성재: “How long have they been together?” I ask, looking at Se Na.

She looks up from the screen of her computer. “Who?”

I point her face, or specifically, at a point on it.

“Who?”

“Them.”

“I said who?”

I point a bit closer and she looks up, then she realizes I’m pointing at her eyebrows. Or the crease between them, precisely.

Se Na laughs at this, and hurls a pillow at my direction, which I easily catch. “Why so serious, Se Na?” I walk to her bed and sit beside her, taking a peek at the screen.

She continues typing at this obscenely fast-paced rate, that if I had been looking at the keyboard and not at the screen, I would have become dizzy. “I’m writing something,”

“For?”

“Nah, just for a private online portfolio I keep. I update it when there’s no work waiting,”

I nod. “What is the story about?”

“It’s long,”

I elbow her lightly. “I said what it is about. Not what it is,” I laugh, at the inappropriateness of her reply.

She chuckles. “It’s more like of a one-shot, actually,”

“One-shot?”

“It’s a one-chapter story. Or on layman’s terms, short story,”

I take a sip from the jug I happen to be carrying. “So what it is this short story all about?”

I don’t understand why it takes Se Na a long while to respond. “It’s…it’s about a story of a boy who loses his girlfriend,”

“So it is kind of sad, huh.”

“You can say that.”

“May I read it?”

“Don’t.”

“Why not?”

 She looks at me. “You won’t like it,”

I snicker. “That won’t matter! Don’t be shy!”

“It’s not that I’m shy…” Se Na purposely loses eye contact. “I just feel a little…uncomfortable, when someone I know reads my stories,”

I pout, taking a glimpse at the words on the screen, but she quickly exits the window.

“Don’t look,” she covers my eyes, lightly laughing. I take her hand down with both of mine and lift her arm slightly.

“Is your arm okay now?” I query.

She nods. “As you can see,”

I shift in my position, and sit up straight. “By the way, Se Na?”

She makes a grunt as she settles her laptop on the other bedside table. “Hm?”

“Classes are resuming. The summer break is almost over,”

“And?”

“Will you be alright here?”

Se Na smiles. I hope I’m not a little too attached to her. “Of course I will be,”

“Why don’t you enroll?” I rest my weight on one arm, this tiny glint of hope inside me that she would acquiesce.

Shaking her head, she replies, “Not interested.”

“It would be healthier if you were to go to school, you know.”

Se Na eyes me as if I’ve said something wrong, and what taunts me is that the look is a little caustic. “There’s nothing I could not teach myself that they learn from school, right?”

I stay silent for a second, then blurt out, “X times X?”

“X squared.”

I laugh. “3y times 2?”

“6y.” she sniggers. “Make it a tough one.”

“What is the square root of 121?”

“11. Sungjae there must be something harder than that,”

“What is the capital of Canada?”

She seems slightly taken aback by the sudden change of subject, but she instantly recovers. “Ottawa.”

“Hmmm,” I tap my chin, thinking. “What are the three primary colors of light?”

“Green, Blue, Red.”

“What are the three primary pigments?”

“Yellow, Cyan and Magenta.”

My shoulders slack. “Alright, you got me.” I laugh along with my best friend. “You win. You can just teach me my lesson instead,”

“Told you I’m still learning,”

When the laughter dies out I slowly get out of the bed; we have to get moving. “But you have considered Father’s offer, right?”

Se Na does the same and arranges the blankets and pillows on her bed. “I don’t know, Jae. I’m not very sure about it. I’m as good as dancing as how a fish can. I sing with the danger of breaking every glass nearby,” Se Na pulls a hoodie that rests on a chair and motions me to come with her to the door.

“Don’t exaggerate.” I laugh.

“Really!” she heaves an exhausted breath. “I’m supposed to be a writer, not a trainee.”

“But either way you’d still be under Cube no matter what you choose,”

“Yeah,” my best friend makes this impatient pfft sound with her lips. “Too bad President didn’t put me under Beast,”

“Aww, there you are again!” bellyaching, I stomp my foot lightly several times as we walk. “Aren’t you supposed to be happy you were placed under BTOB?”

“What are you saying; I’ve always wanted to work with Dongwoon-oppa,” with an eye-roll.

The bickering goes on as we reach the elevator, till we get down several floors. It gets interrupted when I receive a phone-call from Eunkwang-hyung, telling us to hurry up. We have a press conference in about an hour.

Se Na and I just take the public transportation on the way to the company, so there’s barely time to talk when we get there. As soon as I arrive I’m immediately prepped up by the stylists, and Se Na is goodness knows where; I heard she was called by father Hong to I don’t know, write something for him maybe. A little later, she shows up, as I know that my hyungs are crooning over something and I catch the words “pretty friend” and my name in a sentence being mentioned. Really, this is how they describe Se Na. Right after their first meeting Se Na became the talk of the town (or dorm, actually) for an entire week and my hyungs wouldn’t stop gushing at “how pretty Sungjae’s best friend is” and “how cute she is” and “how you would just want to put her in your pocket because she’s so adorable”. What is even funnier is I think Ilhoon-hyung and Minhyuk-hyung might have developed a crush on her.

The statement that Se Na is pretty is very much true in itself, though I don’t really get to enjoy this as much as they do since I’ve grown accustomed to it, and have grown very fond of that pretty face I hadn’t realized it was so, making me immune to whatever courtly affection that might arise between me and my best friend.

The media starts flocking into where the press conference should be held, and before we climb up where our stage should be Se Na approaches me, fixing the collars of dress here and there. “Looking good, pretty prince,” she compliments.

“Where have you gone?”

“Upstairs.” By ‘upstairs’ she means Father’s office.

“What did you do there?”

“He called me to make a speech for him. Gosh, Jae. This is how it feels like when your father asks a favor of you?” she giggles, concentrating on my dress.

“It is,” I simply say, at the fragile ignorance of my best friend. “What was the speech all about?”

“You will know,” is her reply, with this slightly mischievous look in her eyes. Now that I’m all fixed, she looks at me. “And you know what, Jae, Father tells me I could take a look at the Cube Café’s menu. He says I could take even just informal culinary classes so I can help in it,”

Well, not everyone who doesn’t go to school promises to be a delinquent, right? Just look at her. “Really? That’s good! When’s it going to start?”

“Maybe in a week, or later.” Suddenly I see a shadow behind Se Na that she grows completely oblivious of and its head is on her shoulder and whispers something:

“Boo.”

She jumps at that in surprise, and mumbles an incoherent string of words that goes between the lines of “sweet mother of chocolate cakes and hot sauce” when she’s done recovering, in a way by sinking her face into my chest and shaking violently, she faces whoever her assailant was and starts kicking his shin in a less-than-deadly way.

“Ah, ah! Se Na-ssi! Chill! Ow! Stop that!” Minhyuk-hyung screeches, shielding himself, but still laughing. Beside him Peniel-hyung just watches the little commotion, laughing, himself.

“I almost had a heart attack! Why you—“ Se Na grits her teeth and eventually stops kicking hyung. “What’s your problem?!”

Minhyuk-hyung, against all logic, approaches my dragon of a best friend and stoops down to pinch her cheeks with both hands. “Kyeoptaaaa,”

She just pulls this face at him.

“Alright guys, assemble now, the presscon’s starting in ten minutes,” the PD-noona says, looking down at her clipboard, pointing where our stage should be. We all troop out, and Peniel-hyung is delayed a little when Se Na grabs him.

“You,” she says.

“Ne?”

She stands before him, and though Se Na is a really tall girl, much taller than the prescribed height for her age, hyung is still taller than her. “You really are a guy, aren’t you. you don’t pay attention to the small things,” Se Na mutters, and fixes something on hyung’s hair. A tress that seems to be sticking out of place, maybe.

Peniel-hyung looks up where her hands are reaching. “Do I look alright?”

“You do,” the other smiles, in a seemingly motherly tone, but her eyes are saying much more. You always do. I could practically read them. I laugh inwardly at this. Oh, Se Na. hyung liking you back is not really far from happening now. “Now go get ‘em,” she says, tapping his back twice, sending him out. Hyung sets out, but before he does, he taps her cheek twice, like the king of skinship he is. Se Na’s dumbstruck look is priceless. I wink at her before going out, teasing.

The memory I bring with me as we settle ourselves onstage before a congregation of curious reporters is Se Na’s red face, as it stares at Peniel-hyung’s back. We do a little interview, an exchange of questions about this and that, and Father Hong finally hatches the egg. He takes his place on the podium to do his announcement. I don’t really pay attention but I get the point of his speech. Since the Melody fanbase is getting a bit bigger now compared to before, he says our company is giving a chance to see the creativity of our fans. Cube will open a website where our fans could submit their stories, well, about us, really, and anyone can join.

“Mechanics shall be displayed on the constructed website. We hope for your support in this project,” are the only words that I remember accurately, since I am too preoccupied at how excellent Se Na had constructed the entire speech of our President.

When the crowd disperses, we go back.

“Congrats, Se Na-ssi, that was really awesome!” Hyunsik-hyung exclaims, as he offers a high-five to Se Na, to which she dumbly responds with an open palm and a bewildered look on her face. “Father’s speech was cool!”

“Thanks,” she responds timidly, flattered. I have had a glimpse on how it is to be a writer ever since I was reunited with Se Na. For one, writers type awfully fast on a keyboard, and writes lighting-speed with a pen, but actually the case is you shouldn’t really broach the topic about their writings in their face. “So how was it?” she queries, when she reaches me.

“It was excellent. Dae-bak!” I say, with a thumb up.

“That was so cool, Se Na-ssi,” Peniel-hyung, who happens to stand beside me, says. Se Na just smiles back at him and then she couldn’t react when he asks, “Why don’t you join in, yourself?”