HJS Network

“Remind me again why we didn’t just ask Hyunjin if he wants to go see a movie with us instead of acting like this is a stakeout?” Jisung said and broke you from your thoughts. 

You were currently sitting in your car and eyeing the theater you were going to go into shortly with Jisung, Hyunjin was supposed to come to a movie today too because you two talked about it yesterday. You weren’t really interested in the movie he wanted to see and the same was said to you about your movie when Hyunjin listened to you. 

So the plan was to “bump into” Hyunjin on the way here and say hi, possibly making him more jealous when he sees you with Jisung. He’s only shown a couple of times where seeing you two be cute made him a bit tense. Still, the more you thought about it, was all of this worth it? You’d have a couple moments where you thought maybe this plan would all crash and burn—you’d never tell Jisung though, he’d give you an “I told you so.” 

“I mean, it wouldn’t just be us three or anything, Lix said he wanted to see this movie too,” Jisung continued and blew a bubble with his gum. 

“I told you, Hyunjin said he wasn’t interested, so bumping into him is more likely,” you replied curtly. 

“Right ‘bumping into him’ like this isn’t staged.” 

“Got any better ideas, smart guy?” you clapped back. 

“Nope, I still think this is all pointless.” 

“I know, you’ve been so kind in reminding me of that.” 

“Hey, I’m your best friend, and you know I’d help you with whatever you’re planning. But if you have to go through all of this effort to get him to notice you romantically, is it even worth it?” he asked you. 

You and Jisung did have similar thoughts, more than you’d care to admit. 

“Look, baby, this is the plan right now, and it needs you, so just suck it up for tonight, ‘kay?” 

You looked over at Jisung in the passenger seat to find him frozen. He blinked at you, and you didn’t understand why. 

Then, he smirked. “You’re the only one that gets to call me that, you know,” he said smugly. 

You scrunched up your brows until your eyes widened in realization. 

You just called him “baby.” 

You gulped and looked away from him to hide your burning cheeks. You’d only meant it sarcastically, but even now, you were thinking about how you could’ve chosen your words differently. You had to say something, anything, a comeback maybe? 

“Yeah, well, right back at ya.” 

That was probably the lamest comeback you could’ve thought of, and you mentally facepalmed at it. It did nothing to mask your flustered attitude, in fact, it only made it worse. 

Jisung smiled and leaned back in his seat. He felt incredibly cocky right now knowing you caught yourself off guard. In truth, Jisung felt comfortable with this arrangement too. After all, he liked you way before your crush on Hyunjin even started. 

He thought that he just wanted to help you as a best friend, but the more you two got into this role, the more comfortable this felt; the more it felt so right to be this way. 

Still, he didn’t want to confuse you—or himself—by confessing and wanting to be in a real relationship with you. 

Yeah, it was a little selfish, but having these cute dates and hanging out with each other, even if it was all part of one of your over-planned schemes, it was nice to be closer to you than he already was. It was scary but exciting, and part of him wondered if you’d grown comfortable with him too. 

In the end, maybe you’d forgotten all about Hyunjin by being with him. Jisung had noticed your plans recently were a little halfhearted. He didn’t want to get his hopes too high though. 

Who knows, but he doesn’t like to think too far into the future, it’s just stressful, so for now, he’d go along with this a little longer. Maybe, just maybe, he’d win you over and this relationship would be real before he even knew it—perhaps it already was.

“Let’s just go, baby,” Jisung teased. 

You groaned. “Great, now you’re never gonna let me live that down.”

“Nope,” and he popped the “P” for emphasis before pecking your cheek and making your heart race.