2017

HANBIN

My members and I were at a hair salon in Gangnam.

We had to get stuff done for a magazine shoot the next day.

I was waiting for my treatment to be over when Jennie and Lisa arrived.

Jennie’s eyes widened when she saw me, probably as surprised to see me as I was to see her,

but she kept a straight face and avoided eye contact.

Noticing the tension, Lisa looked nervously between us and took the farthest seat away, 

leaving Jennie to take the only other vacant seat in the room which was beside mine.

Having no choice, Jennie sat down and plopped her bag down the table in front of us.

“Hey,” I said.

She ignored me.

“Jennie,”

She doesn’t answer.

I leaned forward to see if she had earphones on.

She didn’t.

Annoyed, I nudged her chair with my foot, unintentionally making it spin around.

“Ya!” she screamed as she halted it to stop.

Her chair was now facing me.

“Try doing that again and I’m kicking you to the other end of the room!!” 

She stood up to fix her chair to face the right way.

Why was she on edge today?

“Then quit ignoring me!!” I answered back.

The hair dressers were now looking at us, intrigued by the sudden raising of voices.

I caught manager hyung glaring at me through the mirror, shaking his head.

I fixed my posture and cleared my throat.

Then I turned to Jennie, lowering my voice,

“You were with One hyung yesterday,” 

I wasn’t asking.

Her head shot up from looking down on her phone, surprised.

“Were you going to tell me about it? Or were you planning to keep it from me?”

She finally looked at me, “How do you - ?“

“I’m not going to ask you to tell me everything you talked about.” I tried to assure her, 

“But I am going to ask you this,”

I took a deep breath,

“Did he ask you to take him back?”

She looked away,

and I could sense her hesitation.

She nodded to herself, not looking straight at me.

She already knew I wouldn't be pleased.

“Did you say yes?”

She paused.

I could feel my stomach flip over in panic.

What if she said yes?

I would absolutely lose it if she did.

“Jen, did you??“ I asked again.

And the few seconds in between my question and her answer felt like forever.

“I said I would think about it - “

I stood up before she could finish her sentence, infuriated.

“What?!”

“Hanbin, let me explain.”

“What part of ‘sta