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"we're not friends anymore."
"... what?"
jaeyeon looks down at the bunch of photos, photos of close friends and then up at jisung again. "what do you mean, you're not friends anymore? even I can see how close we were, why the hell wouldn't you still be friends-"
"it happened after the accident," jisung cuts her short. immediately, jaeyeon has to swallow a heavy lump of nothing upon hearing this. realizing what he had just said, he shuts his eyes and sighs, "no, I don't mean it that way, it's not your fault..."
"then what is it?"
"listen up." jisung's hold around her hands tighten as he continues, "after the accident, you were in coma for almost two months, jaeyeon. these two months killed us, hell, we didn't know what would happen to you."
"... and why did that affect our friendship?"
"because-... because it broke all of us. the more time passed without you waking up, the more did the guys change. we had countless of fights and arguments and we just... stopped getting along and in the end, we decided we shouldn't hang out anymore... that also explains why you never found out about us after that."
"what do you mean?"
jisung has to first deeply inhale to go on. "you know how you were moving to daegu only two, three weeks after you finally woke up?"
"yeah, what about it?"
"well... when we found out you didn't remember any of us, we asked your family to not tell you about us. there wouldn't be any point in doing so when we weren't friends anymore, everyone knew it would only drag you down after moving to daegu."
instantly, jaeyeon pulls her hands back to herself, holding them to her chest. this startles jisung, becoming worried when he sees the disappointment written over her face. "jaeye-"
"are you serious?"
the outburst makes jisung raise an eyebrow at her, "what?"
"I can't believe you actually let the accident affect you like that... if it really had you all so depressed, why didn't you support each other instead? to begin with, how the hell could you ever come to a decision like that?!"
jaeyeon pauses but picks her outburst up when she notices how jisung is about to speak, "do you even know how much it hurt? I've been trying to figure out what the fuck I used to do those years before the accident and you just decided to keep it a secret?"
"jaeyeon, you don't understand..." jisung groans, watching as she stands up.
"what is it that I don't understand, jisung?" jaeyeon opens her arms in frustration, looking down at him, dismay in her eyes.
just like earlier, jisung doesn't answer, he can't answer and instead looks away, suddenly feeling ashamed of himself.
"you know what?"
the unexpected calm in jaeyeon's words makes jisung look up at her again, curious as of what else she had to say. hearing about it, his jaw practically falls to the floor: "I'm going to find the rest of the guys."
"what?! you can't do that! no one keeps in touch anymore, we all live different lives now!"
"what do you mean I can't, of course I can? if you stopped hanging out that easily, it should be just as easy to bring you together," she counters, crossing her arms over her chest. she's aware of how absurd it sounds but in the heat of the moment, she couldn't care any less.
"oh, really now? you don't know shit about them anymore, how do you expect to find them when you everything you have are some damn photos?"
"jisung, I don't care if some photos is everything I have, that's not gonna stop me from anything... I have to at least try," she says determined. jisung becomes surprised from seeing the sudden change in her behavior, everything in her body language, speech and piercing stare screaming of boldness. "besides, it hasn't even been two years since I left, have you really forgotten that when I want something, I'm having it my way?"
speechless, jisung can only look up at her, eyes wide and lips parted. he tries taking in her spoken words, for a second wondering if she had always had a confidence so strong. however, soon he actually lets out a chuckle and shakes his head, his tongue swiping over his bottom lip; an action in was looks like disbelief.
"seriously, you're unbelievable."
"surprise, surprise," jaeyeon says, "will you help me?"
she's met by his sceptical look and it's easy to tell how jisung clearly doesn't feel up for the plan. thus, she tries again, "come on, you just saw and remember how close we were... are you sure you really don't want that back?"
jisung lets out a shaky breath, "of course I do but that's impossible... I don't even know myself what they're doing right now."
"you won't know unless you give it a shot, will you?"
it becomes silent for a moment as jisung falls into deep thoughts. none of them are really sure how long time has passed when he eventually shows her a look of surrender. a satisfied and wide smile shows itself on jaeyeon's face and that's really all it takes for the heaviness in the air to disappear.
"do I even have a choice?" he asks as she reaches a hand out to him, pulling him up. standing in front of each other, they're only inches away, both now grinning at each other.
"as my best friend, no, not really."
jisung lets out an another airy laugh and drags a hand through his hand. "I can't believe I'm actually going along with this."
"that's what you get for ever getting involved with me," jaeyeon claps his shoulder before turning to get to the kitchen again, "shit, the noodles have gone cold..."
emptying and washing the bowls, she puts them on the counter and makes a mental note to hand them back to jisung.
"jisung? what are you doing?" jaeyeon asks after noticing he was still in the living room. the first thing she's met by upon entering the room, is a widely smiling jisung, the camera in his hand, a photo in the other.
"it still works!" he happily chimes, "look!"
furrowing her eyebrows, jaeyeon takes the picture while wondering what it was that made him so cheerful. seeing the photo, she can't help but smile.
biting down against her bottom lip, she silently asks, "can I keep it?"
"I took it because I want you to keep it," jisung scoffs before grinning, "if we're gonna do this, we might as well start taking new pictures."
jaeyeon smiles even wider at this, "and you were so against it like two minutes ago." crouching down, she gathers the photos they had looked at and carefully places them among the remaining ones in the box. the newly-taken one goes on top of it all.
"by the way, do you know what this is?"
curious, jisung looks down at jaeyeon, only to see her holding onto the silver necklace that had been in the box. he furrows his eyebrows, not recognizing it, "no, not really..."
jaeyeon stares at it, wondering exactly what it was with the necklace that once had made her place it in the supposedly important metal box.
"anyway, you should go home now, it's getting la- shit, it's almost one in the morning..."
her statement is almost an reminder to jisung as he just now realizes how tired he actually is, a yawn coming from him. "yeah, we should go to sleep..."
when they later stand in her hallway, jaeyeon snickers, "thanks for, uh, the bowls."
"no problem," he answers. however, the silence following right behind seems off as he just stands still on his spot.
"is something wrong?"
puzzled, jaeyeon watches him as he places the bowls down on the floor instead of answering, wondering what he was up to; her question is answered when he pulls her in for a tight hold. even when he doesn't say anything, the sudden vulnerability around him is hard to not notice.
"hey... what's wrong?"
she hears the deep breath he takes, followed by an unexpected sniffle. quickly, one of her hands go up to comfortingly stroke the back of his head.
"sorry, I just- really missed you."
moving away from him, jaeyeon smiles up at him, "well, I'm here now, aren't I?" she says in a soft chuckle, "really, what were the odds to meet again?"
jisung lets out a heavy sigh and he rolls his eyes, "do you know how hard it was to see my best friend everyday but having to pretend I didn't know her?"
"is that why you always looked so uncomfortable around me?" jaeyeon snorts, earning his nod. "you can stop that now."
just as jisung is about to speak, he stops himself when jaeyeon, much to his surprise, stands up on her toes to place a feather-light peck against his forehead. nothing more than a mere brush of her lips yet none of them are really sure where the boldness comes from.
"good night, jisung," looking back up at him again, the smile similar to the one of a kid on christmas stains her lips, "and thank you."