Sooyoung and Dahee stomped their feet approaching you in the cafetaria. Their squealing can be heard and it just made you roll your eyes.

“So?” Dahee excitedly asked.

“What?” you asked back.

“You and Doyoung, of course!” Sooyoung cheered. “How’s it going?”

“It’s just going …like usual?” You tilted your head. Your face couldn’t be more confused.

“Jena, come on..”

“What? I don’t get it,” you insist.

“Oh! That’s Doyoung. Call him,” Dahee said to Sooyoung who vigorously waved her hand to the boy.

Doyoung approached you girls with a friendly smile, although he had no idea why your friends summoned him. “Hi, what’s up?”

“What’s up with you?” Sooyoung asked back. “You—ehm, and Jena—ehm,” she added with some fake coughs.

“What?” He actually faked a chuckle. He casually turned to look at you as he sat beside you, but inside he could sense the pit-a-pat in his heart somewhat panicking because, how did Sooyoung find out in the first place?! He thought he’d been very subtle, or not? Was he too obvious?

You shrugged basically saying ‘don’t listen to my friends’ bulls’ to Doyoung.

He wasn’t ready to go bold, especially when he could tell that you were clueless to Sooyoung’s intention.

“Jena, let me ask you one question. What do you think of Doyoung?” Sooyoung asked again. This time she made it much simpler.

You looked at the boy with a soft expression that you may not even realize it yourself. “He is a good friend. He’s hard-working and very supportive,” you answered, sometimes looking back and forth between Doyoung and Sooyoung.

“Just a friend?” Doyoung asked, wriggling his eyebrows.

“Or we’re not? Am I the only one thinking that we’re friends?” you said dramatically.

“Doyoung, she said a good friend. Not just a friend,” Dahee emphasized the word 'good’ before Doyoung continued the drama conversation with you.

“Why did you ask? Are you introducing him to someone? Who?” You suddenly got excited. Sooyoung and Dahee actually looked at you in disbelief. Doyoung was puzzled, as he also had a hard time being unable to understand you and whatever that was in your head.

“Anyway, I gotta go. I have presentation to be prepared.” Doyoung got up from his seat. You girls happily said good bye. He paused just before leaving and told you, “I’ll call you later?”

You nodded as you waved at him.

Once he left, Sooyoung and Dahee got their attention fully to you again.

“Jena, please tell us you’re only playing stupid,” Dahee cried. She looked frustrated as she put her hands on her head.

“Jena, he said 'I’ll call you later’. I know him. He doesn’t say that to just anyone.” Sooyoung put the most serious expression on her face.

Yet you didn’t take them seriously. “Yeah, he does. To his project groupmates? Duh?”

Sooyoung exchanged looks with Dahee. Both of them sighed. “Jena, is it still because of Taeil? Are you still waiting for him?”

You flustered hearing the name you’d been avoiding for a while. “I don’t understand how it becomes about Taeil now, and no, I’m not waiting for him.”

“Good for you!” they said in unison.

“Jena, you gotta move on. You don’t need to wait for him. It’s his loss, not yours. You have given him so many chances but he wasted it. What’s the point of fighting for him when he’s not doing the same?”

“She’s right, Jena. I think you really should consider Doyoung. He’s a nice guy. He’s been there for you since.. you know..”

“Since the new projects were coming up. That’s right,” you cut off Dahee’s words as you pointed at her with your little hand gun.

“Look, I know it may be difficult since he’s Taeil’s friend too. But you deserve to be happy.”

You raised your eyebrows and chuckled in confusion. “Why is it Doyoung now? Yeah, he’s cool. But we’re friends?”

“Yeah, keep telling yourself that.”

- - - - - - - -  »

That weekend, you had to cancel Sooyoung’s invitation to a spa day because Doyoung showed up in front of your door, holding a ticket for the concert of Cho Kyuhyun. You weren’t sure how to respond to the free ticket. You were a big fan, but so was Taeil. The chance to meet him there was pretty big. It was impossible for Doyoung not knowing this. But maybe it was just his good intention because he knew how much you liked Kyuhyun. In the end, eventually you said yes to the free concert ticket. A part of you was enthusiastic to finally be able to listen to Cho Kyuhyun’s live singing, yet another part of you was somewhat restless knowing that Taeil would 99.99% be there too. And a part of your brain was conscious of that the idea of going with Doyoung probably was not a wise idea if you knew you were so going to meet an ex-boyfriend. Or boyfriend—who was not a boyfriend at the moment.

You and Doyoung arrived at the venue 1 hour earlier. You decided to wait in a coffee shop around there. While Doyoung had to leave to the bathroom, the most expected thing eventually happened. You bumped into Taeil. It was nothing surprising but apparently you still didn’t know what to say first. You weren’t even sure what kind of expression you should put on your face.

“Jena,” he greeted first.

“Oh, Taeil..” You flashed him a little smile, as you noticed his effort to show a sincere smile to you. Probably he was the one who got surprised to see you there.

Both of you let some seconds pass in a complete silence between you, before he finally continued speaking. “I texted you last week. I was wondering when is it okay for you to…”

The smile on your lips started to fade away. Instead your face was so full of question marks. “Text? Last week?”

“Yeah. Did you receive it?”

You slowly shook your head. “I’m afraid I don’t. My phone experienced a rough accident, thanks to Doyoung.”

“Did somebody call my name?” He suddenly popped out.

You turned to him for a second just for him to know you recognize his presence there, then turned back to Taeil. Taeil did the same. And he didn’t even say hi to his friend. He seemed to instantly get it that you came there with Doyoung.

“Why Doyoung?” Taeil asked, not believing his own ears.

“He mistook my phone, took it and somehow it slipped from his hand to a fish pond.” You were calm and almost showed no specific expression. While beside you Doyoung apologized playfully. But you didn’t really pay attention to him.

“You were with Jena last week?” He sharply asked Doyoung.

“Yeah. We got deadlines.”

“But you’re not in the same project.”

“Well, the project became a joint project. Last minute decision. Not our call.”

“Is it important?” you asked Taeil, interrupting and ignoring Doyoung who looked like he was willing to tell the whole story of how the joint project was made.

“Sorry. What?” Taeil mentally snapped at himself. He lost consciousness for a second because he found it hard to believe in whatever Doyoung said.

“Your message. Is it urgent?” you asked again.

Taeil’s eyes were on you, but he could sense Doyoung’s sharp eyes darting at him. He remained silent for a moment, hesitating whether he should blurt it out or not because you were with Doyoung. “No, I’ll just text you again.”

You nodded. After that you parted ways although you had the same ticket color for the concert. You could have just entered the venue and picked standing spots not far away from each other. But of course, you didn’t. To be more precise, Taeil walked away and Doyoung too pulled you gently to a corner that according to him, it was good enough to see the singer. However, it was difficult for you to not take a glimpse at Taeil’s position.

Kyuhyun had been your and Taeil’s favorite singer. Whenever you had a date at home, Kyuhyun’s songs would linger in loudspeaker all day long. Sometimes Taeil would sing along too. This concert was something you had been anticipating as you two promised to watch it together. But now everything was different.

Song after song, you seemed to unable to divert your sight towards Taeil who was standing way further in the front row. Even in this crowd, you can still clearly see him. When the song Aewol-ri played, he finally turned his head, found you and looked at your direction. Your eyes met with each other.

“If I said I love you
If I said I want to meet you
If I said I miss you
You will just gradually escape from me
During the stormy days I am been left alone in this love
I am afraid if I tell you I love you You will just escape from me
Therefore today will still be the same quietness”

You didn’t even blink. So did he. You couldn’t tell what kind of expression you had right now while locking your gaze at him. You couldn’t tell either what was on his mind, and not sure what kind of face was that. Was he sad? Was he happy? Was he …lost?

Suddenly your view was blocked. What you saw wasn’t Taeil’s figure anymore but it was Doyoung’s upper body. For one moment, you completely forgot that Doyoung was with you.

“Jena, I’ve been calling your name,” he shouted to you. His protective hands reached your upper arms.

Slightly feeling disoriented, you looked up at him—and his concerned expression. “Oh, sorry. I wasn’t listening. This place is too crowd.” You tried to peek towards Taeil’s direction again, but Doyoung didn’t even get out of your sight.