That night, Hyunji and I lay in our beds, gazing at the ceiling as we tried to hypnotise ourselves to sleep. Wind swished the curtains as it blew in from the open balcony, bringing with it the humidity of the cold night air. I knew Hyunji wasn’t asleep, but I didn’t attempt a conversation with her, too absorbed with my own thoughts.

My mind kept flickering back towards Joonmyun, his questioning eyes, his persistence to have me by his side. I kept remembering his gentility, the manner in which he handled me as if I was a child that amused him in one minute, and a partner in crime in the next. He always laughed at everything I said, and likewise, was bent on making me do the same with him by cracking silly jokes.

The scene in my head switched to the ballroom, towards the glimmering chandeliers and the tall roman pillars. I pulled my blanket over my eyes as I remembered the magical moment when I had to dance with Joonmyun; my hand was still tingling from the way he grasped it.

“Aeri.”

Hyunji’s voice startled me. I pulled my blanket down from my eyes, glad that the darkness of the room could mask my blushing face, and turned to look at her.

“Yes?”

“What do you think of all those movies?”

I raised my brows, frowning slightly at her. “What movies?”

She hesitated. In the darkness, I saw her outline, fingers toying with the hem of her blanket as she answered. “The romcom movies we always watched; the one that ends with the lead falling for his or her best friend.”

I wanted to squeal in delight, but I managed to keep myself in check. “I think it’s very sweet.”

She turned her head to look at me. “Do you think it can happen in real life? Would it be possible to fall for your best friend?”

“If he’s kind and nice and is always there for you, why not?”

Hyunji’s brows knitted, as if she was deep in thought, but she said nothing more. Smiling slightly at me and wishing me goodnight, she turned to face the wall and was soon fast asleep.

I stared at her figure, wondering about what had happened between them at the ballroom. Had Yixing managed to win her heart as Joonmyun was cementing his place in mine?

I went down to breakfast the next day with renewed vigour. Deciding that creating facades to escape from my problems was only going to do me more harm at this point, I took up Hyunji’s invitation to leave together at the wee hour of eight.

I could remember the conversation I had with Hyunji yesterday clearly in my head, but it seemed that she was bent on trying to pretend that it didn’t happen at all. All morning I had been hinting on the topic, but Hyunji remained stubbornly adamant on pretending that she hadn’t a clue as to what I was referring to. I decided to let it go, for pestering Hyunji might deter her from the progress she was making with Yixing.

When we arrived at the poolside cafe, we were surprised to find so many people already milling about. Apparently, the beckoning hotel breakfast was more tempting than the bed.

“I think I’ll go backwards this time. Deserts, followed by the main course,” Hyunji said, humming as she detached herself from the growing line to join the shorter one at the pastry station. I rolled my eyes at my best friend’s eccentricity and stayed put in my position.

“Good morning,” a cheery voice from behind me said, deep and slightly scratchy from sleep. Chanyeol waved at me when I turned to look at him. “How did everything go?” asked with a wink.

I smiled sweetly at him, and proceeded to give him a good stomp on the foot. He let out a yelp and jumped backwards, hopping on his foot with wide eyes.

“What was that for?!”

“Payback for betraying me,” I shot back at him.

Chanyeol’s scandalised stare turned into a mischievous smile. “I just wanted to put him out of his misery. He’d been following us for a quite a while –and he didn’t look very happy while he was at it.”

“The reason I recruited you as my minion in the first place was for you to help me keep an eye out!”

“I did keep an eye out. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have spotted him, now would I?” he said cheekily.

I smacked my hand on my face.

“Come on,” Chanyeol said, bending down to whisper into my ear. “You had fun in the end, didn’t you? I saw you laughing all the way to the ballroom.”

I could feel my ears going red, but I glared at him.

“Tao told me by the way,” he said, grinning at me, “although it didn’t come as much of a surprise.”

I groaned. Now all that was left was for the whole world to know.

“You two make a very cute couple,” Chanyeol said, poking me on the side.

“Which we aren’t,” I said quickly, swatting his hand away.

“But you’re close to it.”

I threw up my hands. “You’re impossible!”

Detaching myself from the line, I ignored the annoying giant as he continued to double over in laughter. I contemplated the idea of throwing a fake orange from the fruit bowl at him and was at the midst of trying to angle a proper aim when another voice spoke up from behind me.

“Well, you look well and healthy.”

I whirled around, dropping the orange, my heart almost stopping from the shock of seeing Jongin standing behind me. He raised his brows at me, his lips curling in amusement as he regarded the fallen orange that rolled past his feet.

I flushed. “Don’t judge.”

Jongin shrugged. “Alright. Seeing that you were indisposed yesterday, I thought I’d come over and ask if you’re okay. But it looks like you’re back to your old feisty self.”

I smiled half-heartedly, picking up the orange and placing it back into the bowl. “I’m okay now.”

Someone tapped me on the shoulder and I whirled around before Jongin could respond. Jonghyun was standing behind me, dressed in a blue button-up shirt and a pair of jeans. A brimmed hat was perched on his head, stray strands of his hair escaping and falling over his eyes. He flashed a smile at me that looked a tad agitated.

“Hey, have you seen Hyunji?”

“She left me for the pastry station,” I told him truthfully.

Jonghyun’s smile seemed to waver. “Really? She’s not there.”

I gazed at the direction he indicated, surprised to find Hyunji gone. “Maybe she went to the ladies’ room.”

“She promised to meet me early in the morning,” Jonghyun said, taking off the hat and running his fingers through his hair before putting it back on again. “I’m worried because she still hasn’t shown up and I haven’t been able to reach her cell phone.”

Now this I didn’t know about. Hyunji looked perfectly normal when we woke up, with no urgency whatsoever to attend meetings at prearranged rendezvous points.

I shrugged helplessly. “Sorry, Jonghyun. I don’t know.”

Jonghyun smiled at me and nodded. “It’s okay. Tell her that I’m looking for her when you see her.”

He nodded at me and walked away, leaving me pondering over the situation as I gazed at his back. Hyunji was supposed to meet Jonghyun early in the morning, but she blew him off, doing all but cutting him off completely. Judging by Jonghyun’s discomposure, it had been for something important –a confession perhaps?

I snapped out of my reverie when I saw a hand being waved in front of my face. “Earth to Aeri.”

I whipped my head towards Jongin, having forgotten that he was standing right behind me.

“Something wrong?” he asked, his brows knitting together as his gaze flickered towards the direction Jonghyun went to.

“Nothing much,” I lied, masking my thoughts with a nonchalant shrug.

“Do you know him?” Jongin asked curiously.

“He’s a friend. Why do you ask?”

Jongin frowned, looking thoughtful. “I think I overheard him talking to himself at the garden this morning, just before I made it here. It sounded like he was practising for a confession.”

My eyes widened. I had been right then.

“Was it for Hyunji?” Jongin gazed at me curiously.

“I can’t say, actually.” But in my head, I was sure that it was.

“In that case, I think it’s safe now.”

I knitted my brows in confusion. “Safe for what?”

“To go to the garden. Since he’s not going to use it as a setting to confess, I think it’ll be okay for us to go there.” Jongin reached out and grabbed my hand.

“Why can’t we stay here?” I asked, suddenly nervous.

“It’s more romantic?” Jongin laughed when he saw the look on my face. “Kidding. It’s to get a little alone time. It’s too loud in here.”

Interlacing his fingers through mine, he started towing me out of the cafe. I didn’t fight; just followed him while he led me as my thoughts whirled in my head. I figured it couldn’t hurt to amuse him, given that I had lied to him the day before –it was the guilt I supposed. However, having experienced the feel of having Joonmyun hold my hand yesterday, I couldn’t help but think how differently Jongin’s hand fitted into mine. His touch felt odd somehow, foreign.

I studied his figure from behind. Unconsciously, I began to categorise the differences between him and his cousin, from the stiffness of their posture to the broadness of their shoulders; the shape of their eyes and their different standings in height. Aesthetically speaking, both Joonmyun and Jongin appeared to have inherited the better genes of their family, but personality-wise, they were worlds apart. Jongin was confident and brusque, bold if not entirely reckless. Joonmyun embodied a softer version of Jongin’s confidence, but was he was shrewd where Jongin brash. How could two people, bound together by blood, be so different?

As we approached the garden behind the pool, I began to recognise the trees and the rough gravel path as the one Joonmyun had taken me to that night when he wanted to take a walk. In the darkness, the trees looked daunting, curled up in the shadows as if they were waiting for a moment to pounce. In daylight however, I began to spot the delicacy of the leaves, the strategic placement of the trees and shrubs that made the area enclosed, sheltered. No wonder Jonghyun chose here to confess to Hyunji.

“There’s a pavilion not too far from here,” I told him, citing the one thing I remembered to have seen while Joonmyun and I were walking in the darkness.

I heard Jongin chuckle. “I know.”

He took me to the small clearing. Rising from its very centre was a wooden structure with a slanted roof, set so perfectly within the clearing that it appeared to be one with nature. A path made out of crushed stones extended from the wooden steps, winding a little before it met with the gravel path Jongin and I stood on. Jongin led me down the path and helped me up the stone steps.

I looked around curiously, taking in the wooden pillars that supported the structure and the beams that ran diagonally across the roof. Was this where Jonghyun had planned to confess to Hyunji?

Jongin let me wander around for a while to touch the pillars and enjoy the soft rustle of the leaves in the wind that ensconced this place from the world beyond.

“I bet you have a lot of these in your garden,” I commented lightly, turning to look at him.

Jongin smiled wanly. “My aunt’s–Hyung’s mother’s garden,” he corrected me.

“Does it make a difference now that you’re living with them?” I asked, crossing the threshold gaze at the trees from another corner.

“I suppose it doesn’t,” he agreed. He reached out for my hand as I passed, stopping me, and pulled me closer to him. “Look, I brought you here to tell you something.” His dark eyes searched mine as he gazed down at me.

“Shoot.”

Jongin chuckled, and then caught my other hand with his. He held them tightly and the air seemed to shimmer as he took a deep breath and continued to stare at me.

“I –”

“Jongin!”

My eyes snapped away from Jongin’s, towards the figure that was running up the small path and up the wooden steps. Within seconds, he had slipped between Jongin and me, releasing me from the tight grip Jongin had over my hands in the process.

“What?!” Jongin snapped, obviously annoyed.

“We’re having a water gun fight and we need an extra member. Come on and join my team,” he prattled off abruptly. I peered over his shoulders trying to gauge the situation. Jongin looked as black as a thundercloud.

“I’m busy, Hyung,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Nah,” Joonmyun said, waving his hand around in an off-handed manner. “You can never be too busy for water guns.”

And with that, he grabbed Jongin by the arm and started towing him out of the pavilion. Jongin protested, roughly pulling his arm away to try and free himself from Joonmyun’s grasp. Joonmyun managed to get around him and began pushing him by the shoulders instead.

I watched their figures leaving, Jongin’s voice getting louder and louder as they continued to walk down the gravel path. Joonmyun remained incredibly persistent to have Jongin on his team though, and kept coaxing him as they walked. They finally disappeared down the turn, their voices fading before muting altogether. My legs gave way and I let myself drop onto the pavilion floor.

What on earth happened?