Seonghwa

"Literally the worst movie EVER!" Min shook her head as we exited the movie theater.

"Gosh, Woo, why do you have such a bad taste?" Yeosang nudged Wooyoung's shoulder which made him start complaining like a child.

"What? I thought it was pretty good!" He frowned, making me raise my eyebrows.

"Everyone died at the end." Byeol deadpanned. I laughed.

"True, but still!" Wooyoung tried to defend himself, but I placed a hand on his shoulder. He looked at me and I shook my head with a small smile.

"Whatever happened on the big screen stays on the big screen." I said, leaning back with one foot on the wall behind me. "But, in all honesty, it was fun to diss it together in the theater."

"Truth." Min nodded with closed eyes. Byeol's, on the other hand, widened as she seemed to remember something.

"Dang it, I forgot to tell you all!" She pulled out her phone, talking quickly. "I think I got a clue for CJ," Byeol said suddenly, and I stood up straighter. Everyone started clamoring all at once.

"What?"

"What did you find?"

"When did this happen?"

"What's CJ again?"

The last one came from Yeosang. I guess Byeol didn't fill him in yet.

"So I bumped into this guy on my way to my bus," Byeol started to explain. We listened closely. "All his things fell on the ground and I was gathering everything. He had a cast on his leg, so I was trying to help. And so, I saw that there were basketball drawings on lots of the papers but one of them had the letters CJ on it– just like what we saw last night." She glanced at Min, who nodded slowly. She continued, "I tried asking him what it was, but he said was going to miss his bus and ran off. I tried to take a picture but it became all blurry." Byeol held out her phone to show us, and I took it from her hands.

She wasn't wrong; it was really blurry. I think I was looking at a bus?

"Maybe we could try editing the picture?" Wooyoung suggested, looking over my shoulder.

"Probably..." I mumbled to myself.

"What did I miss?" Yeosang asked while everyone was examining the picture. I handed the phone off to Min, who after a quick glance gave it to Wooyoung. I filled Yeosang in on the parts he missed about our case.

"Well, talk about strange." Yeosang blinked after I finished explaining. "Who leaves a basketball as a clue? These people are insane," He shook his head.

"I don't know, but I hope we get to figure out who this is soon." Min said, stepping closer to me. "I think Hwa and I should head home now?" She glanced up at me with a blank face.

"Oh, uh... sure?" I leaned down and whispered in Min's ear, "Everything okay?"

Min turned her face to look at Byeol, ignoring me completely. The only way I know she heard something is by the slight purse in her lips when she talked.

"Yeah, we should get going...." Min said to herself. Wooyoung glanced at Byeol, but the latter seemed to understand. I just wished she'd tell me what she understood, because I was really confused.

"Okay, no problem. Yeosang should probably not be late, either, before his father says anything." Said Byeol, to which Yeosang nodded.

"Thanks for the terrible movie!" I winked at Wooyoung who simply rolled his eyes. We all wished each other farewells and Min and I broke off, heading to the parking lot. Wooyoung and Byeol said they'd make a quick stop at Starbucks before heading home.

"Min, is everything okay?" I asked, looking at her as soon as we were out of earshot.

"Yeah, of course, Hwa." She said, not looking at me. Min only calls me Hwa when she's stressed, busy or mad. So I took that as a no.

Before I could say anything else, however, my phone vibrated in my pocket.

"Hey, can I drive this time?" Min asked when we neared our car. I nodded and we got in our seats.

I checked my phone after buckling my seatbelt in the passenger's seat. It was Byeol; she sent me the picture she had shown earlier.

Here's the picture if you want to edit it.

thx

Nice movie right?

A small smile played on my lips. Min started the car and pulled onto the highway.

hah sure.

I waited as she typed.

Hey uh don't force Min to talk about the whole thing if she doesnt want to, I think it's just hard to accept for her rn... that's prob why she didnt say much about CJ

Mm... ur probably right

I know I am ;)

lol

we should go to a movie together

I mentally kicked myself as soon as I sent the message. What was I thinking? I don't even know her! I–

Her response stopped my storm of thoughts.

sure

But we're not bringing woo

He has the worst taste EVER.

I chuckled.

"What's funny?" Min asked, glancing at me out of the corner of her eye with a slight smile.

"Oh nothing," I said, quickly texting Byeol that I'll talk to her later.

"I meant to ask you earlier... Is something up between you and Byeol?" She said suddenly. My jaw dropped.

"Where do you get these crazy ideas from, Min?" I shook my head, looking out the window.

"I don't know, maybe the way you wanted to sit next to her or share popcorn or–" I rolled my eyes.

"I literally met her yesterday. What could possibly be between us?" My eyes slowly traveled to my hands in my lap.

"Why would I want anything between us?" I mumbled to myself, looking at my bracelet.

"Seonghwa, I didn't mean it like that..." She deflated a bit, glancing at the silver band. "But you can't let your past keep you from being happy in the present, right?"

"We're not having this conversation." I said quickly, pulling my sleeves over my wrists. I know I was probably being stubborn, but I really didn't want to talk about it.

"Seonghwa–"

"I said no." I returned to gazing outside the window. Min fell quiet.

We stayed in the awkward silence for about a couple minutes before Min changed the topic. We started discussing the movie. Even though two twin elephants sat in the backseat of our car, we were careful around our words so we didn't evoke them.

Eventually, we reached our apartment and went inside. Since it was a Friday night and both of us had been home all day, we didn't really have much to do at the moment. And I was glad; even though I probably shouldn't mention it with Min, I still wanted to edit the picture and see if I could figure anything out.

Min half-heartedly took off her shoes at the door and threw her coat onto the sofa. I properly put my stuff away as usual, but that's just because I'm just the clean type. She collapsed on the sofa, sighing.

"Hwa, I'm hungry..." Min called from the living room as I sat on a barstool at the kitchen table. I could see she had her eyes closed and head resting on the armrest of the sofa, legs tucked in.

"Min, come get something." I said softly. She opened one eye and glared at me, probably still salty from when I lashed out at her about Byeol and the bracelet. I sighed.

"Is this about Byeol?" I asked, keeping my eyes on the marble tabletop.

"Not really. In a way, maybe. Seonghwa, you can't keep yourself shut away from everyone because of what happened last year." I saw her make her way to me out of the corner of my eye. "Trust me, I know what it's like."

I lifted my gaze. We haven't had this conversation for a long time. Honestly, I was surprised that she brought it up.

"How would you know?" I asked.

"Similar experiences. Not the exact same," She added quickly. "But I also lost my best friend the way you lost your girlfriend. And she was just looking out for you, wasn't she?"

"She didn't know what she was saying," I mumbled.

"Seonghwa..."

"She didn't know what she was saying!" I repeated, trying my best to keep my voice leveled. This was last year stuff. I can't get myself worked up about it. I was over it.

"She didn't have to let me go, she and I knew we were both perfectly capable of long distance. But no, she wanted to set me free," I sighed, looking down at my bracelet. Even though Areum did have good intentions, it still hurt a lot.

"I know it hurts." Min said. Did I say that out loud?

She reached her hands forward and took mine in hers.

"Just remember what she said and I know you'll be okay." I glanced down at the engravings on my bracelet.

Be free.

"Thanks, Min." She squeezed my hands comfortingly. I got up and gave her a hug. Not because of what she just did, but because I knew she was using my problems as a distraction from her own. She probably needed that hug.

"There's some cookies in the pantry if you want them. Red velvet." I told her. She smiled at me, staring deep into my eyes. I stared back into her light brown ones. Though I was always a single child, after moving in with the Kims, they really turned into family. I got a fun brother and a crazy sister. Truly lucky I was....

Min patted my shoulder and went to the pantry to get the cookies. I sat back down at the table and pulled out my phone to get to work on the picture.

"You finished last night's movie without me, haven't you?" Min's muffled voice said. She had a cookie in her mouth.

"Yeah, I did," I stole a cookie from her plate as she passed by me on her way to the living room. She slapped my hand lightly, taking it back.

"Mine."

I pouted, but she just smirked and went off. Savage, I thought, then returned to my phone.

Last night's movie started to play on the television. I half-listened, half-zoned out while editing the picture. I tried to play with the clarity, put it through a million filters, edit the brightness and exposure and highlights— but nothing really worked. I tried to find an app that would help, and luckily one of them actually cleared up the picture a bit.

I still couldn't see the face too well, but something else caught my attention.

My breath stopped.

The boy had a silver basketball-shaped earring hanging from his ear. Maybe typical, but this one was special. It had a treble clef engraved right on top of it.

I opened up the phone app and gave Wooyoung a call. Deciding I'd tell Min later, I quickly headed inside the bedroom as it rang. He didn't pick up.

Gah, this kid.

I opened up our chat and furiously texted him.

Dude, pick up! I know who CJ is!