Hong Jinyoung, aka Hyong, was at her desk in the teachers’ office, rolling a lollipop in . Yes, she stole it from Snuggly’s desk, again. She only had taken 3 or 7, but there were so many on his desk that she knew that they wouldn’t be missed. And on this candy helped to improve her concentration when she was grading tests, which she had a lot of. And she also needed the candy because grading made her sad.

“I swore to myself that none of these kids would get into a scandal because they didn’t know their history,” Jinyoung muttered to herself while rubbing her forehead. She sighed as she flipped a paper over. “I just hope this kid never becomes an idol.”

“Jinyoung.”

“Oh my gosh!” she exclaimed and jumped in her seat. “Sunggyu?” that felt slightly weird to call him that, but she guessed that was where they were. After all, they had known each other for three years. Maybe it was about time.

Sunggyu put his hands in his pockets and gazed down at her, with his chin tilted up. “So this is where my lollipops are going?” he caught her.

“Just one or two,” Jinyoung’s voice was muffled. She pulled the lollipop out of and offered it to him. “Do you want it back?” Sunggyu grimaced and waved his hands. Jinyoung sniggered and then she admitted quietly, “I probably shouldn’t be taking gifts from your students.”

“Don’t worry about it. It wasn’t a gift,” Sunggyu confessed.

“Ah, okay,” she said and slowly popped it back into .

“So...” Sunggyu drawled out as he leaned against her desk. Jinyoung spun towards him and raised an eyebrow. “An old high school friend came up for job training. And since you don't believe me about my high school life…” his voice drifted off as well as his gaze.

“Who would?!” she interjected. “You'd have to be a god to be like that.”

“I was a god,” he fought back. Jinyoung rolled her eyes at him and spun back around. He snickered. “Seriously, I can prove it if you meet with me and my friend tonight.”

Jinyoung looked back over at him and frowned, tapping her pen against the desk. “I would but I already promised Yewonnie that I would have dinner with her,” she revealed. But Jinyoung wasn’t quite sure if she was saying that as an excuse or just saying it. Not knowing that made her anxious and made her tap the pen more quickly.

“Didn’t you eat with her last night?” Sunggyu asked. Jinyoung dropped her pen and stared at him quizzically. How did he know that? Did she tell him? Probably. She told people everything, but did it mean something that he remembered?

Jinyoung didn’t know but she knew this: “Yes. We like eating together. I like my friend!” She knew that it was none of Sunggyu’s damn business who she ate dinner with.

However, he seemed to want to make her dinner plans his business tonight: “Then bring her too.”

“Hm?”

Sunggyu leaned more heavily on the desk, getting comfortable. “She’s your high school friend, right?” Jinyoung nodded. He lowered his head closer to hers and whispered, “Well, I don't believe you about your high school life either.”

“What? What don’t you believe? I told you the truth!” Jinyoung sputtered and pointed her pen at him.

He smirked at her reaction and shrugged. “This and that,” he dodged giving a straight answer. “Yewon can tell me the truth tonight.” And that smirk turned into a sly grin.

Jinyoung pursed her lips and gripped the pen tightly. This guy really knew how to work her. “Fine, I'll ask her if she wants to eat with us. I mean, if she wants us to eat with you guys,” she corrected herself. She then slid her chair closer to him and gestured at him to come closer. He did. And she whispered, “But I can’t promise she’ll say ‘yes’ because of…”

Sunggyu pulled away, nodding. “I know. I know. That thing.”

Jinyoung sighed and scooted back to her spot. “Crowds make her anxious now. She doesn’t trust people very much anymore,” after she said that she couldn’t help another sigh from escaping her lips. “So I don’t know how she’d feel about meeting with two strange men.” She glanced over at said strange man.

“Well, I’m not strange,” but Sunggyu thought differently. “She knows about me, doesn’t she? Doesn’t she?” he pressed when Jinyoung wasn’t answering.

But she honestly couldn’t remember if she had or hadn’t mentioned him to Yewon. “Maybe? Probably? I do tell her about what goes on around here, but mostly I listen to her…talk. So I can’t remember if you ever came up,” she confessed to him, and it was obvious that he wasn’t liking what he was hearing. Jinyoung giggled out of shame. “Let me ask her if she wants to go,” she diverted the conversation and pulled out her phone. But she didn’t quite know how to phrase the text. She never asked Yewon something like this. She never asked anyone something like this. Hey, do you want to eat with a coworker of mine and a guy we both don’t know so that I can satisfy my curiosity?

Fortunately (or not), Sunggyu was peering over her shoulder, reading her screen, ready to offer help. Jinyoung lowered her phone and raised her eyes up to him. “I’m the handsome and cool voice teacher, not just ‘some guy,’” Sunggyu amended. “Change that.”

Jinyoung scoffed. “You’re the only voice teacher at this school,” she murmured under her breath and finished the text, sending it on its way. “There, I asked her. I’ll tell you what she says.”

“Good,” Sunggyu said and returned to his spot against her desk.

“So what is it that you don’t believe about me in high school?” Jinyoung asked after she put down her phone and spun around to face him.

Sunggyu shrugged. “I just don’t.” He narrowed his eyes on her. “Something just doesn’t add up.”

Jinyoung pouted as she rolled the lollipop in again. She then took it out and wagged it at him “I hope Yewon does say ‘yes’ so I can prove you wrong for doubting me. You’re going to feel silly,” she told him.

“So are you!” Sunggyu argued back. “I was popular, seriously popular.”

Jinyoung rolled her eyes at him exaggeratedly as she spun back towards her desk, but she ended up spinning around in a full circle. “Oh!” she gasped with her eyes wide. “Is Dongwoo coming?” Sunggyu didn’t answer, but it wasn’t like Jinyoung gave him enough time to. “Did you ask Dongwoo? He should come with us too. I know I’ve told Yewonnie about him.” The both of them had talked about making the trek over to his family’s restaurant one day (Dongwoo had promised some service too).

Sunggyu shifted in his spot before answering, “Dongwoo has a date tonight.”

Jinyoung popped the er back into . “Oh right, I forgot,” she murmured and was slightly disappointed. She knew that Dongwoo would’ve helped to put Yewon at ease when it came to guys in general.

“Not surprised,” Sunggyu remarked in a lighter tone.

“I’m curious,” Jinyoung began and she rolled a bit closer to him. “What do youthink about her?”

Sunggyu glanced about the room before pointing at himself. “Me?!” he wanted that to be clarified. Jinyoung nodded and pointed at him. Sunggyu, in turn pointed back at her. “I was wondering what youthought about Dongwoo dating.”

“Me?!” Jinyoung sounded just as shocked as he did. “I like it!” she insisted. Why wouldn’t I?

Sunggyu didn’t believe her. “Really?”

“Of course!” Jinyoung said with a great nod. “That guy wants to settle down. And have you seen him with his niece? He’s ready to be a dad,” she reasoned. “Don’t you think?” She wasn’t feeling comfortable with how quiet Sunggyu was being.

“And you don’t mind?” he finally spoke up and it confused her. “That he’s seeing another girl?”

“Another girl? Why would I?” Jinyoung turned the question around in an unsure voice. “I want him to meet many girls until he finds the right one. That’s not weird, is it?”

“I thought...” Sunggyu paused and shifted again. He seemed unsure himself. Out of the corner of his eye, he looked her up and down, trying to figure her out. “I thought you liked him.”

“Me?” Jinyoung asked. He nodded, and she scoffed. “Me?! Like that guy?!” She gestured over to Dongwoo’s desk besides her.

“Yes,” he replied. Jinyoung’s jaw dropped, at which Sunggyu snorted. “Oh come on! Don’t give me that look! It totally seems like you like him. You always smile when he’s around.”

Jinyoung lowered her voice (because they had been basically shouting at each other and maybe that wasn’t appropriate to do at an office), but she slowly raised her gaze up to him dramatically. “That’s because he’s Jang Dongwoo,” she replied.

“Good point,” Sunggyu responded while dropping his own eyes to the floor.

Jinyoung scanned him for a few seconds, wondering what was going on in his head. She didn’t figure it out, so she just continued talking to make herself clearer, “I might be a vitamin, but he’s the sun.” Oh no, that didn’t help. Sunggyu perked up and glared at her curiously out of the corner of his eye. Jinyoung put her hands up. “Ah, that sounded like I like him again, doesn’t it?” Sunggyu nodded, to which Jinyoung shook her head empathetically. “I don’t. We’d make a horrible couple.”

Now he looked more interested than confused: “What? Why?”

Why? Well, that wasn’t something Jinyoung really gave much thought to. In fact, she never gave any thought to dating Dongwoo. There was a reason for that, a reason that laid more with her than him. Jinyoung rubbed the back of her neck as she figured out how to put it into words. Then she finally did, “I feel...I feel like I’d bother him. No, I know I’d bother him, if we’d ever got together.”

While she had been thinking, Sunggyu apparently got tired of leaning against her desk and wandered over to Dongwoo’s empty desk, taking his seat, and dragging it over to sit next to her. “Why is that?” he asked when she finished.

With a sigh, Jinyoung turned towards him but didn’t want to look at him. “I’d smother him,” she revealed. And that was the truth. Dongwoo would grow tired of her and her ways.

However, her coworker doubted it was true: “You? You smother Dongwoo?” Jinyoung looked up at him and nodded, popping the lollipop back in . Sunggyu leaned back in the chair while shaking his head. “Wouldn’t it be the other way around? He's very...into skinship,” he fought.

“I know, but I'd be the smotherer, trust me,” Jinyoung insisted. She in a deep breath before explaining herself because she was going to say all of this as quickly as she could, “Sometimes people don’t like it when others pry into their lives, if you can imagine. Like with Dongwoo, if I kept asking him where he was, what he was doing, who he was with, he might think that I don't trust him rather than just me being curious. He'd find it smothering. I feel like there would be few people who could handle my nosiness. They’d probably have to be just as nosy as I am.” She was kind of breathless when she finished. And Sunggyu seemed to be following along if his constant nodding could indicate anything.

But that smirk on his lips right now showed that he wasn’t only following but processing. He quirked an eyebrow as he retorted, “Like me?”

“Yes, like you. But you know, not you specifically,” Jinyoung brushed it off as she turned back to her papers. I probably need to get back to grading these, she thought as her fingers flipped through them. A frown formed on her face, which only deepened when someone wouldn’t let her get back to them.

“Hong seonsaeng-nim? Do you like someone? Right now?”

Her gaze didn’t stray from the papers as she grabbed a red pen. “No, not yet,” she answered, trying to sound casual and not as surprised as she felt.

“Not yet? What?” Sunggyu picked on that because he found something funny in it. “Are you planning to or something?”

Now she couldn’t ignore it/him. She put the pen down. “It’s not like that. Geez, that sounds conniving,” Jinyoung spoke through her teeth and then shot a pointed glare at him, but she couldn’t hold it for long. “I just...have someone in mind, I guess. But still keeping my options open at the moment,” she defended herself, while tapping her pen against the tests.

“Oh.” Finally he accepted something as an answer and was satisfied with it. Maybe a little too satisfied. He tapped her on her upper arm with his finger. When she looked over he asked with a cheeky smile, “Is that guy me?”

Jinyoung stared at him blankly for a few seconds and waited for that smile to fade on his face before she retorted with a snort (and a smile herself), “Do even hear yourself before you speak? What? Do you not have enough girls fawning over you?”

“Nope,” Sunggyu answered honestly.

“Whatever,” she dismissed him casually and laughed while she waved him off. “I have to finish grading, but I’ll tell you what Yewonnie says.”

“Eung,” he grunted as he got up from the chair and returned it to Dongwoo’s desk.

“Okay, see you then and I’ll see if you’re telling the truth,” Jinyoung teased.

The Music teacher spun back towards her and raised his arms up, while walking backwards. “You’re going to feel silly when you learn that you’ve been doubting me for no reason,” he fought back.

“Just go!” Jinyoung exclaimed with a laugh, waving him off again. “You’re going to be late for class!”

He looked down at his watch. “Oh, you’re right!” he sputtered and then waved ‘goodbye’ to her before spinning back around and scurrying off.

Once he left the office and turned the corner, Jinyoung let her head fall onto the stack of tests. I already feel silly for agreeing to this, she thought in response to what Sunggyu said earlier. How am I going to explain this to Yewon? What is ‘this’ anyway? Jinyoung slowly lifted her head back up and glanced towards the door, while cupping her cheeks. “Why do I feel so hot? Am I getting sick?”

Later that day Jinyoung was truly starting to feel weak, but she knew that she wasn’t getting sick. It was just carrying several pieces of plywood after a long day of standing in front of a classroom, teaching, was draining her. The art club was starting to build set pieces after finishing the backdrops. First on the list of thing to make was the bar and that required a lotof wood, more than Jinyoung could carry. Luckily Daeyeol and Jaesuk were there to help her out towards the end. Sujeong and Jiae even help to carry the tools. And speaking of tools, Jinyoung was afraid to blink while she was watching the students saw and hammer. Of course, they’d done this before for plays earlier. They probably had more experience with a saw than Jinyoung did, but they were still children. And they could get hurt. The anxiety from watching them like a hawk was also draining her.

“Jaehyun! How many times do I have to say measure twice and cut once?” Jinyoung chided him while she picked up two mismatched pieces of wood. Jaehyun just stared at her with his usual blank look, saying that he’d remember next time. Jinyoung sighed. “Why don’t you help Jiae and fill in some of the gaps on the backdrop?”

“Okay,” Jaehyun seemed more excited about that (or as excited as Jinyoung had ever seen him). “That I can do.”

After he left, Jinyoung looked down at the two pieces of wood in her hands, knocking them together. “What am I going to do with these?”

The two pieces of wood left her hands. “I can figure something out, saem.” It was Daeyeol. He took the wood and left, after picking up a few more scraps from off of the ground.

“What are you going to make? Do you have something in mind?” she asked. But Daeyeol just shrugged, being distant again.

“How about a frame?” Sujeong popped up to her side and suggested. Jinyoung turned to face her and the grin on her face was slightly wicked. “Bong seonsaeng-nim has a portrait. We should make one for you too!”

Jinyoung winced, thinking back to that large portrait of the Drama teacher that was still in the supply closet. She opened her eyes back up and saw most of the art students collecting around her, chattering about how’d they paint their History teacher. Even Daeyeol seemed interested in the conversation. And Jinyoung wasn’t too comfortable with how they were looking her up and down. “No,” she denied them any more fun at her expense. “No one is painting me.”

“How about a sculpture then?” Jaesuk joked.

“No! You guys aren’t allowed to make anything that looks like me,” Jinyoung hoped that would put the matter to rest. If it didn’t, she dismissed them anyway. They’d obviously lost their focus and she didn’t want them to handle any tools in this condition. Something dangerous would definitely happen.

Earlier, before classes ended and much before her students began teasing her, Yewon had texted Jinyoung back. She agreed to the plan and wrote that she was curious to meet them, which gave Jinyoung much relief. She’d been worried about pushing her friend into an uncomfortable situation. There had been times when Yewon grew very anxious in places where there were a lot of men around, so Jinyoung didn’t know how she’d feel about sitting across from two strangers. But Yewon must’ve trusted Jinyoung more than she knew. Jinyoung knew these men (sort of) and it was good enough for her. And Jinyoung was going to do whatever she could not to betray that trust and make sure that Yewon had a good time. Hopefully, afterwards, Yewon would learn how to trust more people than just Jinyoung again.

She was also certain that the both of them would’ve liked more advanced warning, to prepare mentally…and physically. Jinyoung was a mess now, with nothing to improve it. Bare-faced, a nest of hair on her head, and still in her coveralls from art club. At least she could change back into her clothes form earlier that day. But there wasn’t much she could do about anything.

This really wasn’t the first impression that she wanted to make. But she supposed it didn’t matter. Tonight was supposed to be about not hiding anything, right? So a bare-faced, messy Jinyoung would do just fine.

Before meeting with the men, Jinyoung went to pick up Yewon at her apartment. Much like herself, Yewon was dressed casually, with very minimal make-up on. It was as if it was just any other night of the two of them going out to eat. And that put Jinyoung more at ease, knowing that her friend was acting like herself. Or at least she was at the beginning. The closer that they got at the meet-up place, while Jinyoung was filling her in on the situation (why her and Sunggyu were having this silly argument), Yewon wrapped her arms around Jinyoung’s closely and clung onto her. Jinyoung tried to act like her demeanor hadn’t changed, while she opened up the door to the restaurant.

The men were already there, and Sunggyu waved at them. Jinyoung waved back and gestured at Yewon to them. “That’s them.”

“Oh,” Yewon muttered. “Which one is the teacher? The one who waved?” Jinyoung nodded. “He doesn’t look like he’d be that popular.”

“Right?” Jinyoung agreed with a chuckle. She then dragged her friend to the table. “Hello, Kim seonsaeng-nim. This is my friend, Kang Yewon.”

“Nice to meet you,” Sunggyu greeted them after getting up from his seat. He gestured at them to sit down. Before they could, the man who’d been sitting across from Sunggyu stood up, and he was much taller and broader than Jinyoung had expected. He gave off a kind feel and seemed older than herself. Jinyoung smirked. This is supposed to be the friend of the most popular guy in high school? Sunggyu is full of it. While the guy was getting out of his seat and moving to be next to his friend, Sunggyu introduced him, “This is my friend, Lee Palryoung.” He walked by Jinyoung as his name was revealed. She waved. Sunggyu then continued, “This is Hong-saem, the History teacher from my school.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Jinyoung replied while she was sliding into her seat. She decided to let Yewon to sit along the edge of the table so that she could leave easily, if things got to overwhelming, which meant Jinyoung was sandwiched between her friend and the wall, sitting across from Sunggyu.

Palryoung sniggered and nudged his friend. “When you said History teacher, I half-expected someone my mom’s age,” he told him. He was obviously pleased with this outcome and not sitting with two middle-aged women. “It’s good to meet the both of you.”

“Why would I ask someone my mom’s age to drink with us?” Sunggyu questioned, shooting the other a glare.

“I don’t know,” Palryoung brushed the man off, so used to his killer glare that he could just easily dismiss it. He then turned towards the girls, addressing them although he acted like he was still talking to Sunggyu, “You’ve done weirder things.”

Ah, so Palryoungie was that kind of person, Jinyoung concluded with a smirk. The man might’ve looked older than his actual age his whole life, but what he lacked in youthful looks, he made up with wit and delivery. He was probably one of those guys who had people clamor around him for his charm. A class clown that had people laughing with him instead of at him (but maybe he had them laughing at others). I could have fun with this. Jinyoung turned towards him, propping her chin in her hands. “Like what?”

“Yah!” Sunggyu snapped. His hand went over his friend’s cheeky smile. “Don’t tell her. This girl has a bigger mouth than you do! She’d probably tell our students,” he dissed Jinyoung unexpectedly, who gasped in response.

But it made Yewon giggle, with her hand covering her growing smile. Jinyoung pouted at her friend. “What? It’s true,” Yewon refused to feel guilty for finding it funny. She wagged her finger at the other. “This is why I don’t tell you some things.”

Odd, Jinyoung didn’t know how to react because she knew Yewon’s most dark and sensitive secrets right now. And yet Yewon wouldn’t trust her with lesser secrets? I suppose that’s safe because I did tell…her eyes drifted over across the table, up at the man who was staring back at her. It seemed like he found the comment odd too.

Jinyoung dropped her gaze to her hands. “I’m trustworthy,” her voice was hardly strong but it was audibly layered with guilt. She cleared before continuing to talk to Palryoung, “And I promise not to tell the students. Just tell me. Whisper it to me so that Sunggyu can’t hear.” She stood up from her seat and leaned over the table so that her ear was near him.

“No,” Sunggyu denied any conspiring against him as he pushed the two apart and moved his coworker back over to her side of the table. “Let’s just order,” he grumbled before sitting back down.

And so they decided what to eat and drink, while chatting casually. Soon side dishes were placed in front of them, beer too, and then more dishes. Yewon and Palryoung were discussing the most delicious combinations of the food in front of them, and quite passionately too. Jinyoung smiled. Yewon was appearing to have a good time, but she was hardly looking the man in the eye and frequently ended her statements with “I don’t know,” which Jinyoung wasn’t used to hearing. The old Yewon used to speak as if each sentence ended with an exclamation point. She was confident, definitive. And now she spoke as if her words ended with “…”

Jinyoung had been so busy observing her friend that she didn’t notice the man slowly sliding across the table to have a sidebar with her. “Yewon looks nice,” Sunggyu’s words startled her.

“Oh, of course!” Jinyoung stuttered. But then covered . Secret conversations were supposed to be quiet and not shouted out loud. She lowered her voice and her hand, “How did you expect her to look?”

“Honestly, sadder,” he admitted with an embarrassed smile.

“What's there to be sad about?” Jinyoung questioned him. “She's out with friends.”

Sunggyu glanced over at the other two who were still debating on the ‘right’ way to eat the soup, what to mix into it to heighten the flavor. He seemed perplexed, not by their conversation but just by her. “Well...from what you said…” he mumbled, barely moving his lips.

“I know,” Jinyoung cut him off. He turned his gaze back to her, and she gave him a small smile before continuing, “Actually, she's being shier than she used to be, but you wouldn't know that. She's also anxious.”

He perked up. “Really?”

“She's not eating,” Jinyoung pointed out in a low whisper. That hadn’t escaped her notice, despite Yewon’s words and how her chopsticks moved from dish to dish. They hadn’t moved up to . She feels nauseous again. Jinyoung sighed. Yewon is trying her best to have a good time, but she still feels anxious. “But other than that. She's good,” she ended. While Yewon wasn’t perfectly her normal, she was doing just fine. And while Jinyoung worried for her, she was proud that Yewon was getting over her new phobia slowly but surely.

“Eung,” Sunggyu drew her attention back to him with that soft grunt. “I guess you can never really tell what a person’s been through. It doesn't always show.”

“Right,” Jinyoung agreed, feeling the smile widening on her face.

“What are you two talking about?” The two of them snapped their heads towards Palryoung, who asked them the question with a curious grin on his face.

While Jinyoung was at a loss for words (other than the truth), Sunggyu covered for the both of them, “A student we have. Joochan.”

Jinyoung nodded and slapped the table to confirm what he just said. “He’s the Elvis in the musical,” her voice was much louder than normal. Sunggyu winced, and it was well deserved. Jinyoung’s acting was bad.

But it had convinced their friends. “All Shook Up?” Palryoung asked for clarification.

“Yea, how did you know?” Jinyoung replied.

“I went to see it when this kid starred in it,” the man answered while pointing over to his friend. Sunggyu nodded to say it was true.

“You were in a musical?” Yewon asked, sounding surprised.

“Yes, for a bit,” he confirmed.

“I know it’s not musicals, per se, but I was trained to sing Classical music,” she tried to make a connection with him. Jinyoung smiled while watching her. She’d forgotten that Yewon was a singer, even though that had played such a large role in her friend’s life. Jinyoung had gone to her fair share of Yewon’s performances. But Yewon wasn’t singing for a living; she had another career, much like someone else Jinyoung knew.

“Really?” Sunggyu engaged the woman and turned towards her, and the both of them began talking about singing, music, and performing. Things that Jinyoung knew nothing about and so she could add nothing to the conversation. And that made her feel weird. Very weird. Too weird. I should be proud, Jinyoung reminded herself, forcing a grin onto her face. This is more like the Yewon I know. The smile became more real now, and her gaze drifted down the table to his friend. She hated to admit it, but she was slightly jealous that he’d watched the musical. I bet he had a good laugh at his friend, she snorted at her own thought. I should ask him about it. But as soon as she opened , something clicked in Jinyoung’s mind. This kid probably has seen more than Sunggyu’s musical. They were friends in high school, before Sunggyu moved to Seoul, before Sunggyu became…

“Hey, wait a second. Do you know about…What was that?”

Jinyoung felt it. She was sure she did. There something that tapped against her shin. She leaned down to touch it as her gaze lifted to the man across from her. With that twisted smile, Jinyoung was sure he had something to do with it. At least he was gentle, she thought as she straightened herself back up. I guess tonight isn’t the night to talk about that stuff.

Right because this night was bout something else, and she had nearly forgotten about it until Sunggyu reminded them: “Tell me about your friend in high school.” He pulled his eyes away from his coworker as he addressed Yewon.

Who was a little taken aback by the abrupt shift in conversation but went with the flow. “Jinyoung? She’s pretty much the same now as she was then,” she replied.

Sunggyu scoffed and his eyes darted back to Jinyoung. “She told me she wasn’t popular,” he was speaking to Yewon but he kept his gaze steady on the other. When he was done, he took a drink. Jinyoung leaned back in her chair and rolled her eyes. This was what he didn’t believe about her high school career, no matter how much she insisted that she was just a folding screen in high school, present but in the background.

“Well she wasn’t like a queenka or anything but people liked her,” Yewon reiterated what Jinyoung had said before.

“That’s exactly what I told him,” she jumped in to rub it in his face. She placed a hand over her chest. “I was a quiet and shy kid.”

At that, Yewon, who was about to take a drink, sputtered and began coughing. What else came from sounded very much like laughter, but Jinyoung didn’t want to believe that her friend was laughing at her. Yet Yewon was. It became clearer as the coughing abated. “No, no, no, no. I wouldn’t say that,” she strongly denied.

“What would you say? Tell me,” Sunggyu goaded her.

“Was she wild?” Jinyoung had forgotten that Palryoung was there until he spoke up just then, joining in the teasing. “Ah, was she one of those partying types?”

“No! No! I wasn’t!” Jinyoung defended herself and waved her arms crazily in the air. “I studied most of the time.”

“That’s true, she did. But, Jinyoung...” Yewon paused to face her friend straight on, and when she did, Jinyoung dropped her head. She knew what she was about to say. “…you were more of an instigator. She’d get us into so much trouble!”

“It wasn’t like that!” Jinyoung spoke up.

Yewon nudged her. “That’s a lie, and you know it!”

Jinyoung pouted and looked at the other out of the corner of her eye. “Well, you guys didn’t have to follow me. I didn’t makeyou do anything,” she defended herself.

“What would she do?” Sunggyu wanted to know some more.

“It was all just stupid stuff,” Yewon answered him. “We’d pull pranks. We filled up a classroom with balloons once, and no one knew it was us...until Jinyoung told them.” She ended by giving her friend a sharp glance, to which Jinyoung raised her hands in the air defensively. She was how she was. She was a good kid, no matter how ‘badly’ she acted out. She was honest to her core.

Sunggyu snorted. “Of course, she did.” But he didn’t look over at Jinyoung like Yewon had. His eyes were still on her friend, enjoying the story. “Did you guys get in trouble for that?”

Jinyoung jumped into the conversation before he could get any ideas, “No, it was near the end of our last year, and our homeroom teacher liked us.” All of their pranks were harmless anyway. They were only in good fun, and fun for everyone.

But maybe that wasn’t completely true. “Yea, that wasn’t when we got into the biggest trouble,” Yewon remarked.

“What was? I don’t remember getting into trouble,” Jinyoung replied with a shaky smile. She didn’t want her coworker to have anything to hang over her head.

“You don’t remember?” Yewon asked, getting worked up and hitting the other lightly with the back of her hand. “There was this one time, we were outside during break, and it had rained the night before…”

“Oh my gosh, I almost forgot about that!” Jinyoung cut her off and hid her face behind her hands.

“I can’t!” Yewon exclaimed to the other two guys. Jinyoung couldn’t see it because she was still hiding, but she could feel Yewon wagging her finger at her. She could feel the shame. “She ruined our uniforms! Jinyoung found this mud puddle, put her finger in it, and swiped mud across my cheek. One thing led to another and we were all covered head to toe in mud. Chaeyoung too!”

Jinyoung lowered her hands a bit, but they still covered her cheeks, which were hot to the touch. She faced Yewon and responded, “We had to stay after to clean the mud we tracked in, didn’t we?”

“Eung,” Yewon spoke with a nod. She then folded her arms. “And my uniform was always a weird color after that.” Jinyoung moved one hand from her cheek to her friend’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze, while mouthing ‘sorry.’ Yewon let go of her ‘anger’ and laid a hand over her friend’s.

“I knew it.”

Jinyoung’s attention flew across the table. “Knew what?”

“That you weren’t the quiet kid that you said you were,” Sunggyu stated with a smirk.

“She seems like it on the outside, but once you get close to her,” Yewon paused to point a finger at her friend’s face (and for dramatic effect). “She’s trouble.”

Jinyoung gasped, laying a hand over her heart. “I’m not! I’m a good person.”

“She’s a cheater,” Sunggyu said to Yewon, not paying any heed to Jinyoung, who gasped even louder.

“Still?” Yewon was shocked and her eyes bulged. She then tsked and shook her head. “She was sucha cheater back then too.” Finally, one of them addressed Jinyoung (although right now she was wishing that they’d forget about her entirely. This was embarrassing),“Yah, you still do that? But you’re so bad at it.” After saying that, Yewon faced the men again, “She’s too honest, so she’s super obvious about it. She’ll look you straight in the eye as she tries to hide a card up her sleeve or something. So she never wins when she cheats,” she explained again. Yewon then nudged Jinyoung roughly, “Why do you even do it?”

“I don’t know,” Jinyoung mumbled while hanging her head. “I lose anyway so it doesn’t really matter. Losers can’t cheat.”

“Exactly!” Yewon exclaimed. “It doesn’t matter, so why do you do it?”

“She must be petty,” Palryoung remarked and then sly took a sip from his beer, knowing how much he was stirring the pot.

“Ah, that’s it,” Sunggyu muttered, sounding disappointed in her.

“No, I’m competitive,” Jinyoung responded, as if being overly competitive was any better than being petty.

Palryoung swallowed a big gulp and then nudged his friend. “They say once a cheater always a cheater. You better watch out for her,” he warned him.

It was a joke. If Jinyoung thought about it for a second, she would’ve realized that. But instead, she didn’t think and went on the defense, immediately, too quickly, nearly cutting the man off with her shout, “I’m a good person!”

Sunggyu’s eyes showed his smile while he was drinking, but once he put the drink down, he turned to Palryoung. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep an eye on her.”

Jinyoung glowered at him. She didn’t need to be monitored. She was no criminal. “Don’t act like any of you never cheated in anything,” she argued as she gestured around the table. Her finger stopped on Palryoung. “I bet you have!”

He shook his head, still with that sly smile on his face. “No, I haven’t. I don’t need to,” he replied calmly.

“He’s a shark,” Sunggyu added soon after. He coughed a bit from drinking too quickly before continuing, “Don’t play against him in anything especially not for money.”

“How about for drinks then?” the other man suggested. “Let’s play a drinking game! Since we’re all trying to get to know each other, how about the five finger game?”

Before the other two could say anything, Jinyoung answered for them all, while rolling up her sleeves. “Sure! And I won’t even cheat this time.”

“I don’t think you can do it,” that came from none other than her good friend.

“YEWON-AH!”

“What? It’s true!”

Sunggyu started off the game. There was no logic behind it other than he said that he was going to start, so he did. When he did, Jinyoung had to fold, Yewon too. Because of all of the things he could of said, Sunggyu said that the person who grew up furthest away from Seoul to had to fold. It was intentional, of course. So Jinyoung had every intent to attack him right back. She said that everyone who has been in a musical needed to fold. Before he folded his finger, he demanded that Jinyoung should do the same. She technically was a part of a musical now. Jinyoung tried to argue that being a supervisor was different and that she really was in charge of the art club and not the musical. Sunggyu didn’t buy it, neither did his friend. Even Yewon told her to just fold her finger so that they could move on with the game. And then Yewon proceeded to betray her even further: “Fold your finger if you teach!”

“YEWON-AH!”

“What? I don’t want to lose, and you’re almost out,” Yewon reasoned.

At that Jinyoung pouted. I might have to start cheating now, she supposed. But it wasn’t like she could secretly raise a finger back up and act like nothing happened (she wasn’t nearly tipsy enough for that). However, there was a different strategy that she could do. “Palryoung-ah,” Jinyoung whined in a cute voice and shimmied her shoulders. The two men nearly spat out their drinks. “I don’t wanna lose. Can’t we play a little bit longer? Can’t we, Palryoung-ie?”

“Wah,” Sunggyu muttered. He was baffled, or disappointed, or confused. Jinyoung wasn’t quite sure what emotion that was on his face, or it flickered between them. “You’ll really do anything not to lose.”

“You’d do the same too, if you were in my position,” her voice grew quieter as she continued, feeling more ashamed and hot. Her hands went up to her face. Her eyes stuck on Palryoung because he was the only one at the table not judging her. “Did it work?”

“Eung,” he grunted. “I’m not made of stone, unlike this guy.” Palryoung pointed with his elbow over to his friend, and Sunggyu had been too busy stuffing his face with food to talk back. So of course, his friend took this as an opportunity to keep striking when Sunggyu was defenseless. “When we were in high school, a group of girls actually broke out into a fight over him, and he did nothing, absolutely nothing!”

Sunggyu choked down his food so that he could talk. “It…wasn’t…like that,” he managed to get out between strangled coughs. “I wasn’t even there when it happened. And it was only two girls.”

“It was three,” Palyroung corrected him.

“Stop making me look weird,” Sunggyu responded through gritted teeth.

“Ah!” Palryoung gasped as he hit the table. He had an idea and from the look on his face, it wasn’t good for his friend. “Fold if girls have ever gotten into a physical altercation over you. Oh! Why did you fold, Yewon-ssi?” Indeed, Palryoung was a shark and noticed every drop of blood in the water.

“In college,” Yewon started and then bowed her head, trying to hide her blush behind her hair. “A classmate was spreading rumors about me because she thought her ex was interested in me, but he wasn’t…anyway, long story short, my friend confronted her one day and hit her.”

“Was it Jinyoung?” Palryoung asked.

“No!” both of the girls responded in unison.

He shrugged in response. “I had to ask because Sunggyu used to always chase the bad girls around in high school. I was just wondering if he still did,” Palryoung explained.

“No. No!” Sunggyu argued as he choked down the food that he was eating again. “The bad girls liked me,” he corrected the other. However, it wasn’t much of an improvement because it made Jinyoung roll her eyes at him. She’s heard this before from Sunggyu: The girls noticed me. It was always the girls’ fault. Jinyoung’s eyes rolled down and fixed on her drink. He’s acting like his mere presence made the girls go crazy. Like an idol…Oh my gosh! He was an idol! Jinyoung scoffed, as all sorts of emotions crashed against each other. She was starting to realize something, and she wasn’t sure if she was ready for it.

“You don’t believe me.” Oh, that was Sunggyu talking, and he was looking directly at her. He was talking to her!

“Of course, I don’t,” Jinyoung responded.

“Of course?! Why ‘of course’?” Good, he sounded offended, which was what Jinyoung was aiming for, to ruffle up his feathers so that he could be the flustered one instead.

“You were the one who told me to believe what your friend said, so of course I have to believe him over you,” Jinyoung used his own words against him, and because she did, he was having a hard time forming a response against them.

“That’s wise, Jinyoung-ssi,” Palryoung added. “Don’t trust this guy too much. His memory of events is a little...weird.”

“This guy, aish, this guy!” Sunggyu spat, while wagging his finger at his friend. “You’re trying to make me out to be weird!”

“I’m just having fun,” Palryoung replied as he wrapped his arm around his disgruntled buddy in an apologetic half-hug. “It’s your turn by the way.”

“Fine,” Sunggyu grumbled as he slipped away from the other. He glared at him. “Fold if you’re wearing a turtleneck.”

“Hey!” Yewon raised her voice as she tugged at the collar of her own turtleneck. She then slumped in her chair and pouted. She was getting caught in the crossfires of these two, and now she was in danger of losing.

“Oh, sorry, Yewon-ssi,” Sunggyu apologized.

“Here, let me even things out,” Jinyoung offered. She scanned over Palryoung quickly and thought of a new one: “Fold if you’re playing with your left-hand!”

“Jinyoung-ah!” Yewon whined again. Jinyoung whipped her head over and saw Yewon folding yet another finger. Now she only had one left standing.

“Why did you switch hands all of the sudden?” Jinyoung whined too. “I didn’t mean to attack you! I’m sorry!” As she apologized, she leaned into her friend.

“Fold if you’re in town for job-training,” Yewon spoke up. Palryoung, of course, was the only one to fold a finger at that. She then gestured at the other two. “That’s how you attack one person!”

“Oh, you’re going to regret that, Yewon-ssi,” Palryoung replied, baring his teeth with his sly grin.

“How about me? I attacked you too!” Jinyoung offered herself up in her friend’s stead.

“I did too,” Sunggyu did too, sort of. “But attack her first,” he added and pointed at Jinyoung.

“Or you can get the both of us!” Jinyoung amended, while smiling at Palryoung, trying to tempt him.

But the shark already found his victim: “Or I could finish her off right now. Fold if you’re wearing glasses.” And with that, Yewon’s last finger fell as did her eyes on the tall glass that Palryoung was pouring a mix of drinks into. “Now drink up, Yewon-ssi!” he exhorted as he pushed the glass towards her.

Jinyoung had tried to intercept it, to be her black knight, but Yewon gave her a quick glance as if to say that it was okay. So Jinyoung pulled back and watched her friend carefully. This was all a part of Yewon wanting to be normal again, like she used to be. She wanted to play a silly game and accept her punishment, a punishment that she could’ve easily done a few months ago.

But that was then. This Yewon now had barely ate anything all night and this drink she just chugged down was not settling well with her. After struggling to keep her smile on her face for a few minutes, Yewon finally excused herself to use the bathroom. Jinyoung wanted to follow her, but knew she shouldn’t. Yewon wouldn’t want her to see what she was about to do. And honestly, neither did Jinyoung (or smell it for that matter). If Yewon wasn’t back within a reasonable time, then, and only then, would Jinyoung bang on the bathroom door.

Soon after Yewon left the table, Palryoung did too, to answer a phone call from his girlfriend, which made Jinyoung somewhat sad. He seemed like the type that Yewon would like, funny and easy to talk to. Yewon wasn’t tense around him (or Sunggyu for that matter). But what small hope she had for sparks to fly between old friends died, which was fine, Jinyoung guessed. Tonight wasn’t about setting Yewon up with guys, nor was it about getting her comfortable with guys again. But…why did they gather again? Jinyoung forgot the reason amid the drinks and the frivolity. She even forgot that she’d ordered some extra rice so that they could mix in the remainder of the soups and side dishes into.

Sunggyu hadn’t forgotten about the food though. He’d been waiting for it and excitedly moved into Yewon’s spot where the rice had been put down (his side of the table was covered in empty bottles and such). He began throwing things into it while Jinyoung just sat there.

“Can you hand me that?”

“Oh, this?” Jinyoung asked as she picked up the radish kimchi. He nodded while he took it from her. Jinyoung snapped out of whatever funk she was in and grabbed another dish from the table. “Let’s put some of this in there too.”

“Yea, put that in,” Sunggyu said as he let her have control over the bowl. And together they finished creating this bizarre (but good) mixture of their leftovers and then began eating it while waiting for their friends to return.

Of course, neither of them could stay quiet for long. The both of them liked talking too much (and hated the silence). “So do you believe me now?” Sunggyu asked with his mouth full. “About me in high school?”

Jinyoung snorted. “Fine, you were popular with that old fashioned looking face of yours. I’ll recognize it now,” she and snorted again at the sour look on his face. But then she quickly dropped her gaze and muttered under her breath, “It seemed like you were popular with the ladies too.”

“Of course, if I’m well liked, then I’m well liked by everyone,” he reasoned.

Jinyoung quickly glanced over at him and then returned to her food. “I guess that’s true.”

“But I didn’t date around a lot,” Sunggyu’s voice all the sudden got louder. “My friend made it seem like that. I just like talking, making connections with people…”

“Flirting?” Jinyoung interjected with a tight smile.

“Ah,” Sunggyu’s mouth fell open and that sound slipped out. He then snapped his mouth closed and mimicked her smile. “Maybe that too,” after saying that he began eating again.

Jinyoung watched him out of the corner of her eye. It was worrisome, or at least it was starting to worry her. It’s the same as when he was in high school. The flirting, he just likes it. He just likes women and women like him. “What about me?” Jinyoung mumbled. Sunggyu looked over at her, and she held his gaze this time. She gave a small grin. “Do you believe me now?”

“A bit,” he replied. He then pulled away and looked off into the distance, narrowing his eyes as he thought. “Something about how you said you were in high school...it just didn’t sound like you. But what Yewon-ssi said, that’s totally you,” he finished with a laugh.

Jinyoung pouted. “I’m an instigator?”

“Eung.” He didn’t even skip a beat.

Jinyoung wiped and finally put down her spoon. This needed her full attention. “I’ll have you know that when I was in high school, people always told me that I was a good person. In fact, they thought I was too good,” she argued. And what, did Sunggyu really roll his eyes at her? It didn’t deter her, and she kept going, “A lot of people told me that I’d go crazy in college because I was ‘too good.’ Because I never really rebelled.”

“Did you?” Something about the look on his face told her that he already knew the answer.

“No,” she responded. “I’ve pretty much always been like this. I never really saw the need to rebel.”

“I get it,” he said with a nod, but then he shot her a knowing look. “It’s not like you’re innocent either. You pull a lot of pranks.”

Jinyoung giggled, not out of embarrassment but she felt proud about it instead. “Yea, I guess those are like my small little rebellions. I don’t need to run away from home or go through a party phase,” she explained.

“You just need to fill a room with balloons to relieve your stress,” he elaborated.

Jinyoung gave him a thumbs up. “Exactly!” She smiled brightly at him, but he couldn’t do the same. And her smile fell away while a silence fell upon them for a moment, or two.

“I...ran away from home.”

“What? You did?” Jinyoung blubbered.

Sunggyu was only looking at the bowl in front of him, watching his spoon play with the rice. “Yea, to become a singer,” he revealed eventually. “I ran away from home.”

“Oh,” she muttered in response, watching the spoon swirl around in the bowl. “Your parents didn’t want you to be a singer?” Jinyoung had never really considered that, but then again, they really never talked this deeply about their past before.

“No, they wanted me to be a judge or a professor,” he answered and dropped the spoon into the bowl. He seemed to be done with it, but she wasn’t. She now was playing with her own spoon, scooping food up and plopping it back down into the bowl.

“Oh...I’m sorry,” she muttered in a distracted voice. I wonder…

“What are you thinking about?” Sunggyu broke into her thoughts. She turned towards him. “You have that ‘thinking’ expression on your face again.” He gestured around it vaguely with his finger. “What is it?” he asked again as he dropped his hand.

“Heartthrob…how that all turned out,” Jinyoung answered as she spun in her seat to face him fully. “And your parents now...you guys seem to be on good terms.” Her brows furrowed the harder that she thought about it and the longer her eyes lingered on his face, which was growing stiffer by the second.

“We are. I’m their only son.” He then lowered his eyes to his hands and scoffed. “I’m still theirs even if I’m a failure.”

“You aren’t a failure.”

“Hm?” He snapped his head back up and tucked his lips into his mouth.

“You’re not a failure,” Jinyoung spoke with 100% sincerity. She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

Sunggyu freed his lips and his eyes scanned all over, probably trying to read her motives, why she’d just said that. And honestly, Jinyoung didn’t know why she did either. It was just how she felt. She felt like his past was something he should be proud of, Heartthob was something he should be proud of.

But his reaction to her sudden words was just as unexpected. Sunggyu laughed and stamped his foot. Jinyoung cocked an eyebrow in question, and so, still laughing, he reached over and pulled something from the hair framing her face. “I can’t even take you seriously with this in your hair,” he .

“Oh! What is it?” Jinyoung’s voice was small. Now she was genuinely embarrassed. Her ears were probably red now.

“Rice,” Sunggyu announced as he showed it to her. He then snorted again. “Wait, there’s another. Are you trying to plant a rice field in here?” he joked as he reached over again to fish out another grain.

“I don’t know,” she mumbled back as she lowered her head towards him since he was struggling to pull this one out of her hair. “How did it even get in there? Is there more?”

“Let me see,” she heard him mutter under his breath and felt his fingers card through her hair.

“Oh cute!”

The both of them froze, with his hands still on her head and her head lowered. She slowly moved it to see Yewon standing in front of them (in front of her former seat to be more exact). And she was grinning down at them in such a way that made Jinyoung feel uncomfortable (and maybe slightly exposed).

Jinyoung suddenly pulled away and announced, “I’m going to go fix my hair. Excuse me.” She slithered around the other two and headed straight for the door, the entrance. She needed to cool down and to get away.

Back at the table, Yewon was still standing and cocking her head as she watched her friend walk towards the entrance. “Does she know that the bathroom is that way?” she asked no one in particular as she pointed behind her. But she looked down at Sunggyu for the answer.

“I think she does,” he replied back in a distracted voice, as if he was waiting for something. And then there it was. Jinyoung looked back at them, at him, before darting outside. “Excuse me,” he said and followed the woman.

“What are you doing out here? Smoking?”

“Ah, what?” Jinyoung yelped and jumped slightly. Her hands were up in the air, empty, as she faced her colleague who was walking out of the restaurant to join her. “Are you talking to me?”

“I was kidding,” Sunggyu confessed as he came up to her side and the leaned against the side of the building with an uneasy smile. “I know you’re a good girl.”

“I am!” Jinyoung retorted, loudly. Something about the way he emphasized ‘good’ made it seem like he thought that she was anything but. However, she wasn’t the smoker out of the two of them. She moved towards him. “What about you? Are you here to...”

“No,” Sunggyu cut her off with a cheeky grin. “I quit.”

She stopped in her tracks. “You did?”

He nodded, looking proud. “Yea because someone told me it was going to kill me, and it worried them,” he revealed.

“O-oh,” Jinyoung stammered, not quite sure of how to respond. Should she say ‘congratulations’? ‘Good job’? ‘Was that someone me?’ Perhaps this question was better: “Then why did you come out?”

Sunggyu shifted against the wall as he glanced over her, which made Jinyoung fidget too. However, he cut the growing tension with a shrug. “Just because,” was his answer.

“Liar,” Jinyoung didn’t have to know him since high school to know right now that he wasn’t telling the whole truth. “You didn't quit. You’re lying because I caught you!” she accused him.

“I did quit!” Sunggyu exclaimed back, pulling himself off from the wall. He turned out the pockets of his coat. “See! Not even a lighter!”

“Sure,” Jinyoung sneered with a roll of her eyes. She wasn’t buying it. After all, he’d been smoking for as long as she known him. He couldn’t quit that easily. She walked up closer to him with a sly smile on her face, which made him back up onto the wall again. “I bet you have a pack in there,” she said, reaching for the pockets in his pants.

“I don't!” Sunggyu yelped as he batted her hand away (which she expected him to do). She stumbled back and away, giggling. However, Sunggyu wasn’t as jovial as she was. His expression was stern, serious. “Believe me.”

Jinyoung kept giggling until it slowly faded away and her smile dropped slightly. Guilt was starting to overtake her now. She didn’t believe that he could do it. She didn’t believe his words. She didn’t believe him, which was all he wanted. “Why?” Jinyoung asked. “Why do you care if I believe you or not?”

“Because…” he started as he lifted himself off from the wall again and came to stand closely in front of her, “…it matters to me.”

“Why?” she continued to press him and stared up at him, wide-eyed, careful to not miss a flinch on his body, which did happen when she shifted her weight to her other foot.

However, he still answered coolly, “We’re friends, aren’t we? It’d be weird if I didn’t care about your opinion. You care about mine, right?”

“Yea,” Jinyoung replied a bit too quickly, so she pulled her answer back a bit with a teasing smile and this addition: “It depends.”

“Depends on what?” Now it was his turn to press her, and she responded back in a like manner. She just shrugged. Sunggyu scoffed. “You really like to provoke me, don’t you?”

“Tease. I like to tease you,” she corrected him.

He glared down at her while pouting. “You like being mean to me,” he mumbled lowly, trying to evoke her pity, but it didn’t work. She kept laughing and fought back:

“What? Like you don’t tease me too?”

He quickly shook his head, acting like a picture of innocence. “No. I’ve been nothing but nice to you,” he lied right to her face.

“You have,” but he had been right in part and Jinyoung was going to acknowledge that. “You put up with my teasing. That’s nice.” She smiled broadly and lowered her head, looking at their feet. “I’m glad that we got closer through the musical. It’s good to have another friend.”

“Me too,” Sunggyu responded. She raised her head again to see him smiling. “I’m also glad to gain a new friend because that’s what we are, friends. Should we talk casually to each other now, friend?”

Well, while it was about time for them to speak casually to each other, something about the way it happened made Jinyoung uneasy (and laugh uneasily too). How many times had he said ‘friend’? Was he trying to tell her something? Jinyoung tucked loose strands of her hair behind her ear, which was warm to the touch. Does it show? Jinyoung lowered her hand and said what she felt like he wanted him to hear, “Okay, Sunggyu. Okay, friend.”

And her instinct seemed to be right. His smiled broadened. “Now since you’re my friend, there’s absolutely one thing that you cannot do,” he told her, lifting up a finger for emphasis. “Never ever. If you ever do it, our friendship is over, okay?”

“What is it?” Jinyoung hoped that she didn’t sound as nervous as she felt.

“Never…” Sunggyu paused for dramatic effect, and Jinyoung was certainly affected by it. She closed her eyes, waiting for him to ‘hit’ her with the rest of that statement, “…doubt me. Just believe me, okay?”

Jinyoung’s eyes snapped back open in shock. “Oh, that’s it?”

Sunggyu snorted in response, but voice seemed apprehensive while he asked, “What did you think that I was going to say?”

Jinyoung laughed out of embarrassment. In that brief moment he paused, her mind had run wild with fancies. But since he asked about them, Jinyoung felt obligated to divulge then, “I swore that you were going to say: ‘We can be friends, but don’t fall in love with me.’ Like they do in the dramas, you know?” Her voice quivered a bit because she’d rather not admit these things. She didn’t know how he’d response.

Of course, she knew to expect to be laughed at like he was doing now, but she really would never what he said next: “No, you can fall in love with me, if you want. I wouldn’t mind. Feel free to fall for my charm at any time.” He opened his arms wide. “Any time”

Jinyoung laugh. She was baffled. “Wow! I don’t even know what to say to that,” she confessed. She then began stepping away from him. “So I’m gonna go now. They’re waiting for us anyway.” Right as Jinyoung turned to walk back inside of the building, she stumbled over the threshold but at least didn’t fall down completely.

Once again, she was being laughed at, but through the loud laughter, Sunggyu managed to ask, “Woah! Are you okay?” He came up to her side.

“See how I didn’t fall for that?” she said as she gestured over the raised threshold. Sunggyu looked down at it and nodded. “I’m not gonna fall for you either.”

Sunggyu scoffed at her, while throwing back his head. “Nice cover,” he remarked as it fell back down.

“Thanks.”

Once they stepped inside, while they were making their way back to their friends (who were idly chatting and finishing the bowl that they’d left behind), Sunggyu asked, “So why did you go outside?”

“Hm, fresh air?” Jinyoung answered while she waved at Yewon, who was staring at them now, along with Palryoung.

“It was fresh, wasn’t it? It’s a cool night,” he added.

“Very cool,” Jinyoung agreed with a nod. It was true, but it hadn’t been enough to cool her down.

I am just going to live this hot forever, aren’t I? Why was she getting flustered so easily?

While they were gone, Palryoung had paid for their meal, as a thank you for a fun evening. As it was late, it was time for them to retire for the night, but Jinyoung wasn’t going to go home. Yewon had invited her to spend the night at her place, which Jinyoung had gladly accepted. And the two of them said their goodbyes to the men and walked home with their arms linked.

“That was a really good night,” Yewon remarked with a smile. “The best I had in awhile.”

“Really?” Jinyoung asked and hugged her friend’s arm more tightly to her chest. “That makes me really happy to hear. Really happy.”

(Kakao message sent 13 minutes ago) Sunggyu: Did you get home all right?

Jinyoung: I did!

Jinyoung: Yewon said she had a good time tonight. Thanks for giving her a good experience, friend.

(7 minutes later) Sunggyu:No problem.

Sunggyu: I wasn’t going to give her a bad experience.

Jinyoung: I know. But still…

(sent 2 minutes later) Jinyoung: Thank you.

Sunggyu: You’re welcome.

(sent 8 minutes later) Sunggyu: Hey

Jinyoung: What?????

Sunggyu: Do you think we would’ve been friends in high school?

Jinyoung: I’m not sure. I didn’t hang out with many guys back then.

Sunggyu: But you hung out with some.

(3 minutes later) Jinyoung: I wasn’t bad enough to hang out with you.

Sunggyu: Good girls liked me too.

Jinyoung: I bet the smart girls didn’t.

Jinyoung: They knew better and stayed away.

(18 minutes later) Jinyoung: I’m kidding.

The following morning Jinyoung woke up to this message:

Sunggyu: You’re not THAT good of a girl, Jinyoung.

And she didn’t respond to that. She just tossed the phone back onto her bed and went to get ready for the day, still feeling all too warm.