story extra; park jisung

九

"Hi, Jisung." I don't know how I managed to be so bold, especially considering the fact that I hadn't called him by his full name—well, his name in general— in a long time.

"Oh, uh, hey," Jisung said, looking slightly uncomfortable.

Jisung's face is one that's incredibly easy to read. All of his emotions show visible onto his face; whether he realizes or not.

"Jisung, you look a little uncomfortable," I heard a voice say from inside the house, reading my thoughts. "Is something happening over there?"

"Oh. Hi, Mira," Taesa said, coming to the front door. "Um, are you here to deliver anything to me? Did you finish the project?"

"I invited her here," Chenle immediately said, not allowing me to speak.

"Ohhhhhhh," Taesa said, slurring her words.

"Come on, let's go inside before you start fainting," Chenle pulled my wrist into Renjun's house. It seemed newly furnished yet still held nostalgia. I walked with Chenle to the living room before sitting down on the couch, only to see Haechan, Jeno, and Mark. They seemed to not notice my existence as they greeted Taesa a hello as she walked behind me.

"Okay, rock paper scissors for your last ice cream," Chenle said, holding a bag that included ice cream he stole from my house.

"What? No— that's my ice cream that I paid for. Give me it back."

"But I want it too," Chenle whined. "Sheesh, you're so selfish all the time," Chenle said, rolling his eyes as he took a bite of the last ice cream.

I subconsciously let out a scream, "Wait, wait wait wait wait."

"No, this is your punishment."

"Dude, it's my ice cream, give it back I—"

"Geez, can you be any more immature?" A deep voice said from behind me.

It was Jisung.

Maybe it was because he was trying so hard to impress Taesa. Maybe it was because he was trying to act like a "bad boy" like Jeno. Or maybe it was just plain puberty. We were childhood friends after all— and despite the fact that we had merely stopped talking 6 months ago, it seemed like he had drastically changed.

Maybe he wasn't the Jisung I developed a huge crush on anymore.

Maybe he wasn't the Jisung from a week ago, begging for help.

And maybe I was acting immature. Maybe I was weird.

"Jisung, don't be rude," Chenle muttered.

"I'm not being rude, I'm just saying Le. It's just ice cream. No need to fight over it."

"Stop acting like you don't eat 5 ice creams a day," Chenle said, rolling his eyes.

"I don't do that anymore," Jisung instantly replied back, trying to conceal his anger.

Maybe I'm supposed to be the wallflower in this scene. Maybe I'm not meant to say anything, maybe I'm supposed to sit on the sidelines and watch. Maybe Taesa's going to fix the problem.

I've never seen Jisung and Chenle argue in a non-serious manner before. In fact, I've never even seen Chenle and Jisung upset over an issue.

I looked over at Taesa, seeing her with widened eyes. She seemed frozen in place, as if she didn't know what was about to happen. As if she's never seen this side of Jisung before.

"Yunmi, are you okay?" Chenle snapped me out of my thoughts.

"What? Yeah, I'm fine."

"Mira, you're shaking. I'll get you something, be right back," Renjun said, walking out of the living room.

"Mira, you're a really bad liar," Haechan whispered in my ear next to me, acknowledging my prescence.

"Why does everyone say that? I'm really, genuinely, perfectly fine."

Chenle sat to my right as he started playing with my hair through his fingers, something Jisung used to do to calm my anxiety when I was little.

"I promise you, I got you, remember?" Chenle said, attempting to soothe me.

I looked back at Jisung only to find him staring at Chenle. There's never been this much tension between the two, and I didn't want to be the cause of it.

"I wanna go home," I finally let out to Chenle.

"What?? You just came," Renjun frowned as he held green tea in his hands.

"Yeah, we haven't seen you in a while," Mark suddenly said.

"Guys, she's obviously uncomfortable," Jeno said as Taesa sat next to him. "You guys know each other?" Taesa said, pointing to everyone else.

Jisung squirmed in his seat with obvious uncomfortableness. It could've been because of Taesa sitting next to Jeno. Or maybe it was Chenle. Or maybe it was simply because of my presence.

In the deafening silence that erupted from Taesa's question, I stood up and nodded to Chenle that I wanted to leave.

It really wasn't fair that I was interrupting their movie night, especially when it was a day they all had a chance to hang out again.

"We know her through Chenle," Haechan finally lied as Jisung furrowed his eyebrows at his words.

"Ah.. I see," Taesa said, obviously still holding her suspicions.

"I'm sorry that I even came here, I knew I shouldn't have. I hope you all enjoy, and thank you for letting me stay for a few. It was fun while it lasted," I smiled.

"What do you mean?" Jaemin let out.

"I mean," I started to say as I made eye contact with Jisung. "If Jisung wants to start having an attitude with me, then I don't want to put up with it. It's a waste of energy and time. I'll just go home."

Everyone froze in time— almost as if they didn't expect what my words were.

"Period, Yunmi," Chenle muttered.

"And I don't want to be the cause of the tension between Chenle and Jisung. You guys are best friends, I don't want to ruin that."

"Yunmi, you haven't started anything. It's okay."

I looked at Jisung as he looked down, clearly upset. He hadn't spoken much ever since I came here, and I hated the fact that I was the reason for his mood.

Jisung was a talkative person. He had an endless amount of topics to talk about— from aliens to whether or not cereal was soup. Maybe that's why it had such a big effect on me.

What happened? What changed in the six months when I was gone? Why did Jisung have such a drastic change?

"Dude, I'll just leave, we'll talk about it later, I don't wanna cause a scene," I said, finally looking at Chenle.

"Okay, I'll walk you home?"

"Okay."