THE BLACK MARKET,

"How to... reject someone properly..."

"Google isn't going to help you with this, Juwon."

"Shh! It's loading."

There in the cooking section their school's library had to offer was Heeseung and Juwon, crouched in the corner. Heeseung leaned over her shoulder out of curiosity, watching the girl scroll through the many articles about rejecting someone properly. Turns out he was wrong — Google was indeed helping her.

"Oh! Here." Juwon clicked on an article, mouthing the words as she read. "So I am supposed to apologize?" she whispered.

"I told you," Heeseung said, leaning his head on her shoulder. Juwon scoffed and poked his forehead with her finger, moving his head away.

"This information would've been a lot useful yesterday." She sighed and continued to scroll. "And it says to be hone— I was honest!" She turns her head and looks at Heeseung, smiling. "I was honest."

"And you're proud?" Heeseung asked, raising a brow.

"Well, yeah." Juwon turned her attention back to her phone. "Don't give false hope... I didn't give him false hope, did I?"

"You literally ran away, Juwon."

"That isn't false hope, right?"

For the next thirty minutes, the two stayed crouched in their little corner, receiving weird looks from the students that passed by. Neither payed attention, too invested in their article and if Juwon should go back to Park Sunghoon (poor boy) and apologize.

Little did they know said boy had been watching them the whole time.

Kneeling down beside them, he peeked over Juwon's other shoulder, curious to what the two friends were whispering about. "What're you doing?" he asked, startling both Juwon and Heeseung. Heeseung fell onto his rear and Juwon dropped her phone, making Sunghoon laugh. Juwon quickly picked up her phone, standing up.

"Uh..." She scratched her nose, tucking her phone into her back pocket. "We were... uhm—"

"We were buying drugs off the black market," Heeseung blurted out, a little too loudly. Juwon winced, turning away from both them, embarrassed. Sunghoon snorted.

"You're funny," Sunghoon smiled at Heeseung. He then turned to Juwon, still smiling. "Is this your boyfriend?" he asked, gesturing towards Heeseung, eyes curious.

"As if," Juwon scoffed. "He's more like my dog."

"There's no need to be a bitch about it," Heeseung said, rolling his eyes as he pretended to be offended. "I'm her frien—"

"Obviously not the reason why I rejected you, haha!" Juwon said suddenly. The two boys looked her way, both watching as her face turned red. "I mean, I didn't mean to but Heeseung wasn't the reason. It was more of a me thing, you know, so it wasn't your fault either but Heeseung definitely wasn't the re—"

"Shut up," Heeseung cut her off, catching Sunghoon off guard. "You're embarrassing yourself and me." Juwon pursed her lips and looked down, regretting all life decisions that lead her to this point in life. Heeseung looked at Sunghoon, who was still crouched down beside him. "She's weird and doesn't want you to know. Anyway, I'm Heeseung, her friend, and I'm free all the time."

"Dude."

"What? I was shooting my shot!"

Sunghoon laughed, watching the two argue. "You don't have to explain yourself," he said. The two friends stopped talking and both looked at him. "You don't want to go out with me and that's fine. It's not like I was forcing you to anyway." He stood up, offering a hand to Heeseung. He took it and Sunghoon pulled him up. He looked back at Juwon. "I hope we can be friends," he said to Juwon, smiling.

Juwon's mind went blank. All she could do was stare at him and unconsciously answer with a quiet "okay." If it was possible, Sunghoon's smile grew, a small giggle also escaping his lips. "Cool!" he said happily. "I'll see you around then!" He waved to both of them and walked away. Both Heeseung and Juwon stared at him, awestruck.

Heeseung was the first to break their silence. "Oh my god," he said, breathless. "He's so fucking pretty." He turned to Juwon and slapped her shoulder repeatedly, smiling brightly. "Did you see how close our faces were? I had a chance!"

"You're so weird," Juwon said, thinking back on what had just happened. "Heeseung," she called.

"Yes, my liege?"

"I think I should've said yes."

Heeseung stopped for a second, his smile slowly fading. He stared at her, Juwon still turned in the direction where Sunghoon had walked away. "Then why didn't you?" he asked.

"I dunno," she mumbled, finally turning away. Juwon sighed. "He's too good of a person; he'd ruin my 'bad girl' image," she said, attempting to make a joke.

"Juwon."

"Yeah?"

"No one looks at you that way," Heeseung deadpanned.

They stared at each other blankly. Then, a smile formed on Juwon's face and she lightly punched Heeseung's shoulder, laughing quietly. "I know that," she said. "It was a joke."

"You should leave that to me, then."

"Shut up already." Juwon waved her hand, annoyed. "You're gonna piss me off." She started walking away and Heeseung followed after her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders with a playful smile decorating his face. Despite Juwon's annoyed expression, she let him be, playing along with whatever he said afterward.

Juwon liked it this way. She liked seeing her friend smile even if she was the one being teased. She liked the way he always looked at the bright side of things, even though he got on her nerves most of the time. He was the rainbow after a long storm, the sun itself.

She never wanted him to change.

"What shall we do today?" Heeseung sang as they walked out of the library.

"You literally have two classes left," Juwon said. "Go be a good student and leave me alone."

"There's no harm in skipping every once in a while," he smiled, patting Juwon's head. The girl sighed, knowing she couldn't do anything that would change his mind. She didn't really want to change his mind anyway.

(And if she were being completely honest, she didn't want Heeseung to leave her alone either. Not now, and not ever.)

• • •

seung the rat 🐀

juju tf away from me 👽
you fucking bitch