I didn’t like how all of a sudden Oh Sehun was sneakily crawling back into my mind. I didn’t like how all of a sudden, the places that he and I had gone to together were considered “sacred” in my mind, to the point where if I go there I think of him.

            No. This needed to be stopped. Besides, I must have been really brainwashed by him to ever even doubt my feelings for Jongin in the first place. At that burrito place I should’ve been thinking about how cute Jongin looked in his volunteering shirt, how his passion for animals and saving them was so damn hard to find nowadays in a sea of boring people. Oh Sehun was, like I said before, dangerous. Just like his driving.

            So when the next Paws for Pups volunteering event came around, I made it a priority to go. The event was held at a festival, and volunteers would help tend a booth promoting awareness for animal adoption and the like.

            I also wanted to look nice, but for some reason my hair was not cooperating. I stood in front of the mirror in the girl’s bathroom hall for at least half an hour, wondering what could be salvaged. I guess I didn’t look too bad. Still approachable for Jongin I mean, he and I had dated once upon a time. There was no real need to hide my flaws since he already knew them all.

            “God, and he still hasn’t called me back! That stupid Kim Jongin.”

            It was Krystal. Not wanting to run into her, I dashed into a bathroom stall and stood on the seat of the toilet, making myself hidden.

            I heard her come in with her entourage, usually a group of girls who only idolized her for her looks and designer bags. Can’t believe those types of girl still existed in college. In life I would later learn that they exist everywhere.

            “Maybe he’s busy,” one girl offered.

            “Yeah with his stupid animal shelter ,” Krystal growled. “Doesn’t even have the decency to text me back.”

            “I heard that one senior, Shim Changmin, likes you!” another girl cooed. “He’s so cute. You’re so lucky!”

            “And he’s in the highest house! DBSK boys are like gods.”

            Krystal sighed, clearly knowing her potential. “They are, aren’t they? Sometimes people tell me that I’m too good for guys like Jongin. I have always defended him. But with his recent lack of attention I’m not too sure…”

            She and her band of followers then left, leaving me in the stall speechless. Hearing Krystal speak of how she disapproved of Jongin’s passions, thinking that they were pathetic made me just want to jump out of that stall and smack her in the face. Jongin was the one who was too good for her. He was always too good for everybody.

            I came to the festival event in a daze, only because I didn’t really know what to do with my new piece of information. It was times like these where I wished Sehun and I still talked so that I could ask him about this type of . Without knowing it, he had become sort of like my mentor. Sometime who shared the same intentions as me, evil and dark enough to even assist me in them.

            So what was I to do now? Just leave this situation alone? The green eyed monster within me wouldn’t allow it.

            I watched as Jongin spoke to the people who passed by, seeing how good of a guy he was and how he didn’t deserve to be unaware of what Krystal thought of him. If she thought she could do better, then so be it.

            The Paws for Pups team went for dinner after the event again, although that didn’t exactly mean alone time for Jongin and me. Baekhyun was a real chatter, so the conversation was primarily dominated by him and his antics. Jongin seemed to enjoy his company though, as he laughed along with whatever Baekhyun said.

            “Hey everyone!” Baekhyun shouted, probably drunk from the can of beer he had. “Let’s go watch a movie, yeah? Let’s go watch Star Wars!”

            Other people began to chime in, wanting to go see the newest Star Wars movie also.

            “You’re coming with us, right?” Jongin asked me.

            “Um, yeah. Sure,” I said, even though I had no interest in Star Wars whatsoever. Jongin must’ve sensed this because he added with a chuckle, “Don’t worry, I’ll explain everything to you. We watched one of the movies before, remember? Episode four.”

            I thought back to it. ”The one with the Death Star thing, right?”

            “You got it.”

            “Oh,” I said. “Okay then.” Shouldn’t be too bad. I’d enjoyed that one.

            So we all journeyed to the local movie theater, with everyone all excited to see The Force Awakens. I genuinely found Star Wars interesting, but my mind was too occupied to properly pay attention to the movie.

            “There’s a joke amongst Star Wars fans,” Jongin whispered to me. “About how Star Wars is just about the Skywalker family screwing with the universe. Things would be a whole lot simpler if people just told each other things.”

            “Yeah, sure,” I replied absentmindedly. “Jongin...I have a question to ask you.”

            “What is it?”

            “Do you know a guy named Shim Changmin?”

            Jongin nodded. “Yeah, of course I do. He’s in the top house at SMU, a guy who holds great power and prestige on campus. Krystal has mentioned him a couple of times. Why?”

            “Because--”

            “Sh!” someone in the theater said.

            I bit my lip and slouched a bit in my seat. “I’ll tell you later,” I muttered. Now was not the time. What was I thinking?

            I went back and forth with it a lot, wondering if I really should meddle into business that technically had nothing to do with me. This was Jongin and Krystal’s relationship. Not mine. As much as I wanted him to be with me and not her, a part of me didn’t feel right in creating their demise on my own. One shot from me and they would be dead. The burden would be too heavy to carry.

            Even so, I felt the need to say something. When the movie ended and we were all exiting the theater, I stopped Jongin and said, “I heard Krystal saying something today and...it really bugs me.”

            Jongin found it amusing. “She says a lot of things. Don’t let it get to you.”

            “But what if the things she said was about you?”

            The smile on his face faded. He was now serious, and a bit confused. “What do you mean?”

            “Let’s just say she thinks she can do better,” I said, trying to make the words come out as easy as possible. “Jongin, you’re a good guy. You’re kind, smart, and charming. People use those adjectives all the time but rarely ever live up to them. You’re one of those rare people. I just didn’t want to see you get hurt.” Then, before I could witness the sadness on his face, I turned around and left.

            A couple of nights later, I came back to my dorm to come face to face with a distraught Wendy. “Oh my god,” she was saying.

            “What?” I asked her.

            Her eyes were wide as she scrolled through something on her phone. “Jongin just broke up with Krystal. My friend just texted me about it. She saw it herself, just this afternoon.”

            “Wait,” I said, trying to process everything. “Jongin broke up with her?”

            Wendy nodded. “That’s what I’ve been told.”

            I was running before I could even think, dashing out of the building over to Exo to find Jongin. I had so many questions running through my head. I was wondering if he was okay, if Krystal had said anything rash, if he’d done it because of her or because of him. Or, especially, if it was because of what I’d said.

            I had just made it to Jongin’s floor, when I suddenly bump into none other than Krystal Jung. And she didn’t look too happy.

            “I can’t believe you,” she barked. “I can’t believe you have the guts to show your face after what you did.”

            “What I did?” I asked, yelling right back at her. “I doubt I’m the reason he chose to leave someone as horrible as you.”

            “No,” Krystal snarled. “He broke up with me for a reason. He broke up with me because apparently he’s still in ‘love’ with a little like you.”

            “I--I don’t understand.” For some reason I felt like . This was my intention all along, wasn’t it? Apparently it wasn’t because of what I said but more because of Jongin’s own feelings for me. I should’ve been giving myself a pat on the shoulder.

            “He didn’t say it,” Krystal said, walking up to me. “But I knew. We all knew the moment you stepped onto this campus. Even Oh Sehun knew. Why do you think he wanted you to be a part of his little scheme so get back at me? Because he knew that you had the capability of seducing Jongin back onto your side. Face it, Joy Park. You screwed up.”

            “No,” I said, still trying to defend myself. “Don’t blame this all on me. Maybe if you were half as caring of a person as you should’ve been he would’ve thought about keeping you. I screwed up? You did. A million times more than me. You try to make me seem like the bad guy here for ruining your relationship with Jongin but guess what? You’d done the same thing to me two ing years ago so I guess I just only learned from the best. Fight fire with fire, .”

            “SHUT UP!” And with that, she slapped me right across the face.

            Jongin must’ve heard the commotion outside because he came out of his room. “Joy?” He rushed over to me. I felt his hands on my face, grazing the stinging parts on my skin. “Krystal, get out.”

            “Excuse me?”

            “We’re not together anymore. I don’t know what made you think you could do this to Joy,” Jongin said.

            “So you see her as a saint,” Krystal retorted. “Well newsflash, she’s not the innocent little girl who needs saving that you knew back in high school. Her true colors will come out, and you will know the truth.”

            “What truth?” Jongin asked.

            “Whatever,” Krystal said. “Maybe what people said was true. I am too good for you.” Then, spinning on her heels, she left.

            The truth. The fact that I'd purposely tried to sabotage their relationship. She’d known it all along. Planned it out, maybe. She wanted me to turn into the exact product of her. Or maybe, she and I had been this similar all along. This wasn’t the way I’d wanted things to happen.

            “Joy,” Jongin said, snapping me back to reality. “Joy are you alright?” His hand went to my red, stinging cheek. “I’m so sorry.”

            “What are you sorry for?” I asked. “I should be the one who’s sorry.”

            “Don’t listen to whatever she said,” Jongin assured. “It didn’t happen that way.”

“Then why’d you break up with her?” I asked. I was still trying to wrap around the horrid idea of Krystal and I being more similar than I thought. It was disturbing, and it made me feel dirty. “I thought you two were happy with each other. Is it because of what I told you?”

“No,” Jongin said, shaking his head. “My relationship with her has been struggling for a while now. What you told me the other night just confirmed to me that what she and I had was no longer there.”

“Why were you guys struggling?” I asked. “You guys looked perfectly happy to me.”

“For some reason I thought that I’d moved on,” Jongin said. “But seeing you again...and running into you, talking to you like how we used to. It was like you never left, and I realized that I liked that feeling. I should’ve been paying attention to Krystal but it got hard. My heart was still with someone else.”

His hand was still on my cheek. I held onto it as I said, “You never left mine.”

Jongin didn’t hesitate to pull me into him, his arms wrapping around me all tight and snug. Everything inside of me felt warm and safe.

            I peeked over Jongin’s shoulder to find a glimpse of Sehun. He was staring at me, his eyes digging deep into mine, making me wonder how long he’d been watching. Then he closed his door shut, disappearing entirely. I noticed that there was something odd.

            Later that night, when Jongin had offered to get me tea to make me feel better about Krystal’s ambush, out of curiousity I decided to ask him about what I saw.

            “Jongin,” I said, almost in a daze. “Why were there balloons outside of Sehun’s door?”

            He handed me my cup of tea. “Oh, you didn’t know?” Jongin asked. “Today was Sehun’s birthday.”

A/N: OHOHOHO! The chapters will get pretty lengthy from now on :D Thank you guys for all of the sweet comments about JoyHun. Seeing the Sehun and Irene photoshoot kind of dampend my mood but then I remembered how much I love writing this story (and if the two of them ever do interact it'll be EPIC) and I love you guys <3