“How was Hyunwoo’s game?” Jimri ask inquisitively. Your answering sigh makes her drop her spoon. “Really? The whole family was there?”

You sigh again before shaking your head. The window you’re sitting by shows how dark the night has become well into the day you’ve had.

“His mom and who?”

You lift and drop a tofu in your stew. “Jihee and his grandma.”

Jimri’s mouth is open. She snaps it shut to ask. “And Taekwoon?”

“Only for the second half.”

“So, he ditched you for half the game?”

You make a dissatisfied face. “Yes.” You won’t deny still feeling a bit put off by it.

“But no sign of Jieun and Taekwoon’s dad?”

You give a tired nod. Just thinking about those two is sure to give you an unsettled feeling in your chest. They had their moments but for every other time, they were no strangers to displaying their uneasiness about your presence around Taekwoon and it still gets to you.

Your phone chooses that moment to chime with a message and you ignore it. Jimri, on the other hand, can’t and won’t. She grabs your phone and looks down at it after swiping your password. “It’s Taekwoon.” She gives you a semi-surprised look. You wonder if you should be worried about her response. “It’s Taekwoon.” She says this again but with a touch of exasperation.

You furrow your eyebrows. “So.”

“It’s Taekwoon.” She shakes her head at you. She holds the phone out to you like you don’t understand what she means and you don’t. Taekwoon’s message looks back at you innocently.

‘Where are you?’

“It’s Taekwoon.” You confirm it.

“It’s Taekwoon texting you.” She swipes down and you see the rest of his unanswered texts glide downward.

“Yes.”

“It’s Taekwoon texting you.” Now she’s just repeating herself to just for the heck of it. “He’s texting you. Taekwoon.”

“Jimri.” You try not to groan.

“Taekwoon is texting you and you don’t see it?”

You can only give her a deadpan expression before looking down at your food.

“How can you not see it?”

The phone chimes again. She’s on it like a cat with catnip, with desperation and a manic sparkle in her eyes. This time she goes too far and reads it aloud but in her best ‘Taekwoon’ voice. “My game is tomorrow.”

You roll your eyes at both her impersonation and Taekwoon’s message.

“Mikyung.” And she’s still bothering you with it but you will admit, it does sound like the tone he uses with you when he’s exasperated.

You silently give her a thumbs up.

She blinks at you before cracking a smile but gets back to it and this time, she’s using her regular voice. “He’s texting you. About his games.”

You go back to eating.

“And. You. Don’t. See. It.”

“I do.” You answer back in between a bite.

“Tell me.”

“We’re texting.”

“He’s texting.”

“He is texting.”

“And you read them?”

A nod is all you give her. You are slowly getting where she’s going and you’re not sure if you want to get there.

“And his game?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“Maybe.”

“It’s tomorrow. Don’t you have class?”

“It’s at night.”

“Your class is at night?”

“His game is.”

“You have a project coming up, don’t you?”

“Finished.”

“Your term proposal?”

“Done.”

“Your mom’s errand?”

“Got it.”

“Why am I giving you all of these excuses to get out of going to his game but you’re shooting them all down?” She finally asks what she’s been leading to.

You put your spoon down. “I went to Hyunwoo’s game.”

“Yes. You did.”

“I went there.”

“Mmhm.”

It’s your turn to give her a leading look.

“That’s it?”

You scowl. “No.”

“You went to Hyunwoo’s game.”

“I did.”

Her eyes get bigger and you know she’s got it. She looks back down at your phone and swipes your password again. You know what she’s doing so you pick up your spoon and start eating. But Jimri is on a mission and when your dialing tone picks up, you instantly look at her because that’s not what you expected for her to do.

The ringing starts and that’s when she places your phone on the table in between you two right by the stew pot. “Jimri,” you say her name with dark intentions. She’s taking this a step further than she needs to. She sticks her tongue at you and you don’t have the time to feel aghast when the ringing stops.

“Mikyung?” Jihee sounds incredibly surprised and she should be. You were not planning on calling her for a million years.

“Jihee?” you ask while glaring with all your might at your friend who is pointedly looking down at your phone. But you keep your tone flat so your present emotions won’t leak into your voice.

“Mikyung?” Jihee has not lost her astonished tone. Suddenly, she’s laughing and that unexpected reaction is enough for you and Jimri to look at each other in surprise. There’s sounds of a fracas on Jihee’s end and Jihee’s voice sounds far from the phone as she continues to laugh. “Stop!”

You idly wonder if it’s something to be worried about as the scuffle lengths on. You look up to Jimri and she just shrugs before she starts eating.

“Stop! Taekwoon!” And there is your answer.

“Mikyung.” He sounds exasperated. Just like the tone Jimri was trying to go for and now she’s looking happy but shocked still.

“Taekwoon,” Jihee whines in the background. “Give me my phone. She called me!”

“Mikyung.” Now he’s sounding upset. Once again there is the sounds of physical melee going on. Then the phone line goes off.

“Wow.” Jimri says conversationally while you continue to look at the phone. “Who could have known Taekwoon was with Jihee this whole time?” You give her a glare. “What? I didn’t know.” Her luck of this happening is almost Nunji-level though.

You try to go back to eating but your eyes keep going back to your phone and you not-so-accidentally tune Jimri out. But she knows you’re not doing this with mean intent. The one who should be confused about this whole ordeal is you. And Taekwoon. And Jihee.

You think nothing of it when your phone vibrates in your pocket a safe distance away from Jimri’s grabby hands, the setting which she gave you time to change after she excuses herself to the restroom. You don’t look at the phone until the Instigator is another good distance away after saying goodbye to her.

When your phone vibrates for nth time, you slowly turn around and walk in the general direction of your apartment. You pull the device out and swipe your password. You have three missed calls from Jihee and one from Taekwoon. On the messenger, you have one from Jihee and fifteen from Taekwoon. You decide to respond to Jihee’s of course.

After explaining in as much of a blasé manner as was appropriate and not rude, you and her text each other for the whole way home back to your apartment. She’s the one who excuses herself from the conversation that mostly consisted of how are you’s and other basic inquiries. And that’s when you bring up Taekwoon’s information.

He’s since texted you five more times. The majority of his texts are accusatory and condemning in as little amount of words as possible. You still find yourself smiling at them regardless of how short but direct his messages are.

You wait until you read through each of them before you text him a simple ‘hi.’

‘…’

You laugh at that but you don’t reply. When you decide to start one of your readings, he has not texted anything. It’s hours later when you’ve covered a good amount of required reading that you pick up your phone again. Something you’ve been doing more often this past week you can’t help but admit. And it’s all thanks to Suho and your run in with him after Taekwoon’s game.

He had been walking down the street with a random guy when you both caught sight of each other. You had been on not exactly cloud nine but more like cloud six so you greeted him with familiarity and that took you both off guard. He recovered smoothly and accepted your greeting warmly but then introduced his friend. At that point, you know, getting introduced to a stranger that only stares at you, it brought you back to Earth and your defenses were up just like that. Suho detected the change with you and laughed while his friend stumbled his way through an introduction.

You tried to keep it short but Suho politely invited you to dinner with him and his friend. After spending time with Taekwoon walking around a park after eating with him, you weren’t going to accept. In fact, you did reject the invite. Suho let it go with a smile while his friend continued with his rude staring.

That’s when you saw him. Him, not as in Taekwoon. But him as in the stupid, persistent guy. Not Minhyuk but the other stupid persistent guy from your class project. The one that had the gall to get offended every single time you turned him down and turned nasty after the last time. That’s when your phone fell out of your jacket pocket after ducking behind Suho to hide. Suho laughed at your sudden behavior.

As soon as that bastard was gone, you were going straight home. Suho picked up your phone but was also quick to catch on and grabbed his friend to pull him closer to you both as the creep approached your hiding spot. Thankfully he did not see you and you were safe. You left shortly afterwards and forgot your phone until Suho ran after you with it while it was ringing. He answered it and you panicked while assuming the worst like if it was Nunji and grabbed it from him. It had been even worst, it was Taekwoon. You know you sounded breathless as you said his name. And you know the world dropped around you after your time spent with him. Then you were back on cloud seven again.

You left Suho and his friend behind without a thought although that was pretty rude but you were rude about many things. You know Suho didn’t deserve it especially since you consider him a friend and all but after the day you had with Taekwoon you couldn’t think of any other guy.

That’s when it started entering dangerous turf. And now, presently, you’ve not only went to Taekwoon’s game, ate with him on your own, spent leisure time with him, met Hyunwoo, Soomi, his mom, and Jihee. And he met Mieun and of course there’s Nunji to consider thanks to him. All within a matter of weeks after being separated for so long. You know you’re beyond the point of no return.

Jimri’s reaction is therefore justified. And your reaction is late. Like always.

It’s still too much and there’s not much time to take it all in when you consider the Busan trip coming up in a few days. You can’t even make an estimate of how much time you need in order to process things because you don’t think there’s a way for you to get things manageable. Life is whisking you away in a direction you’re not set against like you were before.

It's only when you think on this a bit more do you grab your phone once more and call Jimri.

She’s happy you called. “Mikyung! What? What made you call me?”

You think for a few seconds on what you’re about to say and decide to go forward with it. “Do you want to go?”

Silence for a minute. During that minute, you look down at your hands. Your fingernails need t.

“Where?” She asks finally.

You shake your head in disbelief. “You know where.”

“Really!”

“Hm.”

“Then yes. I will take your offer in going to Taekwoon’s game tomorrow night.”

You . “Really? Aren’t you busy?”

She does a very un-Jimri like scoff. “Ha! I wouldn’t miss watching you and Taekwoon acting weird for anything.”

“Not even Yoohyuk?”

She’s silent before she answers rather hesitant. “To a degree yes.”

That’s news to you. “What?”

“He’s getting shifty.”

You sit up straight. “What?”

“Don’t do anything Mikyung! I know you and you may just chance hunting him down but you shouldn’t. He’s visiting his dad’s side this week.”

Your frown is severe. “Fine.”

“Don’t worry too much about that, Kyungie. Just worry about what you’re going to wear tomorrow night! When I have my way with you, all of Taekwoon’s teammates are going to be envying him more than they already do.”

It’s your turn to scoff.

“You think I don’t know? Especially after your little time backstage cozying up with him? Are you telling me that no one got a good look at either of you, particularly you? Not one guy did the ‘oh-my-goddess-is-in-front-of-me’ stare with you?”

“No.”

She laughs. “We’ll see tomorrow night then! It’s a date! And not just for you and Taekwoon but also for whosoever you’ll be shooting down, you heartbreaker.”

Before you can give her words the silent treatment, she hangs up on you. You drop your phone on your bed but have to pick it up when it chimes. It’s Taekwoon.

‘You asleep?’

You call him but not before checking to see if it’s his resting time. He picks up on the second ring.

“You’re not asleep.”

You’re tempted to hang up then. Instead, you let the familiar silence answer for you.

“You are asleep.”

You do your best not to react.

“Good night, Mikyung.”

“Fine.”

“Wait.”

“Good night, Taekwoon.”

“Wait.” His voice sounds more urgent and so you listen.

“What?”

“You’re not asleep.”

You scoff. “I’m not.”

“Then why call me.”

“I won’t now.”

“Mikyung.”

“Good night, Taekwoon.”

“Wait.”

“Why?”

“Talk to me more.” There’s something about the way he said this that gives you a warm feeling.

“No.”

“That’s fine too.”

“No.”

“Okay.”

“Hm.”

“That’s fine too.” When you become silent, he becomes impatient. “Mikyung.”

“Hm?”

“Talk.”

“Hm.”

“Good night, Mikyung.” He actually tries it on you.

“Good night, Taekwoon.”

“Wait.”

“Why?”

“Mikyung.”

“Can Jimri go tomorrow night?” Your whole reason for calling him comes out of the blue but you don’t really care.

“What?” He sounds…peculiar.

“To your game.”

“Jimri?”

“Yes.”

“And you?”

“No.” You decide to try to lie.

“Only if you go too.”

“Fine.” Your lie doesn’t last long.

“Then okay.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll tell my manager.”

“Okay.”

It goes silent on his end for almost two minutes. “He knows. I’ll send you the tickets for the both of you in the morning.”

“Okay.”

“Wear my team’s colors.”

“No.”

“I’ll give you one of my jerseys.”

“No.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

“Good night, Mikyung.”

“Good night, Taekwoon.”

“Wait.”

“Hm?”

“Good night, Mikyung~.”

“Hm.”

“Say it.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Don’t want to.”

Silence is back.

“Mikyung?”

“Hm?”

“Good night~.”

“Hm.”

“Mikyung,” he groans.

“Good night~ Taekwoon~.”

You hang up.

 

Things can only progress. Stay safe and strong!