Soda | Seo Changbin

6

"Jihye, you have to at least dress up a little. You can't go meet him in a hoodie and sweatpants. Did I teach you nothing?" Jisung said, rummaging through my closet.

"It's not like he'll care." I whined.

"But if he's going to break your heart, you need to look good while he's doing it." Hyunjin said.

"It feels like you guys have a lot of hope in us." I said sarcastically.

"We do. But we don't know what's going to happen." He replied.

I rolled my eyes as Jisung threw an outfit at me.

"Wear that. It's not much but definitely better than...that." He said, pointing at my clothes.

"Well turn around! I'm not going to give you a free show." I groaned.

"That's a show nobody wants to watch." Jisung giggled, turning towards the wall.

Hyunjin slapped him on the arm, earring a scream from Jisung. I quickly changed. It was just a crop top with some jeans, so nothing out of the ordinary, but Jisung was right, it was definitely better.

"Okay, I'm done." I said. "Ready to go?"

They both nodded, following me outside. We all got in my brother's car and I drove slowly to the cafe.

"Can you drive any slower?" Hyunjin complained.

"Yes, actually, I can. I'm only going 10 under the speed limit." I argued. "Besides, we're already here."

We got out of the car and walked into the cafe. Changbin was at a small table in the corner.

"Go sit over there." I said, pointing to the other side of the room.

Jisung rolled his eyes, but still obeyed. Hyunjin followed after him. I walked over to Changbin, sitting down at the table.

"Hey." I smiled a bit.

"Hi." He replied, smiling as well.

I missed that smile.

"I guess I'll just get straight to the point. Eunji didn't want me talking to you. She was insecure that I had a female best friend, and she really wanted me to stop talking to you, so I just did. I was blinded by her, I just wanted to get over you, so I listened to her. Plus it was just so much easier to leave you when you were already gone. Trust me, it was the worst decision I've ever made. I talked to her, I said that I need to be able to to talk to you. It took a while, but she said yes." He explained.

His words hit hard. Was it really that easy to leave me?

"To get over me?" I asked.

"I- Did I say that? Uhm...I guess it was just a slip of the tongue." He hesitated, laughing it off.

"Changbin." He winced at the name, considering I used to call him by his nickname. "Can we even go back to how it was?"

"I want to at least try. Please, Jihye. If we can't make it work we don't have to force it." He said.

I wanted to trust him, I really did. I couldn't. Not yet at least. But I really did love him, which is the only reason why I said,

"Okay."

"Really?" He asked.

I nodded, causing him to get up and hug me.

"Thank you." He said, choking up.

I eased into the hug, smiling a bit. I missed his hugs. I really missed everything about him.

"So is everything good?" Jisung asked, very much ruining the moment.

"I tried to stop him, I swear. He's too fast." Hyunjin said, panting with his hands on his knees.

"Yeah, we're good." Changbin replied.

"Finally." Jisung smiled, pulling us into a big group hug.

In that moment, it almost felt as if I never left at all.

——

The summer ended fast, and it really was like I never left. My friendship was back to normal with Changbin, aside from the fact he didn't like me anymore. And even though I still liked him, I realized it was time to move on. Eunji hung out with us a lot more, and it was fine, she was nice. Lia also spent a lot more time with us.

But now, we were back in school. It was the first day, and Namjoon didn't want to let me and Seungmin leave.

"You guys are seniors now. Soon enough you'll be going to college, and getting jobs, then moving out." He cried.

"Joon, we need to go." I said.

"Okay. Have a good first day." He smiled, letting us leave.

Changbin was waiting outside. "You excited for today?"

"Yep. You?" I asked.

"More than ever. And then we get to go to college together once this year's over." He said.

"Yeah." I smiled.

Hyunjin and Jisung walked over. Normally we didn't walk to school with them, but today was special.

"You guys ready to go?" Hyunjin asked.

"LET'S GOO!!" Jisung screeched, bolting ahead, causing us all to laugh.

I quickly chased after him, and before long we reached the gate. Lia and Eunji were sitting on a bench waiting for their boyfriends, who showed up not too long after us.

"I think we should get a cake." Jisung suggested.

"Ooo, can it have sprinkles?" I asked.

"Why would we get a cake?" Eunji asked.

"You know, cause it's our last first day." I replied.

"I'm on a diet." She protested.

Me and Jisung exchanged glances.

"You don't have to have any, jagiya." Changbin said, sitting next to her.

"Then I'll feel left out." She whined.

"We don't need a cake. It's fine." I said.

Jisung gasped, before beginning to scream profanities in my face.

"Give us one second." I smiled, dragging Jisung to a secluded place.

"What do you mean no cake? Today is a special day, Jihye!" He shouted.

"Keep your voice down! We'll have cake, but it'll be later. It can just be the four of us." I suggested.

"Hey, I don't care who it is as long as we have cake." He smiled.

"You're so dumb, Han Jisung." I giggled, ruffling his hair.

"What? Cake is cake." He claimed.

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