Min Taemin's POV (Point Of View)
We headed to the arcade to relieve the pressure of the tests we had. Ji-seo stared at the games in excitement.
"Why are you acting like you haven't been to an arcade before?" I teased. She turned to me, "That's because I haven't been to an arcade before."
My eyebrows shot up in bewilderment, "Really? How?" She stared at Ha-ri and Dae, who were rushing to the dance machine, before focusing back on me, "I never really had the time to go. I only planned dates with Toby to go to one, but I had to move to Korea," she said before looking down in sadness.
"So, do you guys still talk? You sound like you two were close," I asked. She let out a deep sigh before nodding, "Yeah, we're close, but we don't talk as much like we used to. Once I moved to Korea, our conversations kept getting shorter."
She walked over to the basketball game and passed me a ball, "Want to take a shot?" I nodded and threw the ball into the hoop smoothly, "Wow, look who's being a show-off," she teased.
I rolled my eyes with a small smile before turning to Chaeyoung, who was standing awkwardly next to us, "Do you want to have a go?" I asked, reaching out the ball to her.
"Uh? Sure," she replied nervously, and took the ball from my hand and threw it to the hoop, but she missed it, and it ended up hitting the rim. She turned to us sheepishly, "Sorry."
"Oh, don't apologise. It's only natural for humans to make mistakes, and as long as you're having fun, who cares if you're not good at it?" Ji-seo said, cheering her up.
Chaeyoung nodded with a small smile, then grabbed a ball and threw it into the hoop successfully this time. She turned to us with a big smile on her face, "Did you see that?! I just did that!" She yelled in excitement.
Ji-seo let out a laugh, and the sound made me turn to her immediately. Her face brightened up as she laughed. I quickly averted my gaze, 'What the hell was that?' I asked myself.
"I'll go and try other games, you guys should have fun," Chaeyoung said before walking off. Ji-seo turned to me, but I noticed she was looking behind me, with a small smile on her face. I turned to see what she was looking at, and my gaze fell on Ha-ri and Dae dancing.
"They look so cute together, don't you think?" She asked. I nodded, "Yeah, even though they are completely different. I wonder how Dae is coping with her hyperactivity," I snorted.
"That's how love is, I guess. Once you're in love with someone, you fall in love with everything about them," Ji-seo said calmly.
I turned to her, "Have you ever been in love?" Her face dropped at my question, and I realised that I might have made a huge mistake.
"Oh, I'm sorry. You don't have to answer the question. To make you feel better, I have also not fallen in love before, " I said, panicking. She shook her head before she walked off to a claw machine filled with stuffed animals and inserted a coin, "No, it's okay. I have been in love before, but it was unrequited."
She moved the claw to a stuffed animal and lowered it, but unfortunately, she wasn't able to grab it. She let out an exhale from her nostrils in annoyance and took out a coin from her pouch and inserted it into the machine.
"I was in love with Toby, but he only saw me as a friend. I never told him how I felt because I didn't want to ruin our friendship. I don't even know how I managed to hold it in me for so long. When I heard I was moving to Korea, I was a bit sad because that meant I had to leave everyone behind, including him. But at the same time, I felt relieved because I knew that I was going to do something stupid and ruin our friendship," she explained, but paused as she lowered the claw to a stuffed animal and tried to lift it, but failed again. I stayed silent as she explained.
She poked the insides of her left cheek, something I noticed she does when she's annoyed. "I was fine with us talking over the phone, but then it suddenly stopped. He didn't contact me for weeks, and to make it worse, he blocked me on his socials. I really wanted an explanation, but I didn't know how to get one. Ha-ri gave me a piece of advice. She told me to just focus on myself, and I should forget about him, but how can I forget about someone I have loved for eight years?" She scoffed as she reached into her pouch for a coin, but I grabbed her hand, stopping her.
"You are not in the right condition to play this game, and it clearly shows that you don't even know how to play this game. Move aside," I said before pushing her softly aside.
She handed me a coin, and I looked at her and shook my head before reaching into my pocket, taking out a coin, and inserting it into the machine. She watched me in silence, trying not to distract me.
I moved the claw but paused, "What animal do you want?" I asked her. "I want that pink bunny," she replied. I nodded and lowered the claw to a stuffed pink bunny. I lifted the claw up, along with the bunny, and successfully got it.
Ji-seo gasped in shock, "Oh my God, you did it!" I handed the stuffed animal to her, "Here you go."
"Oh, thank you, Taemin," she squealed with a huge smile on her face. She gasped and handed me back the bunny, "Hold on, let me get one for you," she said before reaching her hand into her pouch.
"Don't bother. I'm not a fan of cute things," I said, rolling my eyes. She ignored me and slid a coin into the claw machine, and her eyebrows narrowed in concentration. I scoffed, "You think you're going to get it? I told you not to bother yourself."
She ignored me, then lowered the claw to a stuffed blue bunny. She held her breath in concentration and lifted it, and surprisingly, the bunny lifted with ease. Then she dropped it into the compartment and grabbed the bunny and lifted it with pride.
"I did it!! I am a claw machine master!" She yelled out in excitement. My mouth hung low in shock, "But you sucked at this a few minutes ago."
She giggled, shoved the bunny in my hand, and took hers from me. "All I had to do was watch how you did it, and I got it!" She said with a big smile on her face.
I watched her run over to Ha-ri in excitement, probably going to boast about her achievement. I watched how her lips rose in a huge smile as she explained to Ha-ri in excitement.
I felt my heart thumping faster, and my stomach felt funny. I placed my hand on my chest, 'Why is my heart beating so fast? Am I having a heart attack?' I asked myself.
My phone buzzed with a call, and I brought it out of my pocket and saw that my dad was calling me. I rolled my eyes before picking it up and brought it to my ear.
"Hello?" "Could you come home right this instant. Arin requested that she wants to have dinner with us, and we must not let her down," my dad spoke on the other end.
"You can have dinner with her and her mum. I'm not coming. I'm hanging up right now," I said before I tried to hang up, but paused when I heard his next statement, "So you want to follow in your late mum's footsteps by being stubborn and a huge disappointment, right? I'll be waiting for you, and you'd better get here before they arrive," he said before hanging up.
I placed my phone back into my pockets, fuming with anger. I walked over to the rest of the group, "Hey, I have to go."
Ji-seo turned to me in confusion, "Why?" "Well, Arin decided to have a family dinner, and my dad is calling me back home," I said, trying to control my anger.
"I bet she's doing this because I came here with you guys, so she doesn't want us to have fun. I'm so sorry," Chaeyoung apologised.
It's okay, it's not your fault," I said to Chaeyoung with a small smile before I waved the group goodbye and walked out of the arcade.