Sungmi was nervously pacing around her room, her telephone ringing and her heart sped up when he saw her mom's name written on the screen. What the hell did she want now from her? It was true that her so called ‘relationship’ with Yunho was over in less than a day, which was a new record for Sungmi, but she didn’t tell anyone about this, especially not her and Yunho’s mother, since she knew that both of them were counting on her. Once he had overheard her mom and Yunho’ talking about her and neither of them had anything good to say about her, which made the girl even more depressed. What Yunho had said was true and Sungmi knew that, she knew that she needed to stop trying to please her mother in everything but at the same time, she still wanted to make the woman proud. It was confusing and Sungmi was very well aware of that. Plus, she knew that he didn’t have enough courage in her to go against her mother and her wishes; her past experiences had taught her that that wasn’t a wise thing to do.

She then calmed down a little bit, because the phone had stopped ringing. However, a minute or so had passed and her mother started calling her again, which made her heart fall to the pit of her stomach and she quickly threw it away from her. She then distanced herself away from the phone and closed her eyes, knowing that she needed to pick up the call even though she didn’t want to. But it made her worry; her mother usually never called her and whenever she would call her so many times in the row, there would only be bad news for Sungmi. , , ! She really needed to pick up the call, because if she wouldn’t her mother would be even more pissed off and that was the last thing that the girl wanted to do at that moment. So, because of that, she painfully slowly came closer to the phone and picked it up with her shaking hands. She then tapped to the answer call and could only hope that the woman wasn’t going to be too hard on her.

“Hello mother,” said Sungmi politely and sat down, because her entire body started shaking and her legs couldn’t support her weight anymore. It that she was still so afraid of her own mother, even though she was practically grown up. But she couldn’t help herself; the woman did horrible things when she was still a child and she somehow lost the will-power to fight her throughout the years; sometimes she thought that she was nothing but an empty shell and that was what hit her every time. “W-why are you calling me?” she then stuttered out and sighed, almost jumped when the woman started speaking. Her mother’s voice was cold and emotionless; just what Sungmi had been afraid of happening.

“Why did it took so long to answer a call? Are you too stupid to even figure out how a normal phone works?” asked the woman and Sungmi’s heart started speeding up once again. She knew that it was her fault this time and she just shrugged, knowing that she would have to listen to her mom’s ‘educational’ words.

“Sorry mother,” said Sungmi and bowed, even though the other one wasn’t there and she was completely alone in the room. “I was studying and I didn’t hear the phone call. I know how much you dislike it when I don’t reply to you immediately, so I apologise. I’ll make sure to reply quicker next time,” lied the girl and then allowed herself to take in a deep breath, to calm down her shaking body.

“Studying?” scoffed the woman and Sungmi rolled her eyes. “I thought that you were with Yunho on a date or something. I would be able to forgive you if that was the case, but you know what, my sweet girl, that isn’t the case here now,” said the woman and Sungmi’s eyes widened when the other one mentioned Yunho’s name. “Men don’t really care how intelligent you are, it’s your looks that count and fortunately you are blessed with them so don’t just let them go to waste. If you’ll continue to pay more attention to your books than men, this one will get tired of you as well.”

Sungmi pressed her lips together and tightened her grip around her phone. Her heart started beating even faster and she could feel herself getting extremely angry and annoyed. Where was she coming from?! Her mother always pushed her with her studies when she was still in high school, because she needed to be on the top of the whole school with her grades. Sungmi made that happen, but the price for that was too big; she spent so many months of studying and in the end the stress made her crumble; she couldn’t handle it. The need to be on top made her do a lot of stupid things, sabotaging her classmates, and she ended up losing most of her friends, which led her to depression and almost killing herself, but that didn’t really made her mother stop.

She knew what was going to happen; her mother would start asking questions about her and Yunho and she didn’t like it at all. Sungmi couldn’t really lie to her mother, so she knew that the other one would figure out that the relationship was over already and Sungmi would end up being called a failure and disgrace. She really wished that she couldn’t care for her mother’s words, just like Yunho, but to Sungmi, her mother’s opinion still meant a lot.

“I am going to meet up with him later this day. He also said that he needed some studying to do, so we thought that the best thing would be to study now and meet up later on, in the evening,” started explaining the girl, but was interrupted by her mother.

“Oh, so he already got tired of you,” said the woman and Sungmi’s eyes widened, fear spreading throughout her whole body. “I didn’t think that you could do it, but this is officially your new record. You managed to turn off someone after just a week. As I thought, you are a coward and failure. I can’t believe that I gave birth to someone like you. Why can’t you be successful as I am?! This way you won’t come anywhere and-”

 “No, mom, please you need to listen to what I have to say,” said Sungmi, her eyes welling up when she heard all of those horrible words coming from the woman’s mouth. Even though she grew up listening to those insults, it still hurt… it cut like a blade right into her heart and she really wished that she could do something about that.

“No need to explain yourself, Sungmi. I completely understand the poor boy. Do you understand how much he needed to give up, just to be with you?” snapped the woman and sighed. “I talked to Yunho’s mother and she said that he was in love with someone earlier, so she warned me about this. But what do you do?! You ruined everything!”

“That’s the problem, mom! He doesn’t love me,” said Sungmi and then made a few moments of silence, just so that she could calm down a little bit, but she couldn’t really and words were just flying from , even though she wanted to stop them. “And I don’t love him; I don’t even know him and all of you are expecting the two of us getting married. I can’t be with someone that doesn’t love me… I can’t be happy with that. I don’t want that kind of life. You say that you made it work with dad, but I don’t buy it, because I can see how you look at him. You don’t love him and I can’t live that kind of life. You might be able to hide and control your emotions, but I can’t!”

“How dare you speak with me like that?!” snapped the woman and Sungmi’s body had completely froze, because she wasn’t even thinking about what she was saying and she placed a hand towards , wanting to take all of her words back, but that was kind of useless and the damage was already done. She hadn’t talked back to her mother in years, so that made her worried. It the past, the woman would hit her or made her do something that would completely humiliate her, so that in the end, she would end up apologising to her.

“I-I’m sorry, b-but mother, please you need to understand that I am old enough to-”

“Shut up,” said the woman and Sungmi stopped talking and she then closed her eyes, hoping for a miracle. “How dare you accuse me of not loving your father? You don’t know anything, so shut up! And, so that you know, you will make this relationship work. I don’t care if he had already broken up with you, but you will make him take you back. If you won’t be able to make this relationship work, then you can never return back home and you can forget me and your father.”

“W-what?” asked Sungmi, her eyes widened and then more tears started gathering in them. She didn’t even know if she understood her mother right; what the hell did she mean by that? Plus, she didn’t really mean it, did she? She probably just said to make her even more scared and even though Sungmi knew that herself, panic was raising and she knew that she needed to make her mother understand why her relationship didn’t work. She knew that she should just get away from her poisonous mother, but she couldn’t. “It’s not my fault that the relationship didn’t work out, mom. You need to understand this; I really tried this time. But he-”

“But what?” snapped the woman.

‘But what?’ was what was repeating over and over again in Sungmi’s head and she was searching for a good answer. Since she couldn’t come up with anything good, she then suddenly remembered why Yunho broke up with her in the first place. It was because of Professor Kim! If it wouldn’t be for him, then the she and Yunho would probably be in a relationship right now. Her heart started beating faster and her rational train of thought had left her a long time ago, becoming angrier with Jaejoong. It was all his fault; was what the girl decided. But was she really ready to tell that to her mother?! No, she had hurt Yunho enough, but still… she needed to think about herself as well. Even though it would probably ruin their relationship, it didn’t matter to Sungmi at that time.

“Yunho’s gay and he’s in a relationship with a professor on our school,” she then suddenly blurted out and her eyes widened. As soon as she said that, her eyes widened and she placed a hand on top of and her whole body started shaking. Did she really just say that? No, no, no… she didn’t mean to hurt Yunho. But…

“What did you say?” asked the woman carefully, her voice becoming really sweet all of the sudden.

“What the hell did I just do?” whispered Sungmi to her and her chest tightened. She promised herself and to Yunho to stop doing stupid things, but she had done it again. Why?! Why did she have to be so selfish and think only about herself?! She suddenly hated herself more than anything. Sungmi then gripped her own shirt and her eyes welled up again; it had happened again. Just as in high school when she switched her and her classmate’s results in an exam, she had sabotaged someone again. When she was pushed against the corner by her mother, this is how she acted and she hated herself for that.

“Sungmi?” asked the woman again and Sungmi slowly straightened herself up. “What you said… is it really true?”

“Yeah,” she said and tears started streaming down her face.

“Well, now this changes everything,” said the woman and judging by her tone of voice, Sungmi knew that her mother must’ve had a plan or something, to sabotage Yunho even further. She really didn’t want Yunho to hate her or to stay mad at her; she really wanted to be his friend. But, now she had ruined things for good and she knew that there was no turning back. No matter what her mother’s plan was, she knew that she was going to follow it through; it was what kind of person she was. She was absolutely disgusted by that fact.

“W-what do you mean, mother?” asked Sungmi and wiped her tears again, clearing . She didn’t want her mother to know that she had been crying.

“It’s a good thing that you told me this,” said the woman. “Now I want you to go to the principal and tell him everything. Tell him that Yunho is with that professor, I don’t really care who he is. This way we will get what we both want; we will hurt Yunho for leading you on and his family. Do you know how humiliated his family will be when this will get out?”

“B-but, mother, I-”

“What? Would you rather be the one who is humiliated?”

“No.”

“Good girl,” said the woman and Sungmi could even hear a chuckle. “Now, go to the principal the first thing in the morning, okay?”

Sungmi nodded, staring in front of her. “Yes mother,” she said.

After that, the phone call had ended and Sungmi could swear that he had a hole in her chest; she couldn’t bear to feel those kinds of emotions. So, because of this, she went into the kitchen, poured herself a full glass of whiskey and went back into her living room, emptying the glass almost immediately, relaxing as soon as she felt the liquid running down . At that exact moment her emotions became numb and she couldn’t feel anything anymore. This is how she coped with this kind of things every time; it was easier not to feel anything.

Sungmi was standing in front of the principal’s office, her heart hammering against her ribcage and then bit onto her lower lip, her whole body shaking as she was getting ready to go into the principal’s office and tell him everything. She felt horrible and she knew that she didn’t have to do it; it was her choice to listen to her own mother and she could say now. But she somehow felt obligated to do it; maybe then her mother would finally love her? But if she would do it, then she would hurt so many people in the process. It was true that she didn’t like Professor Kim, but still… she didn’t want to ruin his life and career just because of her own stupidity. Not only that, but hurting Yunho somehow felt unfair to Sungmi. She then let out a small sigh and dug her own finger nails into her palms, trying to make a good decision.

Suddenly, she heard laughter behind her and when she looked into that direction, she saw Yunho and Jaejoong, who were just chatting and laughing about something. They looked really happy together and she felt another stab of guilt in her heart; she didn’t want to ruin that. Also, she wanted to have someone like that someday and being a wouldn’t bring her happiness. But… her mother…

Sungmi stepped closer to the principal’s office and gently placed her hand on top of the doorknob, ready to open the door. However, she stopped when he heard the pair laughing again and he glanced there again, her cheeks suddenly went with tears again and she swallowed again. Sungmi didn’t feel good; not at all. She went as if all of the weight of the world was on her and she felt like she did a few years ago. Sungmi really couldn’t handle stress in a good way and this situation was too much for her. Her breathing was rapid and her body started suddenly feeling really hot; hot flashes were rushing throughout her whole body. Her eyes located the nearest chair and she quickly sat down and closed her eyes.

In the meanwhile, Jaejoong and Yunho were really close to the girl, but weren’t paying too much attention to her and were just enjoying each other’s presence. Ever since Jaejoong had asked the younger male to move in with him, the pair go even closer to each other and Yunho couldn’t be happier about everything. Even the fact that Sungmi knew about their relationship wasn’t bothering him anymore and since he was soon changing schools, the fact that someone might find out about them wasn’t bothering him that much anymore.

“Are you coming over tonight as well?” asked Jaejoong suddenly and Yunho’s eyes were immediately on him. The younger male quickly nodded and then looked around, to see if anyone was looking at them. However, since most students had classes at that hour, the hallway was pretty much empty and he allowed himself to get a bit closer to his professor, taking Jaejoong’s hand into his own. Jaejoong smiled when their fingers intertwined and he then let out a happy sigh.

“Of course I am,” said Yunho and then leaned against the wall, letting go of his lover’s hand, just in case. “We should soon look into new apartments by the way,” whispered Yunho, still not believing that the older male had asked him to move in with him. “I can’t wait for us to start living together, I’m so excited.”

“So am I,” whispered Jaejoong, because just the thought of them living together made him excited like a child on the Christmas’ morning and he chuckled at his own childish thoughts. “I love you so much,” the man muttered, making Yunho chuckle at his lover’s adorableness and he resisted pulling the man into a tight embrace and kissing him at that right spot.

“I want to kiss you,” blurted out Yunho, letting out a small chuckle when he saw a faint blushing on Jaejoong’s cheeks. The man’s eyes widened when he heard his student say that and his face became hot in a second. Even though they were together for quite some time now, the other one’s boldness still made him blush like a school girl sometimes and Jaejoong had to admit it that he liked Yunho because of this.

“Not now,” said Jaejoong and playfully rubbed the back of his palm against Yunho’s hand. “Later, when we’re alone.”

“I’m going to do much more than just a kiss when we’re alone,” heard himself say Yunho and earned a playful smack on the shoulder from his professor.

“You erted brat,” said the man and then looked away, his face burning with embarrassment.

Yunho’s loud laughter filled the room, the younger male finding the older one to be too precious at that moment. “You’re adorable.”

“Of course,” said Jaejoong and rolled his eyes.

The roll of Jaejoong’s eyes only made Yunho’s laughter grow louder and Jaejoong then clicked with his tongue, feeling a bit annoyed, but a smile came upon his face as soon as Yunho looked at him. The duo continued to talk for a little bit, until Jaejoong heard someone crying. He frowned and then showed Yunho to be quiet. At that time the younger one also heard someone crying and both of them narrowed their eyes, looking around. At first they didn’t see anyone, but after a few moments or so, Jaejoong saw that someone was sitting down, very close to the principal’s office and it was very visible that the person was upset.

Yunho also located the person pretty soon, but unlike Jaejoong, he quickly realised who it was. “That’s Sungmi,” said Yunho and rolled his eyes. “Come one, let’s leave and go somewhere else. I don’t want to be here.”

“That’s Sungmi?” asked Jaejoong and after taking a better look at the person, he saw that it really was her. No matter how much he disliked her, he just couldn’t leave like that since it was pretty soon that the other one needed someone to talk to. Plus what was she doing in front of the principal’s office? “We can’t just leave her, Yunho,” said Jaejoong and sighed. “I know that you dislike her and believe me, I don’t like her as well, but still…”

“Fine, fine,” said Yunho and rolled his eyes, not really caring for her tears. He had seen her cry so many times and most of the times, it was just fake tears. On the other hand, this time she was alone, so maybe the tears were genuine. But what was bothering Yunho even more was the fact why was she doing there, near to the principal’s office. Maybe was she there to tell the man about their relationship? Yunho’s eyes widened, anger kicking in again and he hurried there.

When he stepped to her, Yunho grabbed Sungmi’s wrist. Sungmi, who wasn’t really paying attention to them anymore, let out a surprised yelp when her wrist was suddenly grabbed and her eyes widened when she saw Yunho. “What are you doing here?” snapped Yunho and pulled her arm up, so that she stood up. “If you’re here to tell the principal, you know what, then I swear that I’ll-”

“Yunho!” said Jaejoong with a loud voice and as soon as he did that, Yunho let go of Sungmi. It was true that he was still pissed off, but he decided to listen to Jaejoong since he didn’t want to do anything stupid. Jaejoong then slowly walked closer to the two of them and then faced Sungmi. “Are you alright?” he asked her.

Sungmi’s eyes widened when he heard Jaejoong say that and more tears started streaming down her face. The man was being so kind to her, even though she had said so many horrible things about him. Not only that, but she had just tried to destroy their relationship. With that on her mind, Sungmi quickly sat down, buried her face into her palms and a loud sob left . “I-I’m not fine,” said Sungmi in between the sobs. “I’m so sorry… I’m so sorry.”

Yunho’s heart shrunk when he heard Sungmi apologising so much, immediately fearing for the worst. So, she had told the principal?! Yunho knew it; he shouldn’t be looking forward the future so much. They were so close to making it, but now Sungmi had ruined all of their plans. “W-why are you apologising?” asked Yunho. “Did you tell him? You did, didn’t you?!”

“Yunho, stop yelling at her!” snapped Jaejoong.

“But she told the principal about us,” whispered Yunho, not believing that the man was still protecting her.

“I don’t care,” said Jaejoong. “Stop being selfish.”

“I’m being selfish?” asked Yunho in disbelief.

Jaejoong had decided that he had it enough and he decided to ignore Yunho for the moment. He then sat down next to Sungmi and took in a deep breath. The fact that Sungmi might’ve told the principal about the relationship scared Jaejoong, but at the same time, he knew that he needed to calm her down. His part of the job acquired him to help the students in any need. “Sungmi?” asked Jaejoong slowly and the girl slowly lifted her face. Jaejoong forced a small smile and he then continued talking when he saw that he had her full attention. “Do you want to talk about what had happened?”

Sungmi shook her head and bit onto her lower lip, trying to prevent herself from bursting into tears again. She then looked at Yunho. “I-I didn’t t-tell him… I-I wanted to, but I didn’t. I couldn’t,” she said and then looked at Jaejoong. “Why are you being so nice to me? All I did was hurt you and-”

“Forget about what had happened in the past,” said Jaejoong calmly, this time really meaning it. “I don’t care about that anymore.”

Yunho felt his fear fading away when Sungmi said that and he then suddenly felt horrible for snapping at Sungmi like that. “I’m sorry for snapping at you,” said Yunho and then sighed.

“No need to apologise,” said Sungmi and looked down. “I deserved that.”

“You really don’t want to talk about it?” asked Jaejoong, still concerned about the girl. “If you don’t want to talk about it her, we can go somewhere where the atmosphere isn’t so formal. Join us for a drink,” said Jaejoong and showed to himself and Yunho. “You can talk about what had happened there. If not, then just come with us for the company.”

“Thanks, but no,” she said and looked down. “I don’t want to be a bother.”

“You wouldn’t be a bother,” said Jaejoong. “Right, Yunho?” asked Jaejoong and looked at the other one.

“Yeah, not at all.”

The trio went to a café in hope that Sungmi could calm down a little bit. After a while, she had managed to calm down enough to let Yunho and Jaejoong know what had happened between her and her mother that day. Yunho was beyond angry with her when she told them that she told her mother that the two of them were together, but in the end he didn’t comment on it since he knew that Jaejoong probably wouldn’t like that. Jaejoong, on the other hand, was happy that the girl managed to calm down and after a few more moments, she had completely opened up to the professor, telling him everything about her horrible mother.

Sungmi told him what her childhood was like, how horribly her mother had treated her when the father wasn’t at home. Sungmi’s father was a really kind man, but unfortunately he was out of home a lot, due to his work, which let her mother do as she pleased with her and there were a lot of times when the woman hit her, especially if she got bad grades in school. She had also told Jaejoong all about her bad and stupid behaviour, so that she could please her mother, but in the end, the woman was never happy enough. As Yunho continued to listen to her story, he realised it that she had it even worse than him. Even though she presented herself as a selfish and snobby brat, he then saw her in a completely different light. However, that still didn’t excuse how she had been acting, but still… Yunho somehow managed to forgive her just a little bit.

Sungmi left both of them speechless when she told them that she wanted to commit suicide quite a lot of times, due to her loneliness in school, stress and depression. No people really liked her and the only ‘friends’ that she had, were just hanging out with her because she was coming from a rich family. Yunho was kind of familiar with that, but on the other hand, he had two real best friends… Changmin and Yoochun. He was lucky enough that he had enough courage to get away from his horrible parents unlike Sungmi. He had wished that she would just pluck up the courage and leave, but he knew that a decision like this wasn’t that easy.

After an hour or so, Sungmi left, saying that she needed to go for a class and in the end Jaejoong and Yunho stayed alone. Both of them stayed silent for quite some time, because they didn’t know what to say. Yunho was deep in thought, while Jaejoong was thinking of what to say.

“I had no idea that she had it that bad,” whispered Jaejoong and then looked at Yunho, who nodded.

“She had mentioned a few times that her mother was giving her a hard time, but I had no idea that it was this bad,” said Yunho and then looked at Jaejoong. “Money is a curse, it brings more sadness than happiness,” he then added and Jaejoong sighed, knowing that the other one was now talking about himself as well.

A sad smile appeared on the man’s face and he then placed his hand on top of Yunho’s leg. Yunho looked down and placed his hand on top of Jaejoong’s, before he took it into his own. Without thinking twice, he brought Jaejoong’s hand up to his lips, kissing his every finger, before releasing his hand and wrapping his arms around the man’s body, squeezing him tightly to himself. The younger one didn’t know why he became so emotional all of the sudden and he buried his face into the older one’s shoulder, closing his eyes.

“Yunho?” asked Jaejoong softly. “What’s wrong?”

“Just listening to her… made remember about my parents… and how happy I am to have you,” whispered Yunho and squeezed the man closer to him.

“Yunho…” whispered Jaejoong and buried his fingers into Yunho’s hair, gently ruffling it, before pressing a kiss against the young man’s cheek. When he wanted to break their hug, Yunho wouldn’t let him go. Instead, he squeezed him tighter to himself.

“Sorry,” whispered Yunho. “J-just a little more.”

Jaejoong nodded, this time wrapping his arms around Yunho as well, allowing Yunho to take time to calm down.