-SIMRAN-
"Your daughter's in love!" Ruhi announced to my mom while we were Skyping from Hakyung's laptop that evening.
"Bitch, please!"
"Simmi! No swearing!" my mom yelled, then her face softened and she smiled excitedly, "by the way what's his name?"
"MAMA!!! STOP IT!"
"Jungkook!" Hakyung yelled from the kitchen.
"Chon Goo? Oooh," my mom teased.
"I hate you. I'm logging off now-
"No no! Look, Karan's here to say hi. You kids have fun. I'm going!"
"But I wanted to talk to you! Not him!" I complained.
"I know, darling. But I'm super busy with work. I'll TTYL! Bye!"
Great! She never has time for me.
"Bye aunty!" Ruhi waved at the screen.
Then when Karan waved hi, Ruhi groaned in disgust and immediately got out of the chair, and went to sit on the couch.
Hakyung sat in her place, "Hi Kah-run!"
"Oh... uh hi Gone Min!" he waved at her.
"NO! ☹️ I'm Hakyung. You forget me?"
"No no no!" he shook his hands violently, "Of course not. How could I forget you? 😏Do you know I've been seeing your pretty face in my dreams every night?"
Hakyung giggled.
Eww. I'd forgotten how horribly cringey this guy is.
"Karan I seriously wish I could jump through the screen and fucking punch your ugly face! I'm logging off. Bye!"
"Oye wait! First tell me who's this Chungoo guy?"
"Shimmi unnie's boyfriend!! "
"Boyfriend? 😮 No way!"
"Why? Jealous much?" I grinned.
"No. But can't believe you ditched me. I don't want to be single alone." *fake cries*
"🙄 Don't be so overdramatic. He's not my boyfriend. He's... just a friend."
Ruhi sprung out of the couch then and walked next to me, "Just a friend? Oh yeah... a friend you really really care about, right Simmi?"
"😒What...?"
"He's clearly a very special friend of yours. Because today after school when we were walking towards the bus stop, you were totally flirting with him."
"I was not!"
"And she looked at him and smiled and winked," Hakyung giggled.
"I did NOT wink! What the fuck? You're just cooking up some shit! I didn't do any of that!"
"Yeah actually... I don't believe any of that. Simmi, I know you can't flirt," Karan sniggered, "You're so awkward around your crushes. Remember that guy you used to like in 5th grade?"
"What guy?" Ruhi shot me a look, "Why do I not know about this?"
"Because we weren't friends back then! Whatever... Karan don't listen to them, they're mad. I'm logging off, now. We have homework. Where's mama? I wanna say bye."
"She uh... wait." Karan left to get my mom, but he returned alone, "she said she's busy. She says bye to all of you."
She doesn't even have time to say goodbye?🙄
***
-3 days later-
"No... It's ok papa, I'm not crying." I wiped a tear off my cheek, "I just miss her a lot... yeah I understand that she's... no, of course, I miss you, too! I... I don't have anything to talk... now... so I'm... It's also very late and I have to wake up early, so... bye. I love you."
I put the phone down on the counter next to the sink and sat down on the toilet seat remembering the last time I had spoken to my mother, and then I started sobbing again.
Hakyung knocked on the bathroom door. "Unnie...?" she called out softly, "are you crying?"
"NO!" I yelled, my voice cracking a little, "just go away. Leave me alone."
After calming myself down, I walked out of the bathroom, wiping my cheeks dry and headed straight to my room. But I stopped in the doorway when I saw Hakyung lying down on a sleeping mat on the floor next to my bed. When she saw me she sat up, "I sleep here with you! Because you miss your eomma, appa?"
I nodded, sitting down on the bed.
Hakyung sprung up to her feet, she placed both her fists on her cheeks and started singing cutely, "unnie! Himnaeseyo! Cheer up! Don't cry! Ok? Bbuing bbuing."
"Eww," I looked at her with disgust, "what the fuck are you doing?"
"Trying to make you laugh," she pouted, sitting down next to me.
I sighed, "I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm never like this... whiny and cranky. I guess I'm PMSing... I just feel like crying all the time."
Hakyung suddenly pulled me into her arms, literally squeezing me, "I know sometimes I cry just like that. Unnie, you can cry on my shoulder. Is ok. Me here for you."
I gently pushed her away, "I'm fine. I'm not dying. You don't have to do all that... cheesy shit for me."
Hakyung looked shocked, I guess because I had never been this honest with her before. "Shimmi unnie... I ask you something?" she looked up at me nervously, "You... you no happy here? You no like me?"
Fuck. How does she know?
If it was any other day, I would've been honest with her and told her how I thought she was a little crazy and so so cheesy and cringey. But my hormones were fucking with my head and I don't understand why I just hugged her instead and started bawling, literally crying uncontrollably, and mumbled in between sobs, "I'm... sorry. I don't... hate you... but you're really irritating some... times... but I know you're really sweet and... you really care about me... right... you're like... the little sister... I've always... wanted."
Wow, I never realized how cheesy that sounded. But whatever I said was true, I did wish I had a little sister and I guess if I had one she'd be as annoying as Hakyung.
After that unnecessary dramatic episode, we spent almost two hours gossiping about random things. Surprisingly she wasn't the one doing all the talking this time and asked me about my life. I liked talking to her and she didn't seem all that bad anymore. Then we somehow ended up talking about boyfriends and that is when she asked me about Jungkook.
"Stop asking me that! I said I don't like him!"
"But I know he likes you."
"What?" my heart almost skipped a beat and I sat up, curious to know more.
"Yeah really!"
Oh my God! I squealed to myself. No stop it. Calm down... calm your tits! Obviously, she's just teasing!
"What do you mean he likes me! Did he tell you that?"
"No but yesterday when we were in the library after school, I saw him staring at you and smiling to himself."
"What?" I laughed, feeling warm in the cheeks, "No, he always stares at me like that."
Oh fuck. What are you saying?! I pinched my arm, Why are you telling her all that?!
"See? I was told you. He likes you!" she laughed.
I didn't try to defend myself anymore and turned the other way so Hakyung couldn't see that I was smiling crazy.
Oh my God, I squealed again, then clenched my fists, stop it. Don't fall for this, it's a trap. And stop imagining things, ok? But no... what if he really likes me? Oh my Godddddd, I squealed one last time and then started fanning myself because I was sweaty from all the excitement.
I took a deep breath to calm myself down, I can't believe I'm literally squealing and blushing like this... this is SO not me! I'm turning into... into Hakyung. Eww... What is happening to me? Why am I feeling all these feelings...? Need to stop. Need to reboot.
***
-Next day-
It was Minha's birthday today and she, Gyeongmin and Hakyung decided to go out for ice cream after school before going to their hagwon. She was so sweet to invite me and Ruhi and even the boys: Jimin, Jihyun and Jungkook.
The ice cream shop that we went to was apparently where Yoongi worked after school. I didn't even know he had a part-time job. Wow. No wonder he's always sleeping on the rooftop!
After we placed our order, Jimin forced Jungkook to bring everyone's ice creams from the counter. Obviously, there was no way he could single-handedly carry 7 ice creams! And so on his way, he dropped one: Minha's.
"Ouh... mianhae noona☹️ mianhae, mianhae!" Jungkook kept repeating over and over again.
Hakyung and Gyeongmin started screaming at him and made a huge scene. And Jimin smacked the back of his head, "seriously you're useless!"
Jungkook looked at me like a helpless puppy. My heart ached.
"It's just ice cream!" I screamed at Jimin, defending Jungkook.
And then Hakyung screamed at me, defending her Chimmy oppa, "But unnie, it's birthday girl's ice cream! Jungkook did it on purpose!"
"NO!" Jungkook yelled confidently, "I would never do that to her! Uh noo...noona," he turned to Minha and looked down at his feet, then looked up and froze, staring at her face with those bambi eyes of his.
"What?" Minha snapped her fingers.
Jungkook blinked, shaking his head and then blushed, "you... you take this.... my ice cream. I don't want."
Minha laughed, "No Jungkook-ah! 🤗 You're so sweet. But it's ok I'll buy another one."
Then Yoongi interrupted us and surprisingly he was all sweet and generous. He offered to buy ice cream for the birthday girl. He also asked Jungkook to go sit down and brought Minha's ice cream himself. I bet he poisoned her ice cream. Hah.
"Thank you, hyung!" Jungkook beamed with joy.
Yoongi nodded at him, then placed the ice cream on the table. Looking at me, he smirked and hissed in my ear, "See? I'm not always an asshole, ok?"
I had never expected him to actually remember that I'd called him an asshole; that was like five days ago! I'd thought he wouldn't have even paid attention to what I was yelling at him. I mean, wasn't he like one of those I-don't-give-a-fuck types? But looks like he did give a fuck this time.
He walked back to the counter glaring at me angrily. He's so fucking unpredictable, this boy, I thought and went back to eating my ice cream.
Then Ruhi nudged me and jerked her head in Jungkook's direction, "Who are you staring at, Jungkook?" she teased and looked at me.
Jungkook shook his head, blushing.
"Not me😅!" I tried to play it off cool, although I secretly wished he was staring at me.
"I know who he's staring at!" Jihyun announced excitedly, looking at Minha, "noona, he told me to tell you-
Jungkook punched Jihyun in the arm.
"Oww! ...that you're looking really pretty today!"
Jungkook blushed.
What? 😶 Why... Why... Ugh... Yeah, so...? He can say whatever he wants to whoever he wants to. Why do I care? By the way, Minha's looking ok, she's not that pretty or anything.
I rolled my eyes and looked away, then looked back at Jungkook and caught him staring at me.
Wait is he really staring at me or her? Whatever... Maybe I have ice cream on my face... Why else will he stare at me? 🙄
He kept doing that, playing the I'm-staring-no-I'm-not-staring game. After a while, I felt like he wanted to say something to me but was hesitating because everyone would listen.
So after we were done eating, and while everyone was leaving one after the other, he pulled me aside, "Noonaaaa~!" he jumped with joy, "You kept your promise! Now no one bullies me anymore. Except Jimin hyung. But Yoongi hyung protects me. He has my back. Like you saw today! You did this, noona! You're my angel!"
Aww aww! He's so precious!
I raised both my hands to his face. I hesitated at first, but this time I didn't stop myself and finally pulled his chubby cheeks. They were really squishy like sponge cake.
Jungkook was so flustered and red after that, he quickly hurried out of the store.
I laughed, looking around and was so glad that no one saw me pull his cheeks because I knew they would tease me to death!
Then I happened to look at Yoongi who was staring at me with disgust. For some reason, he scoffed at me and looked away.
What's his problem...?