•5•

“Don’t you think Jongin is like really cute?”

Inhae’s munching slowed down instantly, as if she was bothered by the question and truthfully, she does. “What do you mean?”

“You don’t think he is cute?”

Sohee was Inhae’s new friend and also seatmate. She was this adorable cute little girl that just couldn’t stop obsessing over cute boys and small accessories – that was also they reason that they become friends in the first place because that girl somehow noticed that she was sketching some cute boys in her unused paper and just couldn’t stop squealing over it.

“I don’t know.” She shrugged, acting like she didn’t care even though she knew that she wasn’t.

Jongin was handsome – puberty did him good and she didn’t want to lie about it but just won’t admit it.

Because if she did showed how much she had noticed him, or tell someone just how he had become so good looking, or write a speech about how he will be more great in the future, someone will probably knew that she had a crush on him and that was the last thing that she wanted.

So, she acted nonchalant about it and just keeps it to herself.

“I think I like him.”

This time, Inhae stopped eating, eyes slowly moving to look at her friend. “Really?” she tried to fake it – as if she was teasing her and just hoped that she won’t be sounding like she wanted to bawl her friend’s eyes out or anything.

Inhae hated hearing Jongin’s laugh. It was loud and too cheerful for her liking, but weirdly her heart fluttered when she heard that. She hated that she liked his laughing.

Or maybe she hated it because he was busy laughing with his girl friends to begin with. Since he was good looking and all, she had noticed that most of the girls flocked around him, begging for his attention and worse, he was funny and friendly that just took everyone’s attention, including her.

He was friend with the popular guys, making him more popular too and hangs out with the cutest girls.

Jongin wasn’t the same kid that Inhae used to know when she was eight.

And just like how the popular and hot guys are – Jongin is taken.

When Inhae had heard about that, she almost wanted to cry. She didn’t know why her heart was so sensitive of hearing him being someone else’s. And to rub it more on her face, his girlfriend was this really beautiful girl that was from the other class – Jaekyung.

Of course, she had known this from Sohee – Jongin’s number one fan.

Jaekyung was this pretty girl, slim and tall. Every time she came to the class to hang out, Inhae would always compare herself to her and the difference is so big.

But Jaekyung was this nice girl that doesn’t like hurting people and just like a really good laugh. Inhae hated herself even more because she was hating on a girl that doesn’t even deserved any hate.

She wondered to herself why she was hating on the girl – but she knew it was because she couldn’t be like her. She couldn’t be the girl that Jongin was dating.

That was the harsh reality that she had to face – she would never be like someone Jongin would want.

“Hey Inhae…”

The said girl looked up from her group of friend and smiled immediately when at Hyoyeon who was calling for her. “What is it?”

The girl was sitting in the front row of her desk so she was just having her body turned at her, smiling widely.

“Jongdae asked, can he flirt with you?”

That question makes Inhae fall in deep silence along with her friends that were just busy chatting among themselves. She just faked a confusion, “What?”

“Jongdae asked…can he flirt with you?” Hyoyeon asked again, this time with a bit of pressure on every word.

She had heard perfectly what the girl was saying in the first place and actually pretty excited about it because – really, who would actually want to flirt with her? Maybe someone finally noticed her and just really wanted to know her.

Jongdae was a handsome boy, the one that everybody likes and although they hadn’t talked before, she knew that he was decent enough.

But, something in her head tells her that it wasn’t right.

It was good to be true and her anxiety crawled under her skin – maybe he just wanted to play around with her, not even serious about what he was trying to do and after he grew tired and bored, he will just throw her away. Or maybe he was just betting on her, and if she agreed then he will just humiliated her in front of his friends.

His friends – Jongin.

She faked confusion. “What?” pretending that the class was too loud to hear anything and Hyoyeon just sighed, giving up on talking to her.

“It’s nothing.” She shook her head, turning back in front and later, Inhae found herself staring at Jongdae who talked to Hyoyeon before walking back to Jongin.