“Jinae! Yah! Where are you?” I shouted as I scanned the place where she had told me to go. I hoped she wasn’t being serious at all when she said all of that. About how she hoped wasn’t sore, how she didn’t know if she was even fully awake. I didn’t know what she was on about, but it was serious. And she didn’t care.

“Jinae! Yah!” I called out to her but she wasn’t answering. For a minute I thought she had fooled me into leaving the guys for God knows what reason, until I heard the sound of high heels resonating against the pavement. I turned around and she was standing there, playing with her curly hair as she looked at something she had in her hand.

“Morning”

“What do you want and what did you do, I swear if you did something I will-“

“You what?  I don’t have anything to lose but oppa is part of a well-known band so I’d think it twice” she smiled and threw whatever she had in her hand in the air and then caught it in her hands again, “Yay, I got it” she walked up to me and leaned in, getting close to me in a matter of seconds, I took a step back but it just made her take one step forward.

“So, did you get me those backstage passes?”

“No, they ran out very early in the week according to Yonghwa” I immediately answered.

“Oh what a pity” she said before opening her hands and showing me what she had been hiding in them, “Guess you don’t get this”

“Some keys?”

“Not just regular keys, these are her keys to her apartment, keys which sadly she lost yesterday when we were out”

My eyes widened in surprise, “She what? And why didn’t you give them back to her?!”

She faked a sob, “Because she hurt me. And also hurt you” I tried snatching the keys from her hand but she was quick to move aside.

“What do you mean she hurt both of us? What are you on about, Jinae?” I asked because she was making me feel confused. When she wasn’t being straightforward it was hard to understand what she was saying because there were so many possibilities to her words.

“Shall I give these to Jonghyun-oppa? Perhaps he’s actually her knight in shining armor”

“What does Jonghyun have to do with—“

“Because they shamelessly hug in public places and make it so obvious that they still like each other. I hate her, I hate her so much. She doesn’t deserve Jonghyun-oppa!” she exclaimed. They like each other… Jinae just said that she saw them both hugging each other in public. Jonghyun then…was late because he was with her, again.

I could have imagined that, I actually felt that something was wrong, one person doesn’t take two hours to go and buy a pizza; you don’t take that long to go to buy something to eat. Not unless you find someone who distracts you and that someone… that someone just had to be her.

“At least I know that she won’t be able to get on her feet today in time to come to Inkigayo”

“Come….to Inkigayo?”

“Of course, she must have not been able to get inside her flat, so she must be outside it, freezing cold, isn’t it nice? She’s that cold towards you isn’t she?” She explained as she leaned against the wall. I walked up to her and put an arm next to her in an attempt to block her from evading me again, “Aren’t you happy about this?”

“Give me those keys”

“Of course…not! Give me Jonghyun and perhaps then we can talk”

“Jinae, the keys. Now”

“I won’t. Try to get them from me if you can”

I placed my hands on her shoulders and looked at her from above, “Stop it already! She hasn’t slept in her flat because of you, what if she’s ill right now? Give me those keys so I can go check on her!” her eyes opened in surprise upon hearing me shouting at her.

I was mad of course, at Jinae, at her, at Jonghyun, at everything. It was a bit selfish to be mad, to be disappointed, I knew it, but I couldn’t help it, not with Jinae being poisonous and saying that she hurt me. She had indeed, but I didn’t care about that now. I also knew that we weren’t on good-terms now since we hadn’t made up but hearing Jinae saying that she took her keys just to get her to sleep outside and fall ill, that just worried me. She totally disliked rainy nights, she didn’t mind rainy days, but nights was another story.

I know she might have gone to a friend’s house to ask for help, but the possibility of her being ill while I was wasting my time with Jinae scared me. Jinae just blinked a few times.

“You know I can just give these to Jonghyun and he can go to her”

“It’s not like you want them together, Jinae, so give me the keys now”

She glanced to the side before leaning in and getting close to my ear, her breath brushing against my neck as she spoke “You win, for now” a slight chill went down my spine as she wrapped her arms around my waist taking me by surprise when lowering her hand until she placed the keys inside one of the pockets at the back of my jeans. Her sudden actions kind of shocked me and her boldness made me freeze on the spot; I didn’t remember her being like this and behaving this way. Just as I was about to move aside since being so close to her made me feel uncomfortable, her eyes looked up and met with someone’s; her pupils dilating and eyes shining bright upon looking at that person.

“Oh, Jonghyun-oppa!” she exclaimed as she took her hands off me, her lips curving into a smile she only showed when Jonghyun was near, you could say that the times were Jonghyun was in front of her were the only occasions in which she smiled for real, not faking how she felt, not being a hypocrite and smiling because she had to—She smiled because she wanted to, because Jonghyun made someone like her smile for real. Just like I smiled when I saw the girl I liked, I could sort of relate to that but I couldn’t understand why she had to go as far and hurt her like that.

 When I turned around, I had Jonghyun looking at me dumbfounded, his eyes opening wide trying as much as he could to understand what was going on at the moment, I could just imagine what might have crossed his mind, of all the possibilities, he might have thought that Jinae was my real reason for leaving abruptly like that, I was screwed. This was just ‘’confirming’’ his suspicions of me and Jinae liking each other and I didn’t like that one bit. I wasn’t dating anyone, but I would stand being paired up with anyone but her, but obviously finding her with her arms wrapped around my waist just screamed ‘’oh they are dating”  I didn’t understand why she was doing this to begin with, she liked Jonghyun, why did she close the distance between us so much if she knew Jonghyun was looking? Why did she put herself in this type of situation and get involved with me in such way? What kind of plan was this and why did I have to take part in it?

I really didn’t want to take part in whatever she had under her sleeve, I didn’t want to because seeing the situation we were in, hurting the girl I liked was part of the process that Jinae had to do to achieve whatever she planned to. In this case, trying to get Jonghyun to like her back as much as she liked him, to feel the same way she felt for him; Jinae always liked Jonghyun, there was no day she wouldn’t try to impress him and get him to fall for her, however that was when she was a good girl and not the scheming woman she had turned into.

“What a surprise to see you here, Jinae” Jonghyun said looking at us both suspiciously.

“Oh, I just dropped by to say hi!” she quickly responded, her cheeks turning an almost unnoticeable shade of pink upon hearing him mention her name. She looked to the floor, playing with her hair as she tried not to stare at Jonghyun, playing innocent.

“To Minhyuk?” he said, his gaze landing intently on me as though he was questioning my actions.

“Ah… yes to Minhyuk… and to you Jonghyun oppa! I thought I might find you here too so…” she answered, eyes glued to the floor faking to be ashamed. Yes, faking, because everything she did was being a fake in front of him, it’s like people say, you try your best to be the best in front of the person you like.

“I…” I took some steps back and didn’t know exactly what to say and how to react, I didn’t know how much Jonghyun had seen but I was somehow sure he saw everything and I didn’t really know how to explain that me and Jinae had nothing to do with each other after what Jonghyun had seen.

“Oppa, today is your goodbye stage at Inkigayo, right?” she sweetly asked Jonghyun as she walked up to him and took his hands in hers. Jonghyun nodded in response, not minding the sudden touch.

“Yeah, do you want to come over?” he casually inquired.

“Sure! I’d love to!” she chirped as she gave Jonghyun a quick hug, “Jonghyun-oppa, you are so nice to me, thank you!”

“Hyung…” I tried getting his attention but I couldn’t bring myself to look straight at his eyes after what had happened.

“What is it?” he asked looking over Jinae’s shoulder.

“I… I have to be somewhere right now, I…please tell the guys that I’ll be back before the recording starts, will you?” I explained.

“Sure but…”

“Please, I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t important. I will be at SBS’ studio before everything starts, I promise”

He tilted his head to the side, his expression showed confusion when heard me but he nodded his head nevertheless, “Ok, go”  I should have asked Yonghwa instead but I felt that the one I had to ask this to was him, after all, I was going to see my best friend, his ex, the girl he still was in love with, even though he didn’t know.

“Thanks, hyung!” I said as I rushed towards the avenue, leaving the two of them together staring at me with their eyes wide open. Jinae probably hadn’t seen it coming, the fact that I was going to rush in direction to her flat as soon as I had the keys in my hands, perhaps she was expecting for me to wait until the recording was done, but I couldn’t wait any longer, I couldn’t make her wait anymore after spending the night outside