Mistakenly mistaken

Questioning - Yunjin Han (pov)

The past few days have been odd for me, and it's mainly because of those two. Songjae and Jongyun have been spending an awful lot of time together. It's not like I hate it because I want them to be friends so it's not awkward and we can all get closer. But I feel left out. A lot. Too much.

"Songjae. Jongyun. You both missed your classes today. All your classes," I said crossly.

"Yeah. We were tired," Songjae replied nonchalantly.

"But I saw you both going for the drama practice this morning," I pointed out, trying to understand what they were up to.

"Yeah. We did. The practice though took all our energy, gosh," Jongyun said, sounding unusually relaxed. I had never heard Jongyun speak like that before. He seemed different, more at ease.

"And then that club president," Songjae sighed, shaking his head.

"He is out there to get us," Jongyun added, placing his hand on Songjae's right shoulder. We were sitting around a table in the cafe, chatting away since there weren't many customers today.

"What did you even do all day then?" I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

"We slept," Jongyun chuckled, glancing over at Songjae. Songjae smiled too, nodding in agreement.

"You... slept?" I repeated, incredulous.

"Yeah. We slept. And by the time I woke up, Songjae had come in with coffee and breakfast. After that, we spoke about random things and then fell asleep again," Jongyun explained, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Huh. So you guys just slept all day-" But before I could finish, a customer showed up. Songjae immediately stood up to take the boy's order while I rushed behind the counter to prepare it.

"One lemon mint tea and chocolate lava pudding," Songjae announced with a smile. He handed the buzzer to the boy, who then sat next to Jongyun. Jongyun, of course, felt uncomfortable and began packing up to move to another seat.

The boy spoke up, "I won't trouble your work," glancing at Jongyun's laptop.

"You can sit here," he added. He sounded genuinely nice, which made it hard for Jongyun to refuse. Reluctantly, Jongyun stayed in his seat. Songjae and I glanced at him from our places, sharing a look of concern.

As evening approached, the cafe became busier. Orders kept flocking in, and we were swamped. Since we didn't have a third staff member and our boss was on vacation, we had to fill up stocks ourselves as well.

"Black coffee. Ready. Chocolate Swiss. Ready. Cold Americano. Ready," I announced loudly, wiping the sweat from my forehead with my apron. Songjae rushed to pick up the orders and place them on the front counter, hitting the buzzers.

I felt a small sense of relief that we were semi self-service. When I first joined and was told there were no servers, I complained a bit, but now it worked in our favor. After a while, when Songjae and I looked over at Jongyun's seat, we saw he was growing increasingly uncomfortable as the customer next to him struck up a conversation.

"Hey. What's your name?" the boy asked bluntly.

"Uh... Jongyun... Seok..." Jongyun stammered.

"Okay Seok-ssi. I'm Shin Sooyeong," the boy introduced himself.

"Yeah, hi," Jongyun mumbled, clearly uneasy.

"So, are you a second year?" Sooyeong continued.

"N-no. First year," Jongyun replied, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Oh? I am a first year too! Which major?" Sooyeong asked, showing no signs of stopping.

"Vi-visual arts," Jongyun said, glancing nervously at his laptop.

"Oh? Me too," Sooyeong exclaimed with enthusiasm.

Jongyun nodded, his lips trembling slightly. Songjae quickened his pace to finish the orders so he could go and help Jongyun, while I tried to do the same. We both felt that Jongyun might just pass out from the stress.

"What subjects have you taken up?" Sooyeong continued his interrogation.

"Fine arts, photography, graphics, interior design, applied arts. All in that order," Jongyun answered hesitantly.

"Oh, we have the same subjects except for the last two. I have contemporary arts and animation there," Sooyeong said, nodding along.

"Oh. Uh. I have an assignment to work on-" Jongyun tried to excuse himself.

"Yeah! I saw you tapping away. What is it anyway?" Sooyeong pressed on.

"A design..." Jongyun hesitated. I really wanted to dart over there, but the orders kept coming.

"Well then, can I see your phone?" Sooyeong asked suddenly.

"What?" Jongyun looked even more bewildered.

"Yeah. Your dial pad," Sooyeong clarified, making it clear he wanted to input his number into Jongyun's phone. I wished Jongyun wouldn't give it to him, but I knew he was incapable of saying no.

"Here..." Jongyun handed over his phone reluctantly.

"Amazing... and... here. Done," Sooyeong said, tapping the phone on the table and standing up. "Let's keep in touch." Jongyun nodded slightly as Sooyeong walked away.

The sun began to set, and closing time approached. After the last customer walked out, Songjae immediately rushed over to Jongyun and crouched in front of him. "Are you okay? Did he do anything to you? Did he try to-"

"Songjae, Songjae. Calm down," Jongyun said, holding Songjae's shoulders gently. "He didn't do anything to me. I'm fine."

I followed behind and sighed a huge sigh of relief when I heard that. I was afraid the bullying history would repeat itself. Thank the lords nothing happened.

"I told you. I can take care of myself," Jongyun said firmly.

"Yeah, but-" Before Songjae could protest, I spoke up.

"Yeah, we know. But it's just that much we care about you. You seemed so nervous it had us there."

"Oh. Haha. I'm just that bad at socializing," Jongyun admitted with a sheepish smile.

"Hah... you gave me a heart attack..." Songjae plopped down, leaning his back against the table behind him. Jongyun sighed, smiling at him.

"Well, it's over. You guys just overreacted," Jongyun ended, looking over at me.

I shook my head, "Anything better than seeing you hurt."

After that, we closed up the cafe with Jongyun's help and walked our separate ways. I plodded towards my house, thinking about how we missed the chance to do our assignments together yesterday at Jongyun's place like we had planned and ended up doing it on our own.

But, it was nice to see them together, caring and talking.