“Bang, bang, they're all cowardly aiming at the back of your head.”

– Warrior, B.A.P

Lu Han glances back and forth at both Jongin and Krystal during dinner. They have not been talking to each other since this evening. The younger female would avoid sitting next to him or eye contact. He wonders if they got into a big fight.

“What’s up with them?” he leans in and whispers quizzically at Yoona.

She appears baffled, either. “I don’t know. You’d better ask Kyungsoo.”

Lu Han nods and does as she told. It is fortunate that the latter sits next to him. “Kyungsoo,” he starts, keeping his voice as hushed as possible, “do you know what happened between Jongin and Krystal?”

“Not really,” he replies, munching the delicious spaghetti meatball. “But you know what, hyung? I saw Krystal slapped Jongin this morning.”

“Krystal slapped Jongin?” Lu Han’s eyes widen in surprise. “Why would she do that to Jongin?”

“No idea.” He shakes his head. “I guess they misunderstood about something. Well… I really don’t know.”

Kyungsoo goes back to devouring the mouth-watering dinner while Lu Han remains clueless of the intense situation.

He would have loved to use his mind-reading ability but he cannot. As usual, he cannot penetrate Krystal’s mind, but in Jongin’s case; he sits two seats away from him so it is undeniably difficult to read what inside his mind.

However, he does not want to meddle in their problem. They should discuss and reconcile by themselves.

“Let’s go surfboarding tomorrow!” Out of the blue, Kyungsoo bursts out elatedly. “I heard they have surfboarding service here!”

“Can you surfboarding, Kyungsoo?” Yoona throws a curious question.

“Of course I can’t!” He chuckles comically and turns his gaze to his best friend. “But I have Jongin to teach me. He’s super good at surfboarding!”

Yoona’s jaw drops. “Really?”

The mentioned guy is taken aback upon his name was mentioned on the spur of the moment. “Correction, I’m not that good. Kyungsoo’s literally exaggerating things.”

His best friend simply sticks his tongue out and looks at Lu Han and Yoona. “Lu Han hyung and Yoona  noona, do you two want to join us surfboarding tomorrow?”

“Not really my thing,” she refuses humbly. She does not really favour extreme sports. She would rather sit and watch them play. It is much more fun.

“Lu Han hyung?”

“Sure thing.” Lu Han’s answer is brisk.

“Then we have three now!” Kyungsoo smiles in excitement. “What about you, Krystal?”

Everyone’s utmost attention is on the reserved Jung girl, causing her to choke on her drink.

“Krystal, are you okay?” Yoona shoots her an apprehensive look.

She draws in her breath frantically before coming up with a not-so convincing answer. “I’m… okay, unnie.”

Much to everyone’s surprise, Krystal hops off the dinner session after saying she is not feeling very well, leaving everyone clueless.

However, Jongin feels the opposite – a rush wave of guilt hits his heart. If he could turn back time, he would not have made the girl loathe him for kissing her without her prior permission.

///

“Kyungsoo.”

“Hmm?”

Jongin presses his lips together into a thin line as he finds himself stuck in the middle of dilemma. He needs Kyungsoo to give him a piece of useful advice, but he afraid he would end up spilling everything that happened between Krystal and him.

Kyungsoo drops the magazine on the bed and eyes the tanned guy inquiringly. “Do you want to say a word to me or what?”

“Sort of.”

“So, what is it?” He turns around, only to face the latter as if he is all ready.

“Uhm, what would you do if you did something horrible to that person on impulse? I mean, you didn’t think much when you did that. So, what would you do to not make that person hate you?”

“Frankly speaking, it’s just as easy as ABC, Jongin,” says Kyungsoo. “You just need to meet that person and tell him or her that you’re deeply sorry. That’s it.”

Jongin scratches his nape. “Do you think she’d forgive me?”

“Well, she would or maybe she would not.” Kyungsoo rolls his eyes. “However, it’s up to him. If she forgives you and that’s the end. If she doesn’t, you have to work harder!”

“Oh,” is all he can mutter. “Thanks. It makes me feel slightly better.”

“What did you do to Krystal, huh?” His friend’s spontaneous inquiry renders him cringe in shock.

“Y-yah,” he blurts out, letting out a chuckle to not make himself look fidgety. “What are you talking about? Why would I do something horrible to her?!”

“It’s just obvious that you were talking about yourself,” he scoffs. “At first, you said on someone’s behalf and that you suddenly changed ‘you’ to ‘me’ and ‘that person’ to ‘her’. You really didn’t sense it, did you?”

His face goes warm upon hearing his best friend’s playful teasing. “Y-yah, it’s not like that!”

“Don’t tell me you kissed her, Jongin!”

It feels like Jongin’s heart is going to burst out of his chest. Kyungsoo is really good at sensing things that people usually don’t.

“Jesus Christ, I didn’t kiss her!” His not-so compelling words could only make Kyungsoo crack up and keep on teasing him.

“Whatever it is, go and apologize to her,” Kyungsoo remarks decisively after he is exhausted teasing him. “People used to say if two persons didn’t reconcile within three days, they can never get back together afterwards.”

“I’m not going to believe you,” he mutters distinctly, keeping his hot-headed demeanor, though he did waver just now to scurry to Krystal’s room. 

“Where are you going?” Jongin rolls his eyes upon seeing Kyungsoo get up from the bed and walk to the door.

The latter pivots and enlightens, “I’m going downstairs for a minute. I suddenly feel kind of stuffy.”

///

“Are you really not feeling well, huh?” Yoona, despite thinking she should not bother Krystal’s privacy, asks her out of worry after they are both in the room. It is not like she has not seen her spacing out today, as if there is something pricking her head. She wonders how Jongin connected to her problem.

“I’m okay, unnie,” she says, feigning a soft smile.

“Did Jongin, by any chance, hurt you?”

Krystal’s face darkens and how their lips pressed against each other’s this morning jolts back to her. She balls her fist as she recalls the kissing scene. How she would love to kick him in the junk for kissing her without her consent.

“Krystal?”

“I swear he didn’t hurt me, unnie. He was just… playing around and I got sulky.” To say ‘Jongin-kissed-me-and-I-slapped-him’ would be cringe-worthy and thus, Krystal opts to make up a lie.

“Oh, I see,” the older female replies, thinking it was the sole reason why Krystal seems a bit off today. “I thought he’d hurt you or kiss you. But thank God, he didn’t. If he really did, I promise you I’m going to slap him in the face. How could he act so impudently to the one who let him spend his summer break here?”

Krystal laughs bitterly, as if agreeing to her words. “If he ever kissed me, I’ll definitely kick him out of the house at once!”

Just on cue Yoona is about to respond, a quite loud knock interrupts their chit-chat and both of them glance at the door.

“H-hey, Krystal. It’s me, Jongin. Can I, uhm, talk to you, for a moment?”

 “I suppose he’s going to apologize,” comments Yoona.

Krystal merely puckers her lips in annoyance, albeit she still rises and makes her way to the door. She does not want him to wait for her outside for too long.

///

“Just cut to the chase,” are the words Krystal speaks right after she barges out of the room. “What do you want to talk about?”

Jongin could not care less about how rude she is since she has the right to do so. If he were in Krystal’s shoes, he would have done the same thing.

“You know,” he gulps, could not bring himself to stare into her eyes, “about the thing this morning, I’m very sorry. I… I didn’t mean to, uhm, kiss you. I hope you will forgive me.”

It only takes three seconds for the girl to respond. “Fine, I’ll forgive you,” she says. “That’s the only thing you want to talk about, right?”

“Yes, that’s it.” However, Jongin seems to not believe her completely. How can she forgive him in such a split second? “You really have forgiven me, Krystal?”

“Yes, I’ve forgiven you,” she deadpans. She is not a kind of person who loves to keep hatred deep in her heart for too long. “Why? You think I was lying about forgiving you?”

“N-no! That’s not what I meant!” Jongin bursts out anxiously. “I… was just… you know, shocked.”

Inwardly, she lets out a chuckle, amused by his cute antics. “I’m going inside if you have nothing to say anymore.”

“That’s all so you can go inside your room now.”

“Good night then,” Krystal says and spins around to walk towards her room.

“Good night,” Jongin remarks, almost like a whisper instead. He watches the latter walk to her room with hesitation. Before he chose to go and apologize to her, he had been meaning to say this, but somehow, it does not seem to come out of his lips right now.

“By the way,” he blurts out, eventually has the courage to say what he had intended.

Krystal turns around, only to look at him questioningly. “Anything else?”

“I know you like Kyungsoo. You’ve said it to me beforehand.”

“So?” She looks confused.

He takes a deep breath. “If you like him, you should be brave to tell him.” Just like what I’m doing now