Fingers Pointing

The boys and I ended up parking ourselves in the food court once everyone claimed to be hungry. We were able to snag one of the long tables that could seat the twelve of us as soon as we bought some food. I sat with a pomegranate tea smoothie in front of me. Sipping through the straw and watching the boys have fun (three of them were working on building a tower with pretzel sticks), I had to remind myself that it was probably the last time I'd enjoy their company like that without being Luhan's "ex-fiancée."  

"Ha! Look." Minseok pointed at Kyungsoo who had just been innocently eating cotton candy on a stick. "Kyungsoo got cotton candy bigger than his head."

"Everything is bigger than his head," Jongdae stated a matter-of-factly.

I was probably one of the first ones to laugh until I thought I might have choked on my drink. Kyungsoo wordlessly and aggressively continued to pick at his cotton candy. He looked to be saying death threats at each one of us in his head.

"Pasth ma wa-ah," Yixing said to Luhan through a mouthful of nachos that were covered in spicy cheese.

Luhan blinked at him cluelessly. "...What?"

"Ma wa-ah!" Yixing shook a pointed finger at the water bottle that sat by Luhan's elbow. "Pasth ma wa-ah! Nachos ah spithy!"

It took him a total of two seconds to finally piece together what Yixing was practically crying about. "Oh, your water?" Luhan slid the plastic bottle to him which Yixing uncapped and drank from thankfully.

"These aren't even that spicy." Chanyeol had the same plate of nachos in front of him. He slapped Yixing's arm. "You're such a girl!" Chanyeol quickly turned to me as soon as he realized what he said. "No offence Sora!"

I shook my hand dismissively at the topic. "None taken."

Tao stole a nacho from Yixing's share, curious at its flavor, and bit off half of it experimentally. Yixing held his hand out to Tao, palm facing up. "You owe me 5,000 for that chip."

"5,000 for a nacho?!" Tao immediately returned half of the chip he hadn't eaten and tossed it back on his plate. "You can have it back then."

"Gross! You just spread your bacteria all over my food!" Yixing cried.

"Maybe if you—" As soon as I reached across the table, my elbow clashed with Kris' cup of lemonade. It toppled over, spilling the yellow drink on the surface. With a stoic face, Kris was staring at the misfortune of his drink. "I'm so sorry!" My hands were flailing uselessly until I picked up the cup and placed it upright again.

"It's okay. There was only a little left." Kris waved his fork. "Don't worry about it."

I scooted my chair back to stand and retrieve some napkins to wipe up the spill, though Luhan beat me to it. "I got it. Just sit." His fingers sprayed my bangs unto my eyes. Luhan was already gone and on his way before I could say a thank you and flicked my hair off my face.

"What a gentleman." Junmyeon slow clapped for Luhan.

I smiled sheepishly.

Despite feeling the weight of my phone in my pocket, I hadn't mustered up the willpower to reply to Jongin's text with something that could maybe make him change his mind, though my fingers wouldn't move a muscle whenever I attempted to grab my phone. It buzzed again and I winced. Putting all of my courage to at least see what the text said (perhaps he came to his senses and apologized), I pulled my phone out and read from under the table.

My brows furrowed. Reading the text over and over, I just couldn't decipher what Jongin was talking about. Was there something between the lines I was missing? He was sorry about what? Something told me he wasn’t exactly sorry about trying to force a job on me.

From across me, Kyungsoo pulled out his phone and stared at his screen, reading a text. It must have been something serious because he had stopped chewing and his eyes might have popped out of his skull. Junmyeon, who noticed, leaned toward him and glanced over Kyunsoo's shoulder to see the text.

I swore I saw the two of them glance at me from my peripheral vision. Not bothering to ask Jongin what he meant, I returned my phone in my pocket.

"What are you guys looking at?" Baekhyun curiously joined in the little group to see what Kyungsoo and Junmyeon were suddenly so hostile about. His smile fell as soon as he set his eyes on the screen. "Is that—?" Baekhyun's phone dinged in his pocket, interrupting his sentence. Checking it briefly, he frowned. "I got the same texts."

Chanyeol's phone went off as well. And then Sehun. One by one they were getting some sort of text that created tight tension in the air that I didn't know about. Maybe I was just imagining it or maybe there was some inside joke I wasn't getting because half of them were suddenly looking my way like I had some sort of explanation. I knew the text had involved me in some way. I felt alienated, like they had completely separated me from them.

I forced a smile. "So... What's going on?"

There was a pause as they waited for someone to speak up first. Kyungsoo took the initiative and passed his phone to me. "Is this you?"

My mouth opened to deny it at once, though my voice was abruptly lost from seeing the images that were texted to Kyungsoo. Not just Kyungsoo—to everyone. It had been a text from Jongin. He attached images of the two of us out in restaurants and in clubs. In every one of the photos, we sat a little too close to be called just "friends hanging out." The images had included dates. Dates that fell in the time frame of when Luhan and I were supposedly "engaged." The last photo... Jongin was kissing my cheek.

Jongin had made it looked like I was cheating on Luhan with him.

"Is that why you and that Jongin guy were so friendly?" I heard Yixing ask.

I reluctantly peeled my eyes off the phone and met all their gazes. Silently, I returned Kyungsoo's phone to him. I wondered if I was holding up a poker face as well as I thought.

Yixing wanted answers and he raised his voice a little to avoid getting ignored again. "You and him left during the night to walk at the beach and Luhan... Luhan was worried sick and he had to run out to find you."

I was fiddling with my fingers, feeling like I was stuck in a small room full of people who hated me. Looking to where Luhan was, he was still waiting patiently for an old woman to finish dumping her garbage before he could reach over the dispenser to grab napkins.

"It's not..." It wasn't how it looked like. It was nothing like that. I so badly wanted to explain, but how would I say it without spilling the secret? It was futile to say we were barely even friends because the last photo of Jongin kissing my cheek would have contradicted that.

You made me do it.

Jongin's text to me had suddenly made so much sense. He had done wo