Jihyun was admittedly quite miserable. 

Throughout the entire day, she mulled over what the right course of action would be, but it had been about ten hours since she had started thinking and she still had no idea what to do. She laid in bed with her hands over her face, as if she were trying to shield herself from the stressful thoughts that seemed to be attacking her, but inevitably failing.

It was clear that Jihyun was not good at confronting others. The issues lurked around her heart, festering with each passing day - but she was still reluctant to say anything. After all, Haemi is Taeil's supposed best friend, even though she is the literal embodiment of a succubus. As much as Jihyun didn't like her, she had to respect his friendship with her, and that's the part that irked her the most. 

Not to be too eager or anything, but if Taeil and Jihyun get together, will Haemi still be in the picture?!

Imagining that made Jihyun's head pulsate, and she groaned loudly. She couldn't bear to go through this type of agony for that long... but she also couldn't bear hurting her boyfriend's heart by having him pick and choose. 

To her surprise and delight, she heard her phone ringing and immediately glanced over to see that it was Taeil calling. Her lips automatically curled up into a soft smile as she answered the call and saw his wide grin on the screen. 

"Hi Ji!" Taeil greeted brightly, as if he were a puppy that had finally been reunited with their owner. Even though he was the cause of all her stress, she couldn't help but melt at the sound of his voice.  

"Hey Taeil," she waved at the camera with excitement. "What are you up to?" 

"Oh nothing much, I just finished helping Haemi with math!" 

Jihyun's heart stopped as she stared blankly back at him.

"Oh that's great!" She remarked, hoping that he couldn't hear the despair in her voice. "You're smart." 

"Not at all," he shook his head. 

He went on to describe the experience of having to tutor Haemi, but Jihyun immediately started zoning out and started thinking about what Aeri had told her earlier. She recalled that her best friend did tell her to be honest, or else it'd keep happening, but it seemed so hard to even get her thoughts across. The fear of angering him kept her paralyzed and she sat there in pure anxiousness. 

"...Ji? You listening?" Taeil called out, and she blinked out of her trance. 

"U-uh sorry, I'm just a bit preoccupied..." She apologized and he sent her a gentle smile. 

"Don't worry about it then," he said reassuringly, and Jihyun felt her heart crack. How could anyone be so pure and sweet, especially to her? She was out here thinking the worst of his best friend, someone that he cared about deeply. "Anyway, what's on your mind?" 

Taeil's question caught her off guard and she panicked. What was she supposed to tell him? 

"Nothing," she quickly stammered, "It was something dumb." 

"I'm sure it wasn't. You know I'm always here for you, don't hesitate to tell me anything that's on your mind. I won't judge, you know," Taeil chuckled, and Jihyun felt a sudden rush of confidence. 

"Anything?" 

He nodded back in response, and while the fear picked at her, she knew that this was her chance to say something. 

"I..." She trailed off, unsure of what to say. "I... I don't know about this... Nevermind." 

"Huh? You already started, go ahead! You can't leave me hanging here," he laughed. 

Jihyun felt her heartbeat resounding through her entire body. 

"Well... The thing is... I don't really feel comfortable around you and Haemi," she sputtered out, and Taeil widened his eyes in surprise. 

"Wait, what?" He looked completely shocked and Jihyun found herself dreading her decision already. "Why?"

"Well... I just think that she's really flirty with you and I'm not comfortable with it at all... Like I know the two of you are best friends and everything, which makes this even harder, like I wasn't going to tell you about this, but I just fellt so uncomfortable with it, and it's been bothering me for a while, but I'm not telling you to stop being friends with her or anything, but... I don't know, I just wanted to tell you that I'm not really okay with all of this," Jihyun seemed to breathe out that entire sentence in one breath, leaving her feeling winded at the end. She was reluctant to meet Taeil's gaze, but peeked at his reaction, and bit her lip when she saw that he was staring back at her with conflict knotted deep into his brows. 

"Wait... You're jealous of Haemi?" He repeated, as an attempt to clarify everything. 

"Yes," she nodded. 

"Why...? She hasn't done anything for you to be jealous of her, and she's not that kind of person... You know that there's nothing to be jealous of," Taeil replied back, and Jihyun stared at him in disbelief. 

"I'm not saying she's the type to try and seduce you away from me, I'm just saying that she's very flirtatious around you and that I don't like it," she countered. "I even mustered up all the courage I had to tell you all of this and you don't believe me." 

"I don't believe you because I know Haemi better than you do! You don't know anything about her!" He retorted, and Jihyun felt something pierce her chest. 

"You're right, I don't know anything about her, but I do know you, and you're acting so cruel right now," she snapped. "Stop acting like my concerns aren't valid just because you think you know more than I do, you are being a complete jerk to my feelings right now." 

"They aren't valid because everything you're saying isn't true, Ji," Taeil replied, making her want to smash her head into the wall. By this time, there was a fire coursing through her veins and she felt a flame flicker in the depths of her stomach. 

"You're so ridiculous right now, I'll talk to you later," she scoffed, hanging up without even hearing his response. 

Usually, Jihyun was not the type to blow up like that, but Taeil also was not the type to get so mad at her - or so she thought, until then. She was hurt that he even said those things to her, but shrugged it off as she buried herself into her homework, despite it being the start of the weekend, and held back her tears. 

By the end of the night, however, her math worksheet happened to be stained with what seemed to be several drops of water and she was left with swollen eyes... But she wasn't crying though. Apparently. 

HI HELLO EVERYONE SJKDJFNKSDJFN i am back!! i am sorry for the long hiatus, school just became very hectic and i was very tired, but i have managed to update on taeil's birthday!! it's still his birthday here, so i'm celebrating LOL but i hope this update was alright,,,,, i'm super rusty, so it's not the best, but i'll try to write another chapter in a reasonable amount of time and update!