The Complications of Having a Korean Best Friend

03 - Welcome to the Friend-Zone

I wasn't aware that I'd been snoring aloud in class so when our Chemistry teacher slammed her text book onto my table, right next to my face, I jumped up from my seat startled at the sound and lost my balance, very ungracefully falling to the floor.

"It's almost afternoon, Grace," my teacher remarked icily, "Is your nap over yet or do you wish to continue?"

"Well, if you're asking..."

Her eyes narrowed at my response. "Don't get cheeky with me. Get back in your seat."

She walked back to the front of the classroom as I pulled myself up and sat down in my chair. The whole class's attention seemed to be fixed at me, as if they expected me to just roll back to sleep and fall over once again for their amusement. I ignored them and went back to staring at my notebook and it's doodles.

It wasn't that I was the class clown - although not trying to tote my own horn here, but I was pretty funny. It's just that people seemed to enjoy my company for the most part, since I was an easy going person. But I did get most girls' attentions because being openly bisèxual in high school was considered "cool" or "hot" or whatever.

Although I didn't really care what other people's considerations were so that elevated my coolness level in other people's eyes even more.

The whole social ladder in high school was quite amusing and ridiculous.

I continued to doodle for the rest of the class to keep myself from sleeping. I successfully managed to stay awake till the class ended and then headed to the cafeteria right away. I was starving.

"Hey, sleepyhead," Ally's cheery voice greeted as she fell in step with me. Ally was one of the most adorable girls around, with her 4'8 height and her huge green eyes. With her next to me, I looked like a giant and I always felt this irresistible urge to scoop down and hug her.

"Hi," I replied, giving her a quick smile when I realised that she practically had to jog to keep up with my pace. "Alls, I'm hightailing it to the cafeteria and your legs are gonna melt if you try to keep up."

"Is that a challenge?" She arched an eyebrow, already biting onto the bait.

"Race ya there!" And in the next second I was off.

Ten seconds later, I got there first. Obviously. While I waited for her to catch up, I got a soda and a big bag of Lays from the vending machine and headed towards my regular table.

The Harley twins were busy having an animated conversation with each other. Since I knew them well, I had no doubt that the topic of their interest was something to do with movies. Both of them were blonde and played in the football team. I sat down from across of them and they carried on their argument, completely oblivious of my presence.

"DC studio was the foundation of comic book movies, even back when people didn't take those kind of movies seriously," Steven said, to which John replied, "But they haven't produced any good movies in the recent years at all. I mean, just look at Superman versus Batman. They completely butchered what could've been an otherwise excellent movie."

"Point one goes to J Harley," I announced enthusiastically, causing both of them to pause their conversation and to look at me. After a second, John smiled in triumph. "See?" He said to his brother. "Grace also agrees."

"But Grace also happens to love Wonder Woman as well, which by the way, is a DC creation," Steven retorted, with his arms folded across his chest.

At that moment, John looked over to me with a wounded expression on his face, like I'd just backstabbed him by liking the movie.

"Oh, get over it," I chuckled, opening up the bag of chips. "Wonder Woman's hot."

"Very," came Jungkook's familiar voice from beside me as he settled down. "But on the other hand, Marvel has Black Widow so..."

"So what?" Steven turned to face him. "Wonder Woman can beat her ass any day, any time."

"Can't beat her in bed though," I murmured under my breath but the guys heard it nonetheless and burst into laughter, agreeing. Even Steven managed to give a slight nod to indicate that he too, agreed with my statement.

I felt someone slide into the seat on my other side and wasn't surprised to find a huffing Ally, trying to control her breathing. "How... do you... run... so fa...fast?"

"Longer legs help," I simply said, offering her some of my soda which she accepted gratefully. "So what're we guys taking about?" She managed to ask after getting some of her energy back.

"About who would be better in bed, Wonder Woman or Black Widow," I told her shamelessly and she rolled her eyes. "Black Widow, of course."

When Steven looked distraught by her answer, she said, "Oh come on, she has the freaking Hulk tied around her little finger. Obviously she's doing something right."

And all of us erupted in laughter.

—

I couldn't help noticing that every now and then Ally would just casually glance towards Jungkook when she thought that no one was looking.

It made me a bit uneasy to see her interest in him like that, not that it was sudden or unexpected. In fact, she had been doing it for quite some time now and I really wasn't sure how to feel about that.

I mean, Ally was a really good friend and a dependable one too but at the same time, Jungkook and I...

Jungkook and I were nothing like an item at all, never had been in the past either but I couldn't deny the fact that I liked him. And I wasn't sure what to do about that either so that's why I indulged in certain "questionable" activities that my uncle and aunt would surely frown upon. I spent time with other people, never really in a serious way but just so that I could get Jungkook off of my mind. I slept around, trying to distract myself from my feelings because I couldn't ever be sure if he would return them or not.

Every time he looked at me, I could see how he saw me through his eyes. Only a friend. I've been friend-zoned for years now.