Jihye's POV:

I was sprinting back to my apartment, covering my face with my hands. My life had ended a few minutes ago, and I knew exactly who was responsible.

Hyerin.

I had ended the call right after Jungkook's bold proclamation, after which I had hidden in the bathroom until he left. Over the course of the two hours that I spent in there, I thought about moving to Mars and opening a little cafe up there. I would call it 'Running away from your life back home: Coffee and dessert out of this world".

I wonder if the real estate is cheap up there.

I reached a tiny building on top of a little noodle shop, which was where Hyerin and I lived. The entrance was through the alleyway next to the shop, which was a little shady, but the location was pretty cute. The rent was pretty cheap, so I didn't really care. 

My phone kept beeping with messages from Jungkook.

"wAIT DO U REALLY LIKE ME"

"iM DYING hoLY "

"AHAHA"

"who would've thought saint Jihye would be this unholy uhuhuhuhuhu"

I audibly growled as I trooped up the stairs, muffling my phone by squeezing the speakers with my fingers. The volume button was broken, and so I couldn't turn off the annoying beeping of his texts.

I knocked on the door, getting impatient when Hyerin didn't respond. I stood outside for about ten minutes before I realized that I had the keys too, so I opened the door and stepped in, looking to get some comfort from my best friend. 

Unfortunately, she was preoccupied with making out with Junghyun on the couch.

I gagged and knocked my knee on our shoe rack, before falling face-first onto the cold tile floor. I heard them panic and run over to me, but I didn't make any effort to show signs of life. I was too done with the world at this point.

"Jihye, holy , are you ok?" Junghyun patted my back.

"Splendid." I replied sarcastically. "I love having my face smooshed into the floor."

"We didn't notice you come in." Hyerin cleared .

"I figured." I turned over, sighing. "You were too busy trying to eat Junghyun's face off, you tubbo."

Before I could realize what was happening, she grabbed at my belly fat and twisted it.

"Don't you dare call me tubbo when you're overflowing with fat." She hissed. "Fatty."

"Fart-face." I retaliated.

"Uneven eyebrows." She spat.

I lunged at her ferociously, but thankfully Junghyun stepped in before we could kill each other.

"Ladies, please." He said coolly. "This is not how friends interact."

"Junghyun, if you don't get out of my ing way, I swear to god I will make sure that you never have children." My voice went dangerously low. 

He whimpered and hid behind Hyerin, who patted him soothingly. 

"Why the hell are you so touchy?" She asked me, half-amused and half-angry.

"You told Jungkook, didn't you?" I shook my finger at her. 

"What?" She looked confused. "Told him what?"

I practically shoved my phone in her face, showing her the dozens of messages flooding my inbox. "All that effort and suffering I went through, all gone to waste."

"Damn." She gave a half-chuckle. "I didn't think he'd actually do something about it."

"Oh my god." I whispered, slinking down into the floor again. "You have betrayed me."

"I wasn't-"

"You're no better than Scar!" I cried, flailing my arms. "He betrayed Mufasa, and you have done the same to me!"

"Is she drunk?" Junghyun asked her, peeking at me from behind her.

"No, she starts comparing her life to Lion King whenever she's upset." She shook her head, picking me up by my arms. I buried my face in her neck and started ranting about how happy I was that Simba killed her.

"Go pick up your friend, babe." She nudged Junghyun. "I'll handle her."

He kissed her cheek and ruffled my hair, and I promptly hissed in reply. Hyerin chuckled and took me to the kitchen, and made me sit on the dining chair.

"Traitor." I folded my arms in a huff. She simply smiled.

"Jihye, it's ok." She laughed. "It's not that big a deal."

"Not to you, it isn't." I blew my bangs, now regrown, out of my face. "It wasn't your place to tell him."

"Look, we could argue about this for hours." She straightened up, her expression becoming more serious. "But tell me honestly, what's the worst that could happen? He says that he doesn't feel the same way?"

"It can cost us our friendship." I groaned.

"How can it cost you something you have already destroyed?" She asked me. "You haven't talked to him in months, you haven't seen him in months. That's not friendship."

I grumbled and looked away. "I don't even know how he knew I was in the park. I mean-"

Hyerin looked at me sheepishly.

"Oh my god, you're kidding me." I hid my face in my hands. She laughed and pulled my hands away from my face, holding them in hers.

"He was really happy when I told him, Jihye." She said softly. "You really do mean a lot to him. Did he try to look for you during the concert?"

"Yeah..." I mumbled, swinging my legs back and forth. "I don't know. Maybe he was looking for Alice or something."

She sighed and flicked my forehead. 

"Don't do that." I swatted her hand away. 

"You're going to have to talk to him eventually." 

"Whatever." I looked away. "Can we talk about something else, please?"

"Fine." She sighed. "You wanna help me make pasta?"

"We're having pasta for dinner?" I said, getting up and putting my tattered apron on. "What's the occasion?"

"A friend is coming over tonight." She took out a large pot and placed it on the stove. "You know how to make marinara sauce, right?"

"Uh, no, but I'll look it up." I sauntered over to the counter and took out my mom's cookbook. I had barely used it, mostly because she had written "A woman should know how to cook" on the front page.

"Thanks." She tied her hair up. "I'll clean up the house."

I nodded and set to work on the sauce. I wasn't a bad cook, but some dishes of mine always tasted horrible. Pasta was one of them.

Good luck to whoever eats this, I guess.

I was still laboring over the sauce over an hour later. Hyerin was done cleaning the house, but for some reason, she insisted on cleaning it once again. That meant that the entire preparation was up to me.

I heard the front door open and close, and I heard laughter coming from the living room. 

", they're here." I cursed, looking at my outfit. I was still wearing Jungkook's sweater with old shorts and an apron that had the stains of my grandma's thanksgiving turkey disaster plastered on the front. 

Great first impression, Jihye.

I picked up the pot of sauce, and carried it over to the pan of boiled pasta. However, my nose decided that this was the perfect moment for it to start tickling.

I had to sneeze this instant, but if I did, I would spill the sauce all over the floor. So I just my breath in and held it, trying to suffocate my sneeze. 

"Need any help?" I heard Junghyun's voice behind me.

"Oh god, yes." I squeaked, turning around.

My ears had failed me, however. Because Jungkook was standing in front of me.

Time almost seemed to slow down as I let go of my breath in surprise, which was really unfortunate for Jungkook. In the horror-filled moments that followed, I sneezed right on his face, dumping the boiling-hot marinara sauce onto his white shirt in the process. He screeched and stumbled back towards the dining table, accidentally whacking a knife that was kept on it. Thankfully, I caught it before it could fall on his toes and slice his pinky off.

Hearing the sudden commotion, Hyerin and Junghyun stumbled in, eyes widening due to the scene in front of them.

"Jihye, what-" Hyerin started to say, but was cut short by Junghyun's murderous cry.

"DID YOU JUST STAB MY BROTHER?" He screamed, pointing to the knife in my hands, which was conveniently aiming right for the huge red stain on Jungkook's shirt.

"It's just sauce, it's just sauce." She said hurriedly, trying to calm him down. "Right?" She looked at me.

"Of course it is!" I cried, still clutching the knife in my hands."Why the would I stab him!?"

"Yeah, she can't stab me." Jungkook laughed nervously. "She likes me, so-"

"Don't you ing start." Hyerin yelled at him. "She's still holding a ing knife, you idiot."

"Everyone, calm down." I exhaled, dropping the knife. Junghyun swiftly picked it up and hurled it outside the window. Hyerin punched his arm.

"That was my grandmother's knife, you son of a- "

"Will all of you shut your ing mouths?!" I growled. They stared at me in shock. 

"Junghyun, I sneezed and spilled the sauce on your brother." I explained. "I didn't stab him, even though he totally deserves it."

"Well, now, that's just rude-" Jungkook started to speak again, but Hyerin took off her shoe and threw it at him.

"Stop abusing him!" Junghyun smacked the shoe away before it could hit its target. "Kookie, come on, let's get you something else to wear."

"Nice seeing you again, Jihye." He grinned, before being dragged away by his older brother. 

"What the is he doing here?" I hissed at Hyerin, mopping the sauce from the floor.

"He had a break, and he was getting bored, so I told him to come over." She muttered. "Plus, they haven't seen each other since Junghyun's enlistment got over."

"Hyerin, you're killing me." I groaned.

"I didn't know the entire 'I know you like me' thing was going to take place, ok?" She held her hands up. "I just thought that I would call him over, you would tell him how great the concert was, and then..."

"And then?" I asked her, folding my arms.

"You guys would kiss and get married and have cute babies that my kids would be best friends with or something, I don't know" She mumbled hurriedly. "And our kids would wear matching outfits and-"

"What the actual are you on, woman?" I gasped, staring at her in shock.

"I can dream!" She screeched. 

"You're still in college!" 

"Your face is a college!" She spat. Hyerin had never been very good at comebacks.

Junghyun walked in right before she went into psycho mode and started yelling "So is your face!" to everything I said. He picked her up bridal-style style, muttered a quick apology to me and left the apartment, saying that he was taking her to get some food.

"This isn't over!" I heard her yell from outside. 

I sighed heavily and went back to cleaning the floor, which looked like the scene of a bloody murder. Footsteps made their way to the kitchen doorway, and I could feel Jungkook staring at me, but I ignored him.

"I'm sorry."

I continued mopping.

"I was maybe acting a little, just a teensy bit immature."

"Really? You think so?" I replied sarcastically.

"Stop being condescending." He folded his arms. "You should be apologizing too. I mean, who sneezes and spills a boiling hot cauldron of marinara sauce on someone, and then mocks them?"

"Fine." I rolled my eyes. "I'm sorry, or whatever."

He didn't say anything after that. It was weird, but I could sense him smiling.

"So, you like m-"

"How's Alice doing?" I interrupted him. He gave me a weird look.

"Um, fine, I guess." He shrugged. "I wouldn't really know."

"Why?" I looked up at him. "She's your girlfriend, why wouldn't you know?"

"We broke up." He exhaled. 

"What?" I sputtered. "Why would you do that?"

"Uhhh..." He gave me a weird look. "We were just really busy in our own lives. We decided it was better to end on good terms, than to wait for things to get crappy."

"But why would you..." I blinked. "Alice is like perfect and beautiful and charming and perfect and she's got amazing hair and she can cook and si-"

"Yeah, Jihye, I get it." He stopped me.

"I don't think you do." I whispered, shaking my head. "Like have you seen her face without make-up? Her no make-up face still looks like she's wearing make-up, that's how good her face is."

"I don't care about that." He chuckled. "I don't like her anymore."

I stared at the floor, unable to speak. He walked up to me and took the mop away from my hand.

"Do you like me?" He asked me again. I nodded hesitantly.

"Um, well, I know this really great ramen shop." He grinned. "And you still owe me that ramen."

"Right." I coughed. 

"But maybe I could pay for it instead, and we could walk back home at night together. Maybe we could do that, like, a hundred times."

"As friends." I cleared my throat.

"As friends that hold each other's hands." He put his hands in his pockets. "As friends that hug each other. And kiss each other. Friends who are so comfortable with each other, that if they are cuddling and one of them farts, the other one compliments the fart."

"I don't..." I shook my head. "I don't really understand why you would want to compliment a fart...I don't think friends do that..."

"Oh for 's sake, Jihye. I like you too."

I sneezed on his face again.

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I feel really really bad for not updating sooner you guys are awesome and I love you omfg I'm so sorry ;-;