Just Friends
My OppaAt six o'clock in the morning, my door flew open.
'Whaaa... Leave me alone, Mum,' I grumbled sleepily. 'I don't want to get up yet.'
'Oh,' a low voice replied, surprising me. I shot up in bed, letting my sheet fall away, and struggled to open my eyes. To my surprise, Minho was standing in my bedroom looking startled.
'Sorry, I thought this was the bathroom,' Minho mumbled and backed out of the room, looking at the floor. His expression was cold; his voice emotionless. This new life was not going to be easy to get used to, I decided; it would have been difficult enough to learn to trust my father again, but now I had a slightly hostile older brother to deal with, as well.
Sighing, I flopped back on my bed. I was thoroughly awake now with thoughts buzzing in my head - I had little hope of getting back to sleep. Just to check, my hands reached up to my chest and... Oh my gosh. Oh. My. Gosh.
My singlet had shimmied its way down almost to my waist, and Minho had seen it all.
~~~
I had to get up and dressed straight away after I was woken up, because today was Monday and Mondays meant school. Part of me was actually grateful to Minho for waking me; Mum usually got me up for school but she was notoriously scatterbrained and currently so distracted by and enamoured with my father that she would never have remembered me. So it was not all bad news.
I was sitting in the kitchen eating breakfast five minutes later when I next encountered Minho. He ambled into the room, wearing nothing but a tight fitting pair of jeans.
'Jeez, can't you put a shirt on?' I drawled impatiently, trying to hide my slight embarrassment. Minho was very close to having a six pack and seeing your brother's six pack was a little too ual for my tastes.
Minho seemed to notice me for the first time. 'We're even now though, aren't we?' he replied with a hint of a grin. I didn't mean to grin back, but I couldn't help the tiny smile that twisted onto my lips.
Minho had returned wearing a t-shirt and helped himself to breakfast when Mum came into the kitchen, my father in tow. She smiled warmly at Minho and I.
'Morning, Minho and Krystal,' Mum chirped. Was it an omen that she said my brother's name before my own?
'Morning, kids,' my father grunted. Minho was clearly well past childhood but it did not really matter because my father was looking at me, peering into my face and trying to meet my eyes as I gazed steadfastly at the bowl in front of me. Did this man even have the right to call me his kid?
'Hi, Dad,' Minho answered for both of us, smiling briefly at our parents. I was still not ready to let my father back in.
'Well kids,' Mum began, apparently following my father's lead in addressing us as 'kids' (and my father was evidently not the most reliable man, so following his lead was probably not the best idea, I thought).
'Yes?' I prompted her.
'Your father and I are going out for breakfast!' Mum practically squealed.
'Now?' I questioned.
'Yep. We're on our way out.'
My father, still looking at me like a specimen of an extinct species, addressed my brother. 'Minho, you'll drop Krystal at school, right?' My name sounded acidic rolling off his tongue.
'But -' Minho protested.
'Minho! You'll drop her. It won't take long,' my father commanded.
'Alright then,' Minho conceded, sighing unashamedly. It's nice to be wanted, I mused.
'Okay, see you two later,' Mum said with a smile. Minho looked up to acknowledge their leaving but I resolutely refused to do the same. Standing near me, my father attempted an awkward wave at me but abandoned it when I ignored him. 'Bye, kids,' I heard him mutter.
~~~
The school carpark was crowded and Minho and I had to wait in line for the drop off for over five minutes, which did not help my brother's mood.
'How long do I have to wait in this damn line, Krystal?' Minho demanded angrily, staring strait ahead at the car in front of us.
'We're nearly there, Minho,' I consoled him halfheartedly. It was strange - all my girlfriends would have called their brother 'oppa' in that sentence, but I had not. I could not. Minho and I were strangers; he was not really my oppa. In the literal sense he was, but not at all in the relational sense.
'Here!' I said. 'I get out here.' Minho looked at me. 'This is not a well-designed carpark,' he grumbled. 'You have to climb over me.'
Ignoring his steady stream of complaints that continued on, I grabbed my bag and slid towards Minho's seat. I took a second o asses the situation: climbing over Minho would be awkward, but I had the get out - so how best to do it?
I manoeuvred over the top of my brother cautiously, but I could not avoid brushing his legs as I got out. Minho did not look at me and I tried not to blush.
Sulli was not waiting for me at my locker, so I figured she had not arrived yet. Sulli Choi was my closest friend and had been for as long as I could remember. She had a face to rival my own but she was a little hostile towards strangers and did not easily let people in; I was lucky to be her friend. Deep down, though, I knew she was fragile and this was her way of protecting herself.
Before I could get annoyed about having to wait for Sulli to arrive, a face popped out from behind my row of lockers.
'Key!' I cried.
'Krystal,' he replied, drawing out the end of my name. 'And how are you today?' Key asked, grinning while he put on a posh British accent.
As Key walked closer to me my heart palpitated just a little. Key and I had met a few years ago when we had started high school together and we had been very nearly inseparable ever since, especially for a platonic male-female relationship.
'Fine,' I answered Key's question.
'Just fine?' Key teased, throwing his arm around my neck playfully. I could not breathe.
Well, the relationship was platonic for him.
Key grinned. He had features that could make a supermodel look plain; any reasonable person would murder for those cheekbones. I caught even myself feeling jealous of his face every now and then. As if that was not enough, Key was more fashionably experimental than I was.
The fantastic thing about Key was that, though he had a very much male outlook on things, he was accepting of everyone and was up for trying anything. Shopping? Sure. Make-up? Okay, just this once. Skydiving? Yes yes yes, can we please go Krystal?!
'Yes, I am fine, Key,' I giggled. He released me, grinning like a maniac.
~~~
In English, while the teacher was lecturing us about adjectives, Amber passed me a note from her desk across from mine.
Is there a reason Mrs Chang's shirt is see-though today???
Amber was one of the friendliest people I had ever met. She was friends with just about everyone, but for a reason I still could not really understand, she had chosen Sulli, our other friend Luna, and I as her close circle of friends. Amber could always make me smile.
Nope, none at all, I wrote in reply and slid the note over to Amber. A smile crept onto her face and she began scribbling on the note.
I meant to ask you - how are things with your dad? & Minho?
I sighed. Pretty , actually. I kinda ignore him and he pretends he doesn't care. Minho treats me like I'm totally useless. Mum hasn't glanced in my direction since they arrived. I have no idea what I'm gonna do, Amber.
Amber reached her hand out across the table. I took it, and she rubbed my hand with her thumb thoughtfully.
~~~
Luna waved at Amber and I across the cafeteria from her seat at our usual table. Like Amber, Luna was an extraordinarily, genuinely nice person. I had never met anyone like them.
Sitting down next to Sulli, who was already at the table, I noticed my best friend was looking down at the table, her face frozen. I said a quick 'Hi' to Luna, then turned to my other friend.
'What's wrong, Sulli?' I asked, slightly concerned but not enormously so. Sulli was notoriously moody and most things could set her off. In comparison, though, when she was happy, it was as if the sun shone out of her face and rainbows bloomed at her touch. Sulli could be the most magical person to be around.
Sulli glanced up and looked at me, oblivious to the conversation going on between Luna and Amber. 'Onew cheated on me,' she sighed sadly.
What?! 'Did he?! But he's so sweet to you! I thought he really, really liked you!' Onew was her boyfriend of five weeks. He was friendly, good-looking in a clean-cut way, and a year older than us.
'It was at a party last week,' Sulli continued, her voice low, trying not to attract attention from our other two friends. 'Some girl told me he was making out with a girl who's in uni, and when I confronted him yesterday he admitted it.'
'That's awful, babe!' I put my arm around Sulli, attempting to comfort her. It was far too soon to be asking for details; I knew better. For a second I thought that it would have been nice for my friend to ask about the huge change going on in my life, but I dismissed it. Sulli was not the most emotionally sensitive person anyway, and adding this ordeal to the mix meant Sulli thinking about me right now was too much to ask for.
'It's okay, he was a piece of trash anyway,' Sulli added, sniffling just a little.
'Don't say that, Sulli. You'll be okay. We can work through this.' She nodded, looking just a little bit more hopeful. I met Luna's eyes across the table. Information seemed to relay between us as we looked at each other. She already knew, and she knew Sulli needed me to be there for her.
So did I.
~~~
Sulli and I always waited together in the carpark to be picked up. At three-thirty, Sulli's dad drove up and she got in and drove off with a wave. At four-thirty, an hour and a half after school had ended, I was the only person waiting at the carpark for my parents to pick me. Mum had not answered any of my seven calls and now things were looking hopeless.
Well, I was not exactly the only person there. Key lived only two blocks away from the school - he walked home every day, and he had opted to stay with me. When he had offered, I had not been able to help the butterflies that swirled in my stomach. The rational part of my mind knew it was a gesture of friendship, but the irrational part was buzzing with possibilities.
'Want to just come back to my house?' Key suggested, looking from his phone. I wondered who he was texting. Most of all, I wondered if it was a girl or not.
'Nah, better not,' I reluctantly declined. We did that all the time, but today was different. 'There's so much going down at my place right now. I kinda need to be there.'
Key smiled at me and tilted his head curiously. 'Don't you want to get away from it all, then?' he asked.
I did. I wanted to leave my neglectful father and unfriendly brother and inattentive mother and my entire messed up life behind. I wanted to start over and to never look back. Most of all, I wanted to be with Key. I lit up in his presence. He was the most amazing friend: always knew to say; always gave perfect advice; always was loads of fun to be around.
It was hard to say when it had gone wrong - when I had started to like Key as more than a friend. We'd been close for years and I remembered that I had always felt a slight tingle when I was around him, like a comfortable warmth inside. A few months ago, Sulli had asked me which guys I thought were hot, and if I wanted to date any of them. I'd broken up with my last boyfriend, Aron, a few weeks before, and I had answered that I was not into anyone.
It had gotten me thinking, though. It had taken me several weeks after that to admit to myself and accept that I did, in fact, like Key that way, but I eventually had.
'Yeah, Key, I do want to get away from it all. But I can't, you know?' He nodded sympathetically.
'I feel for you, Krystal. I'm here for you, yeah?' It was my turn to nod, and I smiled as I did.
A car pulled in to the carpark a minute later. I looked up, curious as to who was arriving here so late. Unexpectedly, it was Minho who got out if the car. He waved me over, looking sort of pissed off.
'I've gotta go,' I said to Key. 'Minho doesn't look happy. I didn't think he was picking me up. Maybe Mum forgot about me.' This was a very real possibility. 'Anyway, thanks so much for staying here with me!' But Key was not listening to me - he was staring at Minho.
'That's your brother? He looks like a freaking model,' Key murmured, eyes slightly narrowed.
'Yeah, that's Minho.' I stood up and hugged Key briefly. 'See you, and you've been amazing, hanging out with me today. You have no idea how much I appreciate it.'
'My pleasure, Krystal. And I mean that.' Key smiled warmly at me, eyes flicking away from Minho.
As I walked towards the car, I called back to Key a thought I'd suddenly had. 'Too bad I don't look like a model too,' I said, grinning just a little. Key suddenly looked very serious, gazing at me intensely, as if he was trying to read my mind. I opened the car door. As I did, Key opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but I was already inside the car.
Minho was looking straight ahead and he did not turn to face me. 'Why are you here, and not Mum?' I asked.
'I don't know,' Minho answered. I noticed he was gripping the steering wheel so hard his knuckles were turning white. Maybe he was late for something? 'Dad just called me half an hour ago and told me to come get you from school.'
Minho suddenly threw a glance in Key's direction and his expression did not soften in the slightest. 'Is he your boyfriend?'
I felt a surge of something rush into my throat. Longing?
'No, he's not.'
'You sure?' Minho still did not look at me.
'Course I'm sure,' I replied, trying not to let sadness colour my voice. 'We're just friends.'
A/N You'll forgive me for not updating over Christmas, right? Hopefully it will get more exciting soon :)
Working on chapter 3! Up in the next day or two! Don't lose faith in me:)
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