love is a joke (michaeng)

I'm not letting you go on your own

-CHAEYOUNG POV-

After we had eaten, I cleared up the mess we had made and threw myself back down on the worn sofa that sat miserably in my living room. Mina sat beside me, silently whilst scrolling through her phone, frowning.

I moved a little closer to her, closing the gap between us. "What's with the solemn expression?"

She looked up, not realising I had come back and then spoke.

"Jeongyeon and Jae texted me asking where I was, that's all."

That surprised me. How on earth did she know Jeongyeon? Jeongyeon had been one of the only people I had kept in my life, and the one person I knew I could trust.

"Jeongyeon? How do you know her?" I asked, intrigued.

"Ah I got lost yesterday, and she helped me get to my classes..." she muttered.

I let out a small sigh. "So that's how she knew I wasn't in maths" I said under my breath, not to anyone but myself.

"But how do you know her? Jae said that she's one of the only people you speak to."

"He said that did he? That little- ugh." I rolled my eyes before continuing. "Jeongyeon and I grew up together because her parents would babysit me when mine were-uh.. -when my parents were busy. Which was most of the time." I said the last bit indistinctly, closing my eyes as I started to pay less attention to my surroundings, and more to suppressing my memories.

-

-MINA POV-

"...Which was most of the time." She muttered under her breath. I looked up and felt slightly concerned as my eyes scanned the pained expression Chaeyoung's face held. It was almost as if she was trying not to think about something so much so, that it hurt. I reached my arm out and tapped her shoulder gently.

"H-hey are you okay?"

She snapped out of whatever had encompassed her mind and stared at me with a nervous smile.

"Yeah I'm fine. It's fine. It's nothing."

I wasn't convinced, but if I pushed her to tell me, she would probably get pissed off and I don't particularly fancy being on the receiving end of her rage. So I just nodded in response.

We both sat in silence for a short while, as an awkward atmosphere took a hold on the room. Thankfully, the shrill ring of a phone call broke the strange ambience, causing Chaeyoung to jump up and answer her mobile.

"Hey, what's u-"

"WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?!"

Good lord, whoever was on the other end was shouting so loud that I could hear them, and they weren't even on loudspeaker. Chaeyoung pulled the phone away from her face, wincing in pain whilst glaring at the device in hand with irritation.

"Hyung, stop trying to deafen me, I texted you already about what happened."

I gave her a questioning look. "Hyung?" I asked quietly, to which she responded by just rolling her eyes and letting out a sigh.

"Wha- No of course I didn't do anything to her what the fu- Yes she's fine, she's with m- Look just ask her yourself, for god's sake", She grumbled down the line, thrusting the phone towards me.

"It's Jeongyeon", she mouthed. I nodded and took the cell phone.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Oh my god, are you okay? What happened? Are you hurt? Did Chaeyoung prank you or something?"

She fired an endless stream of questions at me, barely giving me time to blink.

"N-no what? Chaeyoung didn't do anything , I just kind of passed out, so she carried me to her apartment and made sure I was okay", I answered, glancing up at the younger girl who was blushing in embarrassment.

Down the line, I heard Jeongyeon sigh in relief, "You need to take care of yourself Mina, you don't know how worried I got." I nodded in response, before realising she couldn't see me, "Oh-uh yeah I will do."

"-Oh and Mina?"

"Mhmmm..?"

"Chaeyoung carried you? She must care about you a lot then, ya know. She doesn't really do much for anyone unless she owes them, or if they mean something to her... Stuff like that. Anyway rest up! I'll see you tomorrow!"

She hung up before I could reply and before I could even process her words.

Does Chaeyoung owe me for something? No definitely not... but then why would she have helped me? Then again, she couldn't just leave me there. Wait no she could have if she wanted to? I groaned in confusion, making Chaeyoung deliver a strange look to me. I grabbed her hand and put her phone in her palm. Then I checked the time and seeing that it was already past midday, I decided to spare Chaeyoung anymore of my presence.

"Hey Chaeyoung, I'd better go now, sorry for all the trouble", I said, looking down at my sore, bandaged hands.

"Hey, it's fine. It was no trouble, I promise," I looked at her serious expression and opened my mouth to protest, but she started talking again before I could.

"Also...um. I'm sorry", she stated. "I'm sorry for acting so annoying before, with the table and all that.."

I was at a loss for words. The girl who supposedly had a treacherous reputation for her cold demeanour just apologised to me? I started at her for a few second, with my mouth gaping open, before finally answering, "A-ah it's fine. I guess it would have been funnier if I had been watching from afar, rather than being your victi- I mean your..." I trailed off, realising I was letting my mouth run off on it's own.

I heard a chuckle coming from in front of me, where the short girl was trying not to let her lips form a smile, but was failing miserably.

"Yah! Don't laugh at me, I'm just not very good with words, okay?"

She just nodded, before looking down at the floor, "Neither am I. The only reason I teased you before was because you were interesting. You just seemed a lot different, and I didn't know how to approach you. I'm not really good at the whole 'people' thing, as you've probably realised."

It seemed as though every time she spoke, I was hit with something unexpected. I momentarily thought back to my meeting with Jae, and then spoke, "Why don't we start again then? Hi I'm Myoui Mina, a second year transfer student from Japan. It's nice to meet you, Chaeyoung!" I bowed to her, making her laugh a little.

"Hey, I'm Son Chaeyoung and I'm in my first year, it's nice to meet you too, Mina"

She nodded, "So- uh friends?"

"Friends."

~

so maybe chaeng isn't as cold (and annoying) as we thought, hmmm.

also this is a bit shorter sorry, but it felt like a good place to stop the chapter if ygm... anyways yep sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes! (as always) <3