Buy me flowers| PJM

F. 21

She shrugs and looks outside the window we were sitting next to.

"What you've just said right now, that was... that was beautiful. The way you said that..."

She looks at me.

"It made me believe you. I think you can bring words to life, you have that something, unnie."

I look at her wondering if what she's just said is true. I didn't feel like I had anything special. I wish I did, but no, that's not me. Danbi looks up at me just because I'm older than her. She's just overreacting. What I said was not big deal. At all.

Or was it?

Don't flatter yourself.

"If you say so..." I mumble.

***

We get up to leave. I've barely eaten my salad, even though Danbi insisted that I should've eaten all of it. I drank my tea and for now, that was enough for me.

As we were going towards the entrance, I see a familiar face. My eyes go wide as I recognize Taehyung sitting at one table near the entrance door. However, he wasn't alone. A girl with long auburn hair was sitting across from him, her back facing me. Is she his girlfriend? Eventually, Taehyung's gaze meets mine and a wide smile spreads on his face.

"Wait for me outside. I'll be joining you soon." I tell Danbi and she nods.

I step forward, a sincere smile on my face.

"Hello!" I say as I arrive near the table.

The girl raises her head to look at me as Taehyung stands up to hug me. She's gorgeous, is the first thing I can't help but think.

"Yuna! It's so nice to see you here." Taehyung says as he breaks the hug. "Oh, let me introduce you to my friend. Seulgi, she's Yuna, Hoseok hyung's sister. Yuna, she's Seulgi, Jimin's girlfriend."

The smile vanishes from my face in an instant.

Oh.

Jimin's girlfriend...

...

Oh.

I push myself to smile again even though I feel sick. I bow my head respectfully and she does the same, a nice smile plastered on her face.

"It's a pleasure to meet you!" I say, trying not to blabber.

"Nice to meet you, too!" Seulgi says and I bitterly realize that even her voice is pretty.

I try to smile. I force myself to.

"So, what's up? How are you?" Taehyung asks me. "Why don't you sit with us actually?"

"Oh, thank you, but I've just had lunch with a friend and now we were leaving. What about you?"

"Same for us, we decided to spend this lunch break together." He answers full of joy. "Actually, Jimin is at the restroom right now, he should return soon though..."

"O-oh, that's nice!" I say, trying to sound happy. "I think I'd better get go-..."

"Jimin-ah! Look who's here!" Taehyung beams while looking at something behind me.

Or better said somebody.

I slowly turn around just to see Jimin standing there with a blank expression on his face.

I open my mouth to say something, but my voice has disappeared. He notices that and decides to be the first one to speak instead.

"Yuna, what a surprise! What are you doing here?" He says, a small smile on his lips.

He's acting.

"I've just had lunch with a friend... Speaking of it, I should probably go, she's waiting for me outside." I say, trying to smile. "Enjoy your lunch! Oh and..."

I pause and look at Seulgi, as if this time, I wanted to find an imperfection on her face, a tiny detail that would make her less gorgeous. I wanted to find that something, for my sake.

I find nothing.

"It was nice to meet you, Seulgi!" I try to sound genuine and she nods with a smile.

However, before I make my way to the entrance of the local after all of them thank me and wish me a good day, I glance for a second at Jimin. He was looking at me with a considered expression. That was enough for me to understand that this time, he couldn't see through me. He couldn't read me. And it made me even sicker, because most likely, that was because he was too surprised to see me there.

Or because he didn't want to see me there.

And no matter how much I try to tell myself that it has to be the first option, I don't believe it. I can't believe it, even though I want to. And with that replaying in my head like a broken record, I swallow my sobs and get out of that damned local.