Are we friends yet?

Parallel Lines

The night before, I flipped Chanyeol's diary over and over again and just stared at his beautiful words. The whole time, I admired his songs and wondered how it felt to have him serenaded them to me. The thought of it made my heart melt, and I imagined him squeezing my hand, and I suddenly wanted to forget all the doubts and the tiring fights we had before.

And at the moment, I watched him playing basketball alone. His friends had left after a fun intense game-- I'd never seen him being so competitive with his friends and it was like a tip  of something I hadn't completely discovered.

"Are you not tired?!" I shouted from the side. He missed a shot. Then, he bounced the ball as he was moving to where I was sitting on the ground.

"I'm not tired," he answered. And he beckoned. "Let's play again!"

"Said someone who benched me."

He laughed. "I was joking, ok?"

I stopped playing when he said that my presence on the court made the game boring because the boys in his team didn't want to be aggressive against me-- he really picked Jongin and Sehun to be his teammates while Jongdae and Junmyeon were set to be with me before I was replaced by Minseok. I said it was cheating, but Minseok said that it was their default.

"Come on!" He said but I wasn't moving.

"Don't bother. I'm watching here."

He didn't force me and told that he needed five more minutes. I nodded, watching him quietly again.

It didn't matter, really. Just being with him again was one of the best experiences I could have imagined. And my fear of stopping talking to him was like a distant nightmare that I didn't want to revisit.

I had told him that I liked his gift and he said that I could return his diary whenever I felt like it. I simply nodded and he said, "I knew you would like my gift."

With the sweetness of his words and actions, I started to question myself if I really deserved the chance he gave.

Is he really giving me a chance?

But then, I was happy, and I wasn't about to let my insecurity shatter my heart.

Not this time.

He decided to end his game and collected the ball. As he was jogging to me, his hair was glowing brighter than it had already been.

We had no specific plans but he had suggested doing English homework in his house after playing basketball. I promise I'll walk you home after that, he had said which made me laugh because we all knew that he just tried to be funny.

"Mind sharing what you're thinking?" Chanyeol reacted when I was quiet on our trip to his house.

"It's ok," I told and he shrugged his shoulders.

We sat in silence again before finally we arrived at his stop.

As we were walking to his house, I asked if I would meet anyone from his family and he told that Toben was at home. He was smiling when he told me that as if he was anticipating my reaction when later I saw his dog.

At the gates, however, I met his father that I only knew from the photographs on the restaurant's wall. I bowed to his father when he introduced me as a friend and the man nodded his head and smiled at me. Then, I found that he was going to drive Chanyeol's sister to her dentist appointment. Both Chanyeol and I didn't know that his sister had been waiting on the car parked in front of the gates.

"Join me, will you?" She said to Chanyeol, waving her hand from the car window, and added, "May, he's afraid of dentist."

Chanyeol pretended that there wasn't anyone teasing him and urged me to follow him inside. I smiled seeing their interaction and Chanyeol let me know that he wished his family wouldn't come back too soon, so we could spend some time alone.