“What if Mihyun left instead of me?” I asked turning to face Hakyeon.

“W-what?” He stuttered. He looked confused and frightened. He was usually like this when he was hiding something big or important.

“What if Mihyun had wanted to move out of the apartment instead of me. Would you be this upset?”

“She could have rejected my offer to live here.”

“Then why can’t I?”

“What? We rented this apartment out together. We mutually agreed to this.”

“But that’s when it was just the two of us living here. What if Mihyun asked you to kick me out of the apartment so she could feel comfortable living here. Would you have done that?”

“No!”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re my friend and this is your place as much as mine and you would have had nowhere to go.”

“But Mihyun is your girlfriend. That’s a more of a serious relationship than our friendship.”

“How so?”

It was just like I thought. Hakyeon didn’t understand. I sighed and sat down on my old bed. Hakyeon stayed where he was but watched my every move intently.

“You are dating Mihyun. You love her, don’t you? Or else you wouldn’t have wanted to make this huge advancement in your relationship.”

Hakyeon shook his head. “I don’t love her.”

His words took me aback. “How can you not love her? You’ve been seriously dating for two years now! Why would you ask her to move in if you didn’t love her?”

Hakyeon looked at the ground. “I thought I loved her. But you should know living together can make or break relationships. Her moving in here made me realize that we weren’t fit for each other.”

I tried to process all of what Hakyeon was saying. “So wait, you don’t love her? And she’s still living here with you as your girlfriend?”

“I’m not sure how to end things with her and she gave up her apartment to move in here so she’d have to find a new place to live.” Hakyeon joined me on the bed and looked at his hands in his lap.

I felt bad for Hakyeon. I hadn’t wished for him to feel this way and I didn’t think his relationship would end. Maybe he was comparing Mihyun to me though and he just needed more time to get over me moving out?

“Hakyeon, are you sure you’re not being harsh on Mihyun? It’s only been a little over a week since I have moved out and she moved in. Give it more time.”

“No.” His voice was harsh sounding. He truly felt that it wasn’t going to work out. “More time would just be a waste because I already know what I feel is real.”

Hakyeon reached for my hand and held it in his. He took a few deep breaths before looking up at me and staring into my eyes for a little while. He was beginning to worry me.

“Hakyeon…”

“I don’t love Mihyun.” He stopped me. “I love you.”

My head felt like it was spinning. I had to be dreaming. Cha Hakyeon did not just say he loved me and not his girlfriend. But even if I pinched myself, I knew this was reality. Hakyeon had just told me that he loved me. I couldn’t see any sign of him lying about it in his expression. These were his true feelings.

“Hakyeon, this isn’t right.” I pulled my hand away from his, as much as it pained me.

“Why? I realized my feelings for you over this past week. I realized that Mihyun was just a fling but you…I really do love you.” Hakyeon tried to grab my hand again, but I pushed him away.

“No Hakyeon. You’re just saying all of this to get your own way. Don’t play with me. I’m not a puppet that you can control. I have feelings too.”

“I’m not playing around, Inhye! I know you love me too! We can work all this out. Mihyun can stay in here until she finds a new place and you can move back in and we’ll start all over. We’ll start fresh!”

“Oppa!” I got to my feet and stood in front of him. “Please stop it. Come to your senses. You only saw me as a friend or a sister. You don’t love me like you love Mihyun. You’re just hurt right now because I left you. We thought we would always be together. We’ve relied on each other for too long. It’s time we let go, Hakyeon. You’re not in the right state to say you love me.”

Hakyeon got to his feet as well. “Oh, do you think Hongbin loves you then? Is that why you’re like this? Are you in love with Hongbin after living with him for a week? Is he your Prince Charming? Do you think you’re going to live happily ever after?”

“Oppa, stop it! You don’t know Hongbin.”

“He’s playing you, Inhye! You’re vulnerable and he’s playing you! I’ve never seen you jump into a relationship before. You always waited a day or two before accepting or rejecting a guy’s feelings for you. Did you do that for Hongbin or did you fall right into his trap without thinking this through?”

I shook my head and tried to calm down for a second. We wouldn’t solve anything if we kept bickering like this.

“How did he know where to pick you up? You seemed pretty lost when he picked you up from the café the other day.”

“Did you follow me out?” I asked. How did Hakyeon know that?

“I was chasing after you to apologize and try again but I saw you get into the car with him. I’m pretty sure the café is out of his way.” Hakyeon got closer to me. “Inhye, I don’t have a good feeling about this guy and I’m saying this as your friend and as a guy. He’s TOO nice.”

I looked up at Hakyeon and tried to read his expression. He seemed sincere but he knew me too well. He could have just been putting up an act. I closed my eyes and massaged my temples for a second. My head was really pounding and I had forgotten to take some pain relievers before dinner.

“Hongbin isn’t how you think he is. I think I like him, oppa. I’m going to try this relationship out and you’re not going to stop me. I’m going to continue living with him and I’m not moving back here. I don’t care if you stay with Mihyun or not, but that girl out there really does love you. You should probably rent my room out if you do kick her out. Maybe Hyukkie would like to live with you. Just leave me to make my own judgments and decisions because I did that for you.”

“I know that okay? But I don’t want to see you get hurt. I don’t want him to hurt you and for you to feel like you can’t come back to me.” Hakyeon pulled me into an embrace and he pet my hair softly. “Think about it.” He whispered. “Let your thoughts clear and tonight think about coming back and being with me. I’ll think about me and Mihyun tonight as well okay? Then call me tomorrow with your decision. Even if it’s still no, call me. We’ll figure out things from there.”

I nodded and hugged Hakyeon back. “Okay. I’ll think about it. I just don’t want to fight anymore.”

“Neither do I. I really do love you, Inhye.”

The words ‘I love you’ were caught in my throat. Did I still love Hakyeon? I guess I had a lot to think about tonight.

We pulled away from each other and I saw Hakyeon hesitate before deciding against whatever he was about to do. I played with my hands for a second before smiling up at him and pointing at the door.

“We should probably go back out there.”

“Are you going to leave right away?” He asked.

“We can stay for a little while.” I responded.

“Do you want to stay?”

“Maybe for a little bit longer. We’ll see how things go when we get back out there.”

Hakyeon nodded and walked over to open the door. With his hand on the doorknob, he took a deep breath before turning the handle and putting on a bright smile.

“Jagi, you better not be cheating on me with Hongbin-ssi.”

I followed Hakyeon out of the room and made eye contact with Hongbin. He was awaiting for some kind of response out of me so I just shrugged and made my way over to him.

“Did you two finally work things out?” Mihyun asked as Hakyeon sat down next to her.

“For the most part we did.” Hakyeon told her.

“We heard you two yelling, but we couldn’t really hear what you were saying. Hongbin was about ready to run in there.”

Hakyeon and I both looked at Hongbin. Hakyeon’s stare was more of a glare while mine was more of a questioning look. Hongbin just smiled and shrugged.

“I told you I wasn’t sure if I could handle you two going at it again.”

The statement was so innocent but I knew that we all heard it with a different interpretation in mind. Hakyeon probably heard it as a possessive statement. Mihyun probably heard it as a friendly statement. And yet, I heard it as a reassuring statement.

“How about we play a game or something.” Mihyun suggested, feeling the tension start to rise again.

“We have a few board games around here somewhere.” Hakyeon said.

Suddenly Hongbin’s phone went off and he politely excused himself before stepping out of the room. Hakyeon looked at me, questioning who the phone call was from, but I shrugged in response because I didn’t have a clue as to who could be calling Hongbin. Once that though crossed my mind I realized that I didn’t know anyone in Hongbin’s life aside from the ahjumma that worked at the restaurant. What did I really know about Hongbin aside from his photography and his internship? I didn’t even know where Hongbin was from. Was he even being honest about his internship? Hakyeon’s words from earlier had me thinking of a lot of questions now. Was Hongbin really a good guy?

Hongbin returned not much later and frowned. “Ottokke? That was my boss. He needs to see me right now to talk about one of the shoots for this week.”

“It’s fine. We can all play games another time.” I told him as I got to my feet.

“I’m sorry to have to be leaving so quickly after dinner. If you want to stay longer, Inhye-ssi, you can. I can pick you up on my way back after my meeting with my boss.”

“No no. It’s fine. Who knows how long your meeting will be. I’ll just leave with you.”

“Are you sure?” I nodded. “Okay. Then I’ll call a taxi and meet you outside. Thank you for inviting us to dinner, Hakyeon-ssi. It was nice while it lasted. Goodnight Mihyun-ssi.” Hongbin then walked out of the apartment.

I could see Hakyeon was trying his best not to say anything. I sighed and grabbed my purse.

“Thank you for dinner. It was nice, like Hongbin said.” I could feel Hakyeon’s gaze burning through me. “I know, oppa. I’ll think about it and call you tomorrow.”

“Inhye-ssi, that Hongbin….” Mihyun stopped me from walking to the door. “Hakyeon said he used to be your classmate?” I nodded. “There’s something about him. When we were washing the dishes, he just talked so highly of you. It almost made me think that I was talking to Hakyeon, but when Hakyeon talks about you it’s not so in…detail.”

“Detail?” I questioned. “What kind of detail?”

“Just weird little things about you.” Mihyun made a disgruntled face.

“Well he is a photography student so I wouldn’t doubt that he sees the detail in everything.”

“I know we’re not the closest but I know Hakyeon cares about you and after talking to Hongbin, I just want you to be careful okay. Maybe my judgment is totally off. But he seemed really creepy and awkward to me.”

I forced a smile. “Thank you Mihyun-ssi but I’m pretty sure Hongbin was just nervous about having dinner is all. He probably has the taxi waiting so I should go now.” I waved to them before I headed to the elevator.

I began to wonder if Hakyeon had told Mihyun his suspicions about Hongbin or if she really had just picked all the up tonight from washing dishes with him. Either way, I was in a tough fix. Who was I supposed to trust, Hakyeon or Hongbin?

A/N: Thank you all for reading. I hope you enjoyed this update. School is starting this week so I'm not sure when I'll be able to update again. Thank you all for being so patient with these updates. :))