𝖷1 𝖨𝗆𝖺𝗀𝗂𝗇𝖾𝗌 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝖲𝗁𝗈𝗋𝗍 𝖲𝗍𝗈𝗋𝗂𝖾𝗌

18. Admit It Already

It was lunchtime and Minhee decided to ditch me for the spirit squad. I'm not bitter. Actually quite the opposite. I'm relieved that I'm not being dragged around to hang out with people that I don't know while Kang Minhee bes his perfect self.

I can now talk to Seoyeon for the first time in forever. I've barely hung out with her since Minhee showed up.

"Where have you been? It's like every time I look over at you you're participating in God knows what." Seoyeon acts like she's upset but I can tell she's happy for me.

Excited even.

She never explicitly said that she hoped I'd get more involved in things. Seoyeon's a participator and is a part of her own fair share of clubs and school activities.

"I don't know. Minhee's been taking me with him everywhere." I roll my eyes to show my annoyance.

"Oh yeah, trying new things sucks and forget about meeting new people," she says sarcastically. I give her a half smile. "So, what have you two been doing? How's home life?"

"It's fine, I guess. He's actually not as bad as I remember him to be. I've been hanging out with his friends a lot."

Seoyeon perks up a bit at the mention of the other boys.

"More east sider boys?" She grins, a sparkle in her eye, "what are they like? Are they cute?"

"Very."

It was true.

She squeals in excitement.

"Tell me more." She rested her chin on her hand.

"Well, they're funny, and nice, and really talented." I couldn't help but get animated with my characterization. Usually Seoyeon is the one who has gossip to share about cute boys.

"Talented at what?"

Shit.

I promised Minhee I wouldn't tell his parents about the band but he never mentioned other people.

Seoyeon is my best friend...

"You know, they're like Minhee, good at everything they do," I tell her and she nods in understanding.

Better to keep it secret. It wasn't my secret to reveal.

We go quiet for a few minutes.

"I've been thinking and I know he's cute but I don't really see the appeal of Minhee," Seoyeon says earnestly.

I look up at her incredulously.

She couldn't be serious.

"You're kidding, right?"

She keeps a straight face. "No, I mean, he acts nice and everything but honestly I think he does it just to get popular."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"Minhee couldn't care less about being popular."

It's the truth, like money, it's never been a real concern of his.

"And people only like him because he's good looking and rich. I mean, the first day he arrived all people could talk about was the new 'east sider' boy. Would he have gotten the same reaction if he came from here?"

She actually did have a point, but that doesn't explain why people still like him now, about two weeks since he arrived.

"People like Minhee because he's compassionate and generous and relatively cool."

I could feel myself get tense. This seemed like an argument and a ridiculous one at that.

"Please, he's just a little rich boy. There's hundreds of them on the east side."

"Yeah, But not all of them are like Minhee!" Seoyeon wasn't even looking at me. What's going on with her? "You're starting to sound like Kyungmi."

I don't know why I was getting so worked up about this.

"I'm tired of people thinking east sider's are stuck up brats. Minhee is nothing like that. He's funny and one of the only people that doesn't become a little bitch when I make jokes, and he always helps people without asking for anything in return, and you're never bored when you're around him because he's entertaining in a dork type of way that some people might find weird but is actually endearing, and you could be having the worst day and he'll know by just looking at your face and he'll smile and everything that was bothering you just disappears and you feel like everything's going to be alright."

I felt winded. Like I ran a marathon.

Seoyeon stares at me blankly. A large grin spreads across her face.

"Oh my god, you like him!" She giddily announces.

"What?" I was so confused.

"I just knew it. You've been spending so much time with him and he really is a good guy."

I brought a hand to my forehead. I was trying to digest what just happened.

"Jiah," Seoyeon coos with a sweet smile, "I'm so happy for you."

Finally my brain catches up.

"What are you talking about? I do not like Kang Minhee."

"Yeah, sure, you don't," she says sarcastically, an amused smile on her face. She began to collect her stuff before walking away.

Lunchtime was over.