F.R.I.E.N.D.S. [K.TH]

#32

Sunhee watched with amusement as her cousin stalked around his kitchen, his eyes narrowed and jaw clenched in obvious irritation. She scooped another spoonful of ice cream and delighted herself on the coldness of the dessert melting on her tongue. "Imagine you trip over your own feet from how much you're pacing." He stopped his pacing momentarily to glare at her, unamused. "But seriously, jealousy is not a good look on you."

"Who said I was jealous?" Taehyun snapped, and she raised her eyebrows at him.

"Keep up with the rudeness and I'm telling Auntie that you're being mean to me." He opened his mouth to make a retort, but decided to not face his mother's wrath and closed his mouth. She put her ice cream away beside her, and crossed her arms. "Wise decision. Also I say that you're jealous. Don't think I didn't see the way you were staring daggers at the two of them."

"I was not staring daggers at them."

"And I'm the Cat in the Hat. Trust me, you were glaring at them. You looked like you wanted to throw Beomgyu out the window."

"I always want to throw Beomgyu out of the window. And I was not glaring at them!"

"Yes you were!"

"No I wasn't!"

"Was!"

"Was not!"

The two glared at each other in annoyance. "Fine then," Sunhee rolled her eyes with a smirk, "be as defensive as you want. I know what I saw."

"You clearly don't." Taehyun cast his eyes at the other side of the closed kitchen door, where the others were playing some board game that the two Kangs decided to sit out of. "And I'm not jealous. Just..." His shoulders slumped, and the atmosphere went from light and cheery as it had been a while ago, to melancholic. Sunhee's teasing smile fell, sensing the gravity that the conversation was going to take a turn towards.

No matter how much the cousins bickered, they always had each other's back. And as the older cousin, Sunhee felt it was her responsibility to be the shoulder right now.

"Upset?" He shook his head. "Then what are you feeling?"

"I don't know. It's just..." Taehyun ran an irritated hand down his face, "I've kind of known Haeri since highschool since we sat next to each other in a few classes. We never talked at all since she kept to herself, and I had no problem with that. We would only talk if it was to do with the work or when we greeted each other with a 'Hi?' or a 'How was your holiday?' but never really got to sit down and talk."

Sunhee kept quiet, allowing her cousin to ramble onwards. "Then university happened, and we just never crossed paths for a long time. I knew she was friends with Kai, but I never really had the chance to talk to her. But I would think about her from time to time: wondering if she still looked the same or acted the same." He took a deep breath, the corner of his lips tugging up in a light smile, his eyes shining. "Until now, and being able to really talk to her is nice and all, but not nice in a 'We're friends now' eventhough we are friends, but I feel my insides become mushy and weird."