MARK
The next morning, I got a text from Michael saying that he needed to talk to me and Julie at her cafe. We fixed a time, and then I had Julie call me.
"Do you think he found out?" She asked.
"Don't know. But if he did, we can just tell him the truth." I suggested. "We're not actually dating, right."
"But, we...we're interested-" She mumbled.
"We can tell him that when the time is right." I said. "Right now, things will get even more messed up if we said anything, okay? I don't want you blaming yourself anymore."
"Okay." She sighed. "See you later."
"See you later, Jules." I said.
*
I walked in to the cafe to see Julie working alone.
"Your friends didn't come to work?" I asked, walking up to her.
"I gave them an off." She smiled at me and my heart melted. She suddenly opened her arms, "Can I have a hug?"
"Am I dreaming?" I chuckled, and wrapped my arms around her waist. "I really missed this."
She took a deep breath, "Are you in a hurry to go somewhere?"
"No?" I looked at her, confused.
"Then hug me properly, man." She muttered, wrapping her arms around my neck.
I chuckled and hugged her tightly. I pulled away slightly to look at her. She was looking at me with a soft smile, and her eyes flickered to my lips.
I shut my eyes, as she put her hand on my chest and leaned in, and suddenly pushed me away.
"Hey, Michael!" She chirped.
"Damn, so excited to see me? Mark, how come you're early?" He raised his brow.
"Uh, you sounded pretty serious in your text, so..." Mark said. "What did you have to talk to us about?"
Michael sighed. "Are you guys hiding something from me?"
"What...?" She looked at me.
"I know that was you in the picture, Julie. With him." He said.
"Hyung, see. It's not what you think, it's not a big deal." I said.
"Not a big deal?!" He scoffed. "Mark, she is my best friend. And you're my younger brother. I can't let you both date!"
"Michael, just listen fir-" Julie started.
"Why?" I slapped my hand on the counter.
"What why?" Michael frowned.
"Why can't we date each other?" I asked.
Julie gave me a 'that was not in the script' look.
"Because..." Michael started. "What if you break up?"
"What?" Julie scoffed. "We're deviating from the topic-"
"What if we don't break up?" I asked, "You can't just stop us from dating just because you're insecure that WE won't work ou-"
"MARK!" Julie interrupted me. "Stop talking!"
"Yes, ma'am." I put a finger on my lips.
She tried not to smile and cleared her throat. "We are NOT dating, Michael. I know the articles say otherwise, because we didn't want any more drama so we just accepted that yes, we are dating."
"Huh?" Michael blinked.
"We're dating according to the public but not in reality." Mark explained.
"Oh." He nodded slowly.
"If you just listened first before making such a scene." Julie frowned.
"So, you've got nothing going on?" He asked.
"No." I shrugged.
