roses are red | hwang hyunjin

12

it was starr's day off and she was still sulking from no longer receiving notes from the mysterious hhj. it's been a week.

her phone vibrated beside her, dragging her out of her thoughts. she glanced at the screen, sighing at who it was before responding.

fe
still mad at me?

starr
no shit

fe
you don't need to know who he is starr. it's done let it go

not having the time of day for her only friend who betrayed her, starr flung her phone across the bed before getting up her ass to eat.

<

fe

answer | decline

"fuck you."

"hey. don't- don't cuss me out please."

starr sighed at her best friend who sounded like he was on the verge of crying.

"i'm sorry, but it's not for you to decide on not telling me who he is. i appreciate you finding him in the first place, but to go behind my back just to tell him not to meet me EVER and act like you never knew about him or the notes to my face? that's fucked up felix, how could you-"

"i'm just protecting you, starr. you're my best friend," felix cried.

"felix-"

she fell back onto her bed, closing her eyes to calm down.

"i w-won't apologize, sorry."

"you just did, dumbass."

felix chuckled.

"i love you, starr. you know that right?"

"...yeah i know. i love you too, but-"

"but nothing, please? he's just some lame, art student who needs psychological help."

in an instant, she was up on her feet, enraged.

"how could you say that? don't you dare look down on mental health-"

"i wasn't- i would never! geez! are you really gonna let this loser mess up our friendship like this?"

silence.

"starr please. can we just, forget him, hm?"

"tell me how you found him first."

felix sighed.

"why? don't tell me you actually liked that creep? starr, he harassed you! and you weren't suppose to eavesdrop anyway."

"this is my house, no one told you and seungmin to come over and get wasted then gossip loudly at fucking two something in the morning with your light weight asses."

felix pouted, not even arguing with that cause it was true. they were at fault.

"and yeah, the notes were weird in the beginning but... he was really sweet in the end. you know?"

"no, i don't know."

starr sighed at her stubborn best friend.

"felix. many people have a hard time expressing how they feel. even if he did express his in a weird way, i really ended up liking it 'cause no one's ever put me on a pedestal like that before."

"hey! i put you on a pedestal every day!"

she playfully rolled her eyes.

"shut up, felix."

"야. he's very weird on paper, but really nice and shy in person. i hate people like that, like why can't you just be the same over the phone or paper or whatever and in person?"

"felix-"

"and why would he write you such disgusting things? the fuck kinda poetry is that? ugh, thinking about it just gets me riled up all over again. so much for looking sweet. you really can't judge a book by its cover i guess. i don't get it, why couldn't he just be himself?"

"everyone has a perverted side, fe. who knows if the sweet him is the real him anyways."

"yeah, you're probably right."

"tell me."

"tell you what?"

"...starr."

"please."

felix sighed.

"he's an art student and has class with seungmin sometimes. i meet seungmin at his art class whenever it's his last class for the day so we can go home together, and one day a painting caught my eye because it had those initials on it, hhj. i instantly thought that it had to be the person sending you those dumbass notes and asked seungmin about the person behind the intitials saying that he was hwang hyunjin and that's all he knew about him. after that, i met seungmin at his class hoping to meet the guy but he was always absent after that. until one day, seungmin pointed him and well, i didn't think twice to confront him."

"why'd you have to confront him though?"

"it's not like i hit him or anything. he just cried a little," felix chuckled again.

"felix!"

"what?! he deserved it. i just told him to back off and that you hated the notes and wanted nothing to do with him. not my fault he sensitive. i bought him ice-cream afterwards though."

"like that makes everything better."

"ice cream always makes everything better. anyways. can we talk about me now? i missed my best friend."

starr continued to sulk, because it wasn't better. she wanted to meet this hwang hyunjin, maybe even form some sort of friendship with the guy. felix wasn't kidding when he said she was his only friend.

and he was a selfish best friend too, keeping her away from his other friends for three years and claimed that they were perverts who'd only want to get in her pants because she was a foreigner, which of cause wasn't true since she's been conversing with changbin, chan and jisung as she shared classes with them.

the others she wasn't so sure about though and only greeted them occasionally. for three whole years.

"he thinks i... hated them," she recalled sadly.

"focus on fefe now, please."

the girl rolled her eyes and caught up with her best friend before eventually ending the call.