Half a year passed and nothing changed that much. Myungsoo was still dating Kyungri and Jiyeon tried to avoid them the best she could, it wasn’t that she didn’t like them but their relationship hurt her and she also didn’t want to be a bad friend. It was kind of hard for her to find the balance in order not to hurt herself and others.

Hyomin was always by her side, supporting and comforting her, Jiyeon couldn’t ask for a better friend at that moment of her life. She always managed to take her away whenever they came across the couple and always seemed to have the perfect excuse in order not to be too obvious.

Since Jiyeon didn’t talk that much with Myungsoo anymore she spent most of her time with Hyomin and the girls and from time to time with Minhyun and the guys as well. Though being near Minhyun and his friends sometimes also made her sad. For some reason, they reminded her of Sungkyu and the guys, she lost contact with them after high school and sometimes wondered how they were doing. She knew that Sungkyu and Myungsoo actually were friends again so she assumed that he also made things up with the rest of the boys. She sometimes wanted to talk to them and hang out but that for sure would involve Myungsoo tagging along and most likely Kyungri as well. She wasn’t in the mood for that.

Jiyeon was walking through the halls in order to go get something to eat when she came across Minhyun. The boy greeted her with a smile and the girl also smiled a bit.

“Hi Jiyeon, where are you going?”

“I’m just going to get something to eat, and you?”

“Looking for Aron, we have a project together and he’s nowhere to be seen, by the way, have you seen him?” The boy asked looking at his surroundings.

Jiyeon giggled and denied with her head. Minhyun was relieved to see that smile. He was already aware of what was happening, it wasn’t that hard to now since that Kyungri girl made sure to tell almost everyone at the campus about her relationship with Myungsoo. Minhyun never dared to ask Jiyeon about it, but he was sure the girl was hurt, though he didn’t know what he could do for her. Therefore, seeing her smile for something he said was a relief.

“Have you tried looking for him at the library? He tends to go there to skip classes right?” The girl asked with a smile.

Minhyun opened his mouth in acknowledgment and chuckled.

“You’re a genius, you’re right about that.”

Jiyeon nodded to him and Minhyun looked at her with a warm smile.

“Wanna come along?”

“Huh?” Jiyeon asked confused.

“Yeah, do you want to come with me to the library? Maybe we both can give him some punishment.” The boy said in excitement.

Even when Jiyeon tried to appear as if she was alright, she actually wasn’t in the mood for something like that, so she gave him a faint smile before answering.

“Thanks for the invitation, but I’ll pass, I hope you can find him, let’s talk some other time.”

Minhyun didn’t have time to talk further since the girl went away. He sighed in frustration, he hated to see that false smile on her face and was tired of seeing her so hurt, she didn’t deserve that.

“Still the same huh?”

Minhyun sighed again, not looking at Hyomin.

“I don’t know what to do anymore, it’s been half a year already.” Minhyun answered sadly.

“Me neither and Myungsoo doesn’t help with his constant games.” Hyomin answered angrily.

Minhyun didn’t even want to think about it, he never liked Myungsoo to begin with and with the actual situation he just disliked him even more.

“What can we do to cheer her up?” Minhyun asked.

Hyomin sighed trying to think about something when suddenly she actually came up with something.

“What about we hang out with everyone?” She asked excitedly.

“What do you have in mind?”

“Well it’s always a good time for some drinks, right?” She said mischievously.

Minhyun and Hyomin agreed to meet in two hours at the entrance in order to go to the bar. Hyomin then looked for Jiyeon, she knew the girl would most likely be eating something, she directed to the cafeteria when she suddenly saw Jiyeon from afar, the girl seemed to be spacing out, she sighed and started to approach to her, but then someone else asked for the girl’s attention. Myungsoo came out of nowhere and started to talk with Jiyeon. Hyomin rolled her eyes at the sight and turned around, she was about to go away when a thought came to her mind.

How convenient would it be if Myungsoo tag along? The girl thought with mischief.

Hyomin smiled and walked to them.

“Hey there.” She greeted them with a smile.

Both greeted her and Hyomin got straight to the point.

“Okay so, we were thinking about going for some drinks, do you guys want to come?”

“We?” Jiyeon asked.

“Yeah, you know the girls and also JR and the boys.” Hyomin said excitedly. “Please come Jiyeon, you can’t miss this, we’ll have fun.”

Even when she was a bit reluctant in the end she agreed.

“I have a class at that time, I don’t know…” Myungsoo doubted.

“We also have, but one absent won’t hurt, right?” Hyomin said with a smirk. “Please come it’ll be fun, everyone will be there, Eunjung, Boram, Ren and also Minhyun.”

Hyomin left Minhyun’s name at last in order to catch Myungsoo’s attention and it actually worked.

“I’ll go.” Myungsoo suddenly said.

“Are you sure?” Jiyeon asked a bit surprised.

“Sure, it sounds like fun.” Myungsoo said to her with a smile. “Though Kyungri won’t be able to join us, she has an exam and it’s quite important.”

Hyomin smirked and took Jiyeon’s hand.

“It’s a shame, well we can go some other time with her. We’ll see you at the entrance in two hours then.”

They bid farewell to Myungsoo and Hyomin dragged Jiyeon away.

“What are you up to this time?” Jiyeon asked her.

“Nothing, it’s just a friendly gathering.” Hyomin simply replied.

Even when Jiyeon didn’t actually believed her she just let her be.

 

Two hours later everyone was already gathered at the entrance.

“Well then, let’s go.” Ren said excitedly.

“Wait, someone else is coming as well.” Hyomin said.

“Someone else?” Soyeon asked confused.

Just in that moment, Myungsoo appeared with Kyungri. Minhyun rolled his eyes and snorted and the whole mood became awkward.

“It’s a shame I can’t go with you, but I’ll go the next time alright?” Kyungri said to Myungsoo.

Hyomin wanted to puke because of her way of speaking but managed to keep a poker face. Kyungri then kissed Myungsoo and Jiyeon looked away. Minhyun noticed it and became angry, Hyomin as well but they remained calm nonetheless. After that, Kyungri bid farewell to Myungsoo and returned to the campus. Myungsoo cleared his throat and greeted everyone, smiling then at Jiyeon.

“Well then let’s go.” Hyomin said excitedly.

 

They went there in two cars, when they reached the bar, they managed to get a space almost at the end of the place, the place was nice with cushions and music, they ordered their drinks and for a while they were having a great time, though Hyomin and Minhyun were at the bridge of killing Myungsoo.

The boy didn’t let go of Jiyeon even for a second, he was constantly hugging her and all his attention was just on the girl. They were in their own bubble, almost as if not caring about anyone else. Minhyun was having drink after drink while looking at the sight, Myungsoo’s behavior made him sick.

Jiyeon was feeling really guilty for being that near of Myungsoo, but she couldn’t help it, she knew something like that would happen the moment Myungsoo agreed and said Kyungri wouldn’t attend, she didn’t know why Hyomin would invite him. But after some drinks she started to relax and just went with the flow, for that moment she forgot about everything and just enjoyed her time with Myungsoo, even if it was only for that night, she would enjoy the time with her best friend who she had been distanced from for quite long now. So they were talking at each other cheerfully, it was like going back to high school where they didn’t had any worries or doubts, they were just being them.

At some moment Jiyeon went to the restroom and a topic came up the moment she was gone.

“Come on Eunjung it’s already the third year it’s impossible you haven’t liked anyone in this whole time!” JR said aloud.

Everyone turned their attention to them.

“It’s clearly possible, I mean, Aron is the same as me.” Eunjung defended.

“She’s right dude, I’m not interested on those things, not everyone seek for that kind of love you know?” The boy calmly said.

“Yeah right, keep fooling yourself dude, well we can always ask Minhyun what it feels like to like someone for so long.” Ren said with mischief.

Minhyun just smirked, he knew what Ren was trying to do, though he still couldn’t decide if he should play along or not.

“Ren.” JR said with warning.

“What? I didn’t say anything wrong.” The boy claimed.

“Oh? You actually have someone?” Myungsoo asked mockingly.

Hyomin frowned to Myungsoo, she couldn’t believe he actually asked that. Minhyun just tilted his head and chuckled. Well, playing along didn’t seem like a bad idea after all.

“Of course, everyone here knows I like Jiyeon.” He stated firmly.

The mood immediately dropped and everyone remained silent. Myungsoo changed his expression to a serious one and looked straightly at Minhyun, the other one did the same.

“I can see it’s not a joke.” Myungsoo seriously said.

“Of course it isn’t and I don’t believe that you didn’t know it, I’m quite obvious about it.” Minhyun said with a smirk.

Hyomin looked at the boys and was amazed by Minhyun’s straightforwardness, she actually thought the boy was quite shy, it turned out she was wrong. Things were developing in an interesting way so instead of stopping them she just let them continue.

Myungsoo suddenly chuckled and leaned on the couch.

“Well that doesn’t matter, you’ll never have a chance with her.” Myungsoo said with a grin.

“Oh really? How can you be so sure about it?” Minhyun asked back.

“I just know it.”

“We’ll see, but you’re only his friend and you also have a girlfriend right? Then you have no right to interfere at all.” Minhyun remarked with a grin.

Myungsoo was about to answer when Hyomin cleared , he looked at his side and noticed Jiyeon was coming back, the topic was left aside and when Jiyeon reached them everything was in silence. It was obvious that something happened.

“Hey what happened here? Why are you all like this?” She asked with an eyebrow up.

“Oh it’s nothing, we were waiting for you dear, come have a sit already.” Hyomin hurried to explain.

Jiyeon frowned at her in confusion while sitting but Hyomin avoided her gaze and quickly started to talk with Boram. Jiyeon sighed and then turned to see Myungsoo.

“Will you tell me what happened here?”

Myungsoo seemed to doubt in telling her something.

“It’s nothing, Hyomin already said it, we were just waiting for you.” The boy answered with a smile.

Jiyeon didn’t look further into it, nobody would tell her what happened since it was obvious it was something that had to do with her.

A couple of minutes went by and Hyomin suddenly asked for Myungsoo to have a talk, Jiyeon was a bit confused but Myungsoo agreed without a second thought. Jiyeon looked at Hyomin as if asking for answers but Hyomin just mouthed a ‘trust me’ to her. Jiyeon didn’t have any other option than to just let her do as she wanted, Myungsoo and Hyomin moved to another table near them and then Jiyeon tried to focus on the conversation that was having place, though it wasn’t hard since the girls quickly added her to the talk.

“Enough, can you tell me what the hell are you doing?” Hyomin asked angrily.

“Now what Hyomin?” Myungsoo asked annoyed.

“Don’t act like you’re the wronged one Myungsoo or I swear I’ll go grab Jiyeon and not let her see you for the rest of your life.” Hyomin threatened.

Myungsoo snorted and leaned on the chair. Hyomin sighed trying to calm down a bit.

“Now tell me, why are you doing this to her?”

“I’m not doing anything, what are you talking about?”

“You clearly know what I’m talking about, it’s always the same whenever Kyungri isn’t around, you look for Jiyeon to be your comfort, the hell’s wrong with you?” Hyomin recriminated.

“You know how we treat each other, I’m just behaving as always, what’s the problem with that? We’ve always been like this.”

“That’s exactly the problem, you two never behaved like the ‘best friends’ you claim to be. You know what everyone thought about you two before you dated Kyungri? That you two were dating, come on Myungsoo I don’t have to explain this to you.”

Myungsoo remained silent, he couldn’t deny what Hyomin was saying was true. The girl sighed before continuing.

“And now you come here behaving like always with her when you already have a girlfriend, have you ever stopped to think how Jiyeon feels about this? How she’s been doing these past months?” Hyomin made a pause. “I know I’m meddling where I shouldn’t but I can stand seeing you hurt her like this, so stop this once and for all, stop playing with her feelings and decide for god’s sake what you want to do already.”

“I understand, though this won’t be hard, I mean, Jiyeon doesn’t like me I know that already.” Myungsoo said to her.

“Huh? What the hell are you talking abo-?”

“But I’ll fix this.” Myungsoo cut her off. “I also don’t want to hurt her.”

Hyomin looked at him with a frown, she couldn’t believe what she just heard.

How the hell did this came to the conclusion Jiyeon doesn’t like him?! Is he really that stupid? Hyomin thought annoyed.

The girl just wanted to hit some sense into the boy and scream at him that Jiyeon was madly in love with him. But that wasn’t her duty, there was a limit in what she could do and she already reached it. She could just sigh and change the topic, she had to know more about Myungsoo and his feelings. But she was sure about one thing, she’d no longer support the idea of Myungsoo and Jiyeon being in a relationship, she was done with them and that situation wouldn’t lead them anywhere so it had to stop.

The rest of the night passed with Hyomin and Myungsoo talking and the others talking about everything and anything at the same time. Jiyeon couldn’t help but to steal some glances from time to time to Hyomin and Myungsoo, wondering what could they be talking about.

Minhyun decided to put some distance between him and Jiyeon, he wasn’t feeling that good after all, seeing Jiyeon having all her attention on Myungsoo wasn’t a pleasant view. He couldn’t understand her, neither Myungsoo; if both liked each other so much then why make things that hard, it didn’t have any sense.

After some hours, they decided to go back, they still had to get their belongings from the college. On the way back, Myungsoo sat next to Jiyeon, both were a bit drunk therefore Jiyeon leaned on him and Myungsoo was her hair while looking dearly at her. Hyomin could see them from the rearview, she just wanted to stop the car and give Myungsoo what he deserved but she refrained from it, she wanted to see how far they would go, after all, Myungsoo wasn’t the only one at fault, Jiyeon wasn’t also doing things the right way.

During the whole ride, Jiyeon and Myungsoo stuck to each other, they forgot about everything and everyone. At some moment Jiyeon leaned even more to him and Myungsoo finally embraced her completely.

“Myungsoo.” Jiyeon whispered to him.

“Hm?”

“You know you’re important to me, right?”

Myungsoo smiled and held her tighter.

“Of course, and you also know you’re important and special to me, right?”

Jiyeon smiled sadly, she clearly knew what that answer meant, after all, the connotation of what they respectively said was completely different. Myungsoo didn’t love her the same way she did. It hurt.

The girl cuddled a bit more to him and Myungsoo was now confused by her action.

“Jiyeon?” He asked a bit worried.

“Just for this time, please, just hold me the rest of the drive, I promise I won’t do it again.” She almost pleaded.

Myungsoo sighed and smiled.

“Silly girl, you don’t have to ask for that, I’ll always hold you.” Myungsoo answered.

Jiyeon smiled sadly and sighed, she knew it was wrong, no matter if she was drunk, the fact that Myungsoo held her like that while having a girlfriend was really wrong. Even when she knew that, she just couldn’t stop, having Myungsoo so near her and holding her like that after so long made her weak, she felt sorry for Kyungri, but the girl didn’t have to know about it. It was really ironic, she was doing to Kyungri almost the exact same thing that Sojin and Jungmin did to her.

What comes around goes around I guess. She thought while looking at the window. I can’t expect I won’t pay for this one day.

The rest of the ride was silent between them, even when everyone else in the car were chatting happily with loud music as well.

 

They reached the campus and everyone reunited once again.

“That was cool, let’s hang out together again!” Ren said excitedly.

“I agree, we spent a great time there!” Boram added while smiling.

“We’ll see, for now let’s go back.” JR politely answered.

JR just wanted to get Minhyun out from there, the boy was clearly depressed and drunk, that wasn’t quite a good combination, besides, Myungsoo and Jiyeon were still standing really close to each other, it was almost impossible that Minhyun didn’t notice it as well and JR was sure in any moment the boy would explode and would probably punch Myungsoo right in the face.

“I agree, for now let’s go back everyone, we’ll see each other on Monday.” Hyomin supported JR.

Both nodded at each other, since Hyomin could guess what the intentions of JR were. The boy managed to drag Minhyun away even when he was reluctant and at least nothing wrong happened there.

“Jiyeon, let’s go for our things.” Hyomin said to her friend once everyone else was gone.

Jiyeon looked at Myungsoo and then directed her gaze to Hyomin.

“You go first, I’ll be there in a second.”

Hyomin was about to answer something but remained silent in the end, she sighed heavily and looked at Myungsoo first, then at Jiyeon.

“Don’t delay.” Hyomin said and went away.

Once they were alone Myungsoo embraced her out of nowhere, Jiyeon was surprised so she remained still, unable to move or react.

“Jiyeon, I love you.” Myungsoo said to her.

Jiyeon’s heart raced, Myungsoo’s voice was completely serious and the boy was holding her as if the world would end if he didn’t.

“Myungsoo…” Jiyeon said.

“Never forget that I love you, okay? No matter what happens.” Myungsoo said almost in a pleading tone.

Jiyeon was at a loss but nodded on his chest anyway, she didn’t understand why the boy sounded so broken and couldn’t fight against the impulse to embrace him back.

 

Kyungri took the photo with her cellphone and looked at Myungsoo and Jiyeon holding each other. She knew the both would do something during their reunion, it was more than obvious, though she didn’t think they would be silly enough to embrace like that inside the campus.

“Turns out everything that’s been said about you is true.” Kyungri said now looking at the photo at her cellphone. “Jiyeon.” The girl finished with a grin.

 

A/N: Last chapter of the year! I hope you all have great holidays ^^ I wish you all the best of the world <3 

As always, thank you so so much for reading, and your patience, comments are appreciated ^^ stay safe and have a beautiful day <3