He froze in his spot, and they both stared into each other’s eyes without saying a word. Was he that obvious? His mind went blank and he felt himself battling to keep his tears from flowing out. Fortunately for him, right at that moment, Yuna emerged from her apartment. She stared at the both of them, clearly sensing the tension between them. She was good at that. Even though he barely knew her, he could see that Yuna was good at observing people and could quickly catch on to her surroundings.

“Jaa~” he clapped his hands together. “Can we head off now?”

Jun Hee continued eyeing him but soon, turned to lead the way. Walking behind her, Yuna took the chance to bash him for the unwanted invite.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she whispered through her teeth.

“I’m sorry! I had to!”

“What do you mean, you had to? You can just go have lunch with them yourself! Didn’t you say yesterday that they were your friends? Or was my assumption correct after all?”

“What assumption?”

“About you liking her? I was right, wasn’t I?”

“No!” he lied again. He was not about to tell someone he barely knew about his personal feelings. “I definitely do not have feelings for her. I just don’t want to be the third pole between them.”

He pleaded once again, giving her the most innocent face he could pull off.

She crunched her face up, but in the end, she sighed heavily. “Fine. But only this once! I’ve got better things to do than get mixed up in all of this.”

He beamed thankfully at her. “Thank you! Thank you! I’ll treat you so don’t worry about anything else! Just stay beside me.”

They arrived to see Yonghwa already waiting for them outside the café. When he saw Jonghyun, his face turned slightly cold, but he quickly brightened up again as soon as Jun Hee gave him a kiss.

“Yuna-ssi, glad you could join us!” he smiled.

“Neh, Jonghyun-ssi had already asked me out so I guessed I had to come,” she answered politely.

“Jonghyun asked you out?” he repeated. “He must really like you then. He’d never asked anyone out before.”

He turned his gaze towards him, and Jonghyun cleared his throat awkwardly. His friends all knew him too well already. Yuna looked at him too, but he shook his head slightly to tell her to ignore it.

“Aha,” he gave a fake laugh. “After being forced to walk her home for a few days now, I think she’s not that bad.”

He swore he saw her cheeks turning red just then, but he quickly brushed it off. There wasn’t any reason for her to feel touched, so he figured it was just his eyes playing tricks on him.

“So, Unnie, how are you liking things around here?” Jun Hee asked. “It looks like Jonghyun oppa has been treating you well.”

Yuna laughed out immediately, but quickly maintained a straight face after Jonghyun frowned at her.

“Right,” she cleared . “He’s good, he’s good. I can’t really compare him with anyone because really, you guys are my first group of friends.”

Jonghyun looked up at her in disbelief. Did she just consider him as her friend?

“Really? You seemed to be friendly,” Yonghwa commented.

“I’ve been living with my dad since forever and didn’t attend school so I don’t really have anyone else,” she confessed.

“Then you’re lucky to have meet the right type of people then,” Jonghyun added, taking a sip of his coffee.

He caught her staring at him­ with a gentle smile. He mouthed ‘What?’ to her, but she quickly shook her head to say it’s nothing.

The lunch date went by pretty quickly, with Yonghwa joking around as always and Jun Hee practically drooling over him. Jonghyun felt uncomfortable just being there, but once in a while, Yuna would talk to him as well. He felt so grateful that she was trying hard for him. In the end, he felt like the whole thing went by pretty well.

“Gomawo,” he thanked her while they were walking back home after lunch. “For helping me out back there.”

She gave him a heartwarming smile, and said, “Aniyo, it was fun actually.”

“Have you really had no friends before though?”

She nodded, but he could see she didn’t like admitting that. Jonghyun stopped in his track and turned to face her. He handed out his hand to her and gave her a friendly smile.

“Then I’d like to be your friend,” he said.

She gazed at his stretched out hand and then at him, and for a while she didn’t know what she was supposed to do with it.

“Don’t leave me hanging,” he clued her. “Shake hands!”

She slowly reached out and placed her hands on his. They shook hands and smiled at each other, before he let go.

“Jaa~” he swayed his arms out as he continued to walk. “We’re friends now!”