Gold | Park Sunghoon

28

"Are you mad at me?"

"Not going to lie, I was annoyed a little bit," she said nonchalantly. "But to be honest, I think I should be thanking you instead."

Sunoo could not believe his ears. If he were Jangmi, he would be ignoring himself the whole day. He would definitely not be thanking himself. In fact, he felt guilty for having to indirectly force his best friend to come clean to her older brother.

As if she read his mind, Jangmi laughed. "Just think of it as one less thing to worry about. So, thank you," she smiled at him, sending him a small wave of relief once more. The guilt wasn't completely gone, but it had become more bearable now.

"What if I buy you the strawberry almonds from the convenience store later? My treat!"

"You're already forgiven, Sunoo! No need to buy me food."

Sure, the wrong message was one of the reasons why he offered to buy one of her favorite snacks, but that wasn't completely the case. He also offered it as a way to ease his best friend's nervousness due to the letter. "I will still buy it for you anyways. You need all the help you can get to help you calm down today," he smiled reassuringly.

Jangmi was instantly brought back to the main event of that day: the letter. She whined as the thought of Sunghoon reading her letter now made her heart pound against her ribcage. As they finally entered the classroom, she gulped forcibly. Sunoo sat in Beomgyuʼs place in the meantime since he was still nowhere to be seen.

She called for her best friend's attention making him turn to her; ripping his gaze away from the students who were huddled by the blackboard. "Yes?" He asked her, quickly taking notice of the worry in her features.

"I totally forgot that him and I walk to training together," she exasperated, running her hand through her hair. The tension would be too awkward for the both of them; and she was too scared to see his reaction. How would she face him after him reading the letter? She even thought about the possibility of postponing it and slipping it in after class so that he could see it the next day, but the cycle would just repeat itself. Better to get it done now, or nothing will happen.

Sunoo was about to speak when he heard Jangmiʼs cellphone vibrate in her pocket once. He pointed at her pocket and watched her take out the device to read the message from whoever texted her. She looked at her best friend with wide eyes before reading it out loud. "Jangmi, I won't be able to walk with you to training later. I'm so sorry. I promise to buy you strawberry milk," the girl read Sunghoon's message monotonously before sighing in relief.

"I won't get to see him until tomorrow! This is a good sign!"

"Why is it a good sign again?"

She stood up from her chair to pet Sunooʼs head as she cracked a small smile. "It gives me time to prepare myself before I see him and brace for the rejection."

He wanted to laugh at how dense his best friend was and spill everything right at that moment: Sunghoon likes her, and he was planning to confess as well. But he let Jangmi be. He'd rather she found out for herself than hear it from him or somebody else—so that she would believe it and not dismiss the idea that her crush actually did like her back.

The teacher arrived after their short conversation ("You have to relax," Sunoo told her before setting his eyes on Beomgyu entering the classroom. "No promises," she replied in a fit of panic) and started the class. She waved at her seatmate before settling back down in her chair and taking the notebooks out of her bag all in an attempt to push Sunghoon out of her mind for the time being—and the plan failed. Laying out her notebooks did not do its job as she could still not focus on in class. Sure, she was listening and taking down notes from the teachers, but her mind was going to other places: the letter, the older boy's possible reaction, and herself. She was able to control the thoughts a little bit; but the closer lunch came, the faster her heart started to beat again.