[Chae-yeon: You've really visited many places with Ye-rin. It must have been fun, haha.]

"Oh no! What was I thinking, sending that just like that?"

I had meant to delete it immediately, but accidentally pressed the send button.

Why did I waste my fifth message with something like this? Every time I suggested going somewhere, it always turned out that he had already been there with Han Ye-rin, and it must have shaken my mental state for a moment.

"I still have so much to say, and it's already over.."

Biting my nails, I went over the message thread with Si-hyun again and again. Deciding that I hadn't fully expressed what I felt, I promised myself to add more characters next time.

"Is calling my only option now..."

The time allotted for a call with Si-hyun was just 15 minutes.

I needed to use this as efficiently as possible.

'Even three hours wouldn't be enough, so what's the point of 15 minutes?'

I grumbled to myself as I listened to the dial tone. It wasn't long before I heard Si-hyun's voice.

[Hello?]

"Si-hyun, it's Chae-yeon..."

It's been so long since we talked at night. Hearing his voice through the speaker made my nose tingle with emotion.

[I know. Just get to the point.]

"I don't really have a specific reason, I just wanted to hear your voice, so I called..."

Being able to connect with Si-hyun, that alone is a big enough reason for me.

[If you're calling for something as trivial as that, you must have a lot of free time...]

It's a reason that others may not understand.

"I might be free, but no matter how busy I was, I would always make time to call you."

[What are you… Didn't you say you gave up on me?]

At Si-hyun's suspicious tone, I swallowed the saliva that had pooled in my mouth. I couldn't reveal my true feelings to him yet. The priority was to approach naturally using our friendship.

"Of course I gave up. I plan to remain a good friend for life."

When you think about it, a girlfriend is also a friend, so it's not a lie. While rationalizing this to myself, I heard Si-hyun's relieved voice.

[Really? Then that's a relief.]

It would have been nice if he sounded a little disappointed. The fact that I couldn't hear even a hint of that in his voice made my heart ache.

But I continued the call without showing any signs of it.

"I only have 15 minutes to talk with you. I really want to make the most of it. Is it okay if I call you every night?"

[Well, I doubt there's much to talk about even if we do.]

"It's okay even if I just listen without saying anything."

[...Alright. Do as you wish then.]

Surprisingly, he agreed readily.

Was Si-hyun's permission granted out of sympathy? Either way, I was relieved and began to speak.

"Then, in the old days..."

[Just leave out the stories from when we were dating.]

"......"

I had planned to stir up feelings of nostalgia, but it was dashed right from the start.

[Why did you suddenly go quiet? Were you really going to talk about that?]

"No! Absolutely not!"

Even though Si-hyun couldn't see me, I shook my head vigorously. And now that my plan had failed, I tried to think of a topic I could discuss with Si-hyun.

"Uh.. then, Si-hyun, do you remember the cat YouTuber you used to watch all the time?"

[Do you mean Huhuhu?]

"Yeah. Do you still watch their videos?"

[Of course. I often rewatch them whenever I'm bored.]

Fortunately, it seemed like we could create some common ground. This should be enough to keep the conversation going.

"Then you must have seen the recent video! The one with the cat called Myatong that doesn't meow with 'meow' but instead cries out like 'iyahoong.'"

[Oh, I saw that. The way it cried, it was like it was trying to talk to its owner. People even made parody videos with it.]

There was a slight laugh in Si-hyun's voice. Feeling accomplished by his reaction, I responded.

"Really? How did they parody it?"

[They turned that crying sound into a live concert. It sounded pretty good, so it's quite entertaining to watch.]

"Wow... I'll have to look it up later."

Having this conversation makes me feel like we've returned to the past. Back then, Si-hyun would often come up with topics for us, but now it's my turn to do that.

‘Six minutes left... I have to maintain this atmosphere until the call ends.’

After checking the remaining time, I pressed my ear closer to the speaker.

[Yeah. Make sure to watch it when you have time. It's definitely enterta...]

Bzzzz-

The sound of a vibration came through the speaker. It caused Si-hyun's words to get cut off, and after a brief pause, he continued speaking.

[Sorry, but I have to hang up now.]

This was completely different from what we were just talking about. There was still time left, so why was this happening? The reason soon became clear.

[Ye-rin called me, so I need to hang up. Is that okay?]

"Uh, yeah. Of course, you should do that. I'll contact you later then."

[Okay.]

Click.

The call ended, and my phone returned to the home screen. Looking at the call duration, we had used 10 minutes and 26 seconds out of the allotted 15 minutes.

"There's still 4 minutes and 34 seconds left, so why the interruption..."

By now, Han Ye-rin could talk with him all she wanted. She would listen to Si-hyun's voice until she fell asleep, hear him sing, and have delightful conversations with him.

"I'm so incredibly jealous..."

But if I could maintain this kind of atmosphere during calls in the future, I might get closer to Si-hyun, too.

"And if Si-hyun's affection returns..."

The person on the call at this time wouldn't be Han Ye-rin, but me.

The weekend finally arrived.

Since Ye-rin said she wanted to watch a movie, Si-hyun went downtown. Upon arriving at the agreed location in a shopping complex, he spotted Chae-yeon with her girlfriend for some reason.

"Why is she here?"

Puzzled, Si-hyun whispered in Ye-rin's ear.

"I thought we were going on a date by ourselves today. Why did you invite Chae-yeon?"

"Just because we recently became friends. I thought it might be fun to hang out together."

Si-hyun tilted his head at Ye-rin's inexplicable action. After all, Chae-yeon was his ex-girlfriend.

‘Why is Ye-rin, who doesn't want me to have contact with Chae-yeon, doing this?’

While Si-hyun was observing Ye-rin with a mischievous smile, Chae-yeon approached and linked her fingers with his, saying, "I promised to cover the movie and popcorn costs, so both of you enjoy yourselves."

Ye-rin nodded with a bright smile.

"You really didn't have to, but given your generosity, we'll accept."

Ye-rin tightly hugged Si-hyun's left arm. Consequently, with a beautiful woman on each side, Si-hyun felt more intense stares of jealousy than usual as they moved forward.

The movie Ye-rin wanted to watch was, in fact, a romantic couple's movie. But surprisingly, it was mainly a simple love story rather than a melodramatic tale.

"Si-hyun, ah~"

While watching the movie, Ye-rin playfully fed popcorn to Si-hyun as if showing off.

This was a thoroughly calculated move. If she displayed affection next to Chae-yeon, Ye-rin believed she could observe two potential outcomes.

The first was discerning Chae-yeon's true feelings. If Chae-yeon tried to mimic such actions, it would mean she hadn't given up on Si-hyun.

The second was that if Chae-yeon had indeed given up, witnessing this act would further discourage her interest in Si-hyun.

Thus, Ye-rin had invited Chae-yeon to the date, deliberately enduring discomfort.

‘Let's see how long you can endure,’ she thought.

As Ye-rin placed another piece of popcorn in Si-hyun's mouth, Chae-yeon, watching them, spoke up.

"You both look really good together."

Chae-yeon smiled with her eyes, holding a lemonade in her hand. The straw she had used was flattened like dried squid, covered with teeth marks.

‘So, that's how you're going to play it, huh?’

While she had anticipated this, witnessing the couple's affection right in front of her made Chae-yeon's insides boil.

And by the time 50 minutes of the movie had passed…

As a kissing scene unfolded on the screen, Chae-yeon stared at it as if entranced.

[Haa... haa...]

The irregular breathing emanating from the speakers seemed to tickle her ears, causing her heart to race as well.

Furthermore, when she glanced around, other couples in the audience were already kissing, wrapped in the romantic atmosphere.

'I want to do that too...'

Driven by instinct, Chae-yeon looked at Si-hyun. And what she saw as a result was:

Churrup- Chlurrrp-

Ye-rin, holding Si-hyun's cheeks, was kissing him. She slipped her tongue between his teeth and swallowed a piece of popcorn that had stuck there.

Si-hyun, startled by Ye-rin's intense technique, jittered occasionally, and the reaction was felt by Chae-yeon who was holding his hand.

"............"

Chae-yeon bit her lower lip in silence. However, knowing that Ye-rin was looking in her direction, she maintained an innocent smile outwardly.

'Just wait, Han Ye-rin. I will definitely pay you back for this.'

Chae-yeon gripped Si-hyun's hand tightly with both of hers.

Despite having the one she loves right next to her, the distance between them felt unbearably far.