This Friend | Yeonbin

52

Soobin P.O.V

I didn’t cry until I was seated on the plane.

It’s funny, the smallest thing set me off. I boarded and got my seat. I’d already returned to the hotel, gathered my things, and then got an Uber to the airport.

The whole while I was thinking about what went down, obviously. But I managed to keep it together.

And then, once we were in the air, I looked at the seat beside me.

It was empty.

I guess in the time since he moved his flight, they weren’t able to sell a new ticket.

Seeing it made me start to cry. Yeonjun was supposed to be there.

There was a man in a suit seated in the aisle seat, so I didn’t have much privacy. I turned and pretended I was looking out the window. As quietly as I could, I cried, mourning what I had with him.

I told myself it would be the first and only time I would cry about this.

I think I knew, even then, that I was lying to myself.

I just finished crying for the second time. I’m back in the city now, in my car. The airport parking lot around me is massive and totally still.

I can’t stop crying.

I’ve never felt anything this painful.

It’s over.

My friendship, or whatever I had with him it’s over.

I can never see him again. I just can’t. For one thing, I know I’ll never be able to trust him.

He’s bad news for me.

Pull it together.

I wipe my eyes. Oh man, my cheeks are so wet. This is so embarrassing, I’m very glad nobody can see me right now. Above me, a plane flies overhead, just taking off. It’s loud.

It’s time.

I need to head home.

I turn the engine on, and pull out of the lot.

I feel weird. I’m completely devastated by what happened with him. Still, under that, though, I feel this undercurrent of confidence I haven’t felt in a long time. Maybe ever. I don’t know what it is, or why I feel this way.

Maybe it’s because I know how much I can survive now.

Or maybe this is just the leftovers of my time with him before his big reveal. Because I was feeling better from basically the second I left this accursed city. Maybe it’ll take a few days for it to drag my mood back down.

Or it’s something else. Something unexplainable.

Whatever it is, I don’t feel as beaten down as I normally do.

I drive through the city. Eventually, I reach home and park. I check out my reflection in the rearview mirror. Yikes. I look like a hot mess. But there’s not much I can do about that. I glance at my house.

The lights are on in the living room.

Dad’s home.

But wait.

Taehyun said he was crashing at a friend’s place all weekend so Dad would buy our story about us going away together for the weekend.

And yet, Taehyun car is parked in the driveway.

He’s home.

Maybe it’s nothing. Maybe I’m just overthinking this, like I overthink everything.

I climb out of my car and close the door behind me. I lock it with my fob and then go up to the front door. I can hear Eddie scratching his paws against the wood. I unlock the door and open it.

Eddie is right there, expecting pats.

I give them to him, obviously.

“Hey, buddy,” I say. “Miss me?”

“Soobin.”

I look up. Dad is in the kitchen, wearing a dark purple shirt and slacks. His arms are crossed.

“Hey.”

Taehyun appears, rounding the corner of the hallway. He freezes, sensing the tension. He looks like Eddie does when he gets scolded.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “He was onto me, I had to tell him.”

That’s when I notice it. Dad’s wide stance, and the throbbing vein in his neck. He’s furious.

And Taehyun told him that I lied.

Oh man.

I’m so dead.