The next day, when I woke up alone, since Ji Ho insisted on going home a few hours after he showed up, some jibber jabber about not wanting to disrespect his friend, I showered and got dressed and then I called Kyung.

                That boy and I needed to talk.

                I asked him to meet me at the subway stop near our school.  I got there early so I could sit and be miserable by myself.  I leaned against the wall on the outside of the steps that led into the station.  Hood over my head.

                “Jo, what’s up?  How’d it go?” he asked cheerfully when he arrived.  I lifted my head slowly and glared at him.  “Uh oh.”

                “You,” I began, voice low.  “You told me this would work.  You told me if I went through with this, Ji Ho would understand his feelings for me.  I did everything you said and I tried really hard, but I can’t get him to understand something…”  My voice cracked.  “Something that isn’t there.  I can’t force him to love me if he just doesn’t.”

                Kyung shook his head.  “This isn’t possible, Jordan.  I see the way he looks at you.  There’s no denying those feelings are there.  What happened?  Did something go wrong last night?  Did he say something?”

                “What happened was you were wrong.”  I straightened my spine and stiffened my arms at my sides, hands clenched into fists.  “You were wrong.  You saw me in my underwear and now you must die.”

                He laughed, but stopped when my face crumpled.  “No, no wait, Jo.  Don’t cry,” he said soothingly.  He let me lean forward with my face pressed to his shoulder while he rubbed my back.  He even let me pound on him a little.

                “He’s going to ask her to be his girlfriend and he wants my help,” I whined into his shirt.  He grabbed my shoulders and held me out in front of him.

                “What?”  I explained what Ji Ho told me last night.  Kyung’s eyes widened in surprise.  “What the hell?  No.  You can’t let that happen.  Wait, give me a minute, I’ll think of-”

                I covered his mouth with my hand.

                “No, Kyung, it’s ok.  I give up.  I don’t want to force this.  I can’t do this.”  He my palm.  I yanked my hand away from his mouth with a disgusted look on my face and wiped my hand on his shirt.  “Gross,” I mumbled.

                “You can’t just give up.  You and Ji Ho.  You two are supposed to be together.  You guys are those high school sweethearts that make up all those terrible chick flicks.  You guys are so right for each other.”

                “I understand it might be hard for you to admit that you were wrong, but Kyung, you were very, very wrong.”

                He sighed.  “Forget that.  How about you just tell him?  Confess your feelings to him!  Maybe he really is just that thick headed.”

                I shook my head.  “I can’t take the chance.  I won’t lose him.  Besides, you should have seen him, Kyung.  He was so excited when he was talking about his plan.”  My eyes narrowed just thinking about it.  “So damn excited.”

                “But maybe-”

                “No.”

                “What about-”

                “No.”

                “Wait, listen, you-”

                “Kyung,” I whined.

                “No new people,” he grumbled.  I smiled.

                “It could be a lot worse.  At least, Natalie’s nice,” I shrugged.  Her name tasted funny in my mouth.  I groaned.  Don’t be childish, I scolded myself.  No, forget that.  I was going to be childish if I wanted now.

                “I’m sorry, Jo.  I really did think this would work.”

                I shrugged, at a loss for anything else to do.  “You owe me food.”

                He chuckled and gave me a quick hug.  “I will buy you whatever food you want.”

                “Ddeokbokki,” I said automatically.

                “As much as you want,” he replied.

                “I’ll talk to Maddie when we go back to school after break.  You held up your part of the deal,” I told him as we started off in the direction of the nearest ddeokbokki place.

                He gave me a playful shove and then stuffed his hands into his hoodie pocket.  “No, Jo, it’s alright.  I can get Maddie on my own.  You have enough on your plate.  You don’t need to be helping everyone you know hook up.”

                “But that was our deal,” I argued, half heartedly.  To be honest, I really didn’t think I had it in me to help make someone else part of a happy couple when I was so miserable at the moment.

                “I know, but I failed so you’re off the hook.  Besides,” he paused to run a finger across his lower lip.  “I look like a member of a boy band, remember?  I don’t need anyone’s damn help to get me a pretty girl.  Give me a week, Maddie won’t know what hit her.”

                I giggled and bumped him with my shoulder.

                The next morning, I waited at the arcade for Ji Ho.  Even though I knew his heart was beating for Natalie the way mine was for him, I was happy to spend time with him.  We were planning on playing for a bit and then going to lunch before he left to meet up with Natalie.  Natalie.  Natalie.  Natalie.  I hated her name.  It made my bottom eyelid twitch.

                No matter how angry I was, a huge smile broke out on my face when I saw him jog over to where I was waiting for him.  “Hey,” he greeted me.  “Back to your boy clothes?”

                Something clicked in my head.  The part of me that was still hopeful.  I looked down at my outfit.  “Prefer the skimpy tank top and boy shorts?” I teased.

                He laughed and elbowed me lightly as we entered the arcade.  “I’m the one who always said that you had a nice body.  You shouldn’t hide it.  That’s my hoodie, isn’t it?”

                I nodded.  “You can’t have it back,” I told him stubbornly.  I’ll be damned if I give him any of his stolen clothes back just so he could let Natalie get her smell all over them.

                “You can keep it,” he replied with a grin that faded quickly.  “You shouldn’t wear it if you’re going to see Kyung later.”

                I meant to tell him we weren’t seeing each other today, but what came out of my mouth was, “Why not?”

                Ji Ho shrugged.  “I…well, I mean why would he want to see you all covered up after he’s seen how cute you really are?”

                “What a boy answer,” I laughed with a roll of my eyes.  “He’s busy today anyway.  We aren’t hanging out today.”

                “Well, then me and you will have fun now,” he decided.

                For now, anyway, I thought as we headed over to change our cash into tokens for the games.

                That night, I sat in my room after helping my parents correct tests from school.  That’s how desperate I was to keep my mind occupied.

                I almost wished I had it in me to grab him by the face and tell him I didn’t approve of her.  That he had to choose.  It had to be me or her.  He wasn’t allowed to have both unless he wanted her as a casual, platonic, acquaintance that he only saw at school sometimes.

                But I couldn’t do that.  The anger was bubbling up inside me, but I couldn’t do that to him.  Especially since it wasn’t true.  I’d never make him choose.  And especially not when he chose a relatively normal, decent girl.  Just because I wanted so badly to hate her, didn’t mean I had a reason to.  A legit reason anyway.

                I wasn’t even in the mood to read more of my latest trashy romance novel.  I angrily clicked through the TV channels, not even paying attention to what appeared on the screen.  I knew I was being ridiculous.  I’m only 16.  How can I be in love like this?  It’s crazy.

                But maybe it was because I was 16 that I felt so strongly for him.  Hormones, young fantasies, rosy outlook on the world or whatever crap people say.

                There was actually another reason I was extra cranky this evening.

                Tomorrow would be when Ji Ho wanted to put his plan into action.

                Tomorrow I had to help him get Natalie.  And he would get her too.  Just because she was taking forever to realize what an awesome guy he was didn’t mean she’d reject him.

                Unless she was an idiot.  Or a lesbian.  And since she was neither, she was going to accept him.

                Nothing would be the same.

                Ji Ho came to my house the day of his secret picnic.  It was late in the day but still light out, so he came through the front door.  My parents were working anyway.  It wasn’t spring vacation for private English schools.

                He was wearing jeans and a button down shirt.  He looked awesome, but when he nervously asked how he looked.  I shrugged casually and acted coy.  He laughed as we sat down on the couch in my living room.

                That hormone driven crazy girl that was becoming increasingly harder to keep contained was telling me to pounce.  I envisioned knocking him over and pinning him down.  Telling him I loved him and that I didn’t want him with Natalie.  I wanted to tell him what Kyung said about him. 

                I blinked the weird scene I was imagining out of my mind’s eye.  Ah, crap, he was talking and I wasn’t listening.

                “Wait, what?”

                He sighed, but smiled.  “I was asking you if you were going to hang out with Kyung today,” he repeated.

                “Oh, Kyung.  No, he’s…busy,” I answered.  I didn’t know what Kyung was doing today.  He were chit chatting via text the other day after he bought me food, but other than that, we had agreed on publicly dissolving our ‘relationship’ once school started again.

                Ji Ho’s face fell a little.  “Don’t you want to hang out with him?  Doesn’t he want to see you?”

                I held back a grumble and shrugged, tiredly.  “Yeah, he’s just, well whatever.”  He nodded and looked like he was going to say something else, but then changed his mind.

                Instead, he started talking about his plans.  And as he talked, something went off inside me.  Something snapped.  A plan was beginning to form in my head as I listened to him.  I was thinking of doing something I didn’t think I had in me.

                "Are you sure she won't think it's lame?" he asked me, eyes filled with worry.

                I mustered up the most genuine smile I could for my best friend.  "She's going to love it.  This is the most romantic thing I've ever heard in my life."

                He let out a sigh of relief and nodded.  "Yeah, this will totally get her.  I'm awesome."  I giggled.  He put his hands on my shoulders and stared at me, wide eyed.  "I'll go now.  Don't forget to call her.  Tell her to meet you there.  Think of some excuse!  Or, wait maybe you don't need to.  You guys are friends.  Girls meet their girlfriends for no reason in particular all the time, right?  She'll go, right?"

                "I will take care of everything."  He smiled at me again and I could feel myself melting.

                "Thank you for helping me.  You're the best."  I didn't let my smile waver.  Apparently not since you want her so badly.

                "I know," I replied with mock arrogance.  He laughed and pecked me on the cheek.

                "I'm going to go first.  Don't forget to call her!  But wait, like, ten minutes!"

                "Shut up and go already or I can't call her," I warned him.  He laughed again.  I pulled my cell phone out and held it up to show him as he made a mad dash for the door.

                I clapped my phone shut as soon as I heard the door click behind him.  I'm going to hell for this, I told myself, pocketing my phone. 

                She won't be there, but at least he'll have me to lean on while his heart breaks...the way mine is.

                Maybe this is what he needs to have happen in order for him to see me the way he sees her.