FAUX REAL

18

Embarrassment with a hint of sadness flashes across Lisa's face as she scoots forward, sitting on her heels in front of me, fiddling with her fingers like always does when she's nervous. She's nervous a lot around me, I've noticed.

"Okay so," she hums, letting out an airy sigh. "I think you need some context first before I get into it."

I narrow my eyes at her. "Context?"

"Yeah," she murmurs, tucking her hair behind her ear. "So believe it or not, seulgi, rosie, and I used to be best friends-"

I blink. "What? Are you serious? Friends?"

"Yes."

Not in a million years would I have guessed that Lisa and Seulgi were once friends. They're horrible to one another. Ruthless in their verbal attacks. Friends? Good God.

"What happened?" I ask with a smirk, shifting my body closer to her, ensuring that our voices are low enough to remain hidden from the homeowners stationed outside the shed. "Did you rip the head off of her Barbie doll?"

"Yes, once when we were like seven but that's not the reason." she rolls her eyes, her lips twisting up into a little smile. "Honestly, I don't really know what happened but once we started at Hilton we just drifted apart and she started hanging out with joy and yeri."

"Okay..." I draw out slowly, intrigued by her story. "And?"

"So for all of Freshman year, it was pretty chill, we weren't friends but we also weren't like enemies or anything," she explains. "I was kind of hurt that she just stopped talking to me, and I sort of missed her-" She pauses, scrunching up her face. "I missed her a lot actually. I know that's probably weird to hear but it's the truth."

She missed her? I am mind blown.

She continues, "When Sophomore year rolled around, out of nowhere, she sent me a message on Snap saying that she wanted to reconnect and that she was sorry for cutting me out. She invited me to hang out at this park near campus where they host parties sometimes."

I nod, sensing where this is going. Kind of. Not really. "What does this have to do with trespassing?" I ask.

"I'm getting there, I'm just world-building right now, okay?" she says, adjusting her position and sitting cross-legged. "Obviously, I was a bit hesitant to hang out with her, I mean, why would she reach out to me out of nowhere, right? But taeyong-" She freezes, her expression sheepish. "We just started dating that summer, um...he encouraged me to go and meet up with her. He said it might be my only opportunity to patch up our friendship and he wasn't wrong, she was extending an olive branch so I- I said yes."

My body tenses at the sound of his name. Fucking prick. And they dated for two years? Bloody hell that's a long time. My longest relationship was maybe six months, perhaps shorter.

"So you went?" I ask, surveying her face as it falls. She's like a picture book. So easy to read. She tries hard to conceal her emotions but she can't. Not from me.

"Yeah, I was on my way to the park when she sent me another message on Snapchat, she said that yeri forgot her wallet at home and asked if I could go get it for her. She gave me an address and everything and told me to go through the back gate. I've never been to yeri's, I didn't even really know her, but her house was on the way so I thought why not."

I'm not liking where this is going. "It wasn't her house, was it?"

She clicks her tongue. "Bingo," she sings in a defeated tone, tapping her index finger against her nose. "It was definitely not her house but I didn't know that at the time so I just went in, went upstairs to 'yeri's bedroom' and started looking for her wallet like a fucking idiot."