[EDITING]
When Jeon Jeongguk's sister gets engaged to his friend's brother, almost everything changes.
Desperate to hold onto a fragile friendship, Jeongguk is willing to get himself into sticky situations--even to the point of ruining his sister's...
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Chapter Nine: Brunch, Take Two
At the very moment Jeongguk set eyes on the boy, his anger vanished.
The anger, which had simmered inside him the entire day, gradually building up, tasting like ore and gravel, tangy, almost like blood, had been watered down, washed away with a quick liquid and leaving only a faint taste of bitterness in his mouth. The words which had sat in his stomach the entire day, words of contempt and anger at his friend hit him like a punch, they were there and then they were gone, taking with them everything but a thin wound of something called dread.
He dreaded speaking to him, as he waited by the gate. He dreaded the sight of him as he saw him approaching. Dreaded thinking of him up close, his eyes, how he would look at him and how he himself would soften and forget his anger, how even the faint bitter taste in his mouth would turn into something so much sweeter.
He had that smile on his lips, the one that said, yes I am here but it is you I am interested in, and his eyes were soft and his stance said he was kind and Jeongguk hated that because he wanted to be angry at him.
He wanted to punish him for flaking on him. He wanted to punish him for being with Mina. But most of all he wanted to punish him for getting away with it.
"Hey, you," Taehyung said. "I haven't seen you all day."
The way he tilted his head to the side, the way he smiled, he couldn't punish him for that. He could only punish himself.
"Hi," he said. Then, he added, in a light-hearted sort of way, to show him that he was already over it, he didn't care, it was fine. "I haven't seen you since Friday."
Taehyung's smile turned into a different one, one who said, ah, right. He knew even though Jeongguk didn't sound bitter or angry at all, that there was an apology in-store, sewing of the wounds.
"I'm sorry about that," he said. "On Friday, well you know what happened, I promised Mina I would see her on Sunday––I'd forgotten about the brunch––and then, come Sunday, I remembered, but I couldn't cancel at that point."
Oh. It made sense. Why did it have to make sense?
He was both relieved and annoyed for how good of a reason it was, relieved that Taehyung wouldn't knowingly flake on him––be absent just because he couldn't be bothered––and annoyed at himself for not having believed that, for that not being his first thought.
Taehyung continued. "Mina wanted me to tell you she's sorry. She didn't mean to ... well, lose it, it wasn't about the room, it was more the final straw. It had ... nothing to do with you, I promise."
Jeongguk nodded, a little uneasy. He didn't know what to make of it, he had never noticed things bothering Mina, or anything wrong going on in hers and Taehyung's relationship. It confused him a bit; Mina had everything: popularity, perfect grades, rich parents (and therefore a big house, a car and any heaps of jewellery she could possibly wish for) friends, a boyfriend, what could possibly be wrong in her life?
