung! You're the best!"

Each word stung Soojung's heart. Her eyes swelled up with tears, but she swallowed down her pride and only smiled at her friend, who only saw a smile rather than her tortured mindset.

"Of course," Soojung muttered, turning away. "Of course I'd support you…"