► What Beautiful Stars by Yiruma

There’s nothing much better than laying on your couch, watching tons of DVD, accompanied with yummy snacks like chocolate syrup-dipped marshmallow, Oreo plus a glass of milk, and of course popcorn—screw the fat. Saturday night is always the best time ever to do that ‘ritual’, and you know, it feels so wrong when I don’t do it.

And tonight, I did that ritual in my apartment. And unfortunately, my only one best buddy can’t join this ritual. Well... he’s supposed to be here right now, but he has his own business.

RRRRIIIINGGG

Oh, that’s my cell phone.

Where are u now?

I replied quickly.

Like usual. How about ur romantic candle-light dinner?

...

Officially ended by accident *sigh* Can I go to ur place now?

I chuckled.

This place is always be there for u ;)

I continued watching the movie and munching my snacks. About ten minutes later, I heard the bell rang. So I immediately got up from my lazy couch and opened the door.

“Hey,” he shortly mumbled. I was a little bit surprised when he greeted me with a very sour, devastated and bleak face.

“Jiyong,” I let him went inside then I closed the door. I watched his figure walked and he bumped himself on my lazy couch. “Well, so you have your time to tell me what happened.”

“Aiisshh, this drives me crazy,” he groaned.

I took a sit beside him and when I gazed his face closer, I could see a small bruise on his left cheek. “Oh, gosh... this is horrible.” I touched that reddish mark.

He just grimaced without any sound.

“I’ll take an ointment.” I walked to a small drawer and found that small thing. “This will hurt a little.”

“Ouch!” he jumped like he was electrocuted when I smeared the ointment.

“So... which boy you had fought with?”

“I didn’t fight, Dara.”

“Then what is it?”

“It was an unexpected accident. You know that I had a date with Sohee, right?”

“Yeah, and you did it while Yuri is still your girlfriend.” I grabbed a potato chip and crunched it.

“Okay, listen.” he fixed his position and now he is facing me directly. “A couple of hours ago, I was still at this fancy restaurant and brought Sohee to have a dinner. Everything worked out perfectly, until...” he paused.

“Until...?”

“...I got caught by Yuri.”

I was dumbfounded for some second then I finally found my words again. “Oh, my, that’s a total epic fail. How could Yuri find you there?”

“Hell yeah, I even have no ing idea. So now you understand how I got this bruise.”

“Yuri slapped you?”

“Nice guessing, but no.”

“Then... Sohee did?”

“Both of them did. Both of them hit me on my left cheek! Goddamn, it freaking hurts!” he yelled in frustration. I was about to laugh hard, but I held it down.

“It’s your fault, then.” I rolled my eyes. “Go ask them to accept your apologize.”

“Like I have time to do that. I’ll find a new one for sure,” he said lightly then he got up and opened my fridge. “You have Cola?”

I shook my head. “Ji, you have to stop being like this.”

I could hear a sound of an opened can. “Being like what? Drinking Cola?” he asked.

“No, silly. You know... playing with girls’ hearts. As a girl, this is very very unforgivable!”

“It’s not a wrong thing, as long as I won’t break your heart, Dara.”

“No, you ever did it to me, when you chose shopping with your sister than watching Harry Potter with me! 3 years ago, Ji! And I already bought the tickets but you...”

“She forced me to go with her!” but then Jiyong laughed hard, “I can’t believe you still remember it.”

“I warn you, with your bad habit, it’ll be hard for you to find a wife.”

“Geez, you sounded like an old woman scolding her grandson.” Jiyong chuckled while he closed the fridge and sat beside me to watch the movie.

Yup, I have to tell you guys that my best buddy, Kwon Jiyong, is such a dangerous playboy. I can’t even count correctly how many girls’ hearts that he already broke. Luckily, Jiyong is my best friend and we’re never involved in any kind of relationship more than this dorky-friendship. So, I don’t have to feel worry if he’s going to break my heart.

“Actually... I always wanna ask.” I turned my face to Jiyong, not focused into the movie anymore.

“What?”

“Since when did you play with girls? And why?”

 “Because I’m bored.”

“What kind of answer is that?” I clicked my tongue.

“Dara, it’s just for fun. You know, adventure. I can learn many girls’ personalities, behaviors, and it’s like a challenging game for me.”

I sighed helplessly, “Ji... Can’t you just be serious with one girl? I mean, in an honest, healthy, and surely long-term relationship?”

Jiyong seemed like thinking, then he answered, “I haven’t found that ‘one girl’ yet,” he paused for a second, “and sometimes I wish that ‘one girl’ is a close person. You know... so I’ve already known her traits and I don’t have to guess her.”

“Like who?”

He just stared at me with an unexplainable look, then he smirked, “I don’t know, Dara.”

Okay, he’s weird.

He continued, “Every girl that I’ve been dating with are just the same. They only look at me from my appearance... you know, because of my mindblowingly handsome face.”

I acted vomiting.

Well... I’ve been trying to tell him that being a heartbreaker isn’t a good habit. This case (Yuri and Sohee) is still nothing if I have to compare it with his previous cases. Believe me or not, he ever dated 4 girls all at once! And those girls were from different schools. So, be careful when you’re in touch with him. He’s a sly fox.

“Hey, there’s a text.” I pointed at Jiyong’s moving cell phone on the coffee table.

“Leave it alone. It must be from Jessica.”

I popped my eyes out, “Don’t tell me that’s Jessica, the cheers captain.”

“She has been texting me these days.”

“Wow, I’d like to congratulate her for being Kwon Jiyong’s next victim.”

Jiyong just chuckled lightly.

Oh, his reputation as schoolgirls’ heartthrob can’t be doubted, and I know how jealous every boy in my school is, due to his magnetic charm and his popularity. Even some girls—including this Jessica—bullied me when they found out how close Jiyong and I are. But as time went on, the girls started to learn that we’re just like this, you know, the way we are, and... yeah, the bullies stopped. So, everyone has accepted that we’re JUST FRIENDS and nothing’s wrong with it.

But I have no problem with his popularity or his reputation as a dangerous playboy. I feel comfortable being friend with Jiyong. He’s... well, maybe he’s my closest friend now. Most girls (maybe) don’t really feel convenient if they share their secrets with boys, but I’m not. Jiyong even knows when I have my periods and what kind of tampon I always use (OK I know it’s gross).

As best friends, we share a lot of things, we laugh, we cry, we fight, we do freakish things—they even call us “SpongeBob and Patrick” because we’re really that freak—and we complete each other.

“Can we just watch another movie? I’m not really into dramas right now.” Jiyong grumbled and tried to reach the DVD player.

“Ya, this week is my turn to watch my movies! Just shut up and sit down.” I claimed. But he seemed like ignoring me and ejected the DVD.

“Jiyong!! What the hell did you do!? I’m still watching the best part!” I shouted and got up from the couch.

“Listen, I’m not in a good mood right now. I wanna watch something fits perfectly with my emotion, so you have to give it up and sit down.”

“No, I won’t listen to you, Ji. Give the DVD back!”

He stuck out his tongue and raised the DVD highly. Oh, crap. My tiny, small body couldn’t reach his very long arm.

“Ya! Jiyooong, it’s not funny! Give it back to me!”

Instead of handing the DVD to me, he ran away and then I had to catch after him. Fyi, he runs so fast like a cheetah, while I’m running like a turtle with its strained feet. That’s why I hate to “play cat-and-mouse” with him.

Maybe our friendship looks normal, but there’s always something wrong inside normal things. People in our school called us “Tom and Jerry”. Of course, Jiyong is Tom the cat, while they give me the nickname Jerry the mouse, referring to my short body. We often have a quarrel and he, or sometimes I, have to chase each other, just like what Tom and Jerry do. The reason why we fight is... maybe because I sometimes can’t stand his selfish, childish manner that boil up my blood. He also ever said that he can’t understand me when I’m PMS-ing, being angry with no reason, and overthinking.

But that’s not a big deal. We actually always care, protect, love and know each other like brother and sister.

That’s why, even though he’s a playboy or a dumb, annoying and childish jerk, I still love him—as a good friend, of course.

well... that's all. haha.

chapter 1 and 2 are just POVs from Dara and GD, they're telling how much they know each other, so... in the next chapter you'll read it in GD's POV :)

thanks for reading! ^^