The ticking of the clock was painfully loud.
The tv had since been turned off making the atmosphere in the room that much more intense. Chungha and Hwasa were staring each other down whilst George sat off to the side, hands clasped together and mouth pressed into a thin line.
"I was shit on by a seagull the other day," he broke the ice.
The two girls never even spared him a glance. George nodded his head at the silence and looked down at the ground.
He had never really been the best in awkward situations.
"Anyone want a dr-"
"So, you two are together now then?"
The tone of her voice was hard to difficate. George couldn't tell whether she was mad, heartbroken, confused or all of the above.
He swallowed harshly and glanced at Chungha, who now looked timid. How Hwasa had even found out about them was beyond him. There was a very limited amount of people that knew about them.
"I didn't mean for this to happen-"
"You knew that I had something with him."
"I didn't know that you were in love with him, I promise. If I knew how deep it really was I would have never even looked in his general direction! I just thought it was a past thing, something that happened a long time ago. I didn't know-"
"Girl code exists, Chungha. Whether it was something that happened a long time ago or not. You are my friend! Or at least that's what I thought."
"Hey, now that's not fair."
The two began to bicker back and forth causing George to rub his hands over his face, eventually growing tired of staying silent on a situation that he technically caused.
"Right, both of you stop now," George cut in sternly, immediately silencing the two girls. "This friendship is not going to be ruined due to my stupidity. Stop arguing and point your anger at me. I never told Chungha the details of what we had and I'm assuming you didn't either-"
"I told her that we had something but it's over-" Hwasa interjected.
"Exactly! Neither of us clarified what it was and we both stated that it was over, so realistically, how was Chungha supposed to know? This isn't about her, this is you directing your anger to me which is completely valid, but she needs to be left out of it."
Chungha shook her head. "No. We should both be held accountable. We don't need to get angry, Hyejin I know you're upset but we're not teenagers. As charming as George is, I don't want to ruin our friendship over a silly boy."
"I prefer the term man but-"
"Shut up, George!" The two girls demanded at once, causing him to fall back against the sofa with his hands up in defense.
"I- I suppose I just felt betrayed," Hwasa explained, fiddling with her fingers. "I really fell for him and then to hear from someone that you two are romantically involved- fuck, that broke me. Why didn't you talk to me?"
Chungha shook her head. "I don't have an excuse, I was dumb and I should have spoken to you the second I felt a connection with him. I never meant to hurt you, truly. That was the last thing that I wanted to do."
"See this is good, this is what we want," George butted in with a bright smile.
"George?" Chungha addressed him.
"Hmm?" He gave her a lovesick smile.
"Stop talking."
His smile dropped and he slowly nodded once again, rubbing the back of his head. "Right, yeah. Okay. I'll just not talk."
Completely blocking him out, Chungha and Hwasa both began trying to resolve the conflict between them. As hurt as Hwasa was, she did not want to lose a friend over a boy.
Like Chungha said, they aren't teens anymore.
"I don't want to lose you over this," Chungha told her, her voice small and desperate. "I will literally get up and walk out of that door and never talk to this man again if that's what you want, just please don't- don't let our friendship die over this."
George bit his lip, turning to Hwasa who looked conflicted.
"I don't want you to leave him. As dumb as he is, he didn't treat me bad and he didn't purposely hurt me. You deserve to be happy and- I don't want to lose you either."
George clapped his hands. "Yay, so all resolved now right?"
"You are not off the hook," Chungha warned him making him pout and fall back into the cushions.
Hwasa had fallen hard for George, and he tried to love her the same way that she wanted him to, but deep down, she had known for a long while that his feelings for her were nothing more than platonic.
He had been confused for so long and she was happy he was finally figuring out his feelings, even if it pained her to see them being projected onto someone else.
"If you ever hurt her, I will make sure to kick your ass. Do you understand me?"
George's eyes widened at the sudden threats and he nodded enthusiastically.
"Yes ma'am. She's in good hands."
Hwasa smiled sadly. "I know."
Lessons were learned and one heart was broken, but in the end, that's how life works. Not everything is a walk in the park. Hwasa left with her heart heavy and a lump in her throat, it would take her some time to forgive both Chungha and George which they both understood.
The last thing either of them wanted to do was hurt her.
George placed his head against the door after closing it and let out a sigh. He glanced towards Chungha, who looked just as defeated as him.
Love always comes with a price; for them to be happy, they had to break a heart and that was the hardest pill to swallow. George hated upsetting people.
"It'll be okay," Chungha told him.
In time, Hwasa would learn to love another and her feelings for George will be nothing more than a mere memory. But for now, she was hurting and so was the newly found couple.
Love is hard.
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can you tell i struggled with this one? whilst writing, i was yelling at past me for throwing hwasa into the mix like why would i do that 🤦♀️
thank you so much for reading, this wasn't proofread but i hope you enjoyed anyway.
you're greatly appreciated 💜
— blue x