“You like her, don’t you?”

“Excuse me, who?” She asks. Her confused face looks almost comical.

The guy shrugs and closes his book, “Your friend, that freshman.”

“What?” Just what brought this on... because she’s literally just sitting here in the library taking notes for their presentation.

Jinyoung smiles. He smiles so prettily no wonder Mina admires the guy… but that’s all there is to it, admiration. He’s tall, handsome, smart and a gentleman. He’s what every girl would dream of to be their boyfriend and maybe Mina considered it for a little while. She imagined the little things; holding his hand, out on dates, hanging out with just the two of them. It would be a lie to say she hadn’t thought of them at least once…

But it was hard to be immersed into it especially when her mind would always wander back to-... Her thoughts are cut with Jinyoung's manly laugh.

“I think you know what I’m talking about. You were thinking of her just now, didn’t you? You spaced out a little.”

She clears , “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“If you say so, princess.” He shrugs and just when Mina thought they’re done with it he leans in and asks, “Say, if you really don’t like her would you go out with me then?”

Mina opens to say something. She's taken aback, of course. She opens but she knows affirming or refusing would lead to an even more uncomfortable exchange of words. She pursed her lips only to part them again, wanting to answer him but no words would come out.

Jinyoung chuckles at her expression, “See, you can’t say!” He teases.

“Were you teasing me?” Mina huffs.

“Maybe?” He’s definitely teasing her with that dazzling smile of his. Mina can’t help but laugh at that.

Both got back to their work. She tried to put all the thoughts at the back of her mind, determined to finish the presentation so she can have more free time to finally hang out again with-

She shakes her head. Thoughts for later…

Thankfully, she managed to pull through and finished quite a good amount of work before it’s time to head home. They were tidying up and are about to leave, “Hey, Mina.” Jinyoung calls.

Mina looks up at the guy just as she was adjusting her bag, “Consider it?” He looks at her seriously with a soft smile on his lips.

“Which?” She asks. There were quite a few topics to consider from all the discussions they had earlier.

“Both. If you like her… and if you don’t like someone; consider going out with me?” He inhales, his chest inflates not with pride but with nervousness. He’s obviously holding his breath, waiting for Mina's answer... Almost looking like he's dreading for it.

Jinyoung, who’s every straight girls’ and gay guys’ dream of having as their man, is nervously asking him out on a date. Of course, she felt flattered... Who wouldn’t? But she really thought he was joking earlier. He’s a really good guy but, “Let me think about it, Okay?”

Jinyoung smiles widely and releases the breath that he’s been holding cause as long as it wasn’t a no, right?

She walks home alone declining Jinyoung’s offer to walk with her.

And just like he said, she thinks.

Jinyoung's words opened a floodgate of thoughts... She thinks and thinks. Chuckles at the absurdity of it and goes back to frowning about it the next second. She looks like a crazy girl with her thoughts. She has always been with Chaeyoung for the past months and thought that of course it would be natural to think about her the moment they part. She thought that wanting to be closer is natural. Was it not? Jinyoung is wrong about this. They're just really close friends who enjoy each other's company.

It's really hard to stop thinking about it. She’s dreamed of the younger girl that night, she dreamed of her touches, her lips and warm breath against her skin, she’s dreamed of her smile and laughter and she’s pretty sure that it wasn’t the first time this happened but right now she’s aware… too aware of what that might mean.

Liking the younger girl had never crossed her mind because for all she knew she isn’t attracted to girls.

They're best friends. That's just it.

She sits on their usual table, beside Chaeyoung and the younger smiles at her. Mina looks away, Jinyoung really messed this up for her, she thinks.

“Are you okay, unnie?” She whispers and Mina nods, “Lots of work. Hope to finish them soon.”

Chaeyoung scrunches her nose, also feeling disgusted with the amount of work the older girls have to work on before the break. Mina thought it was cute.

"You're red, unnie. Are you sure you're okay?" Oh, dang. Was she blushing?

"Y-yeah" She's never been this conscious around her.

The lunch break passed by in a blur, she couldn't settle with her thoughts but she remembers looking at Chaeyoung and recognizing a familiar feeling in her gut... That same one when Chaeyoung kissed her on the cheek the other day. She felt it explode and spread to her fingertips when her own lips touched the younger's skin in return. It was a good feeling.

She starts to question herself... Is this something you'd call normal, even for a close friend.

She fidgets in her seat. The chair in this café is comfortable enough to make her fall asleep but she just couldn’t stay still. She can’t even finish a page of this reference book.

“What is it?” Jinyoung asks, not lifting his eyes from his book. He’s wearing specs today making girls eye him like a piece of fine meat. She sighs, “What made you think I like Chaeyoung?” That finally made him look up from his book.

“Hmmm. Let’s see. I’ve been flirting with you since day one, Mina.” He gives her his full attention.

“What?” Okay, that… She really didn’t know.

“I like you… Or else I wouldn’t have asked you out.”

She gapes. Mina isn’t sure where this conversation is going either.

“You weren’t aware, were you?”

“Of you flirting with me? I’m sorry, no.” She replies apologetically.

“Then I’m guessing you also weren’t aware that that freshman is all you talk about?” Jinyoung leans forward.

“I- what?” So what if she talks about her a lot. She's her friend who she spends most of her time with. She gulps still.

“Let’s see…” He says that often, “when we first came to this café and I bought a slice of cake for you, that you refused to be paid by me by the way, do you remember what you said after taking your first bite?”

“That it’s delicious?”

“And?”

“I don’t see where this is going.” Mina huffs.

“You said Chaeyoung would like it.” He looks at Mina and waits for her reaction. Mina just laughs, baffled, “That’s it?”

“I thought so too!" He says already expecting Mina's reply, "I mean you’re friends. It’s normal to think about them and want to share things and experiences with them.”

“Exactly!” She exclaimed. Now even more unsure about the course of this talk.

“But as time goes, even in this short period of time that I’ve been looking at you… I don’t think that’s it.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s the small things.” This time Mina didn’t have to ask again because Jinyoung starts to explain it himself, “If you only see how wide your smile is whenever you two would message each other. It’s so different that I can actually tell it’s her you’re talking with.”

“Those small scribbles in your notes…” He continues, “Your writing is too neat to not notice them, Mina. There’s too much of her name on your notebook and that… random doodles of lips with a mole under it. I’ve seen the girl and, wow, the uncanny resemblance.” He chuckles almost bitterly.

“I… write them without knowing,” She says too softly, thinking… fighting a losing battle that she isn’t sure she wants to win, “and also I don’t only write her name! There are my other friends too! I write Sana and Momo’s name too but they’re in Japanese so maybe you just missed them. Also how do you know who I was texting? Were you peeking? Y-you creep.” Mina defends… She sounded silly, she knows. She's definitely rambling.

“Creep?! Oh god, I wasn’t only rejected but also got called a creep.” He face palms dramatically.

“You know Mina I’m not an expert with this. So I can’t tell you how you actually feel… but those small things definitely mean something. I mean if we were to actually go out, I’d be jealous of Chaeyoung and how much you think about her in those moments in between, even without you knowing it.”

They sat there in silence with Mina being unsure what to say, “Oh, god. This is too painful to watch," it’s Jinyoung who breaks the silence first, "We should head home and I’ll just send my remaining parts to you over the internet. Let’s cross check each other tomorrow and please stop thinking too much. It’s simple, Mina." He smiles, "Head home safe.”

She lies on her bed. She’s been thinking too much lately; her presentation, homework, the upcoming exam… and Chaeyoung.

She closes her eyes shut hoping to just rest from everything going on around her. Her liking Chaeyoung, Jinyoung asking him out, her academics... It's so close to Christmas break yet all this torture...

She groans loudly and tries to sleep. She’s pretty sure Jinyoung already sent his materials but she couldn’t even bring herself to get up or check anything else.