Secretive (2kim fanfiction)

20: Pretty

If I title a chapter with the same title as an izone song, or place a reference in the chapter, I'll link the song. It makes me feel like the song was written for my chapter lol. Especially since the choreo for this song has some yulyen and hiinako lol (There are other ships in the choreo but those are the only ones that also happen to be in my story. Anyway, let's let you read already)

Minju made sure to wear no green the next day. 

Or brown.

Or any general frog colors. 

She even checked herself in the mirror to make sure she looked as un-froggy as possible.

"All good? Yup"

-

"Chaewon?" Minju tapped her friend on the shoulder.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry for what I said yesterday, I obviously embarrassed you and I didn't mean to do that. Can we still be friends?"

"Of course!" Chaewon said "just don't do anything like that. ever again"

They both laughed. 

"And" Chaewon's voice quieted "I do sort of think you're pretty, so it's not like you were lying or anything"

Minju's heart fluttered "Really?"

"Yeah"

Minju smiled "To be honest, I... think you're pretty as well"

"Me?"

"As far as I'm concerned, there's no one important behind you, so, yes, you"

Chaewon's cheeks were bright red "Thank you"

"No problem"

Chaewon walked away

"You two are so cute!" 

Minju jumped, to find Nako standing behind her, smiling brightly as though she hadn't heard a very private conversation between the two girls.

"Tell anyone, and that gives me the right to tell everyone about Hitomi" Minju threated. She didn't look very scary, but she looked more intimidating than Nako could pull off, which was good enough.

"Fine. As long as I can fangirl in private"

"What can you fangirl over? We're just friends, nothing more"

Nako just smiled "Okay, yeah" Something about the way Nako was looking at her made Minju think she didn't mean it. Minju sighed and walked away

-

What had happened? 

Why was Minju obsessing over this one moment?

All she had been going for was an apology. She had obviously hurt Chaewon's feelings. Most of her friends would just let it be, but she wasn't called 'Minju Angel' for nothing. She didn't tease people often, and when she did, she just got over it. But not this time. 

The plan was just to say sorry, sort things out, and walk away. 

But then Chaewon had said something that had made butterflies fly in her stomach. 

She said that Minju was pretty. 

Minju didn't really know what her friends thought of her in that concern. She never bothered to ask. That was something Wonyoung would do. 

Sure, there was that one time where Hitomi had said she was the visual of the group, but did that really matter? No, that hadn't left an impact the way Chaewon's comment had. 

And then Minju had returned the compliment. And who knew how Chaewon felt about that? Had Chaewon felt the butterflies in her stomach the same way Minju had? Or had she been like Chaewon - cool and calm and collected, as she always seemed to be, unless Minju had pried something out of her?

Minju, you're making a big deal out of this. So what if she thinks your pretty. Pretty is just another word. A word for looks. It doesn't say anything about you. It doesn't matter.

Minju tried repeating those words, over and over, trying to make them feel true.

Pretty...