Taemin's POV

“Let’s go” , I pull her by the arm dragging her to the bathroom.
It’s almost noon and my parents went to Busan for the weekend and we had the whole house to ourselves, When I asked Minji what we should we do, she suggested we go to sleep!

“I don’t want to” she says still half asleep her eyes closed.

I let go of her arm, and stand in front of the bathroom’s exit,

“You’re not going back to sleep Minjj” I say with my hands blocking the door.

“I was in the middle of my sleep” she said scratching her hair, she had on blue pajama pants with a long white tee which came up to her knees.

“It’s almost 3’oclock aren’t you going to eat ... lunch?” I asked

“I’m not hungry” she replied

“Well I am, and I want you to come with me to my favorite place”, I said leaving the bathroom for her to use; she took this opportunity to smash the door in my face.

“I’m giving you 10 minutes to meet me downstairs” I yell

“Shut up” she says making me laugh,

-

-
“Check” I say once I examine her clothes,

“Who said I wore this because of you” she said giving me her infamous mean mug.

“Purple looks good on you” I said

“But don’t you think it’s still a dull a color” I add

“Don’t push your luck mister” she said pouring her self orange juice.

I quickly put my hands to my mouth, and pretended to lock my lips with an invisible key.

She chuckled and I put my dishes in the sink.

“Let’s go, were going to be late” I said

We got into the car and I put on the radio, and Minji came in the car, and we drove off to my favorite little café.

“What’s so special about this place anyway” she asked

“I’ve been going their ever since I was little, before we moved at least, well they make the best brownies and have ever flavor of ice-cream”

She nodded

“They also were famous for their freshly made orange juice”

She grinned,

*I thought you might like that*

Once we arrived after almost an hour of driving, I noticed they haven’t changed a thing, they still had the seats outside, I remember me and my hyungs sitting their all sharing one large ice-cream.

“Let’s go” I grab her hands and we enter the store,

“Welcome” we hear from the front counter.

“Hello” I say finding me and Minji a seat near the front.

I sit down and look through their menu and smile at the new additions of the already long list of Ice-cream flavors.

“What would you like to orde-“

“Mingkki?”

I look up and see our waiter looking at Minji with huge eyes; I looked at Minji and see her also doing the same.

“Is that you Mingkki??” he repeats himself this time with a huge smile plastered on his face.

“Op-pa” she says her voice shaking immediately getting up from her seat.

I eye the two, who was she calling Oppa? She only called me Oppa once after I begged.

I clear my throat seeing if this could get their attention

Fail ..

“Where have you been, Oh my gosh” he says giving her a hug

She just stands there, still dazed, her hands at her sides.

Once he let go, he then noticed someone was sitting there,

“Oh, who is this?” he says looking from me to her

“Hi, I’m Taemin” I say putting out my hand

“Hey kiddo, Names Minhyuk, Just call me B-bomb” he says getting a tight grip on my hand ..

Ouch

I smile,

“How do you know my mingkki” he says

*Wait what, Yours*

“Were good friend, best friends actually”

He nods,

“Good to know you’ve been good, Last time I seen you was at the fight at fourth block” he says starching the back of his neck.

For the first she speaks up,

“Good to know you remember” she says in a lower tone

“I know you must be mad at me, but it’s been so long ago, can’t we forget and forgive” he says trying to get her to face him,

“You know what” she says facing me, “Let’s leave”.

She gets up and pushed him out of her way, and I quickly follow her out.

She starts to walk away, from the direction of our car.
“Minjj, the car’s this way”

She doesn’t seem to hear me but keeps on walking, I try to get her attention but nothing works. I look back at the car, and quickly deicide to just follow her instead. Who knew what Minji could do once she became mad?

It’s been over 10 minutes, and were now somewhere which I don’t recognize anymore, we passed all the pretty stores and now all I see are small badly built apartments, and dirty streets.

Minji stops at this warehouse, and just stands there.

I walk up to her side and stand there with her, silently.
“2 years” she says

“Huh?” I ask

“It’s been 2 years since I’ve seen Minhyuk oppa” she sighs and sits down on the dirty floor,

I look at the floor, and back at my clothes and take off my sweater and place it on the floor before sitting.

“Is he someone special?” I ask

“You know I’ve been living alone without my parents since I’ve been 13, I never needed anyone”

“I wasn’t making things work, I starved for a few days and I felt like dying sometimes”
I held in my breathe.

“The day I turned 14, I forgot it was my birthday and went to that park late at night” she pointed to the park on the next block

“I sat on the swings and cried, I did that ever year for my birthday, that was the only day I allowed my self to let all my feelings out”

“I was getting a year older, and I wanted to cry about everything bad that happened that year and forget about them and to start fresh each year” she slightly grinned.

I was still looking at her

“But that’s when he came, he saw me crying and I knew I saw him around the neighborhood”

“He was known, by everyone young or old, he was the guy every middle school girl, even some high school girls wanted”

“But after that night, he would always come find me at school, and buy me sweets and – and he was always there”

“Was he the guy we just met” I asked

“No, that was his friend” she said putting her head lower

“His name was Woo JiHo”

“What fight was he talking about Minjj?” I ask

She takes a deep breathe and looks up at the sky,

This was the first time I’ve seen Minji like this, for the 3 months that I’ve now known her she has never once talked to me about her past, I always wondered, but she never opened up to me.

“When I was 16, one day I decided to skip school because people kept telling me that JiHo oppa was in trouble, even the girls who hated me would come up to me and give me information”

“Me and JiHo were never official, but he was flirting and everyone he had a thing for me, and me like wise”

“That day I ran out of school with his best friend; Minhyuk oppa, we went came to this warehouse” she said pointing the building in front of us.

“Once we came in, I saw JiHo oppa tied up in the middle, bleeding everywhere”

“I ran up to him already crying and tried waking him up”

“He opened his eyes, and smiled. His smile was what I lived off for all those years”

“He said a few things, and then we heard some people behind us, they came in laughing”

“They were saying stuff about how, JiHo didn’t do his end of the deal, I couldn’t understand a thing until one of them men told me”

She stopped for a moment,
.
.
“He told me how JiHo oppa was supposed pay off debts, how he never been the oppa I imagined him to be, how he stole money from my workplace when he would visit”

“He kept telling me things about us, only I and JiHo knew”
“Then he said how he was supposed to steal again from the gas station I worked at and blame me”

“But he didn’t, he couldn’t, the guy kept saying it was because of love and how he didn’t want me in trouble”

“But I couldn’t even hear the last parts, my mind just replayed how he was never true to me, how he was using me?” her voice now cracked, I was taken back.

“There I was, finally seeing the light in life, and then someone had to leave me again, I didn’t want to hear his last plea, about how he stopped, and he wanted to tell me but got scared”

I could see tears dropping from her eyes,

“What love? Bull, He just used me and left like my mom left me and my dad, like my dad died of cancer and we couldn’t pay it off because were poor”

“I felt like at the time killing him, and not wanting to see him or anyone at that moment”

“That last thing I remember from that night was how JiHo oppa kept saying sorry and that he would rather die then hurt me ever again”

She was now crying, she could barely finish her last sentence, I quickly went closer and put her head to my chest and pulled her hair back and let her cry it out.

I let her sit there and cry her eyes out.

She has been holding all this in her chest for over 2 years,

Why was my chest hurting?

Why did I feel like crying?

Why am I the one in pain now?

“Don’t cry Minjj, Don’t cry” I said patting her back slowly trying to keep my tears from falling.

Here I was, with my so called best friend, and I just found out about half her life and I have nothing else to say then don’t cry. .

I tried shifting my position but she must have thought I was getting up, she quickly held on to me tighter

“Don’t, please” she said in between her tears

I grabbed her shoulders and squeezed them,

“I’m not going anywhere, I promise”.