“Guys, we’re not coming with you back to the hostel,” announced Chunji as they hopped off the train after dinner.

“Ya!” Jiyoon protested at the sudden plan, she knew he’s referring to her since they had been sticking together.

“Shut up, just accompany me first,” he threatened her. The rest gave a few nods, meanwhile Changjo was cursing under his mask.

They bid goodbyes as they splitted up in front of the station, Changjo couldn’t stop stealing glances at the two from afar. He sighed, recalling the scenes happened between him and Jiyoon earlier. It’s just too much for him. How could he be happy to interact with her when Chunji always sticks around?

“Where are we going?” Jiyoon was being dragged all along by Chunji, but then he stopped as he heard her question.

“Nowhere exact.” He smiled innocently.

“Again?!” Jiyoon rolled her eyes, peeved by his answer.

The guy just grinned at her. “Don’t worry too much, I know what I got to do,” he took her hand to the ice cream stall across the street.

“I can’t believe you’re this smart, Lee Chanhee,” Jiyoon commented, her ice cream as they strolled down the sidewalk again.

He just chuckled lightly, “Was that a compliment or an insult?” he raised his eyebrow.

“Depends.” She shrugged, still tasting the free ice cream she got.

They ended up at the park nearby. Just being theirselves all along, chatting and blabbering nonsense. They were on a bridge over the made up lake in the middle of the park, Jiyoon was sitting on the brick fence while Chunji was just standing before her, looking at the water underneath. “Jiyoon-ah, pass me the bracelets.” Jiyoon took out the pack and did what she was told.

Chunji unwrapped the packaging carefully, he took one out and put the wrap on Jiyoon’s lap. He then hooked the bracelet around her wrist without saying a word before wearing his own. “Woah cool!” Jiyoon examined it closely.  “Thank you, Oppa!”

“You’re welcome.” He flashed a warm smile, taking the wrap and put it inside his pocket to dispose it later. “It doesn’t look girly on me, does it?” he made sure, joining her on examining his own.

“Not at all.“ She shook her head vigorously.

“Jiyoon-ah.” She was seriously looking at her bracelet when Chunji called her. She could see Chunji had moved, standing in front of her since she could see his shoes in her sight.

“What?” she just raised her head when Chunji his lips on hers, pressing them down completely.

Jiyoon flinched, fortunately she didn’t fall back first into the lake, it’s because Chunji had pulled her closer to him as he deepened his kiss. She wasn’t completely aware, letting him kiss her passionately without kissing him back. Chunji’s hand just started creeping down along her sides when she suddenly pushed him and landed her palm on his pale white cheek, slapping it with all her might.

“Ouch! That hurt!” Chunji reflexively shouted, his redden cheek.

“What the heck are you doing!!” Jiyoon exploded. Chunji was taken aback by her strike, he stared at her blankly, speechless. He really thought it was all fine, his desire drowned him until he didn’t realize that actually she didn’t kiss him back. It was just him all along. “I….I don’t know? I just wanted to try it once with you.” Grinning, he shrugged then ruffled his hair awkwardly.

“So, how was it, Lee Chanhee? Fun?! Wanna have some more, huh?!” she had never raised her tone on him before no matter how annoyed she was, but she just did. Chunji vigorously nodded, unconsciously fueling the fire. “What am I to you?! A freakin’ experimental lab mice for you to play with?!”

“But you’re cuter than a mice, to be honest,” replied Chunji innocently, clearly holding back his laughter.

Jiyoon snorted, “Just stop talking. I’m going first.” She stood up and started walking away when Chunji grabbed her arm.

“Ya! Jiyoon-ah! I was just joking!” Chunji turned her body forcefully facing him, but to start a staring contest with her glassy eyes. One wrong move and they’d break to tears. Her sharp gaze stabbed him, a moment before she pulled her arm from his grip and walked away, leaving him speechless.

Chunji was stuck on his feet, watching the girl half running into the dark path. He couldn’t run after her. “Doesn’t she like me? Which part she’s mad at?” his brain was still digesting the scenes, analyzing every single moves, yet he’s still unsure of where he went wrong. He was joking from the start, except the kiss. He really meant it. Not realizing he was being innocent all along, he scratched his head as he continued thinking. “Haish!” he stomped, finally making his way out of the park as well. “Why didn’t she get my joke?!”

All of their eyes were fixed at Jiyoon as she clicked the bedroom’s door open. “Hi.” She forced a grin, closing the door behind her.

L.Joe frowned, peeking at her back but he didn’t see Chunji. “Where’s Chunji?”

Jiyoon’s hardened face puzzled them. “Few feet behind me,” she lied. The guys’ gazes were still fixed at her, watching her climbed up her bed. “Good night, fellas,” she half shouted from above.

The guys exchanged looks, busy mouthing at each other silently, even Niel and Ricky paused their games recognizing the awkward atmosphere. Changjo shrugged at CAP’s questioning look. Chunji arrived few minutes later, again, getting weird stares. “What are you looking at?” Chunji scanned his friends’ faces. Noticing there’s no respond, he walked away to his bed. He sighed, stealing a glance at Jiyoon who was either sleeping or pretending sleeping on her bed. That night, Chunji’s ‘good night’ was never spoken out as usual.

******

They were spending their time in the common room again the next day. The guys had been wondering why there’s such a gap between Chunji and Jiyoon while they’re sticking closely to each other for the whole day before. They hadn’t seen the two exchanging words either. Something’s wrong, they knew it. Chunji himself was being quiet, that’s the most obvious thing. He usually teased Jiyoon from the first second after he woke up. But he didn’t that day. He didn’t even laugh at the boys’ jokes.

“I’m going out,” Chunji announced as he got up from his seat. He glanced at Jiyoon from the corner of his eyes, checking how she’d react, but her gaze was straight at her laptop. She didn’t care.

“Where to?” asked CAP.

“Convenience store,” he randomly answered. He wasn’t going there for real though, he just wanted to stroll somewhere, clearing his mind from the tangled matters between him and Jiyoon.

L.Joe’s sense was good enough to catch the unexist sign. “I’m coming!” L.Joe stood up suddenly. “Coming, hyung?” he asked CAP who was getting up as well.

“Nah.” CAP shook his head, he walked to the bedroom instead.

“Changjo-ya, let’s get some snacks,” Niel asked Changjo minutes later, half forcing the maknae to agree through his tone.

“Ya! Hyung! Why didn’t you just go with Chunji and L.Joe then!” protested Changjo, annoyed. “Go with Ricky!” Changjo pointed at Ricky, trying to split the burden.

“No way, I’m not going anywhere today,” Ricky stated.

“Ya! Come on!” Niel had already got up, pulling Changjo to get up as well. “Jiyoon-ah, wanna come?” Jiyoon shook her head at Niel, smiling slightly. “Okay. Bye guys.” Niel dragged Changjo outside, leaving Ricky with Jiyoon in the deserted common room.

Jiyoon scrolled through her email’s inbox for the umpteenth time, still no signs of messages coming from her dad. It’s kind of weird since it had been two weeks and he hadn’t gone mad at her yet. The thought of sending him a message passed by her mind. Puffing her cheeks, she shrugged it off.

“Ricky-ah, what are you reading?” she peeked above her laptop to see Ricky laying on his stomach, reading some kind of a book.

Ricky raised his head to look at Jiyoon before checking its cover himself. “Just a random comic I took from that shelf.”

“What’s it about?” Jiyoon got interested since she had nothing specific to do than feeling worried for losing contact with her dad.

Ricky got up and sat cross legged beside her. “I don’t understand it actually, I’m just looking at the drawings,” he chuckled shyly. “Here.” He passed the book for her to check.

Jiyoon was scanning through the pages when Ricky awkwardly cleared his throat, hesitating. “Uh… Jiyoon-ah, I’m sorry if I sound rude on this. But I… I’ve been wondering, what happened between you and Chunji?”

Silence. Jiyoon pretended to keep having a look on the comic, thinking which words she should say to answer the innocent boy before her. “You two look….different,” Ricky continued as he didn’t get her respond yet. “Something went wrong?”

Jiyoon closed the book and looked away. “The others asked you to ask me, didn’t they?” she just got the suspicions out of nowhere, assuming Ricky’s innocent look getting used by the others.

Ricky shook his head right away, not caring whether she noticed it or not. “No, they didn’t. It’s just my curious self, I swear.” He didn’t lie. Nobody asked him to do such a thing. He was the one curious about Jiyoon’s relationship with Chunji for real. “Sorry if I sounded rude, it’s okay if you don’t answer it though,” he trailed off, giving up his stupid idea to ask her right away about the matters.

“We argued, that’s all,” Jiyoon answered shortly, she didn’t heart not to answer him at all.

“But… You two argue everyday,” Ricky frowned, not yet getting which term she meant by arguing with Chunji.

“We argued for real.” She made it clearer.

Ricky nodded, acknowledging her answer. At least she still answered him. “I hope you two can make up soon, it’s really weird seeing you two now.”

Jiyoon smiled slightly at Ricky. Uncertain one.

******

“I kissed her.”

L.Joe’s eyes widened in shock at Chunji’s answer. “You kissed her….where?!”

“On the lips.” Chunji shrugged lightly, his heart pumped more blood to his cheek unconsciously when he recalled the scene in his mind. “But she slapped me.” L.Joe put on a pity look on his face, but on the other side he really wanted to laugh imagining Chunji got slapped. “You don’t need to hold it back, just laugh at me,” Chunji scoffed, L.Joe’s redden face was too obvious for him.

“I’m sorry, really. Somehow that was funny to me, I’m sorry Chanhee-ya.” L.Joe was panting from the laughter. “What happened then?” he turned serious in a split second.

“She went mad. I said I was joking, I really was joking along, trying to ease the tense. But it was a great failure. It went worse,” Chunji sighed, regretting his moves although he still wasn’t sure about the part he was wrong at. “It confused me, you know. I really think she likes me. I really have no idea what I did wrong!”

“Maybe she was just flustered by your sudden moves?” L.Joe spoke his thoughts out, settling down his confused friend. “There’s no way for her not to like you. She does like you, in my opinion.”

Chunji’s heavy sigh was the only noise they made as they thought about another possibilities. “Wait, didn’t you say you were joking?” L.Joe snapped his fingers, pointing out the real matter. Chunji nodded bluntly at him, but his head got smacked by L.Joe right away. “You stupid! You messed up her feelings for you!”

“What?” Chunji’s mouth went open, confused more. “She’s disappointed at you, Lee Chanhee! She thought your kiss was part of the joke!!” L.Joe barked at Chunji’s stupidity. “You messed up big time! Really!”

Chunji gulped nervously, finally realizing what he did wrong. “Then… Then what should I do now?” he ruffled his hair in frustration, he wouldn’t give up the chance yet.

 “Haish! You’re really empty-headed in love matters!” L.Joe muttered. “You should fix this up as soon as possible before she hates you for real!”

******

But it didn’t go well for Jiyoon and Chunji on the day after day and after. Jiyoon insisted with her coldness towards him, not bothering the weird stares from the guys anymore. She just had enough. No words had been exchanged between the two since their fight occurred. Chunji was running out of ways he could make up with her. Thinking for the most effective method, he didn’t want to try apologizing yet.

Jiyoon herself didn’t care whether Chunji would apologize or not. To her, he didn’t seem having guilt any tiny bit inside him. And she didn’t give a damn about it for real. Chunji drifted away from the pack, dragging L.Joe with him to avoid Jiyoon for some moments. The rest understood him, but what they didn’t was why Chunji didn’t seem to make such concrete efforts to make up with Jiyoon in front of them. Maybe he did secretly, they guessed. But he totally didn’t.

No matter how gossip Niel was, he didn’t want to interfere that time. He stayed silent, watching. Not even bothering himself to discuss those matters with Ricky anymore like he always did before. So was CAP, he chose to stay silent as well. He witnessed everything, like every single awkward moment when Chunji and Jiyoon were happened to bump to each other, or when they all were sitting together with the awkward clouds made by the two hanging above them. Again, he pretended everything was all normal to him.

Probably the happiest man in that situation was just Changjo all along. Finally he could see the two was apart. And he cherished every single second he spent lately. It’s really great to see Jiyoon. Just Jiyoon alone in his frame, without that flirty guy clinging around like he owned her. Honestly he wished if he could use the chance to get closer with her, but it seemed impossible for him. The guys were still around, ready to witness another anomaly of him if he really got close with her in a sudden. Moreover, it would be clear enough that he had something on her for making his moves when Chunji wasn’t around her.

Ricky was someone Jiyoon could rely on most of the times. His sharp senses helped her a lot to face those awkward moments between Chunji and her. The talk they had before, increased her attention on him. He really was care about her, but what she respected the most was that he didn’t make his further moves to interfere on her problems. He just wanted to indirectly help her by conquering those awkward moments between them all. When it was just the two of them, Ricky and Jiyoon, they talked a lot about things. He eased her burdened mind by being the person whom willing to listen to her although she didn’t open herself about the real matter yet. It didn’t matter for him, as long as he could see her smiling then it’s all fine.