Chaeyoung walked into the diner dreaming of another world, a better world, a world where she and Nayeon skipped arm in arm through fields of gold, laughing and reminiscing about that time when Nayeon had totally and utterly not invited her to dinner with her awful girlfriend.
"'Pride & Prejudice?" Nayeon asked, without preamble.
"What about it?"
"What do you mean, 'what about it'? You gave me five thousand words on it!"
"I know," Chaeyoung replied. "I was there. You were all, boohoo, I forgot to write my essay because I'm a doofus, and I was all, cometh the hour, cometh the girl, and saved your ass. I remember it well."
"Yes, but you could have told me what it was about!" Nayeon said. "I had to stand up in class this morning and tell them why I chose it."
"And?"
"I've never even heard of it!"
"Which is why I gave you a copy of the essay."
"Yes, but I..."
"You did read it, didn't you?"
There was a hot silence.
"No."
"Why not?"
"I..."
"Honestly, Nayeon," Chaeyoung pouted. "For shame."
"I haven't got time to read five thousand words about things I've never heard of!" The brunette said, exasperated. "Why didn't you pick something I'd seen?"
"I don't know what you've seen!"
"You could guess!"
"Yeah, I could. And if you really want to stand up in front of a class full of film geeks and tell them your favorite movie is Trolls, then go for it."
"My favorite movie is not Trolls!"
"Ratatouille?"
.
"No!"
"The Hot Chick."
"Very funny," Nayeon snapped. "You know, I think you did it on purpose."
There was a brief pause, just long enough for Nayeon to realize how stupid that sounded, but too short for her to fit an apology into. "No Chaeyoung..."
"That's right, Im," Chaeyoung said, calmly. "You got me. I drove eight hours and stayed up all night writing the best essay I've ever written, just to make you look like an asshole in front of a bunch of people I don't know. Man, I'm just the worst friend ever."
Nayeon groaned. This was going to take a while.
"What kind of monster would do something like that? I should be locked up."
"That wasn't-"
"Please, no, cover your eyes. Don't look at me, I'm an abomination. Unclean! Unclean!"
"Stop that!" Nayeon said. "Nayeon said it's fine, Nayeon said sorry, okay? You know I didn't mean it."
Chaeyoung shrugged. "Yeah, right."
"I didn't!"
She studied her fingernails. "I mean, it's not as if I have feelings, or anything."
YOU ARE READING
A Dangerous Friend - Nachaeng
Romanceㅡ "How about," she said. "A nice big cup of 'Let's stay in touch' my ass?" Everyone needs at least a one crazy friend, and it looks like Nayeon found hers.