/love paint\

'Jealousy' Green

;)

Baekho pov:

"Who's that?"

"That my friend, is the only guy besides myself who hasn't been an asshole towards Mina. I'm sure if he hadn't switched schools they would have been going out by now." Ren had decided that wasn't enough of an explanation and continued.

"Honestly they're that cheesy match made in heaven couple. Both of them talented in the arts, somewhat kind hearted if they've had enough sleep, a bit either too naive or too dumb for the world, and both of them too blind to realize how much they like each other."

"Oh." I made myself busy whilst looking at the menu that had been handed to us.

"Oh? I just told you all of that and all you give back is one word. No wonder I'm the only friend you have." His seat scratched against the tiled floors as he moved it around.

"That's not true. I have plenty of friends at work." I retorted with a raised eyebrow as I looked over at him.

"Then why don't you ever hangout with them instead?" Ren quipped without glancing up from his own menu.

"I see them enough during my shifts. And if I don't hangout with you often I'll forget what your real hair and eyes look like." I had leaned forward enough to push the side of his head in a playful manner. If there was one thing I no longer did was take Ren's harmless jokes too seriously.

His expression switched over to one of faux annoyance as he scooted out of my reach.

"True. And you know what else is true? The fact that I need to come clean here." Ren waited until I had my complete attention on him. "The only reason I blackmailed you was so that Mina could talk to someone else for this assignment. . .and so that you would leave the apartment besides just for work."

My friend's words caught me off guard enough to where I had to take a moment to respond. "You always did have your own way of helping people. Even if it meant blackmailing."

Ren had his own way of showing his care for those close to him, and learning to see it as good intentions was also part of the packaged deal that came along with befriending him. That and learning how to take care of wigs.

His eyes momentarily traveled towards the door before he continued, "I asked all the people who she normally asks for help to tell her they were busy. She hates painting the same things more then once, but her social anxiety causes her to suck it up and miss out on one too many opportunities."

I felt my eyes widen in surprise. "Wait she has that?"

"Well yes." For a few seconds Ren looked to be contemplating on wether or not to keep going. "I trust you which is why I'm telling you this, okay. She stresses over doing social things that we would consider normal or easy, like starting a conversation. It use to get to the point where she completely avoiding interacting with others."

"I never really noticed." My tone was only showing a glimpse of how bad I felt for not having been aware. Had I known I would have tried to make things easier for her.

"Most people don't. They just think she's shy or uptight. She use to suffer a lot with it but her parent's tried every form of therapy until they hit the nail on the hammer."

"With art." I spoke, not having to be told what exactly it had been that changed her life for the better.

"Bingo. That's not to say that every artist is a suffering soul. Which is why I liked Jonghyun so much for her because he was just a talented, kind guy who helped her without any strings attached."

"Oh." I paused as I felt the guilt rush through me, "Did she ever say I made her uncomfortable?"

"She did think you were an ass in the beginning. But I don't see her wary around you nowadays. Did something change besides you helping her out with those real assholes?"

"I took her out after to get her mind off of things and we talked our differences out."

"Wow. You talking about feelings means you must really like her." One side of his mouth lifted up into a smirk.

Before I could protest Mina sat down next to Ren. It wasn't hard to notice the remnants of a blush covering her face as she peered down at the menu. In that moment the guilt I had only shortly ago had been feeling was overwhelmed by another stronger emotion.

"So what brings Jonghyun around?" Ren asked.

"Oh he was just visiting his family."

"And?" Ren pressed, "We're all friends here, Mina. We know when you're trying to leave us with half the story."

"And he asked if I could hangout with him tomorrow." She spluttered out. It was truly a job to immediately decipher her words.

The hand that had been supporting my chin slipped and I only just managed to catch myself from hitting the table.

Both Mina and Ren where looking I'm my direction. Only one was full of concern while the obvious latter had that shitty smile of his.

"Is everything alright, Baekho? You look a little green." Ren commented.

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a/n:

sorry for taking so long to update

but I love how Ren is such an instigator in this story. that's low-key (read: high-key) me. with only four more chapters to go I have to drop some angst/drama in the next parts so prepare yourselves