unrequited

04

"Girl what??" Hanni exclaimed. It was warm out, and she had a rare free day so we decided to quickly run to the store and get ice cream. "Wait that was too much at once. Explain again? You said you're going to ghost Changmin??"

"Woah, who said anything about ghosting?" I asked my dramatic friend. We were walking back to the school for club time and the sun was at its highest. It felt nice having it be just the two of us. Bikes were flying down, we passed by some stray cats, and the plants were recovering from winter to spring. "I'm not ghosting him. And what is there to ghost anyway? It's not like we talk all the time."

"I guess," She said. "But after Chanhee and them I would argue that you talk to him the most."

"Anyways." I shooed her off. "So this Serri character is going to join book club today."

"What??" She exclaimed. "The one time I actually go to a club meeting there's drama? This is fantastic."

"Fantastic isn't the word I would use for that. But sure." I said. "But anyway, she came at a good time. She and Changmin can fall into their flawless relationship and I can...."

Hanni waited a second for me to finish but I had nothing. I presumed that I would keep at my normal, boring life. I would just try to forget about anything with him.

"You could.... move onto someone else," Hanni suggested. She was the only, and I mean, the only person on the planet who knew about my silly little crush.

I rolled my eyes. "Fat chance. Have you seen the people at our school? In our grade?"

She shrugged. "There are some hidden gems, and trust me, I know everybody. Pick someone out, and I'll have a connection to them."

"I'll keep my eye out," I told her with no intention of doing so. A distraction would be nice, but I wasn't about to waste my time with somebody mediocre.

When we got to the school some of the hallways were bustling with after school activities. There was soccer out on the field.

Hanni and I entered the library and there were already ten or so people here. The meeting got started and Serri introduced herself. Everyone watched her in awe. She was pretty, she was tall, and her hair was perfect and she was sweet.

She was perfect for Changmin.

The rest of the time the club leaders let us go free through the library and pick out any book to read. Hanni found a manga and sat down at a table. People immediately flocked around her until there were no more seats for me to sit.

She mouthed an apology for her popularity, but I shook my head. I was glad just to be her best friend.

Now alone, I searched through the aisles, searching by author but my mind was elsewhere. I needed to find a book as soon as possible for the escapism. I was so done with reality.

"Hey!" Serri's face appeared between the shelves and she smiled.

"Hi." I said. No matter what I did, I always sounded nervous. Intimidated.

She circled around to stand next to me. "You wanna show me around?"

"The library?" I asked.

Serri giggled. "The school, silly."

"Oh." I said. Wasn't that Changmin's job?

"And to talk about... the other thing," She raised her symmetrical eyebrows.

"Oh." I repeated. "O-okay. Yeah, sure."

"Great!" Serri linked her arm through mine and she half dragged me out of the library. On our way to the door Hanni and I shared a look of confusion to each other.