August | winrina

Chapter 5 : Soobin

She's been avoiding Karina like the plague lately, which is likely why she doesn't find out sooner. In fact, it takes Ryujin asking Karina if she's still going out with Yeonjun that night for Winter to realize something is going on.

"Who's Yeonjun?" Ningning asks from beside Winter, who's only half listening to the conversation as she twirls her spoon in her yogurt distractedly.

Karina doesn't get the chance to reply before Ryujin does, a teasing tilt to her voice. "He's Rina's boyfriend."

Winter's head snaps up, and she nearly spills her yogurt all over her tray as she looks over to the farthest corner of the table, where Karina is sat with a grumpy expression as Ryujin elbows her on the side.

Winter can feel Yeji's glance her way, but she's too busy noticing the blush starting to spread across Karina's cheeks at Ryujin's teasing to pay attention to her.

Karina doesn't even try to deny it despite how much Ryujin teases her and shares the details with the table. If that wasn't confirmation enough that Ryujin was telling the truth, the next few days certainly prove to be.

As it turns out, Winter actually knows Yeonjun, even though they hardly share any classes. Karina doesn't tell her, but Winter finds out from Yeji that Karina had met Yeonjun through the school's band.

She also learns that Yeonjun has a knack for accompanying Karina to her classes, getting her bag for her and giving her dopey smiles as he wraps his arm around her. Not that she wants to know, but for some reason she can't seem to stop bumping into them every time she's switching classes.

It makes her feel numb, at first. Other than the shock of finding out at their lunch table, she almost thinks she's fine with it. She'd been shocked, because somehow it'd slipped her mind that of course Karina wouldn't tell her-she's not Karina's person anymore; she's not the one Karina tells her secrets to or shares her crushes with. She'd been shocked, because she'd forgotten Karina could fall for someone that wasn't her-that she didn't have a monopoly on Karina's heart, even though Karina has one on hers.

After that first moment, though, she carries on with her days, resolutely ignoring every attempt from her friends to talk to her about the topic. She averts her eyes when she sees Karina, and tries to ignore how she now has to look away from Karina's boyfriend, too.

The bitterness she feels when she thinks of that word should be enough of a clue about how unpleasant it would be to actually be faced with him.

And yet, when she sees Karina dragging him to their table to eat lunch with them, Winter is met with a stronger desire to punch him than she's ever felt. It's even worse than when she sees Karina and Ryujin acting like nothing's wrong, like nothing's ever happened.

It feels like he's encroaching on her space. Their space-Winter's and her friends. He's not her friend. He's just the guy Karina is smiling at when he wraps and arm around her waist to whisper something close to her ear. The red hot anger that curls low in Winter's gut at the sight makes her food go bitter.

She stabs at her potatoes with more force than necessary, gritting her teeth and pressing her lips together to keep herself from saying anything. Ningning fidgets uncomfortably next to her, and Yeji throws Winter a pointed look when she can't help scoffing loudly when Karina laughs at whatever joke Yeonjun just told.

She doesn't even manage to laugh when Giselle leans into her side when they're discarding their tray and asks her if Winter wants her to stab him to spare her the trouble, too busy burning holes on his back with fuming eyes.

It's when they're all parting ways after discarding their trays that Winter is first met with the sight of someone else kissing Karina-the sight of him kissing Karina. She's met with the sight of Karina not pulling away and smiling genuinely up at him with a spark in her eyes that Winter remembers from when Karina was six years old and just understanding why people kiss each other.