*italics are jae mi's texts

*bolds are sehun's texts

"So...what's Baekhyun oppa's number?" I asked in a desperate attempt to extract some jealousy. Sehun's eyebrows rose maliciously.

"O-oppa?" he stuttered. "Yah, isn't that a bit fast? You met him just thirty minutes ago!" His reaction made me grin.

"Don't tell him, okay? He's really, really cute." Surprisingly, I found that I was saying it from the heart, not the mind. Baekhyun was really cute, and he had an easy aura that allowed me to feel comfortable, fast.

Sehun blinked, then a suspicious smile hopped onto his lips. "It's because of Dahyunnie, isn't it?"

The pet name made me even more furious, so I quickly said, "Just give me Baekhyunnie oppa's number."

I could feel him tense at my use of Baekhyunnie, feeling somewhat proud, but at the same time guilty for using Baekhyun as bait.

"No, ask him yourself!" he childishly chided, jumping down the street.

"Yo! Oh Sehun, where are you going? Friendly reminder than you don't know my address!" I shouted after him.

"Down the street and around the corner store, fourty eight steps west!" he yelled back.

I stopped in shock. "Y-you still remember?"

"Yeah, of course! You're my bestie." he said, turning around with a proud smile.

I could feel my eyes tearing up. All these years when I thought he was the one that recycled our friendship, but really he hasn't disposed of one detail of our childhood.

He walked back to me, his slender fingers brushing away escaped drops from my eyes. "Don't cry! Come on, why would you think that I'd forget?"

"But you left, and you made so many new friends, you have a new girlfriend...and yet, you still have room to remember my address."

He took my hand in his and started speaking and walking.

"First of all, I clarified that me leaving was the decision of my mom. Also, didn't we always say we'd make new friends and never forget about each other? And Dahyun isn't my girlfriend."

I could hear him mutter "Yet" under his breath and immediately healed.

"For your information, it's fourty seven steps to the west."

He grinned. "Jealousy heals fast, huh?"

I shoved him a little, mad that he saw right through me.

~~

“No, thank you, Mrs. Lee!” Sehun politely shook his head, rejecting the platter of homemade chocolate chip cookies my mom offered.

“Are you sure? Are you on a diet? You loved these,” my mom continuously pressed, and finally, Sehun gave up.

“Hash pwojek karory cont” he said through a mouthful of crumbled cocoa goodness. When we looked at him incredulously, he swallowed and repeated.

“Our health project is to do a weekly calorie count.” He explained. I could see his fingers itching to fetch another cookie.

“Oh! I’m so sorry,” my mom exclaimed.

“No, don’t worry, I’ll help clean up.” Sehun said, and in an instant I knew what he was about to do.

“Yeah, you can help wipe down the table, and I’ll go put the cookies away-“I stood up, grabbing the plate of desserts.

“NO!” he quickly grabbed another two or five or twenty cookies, shoving them into his bulging fists.

Mom and I laughed, and he looked at us, smiling as well. It’s been a while since this scene happened around the house, and with mom’s lack of salary earning these days, we don’t get an excuse to laugh very often.

“Well, I have to go now, mom is expecting me home.”

My mom looked at me expectantly.

“Ah, yeah, I’ll walk you to the door.” I lazily said.

At the front step, he turned back and cocked his head.

“Mom isn't working nowadays, right?”

I nodded in surprise.

“I heard honey lemon tea works well, she has eye bags…I’ll stop by soon! Here’s my number,” he quickly grasped my phone and looked at me, puzzled.

“Wow, pretty friend,” he grinned. I was taken aback, then realized that my wallpaper was of my best friend Hyeri and I.

“Mhm, her name’s Hyeri. Kwon Hyeri.” I introduced, and reaching over to unlock my phone.

“Hope you haven’t replaced me completely,” he truthfully said, his fingers struggling with the keys of my phone.

“The chocolate chip cookies are going into your fingers,” I joked, and he blew a raspberry at me. “Inherited wittiness in my absence, huh?”

“Not so much, I missed you.” I blurted.

He looked up, his eyes crinkling. “You finally admitted it! I missed you too.” He enveloped me in a tight hug and I took the chance to inhale the cinnamon and warm chocolate on his skin, the laundry detergent on his clothing, and the whispers of espresso on his lips.

“Text me, you and Hyeri should come meet my hyungs and I,” he suggested.

“We’ll think about it, we’re quite busy ladies, you know.” I joked, getting back into the mood for our playful relationship.

“Yeah? Well I have a lineup of fans but look at me! I even had the courtesy to walk you home.” He cocked his head arrogantly.

“Oh please, you practically begged to!”

“Good point,” he admitted, and started walking down the path, waving back at me. “Bye! Remember to text me.”

I stuck my tongue out at him, knowing that once he’s out of eyesight, I will be fumbling to compose a casual enough text for him.

~~

After dinner, I holed myself in my room, ignoring the timid arguments of my parents downstairs. After some time I have trained myself to not spill worried tears or bite off my cuticles because of their immature squabbles, and instead, learned to drown myself in music and homework, allowed myself to be fuelled by Hyeri and my other friends.

I peeked at my phone, hoping that Hyeri would’ve already replied to my request for a movie outing this weekend, or an update or notification from any social platform possible. I was that desperate to be roped in from my pool of chemistry homework.

My fingers absentmindedly opened to Compose New Text, and I paused. Who would be available to speak to me at this moment? I’m not quite the loner, and I do have my posse of friends, but knowing those girls, they’d all be struggling with the composition essay assigned last week and due tomorrow. For them, procrastination is bliss, but for me, who finish my homework almost immediately the day it’s assigned, I face a world of isolation the day before the due date.

My finger slipped onto the O button, and the first name that popped up was ‘Oh Sehun (The Best Oppa)’. Chuckling, I put my thumbs on the keyboard, ready to ponder of a message.

Thirty four too flirty, too bored, too lame, too girly, drafted messages letter, I settled on a simple,

9:19 pm

Guess who?

My blue message bubble idly sat in our message thread, awaiting its counterpart. Erasing myself of distractions and high hopes, I returned to the world of neutralization and compound displacement.

9:21 pm

Busy lady Lee Jae Mi?

I grinned like a fool and jumped on my phone, the ship to abandoning my island of worksheets.

9:21 pm

Ddeng ddeng ddeng, correct~

9:22pm

I asked my hyungs, do you want to meet at Tinkerbell’s Cafe this Friday? If we get along we can go somewhere fun.

I pulled up Hyeri on my speed dial, bouncing to get her response.

“Hyeriri?” I asked, calling her by her nickname.

“Jaemimi?” she responded similarly and there was a long execution of laughter afterwards.

“You know Sehun? The guy I told you that ditched me?”

“Yeah? Did you find him and kick his ?” she asked eagerly. I laughed.

“No, because he had a handsome friend there to protect his ,” I replied. “But he did invite us to hang out with a bunch of his friends this Friday, do you want to?”

“Seoul Private guys? Hell yeah!” she responded enthusiastically.

“What happened to your oath to help me ignore and cold-shoulder the kid, and cruelly leave him to wither?”

“Yah, Jae, isn’t that a bit harsh considering how there will be cute Seoul Private boys involved?”

Of course, knowing that Hyeri abandons all plans for the sake of Seoul Private boys. I decided to a bit more.

“Oh, but not only that…Seoul U…”

“WOAH JAE YOU’VE HIT JACKPOT! DID YOU, LIKE, SAVE A NATION IN YOUR PREVIOUS LIFE?”

“I’ll take that as a Yes, now return to your essay, ppalli~” I said and with a beep, disconnected the call.

9:25

Hyeri said she’s in

9:26

Great! So is Dahyunnie!

Suddenly I regretted all my excitement about this event.