frenemies // jaemin

s e v e n

s o o y e o n
"i heard from your sister that you met jaemin again recently,"

"yeah, sadly," i said digging my hand into the packet of chips, eyes focused on the tv screen.

"i swear to god you two were attached to the hip back then, separating you two was impossible!" omma chirped again, making you roll your eyes.

omma has always favored jaemin. a little bit. nevermind, a lot. back when we were in kindergarten all throughout middle school omma would prepare us lunchboxes. somehow jaemin always gotten extra meat and his would be far more special than mine.

she considered jaemin as her own son. literally.

jaemin used to be obsessed with pokemon. on his seventh birthday, omma made him a lunchbox with a pokemon theme, yellow riceballs with little pieces of seaweed to resemble pikachu and also a pokeball shaped cookie. i've never felt so envious my whole life.

"i remember you and jaemin would-"

"omma, stop." i grumbled, putting a fistful amount of chips into my mouth.

-

"not cute...ew...no..." i mumbled as i went through the endless rack of clothes.

i've been in this store for what felt like hours, yet i still couldn't pick what i should buy. indecisive much?

this is so stressful. my eyes wandered around, until it landed on one piece of clothing. lying on the rack was a pink teddy bear coat, the one i've been seeing everywhere on my feed. standing alone. step by step, it was pulling me in.

with my eyes sparkling i reached for the coat, but before i could place my hand on it, another hand has already reached it. no, i won't let you go like this. with a tight grip on the soft material, i was about to snatch it until-

"sooyeon-shi?"

my eyes looked up to the voice, immediately regretting my choices. choi ahreum.

she was my bestest friend,after jaemin of course. we were so close we had sleepovers nearly every week. we also go shopping together alot and she would give me makeup tips as she is very good at it, it was all going fine until one day she started having a crush on jaemin.

she would always ask me to set me up with him and i really don't mind as they are both my bestest friends and i thought they would be cute together.after a few weeks, they got together and they were also titled as the 'it' couple of our school.
i would tag along during their dates as i'm best friends with the two but i couldnt help but feel like a thirdwheel. they were constantly smiling and giggling at each other and holding hands and it made me sick. one day, ahreum started to get insecure over their relationship.

she threatened me to stay away from jaemin or she will spread rumors about me. you might be thinking, how bad can the rumors be?

well she once made up a rumor about this one pretty girl in our class she was really jealous of. and long story short, she moved schools because she was terribly humiliated in front of the entire school.

me being the stupid 14 year old, i was so frightened something like that would happen to me so i completely burned bridges with them two. ignoring jaemin's calls and whenever he tries to talk to me at school i would just keep quiet. after a while we started becoming strangers, exactly what ahreum wanted in the first place.

its like we never knew each other anymore. i secretly wanted them to come back, realizing what they missed but it never happened.

  and at some point jaemin started picking on me, from accidentally hitting my face with a ball and calling me nicknames. not good ones of course.

sometimes i wonder what it would be like if ahreum never appeared. i would probably still be friends with jaemin.

"do you remember me?"

pushing away the memories in my head, i nodded at the silhouette in front of me with a tight smile and a nod. god, get me out of here.

i felt her eyes roam up and down, clearly judging me. i cleared my throat loudly and that made her stop.

"we should catch up soon," she said, handing a business card. dang, she's a businesswoman now? with shaky hands i took the card, entrepreneur written on it. the sound of that is already so fancy. should i give my card too? one day i will have my own card too, just you wait...

"what have you been doing recently?" she asked, her eyes narrowed.

shit,i can't say im a waitress,right? i furrowed my brows, trying to come up with a lie. clearing my throat, i started "i've been busy doing my internship," i smiled.

"well i better get going,i have a busy schedule," she snatched the hanger from me with a smug smile and sashayed away.

with a sigh, i watched my jumper go away. what a great day.