NOTE:

Parts of the story indented with this color are in the 3rd person's/author's perspective.

The next few days were spent in my room. I was in my bed for most of the day, only leaving to eat and for bathroom trips. The apartment was always eerie and quiet, a gentle reminder that my best friend was somewhere else in the city because she didn’t want to have to do anything with me anymore. The days felt like a long routine. Focusing all my attention on school, I figured I could get over the rotten feeling in my body if I distracted myself with equations and mind-numbing vocabulary. The only reminders of the recent events were when Luhan’s friends eventually left me texts asking what was wrong with him, though I didn’t bother answering any of them.

I’d leave the building for exams, making sure I would have no chance of bumping into Luhan at school. I avoided the places he worked when he was scheduled to take a shift. A large part of me knew that he would be attempting to avoid me as well, making it easy for me to not see Luhan for weeks.

I didn’t want to see him, but yet at the same time I did. Even if I expected us to break up if he found out about the bet, I didn’t think of the possibility that Hyejung would tell him first. That was never my intention. And now he hated me. I still wanted him to be part of my life, though now it seemed he no longer wanted to do anything with it.

If I did see Luhan, what was I even supposed to say?

Maybe that he was wrong. There was never any pretend. I genuinely liked him with every ounce of energy I had in me. He was so wrong. But I guess I should have told him that before he completely walked out of my life.

“Hey, Jinah!”

Finding myself at the front of the school, I stopped at the sound of my name. Having finished an exam that morning, I wanted to escape the school grounds as soon as I could. Turning around unwillingly, I saw Minseok and Yixing jogging my way.

“I haven’t seen you in forever,” Minseok said when he neared, sounding a little surprised.

“I’ve been around.” I shrugged, tightening the grip I had on my shoulder bag’s strap. Seeing his friends reminded me too much. I’d try to avoid them most of the time as well.

Yixing scratched his head. “Did you get a 33.33 for a numerical question too?”

“I did.”

“Ha! I told you I was right.” He slapped Minseok’s back. “Anyway, what’s wrong with Luhan? He’s being a huge grump. Kind of an , but don’t tell him I said that.”

I automatically casted my gaze elsewhere at that topic. Of course talking about him was inevitable. I wasn’t quite prepared.

Minseok piped in. “We tried to be nice and invite him out and stuff but he straight up ignores us now. Sehun doesn’t know anything either.”

Yixing narrowed his eyes at me and I instantly felt exposed and transparent. “Wait... Did you two fight? You don’t seem sad or surprised or anything.”

“It wasn’t really a fight.”

“Then something happened?”

Minseok elbowed him before he could say more. “It’s their business, Yixing.”

A heavy silence followed. I stood my ground, wondering if it was acceptable if I walked away at that moment. “Could you guys not mention to him that you saw me today? Don’t mention me at all, actually.”

Yixing seemed concerned at my decision, but hesitantly nodded anyway. “Yeah, sure.”

I turned to walk, but Minseok cut in before all of my attention on them was gone. “If you want to talk to Luhan or anything he’s been working closing shifts at the café.” Seeing my lack of response, he quickly added. “If you wanted to talk... I don’t know. You might.”

“You should talk to him though. Communication is key.” Yixing forced a smile.

I shook my head at their suggestion. “He wouldn’t want to talk to me though.”

Ten o’clock during a weekday night, I was done everything I could complete in a day. As usual, I was lying on my bed without doing anything else in particular until sleep would come and take me. It would be a dreamless night until the next morning. Looking down at my hands, I noticed that I was absentmindedly playing with the ring that I still continued to wear.

That stupid, plastic ring.

Wanting to get rid of all the reminders of Luhan, I sat up and reached across the nightstand to tuck the dead glow-in-the-dark bracelet away. It was from our first night out, I remembered—just as autumn was nearing. But everything reminded me of him. How could I possibly hide everything? Even the poster on my wall. Even the bed I was on. It all made me feel numb and empty.

I shut the lights, at least not wanting to see them, though the stars that illuminated my wall reminded me again.

My phone buzzing and ringing on my nightstand pulled me out of sleep earlier than I had intended that morning. I eyed the words Unknown Number that flashed on my screen. I was a little annoyed that I was so cruely woken. Barely sitting up from bed, I picked up.

“Hello?”

“Hi…” Began the voice at the other end hesitantly. “Is this Jinah?”

I raised a brow at the unfamiliar voice. “Yes. Who is this?”

“This is Seolhyun—Hyejung’s friend.”

I sat up completely from my bed. I haven’t heard anyone mention Hyejung in… how long had it been since everything had fallen apart? Two weeks now? Three? I stopped keeping track. Staying silent over the line, I waited for Seolhyun to continue.

“I know it’s weird calling you out of the blue like this, plus you don’t know me. Anyway, Hyejung ate shrimp last night.”

“She’s allergic to shrimp.”

“Well, I didn’t know until she told me this morning! I put it in her pasta. Anyway, there are rashes all over her arms and legs,” the girl explained, sounding desperate. “She said she left her allergy cream in your apartment but she didn’t want to talk to you.”

I threw my legs off the bed to stand. “What’s your address? I’ll bring it over.”

After knocking twice, Seolhyun opened her door with worry and guilt already written over her face. She looked at me like her idol when I waved the tube of allergy cream in my hand.

“Thank you so much for coming! She’s in the living room—”

“Seolhyun, I swear to God I told you not to call her!” I heard Hyejung voice yell from further in the house.

I followed behind Seolhyun as she led us to Hyejung. “It’s my fault that you look like a tomato right now. You can’t expect me to do nothing!”

Hyejung was already glaring at me the moment we locked gazes. She sat cross legged on the couch, her arms and legs visibly matted with red spots that looked five times worse than the chicken pox. “What are you doing here?” she spat.

I showed her the tube of cream that I was holding before tossing it to her. “You forgot this.”

She caught it it the air and mumbled something incomprehensible before uncapping the bottle. Hyejung transferred her glare to Seolhyun as if she was silently cursing her as she applied the cream on her skin.

“Umm, well if you need anything else Hyejung, I’ll just be…” Seolhyun awkwardly scurried away from the living room before finishing her own sentence, leaving the two of us to ourselves.

There was tense silence in the atmosphere for a whole minute as I stood idly with my arms crossed and pretended to inspect the furniture around the house.

“Came to laugh at me?” Hyejung asked without looking up.

“No. If I came to just laugh at you, I wouldn’t have brought the cream,” I pointed out.

She stretched out a leg to smack the cream on her calf. “Seolhyun put shrimp in my pasta.”

“I heard. I would never have done that because I know by heart that you’re allergic.”

“Well, you’re my best friend. It’s kind of your job to know what I’m allergic to,” Hyejung said so quietly that I didn’t even know if I heard her right.

It was strange that she didn’t bother correcting her words to something like ‘Well, you were my best friend.’

“Dammit, I think it got on my back too.”

I held my hand out. “Just give it to me.”

Not giving her time to decide between letting me help her or not, I snatched the cream from her hands and sat beside her on the couch while forcing her to face the other way with her back to me. I was even more surprised when she cooperated and lifted the back of her shirt for me.

I smeared some of the cream on my hand before applying it all over her skin. “Is this where you’ve been staying?”

“Yeah.” She glanced around the place. “It’s a lot roomier than the apartment.