Twins || Hwang Hyunjin

[40]

"Earth to Chae, do you even hear me?" I heard Emma ask. I looked up from the screen of my phone to where she was standing, right in front of me. The music was still blasting in my ears, but I paused the video and took out the earbuds.

"Huh?" I wondered what it was she wanted. Emma was my roommate after I moved to LA. Funny girl and I had her to thank for my improvements in the English language.

"You've been watching the same video over and over again for an hour now, what's so special about it?" She asked and sat down next to me on the sofa.

"It's my brother," I told her. "He and his group just had a comeback"

"Right, he's a kpop artist," she said as she remembered. "Which one of them?" She then asked as she saw all of the members.

I glared at her for a second. "Seriously?" I asked her. If she couldn't recognize who it was I didn't know if I could even call her a friend.

"Him?" She asked and pointed at Jeongin. Good for her that she picked right.

"Yeah," I said and looked at her with disbelief.

"He looks exactly like a male version of you," she said with a laugh.

"I know," I said and rolled my eyes.

"He's really cute, but I would definitely pick him if I was to chose," she said and pointed at Hyunjin.

I felt a sting of pain in my chest. Almost a year later, I thought I was over him, but maybe not completely. "That's Hyunjin," I said and forced a smile.

"What's wrong?" Emma asked as she saw how I clearly reacted weirdly when he was mentioned.

"Nothing, he's handsome" I agreed with her and started the video again after putting one of my air buds into her ear so she could hear as well.

"It's good," she said when we'd come halfway through the song. "What's it called?"

"On track" I answered her. "It's a mixtape"

"Woah, Hyunjin really is super handsome," she said and stared at the boy.

I couldn't help but wonder if he was the reason I kept playing the video over and over again. A part of me wanted to be the girl in the video. I once was, but that was long ago.

I didn't say anything, which wasn't very much like me, and Emma noticed that.

"There it is again, you seem off," she said and inspected me.

"What? no, I'm just watching the video" I tried saying, but she wouldn't listen.

She didn't believe me, that's for sure. She inspected me for a moment before looking back down on the screen again. "So have you ever met them? All of them and not just your brother" she asked me.

"Yeah" I answered shortly.

She looked at me with great interest. "Really? What were they like?"

"Uhm, nice, they're all really nice," I said with a smile as I thought of what it was like living with them. I really did like living with them. "But they all loved teasing me" I added.

"Wait you knew them, like, you were friends?" She asked and seemed even more interested now. Almost a bit amazed.

"Yeah," I said and shrugged.

"How often did you meet them?" She asked as she couldn't believe I knew them that well.

"Ehm..." I hesitated. "I lived with them," I said after a few seconds.

Her jaw dropped as she was staring at me and her eyes grew wider. "You lived with them?" She repeated my words.

"Yeah, they all share an apartment, and I used to live there as well" I explained to her.