Soo Ji

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I paced back and forth in my living room. It was already 12:15 and we were supposed to meet here at 11:45. 

Where is she?

I twirled my phone in my hands in an attempt to distract myself. The sound of bells chiming suddenly emitted from the device.

"Where are you?" the sound of my best friend's voice was on the other end.

"What? Shouldn't I be the one asking you that? You were supposed to meet me at my place half an hour ago!" my eyebrows began to furrow in frustration.

"What?" Mi Rae questioned, "Weren't we meeting in front of your school?"

My jaw dropped in disbelief. Mi Rae had always been a bit forgetful but I had reminded her at least ten times before that we were meeting at my house.

"No!" I yelled into the phone. 

"Whoa, there. No need to yell." she whined.

A sigh unintentionally escaped my lips.

"Anyways~" she chimed, "Everyone else is here. So come soon."

I responded with an eyeroll that she couldn't see.

"Ah! Also!" Mi Rae lowered her voice to a whisper, "Your friends are really cute. Especially, one that I know you've had your eyes on~"

"Mi Rae, its not like that!" I protested, "And they're hardly friends. They're just some guys from my school."

"Hmm, 'kay." I could feel her teasing smile through the phone. "Just come already, I'm getting lonely~"

"I'm coming." I told her and ended the call.

I grabbed my cardigan off the couch and my bag off the dining room chair - completing my outfit.

"Over here!" Mi Rae called from a bench in the court yard. She was with Sehun and the rest of the group.

I glared at her and walked over. 

"I told you we were meeting at my apartment, Mi Rae. Do you know how long I was waiting?" I scolded her, crossing my arms across my chest.

"Sorry~" Mi Rae apologized. 

"I thought we were meeting here. I should've called to ask you. Forgive me?" she gave her notorious puppy dog eyes.

I sighed a bit but smiled and nodded. 

"Yay!" Mi Rae shot out her seat and hugged me.

Since I had arrived I felt a stare on me. I took the hug as an opportunity to scan the area I felt the stare emit from.

As my eyes scanned the group Sehun invited me to hang out with my eyes landed on Kai. He was looking at me and when our eyes met he quickly glanced away. 

Mi Rae pulled me out of the hug and turned to the guys.

"So, what are we doing today?" she asked no one in particular.

"Well, if you two are done with your lovers quarrel we were planning on going on some of the rides." Baekhyun replied.

Mi Rae jutted her lip out from his remark and I scoffed at him calling our conversaton a "lovers quarrel".

"Hey, I'm not juding," he said after taking in our reactions, "Love is love."

Mischief glinted in Mi Rae's eyes.

Uh no.

Mi Rae slung her arm around my shoulder and a small smirk appeared on her face. 

"Aww, baby, I'm so sorry!"she turned and my cheek. I couldn't surpress the grimace that formed on my face.

God, she's really something else.

"Well, since these friends of yours are so open minded it seems we don't have to pretend anymore." she continued.

I looked around awkwardly unsure of what to do. My eyes scanned the reactions of the guys. They're expressions varied from smirks to awkward smiles to open-mouthed to just pure disbelief. My eyes landed on Kai's reaction; a mix of disappointment and shock.

Mi Rae turned to the guys and smiled. Swiftly she pulled her arm away. 

"Kidding~" she smiled impishly at them.

A roar of strained laughter came from the group of teens.

I looked at Kai and saw a small sigh escape from his lips followed by a smile of relief. I couldn't help but smile at his reaction.

"Anyways," Chanyeol jumped in, "let's get going! I really want to go on that!" he pointed to a roller coster that was partially hidden by the buildings infront.

"Well, then let's go!" Mi Rae skipped in the direction of the ride.

We followed closely behind and made our way to the field behind the admin building. The large field that was usually empty with only the trace of a few students wandering across it was now filled with booths offering prizes of an assortment of stuffed animals and rides that came in the form of roller coasters, a sky drop, rides that twirled in the air so fast that you couldn't help but get dizzy, and a ferris wheel. At the far right corner the chilling sound of screems could be heard coming from the haunted house. Contrasting with the not so pleasant attraction a theme cafe was only a few metres away. A sign was beside both attractions but I was too far to read the contents. Presumably it was an announcement of some sort of event or challenge that you could participate in.

"C'mon! You guys are so slow!" Mi Rae yelled behind her-only a few metres ahead of us.

Chnayeol took her teasing as some sort of challenge because in that moment he sprinted towards her. He reached her in a matter of a few seconds.

"Too slow, eh?" he teased , "Who might that be?"

"I guess its certainly not you!" she teasingly punched his shoulder.

Chanyeol put on a hurt face and grabbed his shoulder. "Ouch!" he yelped.

Mi Rae's eyes widened and she gasped a little. "Oh my god! Are you okay?"

The fey boy dropped his arm from his shoulder and flashed a smile that was the epitome of the term "teeth rich". His devious grin was followed by laughter on his part.

"Geez! You're horrible! I was actually worried!" Mi Rae scolded him 

We caught up to them just in time to hear Mi Rae explain how her strength was sometimes beyond her control and how Chanyeol would be such a wimp to get hurt from such a weak punch. Chanyeol just continued to smile at her and patted her head after her long spiel.

"Oooh~ It seems we have some new love birds here~" Baekhyun teased passing by Chanyeol.

"Now, Mi Rae-ssi its not a good thing to cheat on your lover. Look she's all lonely back there." Sehun had a devilish grin on his face as he passed by Mi Rae.

"Hey!" they both yelled in unison at the boys backs.

Suho, Kyungsoo, Kai and I couldn't hold our laughter back any further.

"Hey!" they yelled once again in unison at us.

Our laughter intensified and the two jutted out their lower lips in a pout.

"Okay, okay. Let's stop teasing them." Suho spoke up.

Mi Rae smiled a bit. "At least someone here actually has a heart."

Sehun put a hand to his chest. "Last time I checked there was on here." he waited a few moments. "Yup, still there!"

Mi Rae rolled her eyes at the boy's antics.

"Great.. There's a huge line." Chanyeol whined as we approached the roller coaster.

"It is the biggest ride here." Kyungsoo explained, "What did you expect?"

"Not to mention all the advertisements for the carnival highlighted it. Its probably the one thing that brought people over here." Baekhyun chimed in.

"Well, how about we just get in line! Maybe it won't take so long?" I suggested.

"We can probably take turns in line,too. There's eight of us. So we can wait in groups of two as the others go to some of the booths." Suho suggested.

"Alright! The queue is approximately 40 minutes." Kai read off the  board at the back of the line. "So each group will wait for ten minutes."

"We'll wait first!" Mi Rae volunteered. "Soo Ji and I don't mind!" 

Slight disappointment ran through me.  Kai looked at me. Something was trying to be said through his eyes but I just couldn't decode the message locked within.

I smiled at the boys infront of me, "Its fine really! Go on! Have some fun!"

"Well, if you insist~" Baekhyun wrapped an arm around Kyungsoo's shoulders, "We'll be trying out all the food booths if you need us."

"They have that hammer game back where we came from." Sehun said, "I bet I can ring the bell with my impeccable strength. C'mon hyung! Let's go!" Sehun nodded his head at Kai and the two went off.

"Well, I guess that leaves us two." Suho turned to Chanyeol, "Alright, Chanyeollie where do you want to go?"

The two walked off before a response was given. 

"Sorry for taking you away from Kai," Mi Rae looked at me apologetically

"What? Why are you apologizing? Its not like I wanted to team up with him anyways when I have my best friend right here." I bumped my hips with hers and she staggared a bit.

"I saw you pout, Soo Ji."

"I did not!" I retorted.

"Sure you didn't~" she teased.

I pouted at her and turned away from her with a "hmpf" playfully.

"I'm not falling for that." she spoke to my back.

I'm not giving you the satisfaction. Say hello to the silent treatment.

"Soo Ji-ah~" 

A smirk formed on my face.

"Come on don't be this way."

The corners of my lips stretched further.

"Soo Ji? Really?" her voice started to sound frustrated. "Why are you so childish?"

At this point I figured she'd been through enough. That, and honestly it sounded like she was on edge and boy was that girl freightening when she was mad.

I turned around to face her. "So Miss Maturity. What is it that you have to say that requires my attention?"

"I can't tell you if you're angry." she looked at my expression.

"I'm not." I assured her, even smiling at her.

"Well, I..." her voice trailed off. "You see... I kind of... like? no.. uhm.. "

"What?" I asked, "Mi Rae, I can't hear you."

"I think Chanyeol's really cute." she said quickly, pink tinging her cheeks.

"Five mintutes with the boy and you think he's cute? I mean I'm not judging you or anything but I don't want you to move so fast. You know how you get Mi Rae. You fall fast and you fall hard. What if.." I had to stop myself.

Who am I to crush her. Just because I don't let people in doesn't mean I should try to close off Mi Rae.

I looked at her expression, hurt was traced on her features.

"Mi Rae. I didn't mean any of that. I meant... Well, I really don't know what I meant." I glanced at her again.

"You know what?" I smiled at her, "Go for it! I'm rooting for you two!"

She smiled back. "I know you're worried about me Soo Ji but please let me make my own desicions."

"I know. I'm sorry."

"But! I appreciate your support. Or well at least you're trying to be." she looked at me sincerely.

"No really! You two would look so cute togeth-" I was cut off.

"Ah, by the way!" Mi Rae looked at me with a grin that seemed to have a trace of a smirk underneath, "I've been keeping an eye on him since the summer."

I giggled at her remark. "Hmm.." I replied.

I looked infront of us and saw that our turn was coming up next. Then as if on cue the guys appeared.

"We saw the line moving so we met up." Kyungsoo explained.

"Sorry we didn't take turns waiting like we planned. You guys ended up waiting all yourselves." Kai apologized.

"Nah, its okay!" Mi Rae smiled, "The line moved a lot faster than expected anyways."

"Next" the employee at the gate called and we all walked up.

Mi Rae went to the front of the coaster and Chanyeol took the seat behind her. Baekhyun grumbled about how he wanted to be at the front and took the seat behind them. Sehun took a seat beside Baekhyun and I took a seat in the middle. Suho took a seat at the back with Kyungsoo leaving only the seat beside me open. I looked to my right and saw Kai take a seat beside me.

"I really hope you're not a screamer," he joked, "I need my hearing so I can dance."

"Don't worry." I looked at him, "I don't scream."

"Goo-"

"I maniacally laugh."

"What?" he laughed, "Are you serious? I would've bet money you were a screamer."

"What makes you say that?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

He leaned close to my ear."You were shaking at the entrance."

"I was not!" I hit his shoulder playfully.

"Well, if you need an arm to hold on to mine's here." he offered.

I looked up at him and saw that he was sincere. 

"Thanks," I smiled at him.

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Author's Note: