"I decided to listen to my heart," Soojung confessed in the middle of nowhere.

"What's this sudden heart-to-heart time? I'm not up for this Soojung," Sehun said.

"I'm going to listen to Seulgi's advice, she's not wrong after all, what I did is bad," Soojung continued nevertheless. "I'm going to break up with Jongin.”

"Are you sure that's what you want?" Sehun frowned. "You're really going to follow this idiot's advice knowing her head is full of delusions about love?"

"She's no idiot," Soojung said before kicking Sehun's feet off her bed. He rolled his eyes at her and turned to sit on a chair near her desk. ”You should know that since you got your first full marks in chemistry thanks to her."

"It was just a lab."

"And yet you couldn't even help her."

"Do you guys only talk about me whenever you meet or is it just an impression?" Sehun sarcastically asked. “Now that you see each other more often I always get nagged at. You must be glad that she started giving you some attention every now and then.”

“I am!” Soojung smiled. “I don’t know what happened but Seulgi started taking the initiative to hang out with me. She asked me to eat lunch with her thrice this week and even offered to wait for me after school, this is such a drastic change. She even invited me to her apartment, can you believe it?”

“How thrilling!” Sehun gasped. “I bet you’re going to have so much fun there.”

“Would you please be a bit more enthusiastic for your friend? I was really about to give up and then this happens. It’s a sign that I shouldn’t give up.”

“Or she simply finally realized how much she neglected her friend,” Sehun deadpanned. “Even if it took her months to do so.”

“Why are you always so against her?” Soojung frowned before getting up from the bed. She walked to her wardrobe and checked the time on her phone. “Did Seulgi do something to you?”

“She just rubs me in the wrong way,” he admitted. “It’s not really her but the things she says and the things she does, God she’s so annoying.”

“So you don’t like her,” Soojung chuckled as she took out a dress and showed it to Sehun. He shook his head and grimaced at the way too colourful piece of clothing. Sehun had always been a man of very few colors and they all had to be dark. Soojung smiled and continued to look for something else to wear for her date tonight. There was something about her that changed during the last week that didn’t go unnoticed by Sehun: she was smiling a lot more. Was it the effect Seulgi had on her? Or perhaps the fact that she was about to free herself from a large amount of problems by breaking up with someone she kept lying to for months? Sehun couldn’t tell.

“There’s also the fact that she messed up with you two,” he softly added.

“What do you mean by messed up?”

“She made you date Jongin, which would have never happened in the first place without—“

“That you don’t know,” Soojung interjected.

“Look at me straight in the eyes and tell me you were going to accept Jongin’s confession if Seulgi hadn’t fell for him.” Sehun gave her a sharp look.

“I don’t know, maybe,” Soojung hesitantly said. “You know, even if it all started very weirdly, I loved dating Jongin. He is a very caring and sweet person, he didn’t deserve what I did to him in the least. Jongin deserves someone who will be able to love him fully and honestly.”

“Someone like Seulgi?” he raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, but not Seulgi. Not her,” she continued a bit flustered. “Anyway, my point is that even if it’s true that she is the reason I dated Jongin, I don’t think it was a bad thing in the end. We will both grow from this experience and learn from our mistakes,” Soojung explained before taking out some jeans from her wardrobe. “I will not use people’s feelings again and Jongin will learn to not blindly trust others like he always does. He is too easy to fool and I just hope he starts to give his trust to the right people.”

“So basically, not you?” Sehun drily chuckled before plopping onto Soojung’s bed. “You can turn it however you want to feel better Soojung but in the end, you’re the only one getting out of this with something to gain. You can love Seulgi all you want, you won’t have to worry about her finally getting Jongin since he will be too busy trying to get over you and you literally have nothing to worry about anymore because you’re free. On the other hand, my dear friend Jongin will lose his first love, a girlfriend he adored more than himself, his trust for people and probably the old friendship you both had because nothing will get back to how it was. You’re either a hypocrite or lying to yourself, pick a side,” he shrugged before taking a sip of his chocolate milk. “By the way this shirt is hideous.”

Soojung grunted before walking back to her wardrobe to pick another shirt. “You’re so annoying when you want it Sehun,” she sighed. “You don’t even care about all this, you just want to make me feel bad, admit it.”

“I’ll admit I would say that I don’t like Seulgi if I cared one bit about how I should feel about her since she destroyed a peaceful friendship of many years and that I’ll be the one stuck between you two in this mess, but like, it’s not that deep and I don’t care,” Sehun continued as he closed his eyes. “I just hope she can keep up with the good work for chemistry because I think I’ll leave it all to her.”

“You make zero sense whenever you give up on a conversation you know that?” Soojung told him before putting on her boots. “If you’re tired then just sleep, I don’t need some half assed snarky remarks.”

“You think I could take a nap here? When is your mom coming home?”

“She’ll be back at night, I don’t think she would even notice that you’re here. Just do what you always do, she won’t care.”

“I’ll take a long nap, I’m not joking.”

“Great, like that you’ll be there when I’ll come back from my disastrous last date with Jongin,” Soojung sarcastically smiled as she took her bag. “If you see me come back home with puffy eyes and a red nose, you better prepare a big bag of chips and some cookies, I won’t forgive you if there’s nothing prepared.”

“Roger that.”

“I’ll see you later,” she waved before walking outside of her bedroom.

“Don’t be too hard on him Soojung,” Sehun said before she could close the door. “Jongin is too soft-hearted for that.”

…

There was something very dreadful in the thought of breaking up with someone, especially with someone she had known for so long. Soojung was perfectly fine when she was at home, even going as far as to smile and joke around but now that she was waiting for Jongin in front of the restaurant’s entrance, she felt like there some kind of monster eating her alive form the inside. Her stomach was churning and she was so nervous, there was a lump in that kept her from swallowing anything and the multiple times she took deep breaths to stop stressing did nothing to help.

What if he starts crying? What do I do if I’m the one who starts crying?

Did she really want to break up with Jongin in the first place? Calling their relationship off was something she could never take back, it would be final. It was going to change the way Jongin acted around her and he would maybe try to avoid her. Was that really what she wanted? What if Jongin was the person she needed after all and what she felt for Seulgi wasn’t love but a simple infatuation? Then, wouldn’t she regret this forever? Soojung anxiously bit her lower lip as she checked the time again, she came very early in hope to arrive before Jongin. He was the type to be early too.

The more time passed and the more she hesitated. Soojung started doubting everything, even her feelings for Seulgi and the ones she may have developed for Jongin over the time they dated. Jongin loved her, that she was sure of, but Seulgi? Nothing. She had nothing for her and Soojung was going to go after someone like that? It was asking for a heartbreak.

Her heart clenched when her eyes locked with him as he was walking towards her and his face lit up as soon, welcoming her with his usual cheeky grin and a warm gaze. Would she miss that too?

Soojung was about to lose a boyfriend and a friend at the same time, it couldn’t get worse.

“Why are you so early?” he beamed before opening the door for her. “I thought I was going to wait for you.”

“I had nothing to do at home so I decided to come earlier,” she answered with a smile. Soojung definitely felt better after Jongin appeared with his soothing voice and warm smile but she still couldn’t seem to shake off the the strange feeling she had whenever he tried to hold her hand or get closer. The feeling didn't make her want to push him away or anything similar, it just that Soojung became very aware of his touch and it made her feel self-conscious at the same time. She was sure she looked uneasy or awkward at most but Jongin surprisingly didn’t seem to notice at all. They sat down at a table not too