APRICITY | SKZ

14 - Nobody's Choice pt.2 | K.SM

Friendship is one hell of a complicated concept.

A toddler would call someone a friend they've only known for ten minutes.
A teenager would call someone friend they've actively talked to for a month at least.
A grown up calls everyone they haven't knowm for a couple of years yet an accomplice, someone they simply know.

What are friends?
Who are your friends?

Those were the exact questions that went through Seungmin's head as he awkwardly stared at the horizon.
For the past two weeks, Nara has spent every lunch break with him, on the rooftop, but they never spoke a single word.

The tension around them only grew over time, it became harder to break it, even the thought of breaking their silence felt illegal.

If Nara was as nervous as him, she was doing a great job at hiding it, because Seungmin could not detect a single sign of discomfort whenever he glanced at her face. She simply kept eating, the sound of her chopsticks clinking against the tray being the only sound she ever produced.

He didn't understand.

He was was the second male lead, she was a side character that had never been mentioned before, so why, why was he feeling so special at the moment.

"You okay?"

He flinched, looking up at her as she stared at him with one eyebrow raised in question.

"You haven't touched your food in over five minutes."
She elaborated.

"O-Oh." he looked at his tray surprisedly, noticing that his food had, indeed, gone completely cold.
"It's fine, I wasn't that hungry anyways."

"Da fuck you mean?"
Her voice was anything but amused and her vulgar words managed to throw him off every time.
"You're as thin as a stick, you should take more care of yourself. Eat, you're making me look fat."

If those words had come from anyone else, Seungmin would have found them insulting. He would have thrown the other a nasty glare and maybe even thrown in some harsh words.

But when Nara said it, it was so on brand of her and natural, he found himself smiling at her words. Written in very small letters, between her words, he could read that she was worried for him.
It was true, he did loose a lot of weight since the day they met on the rooftop for the very first time.

"Alright."

She grinned at him, punching his shoulders.
"That's the spirit."

When they went back to eating again, turning completely silent, it didn't feel forced and strict anymore, not at all.

A friend.
Seungmin smiled to himself.
Definitely a friend.

Starting from that day on, talking had become a new activity for the both of them as they started doing it more during their lunch breaks. It was easy to talk with Nara, despite their differences, and Seungmin found out a lot about her in a very short time.

For example, that she loved the moon and, as disgusting as it was, mint chocolate ice cream. She was a big fan of ice skating and was a cat person. Nara couldn't function properly without a hefty glass of orange juice first thing in the morning and absolutely despised coffee (his inner caffeine lover hurt a little bit).

Nara was so different from her.
In every thinkable aspect.

But then, apart from everything she told him, he also noticed a lot about her from observing.
For example, that her eyes lit up whenever she talked about something exciting, the way her knee starts shaking when she talked about something embarassing or lied. He noticed that she liked to draw shapes into the dirty ground with her shoes and that she liked to use her whole body when she explained something. She also liked to curse a lot.

Nara was a happy talker and Seungmin was very good at listening.

She was like an open book that he could read. What he never expected though, was her question that one fine Thursday noon.

"What about you?"

He snapped out of it, frowning.
"Huh. What do you mean?"

She chuckled, punching his shoulder.
"What about you? I always talk, it's your turn now, sleeping beauty."

"Eeh..."
Seungmin rasped his throat, scratching his neck.

No one's every asked him that question.
He was never significant enough in her story to be asked about himself.

Nara seemed to realise his struggle, sighing disappointedly.

"Alright."
She turned so they were facing eachother.
"I ask, you answer, that alright with you?"

He nodded, unsure of the outcome.

"Basic questions first:

What's your favourite colour?"

"Blue."

"Favourite food?"

"Rice."

"Animal?"

"Dogs."

"What about sports?"

"Baseball."

A moment of silence as Nara thought about further questions.
Looking back, Seungmin couldn't help but notice.

"I'm not very original, am I?"
He chuckled.

Seungmin sighed.
He wasn't interesting in any way, he couldn't help but question why someone as colourful and exciting as Nara would voluntarily spend time with him.

"Hmm..."
Nara shrugged.
"It's fine."

He glanced at her, surprisedly.
"But isn't it the interesting things that make people special, that turn them into individuals?"

"Look, Seungmin."
Nara grabbed his shoulders.
"You can't categories character traits and such as interesting or uninteresting. Everything forms an individual.
What's exciting for me could be absolutely horrid and boring to you. While you believe that scuba diving is extremely cool shit, a scuba diver could think that being exceptionally good at art is as well, while an artist believes they're investing into the most useless talent during modern times."

"Oh, wow."
His eyes widened.
"I've never thought about it like that."

"See, I'm pretty smart for someone who doodles shrimps into her textbook during lectures."

They laughed, thinking back to the poorly draw crippled sausages from her margins.

"You're pretty cool if you ask me."
She shrugged again, stretching her legs with a big groan.

"Besides-"
She grinned mischievously.
"I think nerds like you are pretty hot."

The male was too stunned to speak, gaping at Nara like a fish on dry land.
Her cheeks dusted with the same rosy tint that was spread on his as she giggled, closing his mouth with a finger.

He was absolutely and completely wordless.

"Oh, would you look at that, it's time for me to go home."
Nara looked at her nonexistent watch.

Leaning forward, she pressed a teasing kiss to his cheek, making him flush even further as her ears also turned deep red.

"See you tomorrow, hot stuff."

_ _ _
Part 2/3

14.08.2024; 1085 words