Honest Lies | soojin

Part 9: Stranger-Danger

I made a simple brunch of Kimchi Fried Rice with fried eggs for all of us. That's one of the simplest and quickest thing to cook especially with the time constraint that we have. One of these days, I'm really gonna ask Miyeon-unnie's help in the kitchen, six mouths are getting harder to feed! The rest of the girls took turn to shower and prepared some snacks for an all-nighter.

***

"YOU'RE FRIENDS WITH KINO SUNBAE-NIM?!" Minnie-unnie asked once they recognized whom I was referring to as a friend.

"Unnie, calm down."

"HOW CAN I CALM DOWN WHEN HE'S RIGHT THERE??" She exaggeratedly pointed towards Kino who was standing shyly at the corner.

"I used to have dance classes with him." Lie. This is my second time meeting him in person, the first one was when Hui-oppa introduced me to his members.

I should have probably informed Kino about how majority of my friends aren't aware of my relationship with his leader, with the confused look he was giving all of us, I'm afraid he might blow my lie.

Luckily, he'd managed to read my facial expression in time and just go with it, "Y-Yeah. That's right. Soojin-ie and I used to dance together all the time." Okay, he might have gone too far with that one. He also called my name in a casual way, others may think we're really friends.

All the girls' heads snapped towards me, surprised by the truthless revelation.

"Anyway, what do you think of the song?" I tried to shift the attention back to Kino, "Do you think you could help us?"

"It's actually good. Let me guess, Soyeon-ie made it? It has her personal touch all over it." How did this guy knew Soyeon? He also called her in a casual manner. Don't tell me they knew each other??

Soyeon scratched the back of her neck timidly, "Yes.. Hehehe. But Minnie-unnie helped me with the lyrics."

Minnie-unnie blushed upon hearing her name, she's still shy of her writing abilities even though we praised her non-stop, "You guys knew each other too?"

"Oh right, she used to hang-out with our members back then. Though she spends most of her time talking to our leader about composing and stuff." I gulped nervously when Kino glanced at me at the mention of their leader. I felt like I'm gonna regret ever asking for his help later. "Shall we start? I have some steps in my mind I could get you girls starting with."

While the girls are busy preparing the audio and other necessities like water and towels, I pulled Kino at one corner, "Hey, what do you think you're doing?" It's weird for me to talk to him like I've known him since forever, and most shocking because I can't deal with strangers properly, but there's familiarity surrounding him. Maybe that's because he seems nice and playful. Or that he's a friend of my boyfriend.

He looked confused once again, "Uhh.. Helping you guys?"

"That's not- That's not what I meant." I sighed, then said in a low voice, "Look, these girls didn't know I have a boyfriend. Much less that my boyfriend is your leader. If they find that out, they would- they'd freak out..!"

A realization passed in front of his eyes. He said in the same low volume as I have, "B-But... You've been together for months now. How come they still.. Does Hyung knows you're keeping him a secret from your friends?"

My voice took a halt. I opened my mouth but nothing came out. I managed to give a nod to his question.

Kino continued, "You're not... ashamed of your relationship, are you?" I could tell he was being careful of his words.