Author's | PARK JIHOON

viii.

A shorter chapter ahead, I'm sorry! I decided to update since it's Jihoon's birthday today and he's finally 18 (international age). Yay for our baby who's growing up real fast!

The doorbell rang and Jihoon opened the door. He came back in with Jinyoung who looked so distressed.

Jihoon sat again at the floor, slumping, "Just so you know, opening the door for you is against my will." Jinyoung chuckled and rolled his eyes while he sat beside me at the couch.

I faced him, "Jinyoung, are you okay? Are you not mad at me?" He threw a small smile and messed my hair, "Madi, it's not your fault. As you can see, the screenshots posted were of my side." I widened my eyes in realization. I opened my phone and looked back at the screenshot that was posted on the article.

Jinyoung continued, "Which means that someone purposely hacked my account to dig something. I don't know but maybe it's because they want me to get kicked out of the show for less competitors."

Jihoon butted in, "Who even says 'you beautiful ray of sunshine' to their friend?" He groaned while rolling his eyes, obviously starting to get annoyed.

I blushed real hard at Jihoon's comment. It took a whole lot of courage for me to call Jinyoung that, seriously. I just wanted him to feel appreciated and all that. Now I couldn't even look back at Jinyoung's eyes, damn it Park Jihoon.

I heard Jinyoung chuckle, "Who says we're only friends?" As soon as I heard those coming out of his mouth, I snapped my head back to face him. I also saw Jihoon suddenly straightening his body and looking at Jinyoung with creased eyebrows.

Jinyoung laughed even harder when he saw our expression, "You guys, thank you for making me laugh even in this kind of situation." My lips turned upside down as soon as I realized how sad Jinyoung must be. Aish, it's basically my fault for chatting with him.

Jihoon took a glance between me and Jinyoung repetitively, then he stood up and walked out of the living room.

"What's with him?," I asked. Jinyoung shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe he's going to get a glass of water."

When he hasn't returned after a few minutes, I decided to look for him at the kitchen. I was walking quietly when Jihoon bumped into me with a glass of water in his hands. The water spilled on my shirt and I looked at him accusingly. Jihoon seemed to panic as he was frantically searching around for something, a towel perhaps to dry my shirt?

I was taken aback when he hugged me with my wet shirt directly making his clothes wet, too. He whispered, "I'm sorry. Now we're even, right?" I was waiting for him to pull away from the hug but he stayed still like that. I could even feel his heartbeat, I'm not sure though, maybe it's actually mine?

He pulled away from the hug and smiled, "It's dry now, isn't it?" I felt my clothes and nodded. I clung unto his arm and sheepishly smiled, "By the way..... I know now's not the right time. But whenever I ask you of this, you always ignore me." He looked at me as if he already knew what I was going to say.

"Can you help me with Jinyoung, please?," I pouted, "Pretty please, Jihoonie." He pushed my head back, making me lose a hold of his arm.

"This time, that's not gonna work," he said while he leaned against a counter.

I crossed my arms and frowned at him, "Why don't you want me to be with him?"

He crossed his arms, mocking me, "I'm against it." I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at him sharply, "And why is that so?" He ignored me and walked back to the living room. I ran up to him and held his arm, completely forgetting the fact that we're already at the living room and Jinyoung was just there.

He rolled his eyes at me as if I was the most stupid person on earth, "I can't help you work things out with him because I don't like it, okay?"