CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

 

“Don’t look at me or else I’ll start crying too.” Soojung tells her friends, hiding her face from them with the strands of her hair.

 

In a small circle stood Soojung and her friends, hiding from the other students as they cried. Chanyeol has started crying as soon as he got his certificate, Sehun was pouting cutely as his tears streamed down his cheeks and Jinri broke out into tears when she hugged her just minutes ago. Honestly, she didn’t understand why people cry on graduations but then here she was about to do the same thing. Even though she didn’t want to cry for the second time that day and was smiling in front of her friends, she couldn’t just contain her tears anymore.

 

“Aye, come on guys. Don’t be like this.” Jongin says. He was the one who wasn’t crying and has no plan to do so. “It’s not like we’re not going to see each other again after this!”

 

“I won’t.” Jinri mumbles sadly. “I’ll be busy starting tomorrow.”

 

“Me neither.” They hear Chanyeol sniff. “I’m going to Europe, remember?”

 

“Well, we still have the holidays to meet up. Plus, it’s not like we don’t have the internet.” No matter how hard Jongin tried to cheer them up, everybody just couldn’t stop crying their eyes out. He was slowly getting teary eyed as well, knowing that he’ll not just miss his childhood friends, but also his classmates and the school that he admired for the past years.

 

So that his friends couldn’t notice him, he looks away from them and eventually, his eyes landed to their older friends who were giggling as they took pictures of them crying. He immediately turns back to his friends to tell them.

 

“Stop taking pictures of us! God damn it!” Chanyeol shouts angrily, but it doesn’t stop his friends on zooming on his face. In fact, it made they laugh a lot louder when he did. “I hate you all!”

 

Ignoring Tao, Kris, Junmyeon and Luhan, Sehun gathers the group to hug them. At first, Jongin wanted to separate from them as quick as possible but just gives up. Sehun’s grip was too tight on him and even if he asked him to let go, he knows he won’t as he was too busy giving his own stupid speech on how grateful he was to have them next to him in his high school years and how he hoped that nothing will change between them.

 

“Just promise me that nothing will change between us, okay?!” He shouts as he continued to cry. “I swear if somebody in the group changes, I’m going to kill him or her! Especially you, Park Chanyeol!”

 

“Eh? Why me?” Surprised, Chanyeol puts his hand up and swears, “Just because I’m going to live abroad doesn’t mean I’m going to change!”

 

“If you cheat on Jinri with some European lady, we’ll be the first ones to fly our asses in Vienna just to kick you in the nuts!” Sehun exclaims with Soojung backing him up.

 

“That’s right! I wouldn’t mind doing the same thing I did to Kim Namjoon to you!” She warns him, but then proceeds to punch him playfully. No matter how jealous Soojung finds it when Jinri talks about Chanyeol, she still gets along with him and would do anything to keep both of her friends together.

 

Laughing along to her friends’ threat, Jinri held Chanyeol’s hand tightly. She would surely miss the times when they forget that their friends are around and act very sweetly around each other. As they continued to half laugh and half cry, her eyes lands on Jongin. “Why are you not crying?” She nudges him.

 

“Because I don’t see the reason to cry.” He answers confidently. “I mean, sure we won’t see each other as much as before, but it won’t be the last time we hang out together. We rarely saw our older friends when they graduated from Imperium and nothing changed in our relationship. Surely the same thing could happen to us.”

 

“Who cares about those old men?” Soojung says, glaring to where Luhan, Kris, Tao and Junmyeon at as they kept taking pictures of them as they laughed loudly. “Wow, they just wouldn’t stop! They’re so annoying!”

 

“You all know why Jongin is acting all chill?” Chanyeol asks them, making everyone look at him in curiosity, except for Soojung who was too busy mouthing Tao to off and putting up her middle finger. “Because he’s too excited to get married this summer and he just can’t wait to-”

 

Turning around, Soojung sees Jongin shutting Chanyeol up by putting his hand on his mouth. Since she didn’t really catch what he was saying before, she was very confused on what was happening. “What the ? What just happened?”

 

“Nothing important.” Her fiancée answers for Chanyeol, his hand tightening on his grip as he faked smiled. “You know Chanyeol. He says a lot of pretty dumb things.”

 

Still confused, Soojung looks over Jinri, expecting her to tell her what’s up, but instead of doing so, Jinri just rolled her eyes as Jongin and Chanyeol beside her kept on mumbling stuffs. “Let’s just beat Tao’s for taking pictures of us, shall we?”

 

With the mention of beating Tao’s , Soojung’s interest on what Chanyeol just said dropped. Instead of asking the boys again, she heads towards where Luhan, Tao, Kris and Junmyeon were to steal the camera from them, but not until they run away from her.

 

 

As soon as the graduation ceremony ended, the students were free to go though it wasn’t really their last time to see each other that day. The student council had organized a dinner party buffet for the seniors as their last goodbye later that day. It wasn’t obligatory to go, but since it’s their last gathering, most of the students were coming.

 

Soojung was no exception. Even though she didn’t really enjoy her last school days because of what happened to her, she still promised her friends that she’ll be joining them. After all, they made school enjoyable for her, might as well go to the party and have fun. She didn’t get to party with them before, and she thought that it wasn’t late to do that. But of course, she didn’t forget her new nephew in the hospital so instead going home to prepare herself, she goes straight to the hospital.

 

At exactly 5 in the afternoon, Jongin arrived at the party with Sehun on his car. The ride wasn’t really long, but Jongin regretted bringing Sehun along with him as he couldn’t stop talking about how excited he was for the party and it made his head ache. Thankfully, the venue of the restaurant had a really nice view of the Han River as it was just located right next to it and it made him feel better. When they entered the place, a lot of their classmates were already there, with Seulgi welcoming them.

 

“Good afternoon, lads.” She grins at them. Jongin quickly glances around to check if Soojung was already there, but she wasn’t. “Welcome to the party. Enjoy yourselves.”

 

“Good afternoon, Seulgi. It’s nice to see you.” Sehun smiles sweetly and winks at her, in which Seulgi replies by rolling her eyes. Jongin was just standing there awkwardly, watching his bestmate flirt with his ex-girlfriend. There was nothing wrong with it, but he felt as if he was third wheeling them. “Is it okay to eat now?”

 

“Yeah, but only the appetizers.” She answers, leading them to where they were. As soon as Sehun sees the food, he immediately forgets about his friends to eat. So Jongin takes this as a chance to talk to Seulgi.

 

“May I ask you a question, Kang?”

 

A little surprised on how serious he sounded, she quickly glances back at the entrance and then nods to response. “Please make it quick though. It’s my duty to welcome the people, and I just saw someone enter.”

 

Before saying anything, Jongin looks at Sehun first, who was already a little further from them as he looked for more food to eat. “When we were together, have you really not felt anything for Taeyong?”

 

“What kind of question is that?” She laughs awkwardly.

 

“Well, you mentioned him earlier. That’s how I got the idea.” He shrugs.

 

“Was it that obvious that I was talking about him?” Seulgi mumbles, “It could have been anyone!”

 

“Let’s just say that when you were talking about ‘losing someone’, he was the first one that popped out in my mind.” He admits, “I know that you never really said it, but I can feel that you regret not being there when he needed someone the most, and I feel you. I still ask myself why I didn’t help him out during that time.”

 

If he defended him or still tried to be friends with him after the accident happened, Jongin doubts that Taeyong would be still friends with Kim Namjoon. He wouldn’t have been depressed, he could have stayed in their team and nobody would have spread Soojung’s secrets.

 

“He’s just… a friend that I care about a lot, nothing more, and nothing less.” The girl answers as she smiled bitterly.

 

“If you say so.” Jongin shrugs, but still he would like to talk to him about her.

 

 

Dressed up in above the knee length offshoulder yellow dress and white choker with a sun pendant, Soojung arrived fashionably late, which was understandable since she did leave the hospital a little later than she wanted. It’s just that she got the chance to see her nephew (whose name was Jaesung - a name her brother picked) that she almost forgot about the party. When she arrived, everybody was already having fun so she found it quite difficult to find her friends.

 

Even though he did see her enter the venue, Jongin just stood at the opposite side of the door while drinking his champagne. He was about to wave for her to come over to where he was but Jinwoo approaches her with a drink.

 

“Since when was he that comfortable with Soojung?” He asks himself, frowning. 

 

 Suddenly, he remembers that time Soojung had told him that he finds his now former captain cute.  He then glances back at them, and even though they were just talking and laughing, it annoyed the out of him. Without wasting any second, his feet bring himself to where they were.

 

“So, what are we talking about?” He casually asks them as he swung his arm on her shoulders and grabbed the drink that he gave her from her hands. There’s no way that he’s going to let her drink that night.

 

“Oh, Jinwoo and I were just talking about football.” Soojung smiles, ignoring the fact that he just stole her drink.

 

“You never mentioned to me that Soojung was a fan of the German National Team!” Jinwoo exclaims in delight, and the tone of amusement on his voice was very evident. Even though he supports another football club, he was impressed that she knows about the team. “Who knew she’s a Marco Reus fan? I mean, sure that guy’s quite popular with the ladies, but I never knew your fiancé’s one of them!”

 

“But of course, I’m more fond of our countries’ players. They’re the best for me.” She smiled confidently at them, but she honestly don’t know much about the sport except for the stories that Sehun told her when they play Fifa. “We placed 4th on the 2002 world cup, and I believe we could do that again, but with a much higher rank.”

 

“What are you talking about? You don’t even like football!” Jongin suddenly states, causing both Jinwoo and Soojung to look at him. Jinwoo just laughs awkwardly, and while his fiancé was just smiling, but by just looking at her eyes, he knows that she will kill him later for saying that.

 

“Well, I’ll see you both around.” Jinwoo smiles at them, patting him as his sign of goodbye. As soon as he leaves the two alone, Soojung slightly pushes Jongin from her.

 

“Why would you say that, idiot?! We were having a great conversation!”

 

“Ew, were you trying to impress Jinwoo?”

 

“What do you mean by ‘ew’?! And no! Why would I do that?”

 

“For your information, Jinwoo’s type is far from you!”

 

“I’m not even interested in him!”

 

“Is this what you meant when you said that they fight a lot?” Mino asks Chanyeol beside him who has been watching them for quite a long time now. “Are they usually like this?” The latter just nods. He was a little impressed on how they don’t care about fighting in public anymore.

 

“Aren’t they just the cutest?” Chanyeol says, and Mino wasn’t very sure if he was being sarcastic or not.

 

Meanwhile, Jongin and Soojung were still arguing, with Jongin accusing Soojung of not being an actual football fan. In the end, she challenges him to ask her questions that were related to his favourite sport, in which she answers all correctly. Surprised, Jongin gasped dramatically.

 

“Who are you and what have you done to Jung Soojung?”

 

“I have been spending a lot of times with Oh Sehun. God, that boy really talks a lot.” She answers, grabbing her drink that Jinwoo gave her from him. Before he could even snatch it again, she throws him a mean look. “Oh come on, Jongin! Everybody in this bloody room already knows that I’m really not that innocent. I can drink as much as I want.”

 

“Yeah, just don’t ing vomit all over me. I swear to God if you do, I won’t be sending you home tonight.” He warns her in attempt to stop her. She was kind of scared to drink now as she just sipped her drink instead of drinking it in one gulp.

 

“Oh, Soojung! You’re here!” Sooyoung exclaims excitedly. She had been looking and waiting for her for so long. “I heard Seulgi ordered sushi because she knows how much you like them.”

 

“Aww, really?” Feeling very touched that her friend remembers what her favourite food is, Soojung puts one hand in her chest. Her other hand was passing her glass back to her fiancée without looking at him. “Let’s eat it then!”

 

“Hey, you can’t eat it now! Seulgi says we can’t eat yet!” Jongin reminds them, but it was no use. He eventually grabs the glass back from her as she run off with Sooyoung to where the food were.

 

 

They were finally having their dinner and Soojung was sitting with Jinri, Sooyoung, Seungwan and Seulgi to eat on the same table with them. Jongin didn’t mind as long as she was with them. It was weird to think about it, but he honestly trusts his ex-girlfriends now as they didn’t really care much when Soojung’s secrets came out, unlike some of their other classmates that he used to like but lost respect when they were disapproving and insulting her fiancé. Thankfully, they were still civilized and were quiet about the matter even when Soojung was around and enjoying herself. They weren’t as friendly with her as before though.

 

He glances at the girls’ table and sees that Soojung had sneakily put on icing on Seulgi’s cheek. At first, Seulgi pretended to be mad but because of her adorable and cute laughter, not only Seulgi but the rest of the girls laughed along. He, himself, couldn’t resist laughing as well. He thought how beautiful she was when she's happy.

 

When they finished eating, each of the tables received their own desserts while Kang Seungyoon sang an acoustic cover of One Republic’s Something I Need. His voice was so nice that some of their classmates ditched the vanilla cheesecake with cherry topping to dance. Soojung was one of them. She was about to dance along, but she didn’t forget to bring her fiancé along.

 

“Let’s dance.” She tells him, making the boys in his table raise their eyebrow. “I want to dance.”

 

“I don’t want to. I’m too tired.” Jongin whines, and she immediately frowns. Little did she know that he just refused to do it just so she could stay at their table and lowkey brag to his friends that he has a beautiful fiancé.

 

“Are you all just going to stay here and eat?” She asks her friends and they all nodded. “Aye, you guys are no fun.”

 

“I’d dance with you, Soojung!” Taehyun says, raising his hand. Before he could stand up though, he spots Jongin glare at him.

 

“You wouldn’t dare.” He mouths at him, and slowly Taehyun goes back to sit.

 

“I… guess not.”

 

Jongin then looks up at her. “I’d dance with you, but you have to do something for me."

 

Her eyebrow immediately raise as she thought that he was going to ask for a kiss, not knowing he was talking about something else. She laughs awkwardly and glances to the boys across the table before whispering to him, "I don't want to do it here."

 

"What are you talking about? I just want you to come with me at my parent's house on the weekend."

 

"Oh... Okay, cool. I'd love to."

 

"Really? Great. I bet Kris will also be there-"

 

Without letting him finish his sentence, Soojung grabs Jongin’s hand to drag him to where most of their classmates were. And just how quick she was to bring him there, she was also as quick to let go of his hand that he wished she could have held longer. She looked very very happy to be there, singing along to the lyrics and swaying her body to the rhythm.

 

“Are you drunk?” He asks her. Since the music was too loud, he had to whisper close to her to the point that it looks like he was kissing her cheeks, but he wasn’t actually. Soojung was startled, but quickly laughs because of his question.

 

“Am I only happy when I’m drunk?”

 

“No, but you usually are the happiest when you are.”

 

“I am not, okay?” She tells him, patting his cheeks. “Don’t worry I’m alright.” She winks to assure him. Before dancing and singing along again, she suddenly remembers something. “Oh, I have a graduation gift for you, but I forgot to bring it with me so I’ll just give it next time.”

 

Trying his best not to look very excited but fails miserably, Jongin grins widely at her. “A kiss?”

 

“Idiot, I said I didn’t have it with me.” She playfully pushes his head. She knew he'd ask that. “I’m not gonna kiss you again.”

 

“But why?!” Sounding and looking very disappointed, Jongin immediately puts up on a poker face when she looks at him, pretending that he didn’t say that. “Are we not going to kiss on the day of our wedding?”

 

“I mean, I guess that’s an exception.”

 

“What is it then?”

 

“Can’t tell you. It’s a surprise.” She whispers to him, and then winks. “But let’s just say it’s something that will make you happy.”

 

Confused, Jongin just blinked, having no absolutely idea on what she meant. For some reason, it makes him a little worried but the fact that she got something for him already made him low-key happy.

 

 

It was so nice for Soojung to be back to the same café that she loved and finally talk to her old friends that she missed after all that drama with Namjoon. The café didn’t change much – the food was still great, but just like before, there weren’t much customers just like before which permits the rest of the workers to chill. That was something Soojung has always wondered about. How could that place last long when there’s barely customers?

 

For the past few weeks, the boys had been going to parties (Youngji wouldn’t come as she only goes whenever Soojung attends) and had been telling her all the things that she has missed. But even though their stories are fascinating, she doesn’t think she’ll be going to one soon. She finds it quite ironic how she didn’t go and has no plans to attend the parties that they go to now when her parents aren’t around.

 

“Not that I want to force you to come, but why?” Mark asks. 

 

“Hmm, I think it’s because she has got the taste of what an Imperium Academy party is like.” Taehyung comments. The boys ask him what he meant and he pretends not to know much about their parties, but he turns to her to ask. “Is it true that when you guys won the league, Song Mino had closed one of their clubs just to have it to yourselves? I also heard that Beenzino was there.”

 

“For someone who doesn’t know much about Imperium Academy and their students, you do know quite a lot, huh?” Youngji teased, making him shrug.

 

“Just because I partied with them once doesn’t mean I prefer to go out with them instead of you all.” She tells them. “But they were really, really crazy when it comes to parties. For a moment, I thought that I was at a different venue. Mino really did close his club just for us, and there was a rapper on the party, but I didn’t know who he was.”

 

“You haven’t really answered Mark’s question. Why don’t you want to party anymore?” Jackson pouts. “Parties are much better when you’re around! You do the craziest things when you're drunk!”

 

Embarassed by what she has done before, Soojung just smiles as she sipped her cup. “It’s just my wedding’s soon, and when I say soon, it’s just around the corner. I’ve been having a lot of thoughts lately and think I should change now, because if I don’t, it will be difficult for me to change soon. I don’t think my husband will be glad to know that I sneak out to go to parties just like what I always do before.”

 

His eyebrows automatically raised upon hearing her mention indirectly Jongin and to make it much more interesting, she called him her ‘husband’, something that she has never done before, Jackson proceed to question her, “Hold up, when did you ever considered Kim Jongin’s thoughts? You’ve never been like that before. You always told us that you didn’t mind what he thinks or something like that.”

 

Their friends nods in agreement, and slowly, Soojung realizes the same. When did she even think like that? She knows that if she ever did sneak out when they get married, he’ll get mad surely, but she never actually care about that before. It’s a like for a moment, she was scared that he won’t be acting the same way as before.

 

“Did I just say that? I must be crazy.” She laughs awkwardly.

 

Suddenly, they hear the door open, and she was low-key glad about that as it made her friends stop proceeding on asking her styffs about him. Mark and Jackson had left the table to serve the customers who entered the café. Meanwhile, Taehyung still sat there, looking rather bored and tired. Soojung even catches Jackson mouthing him to rest and let him and Mark handle the customer.

 

“It seems like you had a bad night.” She comments after Taehyung lays his head down to the table.

 

“Well, you could say that. I worked until 1AM last night.” He sighs.

 

“Wait… what? ‘Til 1AM?”

 

“Taehyung has a lot of part time jobs apart from this.” Youngji answers for him. “He has been working a lot these days. He says he needs to save up for college as it’s his last year of high school this year.” She then whispers silently, “But it’s not just enough.”

 

“Oh…” was the only thing she was able to say. She looks at him sadly as Youngji continued to explain that he also helps out in his family. “I know a place where you can earn a lot-”

 

After hearing what she just said, Taehyung immediately looks up to her with much anticipation. “Really? Can I work there?”

 

“It’s kind of far though.”

 

“I don’t mind! I’d fly if I had to!” The boy says half-joking, half-serious.

 

“There’s this hotel in Jeju, owned by a cousin of mine. My friends have been there quite a few times already, but I haven’t gone there, not even once.” She says. “I’d love to go there before my wedding and if you like, we all can go there.”

 

“Oh, that’s a great idea! We can all go there! We can work and at the same time, chill and have some fun!” Taehyung smiles by the thought. “But… how are we going to go there though?”

 

“My uncle has a boat. Maybe I could ask him if he could take us all the way to Jeju.” Youngji says, and it makes Taehyung grin wider in excitement. He jumps out of his seat to tell both Mark and Jackson about what they just talked about, confusing the two as they didn’t quite comprehended how their younger friend was suddenly looking very energetic again.

 

Seeing how happy Taehyung was makes Soojung happy as well. The boy couldn’t help but express his gratitude to her, but she realizes that maybe she should have talked to Yoona first before saying that she knows a job where he can work at.

 

 

With school over, the young heirs of Imperium Academy were finally having their time off. Some were already flying to different countries to start their vacations just like Jinwoo who was going to Manchaster, and some were still in Seoul but were already starting off their vacations with a bang just like Mino who threw a big party a day just after their vacation.

 

Some, however, weren’t having that much fun even when there’s no school anymore.

 

Some, just like Lee Taeyong.

 

Walking around the bright lights of Seoul, he wandered around the city with his earphones on. He had his eyes on the ground, his hands his pockets and his music blasting Kanye West songs in his earphones. He didn’t like crowded places, but he was surrounded by a lot people from different walks of life. He thought that it was better than being back in his home.

 

Even his good friend Namjoon was out of the city having fun. He never knew that he was pretty close with his cousins back in Ilsan. He was always complaining about his father whenever he’s around that he must have forgotten to mention it. He was glad for him though, but still couldn’t help but feeling lonely for himself. He was so bored. He was so miserable. He was so over everything in his life.

 

Oh, how he wished something exciting would happen for once.

 

As he was too busy with his thoughts, he accidentally bumps into someone. It wasn’t actually the first time he bumped into someone that day. He didn’t care much about those people whom he bumped into, but he had to look up to this person now as they had crushed a little too hard, causing one of his earphone to fall from his ear.

 

“Pardon me-”

 

Looking up, he sees a familiar face who looked equally surprised as him.

 

“Jongin?”

 

“Taeyong?” The other boy’s eyes widen upon seeing him, but then laughs shortly after. “Just in time. I was just thinking of going to your place.”

 

“Going to my place?” He couldn’t hide the surprise on his face. Why on hell would he want to go there? “Do you even remember where I live?”

 

Smiling awkwardly, Jongin just nods. “I need to talk to you, Taeyong. Do you want to grab some coffee real quick?”

 

“I don’t… drink coffees.”

 

“Then…” He looks at him, scratching the back of his head. “What would you like to get?”

 

 

“What do you mean you’ve never had soju before?”

 

“It’s true! This is my first bottle of soju!”

 

“That’s bull, Jongin. Soju’s like, the national drink of the country.”

 

“You’re exaggerating.” He rolls his eyes. “When did you even start to drink this cheap drink?”

 

Instead of answering as quick as before, Taeyong falls silent as he looked from Jongin to the green bottle in his right hand. Since he had mentioned that he didn’t like coffees, he had brought him to a convenient store to grab some sojus so they could sit outside without being completely bored and awkward. Even though he hasn’t answered, Jongin quickly realizes what his answer would be and regrets asking his question.

 

“My old man was very disappointed when the accident happened so he didn’t give anything me, not even a dime. These were the only ones I could buy.” He chuckles before taking a gulp of the liquor. “Anyways, it’s not as bad as you think. If you don’t like it, just give it to me-”

 

“No, no. I’ll drink it.” Jongin insisted. The awkwardness between them were already showing, and he thought that he should think of another topic that doesn’t involved the little accident that happened with their football team. “So… you didn’t go to the graduation ceremony?”

 

“I’m not a senior, remember?”

 

“There were some juniors who attended. And besides, it seemed like Seulgi wanted you around.”

 

What he says catches his attention, making him look at him with an eyebrow raised. But Taeyong quickly shook his thoughts away. “I doubt that. I doubt that she even wants to see me ever again.”

 

“What are you talking about-”

 

Knowing exactly what he was trying to do, he frowns and cuts him off, “Are you trying to be cupid now? Push as both together because you’ve finally felt guilty? Because what you’ve realized what you did is wrong?” He didn’t look angry, just that he looked like he didn’t want to talk about Seulgi. “I don’t want to hear no damn apologies from you, nor do I want help from you.”

 

“I’m not here to apologize.” Jongin states as he put his bottle down. “I’m just… I guess, I’m just inspired to do something right by someone I cherish.”

 

Weirded out by how he’s acting, Taeyong’s eyebrows furrows. “By who?”

 

“Just someone close to me…” He mumbles. “You don’t have to know who it is. What I’m saying is that you still have a chance with Seulgi-”

 

“What the ?!” He suddenly shouts, startling him from his seat. He had no idea what has gotten into him, but his eyes were really huge before saying, “Namjoon is right. You do have feelings for Jung Soojung! I mean, she is the only girl that you're close with apart from Choi Jinri!”

 

“Okay, that is so ridiculous! Why would I even like that girl? I mean, she’s so noisy, and smart… and pretty… And we’re not even close, honestly!” He tells him, though he intended to say negative stuffs about her, he fails miserably so he quickly changes the subject. “Hold the up, did you just say ‘Namjoon is right’? What does that kid know anyways? You believe him that easily?”

 

“I just did say that.” Taeyong mumbles, his face still showing a shocked expression after what he just realized. “Holy .  I just remembered… Soojung told me that you two don’t get along-”

 

“That’s true! We don’t!”

 

“-when in fact you two are all over each other. Wow. She lied to me-”

 

“Oh my god, Lee Taeyong! We’re not all over each other-” Jongin pauses to speak lower since people who were passing by were not looking at them. “We’re not… having or any of that bull, just so you know. Just because I love her doesn’t mean I’m sleeping with her-”

 

This makes Taeyong jaw drop. “You just said it.”

 

“Said what now?”

 

“You said that you loved her.” He tells him, and slowly Jongin realizes what he has done. This is what happens when people gets into his nerves. He says things that he doesn’t want to say. “Ew!”

 

“What do you mean ‘ew’, you punk?!”

 

“It’s just… I never imagined you falling in love with someone. You’re like, the stupidest person I know. Who knew you had a heart?” Taeyong casually says, not minding the boy in front of him as he had his mental breakdown. “And to make it more amusing, you fall in love with the girl you were forced to wed. Wow, this sounds like a drama.”

 

“How did this go from Seulgi to my feelings?” Jongin sighs as he brushed his hair with his fingers before pleading, “Can we not talk about this, please?”

 

Even though he asked so nicely, it doesn’t stop Taeyong from being amused by the newly heard information. “So, if you two are not doing it, then she must not know then?”

 

“No, and I don’t want to her to know.” Jongin doesn’t even know why he’s answering him.

 

“Why not?”

 

“Because she hates the out of me!”

 

“How do you know?”

 

“Because I do!”

 

“Did you even ask her?”

 

“Why would I do that?!”

 

“I don’t know. She seems very fond of you.” He shrugs, taking another sip of his soju. His words make Jongin quiet and wonder. “Now that I think about it, Soojung told me that you’re the one who hates her when you were kids. Plus whenever I insult you in front of her, she’d give me this nasty look-”

 

“You really insult me?”

 

“Of course I do.” He admits as if it wasn’t offending and was a very simple thing to say. “It’d be weird if I didn’t, don’t you think?”

 

Sighing, Jongin just presses the bridge of his nose. “You know, I came to you to talk about helping you with Seulgi, but I changed my mind. Instead, I want to beat the out of you now.” When he looks back at Taeyong, he expected him to look angry, but much to his surprise, he just laughed. Oh this reminded him of their good old days.

 

“You just made my night a little less boring, Jongin.”

author's note: 

okay not much kaistal moments, but i just really really wanted to update. not much happened, but taeyong and jongin are (kind of?) friends again! yay(?) this wasn't my favourite chapter to write, so i'm going to really force myself to update again this week. i won't promise any day 'cause i know i never fulfill my promises anyways, but i'm really going to try at least before tuesday comes. jongin's cousins aka heechul, jinah (nana), mingyu and jonghyun are all going to make a cameo again so i'm very excited to write that part.

as usual, i wish you all have a great week! 'till next time <33