#diffident

She couldn’t tell if she loved or hated the situation she was in.

Areum was sandwiched between Taeji and Ryu, with Kyungsoo right across from her, Aemi and Min on either side of him.

It’s not that she didn’t want to be there, but she probably would have felt more comfortable had she been put at the corner with only Taeji and Kyungsoo given the opportunity to talk to her.

She frowns to herself as the thought crosses her mind and she snaps out of it. She’s here for a reason and she can’t let herself get in the way of truly becoming friends with the people she’s known for three years.

The fact that Ryu is trying to strike up a conversation with her causes the fog in her head to clear up, and she sits straight at the feeling his voice gives her.

It’s like being wrapped up in a fluffy blanket.

While she’s registering his question, Aemi and Min are gazing at her curiously, hoping in the back of their minds that they’d get something going with the girl. Someone’s metal chopsticks clatter against the table while the sound of sizzling meat mixes in with the restaurant music as she tries to come up with an answer. Taeji’s positively sweating with worry right now.

“I’m feeling lovely right now,” she mumbles, and the response makes everyone at the table exhale in relief.

Ryu’s eyes crinkle happily at the reply he receives and he leans back against his chair after putting the tongs down, his arm casually flopping over the back of Areum’s chair.

The other two boys raise their eyebrows at this action, but Aemi and Min roll their eyes in amusement, already used to Ryu’s flirtatious impulse.

“We’re glad to hear that,” he mumbles right back just to tease Areum, and it causes her to blush in embarrassment. Her voice cracks slightly when she tries to protest, her hand helplessly smacking the boy’s knee to suffice for her lack of a verbal response.

Taeji has a look of disgust on his face, but he hides it by shoving a piece of lettuce and beef into his mouth, Kyungsoo doing the same, but gulping down his whole cup of water afterwards, the similar actions of the two causing the girls to scoff in amusement, while Ryu has Areum distracted with his overwhelmingly strong presence.

It’s like Ryu has Areum in his hands and everyone is not impressed with how the boy manages to keep all of her attention on him. This was not Kyungsoo’s intention when he invited her and he’s slowly coming to the conclusion that maybe he should have asked Areum out alone to avoid having Ryu chat her up.

While the other four are speaking amongst themselves, Ryu has Areum tripping over her words as he’s slowly closing the space between them, his eyes sparkling with mirth when only an incoherent sentence falls from her lips.

“Ah..” her breath catches in her throat when the boy tucks a few strands of her hair behind her ear, her gaze landing on anything other than his face. Her heart is racing so fast to the point that she’s pretty sure everyone at the table can hear it and she hates herself for feeling like this; it’s a common reaction when faced with a difficult situation.

Kyungsoo gags to himself and Taeji raises his eyebrows in agreement, causing the other girls to laugh silently, their eyes squinted as they clutch their stomachs at all the interactions currently going on at the table; it’s quite sweet that the boys seem to be drawn to Areum, but Ryu seems to be taking a step further even though he’s only talked to her today.

Taeji frantically pulls out his phone when he catches Ryu in the act of creating a bulgogi wrap for Areum, Kyungsoo biting his knuckles nervously.

Right when Ryu was going to offer the wrap, his phone vibrated in his pocket. Areum breathes a silent sigh of relief and holds her hand to her chest to calm her heart, glad to have her space back.

Ryu practically chokes from laughter when he reads the text message he received.

tae g: leave her alon e u slut!!!

With the boy distracted, Taeji takes this chance to grab the bottom of Areum’s seat and drags her closer to him to protect her from the big, bad wolf.

Another text message to Ryu, from Kyungsoo.

k su: if you feed her tht bulgogi wrap i swear on my life i will beat ur fucking ass, beanstalk bitch

This beanstalk bitch can’t stop laughing. He’s practically gagging on the water he’s sipping on and the girls are just hoping he chokes soon so that they can eat in peace.

Areum doesn’t know what’s going on and she’s pretty sure she never will, and she’s even more confused when Taeji curls an arm around her front, his hand pressing her back so that her shoulders are flush against his chest. This causes Kyungsoo to nod in approval and Ryu rolls his eyes with a coy grin, fiddling with his hair to fix his messy topknot before again giving all his attention to Areum.

“Come on, man,” Ryu’s smile is blindingly handsome and Areum can’t help but squint her eyes, her face cringing in astonishment. This guy is certainly on another level.

She hates it.

“What’s Areum to you?” he jabs, also looking at Kyungsoo with raised eyebrows, “And you? Why can’t I spend some quality time with this gal?”

There’s a short, but deafening silence that falls over the table until Min speaks up to cover the boys, “They don’t trust you because you’re incapable of keeping your clothes on after a girl’s paid attention to you for more than 7 minutes.”

With a scoff, the long haired man picks up the wrap he had previously made for Areum, his free hand under the food just in case anything spills from the lettuce, everybody watching as he again tries to bring the wrap to Areum’s mouth.

“I’ll beat your ass if you give that shit to Areum.” Aemi’s mouth is full of chicken and rice as she speaks and it causes Ryu to reel back, giving his target space to breathe again. The girl who’s eating is pointing her spoon at the man and she gives a crude smile while Min tends to her with a cup of ice cold water.

Kyungsoo harrumphs as the enemy retreats with his tail between his legs and Taeji grins proudly at his female companions, petting Areum’s lovely bangs that cover her forehead while simultaneously pressing his cheek against the side of her head in an affectionate manner, “Suck it, bitch.”

Kyungsoo sends one more text message to Ryu, his head nodding in agreement with Taeji.

k su: suck it

As this is all happening, Areum has resumed eating the cooked meat that is sitting on the hot grill, making sure to shove plenty of rice into her mouth to chase after the salty and sweetness of the food. The sound of her chewing practically makes her deaf to the whole conversation going on.

She’s really starting to enjoy this barbecue.

Min orders three more bowls of rice for Areum and starts to grill more meat, her mouth full of lettuce, rice, and pickled vegetables. The girl watching over the meat makes sure there’s more chicken for Areum to eat while everyone else can have the beef; no one seems to mind, but joins in on pampering their newly acquainted friend, save for Ryu.

It finally feels like Areum somewhat belongs in her group as they pay attention to her by doing little things, like putting more food in her rice bowl, filling up her cup of water, or just asking how she’s feeling and letting her join in the conversation.

Everyone has a sense of humor that Areum would never be able to achieve, but she’s just happy to be laughing along with them. They don’t make her speak when she doesn’t know how to respond to something, and they mind their own business when she has difficulty answering a question.

Ryu’s tongue rolls out of his mouth when he licks his lips and notices the look in Kyungsoo and Taeji’s eyes as they’re directed to Areum.

He knows that look.

His thumbs are rapidly tapping against his phone screen as he texts the two boys, his eyes sparkling with glee.

do not answer: UR IN LOVE BITCH!!!!!!!

Ryu is practically howling in his seat as he makes this discovery and it annoys everyone at the table to no end, especially the girls. There’s tears in his eyes as he laughs to himself, his hand clutching his stomach at how hilarious the situation is since two friends have fallen for the same girl. He can’t believe he almost fell for her subtle, but soft charms as well; she’s a better fox than he is a player.

Areum grimaces when he looks over at the slim, but built man on her left when he giggles childishly to himself and it kind of ticks her off, but she brushes it off. If she wants to be friends with everyone, she has to accept them first.

To support this, she decides to take a spoonful of rice and top it off with a piece of her chicken and perilla leaf. Convincing herself that this would be her first step when embracing this man as a friend.

With her free hand cupped under the spoon, she moves forward in her seat, away from Taeji’s clingy grasp. With the intent of making a new friendship bloom, she looks at Ryu expectantly, opening a mouth to let out a quiet ahh sound.

There’s surprise on the man’s face when he looks away from his phone, but nonetheless appreciates the fact that the girl is reaching out to him first. With the sharp gaze she’s giving him, he absolutely can not refuse, and so he opens his mouth to receive the blessing of food, humming in exaggerated appreciation as he grabs her hand to help her pull the spoon out of his mouth.

“Thank you.” he throws a wink in Areum’s direction and basks in the pure rage that is radiating off of the boys.

What amuses Ryu even more is when Kyungsoo and Taeji sulk as Areum is also fed by Aemi and Min, in which she responds in kind with pieces of seafood pancake.

This man feels like he is on top of the world although he was just fed a mere spoonful of food, and he can’t help the complacent smile that appears on his face when he watches Areum receive her bowls of rice and offer one to him, letting the other males glare at him all they want.

do not answer: you know, if you like her, just ask her out lmao

The boys scoff at the same time when they receive the text message.

Taeji blocks him while Kyungsoo has most likely reported the number. Ryu anticipated this, but never thought they’d do it so suddenly so he pouts to himself when his other texts don’t go through to the guys. He starts to dm them on instagram, snapchat, and even manages to get through to their facebook somehow.

They both left him on seen and read.

This is despicable.

Areum’s on autopilot as she eats through her bowls of rice, the other girls clapping in amazement.

Eating too much carbs can affect your weight and Areum doesn’t seem to have a care in the world. It’s impressive; admirable. Aemi aspires to be like that.

Kyungsoo and Taeji are eating quietly to themselves since Ryu ruined their moods, but they can’t seem to take their eyes off of the girl who’ve caught their heart quite long ago. Her cheeks are full with food and her eyebrows are furrowed in concentration as she stacks meat upon meat on top of her rice, but Taeji sees it as the cutest thing ever while Kyungsoo is batting his eyelashes at her prettily; daydreaming.

Ryu decides to ruin the rest of their afternoon by stealing Areum’s spoonful of food with a teasing laugh, his eyes the shape of crescents as a joyful hum vibrates against his chest. The girl doesn’t react for the first five seconds, but after that, she’s frowning to herself, eating the rest of the rice that Ryu had missed on the spoon by licking it off the cutlery.

“If you wanted me to give you some you could have asked,” she muttered childishly under her breath, tucking in the rest of the rice in her bowl onto her spoon, laying a piece of chicken across it before holding it out for Ryu; letting him take the last bite to show that she is willing to sacrifice for this friendship.

And sacrifice is a pretty heavy word.

Everyone’s practically screaming and holding their heads by look of their faces and Ryu can’t help but laugh hysterically at all the looks that are being pointed at him, the only gaze that would make him stop laughing and coo is probably Areum’s, as she’s looking at him with tired eyes and pouty lips.

Eating makes her tired.

“You know,” Taeji starts off calmly, his hand shooting out to pull Areum’s seat back towards him with an agitated look, “I really don’t appreciate you flirting with my girl like that.”

The adrenaline runs through Ryu’s veins and it’s like he’s getting high off of the negative emotions of others, so he reaches out for Areum, his fingers brushing against her cheek as he looks straight at Taeji. “Since when was she your girl?” he taunts, his fingers playfully tickling Areum under her chin, “I don’t recall any news of you two going out.”

All eyes are on Taeji now and Kyungsoo’s gulping nervously, his frown permanent on his face. Areum’s surprised at the conversation that’s going on, and suddenly she feels like she doesn’t belong in the situation even though she’s the catalyst of it.

The sound of Taeji clearing his throat snaps her out of his daze, his hand promptly reaching out for Areum so that he can press her flat against his chest again. There’s a challenging look in his eyes when he stares Ryu down, and with a tender kiss to Areum’s cheek, Taeji trails his fingertips down her jaw while he drops a bomb on everyone.

“She’s been mine for three years.”