Chapter 2 

“Unnie! Your lasagna’s buzzing with flies.”

Joy clapped loudly in front of her face to get her attention, swatting away with it the ‘non-existent flies’ that Yerim just mentioned, snapping her out of her daze, she looked apologetically at her friends faces before taking a sip of her cola. Embarrassment at having caught spacing out obvious at the way she tried to nonchalantly keep her hands occupied with her drink.

Joy knows a particular person behind them has Seungwan in a tight rope lately. She's aware of the affair happening before her eyes. The way Seungwan's eyes would look at this person with so much longing ... so much yearning.

It doesn't help that Seungwan can be so transparent with her feelings but it doesn't make it any less wrong.

“What’s wrong with you? You’ve been so out of it lately,” Yerim said, before taking a spoonful of Seungwan’s lasagna.

“Only whenever—“

“Joy,” Seungwan glared at her, hissing, “Stop it.”

“Why? Are you scared of something?” Joy raising an eyebrow at her, challenging her, this isn't the first time she's done this. She just wants Seungwan to open up to them even if it means pushing her buttons. “Yerim’s smarter than you think, Seungwan."

Yerim rolled her eyes at her friends; they talked about her like she’s not sitting at the same table as them. She rolled a piece of sausage around, nonchalantly saying, “If this is about that Joohyun unnie … I know, Unnie. I know.” 

Seungwan stared at her wide-eyed with shock, “What?” she could feel cold sweats on her nape and bit her lower lip, a nervous habit she had developed over the years, before glaring accusingly at Joy.

Yerim stabbed her fork on a piece of sausage, “She didn’t tell me anything …,” smirking at her, “If that’s what you’re thinking.”

Joy shrugged indifferently, sipping her lemonade calmly. Deep inside, she feels anything but indifference. Her heart’s racing and she could feel her hands shake at what Yerim found out. She could feel the condensation in the cup on her hands. She had an inkling – but that was it. From the corner of her eyes she noticed Seungwan froze in her seat.

The small table they're occupying suddenly felt big, the gap between the three of them widened. Seungwan let go of her grip on her cup, before looking away, unable to meet Yerim in the eye and just played with her lasagna, unable to say anything in reply.

It was so tense. She doesn’t know what Yerim’s thinking. She never told her friends about it … but they figured it out, anyway. She knows Joy’s smart enough to connect the dots but there’s a reason why Yerim shouldn’t ever find out about it. 

She has never felt this exposed and the distance between Yerim and her … and Joy – funny how they felt so far from her right now.

Did she do this?

Ironic how the person she’s tried to protect it from, found out about it anyway – figured it out, somehow. But how, it’s the question that’s been echoing inside her mind … that Seungwan can’t seem to ask. Secrets have a way of coming to light.

Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known, Lk. 12:2.

This is an odd time to get reminded of a Bible passage, Seungwan thought, massaging her temple.

Joohyun is Yeri’s cousin, but Joohyun never associates herself with them unless she wants something from Yerim. It’s not like there’s any bad blood between the two cousins, Yerim just doesn’t like Joohyun’s current girlfriend. She always reminds her unnie about it, arguing about it to the point that it drove the two cousins away from each other. 

Yerim would scowl at her cousin’s departing figure after every hushed and heated argument, and when she returns to their table, she’d always use the same excuse: It’s just another stupid family gathering.

Yerim never told them why she hates her cousin’s girlfriend.

And why does she always have this worried look on her whenever she returns from another argument every single time. The tension the two cousins have when they're on the subject is nothing compared to the devastation on Yeri's face afterwards.

She’s tried asking the younger girl about it but Yerim would just shrug her shoulders before directing the conversation to something else. Seungwan can’t really force her friend for an answer when she herself hasn’t been that open towards her friends about her own problems.

“I saw you and unnie at the ladies room last week,” Yeri said, voice loud enough for the three of them to hear, smiling deprecatingly at her food, unable to look Seungwan in the eye. She knows they shouldn’t talk about this in the cafeteria, not when the possibility of someone overhearing them is high. Yerim looked around them, as if saying ‘there’re ears everywhere, Unnie’, head gesturing to the table behind her.

Seungwan looked behind Yerim and noticed the popular table rowdy as usual. The usual crowd that Joohyun and her girlfriend is part of. The table half of the student body wants to be part of. Joohyun noticed her looking at them … and smirked in her direction. A familiar glint in her eyes reminding her of –

— o-of stolen kisses and bite marks ghosting the surface of her skin, where familiar lips touched, of dainty fingers skimming her waist where skin is left uncovered; warmth spreading the more she’s reminded of it, of hot breath near her ear and a whisper telling her ‘I’ll see you later’, in a voice that echoes in her mind while she fixed her clothes to look presentable again – a not-so distant memory, crystal clear in her mind. Seungwan gripped the fork in her hand, breaking it as she balled her hand into a fist.

Seungwan looked away from Joohyun, dazed as if bewitched by the effects of Joohyun’s stare and smirk making her feel all hot, she noticed the plastic fork in her hand broken off, eyes widened at the realization. Joy watched her silently, concern written all over her face.

“Let’s talk about it later. I think you owe me an explanation, Unnie.” Yerim finally looked up, and Seungwan didn’t miss the flash of anger in her eyes. She felt her stomach drop, Seungwan had never seen Yerim that mad. Totally different from the child-like smile and mischievous eyes her friend would usually sport.

Yerim’s face darkened when boisterous laughter resounded in the whole cafeteria, Seungwan’s chest aching with that emotion she refused to acknowledge. Joy could only stare back and forth between her two friends, shoulders slumped as if carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders, both carrying their own problems, unable to lift a hand to help them.

Sighing, it’s so hard to watch on the sidelines. She could only assume the situation and as much as she wants to be in the know, the look in her friend's face makes it clear that they won’t be sharing about it anytime soon, regarding the situation that seems to tangle itself to two of the most important people in her life.

Eyeing the broken object still in Seungwan’s hand, Joy thought something else inside of her must be broken too – but aren’t all of us a little broken inside? – she mused, absentmindedly swirling the straw in her drink making the ice inside crack and break and melt.

There's a brokenness in her, too, that she refused to acknowledge.

---

Meet me at the parking lot – J

The paper in her hand says. Just six words and a single letter, possibly to indicate the writer’s name.

Seungwan stared at the piece of paper, torn aroun