Are we friends yet?

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It had happened finally. And in front of everybody, I sat still after Mrs. Park attempted to tame the commotion that erupted in her peaceful restaurant. When the other workers returned to their post, leaving me with the traumatic memory of a black poodle jumping in front of me, Chanyeol stayed with the barking sound of his dog fading at the background as someone moved it somewhere.

I knew the feeling of embarrassment and blushing wouldn't have troubled me, but when Mrs. Park handed me a glass of water while she was scolding Chanyeol, I believed that I was as red as I could imagine. It wasn't his fault, but I got tongue tied because of the shock. I was so ashamed and there was no rescue when I wanted earth to open up and swallow me.

"What did I say about staying at home?"

Chanyeol could reply, but from his silence I found that he wouldn't talk back when an elder had something to say.

"Are you sure that you're alright?" This time, her question was addressed to me. I could only nod and in a split second I lifted my eyes, I found Chanyeol looking at me.

After making sure that I was alright, Mrs. Park left to the kitchen, followed by her son who was ascending the stairs, not once did he look back as I sat there, too embarrassed to move.

Later in the afternoon, the restaurant was full of them expecting for Italian lunch. I looked around at the busy tables. Most of the customers studiously bent over their pasta. Some teenagers were giggling enjoying their pizza. There were also some Asian tourists trying to get more of their meals. The noise level could be higher than the safe one and it reminded me of how a few days ago Mrs. Park talked over a phone with someone who would help her with the sound-proof decoration.

Amidst the busyness, I found Mrs. Park getting a tray full of meals and walking to where I assumed she would see her son. I hadn't seen him for nearly two hours and I was consumed by guilt. If it wasn't because of my reaction over the presence of his dog, Chanyeol was probably seen playing around with his pet.

Too deep into my thought, I was back on the track as I felt Jieun tapping on my shoulder. She signaled me to help Kibum wash the dishes, so I returned to my original post after I handed her the menu which I was hugging the entire time I stared at the stairs where I saw Chanyeol before he completely disappeared from my sight in the morning.

When I was back to the sink, the piles of dirty plates had been waiting for me. As I began squeezing the sponge, I regretted why I agreed to take Minho's shift. This wasn't a weekend that I wanted.

~*~

Laughter erupted at the back of our classroom as Jongdae declared that funny men attracted women more than handsome men did. And from what I heard, he was going to take part at the stand-up comedy show in a local cafe in Hongdae. And our classmates didn't let him go. They pushed him to test what he had in store, but he disagreed.

We were supposed to do our assignment for ethics as our teacher was absent because of a conference he had, but not all of the students in my class possessed integrity; some of us decided that fooling around while there wasn't any supervision from our teacher was the best idea.

"Is this right?" It was always Miyeon who checked my work when I wasn't confident with what I did. She who had completed her own work scanned my writing. She nodded and handed my book back.

I carried on with the assignment and Miyeon resumed whatever she had been discussing with Junmyeon. As I turned around to look at her again, I knew right away that she just pretended that she didn't notice me. I scoffed as I was ignored by my best friend who chose her crush's eyes over mine. I wrote again and silently wished for the lunch break to come faster.