I wake up, HyunA's high note dragging me out of bed. I don't want to go to school, now more than usual. My eyes still hurt from rubbing them and I'm just not in a good mood.
I know that my mom would kill me if I skipped. As great as the afterlife sounds right about now, I muster up the will to get through my morning routine. With a blank mind, I walk out of the house and step onto the bus.
Right. The bus.
I find a random open seat near to the front and sit down with the intention of avoiding Minho.
Someone taps on my shoulder and I look up to see an unfortunately familiar face. His smile is so unknowing. I hate it. There's no reason to, but I just do.
"Mind if I sit, Jisung?"
"Yes, Minho." I don't want to be anywhere near him right now, or at least not yet.
"Thanks."
Wait, what? That's not what I meant by "yes". The boy sits anyways, and before I can say something, he hands me an earbud.
I shouldn't do this, but his soft little "Please?" forces me to comply.
I take the earbud and recognize the tune playing, but can't quite place my finger on what it is. Minho has an excited smile on his face and is bouncing up and down like a caffeinated puppy.
It's only until I hear my own voice, that I realize what song he's playing. Matryoshka blasts through the tiny speakers as memories come back to me of Chan, Changbin and I, sitting in the recording studio and composing Felix's soon-to-be favorite song.
I struggle not to cry again and look up at Minho, "How did you know about 3racha?"
"Changbin mentioned something about it the other day. Remember? I think it might've been when you kept spacing out."
"Oh."
"What were you even thinking about anyways? I assume it was important."
"I, um, don't really remember. It must've not been that important, then, huh? We should just ignore it altogether!"
"Yeah... Sure." he says, not buying anything. "If it's what you want." Minho gives me a cute smile of reassurance.
My face heats up and I feel myself turn pink. Why couldn't there just be an off-switch for "feelings"? I won't deny that I like him, but that doesn't mean my life gets any easier.
The bus finally arrives and I hurriedly grab my things and rush out with a quick goodbye to Minho.
As soon as I enter, I see Felix and Jeongin talking to each other nearby. I walk over to see what their talking about, but the second I enter earshot, the conversation comes to a brutal stop.
"Oh, uh, hey Jisung." Felix says with an off-putting smile.
"You can continue your conversation. What were you talking about?" I say.
"It was nothing important. Just... stuff." Jeongin says.
Felix nudges him and lowers his voice, "Jisung's in our group. I know him, and I know that he's pretty trustworthy. I don't think he'll let it get out. We should just tell him." Jeongin nods and they both turn back to me.
"What's going on?" I ask.
"I'm sure you've noticed how Hyunjin and Minho have been talking to each other a lot lately, right?" Jeongin says. I slowly nod my head.
He continues, "Well, because of their interactions, we th-"
"Minho and Hyunjin are dating!" Felix interrupts.
"Hey! Not so loud." Jeongin scolds.
"I can't help it, they just look so cute together." Felix does a little dance.
I take a second to process this. Those words keep repeating in my head. I look up at the two of them, "Is that really true?"
"We're still not sure if it's true or not. There's no proof yet." Jeongin explains.
"Yet." Felix emphasizes. "We're planning on investigating them and watching their actions towards each other to see if there's anything going on. Maybe you could help us out, Ji?"
I guess it would be kind of helpful for me to find out if Minho and Hyunjin are together.
"Yeah, I'll help. Why not?"
There are so many reasons why not.
Too many reasons.