CHAPTER FOURTY-THREE

 

“Soojung! Here you are! I’ve been looking for you-”

 

“Jinri! Oh, thank god you’re here!” Upon seeing her best friend, Soojung  lets out a sigh of relief immediately pulls her to sit at the white marble bench at the school’s garden with her. She didn’t even call her but she was glad that she showed up as she really needed someone to talk to. And to make it a lot better, it’s the person that understands her best. “I’ve been screaming here for like, 5 minutes and I’m surprised you took so long to find me.”

 

Actually, she didn’t go to the bathroom just like how she told Jongin. She would have but she thought it was too near the hall and Jongin could just follow her easily. Soojung had no idea what was happening to her. She needed some time to herself after that, so she just went to the empty garden instead, which was located at the other side of the school. It wasn't even their first kiss, but she couldn't help feeling the adrenaline of her heart. She wasn't evensure if she could even go back to the hall and face both her classmates and Jongin.

 

“What has gotten into you? Why did you run away after that-” From her worried expression to a cheeky little smile, Jinri was reminded by that kiss that happened between her best friend and her fiancée. “Beautiful kiss? Seriously girl, it looked like a scene from a movie. A Disney princess movie, if I may add.”

 

“Don’t say that, Jinri! I’ve been freaking out because of it!” Soojung cries, covering her blushing face with the palm of her hand. “That wasn’t supposed to happen! I just… I don’t know! I’m so stupid!”

 

Without any word, Soojung buries her face to her shoulder while Jinri put her hand around her shoulder to comfort her, though she wasn’t sure why. For her there wasn’t anything wrong to what she and Jongin did so she doesn’t have to freak out like that. But then knowing her, Soojung is very naïve when it comes to her feelings and is probably very confused on what she’s feeling. Nevertheless, Jinri founds it cute when she just blushed when she mentioned about their kiss.

 

“How come Jongin makes me hate him for a day and then make me wants to kiss him the next day? He makes me enjoy our kisses as well! This is not… It’s not normal!” She then lifts her head up and asks her, “Tell me the truth, is he a witch? Did he learn some witchcraft or something when I was in the States?”

 

“As far as I know that idiot, he is not.” Jinri laughs at how ridiculous it sounded. “You know, this reminds me of back then when you first started dating Derek. I remember this exactly how you acted when you two kissed for the first time. Remember when you called me early on the morning when you two first kissed? You even forgot that I lived in a different country.”

 

“But I loved Derek and he was my boyfriend, but Jongin is…” She pauses, not knowing what to say.

 

“An ex-frienemy, your current fiancée and your future husband.” Her best friend finishes her sentence for her. “Gosh, you’re going to be Kim Soojung soon. I still can’t believe that.”

 

“Okay, what the are you trying to say? Because I still don’t understand the connection between my ex-boyfriend and my fiancée…”

 

Sighing, she tells her that she doesn’t have to say it out loud when she already knows what she meant. But still, Soojung looked very puzzled as she tilted her head in confusion. In the end, Jinri just decided to straight up tell her. “What I’m trying to say is that maybe the feelings you had for Derek are slowly going to Jongin. Maybe you’re falling in love with him.”

 

“Ha. That’s impossible. I loved Derek- Oh my god.”

 

Jinri will never forget the look on Soojung’s face when it hits her. She slowly looks at her eyes, her smile fading. Instead of replying to her best friend who was patiently waiting for her to say something, Soojung just stood up to ran in circle while screaming her lungs out. Jinri doesn’t really say anything, mainly because she’s quite impressed that she could run in her high heels.

 

"You like hangout with him, he makes you laugh, you two kiss a lot, you're going to marry-"

 

“Oh my god. Jinri, oh my god!”

 

“You just said ‘oh my god’ twice in the same sentence-”

 

“Don’t say that ever again!” 

 

“What? About you saying ‘oh my god’ twice?”

 

“No, not that! I mean, that one about Jongin!”

 

“Jeez, can you chill for a sec-”

 

“Chill? I am so chill! I am very chill! Who said I am not chill?!”

 

Jinri literally had to pull Soojung down so she could sit down back again. She tells her that if she doesn’t calm down, she’s gonna call Jongin to come over and figure what to do with her, which doesn’t really help as she starts freaking out again so she immediately takes it back. She just tells her to inhale and exhale, and relax a little bit. Soojung does what she was told to, but not for long.

 

“I cannot… possibly have… feelings for him, right? That’s ridiculous!” She looks at her best friend. “I mean, he’s the same person who kept bullying me. He was one of the reasons why I had a bad childhood, honestly.”

 

Trying to look at the bright side, Jinri asks her, “Surely he must have done something nice to you when we’re kids?”

 

“I remember that time he called a maid once when I fell and started bleeding. I thought that it was nice. Oh, there was this time when we were fighting over one of your dolls, and we were pulling it and then it broke. Remember that? I told you he was the one who broke it and he didn’t seem to care that I took all the blame to him, so I guess there’s that as well. Apart from those, I can’t remember anything else.”

 

“Okay, I’m going to pretend that I didn’t hear that last part.” Jinri clears . Her younger self didn’t really have a favourite toy, but she had a particular liking to the doll that they broke. “Obviously, those aren’t really enough. But just think of the things that he has been doing for you lately. He has been very nice with you, hasn’t he?”

 

“Yeah, but I can’t possibly love someone suddenly after all the fighting that we had all these years… Right? We hate each other. We’re frienemies!”

 

“That reminds me of what you said days ago at the cafeteria in front of everyone.” Jinri smiles. “What if the two of you don’t really hate each other? What if you’re just using the word hate unknowingly as an excuse to hide your feelings?”

 

Soojung falls silent for a few minutes. “Maybe I’m just drunk.”

 

“You haven’t even drunk anything!”

 

“But why… is this happening, Jinri? I don’t want to… you know…” Soojung gulps nervously. Just thinking about it was really weird for her. “L-Like him… or anything like that.”

 

“Are you admitting it already?”

 

“G-God, no! I didn’t say anything!”

 

Sighing, her bestfriend just rolls her eyes. “You know what? Let’s just talk about this tomorrow.” Jinri suddenly stood up and offered her hand to help her stand up. “Chanyeol’s probably worried sick for me right now. Let’s go back to the hall-”

 

“Wait, we’re going back there?” Soojung asks worriedly after she stood up. “I don’t want to. Let's go home.”

 

“What? Are you scared to see Jongin now?”

 

“No! Well, kind of.” She admits, linking their arms together as Jinri dragged her back inside slowly. “They’re going to tease me because of the kiss!”

 

“Don’t worry, Jongin’s going to be there to protect you.” She teased, causing her best friend to freak out and whine again.

 

 

They haven’t even reached the hall when Jinri and Soojung sees Jongin outside at the empty hallway, seemingly to wait for them to get back. Soojung doesn’t do anything crazy, but she does tighten the grip of her hand at her best friend’s because she knows that she’ll leave her when Jongin sees them.

 

“Get away from me, Soojung!” Jinri tells her, removing their hands together.

 

“No, don’t leave me!” Soojung cries. Even though she held on to her, Jinri still managed to escape and run towards Jongin and that’s when he notices her.

 

“Soojung! Thank God you’re okay!” He lets out a sigh of relief. “I thought something bad has happened to you!”

 

“She was constipated so-”

 

“Jinri!” She runs after her, but Jinri knows where to hide – behind Jongin so she wouldn’t able to reach her. “That’s not true! I wasn’t even in the bathroom.”

 

“Oh, uhm… Great, I guess.” Jongin smiles awkwardly and as Jinri makes faces to her best friend behind him, he asks Soojung, “Do you have a minute? I, uhm... want to talk... about something.”

 

“Yes, she does.” Jinri answers for her, causing her to shout her name out loud again. “What? You’re not busy, aren’t you?”

 

“No, but so are you. That’s why you’re going to stay with me.”

 

“Actually, my boyfriend’s looking for me. Isn’t that right, Jongin?”

 

“Uhm, I don’t even know where Chanyeol is right now, honestly.”

 

Biting her lower lip, Jinri looks at Jongin while she shook her head. He could have said yes and played long. But despite Soojung’s hand motions and silent pleadings for her to stay, there was no stopping Jinri as she walked back inside the lively hall.

 

“I’m breaking up with you Jinri!” Soojung shouts.

 

“We’re not even dating!” Jinri shouts back.

 

If only she had the guts to walk back inside without feeling embarrassed because of the kiss, she would have done it. But she just couldn’t. Especially since her classmates are slowly noticing that she was in the entrance and were slowly looking at her so she slowly backs away, accidentally stepping on Jongin’s foot.

 

“Oops, sorry.” She apologizes, looking up to him but wasn’t able to do it for so long. She reminds herself to calm down and even though she was a little nervous for some reason, she knows that she could listen to Jongin without ing it up. She’s no actress, but she has faked her emotions a lot before so she bets she could show him a poker face instead of being nervous. “What did you want again?”

 

“Oh yeah, uhm…” Jongin clears his throat, leaning at the wall next to her as they hid from their classmates.

 

Little did Soojung know, Jongin was as nervous as hell. Actually, he was a lot more nervous than her. It’s just that he was good on hiding it now that he took a glass whisky before coming out there. His hands were even shaking but he hid it on his pockets. He wasn’t able to speak at first though. They just stared at the full blue moon and stars in the sky, but neither dared to open their mouths.

 

“Can you believe that we’re graduating high school soon?” He starts off, laughing awkwardly. “It seems like yesterday when you left for Los Angeles, and now you’re here again graduating with us.”

 

“I know right. It feels surreal.” He hears him chuckle. “I can’t believe we’re going to enter universities soon, and I can’t believe I’m not going to Harvard.”

 

“You really love Harvard, don’t you?”

 

“Of course! Harvard is my first love, you know!” She exclaims. The sudden mention of her dream university erases her nervousness and other thoughts. “I can’t just move on from it. But whatever, I’m all good here as well.”

 

“I thought Derek was your first love?”

 

“Well, yeah. But if I were to choose between him and Harvard, I’d choose Harvard. He knows that and he’s alright with it, mainly because he’d do the same.”

 

“Wow.” Was the only thing Jongin was able to say. “Your meaning of love is very weird…”

 

“Aye, here you are again. Acting as if you’re some sort of a love expert.” She looks at him, chuckling. “You did kind of the same thing before, remember? Back at my father’s birthday. It turns out that you’re far from being a romantic.”

 

“What do you mean?! I am very romantic!” He insisted. You can hear by the tone of his voice that he was a little offended but he and Soojung laughs it off anyways.

 

“Okay then, if you’re very romantic, name one romance movie that you like. Romantic-comedies counts as well.”

 

“Does ‘Shrek’ count?” He asks innocently, and Soojung burst out laughing. “What? A princess fell in love with an ugly ogre! If that’s not love then I don’t know what is! That’s romantic for me!”

 

“Oh Jongin, I’m going to force you to watch a lot of movies with me when we get married.” She states, wiping the tear that she got from laughing too much. Her laughter was caught off immediately though after realizing that she was about to get married soon. “, Jongin. Our wedding…”

 

“What’s wrong? Are you not ready for it?” He asks.

 

“No – Yes – I mean... I don’t even know. My parents, especially my father, were very excited for it, and yet they haven’t returned from… wherever they are.” She frowns, folding her arms. “And , I’m graduating soon. Shouldn’t they be here? Maybe I can accept Jessica unnie for not being here, but they should be at least here on our wedding. They’re the ones who forced me into this.”

 

Silently, Jongin looks at her as she sighed sadly. He wishes he could do anything, but if Jaejoong’s not telling her where they are, then it’s unlikely for him to find out. “Shall we push the wedding a little later then?”

 

“What? No! Your parents are you going to get mad!”

 

“No, it’s alright. I can just talk to them – or maybe we could just have two weddings? One this summer, and the second one… when they get home.”

 

“You’re really into spending money, aren’t you?” Soojung shakes her head. “We don’t have to change anything just because of my family problems. If they come, then great. If they don’t, then... fine. It’s not like we can do anything for them to come back anyways. We’re just talking about my wedding, their daughter’s wedding, which is very important, if they have forgotten.”

 

Noticing that she was slowly getting emotional, or more like angry, so he thought that he better say it now before too late. “Hey, Soojung-” With the mention of her name, she naturally looks at him and waits for him to speak up, but Jongin being the idiot that he is, gets tongue tied when he sees her eyes. “I-I... Uhm... I just-”

 

“Is there something wrong-”

 

“Kim Jongin, there you are!” Before he could even say what he wanted to say, a teacher walks in to them, ruining the mood. Soojung forgets about him and immediately bows to teacher to greet her. “The DJ that you hired is here. I heard you insisted to Seulgi to have one?”

 

“DJ?” Soojung asks, her eyes getting wide. While she get excited about how the party won’t be boring anymore, her fiancée was behind her silently cursing everything and everyone for his failed confession. “As in, a person who plays actual music?”

 

“Yes, Soojung. A DJ. You seem very glad. Did you not like the orchestra?” Her teacher asks, and of course she lies to her by shaking her head. "Come on, kids. The party's going to end soon."

 

When the teacher finally leaves, Soojung turns to him, almost catching him leaning dramatically at the wall. He quickly pretends like nothing has happened, standing straight with a poker face on.

 

“You didn’t tell me that you hired a DJ!” She squeals happily, and he just smiles at her. He wanted to say that he only did that because he knew that she won’t be contented with the classical music and had to bribe the student body president to let him hire one. He was even paying with his own money and not with the school’s. “Dude, you’re the best!”

 

"I know. You don't have to tell me." He jokes, and Soojung playfully punches his shoulder.

 

Having the confidence to finally enter the hall again, Soojung was about to go back inside when she rememebers that he wanted to say something, "Oh, what did you want to say again?"

 

A small smile plastered in his face, Jongin shook his head as if he was saying that it wasn't important. "I just wanted to remind you how beautiful you look tonight. But then again, you always look like that."

 

 

“What’s wrong man? Didn’t you enjoy the kiss?”

 

Without even turning around, Jongin already knows that it was Sehun who spoke followed by Chanyeol’s little annoying giggles. Both stood beside him, Sehun on his right side and Chanyeol on his left. Honestly, if they didn’t bring him a glass of whisky he would tell them to off but they did so he just let them.

 

Currently, the three boys were in the second floor where most of their teachers and the guests were, watching their classmates dance along to the beat of the music. Jongin was of course, watching one person only and that was the lady in red dress.

 

“It was really beautiful, by the way. I mean the scene of you and Soojung kissing. I thought that it could beat out Ryan Gosling’s and Rachel McAdam’s kissing scenes on The Notebook.” Chanyeol laughs. He expected his friends to do the same, but they just looked at him judgingly.

 

“You’ve watch that movie?” Sehun asks him with an eyebrow raised.

 

“You haven't? Jinri and I watch it all the time when she’s sad.”

 

Both Jongin and Sehun just looked away from him. Of course Jinri would force her boyfriend to watch it with her. 

 

“I’m a ing coward.” Jongin suddenly states, catching the attention of his friends. He wasn’t looking at them when he said it, and was watching Soojung at the dance floor instead. “I can’t even tell her that I love her.” He then drinks his whisky but his eyes didn’t move from her. “I tried doing it, but the words just won’t come out.”

 

“Dude, you actually tried to confess to her?” Chanyeol asks in a surprised tone while he just nods and tells them that he just did a few minutes ago. “Well, at least you tried. Obviously, it didn’t turn out well, but you always have a next time. When are you planning to confess again?”

 

“I was thinking…” He pauses, thinking of another day to confess. He thinks that he doesn’t have the courage to do it now, so it’ll be better to build up that confidence again. “I want it to be romantic and all, so probably the day before our wedding. Is that romantic and sweet?”

 

Chuckling at his friend’s lack of knowledge in love, Chanyeol just nods. “I mean, I guess? She’ll be surprised for sure.”

 

"Why is it so hard to tell her those words, man?" Jongin sighs. "All I got to do is be like, 'Hey, I like you a lot. You mean a lot to me.' but then Soojung looks at me with those eyes and I just lose it."

 

 

“Are you sure you want to confess, man? What if she dumps you? It will be awkward for the two of you-”

 

This time, it was Sehun’s turn to be stared at by his two friends because of his negative remark. It doesn’t stop him though. He kept on continuing talking and Jongin literally had to wait until he stops talking to speak again.

 

“Chanyeol, please give me a good reason not to kill Oh Sehun.”

 

“Uhm… because he’s our friend?”

 

Taken aback by what his friend said, Sehun could only blink innocently. “W-what are you talking about, Jongin?! Why do you want to kill me?”

 

“What were you mouthing to me again before? You know, when Soojung and I break off after the kiss.” By the mention of the kiss, Sehun gets excited again.

 

“Oh, I was telling you that Chanyeol gave me a spare to me-”

“H-hey! You didn’t have to mention my name!” Chanyeol sushes him, turning a little red but Sehun practically ignores him and continues to tell Jongin what he was telling before.

 

“-and you could have it if you want to have a little stopover to a hotel with Soojung later tonight.” He winks at Jongin, causing him to roll his eyes. “But then, I just realized, you live alone and Soojung’s parents aren’t in town, so you two could just do it in either house.”

 

“We are not going to do it, Oh Sehun.” He tells him, emphazing the word ‘not’. “You can keep your to yourself, thanks.”

 

“Alright.” The boy shrugs, but it doesn’t stop him from talking. “Why do you always sound so negative when it comes to sleeping with Soojung though? Have you really not thought of doing it with her? I mean, she’s like a sister to me, but damn, if I had an attractive fiancé like her, I’d-”

 

Because of his choice of words, Jongin glares at him, until he finally stops talking. “Excuse me?!”

 

“Sorry!” Sehun laughs awkwardly, patting his back and gesturing him to smile.

 

“I… do, sometimes.” Jongin admits quietly, but it was enough for his friends to hear. The two idiots gasps dramatically, making funny faces that makes him chuckle. “I do think about , but not much as you though. Whatever, I don't care about that. I need to confess first.”

 

With that, Jongin walks away from them to get more alcohol while the boys stare at each other in shock, though Sehun was more of impressed by what his friend said.

 

 

Even though they lost the finals, the boys of Ehra High’s football team still gathered at the café where Mark and Jackson worked at after the game. They may have not won any medal or trophy, they still wanted to have their own party and have fun for the last time as some of their members are leaving for college soon.

 

Without a doubt, their captain was the one who was the most affected by their defeat. He did come along with his teammates, but his gloomy expression showed that he wasn’t enjoying himself. He has been looking like that since the match actually. It seemed like he really wanted to go out and play, but he couldn’t because he wasn’t allowed to.

 

“I’ll just get some fresh air.” Namjoon announces, silencing the laughter that the room had.

 

“Uh… sure! Come back quickly, okay?” Jackson shouts cheerfully.

 

When Namjoon’s finally outside, Taehyung stood up to follow him, only to be stopped by Seokjin. “Are you nuts? He obviously wants to be alone.”

 

“Yes, but he also needs someone to talk to.” Taehyung insisted and eventually his friends just let him do whatever he wanted.

 

“Okay, fine. Go. Just try not to piss him off more.”

 

When Taehyung went out of the café, Namjoon was smoking right next to the door startling him since he usually smokes a little further the door. He was also looking at him directly as if he knew that he was going to follow him and it honestly scared him.

 

“What do you want?” Namjoon asks. “I don’t really like to talk when I’m smoking so make it quick.”

 

“Oh, uhm… I will. I just want to say,” Taehyung bites his lips, unsure of what he was going to say buy does it anyway. “I know what you’re feeling about the finals. You haven’t said anything about it, but I know you’re upset. If hyung played in the finals, I knew the outcome of the game wouldn’t be the same but because of what happened to you and to Soojung was-”

 

“Are you ing blaming me for losing, kid?!”

 

“No, hyung! Absolutely not!” He immediately shook his head before the older one could do anything. “What I’m trying to say is, the thing that you did to Soojung… I believe you didn’t want to do it. And I think it’s the best to apologize so you wouldn’t feel guilty-”

 

“Just because we played together in the same team doesn’t mean you should go around and ordering me to do stupid things.” Shaking his head, he turns his back to him to let out another puff. “You know nothing, Kim Taehyung.”

 

A little hurt by his words, Taehung looks down. He thought he would have considered him as a close friend, but it turns out that they didn’t think the same. “You’re right. I don’t. But let me just say this,” He sighs before continuing, “It has been an absolute honour to play beside you. I wish you could say the same thing about me, but it’s alright. I respect you too much, and I just wish you won’t turn out to be someone you’re not.”

 

Namjoon doesn’t move an inch, but he listened to what he said attentively.

 

 

Just when she thought that all of the insults are not ever coming back, a bunch of juniors passes by her locker purposely talking loud about the now famous kiss from last night’s ball when Soojung was cleaning up her locker. She has been blaming herself for it, and she really hates it whenever her schoolmates would giggle and point at her because of the kiss. But fortunately, it was their last day of school.

 

“They say that the kiss between Soojung sunbae and Jongin sunbae was so epic. Too bad we didn’t see it on the flesh.”

 

“Gosh, I’d do anything to receive a kiss from Jongin sunbae. Wouldn’t you do the same?”

 

“Okay, ! Can you all stop talking about that?” Soojung suddenly shouts as she turns to the two younger girls, catching everybody in the hallway off-guard. “Just because you all are younger than me nor because it’s the last day of school doesn’t mean that I’m not ready to fight! I can fight you all-”

 

Before she could even do anything scandalous, she was dragged by someone else by her back collar as she continued to threaten everyone to stop talking about what happened to them. She was about to attack the person who was dragging her until they stopped at a familiar locker.

 

“Did you not hear them, Jongin?” She frowns, crossing her arms. “Are you not going to do anything?”

 

“Well, they’re not really offending me so… no?” The boy shrugs. “I guess everybody’s really amazed about… our kiss?”

 

“That girl said that she wanted to kiss you!” She tells him angrily. Upon realizing what she just said, she immediately changes her expression and tone. “Not that I really care, of course! I just thought… you’d get mad if you heard it.”

 

Jongin chuckles, “Aww, are you worried about that?”

 

“No! Why would I be?” Outraged, she laughed to show that she doesn’t care, but Jongin still thinks otherwise. “Go kiss whoever you want! I don’t give any , really!”

 

And with that, Soojung leaves Jongin side to go back to her locker despite him holding her wrist and telling her to stay beside him. He just watches her softly slam her head in the locker right next to hers, though he wasn’t really sure why she was doing that.

 

“You guys, Jung Soojung’s the only girl that I’m going to kiss!” He announces to everyone on the hallway. “Not that I have any choice anyways. She’s gonna kill me if I do.”

 

“Who the cares?” He hears Sehun shout from across the hallway so he throws him a book straight to his head.

 

 

“Jung Soojung’s the only girl that I’m going to kiss!” She repeats what he said in a mocking tone. “ing bull. Who cares about whose he’s going to kiss and whatsoever! Not like I enjoy kissing him or anything!”

 

Soojung pauses as she bit her lip. A few seconds later and she start to cry.

 

“, I really do. I want to kiss him again, ugh. What the hell is wrong with me?”

 

“Hey, Soojung! Are you okay?” She suddenly hears Youngji shout from outside. “I’m getting worried about you! Should I come in?”

 

“No, no! I’m okay! Don’t worry!” She shouts back.

 

With her hair tied up in a messy bun and a bath bomb dissolved in the water, Soojung thought that a nice, relaxing bath would make her forget about Jongin even just for a second, but she stand corrected. Even when there was anything around her that could make her reminds herself about him, he was still messing up with her head.

 

“, I must be really, really crazy.” She mumbles to avoid Youngji from hearing. “Should I go and see a doctor or something?”

 

“Maybe the feelings you had for Derek are slowly going to Jongin. Maybe you’re falling in love with him.” Jinri’s words repeated on the back of her mind and even though she tried to think about something else, she just couldn’t. It was so frustrating to even talk about it. She was there losing her over Jongin, and she could bet that he wasn’t even thinking about her.

 

In her attempt of having her desire to kiss him disappear, she tries her best to think about the vain things that he has done to her when they were younger but it doesn’t really work as she wanted to as she also keep on thinking about the good memories that they’ve had for the past few months: from him pushing her off to a pool to him bringing her to Paris when she was sad, all of her ruined dolls because of him and the fact that he brought over her ex-boyfriend when she was still in love with him and when he kissed her for the first time when they were kids to their kiss last night. It wasn’t really helping her.

 

Under the cold water, she suddenly hears her phone ringing. She had it just right next to her as she used it when she talked to Jinri earlier. And just when she was thinking about him, she sees his name blinking on the screen of her phone.

 

“Hey Jongin, you know that I hate you, right?” She starts off before he could even say anything.

 

“Well, that is such a lovely greeting.” Jongin chuckles. “Good evening to you too, wifey.”

 

“Don’t act so nice!” She complains. “Say something rude!”

 

“Why would I do that?”

 

“Just do it!”

 

“Uhm, you’re really noisy so can you shut up?”

 

“That’s not rude enough!”

 

“Stop asking me to do such weird things, alright? It’s not like you did something to make me curse anyways.” She wasn’t even in his sight but he was sure that she was pouting right now.

 

“Whatever. Just tell me why you called.”

 

“Is the reason ‘I just wanted to hear your voice’ valid?” He asked teasingly, and Soojung rolls her eyes.

 

“No, it’s not. Surely you want something if you called.”

 

“Hey, that’s not true!”

 

“Just get to the point, Jongin.”

 

This time it was his turn to pout. “Okay, fine. You got me. I’m currently waiting for the boys to come pick me as we’re heading to the airport for Tao and Kris. You want us to pick you up?”

 

“Actually, Jinri and I have decided to just meet them at a nearby restaurant. I guess Chanyeol’s going to tell you later.” Shortly after she answers, she hears him groan. “What? What’s wrong?”

 

“I won’t see you tonight!” He complains over the phone.

 

“We will see each other, you idiot. That is if you want to come to the restaurant with the other boys-”

 

“Oh- Hold up. They’re here. I have to go now.” He tells her, and even if she wasn’t really there where he was, she could hear Chanyeol screaming at him causing her to chuckles.

 

“Okay. Take care of yourselves. And hurry up and go to the restaurant, okay? Chanyeol already knows where it is-”

 

“Can I ask you a quick question, Soojung?”

 

“Hey, Kim Jongin! Come on already!” He hears Chanyeol shout, but he doesn’t move an inch from where he was.

 

“Can you just ask me later? I can hear Chanyeol shouting at you.”

 

“You don’t really hate me, do you?”

 

Taken aback by his question, Soojung bites her lower lip. It takes her long to reply as she didn’t know what exact words she should use. She doesn’t really hate him, not at all. There was no place in her heart that felt like that way towards him. But Jongin sounded really concerned when he asked that. He didn’t sound like his typical, annoying self.

 

“O-Of course not!” She shouts. She wanted him to know immediately but unknowingly to her, he had hung up as Chanyeol had pulled him inside the car already. She waits for him to say something, but she doesn't hear anything at all. 

 

Because of this, she glances back at her phone’s screen only to find out that their call has ended. She lets out a sigh of relief, but that doesn’t stop her from freaking out. Even though she wasn't really sure if he heard her, she had admitted to herself that she doesn't hate him.

 

"Maybe... Maybe Jinri's right. Maybe my feelings towards are changing afterall." She mumbles to herself. In annoyance, she throws her phone and it lands on the carpet right next to the tub. She didn't even bother checking if it was alright as she had already let her body sink down into the tub for the last time before heading out.

author's note: 

wow why am i such a bad and slow typer?? i wanted to update two times a week but i cannot because i type 500 words in an hour or something smh. i hate myself. :( anyways....... please don't hate me for jongin's failed attempt to confess. at least soojung's slowly realizing her feelings, right? :D no?? okay... 

one last thing, i kinda miscalculated the remaining chapters.instead of 60 chapters, i think i there only will be 10 chapters more? i'm still not that sure how many chapters i have left, but i'm pretty sure about not having 60 chapters.

as usual, i wish you all a great week! love you all <3