13 Reasons Why

Cassette 06

JISOO

"Let's just save the soccer team's third and last tape for a little while, I don't think I can bear talking about them more right now. That's why this tape is dedicated to Bae Irene. Some of you may not exactly know who Irene is. That's because she was kind of new when this whole thing happened. That meant I also thought she would be somewhat harmless, but boy was I wrong on that one."

I did know Irene. I had just recently built up a friendship with her. She was one of the people I talked most with at the moment. Oh no.

"One day you came up to me Irene, and of course I expected you to be mean against me just like basically everyone else was, but you weren't. You said hi, introduced yourself, and seemed interested in what I had to say about myself. We talked for quite a long time before you asked if we could hang out after school. I was very skeptical about it because even though you had only been nice to me so far, people can have secret motives. But I agreed, giving you the benefit of the doubt.

"So after school, we went to your house. Your parents weren't home so we sat down in the living room. We talked, watched a movie and I, for the first time in what seemed like forever, had a good time."

Is it jealousy I was feeling? Because Jennie made a friend? Oh well.

"Then, out of the blue, you turned off the TV, turned to me, and looked me straight in the eye before you said - and I quote again - "Jennie, I'm gay too."

"As you can probably all tell, I was very, very, very surprised. I sat there blankly looking at her for what seemed like an eternity before she suddenly leaned in and kissed me. I couldn't think of anything other than to kiss her back."

Okay, now it was jealousy. She knew I liked Jennie, and she never once told me she liked her too, or even that she was gay for that matter.

"Don't get me wrong, I still had my eye on someone else, and I hadn't thought of her that way. But she liked me. She was the only person - well except for Jisoo - that had not been mean to me after hearing that story Jongin had come up with. She seemed genuinely interested in me. Or that's what I thought at least."

I didn't know if I should be happy that she said she still had her eye on someone else or not. That meant she wasn't interested in Irene, but that she was in someone else and there was quite the chance it wasn't me. Not that it mattered. She was dead after all.

"We kept hanging out the next couple of weeks, Irene and I. I was having a great time. She didn't seem to mind being seen with me at school, and we were together after school most weekdays. I wouldn't say I was falling for her, but I was becoming dependent on her presence.

"Then one day she texted me a picture of something I shouldn't say, or should I say it?"

What was it?

"Nudes. She sent me that. She then texted that I should send one back. So, as oblivious and stupid as I was, I did. The next day though, the whole school had seen that picture. I felt completely and utterly embarrassed.

"Irene walked up to me in the middle of the day - the whole soccer team behind her - telling me that it all was a prank and that she would never want to be friends with a girl like me. Turns out it was just an idea one of the guys on the soccer team had come up with to see if Irene had the guts for it and that the nude she sent was just one she found on the internet.

"So there I was left back. Yet another person has hurt me. A picture of me, naked, having been exposed to my whole school, and the only person I felt I could trust at that point having just pretended the whole time. Irene wasn't gay and she never actually wanted to befriend me.

"Great. So, Irene, thank you for giving me hope that I could be happy with someone but fuck you for playing with me and my feelings like I was a toy. I hope you know how messed up it is to do something like that to another person, and I hope you have to pay the consequences."

Oh wow. I would never have expected that from Irene. How didn't I know of this, she was practically my best friend. Wait, why was she, my friend? Oh God, was she trying to pull the same move on me? I had a feeling our friendship won't last much longer.

I immediately picked my phone up and dialed Irene's number before pressing the call button.

She picked up after a couple of seconds with a simple, "Hi, Jisoo."

"How could you do that to her?" I instantly asked incredulously. I knew she knew what I was talking about.

"I'm guessing you are talking about the 'pretending to be into Kim Jennie then showing the whole school her nudes' thing?" She answered, and I heard the guilt in her tone.

"You're a bitch, "my voice was filled with disgust towards her.

"I know. Believe me, I feel so bad."

"That doesn't mean shit now. Why are you friends with me if you did that to her because she was gay? Were you planning on doing the same to me as you did to her?"

It went silent on the other side of the call. I let out a breathy, hurtful chuckle. "I knew it. Don't ever talk to me again, jerk."

Without another word, I hung up the phone and threw it to the floor before pulling out tape six and replacing it with the next in the line.

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Oof-