in another life | yang jungwon ✔️

1.0 | texting

"riki can i ask you something?" ayame looked at the boy who was eating his dinner in front of him. he nodded at her, "..how do i uh act around a friend?"

he stopped eating and looked at her, "a friend? did you make a friend?"

"i think so?" she spoke, poking her chopsticks into her rice, "he said we're friends so i just-"

"woah woah" he put his chopsticks down, "he?"

she nodded, "that guy who interrupted that yerim girl from disturbing us. his name is yang jungwon. he called us friends today..it's just been awhile since i've been able to call someone a friend so i don't know how to act..and now saying it sounds so pathetic" she chuckled sadly, biting her lip

it sounds stupid right? the fact that the girl didn't know how to act around people; mostly importantly a friend. she had isolated herself for so long that it just felt foreign to her. having a friend felt so weird to her. she didn't purposely isolate herself but no one simply went up to her and talked to her. she regrets not trying to stand out because here she is now, struggling on how to treat someone who she can now call a friend

"it's not pathetic ayame" he began, "it's been awhile since you've had a friend and i'm so proud of you for making friends even if it is just one" she smiled at him, "you just need to act like you"

"act like me?"

"act like your true self in front of him. you kinda have a deep voice and a resting uhm bitch face" she rolled her eyes but she knew it was true, "be happy and just be yourself"

happy? the only time she was happy was with riki. other than that, she never had really been happy in her high school years

"i know you struggle with that" he continued on, "especially with your depression but around friends you should feel content and have fun with them. you shouldn't be awkward with them and you should be comfortable with them"

"not awkward and be comfortable..okay" she nodded, following along.

her phone beeped afterwards and she grabbed it, checking the notification, "uh.." he showed her phone screen to riki only to see a message from jungwon that said 'hello!'

"what?" he questioned, "he just said hello"

"but what do i say?" she asked and riki looked at her like she was dumb, "i don't get this friend thing!"

"just reply hello and see how the conversation goes from there" he told her and she just nodded before standing up

"i'm going to go into my room then"

"oh..but you barely ate" he pointed his chopsticks at her food which had only a quarter of the fried rice eaten

"i'm just not hungry..i ate during school" she reasoned and while riki didn't completely believe her, he let her go. she walked away from the kitchen and into her room.

she sat on her bed, sitting with her legs crossed and her pillow resting in her lap. she stared at the phone with her broken phone screen, looking at the green message that said 'hello'

"what do i say back?" she muttered, "do i be bland? but that's mean but it's going to be weird if i come off as excited

JUNGWON:
hello

AYAME:
hi |backspace
hello! |backspace
hey |backspace
what? |backspace

"ugh!" she fell back onto her bed, not knowing what to say to him. she sat back up and sighed, "why am i overthinking this so much? it's just a friend.."