critical beauty - hongseok

seven ● jaehwa

"You WHAT!?" Changgu and Eunjung yelled simultaneously. I winced and took out one earbud. I was really tired after the party, and didn't feel like talking in the morning. I finally decided to video call them after dinner, and regretted my decision.

I re-inserted my earbud carefully.

In my left ear, Changgu was gushing, "Oh my Jaeseok heart!! Your first kiss!! Ahh!", while in my right, Eunjung was complaining, "Ya, if I had known you were going to do this, I would have made my move on Hongseok before."

Tired of the noise, I shushed them. They both immediately shut up. "First of all, Changgu, you didn't even ship us together until a couple days ago, so you can keep quiet."

He mimed zipping his lips.

"And Eunjung, you can take him if you like. I don't even have a crush on him." I blatantly lied, my pupils shaking.

They looked at me skeptically. "I dunno, Jaehwa, you don't just give your first kiss to someone you don't have feelings for." Changgu said, first unzipping his lips.

"Correction: it was stolen from me."

"Riiiight." He gave me a knowing look.

"Well, anyway, you and Hongseok make a cute couple. I honestly don't care if you date him." Eunjung said. "I have to go now. Don't wanna be late for my date." Before we had a chance to respond, Eunjung left the call, leaving me and Changgu.

There was a pause of shock. Changgu and I looked at each other, jaws almost touching the floor.

"With who?" Changgu whispered.

I shrugged and shook my head. "No freaking clue."

There was another silence, which I finally broke by saying, "So... how's your love life going?"

Changgu's face fell a little. "Remember Haewon?"

"The girl you asked out?"

"Yeah. So, apparently, she was dating Kino-"

I pretended to gag. So, that punk tried to kiss me... while he had a girlfriend? I thought, disgusted.

Changgu saw me and laughed a little. "But she just recently broke up with him, and she wants to go on a date with me!"

I grinned. "Changgu, that's awesome!" I was really happy for him, especially since he hasn't had the best experience with girls. I cringed when I remembered the time in 7th grade when he tried to ask out Eunjung and got friendzoned... hard.

"I know! We're going to go out tomorrow. I'm really excited." Suddenly, Changgu frowned. "So, what are you going to do about Kino?"

I groaned and dragged a hand down my face. "I'm just really happy that after summer's over, I'll be going off to college, and I'll probably never see him again. I can't believe I didn't realize he was such a jerk."

"Me too. At least you still have Hongseok."

"Don't remind me."

"Why? You like him, he likes you, what's the problem?"

I glared at my screen. "I said, don't remind me."

"What, that you're basically dating the most good-looking guy from our school?"

"That's a stretch. I mean, there's still Yanan, and Mingyu, and Vernon, and Taeyong, who is probably the hottest guy in Korea."

"Well- okay, yeah, but don't change the subject! What is so wrong about Hongseok?"

I let out a long sigh. Finally, I admitted quietly, "Absolutely nothing. I just... don't want to admit that I have feelings for him."

There was a beat of silence.