Ghostly Relationships

Part Eight: Replaced

//Flashforward//

My hands shake and my eyes are wide. "What? What do you mean?"

"I'm sorry."

"I - I can't believe it. I can't believe you."

He leans towards me. "Please, forgive me, but you must be able to understand why I did this, right?"

I push him away. "I will never forgive you. Never. And I do know why you did this."

"Good." He sighs a breath of relief.

I smirk, hinting at humour, but my eyes tell a different cold story. "You did this to get yourself a reputation. You did this to make me the lowest I could possibly be."

// Flashforward end //

"I dunno about you, but I really enjoy the Walking Dead." 

"The Walking Dead?"

I nod. "Yeah, you know, the show where it's like a zombie apocalypse and people are tryna survive?"

"Ah!" Hyuk claps his hands together. "I know the one. But isn't it super gruesome?"

We're walking down the street together, the day after I went out to dinner with him. We've been talking for hours already over text, so we decided we should meet up, not having anything else on. 

I squint. "Eh, kind of. It's not that bad. I enjoy all the blood and guts."

"Eww," Hyuk wriggles around, "I hate that kinda stuff."

I tut at him. "Well, whatta shame, looks like we can't be friends then."

"Aww, c'mon, Min Hyo!" Hyuk puts his hands together. "Forgive me for not liking to see bodies get ripped apart!"

"Fine."

He jumps up and down, too childishly for my liking.

"Ya, settle down." I say and look straight ahead, into the eyes of someone I just don't want to see right now. "Hyuk, I really want to go into this shop. Let's go!"

I put my head down and push Hyuk into the entrance of an antique shop and look through a face mask in the window.

"What are we doing here?" Hyuk asks me. "I didn't know you were the antique kind of girl."

"Shh ..." I place my hand over his mouth and look out the window, waiting to see him pass. "Ugh, he's not going." I growl. I can feel Hyuk's lips moving underneath my hand, so I take it away.

"Who?" Hyuk asks.

"Nobody." I snap sarcastically. "Wait here."

I venture out and look to my right - the way he should have walked from - when I feel a pair of hands grabbing my shoulders. They whirl me around and I come face to face with Kim Hanbin.

"Look who's here." I hiss.

"Somebody looked like they were trying to find me, so I thought I'd come over and say hi."

I push his hands off my shoulders and pull a sarcastic smile. "Well, that was nice of you. Now, if you don't mind, I have to get somewhere in a hurry." I begin to turn away, but he catches my wrist.

"Actually, I do mind."

"Well that's just fine and dandy, isn't it?" I snap.

He rolls his eyes at me. "Look, I just wanted to say-" He stops talking and looks just past my head.

I slowly turn and see Hyuk standing slightly behind me. I groan and Hyuk awkwardly waves. I turn back to Hanbin and instantly see him brimming with jealousy.

Back when we were kids, if I would ever hang out with any other boys, Hanbin would always get super jealous and would push them away and say that he was my best friend and my only best friend.

"Oh, come on-"

"Do you know him?" He asks sharply, and grips my wrist tightly.

"Hanbin-"

"DO YOU KNOW HIM?!" He yells.

I go quiet. "Yes."

Hanbin laughs an almost mocking laugh.

I look up at him. "What?"

He glares at me with such intensity I have to look down again. "I can't believe you, Min Hyo."

Silence.

"You've replaced me already."

Hyuk starts yammering on about how it isn't what it looks like, making the situation a whole lot worse.

"Shut up." Hanbin growls, and Hyuk instantly falls silent. He looks at me and raises his eyebrows for an answer.

"Hyuk's right, there's no chemistry between us - ouch!" My wrist is in serious pain and I try to pull my hand away, but Hanbin just holds tighter.

"Is that all?" Hanbin asks. "There's no 'sorry' for seeing someone behind my back? Wah, Min Hyo, you really have changed."

"Ya, Kim Hanbin! I have not been seeing anyone behind your back, and if I had, what does it matter to you?" Hanbin is really crossing the line. "Besides, I met this kind young man in the elevator after you called me a STALKER."

Hanbin goes quiet, although his mouth keep gaping open and closed like a fishes, wanting to say something but no words coming out.

"So really-" I continue and pull my hand out of his grasp. "You're the one who has changed. I don't know where my best friend Kim Hanbin has gone. I don't even know you anymore." And then all of my anger gushes out, and I slap him hard across the face, and run, pulling Hyuk behind me.