Rival vs. Romance

Secrets, Song Jiwon, and Lies

Whatever Miss Song was doing here, it did not look good.

Especially when she was glaring daggers straight at me. I wasn't sure how she managed to not pop the ball in my hand with her glare. I was about to drag her out of the gym, but I would have been walking across the middle of the gymnasium for everyone to see, so I darted out the hallway, and circled around the perimeter, appearing outside the doors on the other side.

The glaring athlete slipped out into the hall, after seeing my blonde head poke out of the metal door frame. Song Jiwon was wearing a skirt today, her light blue t-shirt was tucked into it, and she covered herself with an over sized jean jacket.

"Why are you here?" I asked, arms crossed.

"I need something," She said. "I need you to pretend we're dating."

The favor sounded weird, even if it came out of her rosy lips.

"Oh, no." I said, putting my hands up. "Not happening."

"Please." She begged. "I don't like this idea any more than you do."

The fact that she hated it more than I did made things seem a little less freaky, but still freaky nonetheless.

"Tell me why, and I'll maybe consider it," I said. I wasn't sure why I was giving her a chance at all.

Maybe it's her lips,  A voice mused in my head.

Shut up, I told it.

"I can't," Jiwon said, after a while. "I can't. Please, just this one thing."

I peeked out the door, making sure no one was looking, before I dragged Jiwon out of the hallway, into the courtyard, and behind an oak tree, by the wrist.

"What's in it for me?" I asked, sighing. Jiwon's eyes widened, then she let out a loose laugh.

"Well, I was thinking your sister wouldn't know about that kiss, but that doesn't work that well, does it?" She asked. "One favor you can get from me, any day, anytime. A wild card."

I considered that.

Was it worth it?

"Think of it this way," Jiwon explained. "I'm using my wild card now, and you have one left."

"Wait, why do you have a wild card?"

"Because you kissed me," She said casually, checking her nails. Before I could protest, she stretched her arm out. "Deal, or no deal?

"Not sure why," I said reluctantly, reaching out for her hand. "but, deal."

---

"MIN YOONGI, WHAT THE FUCK?!" I screamed into the pillow. What was I thinking, making a deal like that with her? I must have been thinking gay, because I was definitely not thinking straight.

Or maybe I was thinking very straight, because my hormonal brain seemed caught up in the shade of her lips.

Whatever sexuality I was thinking in, I was still thinking like an insane person, because I'd just agreed to date my sister's worst enemy, and I didn't even know why. 

Fake date, that is. 

Come on, Yoongi, think positive. I told myself. This is your chance to find out whether you actually felt something or not.

Part of me was hoping that all I felt was a weird sensation in my pants and not the butterflies I'd dreaded to acknowledge. For once, I was praying I was just a regular teenage boy who didn't want to be killed by his sister, instead of making a terrible deal with an actual devil.

Or at least Soyoung thought she was an actual devil.

Did I?

---

"Hey, Yoongi!" Hoseok yelled from across the street, before jaywalking over to me. "Where's Soyoung?"

"Jeez, Hope." I said. "I'm right here."

When Hoseok and I were in third grade, he was constantly happy and cheerful. That earned him the nickname Hope. J-Hope sometimes, in accordance to his last name, Jung. In third grade, I earned the nickname Darth Vader.

Hoseok hadn't liked Soyoung back then. She always liked to kick him. I had been the one to kick her back, and then I got in trouble. But it was high school now. Hoseok and Soyoung were as in love as any two people could be, and I was still  just Darth Vader.

"Sorry, I just-"

"Miss her? Yeah." I finished for him. "Come on man, you should miss me more than her. You guys spend all your time with each other."

Hoseok smiled. 

"I'd never forget about you, you needy dumbass." He said, shaking my shoulder. "Let's go."

We were walking to school like we used to, but it didn't feel like it used to.

My best friend didn't feel like my best friend anymore. He felt like my sister's boyfriend. Hoseok was great at giving the people he loved his all.

If I felt this way, did that mean he didn't love me anymore?

Our friendship seemed as distant as the horizon right now, something you'd see in a photo but never really get to touch. I wasn't sure if having a shadow of it was more painful than not having him at all.

It was like my  Hope faded out of my world, and Soyoung's Hope came back in.

I hated that.

"Oh, hey, guys." Namjoon said, noticing Hoseok and I. We usually ran into Namjoon while walking to school these days, as he'd just moved into our neighborhood. I found myself taking more time out of my day to spend with Namjoon, the time that Hoseok and I should have been spending together. "Yo, Yoongi, I just had the best idea for a new song."

I turned to the blonde-haired boy. 

"Really?" I asked. Music was the one thing that Namjoon and I loved with our entire being. That was how we spent our time together. Rapping the lyrics we wrote together as the minutes of the day ticked away into nothingness.

Namjoon nodded. "My house, after school?"

"Hell, yeah."

---

A/N: damn where am i pulling out all these updates from

iDK nAN mOLLA

so, I have a volleyball game against the teachers at my school on friday and i lost a kneepad. like, a SINGLE kneepad. but I didn't wnat to tell my mom cause she'd kick my ass.

then she told me she had my kneepad.

wELP

-ri 💕