The Moments In-Between - A JeongHyo fanfic

Chapter 66 - Moment of Clarity

Okay. No thoughts. Just talk. Just go to the kitchen, you can hear her voice, go over there and talk. You can do this. As Chaeyoung always reminds us in "Heart Shaker": "Girl, you can do it.".

And so, I will.

Jeongyeon walked towards the kitchen. She could hear Jihyo talking to the group. When she entered, Jihyo was talking to Momo and Chaeyoung. Nayeon, Mina and Sana were sitting around the kitchen table, listening to the conversation.

"I hereby pronounce your engagement over and you may return to being... whatever you two were being." she said, shaking both of their hands with a smile on her face.

Momo and Chaeyoung then looked at each other with frowns on their faces.

"Seriously, Momo, engagement?" Chaeyoung asked.

"What? Like anything went bad last night... We had a fun time."

Chaeyoung just rolled her eyes and went back to the couch to take care of her hangover. Momo sat on the couch next to her and quietly ate her cereal.

Nayeon, Mina and Sana noticed Jeongyeon entering, greeted her with a nod and a smile, after which they went back to eating their breakfast.

Jeongyeon greeted them back with a wave and turned her attention towards Jihyo who had just turned around to face her.

"Hey" Jihyo greeted her formally.

"Hey... Uh, can I talk to you?" Jeongyeon saw from the corner of her eye that Nayeon was barely holding in her reaction to that question.

"Yeah, I needed to talk to you as well."

Oh... That can't be good. Jeongyeon thought. The tone of her voice was very serious.

"Okay... Let's go to my room."

"Actually, I'd prefer if we went to my room." Jihyo replied formally once again.

Jeongyeon again saw Nayeon covering her mouth like she was holding in a gasp. 

Jeongyeon then just nodded at Jihyo's request as the two went towards Jihyo's room so they could talk. The walk towards the room was silent. Awkwardly silent, Jeongyeon would note.

"I just thought we could go to my room in case Momo comes back here." Jeongyeon said.

"Momo will be in the living room, she's tired." Jihyo spoke matter-of-factly.

"Okay... So, what did you want to talk about?" Jeongyeon asked, scared at this point even.

Jihyo then crossed her arms. She looked mad, disappointed even.

"What's wrong?" Jeongyeon then wondered.

"I had this talk with Wendy last night... Well, more of a talk with myself, Wendy just had to listen. I actually feel sorry for her that she had to... But someone had to listen to me, otherwise I would've exploded."

"Okaaay... You could've talked with anyone else in the group, like I said."

"Not the point. I told her that I had troubles with someone. I didn't name you, I couldn't. I explained the entire situation. And before poor Wendy could even make a reply, I interrupted her. Wanna know why? Because I realized - I can't do this anymore either. I can't live with you and I can't live this double life that we're having... I can't... And honestly, you know what bugs me the most?"

"What?"

"The fact that I can't blame you! I want to blame you! I want to blame you for making me feel lonesome when I need my best friend! I want to blame you for not being there when I need you! But I can't! Wanna know why? Because I know that there's nothing to blame you for - you are just handling your emotions the best way you can, by just staying away from me... And so I thought... I thought hard about how to help you. Because, that's who I am Jeongyeon! I look out for people even when they unintentionally hurt me. I look out for people that I care about... And I'm sorry I'm yelling... And I'm sorry that I'm about to cry."