Junhyung’s POV

            What could I have said to make her yell at me like that? Did something happen to her family? I don’t remember hearing any disasters in our hometown. Well her dad left her when she was young. But she’s over that now, she must be. Her brother? Her mom? Her cat? I wanted to know and I wanted to know what I could do to help.

            I wiped the steam off the mirror. “Yong Junhyung, Maeji isn’t the only one who changed,” I said to myself.

            Maeji changed more than me though. All I did was get famous. She went from an ugly duckling to a swan. (Did I really just say that? I think I did. . .) Her personality is still the same, aside from the bossy part, but her looks have changed so much. She’s so pretty now. . .

           AH! Why am I thinking this? She. Is. My. Friend.

           I got dressed and went to put my other clothes back in the closet. Maeji was cooking something and talking on her phone. She yelled again. I cracked the door open, listening. As she was yelling, the front door opened. Maeji didn’t notice. Two listeners. After some more yelling, she hung up and started crying.

           I opened the door to go to her, but Dongwoon beat me. Something inside me hated that scene. His arms around a crying Maeji. He was too tall for her. She didn’t fit right in his arms.

           Stupid thoughts again. What did I care about this? I just cared for her as a friend. Did it really matter who was holding her? As long as she was comforted, that’s all that mattered.

           She is my friend. She is my friend. She is my friend. She should be my girlfriend. . .

~~~~~~~~~~

            Half of me wanted to stay here in Dongwoon’s arms. The other half wanted to disappear. Crying? Weakness. I was strong now; I had no reason to cry until today. Seven years of pain bottled up inside me. Seomin always brought that up. What was so different about this time?

            Junhyung. He talked like things were still the same. Like I was still the little girl with a long-gone dad, a nice mom, and a good brother. He talked like everything was still okay.

            What does Dongwoon think of me? Ah, this probably pushed him even farther away.

            The tears stopped.

            “Maeji, are you okay?”

            “I’m fine, uhm, thank you.” I gave him one last squeeze.

            “Do you want to talk about it?”

            “She’s not the type to just talk about it. She’ll feel conceited if she talks about herself for over thirty seconds,” Junhyung interrupted.

            “Oh. Well, hyung, are you doing any better?” Dongwoon asked, trying to lift the mood.

            “Kind of. But you should be getting back, lunch is almost over. Tell GiKwang that he needs to share his food with you.”

            “Alright, hyung. Bye.” He grabbed his ID and left.

            “Maeji.”                     

            “Yeah?” I was busy wiping the area below my lower lash line, where I knew my mascara was smeared.