Diamond : Choi Youngjae

012

"Yah," he grabbed my shoulder, causing me stop walking. "Where are you going this time?"
"To meet BamBam."
"Don't you think you've been spending too much time with him?"

I shrugged his hand off my shoulder and didn't answer. Why would he care, anyway? Me and BamBam are friends. Why can't I spend time with him?

We and BamBam always met in the same cafe, almost the exact same table every time. By the time I got there, he would have already bought drinks for the both of us. When I'd try to pay for it, he'd give me a sharp stare and tell me that I shouldn't, that it was his treat.

And that was what happened today.

"Anything happened today? With Youngjae?"
"He asked if I thought I was spending too much with you. That was basically it. You?"
"Same. Ah Yeon even asked if we were dating now, with the amount of time we've been spending together,"
"It gives off that vibe, doesn't it?"

He laughed and nodded, sipping his drink.

This is like a daily routine. When we see each other, we immediately ask the other if anything happened. He and Ah Yeon saw each other almost every day and that was the case for me and Youngjae, too.

"Do you think Youngjae will be mad at me if I ask Ah Yeon for a date?" he asked jokingly.
"Of course he will. But if you do, will she even say yes?"
"Doubt it." he smiled.
"You're not planning on doing that, are you?"
"Definitely not. Me and Youngjae aren't on extremely good terms right now. I don't want to make that worse,"

I nodded slowly. They fought a few days ago. Youngjae couldn't understand why BamBam was so interested in his love life, and even I still couldn't understand why.

Silence came between us and I just decided to change the subject.

"Your graduation is in a week, right?"
"Yeah," he nodded. "Can you come?"
"I don't know..." I said slowly.

He let out a sigh. I didn't want to let him down, but could I help it if I had to visit my mother in our region and the time of my visit and his graduation was the same day?

"You really can't make it?"
"I'll try..."
"Promise?"

I loved BamBam like my own younger brother, but there were times that he made me feel like he was the older one. He was staring at me, making me look down at my hands.

"I'll at least try. I can promise you that,"
"Good enough," he sighed.

I drank from my cup, which was still full. I wiped the foam off my lips with a tissue.

"Rong,"
"Yeah?"
"The others are getting better now. Gyeom's pretty much back to his normal self, and so is Mark, though you can't tell. He's seriously quiet either way. Jinyoung's starting to talk more again and Jaebum's not as locked up in that studio as he was before."
"That's good to hear... So will you start practicing again?"

But once his expression darkened, I knew immediately that I said the wrong thing. And before I could take back what he said, he already spoke.

"How can we practice if we're not complete?"

His soft tone made me feel so bad...

"I... I'm sorry,"
"Forget it," he stood up. "Should we go somewhere else today? For a change?"

I nodded and got up, taking my cup with me following him out as we walked together. I put my phone in my pocket and gripped my cup.

"Where are we going, BamBam?"

He didn't answer me. He just kept on walking. He only stopped once we were both standing in front of a house. He fished a key from his pocket and unlocked the door.