Our Dating Scandal | Seulyong

Chapter 27

"Aren't you going to eat?"

"Hm?" Taeyong looked up at Taeil, snapping out of his thoughts.

Taeil used his fork to point at the plate in front of him. "You haven't touched your food for a while, it's getting cold."

"I'm not that hungry," Taeyong mumbled and picked up a fork, poking at the scrambled eggs before taking a small bite of it. He scrunched his nose at the cold, rubbery texture.

"Is something bothering you?"

With a sigh, Taeyong placed the fork by the plate and leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. He pursed his lips together before nodding at the question.

"There's always something bothering me," he said and rubbed his nape. "And that bothers me even more."

A small sigh escaped Taeil's lips. He sank down in his chair and crossed his arms. He knew exactly what was bothering Taeyong and if no one else was going to address the elephant in the room, he had to do it himself. This had already been going on for months and if it continued for a longer period of time, Taeil swore he would age faster due to the frustration.

"It's about Seulgi and Chungha, isn't it?" he stated.

The silence coming from Taeyong's side was enough for Taeil to know he was right. "Ever since that night she confessed to you you've been acting strange," he said and Taeyong looked up at him with a frown.

"Okay, not strange," Taeil clarified, "but you've been more reserved and I can see that you have a lot on that mind of yours."

Another moment of silence passed and Taeil could see that Taeyong was deep in his thoughts. He thought everything would turn back to normal once Taeyong accepted Seulgi's apology but he stayed the same. And that proved another one of his points.

Taeyong was falling for Seulgi and had just realized it.

"Talk to me, Yong," he practically begged. "You know it's not good if you keep everything to yourself."

"I-" Taeyong cut himself off. He ran his fingers through his hair, pulling it a little to relieve his frustration.

"When she confessed that she liked me," he began and clasped his hands together. "I didn't think about the fact that she liked me."

Silence followed his words but Taeil decided to stay quiet and be patient. He nodded and just continued to listen.

"I was so caught up with our past arguments that I couldn't even process her confession. Then, when I came home and told you everything about it I still hadn't processed it.

It wasn't until when I went to bed that I could, in peace, just rewind our conversation. It wasn't until then, that I realized she told me she liked me.

And at first I was shocked. How could she like me? What could have possibly made her like me in that way?

So I thought about our time together. I even watched the first VLive we did together when I cooked food for her and I also looked up the photos from our photoshoot. I thought, 'there's no way she likes me', because we still hated each other during those times.

But then, I remembered that night during the halloween party and I started to think about all of our times after that night. She was so vulnerable at that time and I felt like I had this responsibility to make her feel better. I tried to do everything I could to help her with almost everything.

At first I thought I only did it because I felt guilty, you know? While she was worried about her group not succeeding and while she got so much hate for just being her, I was making her feel even worse every time we fought.

Then I realized that that was when I started to care about her so much. It wasn't just guilt, but just genuine feelings I think? It's just like you or Jisung or Mark. I care about you guys so much and I would never wish for anything bad to happen to you, and Seulgi became a part of that.

And just when I started caring about her and seeing her as an important person in my life, she ignored me. Ghosted me, for so long. For so long, I wondered if I had done something wrong? Was it wrong of me to just call her my best friend after everything? I mean, I did apologize for my behavior but maybe she found it weird that I just, I don't know, became nice?

She did hate it when I tried to show that I cared about her at first, and maybe when I became too nice and started calling her my best friend, she got weirded out?

That's what I thought, at least. Then she told me she didn't ignore me, but that she didn't see us as friends and therefore didn't feel the need to talk to me. I don't know why, but when she said that I felt so empty.

And then I started to think. Why did and why do I care about her so much? I told myself that it was because I saw her as my best friend. That's why I cared so much about her and that's why it bothered me so much when she ignored me. It's as if you would go around and ignore me.

But now, I'm having second thoughts."

"Second thoughts?" Taeil repeated with a curious expression.

Taeyong took a deep breath. "You know that I haven't talked to Chungha for more than a week right?" he asked and Taeil simply nodded.

Another deep breath. "I don't feel the need to talk to her, and it makes me feel bad," he admitted, causing Taeil to raise his eyebrows and his lips to form an 'O'.

"I feel bad because I was so worried about my friendship with Seulgi when we didn't talk for a long time and now that I haven't talked to Chungha, my girlfriend, for just more than a week," he paused. "I don't feel anything."

"So," Taeil trailed off, pondering on whether he should come with relationship advice or not since the last time he was in a romantic relationship was during his trainee days. "You mean your feelings for Chungha have subsided?"

Taeyong showed a grumpy expression as soon as he heard the word 'subsided'. "I told Chungha multiple times not to be worried about my relationship with Seulgi and that nothing would come between us. And now I'm not even sure if i like Chungha anymore because Seulgi has been on my mind 24/7!"

Taeil widened his eyes at his sudden outburst. He couldn't blame his friend though and still felt empathy for his frustration. If there was a definition for complicated love lives, Taeyong's would have been a perfect example.

"Love's complicated, Yong," he tried to comfort him. "But if you're unsure about your relationship with Chungha and think that you like Seulgi instead, you can't just lead Chungha on and make her look like a fool."

"I know," Taeyong hid his face in his palms. "The fact that they're friends now doesn't help it either."

"Just follow your heart, okay? You've been down for a long time now, it's about time you do something that feels good and right to you. Of course, it won't please everyone, but since when has any choice pleased every single person on this planet? I know you're feeling bad about possibly liking Seulgi now after you told Chungha there was nothing going on between you two. However, it's better to just be honest about it and accept that this is how you feel now."

Taeyong clicked his tongue and rubbed his temples before nodding, knowing what Taeil said was right.