Ari was bewildered with Jongin's behaviour. He had been avoiding conversation with her as well as trips back home, giving her what seemed like flimsy excuses. He seemed to light up a little more around Minah when she handed a reading over to him and he'd often leave her to talk to Minah who reciprocated with equal enthusiasm. Minah also stated that she wasn't taking boxing lessons for a while so the two could go back home together instead.

“Yeah, I thought I'd get back onto the tennis court. You know, do what I used to.”

Ari had even noticed Taekwoon hovering around the tennis courts before heading back into the gym. He'd text and occasionally converse with her, which was not as awkward as she had expected it to be as they had mutual interests. But every time she raised the topic of Minah up, he'd look confused and hurt and wouldn't talk about it.

“I'm not sure. She wanted to get back to tennis. Anyway, we'll catch up tomorrow before the match.” He said, shrugging as Ari looked at him before he entered the gym. Something was weird ever since the day he asked her to come with him for the football match. Minah wasn’t particularly detached with her though, she spoke just as she did before this whole event, Jongin on the other hand was giving both Taekwoon and her hell for whatever reason it was.

It annoyed her, but she really didn't have a chance to talk to him about it considering he was dancing around class with everyone else leaving her to deal with Taeyong smirking at her.

“So you're with me now.” He would often say sliding into place beside her only to have her shifting to Bora who was now her new dance partner.

“I'm with Bora.”

And so this was how the rest of the dance sessions  were with Jongin; animosity in behavior and curtness in conversation. It wasn’t that Ari didn’t make any efforts, she often tried to strike a conversation with Jongin who would reply with one liners. Being the arrogant and prideful person that she was, she completely gave up with a few days short of the D-Day.

She began to think Jongin stopped giving any s at all. Except, whenever he found Ari and Taekwoon in deep conversation, he would often interrupt saying that he needed to talk to his athletic friend. Now what Jongin did not know, was that the ‘deep conversation’ that took place between the two football fanatics, was basically the both of them brooding about their non existent love lives and how the people they liked spent so much time laughing together, that it drove them absolutely insane.

But of course of this was forgotten easily on the day of the match. Taekwoon and Ari were making their way towards the stadium from the parking lot. She could hear the ruckus from the stadium all the way down from where she was standing. She was practically skipping as they walked together. Taekwoon’s demeanor would have fooled anyone else, but Ari knew he was just as excited.

Once they arrived inside, the sight was nothing short of a wonder. Thousands of roaring fans  were passionately chanting the respective countries’ names and wore the apparel and colors to suit the occasion. Ari herself was wearing a Neymar Jr jersey while Taekwoon was sporting a Republic of Korea one. They had about five minutes left before the game began so Ari took this time to create snapstories. She nudged at Taekwoon who awkwardly posed next to her as she took a selfie. She heard a roar from the audience in the stadium and she knew that the players had started to come out, onto the field. At that moment, everything else was forgotten.

Meanwhile Minah was backstage with Jongin when she opened up her Snapchat. Jongin heard something from Minah’s phone so he came over to see what it was. It was footage from the football match that Ari and Taekwoon were attending. After shots from the stadium, there were selfies of the both of them where Taekwoon looked awkward at first but seemed to be thoroughly comfortable as the pictures progressed. Why did he look so comfortable with her, when he was always so cautious and quiet around Minah?  She didn’t like this feeling. She didn’t like that Taekwoon invited Ari for something he obviously cares a lot about, but didn’t think to invite Minah, when she thought they had something going on. Maybe she was wrong. She sighed, looking away from her phone at Jongin who pursed his lips before fixing his costume. He had to get on stage and being upset was not something he needed to be right then.

Ari on the other hand had set her phone aside to keep track of the match that was about to begin. She didn't even realise when the game started and when it ended. The only time they got up from their seats was to scream and exclaim at the events that were unfolding before them and to get snacks at halftime. She even vaguely remembered hugging Taekwoon when the Korean team scored a goal.

The game ended with Brazil defeating Korea 3 to 1. Even if they were up against Brazil, the Korean team stood their ground. But this was one of the world’s greatest football team we were talking about, and their win was kind of an expected one.

Ari’s nerves were on edge. She couldn't stop pacing as they waited. How could she not? She was only about to meet her football idol.

“Stop”, Taekwoon told her. “You're going to make everyone around you anxious.”

Ari looked at Taekwoon. “Listen, if I die here tonight, tell Jongin that I like him.”

"You're not going to die. Tell him yourself.”  Taekwoon responded with a straight face as he led her past the security to a space where they stood waiting to be called in to meet the teams. Taekwoon’s status as a regional football player had its perks - being able to meet top level football players was one of them.

Someone came to tell Taekwoon to come in and so they did. The Korean team were being extra friendly with Taekwoon as though they've known each other for a while. Most of them were attractive, and the captain exceptionally so. Ki Sung Yueng was Ari’s favourite player who also happened to be the captain. She couldn't stop staring at him. He caught her looking and smiled. Her stomach was doing backflips.

“Our Taekwoon here is an excellent player. We’re hoping he'll join us sometime soon here”, Sung Yueng said as he clapped his hand on Taekwoon’s shoulder.

Taekwoon was red as an apple. Ari could see embarrassment creep up to his face. Taekwoon was terrible with compliments.

“Ari I hear you're quite the Neymar fan, and now I see it too. I should be offended that you're wearing our opponent’s jersey, but I get it.”

Ari bit her lip.

“Sorry,” she answered rather sheepishly.

Sung Yueng laughed. “Don't be. He is incredible on field and a lot of fun off. He's worth every single praise.On that note, are you ready to meet him?”

Ari gulped and let out a squeak.

“I'll take that as a yes.” he laughed.

They took the pictures they wanted and were lead into another room. Laughter could be heard from across the hall. The rest was a blur. Seeing the Brazil team and Neymar, hugging him, laughing with them, and taking pictures. Being the playful person that he is, Neymar kissed her cheek as Taekwoon snapped the picture and she did not know how she was still standing.

Still running high on adrenaline, Ari turned to her social media to post pictures she had taken with the players at the match. Pulling her phone out, she tapped on the Instagram application only to have her eyes widen. Taekwoon who had silently walked beside her the entire time peered into her screen to see what had caused her to freeze while walking.

Minah smiled back at him from between Jongin and what appeared to be Lee Donghae. She was elegantly dressed, wearing a black dress and crystal earrings, her eyes shone as she stood sandwiched between the two men who both had their arms around her and looked elated. The caption read something about these wonderful men and Jongin’s wonderful performance. The next picture was a shot of Minah with the kpop star she had been glorifying in the cafe and she thanked Jongin for the picture in her caption. The next was a picture with Jongin and Eunhyuk, and the next was just a sweaty Jongin with his arm around Minah who was beaming at him the caption reading ‘I’m so proud of you! Such a talented wonderful human!’ and all Taekwoon could do was stare at the stars in Minah’s eyes.  

Ari scrolled through, looking at videos of Jongin’s performance on stage. She cursed softly; he had told her about his upcoming performance as soon as he had been cast in the musical. He had never asked her to the event, but she had expected him to, but here she was having the time of her life at a match she had wanted to watch forever. She couldn’t be there for Jongin, but Minah was and it was that which grated her nerves. She genuinely liked Jongin, but for Minah to be invited to an event which was so important to him was something which made her twinge on the inside.

Was she jealous of her friend? She turned to Taekwoon who looked away from the screen and wondered what was going through his mind. Watching his hands curl into a fist, she pursed her lips. Taekwoon had been supportive of everything between Jongin and her. He was certain that Jongin liked her, he always insisted on it. Now to see Taekwoon upset and hurt made her uncomfortable. She also knew that asking him anything right now would make him awkward, she could gauge that much. Following him to the car she watched him hastily yank the door open, and slam the door shut. She clambered in chewing on her lower lip. She wondered what Jongin and Minah were doing right then and felt her stomach churn.

Maybe that was what Taekwoon was feeling, she wondered, watching his fingers tighten around the steering wheel till they nearly turned white. Minah had told her that though Taekwoon was silent, he was also very aggressive and she could see he was trying to control himself to the best of his ability.

"Where do you want to go for dinner?” he asked, mumbling as he looked straight ahead when her sigh caught his attention. Turning, he looked at her.

“Hey, Ari” he said making her look up at him wondering if he was annoyed with her inability to formulate an answer to his question about dinner “Jongin does stupid things every now and then…maybe he thought you wanted to go for the game.” he said, trying to comfort her. He knew Jongin liked Ari, it was obvious, except calling Minah to an important event...and taking such intimate pictures with her...what was he even thinking?

Ari swallowed heavily, pushing the lump in down “there’s a drive-through close by, let’s just grab dinner there.” Jongin looked amazing in all of Minah’s pictures and by the looks of it, Minah was having the time of her life. Except Ari really wanted to erase Minah from all the pictures and replace Minah with herself. She felt terrible for feeling like this, but she couldn’t help but feel bitter. Taekwoon eyed Ari who sat silently, pursing her lips and staring straight ahead at the now emptying parking lot.

They drove to the nearest drive-through in an uncomfortable silence, to grab some food. Picking up their orders, Taekwoon found an empty spot to park at as they sat, eating in silence. Ari turned to Taekwoon.

“Thanks Taekwoon. This day was amazing.”

He didn't reply. Being the fast eater that he is,he looked absentmindedly out into the parking lot. He wanted to see Minah; the pictures had stunned him for certain not only because Minah was with Jongin, but because Jongin got to see Minah in all her finery. That Jongin got to be with her in a space outside the gym, to see sides of her that he never got a chance to. It made him furious and he wasn’t sure who he was angry with. His hands mechanically crumpled the paper bag in them and he was certain he heard the paper tearing too.

“I bet Minah is thinking about you too, you know.” Ari broke the silence as she took another bite of her burrito.

At this, he looked at her. Ari smiled. She was right, of course. He was dreaming away about her friend.

Taekwoon sighed.

“I wish. She's too busy falling in love with Jongin. Everyone does. He's the charismatic dancer. You would know. Except this is equally messy for you, I don’t want to bother you with this.” He sighed again as he rested his head on the steering wheel.

“And you're no less. You are an amazing guy. This is all four of us involved Taekwoon, it will bother me regardless.” She said, trying her hand at comforting him realizing that this was in fact bothering her and thinking about Jongin with Minah was draining her. Leaning back into the seat, she sighed “If anything, Jongin is probably falling hopelessly in love with Minah. That's probably why he's been distancing himself from me. He's beginning to have feelings for her.” It didn’t make any sense to Ari though, Jongin suddenly falling in love with Minah, her friend Minah who sat around reading her readings all day hoping she’d return to being an athlete. It really made no sense at all, Jongin and Minah were worlds apart and yet this was happening and Minah, being oblivious as ever was going along with it.

Taekwoon looked at Ari, who stared out of the windscreen into the empty space.

“You should tell him.” Taekwoon said, making her turn to him with blank eyes. He realized maybe it was a little harsh to say in such a messy situation. There was silence again.

“Sorry,” She heard him say.

“Yeah, me too.” she sighed back, wondering what Minah and Jongin were doing right then.

Minah uploaded a boomerang video of her and Donghae which Jongin had taken where he spun her around just like Eunhyuk had with the many ladies in the musical. The chance to meet her favourite kpop star backstage was all thanks to Jongin who had been an absolute darling through the evening. He’d picked her up, taken her backstage to see how the preparation goes on, explaining technicalities which she had wanted to know before introducing her to Eunhyuk who shot her a gummy grin that melted her heart. She’d even brought along cds to be signed by him which had made Jongin laugh at her. Eunhyuk told her that Donghae would be coming along that day and that he would introduce her to her crush from high school.

She spotted Donghae sitting in the row ahead of her when she finally took her seat and felt her heart nearly stop. When she pulled out her phone to text Ari about it, she froze, remembering her friend was at the football match with Taekwoon and she didn’t want to interrupt that. She sighed, she’d gotten used to the men who she was attracted to being attracted to her close friends and this was no exception. She felt terrible for Jongin though, she knew for a fact that he liked Ari as well and this whole situation was making things difficult for him. But the moment she looked up and noticed the lights going out and the stage light up, her focus shifted to the musical performance that took over the stage.

By the end of it, Minah was backstage grinning at Jongin and squealing about how ridiculously talented he was as she hugged him briefly, grimacing at the sweaty grinning man who took her over to Eunhyuk and Donghae watching her giddily interact with them yet again. Donghae seemed to find her rather entertaining as he took pictures with her and twirled her around after she declared he was her favourite while Eunhyuk switched between interacting with the staff and Jongin. Once all the excitement died down and Jongin had changed out of his costume, the two headed out to the closest fast food place for dinner chatting about his performance and her fangirling all the while.

Munching on fried chicken, Jongin looked at Minah who was looking out of the window. He sighed, that would have been Ari had Taekwoon not asked her out earlier. Not that he minded Minah being there, she had been very supportive of him and his work, but it was Ari he wanted with him and damn Taekwoon for making his life difficult. Jongin was certain Taekwoon had taken an interest in Minah; but the sudden switch over to Ari, the lady he was very attracted to, was really putting him off and Ari’s ready acceptance of it made it even more painful. He didn’t know what to make of Minah’s reaction to it either, since she didn’t particularly say anything about it. She seemed to have resigned to some fate she believed she had.

“You alright?” he asked, breaking the silence as she bit into a french fry. She looked up at him, quirking her eyebrow.

“The question is, are you alright? I’m sure you wanted Ari to be there for your big day.”

Jongin sighed, Minah was deflecting again, albeit with truth “I am glad you could make it…” he replied.

“But you’d be ecstatic if Ari could have come.”

“You wanted to go for the football match with Taekwoon though.” he mumbled in response as Minah shrugged.

“Well, I don’t get what I want. Ari is happy watching the match and oblivious to Taekwoon’s attention by the look of it. She is an attractive woman, I don’t blame him. It’s up to you to make a move.” Minah shrugged, but Jongin noticed her jaw tightening. She was upset too about the whole mess. She looked away before sipping at her drink.

Extra long chapter to make up for the months we had gone missing.

Thank you guys for your support!