In the days to come, I avoided Sehun and Baekhyun’s texts like the plague, out of guilt and embarrassment. It was awkward enough, having them see me flee the karaoke in tears, but it was another thing for them to realize why I did so.

Isolated without the company of the boys I’ve almost gotten used to, I tried to come up with an excuse of why I left, because I couldn’t avoid them forever. I can’t pull a Sehun and ruin our friendship again, especially when now, there were so many strings attached- Baekhyun and my friendship, Kai and Hyeri’s flame, Sehun and Dahyun’s relationship.

Tuesday afternoon, I was thinking of it again, my face burning bright, and I covered my eyes with my hat (a/n just like Kai’s cute habit of hiding his face with his cap), walking down the streets home myself.

Enter a cliche, dramatic crash with that one mysteriously attractive boy that leads to a blossoming love story.

Except in my case, it was with a boy that I knew, and I don’t expect a romance any time soon. I looked up into the shocked and apologetic face of Jongdae, who quickly, upon eye contact, bent down to pick up my books and his, worriedly checking over the iPod that he knocked out of my hand.

I nodded my head gratefully, and we both stood there, soaking in mutual embarrassment. I bet anything that he’s thinking back to Saturday night, and I diverted my eyes to his book.

“The Art of Trolling?” I read aloud, smirking. He blinked ‘innocently’, then burst into laughter. He shrugged and said, “It’s hard being in the middle of the group, I gotta do something to contribute.”

“So, why learn from a book? Learn from the master,” I gestured at myself. “Starcraft 2 troll in the making.”

His eyebrows rose, impressed. “Would you like to further expand on this art? At Peterpan’s?”

Seeing as how he wasn't exactly on my to-avoid list and that he seemed sincere about the topic, I accepted.

Five donuts, an iced green tea latte, and a peach green tea later, Jongdae looked at me with eyes as wide as ever, looking as if he was going to fall into a kneel to beg me to take him in as a student.

“Great,” he murmured, “I can almost imagine the expressions on Baekhyun and Chanyeol when I play with them tonight.”

I sent him a proud grin. “Remember to credit me!” He leaned over and embraced me tightly, and then grasping my hands to heartily shake them. “Wow, I- wow, you’re the best.”

“Thanks, so-“ I was about to begin, but we were interrupted by a waitress.

She bent over to gather the plates, and looked at us with gentle eyes. “Would you like to order more?”

“No thanks-“

“Yes, please! Jae, order anything, it’s on me.” Jongdae said, as if in a trance. “Uh, okay, um, can I have a jelly donut, and an iced cappuccino, and a blueberry muffin.”

The waitress looked impressed, and she hurriedly wrote them all down and hustled away.

Jongdae cleared away the laptop, and turned to face me, his eyes serious.

“Build up your strength,” he said.

“What? My Starcraft skills are quite strong,” I protested.

“No, your emotional reign…” he trailed off. Before I could say anything, he blurted, “I liked Dahyunnie first.”

My face burned and I put on a smile so fake and so hard, every muscle screamed in ache. “You liked Sehun-ah first,” he added.

“Yeah, well, he’s moved on, certainly, so shouldn’t we both?” I suggested. Jongdae looked at me regretfully.

“Dahyun was my best friend, I’m sure as Sehun was yours. She wasn’t always this whiny and touchy. She used to be the boldest kid ever, and she was teased for it. It’s funny, because when we were young, I took care of her even though she’s my noona. We became friends when I rescued her from a gang of girls in the dollhouse on the playground, because she openly voiced the fact that Barbies are built on unrealistic goals of young children and that nobody should ever try to achieve that body. Then she became Barbie…” Jongdae whispered.

“Sehun came along, in grade eight, and Dahyun changed, she changed so much. We were about to graduate, and her grades slipped. They rolled from a speck of dust in the low B range to a snowball at the foot of a mountain with F’s. All she cared about was her looks. She didn’t get into Seoul U with the rest of us.”

If it weren’t for the waitress returning with our platter of cute desserts, he would’ve burst into tears. I felt so bad for him, even though I wasn’t the one that brought up the topic.

“You must be wondering why I’m telling you this. I’m not trying to form an alliance for us to both win our respective crushes back. I’m just saying, as much as you may dislike Dahyunnie for taking Sehun, don’t let her personality be a part of that blame. She’s a really good person, it’s just that in these few years we were unable to channel that.”

“Jongdae,” I said, slipping into informal speech in a flood of emotions.
“Sehun probably never mentioned where she works part-time,” Jongdae said. “Near his school,” I inputted, and Jongdae nodded. “She works at the animal shelter and vet down the road near Seoul Private. She’s always loved animals since young, but she was never able to raise a dog or cat because her mom was allergic.”

“Oh…” I was at a loss for words. Jongdae at first gave off the impression of a quiet, studious character, but now he’s quite talkative, and his story was heartbreaking.

“She promised…one day, we were walking home from elementary and saw a woman walking two dogs…she promised, and she said, ‘Jongdae-ah, one day we'll live in a big city and drink coffee and have good jobs and two dogs, too, okay?’”

Jongdae choked on our split cup of iced cappuccino, and I quickly patted his back.

“Can we get this to go, please?” I requested, and in a swift minute, we were on our way to my house, holding a bag of half a muffin.

“Don’t hate Dahyun,” Jongdae begged when we reached the gate to my door, and I leaned up to look him in the eyes, taking in how the corners of them darken, taking in the tray of artistic woody brown.

“I won’t,” I faintly promised, and we were separated by the metal clang of my gate clicking close.

~~

“And then Jongin said, ‘That crazy lady Dahyun is somehow making sure that she’s the only one in the group with a relationship-‘”

“Let’s not hate on Dahyun anymore,” I blurted, and Hyeri looked at me with sympathetic eyes. “What made you come to your senses?”

“Huh?”

“We had this talk on Saturday, I said that we should give her a try, and suddenly the topic changed. But yes, I’m glad that we now have mutual goals towards changing Dahyun for the better.” Hyeri said seriously.

“Wow, get a crush and suddenly you're Socrates reincarnated into a Korean teenager,” I rolled my eyes, teasing her, and she elbowed me as revenge.

I elbowed her back, and soon it became a wrestling match on her floor, her pillow collection as our weapons and shields.

“Take this, Kwon Hyeri,” I screamed, shoving a panda pillow into her face. “PIKA FREAKING PIKA CHU” she responded, stuffing a Pikachu pillow into mine.

“Woah, guys, or, um, girls,” we both heard a male voice say and looked up in surprise, flustered.

Leaning casually against her bedroom doorframe was a smirking Kim Jongin, his tanned face twinkling with a knowing grin.

“J-jongin oppa,” Hyeri stuttered, and I snarled at Jongin jokingly. “Did you enjoy seeing your girlfriend getting dominated by moi?”

“Lee Jae Mi,” Hyeri pushed through clenched teeth. “She’s quite the fighter,” Jongin looked at me, amused, then looked at Hyeri. “I’m proud.”

Hyeri blushed and hid her face in the panda that I earlier crashed into her facial features, and I looked at Jongin, chuckling.

“Don’t hide your beautiful face,” Jongin said, walking in to bend down and remove the pillow from her.

“Get a room,” I threw a dragon pillow at them, separating their embrace. “And, wrap it before you tap it.”

“Yah, Lee Jae Mi!” Hyeri pounced on me and we evolved further into our push and pull. Jongin sat down on her bed as a loyal audience member.

Halfway through our exchange of a deer pillow and an unicorn pillow, Hyeri stood up and glared at Jongin. “Why’re you not helping me?”

“Didn’t you tell me before that you’re a bowl of rice that needs no side dish?” he looked at her innocently.

“To defeat Jae Mi I need bibimbap!” she exclaimed and Jongin laughed at her joke.

“I wonder what the hyungs would say if I told them I spent Saturday afternoon getting down on the floor with two girls,” Jongin remarked, before grabbing his own pillow to join this very unfair match in wrestling, and love.

--

so i listened to f(x)'s new album while writing this and the track 'goodbye summer' featuring kyungsoo really inspired me to create an angsty past between jongdae and dahyun 

and then because i don't want to get trampled, i added in some cute jongin and hyeri moments (feat. jae mi third wheeling like mad)

enjoy and please comment :D

main photo creds: trueobsession @ tumblr