«you're still the boy that i'll pick»

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"She gave me candy."

"That doesn't mean she likes you."

I released a loud snort after hearing Seojun's delusional words. My feet stopped moving as I hunched over the ground and bursted out into an even louder laughter.

He raised a fist at me and shouted, "hey! What's so funny?"

My voice dryly responded to him, "because it's just candy," I walked back to Seojun and tried to add onto what I said, "she shares her food with everyone."

Seojun whined loudly, "why'd you have to ruin my excitement?"

I smirked, "because it's funny."

He rolled his eyes and pointed towards my phone, "why don't you go back to flirting with Suho?" he said in an irritated tone.

"I don't flirt with him," I defended myself. My eyes shot him a look as he simply responded in a laugh, "he walked you home," Seojun teased me.

I groaned loudly, "because he asked me," my voice raised itself, "you want me to be rude and say no? He looked excited too," my brain thought back to how his face lit up once I accepted his offer. It was cute, but I don't want to mislead Suho.

Seojun patted my back and wrapped an arm around my shoulder, pulling me closer as he wouldn't stop talking about Suho, "why don't you like Suho? He's handsome, mysterious, and smart," he looked down at me, "you're practically the only girl in the entire school who doesn't have a crush on him," Seojun was completely astonished.

"Because he's sort of an asshole," I responded to Seojun, "and you're an asshole too," I shouted while pushing him away from me, "I don't know why I'm friends with you."

He raised both hands in confusion, "we're talking about Suho right now," placing a finger on his chest, "not me. Not Han Seojun."

I crossed my arms and continued walking, ignoring his little hissy fit as I reached my house. Thankfully the karaoke place was right next to where I lived so I didn't have to spend large amount of minutes with Seojun.

"Have fun with your new boyfriend," Seojun poked fun at me. I took out my house keys and whacked him with the metal objects, "I'll stab you in the eyes with these," I threatened him before turning around to unlock the front door.

Seojun backed away from me and began complaining about my aggression, "it's a joke calm down," he massaged the area I attacked him with my keys, "I'll see you at school."

I entered my home and quickly waved goodbye to Seojun, but before I shut the door he decided to joke around once again, "Ms. Lee Yeeun."

He chuckled loudly as I slammed the door in annoyance, resting my head onto the wooden entrance while coming up with a plan to convince Seojun I don't have a crush on Suho, so I can get him to feel the same way back and not distance himself from me.

What if I just avoid Suho?

No. That's too rude. He has been nothing but a sweetheart to me there is absolutely no reason to cut him out of my life.

Would it be difficult to get Jukyung to reject him straight to his face? But I don't even know if she has feelings for Seojun. It's obvious she doesn't, or maybe it's just my delusional thoughts making me think she doesn't want to be with him.

I suddenly remembered about the text Suho sent me. My hands reached out for my phone and went to our chat. I stood there as I hesitated to respond to him.

I mustered up the courage to send a text back and typed a hello before pressing the send button. It wasn't long before my phone made a ding noise. My eyes quickly glanced to see where the notification came from and there was his message.

"What kind of cookies do you like?" the text read.

I decided not to make him wait any longer for a response, so I immediately answered his question, "I eat any cookie that has chocolate in it."

"Okay," was all that he sent.

I stared at my screen waiting for another text but that's where our short conversation ended. He wasn't much of a talker that's for sure. My phone rang once again but this time it wasn't Suho.

"What do you want Seojun?"

"Woah," He said from the other line, "be nice," he told me in a soothing voice, "anyways since it's your birthday tomorrow I am going to give you the best gift ever," shouting excitedly, "a cake, presents, and food of your choice."

"Why are you doing all of that?" I asked him slowly.

"Because people are going to expect for me, your ," he pointed out, "to do something nice for your birthday," I can tell Seojun was bothered I didn't fully understand his intentions.

"Just bring me a cupcake," I brushed his idea off. There was no reason to make a birthday so special in front of complete strangers, so he might as well do something small.

He sighed, "I can't do something nice for my friend?"

Friend.

Something about him referring to me as that word rubbed me the wrong way. Even though I knew there was nothing between us, it still hurt.

"You can," I told him, "but not that big."

I heard another sigh from Seojun. He spent the next few minutes humming to himself. I assumed he was thinking of what to say. I kept asking what's wrong but he hummed even louder, so I stayed silent and waited impatiently for him to speak up.

"Okay," he finally said, "just a cupcake."

But all I could think about is how exactly he knew when my birthday was. I've never brought it up, neither has he asked me. Curiosity got the best of me and I questioned Seojun about it, "who told you when my birthday was?"

"I saw your mom last week," he answered instantly, "she was buying your birthday present."

"Oh," was all I could say, "why do you always bump into my mom? Are you stalking me?"

"Why would I stalk you?" He quickly replied, "we just happen to be at the same place at the same time." Seojun said calmly.

Already tired of this useless conversation, I immediately hung up on Seojun without a goodbye. I was too tired to even be bothered to clean all this makeup off my face, so I just switched into comfortable night clothes.

I ignored the repetitive ringing coming from my phone and drifted off to sleep. After hearing a familiar voice calling out for my name, my eyes quickly opened. I looked around and found myself sat down at a cafe.

It wasn't just some random cafe. It was the exact same cafe Seojun dragged me to that day we did our project together.

"Yeeun," I felt a hand pat my head and I spun around. Seojun had a tiny grin on his face and appeared to be excited. My eyes widened as he for some reason leaned in closer to me.

He tilted his head, "you're really pretty."

My body couldn't even move. I just watched him as we spent the next few seconds staring at each other. Then something took control over me, and I pushed my lips onto his.

And that was when my eyes opened once again, this time I was back in my room.

"Fuck!" I threw my pillow onto the floor in frustration. My breathing became aggressive as I began repeatedly slapping my forehead, "what the fuck!"

I slammed my head back onto my bed and let ten minutes pass by before finally sitting back up and accepting the fact I won't be able to go back to sleep and finish my dream. I grabbed my phone to check the time and saw that I was just a few minutes away from my alarm snoozing.

"It's almost time for school," I told myself.

I decided to get ready early instead of just laying on my mattress. Once I was all dressed up, I threw my book back over my shoulder and headed out the front door. But I stopped in my tracks when I saw a familiar face outside of my house.

Suho lifted his head up and rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "Hey Yeeun," he greeted me as he presented a small bag of cookies. Chocolate cookies to be exact.

"I brought you the-" Suho's words were cut off when another voice began shouting my name. We both turned our heads and spotted Seojun sprinting towards us.

He stopped next to Suho and shot him a look before turning back to me, "happy birthday to my sweet Yeeun," he gushed. Seojun cupped my cheeks with both of his hands and shook my head gently, "you look pretty today."

My face reddened once he complimented me. I couldn't help but smile at his comment, even though I knew it was just to make Suho jealous.

He released my cheeks from his grip and yanked me away from Suho. He began walking and dragged me with him, but I glanced back to see an awkward Suho clutching onto his bag of cookies.

I forcefully stopped Seojun from moving any further and pulled my hand away from him, "Suho," I called out, "are you coming?" my hands motioned for him to follow us.

His eyes sparkled with relief and he nodded before jogging over to us. Suho once again handed his bag of cookies and I gladly accepted them. Seojun smacked his lips and had his head turned away from the two of us.

We all strolled in silence and I couldn't even bother to try to make some conversation. It was like that for a few minutes before I heard a bit of cursing and groaning behind me.

My body twirled to the noises and I found the two boys nearly getting violent with each other. Seojun had his fist raised up to Suho, meanwhile Suho glared at Seojun while having his finger pointing to him.

"What are you guys doing?" I asked them.

Seojun lowered his fist and changed his angry expression to an innocent one, "we were just playing around, right Suho?" he said in a low and tense voice.

Suho nodded while sucking in his lips, "yeah," he responded silently. Their lie only irked me and instead of just listening to them, I questioned them about their little rivalry.

"Why do you two hate each other so much?" I fumed. The boys both glanced at me with a confused look on their faces, "can't you guys just talk it out?"

Seojun shook his head and began to walk away, "that's none of your business Yeeun," he growled. I laughed in frustration and followed behind him, "just tell me!" I demanded Seojun.

"You use any chance you have to argue with Suho," I shouted as I threw my hands in the air, "and he's constantly telling me you're an asshole who doesn't deserve me!" Seojun suddenly stopped his walk after I let those words slip from my mouth and slowly turned around, "why can't you just tell me?" I pleaded him.

He began marching towards me, or so I thought. Seojun didn't stop to where I was standing and continued walking. I trailed his steps and noticed the furiousness in his walk.

"I'm an asshole?" Seojun hissed at Suho. He grabbed onto his blazer and shook him fiercely, "you don't remember what you did?"

Suho stared at the ground. He avoided looking at Seojun as he only became more violent with him, but instead of defending himself, he took the blows from Seojun.

"Everything is your fault," he finally let go of Suho, "don't ever forgot what happened that night," Seojun snapped as his eyes became teary.

I was bewildered at this whole scene but I kept my mouth closed as they both seemed to be emotional. Suho continued to avoid eye contact with Seojun and just stood there.

"You're unbelievable," Seojun told him before finally leaving Suho alone. He walked straight past me and left the both of us behind. I took one last look at Suho, who still had his eyes fixated on the ground, and I continued walking to school.

I caught up with Seojun but walked right past him since I didn't want to cause any more trouble. I kept replaying the scene in my head and was completely puzzled at the whole interaction.

What was Suho's fault? Why was Seojun so angry?

"Yeeun," I heard Seojun say softly. My whole body spun around and paused as I waited for him to say more words, "I'm sorry you had to see that," Seojun placed his hands in his pockets and looked down regretfully.

He let out a sigh and walked over to me, "let's just forget that happened," he begged.

I nodded understandingly and couldn't help but feel bad at how upset he looked. I'm usually not someone to comfort another person, but I wanted to cheer Seojun up.

My mouth lifted itself into a small smile and I wrapped an arm around his, "let's have a good day," and began dragging him to the direction of the school building.

"I almost ruined your birthday," he muttered to me. I looked up at him and immediately denied what he said, "no you didn't," I assured him.

Seojun chuckled, "you're too nice, Yeeun. You shouldn't be so nice," he lectured me, "be rude when you have to," I listened to his scolding, "have some respect."

I instantly pulled my arm away from him, "are you saying I have no respect for myself?" I asked Seojun.

He went into panic mode and took back his words straight away, "no I didn't mean that," his whole face flushed with red, "I just meant to say you need to defend yourself."

"Whatever you say," I teased him. Seojun caught on to my tone and playfully placed an around my shoulder, squeezing me tightly. Way too tightly.

"It's your birthday," he spoke enthusiastically, "let's focus on you," Seojun glanced down at me and I could just see his sparkling eyes, "today is your day and we'll do whatever you want to do."

I hoped to spend this day with him. I never really did much for my birthday due to my lack of socializing and celebrated alone with my mother. Seojun was my first real friend and I didn't want it to stay that way.