Krystal stopped browsing online shopping website when somebody opened her apartment’s door. Tidying her pajamas, she glanced towards the side from where the noise came. “You’re fast to come, Sulli.”

Jinri was already taking her shoes off when Krystal stood up to refill her cup of coffee and Jinri made her way to the kitchen. “Yeah yeah, I’m starving. Let’s go grab something to eat.”

“It’s Monday and a morning too, so don’t make me go out yet,” Krystal pleaded. Obvious from Jinri’s crossed arms, with no avail.

Grunting, Krystal slowly tip toed bare footed to her closet.

“Your next photo shoot with Kai is tomorrow, right?” Jinri shouted while sipping her friend’s abandoned cup of coffee.

“Yep, heard about it yesterday. And how exactly are you informed about it already?”

 Krystal stepped out her room with a simple laced dress and a sweater. Jinri firmly shook her head disapprovingly. The latter madly swirled her blonde locks and grumpily stormed back to her bedroom. Jinri continued drinking hot coffee while checking her phone.

“Stay at this company as long as I did and you’ll get your way around.”

“So what did you want to talk about?” blonde girl stepped out once again, this time styling grey pencil skirt and coral colored blouse to go with it. Her friend’s judging eyes stopped at the slightly ed collar. “Get that necklace I gave you on your seventeenth birthday. But hurry up or I’m gonna leave alone.”

“Geez,” Krystal hissed before grabbing the said jewelry and her packed purse. “Answer the question, please. I’m intrigued.”

“No kidding,” Jinri simple smirked while Krystal locked her flat. “You remind me of a certain someone by your level of curiosity right now.”

Hurrying downstairs, blonde beamed for the first time this morning. “Is it about Taemin?”

“Bingo.”

“Did something happen after the party? Are you perhaps together now?”

Jinri continued calmly strolling the sidewalk, her friend by her side. “A yes and a no.”

“Seriously, drop it already, you’re killing me.”

“It’s a little pay back for telling a secret,” Jinri smirked and glanced at the slowly catching on Krystal.

“I didn’t mean to tell him, I swear!”

“I know, relax. Maybe I should even thank you, since afterwards I got a chance to speak freely with Taemin. So thanks, I guess.”

Blond girl opened small café’s doors for her friend, walking inside after Jinri stepped in. “When did you talk about all of it?”

Jinri pointed to a nearby table which was empty and waited till they would be seated before continuing with her short story.

“I asked him to stay the night,” she finally opened up about what exactly she wanted to talk about.

“You what?” instead of shouting like she usually would, Krystal silently murmured across the round table. Jinri noted that her friend started to change quite drastically even at small things like her reaction.

“Taemin reacted with more shouting,” Jinri chuckled at the memory. “But then, he took off his jacket and sat beside me on the couch with a serious expression. Oh, he also said something like…

“…Sure, we should talk.”

Drunken Jinri didn’t think this through before she opened to ask such a thing. However, since he decided to stay here, she might once and for all properly disclose her feelings for him.

“Do you really like me?” Taemin’s hands found their way to a little box that was placed in front of him, on a low table. Jinri’s head shot up in an instant and she couldn’t formulate a normal sentence to respond.

“I’ll take it as a yes.”

Minutes went by, silently, with both of them sitting awkwardly on the couch. After what seemed like an hour, the tall boy stood up. “You should go to your bed. I’ll sleep on your couch tonight, if that’s alright with you.”

“Mhm.” Jinri slowly got up, swirling from side to side, her gaze looking everywhere besides Taemin. He rubbed his eyes from tiredness and helped Jinri to get to her bed.

“He even said he’ll stay with you until you’d fall asleep?”

“It’s unnecessary. You should get some rest too.”

“I said I’ll stay. Someone said I wasn’t acting gentlemanly as much as expected of me today, so just go to sleep assured.”

Jinri grabbed her blanket tightly, her eyes now fixated on the boy besides her. ”So I’m just a friend to you?”

“Sorry.”

Jinri’s eyes swelled with incoming tears. It was the first time she would cry because of a boy.

“It’s going to be easier if I stay far away from you, right?”

“I think it’s just a foolish thing to do,” Jinri whispered through her sobs. “Just give me a chance.”

Taemin signed deeply and brushed a tear away from . “Are you confident you could make it work?”

“…No, not at all. I haven’t felt this way until now, and truthfully speaking, my mind’s a mess.”

“Shh, sleep,” the boy patted her forehead, trying to calm her down. He surprised even himself, since it was his first time in a situation like this, also. He felt way more confident about what exactly he is supposed to do right now than he should be.

“And after I woke up, he was already gone. I checked my phone; his number was deleted. Well, we didn’t have much relationship before, so I didn’t have any more than his number to remind me of his existence.”

“Besides your hurting heart, that is,” Krystal ended it when Jinri looked sadly out of the window.

“You’re not helping it right now,” brown haired girl managed to chuckle and looked back at the menu. “So what are you getting for breakfast? We’re going to have a pajama party today all day long with lots of sweets, so I propose you choose wisely. We don’t want you to have an upset stomach for tomorrow’s photo shoot.”

Jinri purposely swayed from the topic to clear her mind, but some things that she didn’t talk about crept up on her mind.

“I’m awful, aren’t I?”

“No, no, it’s not because of you that I…”

“You don’t know what I’m talking about. You might get scared of me because of this, but I must also tell you about this matter.”

The boy ruffled her hair. “I’m listening.”

Jinri sniffled into her pillow. “You know, after you hung out with Krystal, I tried to keep you two separated. I was jealous of my best friend. I’m despicable,” she sobbed loudly. It took at least two more pats on her head before she could calm down again.

“You know,” she briefly glanced at Taemin, “I was throwing her right to your brother’s hands, just to make sure you’ll stay away from her. But I can’t do that anymore. The guilt is eating me up. It scares me that she likes him deeply now. I’m at loss.”

“I understand.” Taemin sat up from his lying position and continued Jinri’s hair. He suspected that these little actions of his might be hurting the girl even more, but somehow he couldn’t stop himself from it. He pitied her so much. Since his childhood, he thought he was unworthy of someone’s affection. It pained him to see a girl so deep in love with him being broken hearted.

“Let it all out.”

“Tell me truthfully: was I just obsessed or do you really like Krystal?”

“You ask me to be honest, so I’ll be, even if it hurts you more. I did like her. I liked her right until the moment I saw a glint in Kai’s eyes when he spoke about her. I knew I was out of place to court her. I would only hurt her if I did, or at least my brother would make sure of it.”

“Did you purposely step back?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you regret your decision right now?”

“I think I did when I saw her tonight. Or maybe even way before that, when even with me distancing away from her, Kai wouldn’t stop going after Krystal. But not right now. Not anymore.”

Jinri rubbed her drying tears; speaking out her feelings felt… somewhat satisfying. “And why is that?”

Taemin locked his gaze with Jinri’s. She unintentionally gulped down and held her breath. “Because my heart is healing, even if I couldn’t say that I was already in love with her. So you’ll get better too.”

“Please, spare me one small peck, and I promise I’ll try forgetting you,” Jinri quietly pleaded, drying out, the taste of alcohol lingering on her tongue.

Taemin smiled sweetly and kissed her forehead. That was the last thing Jinri remembers before she out.

*