fangirl | renjun

Chapter 2

Aera has been out of it since their after school dinner out with the group. Unlike her usual self, where she would often hop between conversation with the guys and talk about whatever comes to mind with them, she only sat there in silence. Her obvious sour mood made it difficult for Yuri to bring up what she wanted to tell her, which they never got to talk about during the night.

Even as she sat in the art shop her family ran, where she would usually be fixing the shelves and greeting each passerby by the door, she sat right behind the counter pondering on the thing that was happening with Jaemin and Yuri and possibly their biggest hurdle, herself. It was like a huge slap to herself that her best friend was probably hesitating to date Jaemin, possibly the only guy she's ever shown interest in, because of her fangirling over him.

"Aera?" The door to the shop opens and there Renjun was standing, surprised to see her standing behind the counter today. Just as it was already odd to see her standing behind the counter, she was acting twice as odd when she didn't respond to him calling out her name. He even moves his hand across her face and she even fails to notice that. "Aera?" This time, he reaches out to grab her extended hand and squeezes it.

"Oh," Aera's eyes finally turn to look at Renjun, though he swears he's been in her field of vision since a while ago, "you're here again, Renjun." She forces a smile on her face and moves back from leaning against the counter.

"I mean I've been here for a while, but are you okay?" Even before he could turn back around and pick up the stuff he needed for the art work he was working on, he couldn't help but feel curious about what was happening to the usually jolly girl.

"What do you mean?" She forces a laugh before standing up from the seat on the counter and walking around it just to stand along the shelves of art supplies and easels. She puts her hand on top of the tubes of paint pretending to fix them, before getting lost in thought again.

"Seriously, Aera, you don't look alright." This time Renjun gently tugs on the shoulder that was closest to him and makes her turn towards him.

Aera immediately loses the smile on her face. "Did you know that Yuri and Jaemin have a thing?"

Renjun opens his mouth, but closes it once again.

"You do know," she runs her hand through her hair and begins walking back and forth right in front of the counter, "am I the only one who didn't notice?"

"To be fair, Jaemin told me about it."

Aera looks at him before taking a deep frustrated sigh. "As if that helps!"

Renjun immediately turned quiet as soon as she snapped at him. It wasn't like they weren't considered friends, they are in the same friend group, it was just that unlike everyone else in the group, he and her never truly had a conversation, one that was just between the two of them. That is if you don't count her asking for his payment for the stuff he buys from her family's art shop. So, he wasn't exactly sure how to handle this situation.

"Are you okay with it?"

Aera snaps her head towards Renjun and stops walking. "Of course I am!" She replies exasperatedly. Aera then walks up to Renjun leaving an ample space between them, but one where they never truly shared between each other. "Serious question," she looks into Renjun's eyes for, probably, the first time, "do you think they aren't acting on it because of me?"

"Acting on what?"

"They're feelings for each other."

Renjun goes quiet.

That was all the answer she needed. She slowly takes a step back and leans against the counter of the shop. She takes a deep breath as she looks up at the low ceiling of the art shop. "What did he tell you?" Aera asks, referring to Jaemin.

"Do you want to know?"

Aera looks at him with her eyebrows knit together, "I wouldn't ask if I didn't want to know, Renjun!" She calls out her name the same way she did when he asked if she was fine with what was developing between their friends.

He hesitates for a while, but her persistent staring made it incredibly difficult for him to not answer her. "Jaemin has asked me a couple of times if he thinks that you truly had no feelings for him–"

"I don't!" She looks at Renjun frustrated.

"Anyway," Renjun stops her from talking before she could continue with the overused reason she has, "and how Yuri has told him multiple times that she wasn't interested in starting a relationship with him because of you."

"Me?" Aera points to herself.

Renjun simply nods his head.

"What do I do now, Renjun?" After her expressive array of showing her frustration, she turns to her whole body and leans her head down on the counter. She feels him walk closer to her, probably to console, but when he is about to talk to her, the bell on the door of the art shop rings and she stands up almost immediately. Aera was immediately back to her joyful disposition and greeted the person who just entered, leaving Renjun standing there staring at her oddly.

As she was busy entertaining the customer, Renjun, who is just as much a customer as the one who entered, decided to pick up the things that he had intended to buy. Even though he was the first to grab the stuff he needed, once he looked up towards the counter, the other customer was already paying for theirs.

"You're buying a lot of stuff today." Aera picks up the several tubes of acrylic, paint brush, a new palette and a varnish, the wood kind.

"It's a possible addition to the portfolio."

Aera has finally snapped out of her earlier trance, but it doesn't mean her head was no longer six feet underground still thinking about the possibility of her best friend holding back just because of her fangirling towards Jaemin. She was thinking of every possible way to convince her that she didn't like him, but knowing her, she would not believe in her unless something drastic were to happen.

"Hey," she realizes that there was someone here who could help her, "do you have any idea what I should do about this?"

"You usually put them in a bag?" Renjun tilted his head as he stared at the stuff he was prepared to check out.

"Not this stuff," she puts down one of the tubes of paint pretty harshly, "about Yuri and Jaemin."

"Wouldn't it be better to just talk to them about it?" Renjun was someone that she thought would make sense, he always felt like he was the smartest one among their group, but right now she wanted to think otherwise.

"I don't know if you caught it already," Aera pins in a few more numbers into the cashier as one item couldn't be read by the bar code, "but if talking was enough, they would be dating now. I can't even imagine how much I've told her that I don't like Jaemin romantically, but she still thinks as if I do like him like that."

As soon as the last item was punched, she read the price of all the things he bought, which amounted to something that cost much more than her own weekly allowance.

"Okay," Renjun reached out to his back pocket, but in an instant his expression changed. His eyes go wide as he nearly pats his whole body down, even twisting it in ways that she never thought he could do.

"You lost your wallet or you didn't bring it at all?"

"I swear to god I brought it with me." He looks at her pleading for forgiveness with his eyes. "I live close by, just hold onto them for now and I'll come back after grabbing it."

Taeha simply pouts before nodding her head. "You know," she gathers all the stuff into the bag before handing it to him, "you can just pay me tomorrow."

"Really?" Renjun's face immediately lights up.

"Well," she lifts her shoulders, "it's not like you can hide from me tomorrow, anyways. I'll make sure to haunt you down in your classroom."

"Thank you, Aera!" If he could, he would've hugged her, but he didn't as the counter that sat between them was a little bit too wide. "I'll pay you back with anything you need!" That was how he said his farewell in compensation for the momentary embarrassment he experienced.

Little did Renjun know that little statement of gratitude made a light bulb above her head blink into a bright light.