"Eonni,” the whiny voice made it almost impossible for Sojung to not smile. “When are you coming back?”
Sojung switched the cell phone from one ear to another and felt the heavy stares on her. “It’s been less than an hour, Eunnie. You can’t be already needing me.”
“It’s not that I need you,” there was an annoyed huff. “I just… you know what? Fine, whatever, have fun with them. Bring me chocolate when you come back.”
Sojung smirked. “Of course, kitten.”
“Ugh, shut up!” Eunbi grunted and the call was ended. Sojung chuckled and looked at the screen with the store’s name displayed; she had told Eunbi to call her if anything was wrong, but she didn’t expect the other to be calling for no reason… it did make her heart leap inside her chest.
“Was that Eunbi-ssi, Sojung-eonni?” Yewon’s voice brought her back from her thoughts and Sojung quickly nodded.
“Yes, she was calling from the store. Wanted to know when I was coming back,” she happily sighed and took a bite of her food.
Yewon sneakered. “See, eonni, I told you,” she said to Choi Yuna who snorted.
“Told you what?” Sojung asked and Yuna smiled.
“I mean, Sojung-ssi, I’m not really that jealous, but I did want to make sure you didn’t have a crush on Yewon or anything,” Sojung almost choked on a noodle, “so I kept asking her about you, but recently, Yewonnie told me there was a new girl… living with you and she said you did heart eyes and all of this cheesy things and I didn’t believe it at first, but, wow, it seems pretty real.”
Sojung coughed a couple of times, the girls in front of her wearing some disgusting smirks. “What--that’s really funny, Yewon-ah,” Sojung forced a laugh and the girl quirked an eyebrow. “I don’t do… heart eyes or anything to Eunbi, that’s just…”
“What?” Yewon rested her elbow on the table and put her chin on her hand. “You seem pretty nervous about it, eonni.”
“Wah, this girl--” Sojung gasped. “You weren’t like that, Kim Yewon,” muttering, she casted her eyes down, hoping that the blush on her cheeks could be easily explained by the hot food. “I don’t have a crush on her.”
Yuna scoffed. “Yewonnie, this is worse than us when we weren’t dating.”
“I know, right,” Yewon sighed. “I thought they’d be past beyond denial by the way they act around each other. What a shame.”
“They are surely just wasting time. I mean, calling her for no apparent reason, just to know when she’s coming back? Wow, that’s some pretty obvious pining.”
“Eunbi-ssi does look like a shy girl, though…”
“Just one more reason for Sojung-ssi here to be admitting her feelings. It’d make things a lot easier.”
“Definitely--”
“Are you two really talking about me like I’m not here!” Sojung exclaimed, feeling sincerely outraged. How could these two little--
“You see, Sojung-ssi,” Yuna looked at her like she was a stubborn kid. “Me and Yewon went through that period and, ugh, it didn’t mean anything else beside a waste of time. You two could be sweetly cuddling by now, but you aren’t because you are just denying feelings and that’s just… sad.”
Sojung opened to bitterly answer Yuna, but Yewon nodded. “She’s right, eonni. All the times I’ve went there it’s pretty obvious how much you two like each other and…”
“Can you just not do this?”
“Uh?”
Sojung sighed. “I mean… fine, yes, I’m head over heels for Eunbi, and I know I at hiding it, but… really, you guys can’t just say we have feelings for each other like that.”
“And… why not?” Yuna quirked an eyebrow.
“Because… you can’t be sure if Eunbi feels the same for me.” Sojung’s eyes were so focused on the food that they missed the exchanged look between the couple before her. “Yes, it’d be perfect if she liked me back, but I just can’t be sure of it and the last thing I want right now is to things up and lose her. I really appreciate this… support you guys are showing, but you don’t understand the whole thing. I really can’t afford to lose Eunbi.”
“Eonni…”
“I know you guys don’t mean any bad by this,” Sojung lips curled in a half-assed attempt of a smile. “But things are complicated.”
“You are scared,” Yuna deadpanned.
Sojung’s head snapped up to look at the girl who had her brow furrowed.
“Yes, I’m scared.”
The table was silent and Sojung wondered how their light hang out had turned into this heavy atmosphere. She thought she had to say something to make things better or else their whole dinner had been spoiled by her love problems and she really didn’t want that.
“Sojung-ssi,” Yuna was faster, though. The singer her lips and Yewon was attentively looking at her. “I was scared too, you know. I was terrified of talking to Yewon about how much I loved her… how I loved her as more than a friend. I sincerely thought I’d be fine just staying as her friend, but, you know… this kind of thing can really wear you out.”
“What do you…”
“I mean that, after sometime you’ll be pissed at yourself and at the world and your relationship can go to total ,” Yuna sighed and Sojung’s eyes widened. “I didn’t think like that before, to be honest, it took me some really… bad discussions with a friend of mine to realize how what I was doing was turning out bad for everyone.”
Yewon, at that, smiled. “It’s kind of funny now that we think of it. This friend--that is also called Eunbi--never sugar coated stuff and we may have been too stubborn to listen to her so we actually stopped talking for a while.”
“Yeah, we did,” Yuna snorted and Sojung didn’t miss the way she tangled her fingers with Yewon’s. “I mean… we really don’t know in what kind of situation you are in, but we are talking from experience here, Sojung-ssi.”
Sojung gnawed on her lower lip. There was something behind their eyes that told her that was a period they would rather forget; it was something that just left everyone hurt.
Sojung didn’t want Eunbi to be hurt.
She sighed. “Maybe you are right.”
“Maybe we are,” Yewon giggled.
“You are you, Sojung-ssi,” Yuna reached for Sojung’s glass and poured some soju in it. “But think about the whole picture instead of looking through your concern.”
Sojung slowly nodded and drank the soju.
Yeah. Maybe they were right.