Infinite – Back

The trio of silhouette MPVs met a halt in front of a towering building of H Bowling Centre. Blinded with the rays of sun, a huge bowling pin stood steadily on the ground, glued to the pastel white building beside. A range of quick chatter, which escaped from Ji Ae’s lips, abruptly stopped as she furiously hopped off the car, leaving both Sulli and Se Kyung to exchanged questioning look. Both of them, however, eventually stepped out of the appreciable car in silence, puzzled with Ji Ae’s act just now.

As Sulli was making sure that her car had been locked securely, Se Kyung spun around, and accidentally collided her gaze with Xiu Min’s dark brown orbs, which was full of plead and apology. Her mind recalled the memories of Ji Ae and Xiu Min who flirted before—and compared it with his sincere eyes now. As hard as Se Kyung wanted to deny the urge to forgive Xiu Min with their strong eye-contact, she still couldn’t push away the soft spot which she had grown used to, for Xiu Min from the beginning of their tale.

On the other hand, Xiu Min was holding an urge to rush forward and capture Se Kyung’s lips right in front of everyone. But knowing his state which barely was forgiven by Se Kyung for not noticing her misunderstand from earlier, Xiu Min chose to stand still, and stared longingly towards his girl. Just when his feet automatically shifted forward to lead his soul towards Se Kyung, a harsh grip s around his arm as he tore his gaze away from Se Kyung in irritation. A displease sight of Ji Ae registered in his mind, thus bringing a frown on his forehead. “What else do you want from me?” Hissing, Xiu Min asked with furrowed eyebrows.

Remained unwavering from Xiu Min’s dangerous whisper, Ji Ae pulled up a faux smile as she gazed up towards his smooth face. “Let’s walk together.” Her answer, however, sounded more like a demand instead of a statement. Ji Ae constantly tugged at his arm, and eventually pulled him away, not even giving a chance at Xiu Min to even leave Se Kyung a glance.

The scene of Se Kyung stared hopelessly towards Xiu Min, followed by an act of Ji Ae who dragged Xiu Min away from his girlfriend, was giving everyone an idea of the screenplay that was happening between those three human beings. Key watched Se Kyung in pity mixed with frustration over her lack of response for Ji Ae’s behaviour. An urge to command her to slap her sister (Ji Ae) across the face was growing like a fire inside of him. Perhaps it wasn’t the right time yet. Perhaps, he would have a chance to personally talk to Se Kyung about this—she was still young in love, after all.

Sulli walked in careful steps toward Se Kyung, as if a single harsh step could break the girl into pieces. Her small hand found its way onto Se Kyung’s shoulder as she patted her softly, sending her a small smile. “You’re okay?” Barely audible, Sulli asked in concern.

The other woman only nodded weakly, as she responded to Sulli a blank smile. Se Kyung threw her gaze downward, before all of them begun to make a move towards the bowling centre – upon seeing that both Xiu Min and Ji Ae was nearing the main door, ditching the others behind.

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“No!!!! I want to be in Se Kyung’s team!” Tae Min’s wail echoed throughout the whole bowling centre as he struggled free from Min Ho’s and Chen’s grip on both of his arms. The maknae wiggled his body, which begun to be developed with muscles, insistently.

Can’t help himself but to chuckle at the younger man’s childish behaviour, Key face-palmed himself as he spoke in between his laughter, “All right, all right. Just let him go, guys. He will be in my team with Se Kyung.” Defeated with the amount of insistent which Tae Min gave to everyone–thus embarrassed all of them with his childish wail–Key finally gave up and open a small space for the man to enjoy their team.

Joyfully skipped towards the opposite team with a bright smile plastered on his face, Tae Min didn’t waste any seconds as he quickly hugged Se Kyung’s arm in a playful manner of his. It wasn’t that Tae Min hated being with the other team, only that he barely spend time with Se Kyung nowadays–to see that EXO M was already there for her–when her old friends were always busy with their life that needed some catching up to do, in order to lead to the ladder of success.

The whole group of friends were divided by two; with an extra member in another group as their number was odd. 7 people were in a group, which consisted Sulli as the leader, followed by Ji Ae, Xiu Min, Lay, Min Ho, Jong Hyun, and Tao. Whist the other group had Se Kyung as the leader, followed by the members – Key, Luhan, Tae Min, Kris, and Chen.

Knowing the fact that all of them weren’t as good in bowling with their rusty skills–due to the amount of years that had taken away their incredible skills in bowling–Jong Hyun shoved Sulli forward, and spoke, “The leaders have to go first! You have to show us your amazing skills as a leader of the team!”

Lightly pouting, Sulli sent Jong Hyun a glare as she half-heartedly walked towards the bowling ball and unskilfully lifted it up. “I’m going to make a strike!” With a sudden enthusiasm, Sulli chirped with a small, careful hop.

Seeing the ball in his girlfriend’s grip about to fall, Min Ho gasped a tad too loudly and shifted forward, as if to catch his own imagination of the falling ball. The others, who was watching the scene, laughed lowly with an intention to embarrassed Min Ho, who was now rubbing the back of his neck while looked away.

Genuinely grinning, Sulli exclaimed sweet words toward her beloved boyfriend, like, “it’s okay, oppa!” and “you’ll always be my hero, Min Ho oppa! Don’t be embarrassed”, before she eventually slide the ball towards the pins. Unfortunate for Sulli, the ball instantly lose its target and fell into the end of the lane, not hitting any single pins at all.

A fit of laughter filled the centre as they mocked Sulli’s result for not scoring when she was enthusiastic about it earlier. However, they secretly were glad (relieved, even) that Sulli literally failed to make any success in hitting any pins.

A thin curl of smile made it way up to Se Kyung’s lips as she watched the grinning Xiu Min. However, it was soon faded when they chanted for Se Kyung to go after, since she was the team leader after all. Accompanied by tense, the woman made a move as she picked up a bowling ball and rolled it down the slippery lane – but due to her feet which happened to be more forward on the lane, Se Kyung tripped over and helplessly slid away slightly – before a strong hand grabbed hers.

Sweats rolled down Xiu Min’s porcelain skin when he saw the incident. His legs were about to rushed forward, when a sight of Luhan, who without a doubt sprang from the chairs and let himself to fell forward on purpose to catch a hold of Se Kyung’s wrist, flashed clearly in his eyes. Startle met Xiu Min as he motionlessly watched Se Kyung, who got tonnes of helps from the others, who eventually rushed to help both Luhan and Se Kyung, from getting more hurt than they already were. With an absent mind, Xiu Min threw his gaze away, and saw that the ball didn’t manage to hit any pins. Secretly, he cursed the ball for causing those troubles.

“Are you okay?!” Luhan flinched lightly, trying hard to get up with the hands which were pulling him up from the polished wooden floor. He swore that his heart almost drop when a sight of Se Kyung slipped over the lane along with the ball registered in his mind.

Still surprised from the abrupt incident, Se Kyung let the others to pull her up to her shaky legs before she nodded weakly, “Y-yes, I’m okay.” She could felt that her body was trembling, as Sulli carefully walked her back to the neon chairs.

A sudden burst of laugh caught all attention from Se Kyung. Ji Ae awkwardly covered , as if it was normal to laugh over a newly-happened incident. “Are you okay, Se Kyung?” Between her sinister giggle, Ji Ae asked before she shifted closer towards the younger girl.

However, even before she could take another step to approach the poor woman, Xiu Min stretched out an arm in front of Ji Ae with a death stare. “I need to talk to you.” A dark vibe lingered around him, causing everyone to halt their movement to watch the scene.

Letting out a sarcastic chuckle, Ji Ae responded, “What else do you want to talk about? Wasn’t the talk earlier enough?” She let a smile to outstretch her lips, and just before Xiu Min could retort, the woman grabbed his arm and dragged him towards the front of the lane. “Now let’s cut the talk, shall we? I want to play this too, but apparently I didn’t know how to. Could you please teach me?” With a failed aegyo, she asked.

Gritting his teeth in annoyance, Xiu Min only stood still and threw that woman in front of him daggers by his sharp eyes. Due to his disobey, Ji Ae, without any hesitation, pulled his hand and placed it on the top of hers, as she was gripping on the bowling ball. She spun around, ready to smoothly slide the ball onto the lane accompanied by her ideal man behind–when Xiu Min yanked his hand away, thus stopped her movement. “How dangerous was that? I could’ve been thrown into the pit if I lose the control over this ball!”

Se Kyung wildly watched the act of both Ji Ae and Xiu Min in pain as she still tried to calm herself down from the side effect of losing her balance. Beside her, Luhan was rubbing her back soothingly, helping her to steady her own breathe. However, Se Kyung clearly knew that an exact reason for why she wasn’t able to control her breath was not because of the shocked feeling—instead, it was because of Ji Ae’s (or so Min Yun, who she thought was her sister) clingy behaviour towards Xiu Min. The scornful laugh from Ji Ae earlier still ringing in her eardrums anyway, which directly made Se Kyung hard to forgive her own sister right then.

A small groan escaped Xiu Min’s lips as he stared deathly towards the woman in front of him. “That is how my girlfriend felt like when she fell. And how could you just laughed at her like that?!” His tone, however, was not as furious since Xiu Min was still aware of their whereabouts.

Letting out a sigh, Key wondered his gaze around and observed the realisation in the others’ eyes of the triangle love. He knew that they were late at noticing it, but somehow, Key hoped that he was one of them too—as he was trying hard to not to get into the middle of their relationship problem. The scene now, however, was beginning to tire Key as he gazed to the left, and saw the crestfallen reaction of Se Kyung, who eventually was calmed from the earlier incident. Not wanting the girl to hurt her ears by listening to Ji Ae’s whine, Key stood up and pulled Se Kyung along with him, leaving the others in question behind.

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“Oppa, where are you taking me?” Trying to catch up with Key’s large steps, Se Kyung occasionally stumbled lightly forward as Key’s grip around her wrist was firm, as if she would run away if he let her go.

The man, however, wouldn’t answer her as he kept rushing forward, which eventually shut Se Kyung’s question – knowing the fact that Key wanted to have a private conversation with her. It had two meanings; whether if she will be scolded for her careless act just now, or if Key just wanted to praise her for something that she didn’t know. Silently, Se Kyung wished that it will be the latter, although she knew that the answer will be the former.

A few minutes passed by as Key finally let go of the grip after he pulled Se Kyung at the corner. He sighed, averted his gaze downwards, before he stared up straight into her curious orbs. “Kyungie. Listen to me carefully and think wiser.” Begun with a stern tone, Key continued as Se Kyung nodded in an understanding way, “It is clear to everyone’s eyes now that you are hurting with Min Yun noona’s behaviour. Even in Xiu Min hyung’s eyes, he knew.” He took a reasonable pause to observed Se Kyung’s reaction, who seemed to be taken aback, “And I could tell that hyung wanted to be with you, but Min Yun always was in the way. So because of that, he was forced to stay away from you. But now, it is not the time for you to step back and give a space to your sister—because even though she is your sister, you couldn’t just act like everything’s fine. And honestly, I hate listening to your ‘I’m okay’ when you knew it yourself that you aren’t.”

Se Kyung lowered her head in shame, finally realising that she was terrible in acting. With a constant fidget with her fingers, she continued to listen, “So I’ll get this straight; it’s either you to be stronger and keep that hurtful feelings, or for you to go straight to Min Yun noona and shout her at the face.” She snapped her head up at the second choice that Key had just given her. Her orbs, which begun to be clouded with a thin layer of tears, searched for his seriousness–as if to find any joke in his sentences.

“You have to decide one, Se Kyung. And if I was you, I would prefer the second choice.” Without a moment of hesitation, Key stated as both of them stared intently towards each other. Deep inside, he knew that Se Kyung was feared with the tone of seriousness that he used to talk to her now—when Key hardly speak to Se Kyung like that—unless if something, which extremely critical happened. And he had to admit, it actually had been a long time ever since he got involved into advising someone who was stuck in her own feelings.

The young woman in front of him, however, remained silent with pursed lips. As a guy with tonnes of life experiences like Key—he could tell that Se Kyung was thinking about her decision in her mind, it will be a lie if she wasn’t. Nonetheless, Key hoped for a solid answer from the girl, as he tilted his head slightly aside to gesture her for an answer. But she remained the same; silence and still.

On the other hand, Se Kyung was trying hard to think wisely, shoved away the child and her selfless-self which she always owned. She knew that the hidden meaning behind Key’s choices were actually between choosing the selfless way (which she always did), or to walk to a new path of the selfish way. A thought of Min Yun, however, made her to think furtherer—when did Min Yun started to become extremely clingy towards a guy who she barely knew? As far as Se Kyung remembered, Min Yun was a woman who liked to isolate herself, and hated to contact with people. It wasn’t that she was cold, though. Only that, Min Yun was exceptionally difficult to approach–in an easy word–she wasn’t as friendly as Se Kyung was. And after 5 and a half years, the younger sister never expected for Min Yun to changed so much like that, which only caused her to hurt more, as Se Kyung wasn’t able to express her longing for her older sister even after she returned. Or did she really?

A sigh escaped Key’s lips when Se Kyung decided to choose the third choice – that was to zip shut and stayed motionless in front of Key. He even could swear that Se Kyung didn’t even blink when both of them were just staring at each other for the past few minutes. Giving up, Key eventually took her wrist into his grip to walk back to the centre—and they were doing fine by walking in peace—when he heard a sharp, painful gasp from Se Kyung. In curiosity, Key spun around and saw the shocked Se Kyung. He trailed his gaze towards the spot where Se Kyung was staring at, and widened his eyes in disbelief.

A few feet away from them, stood Xiu Min and Min Yun, hugging each other ever so tightly. To make it worse, both of them were embracing in an isolated, hidden, and dark place—a perfect place for romance.

Having enough of everything which happened in a day when they were supposed to be having fun, Se Kyung shifted closer and stood firmly in front of Xiu Min, facing Min Yun’s back. Perhaps it was the time for her to change as well. And just then, the male finally noticed her presence and pulled away from the tight hug. His eyes widened, his body trembled, and cold sweats rolled down his porcelain skin. Xiu Min reached his hand forward to grab for her arm, but unfortunate for him, Se Kyung moved faster. She eventually stepped back, flashed Min Yun a weak smirk, before she away in pain.

Perhaps the old childish Se Kyung had gone by now. But there was one thing different. Secretly, Se Kyung planned to walked away in a far spot from there—where she could finally have a private talk with Xiu Min. Just the two of them. Everything that Key had said to her was true after all – and she needed to act fast before her soft spot took over her heart once again.