It was about noon when Jisoo and the others arrived to Seungkwan’s place, they were greeted warmly by the son of the house and for once both his mother and father were there to say hi to everyone, especially Soo Min.

Seungkwan’s parents wanted to be here today for their son’s eldest friend’s birthday since even though the boy still lives with them, Seungcheol is always taking care and looking out for their kid when they’re out working. They always try to thank him and his friends for taking care of their son all the time.

“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Boo.” Soo Min said with a cheery smile, she was excited to meet his parents, obviously!

“Are you the lovely girl we’ve been hearing so much about from our baby Boo?” His mother asked.

“Oh my god, baby Boo~?!” Soo Min nearly shrieked, causing his parents to laugh as Seungkwan pouted when Soo Min pinched his cheek, gushing at his cute nickname. “Awh, baby Boo!”

“Noona!” He frowned. “Please, stop!”

“Hehe, yes, I’m Chae Soo Min. I moved here from Busan last month.” She let go of his cheek before turning back to his parents. “I’ve been friends with Jisoo since I was little and so when I came to Seoul, naturally I was introduced to his friends and his friends’ friends… and yeah.” She stuttered at the end. “They welcomed me into their massive group right away.”

“That’s so sweet!” His mother smiled. “I’ve also heard you’ve been helping take care of everyone just like his friends Seungcheol and Jisoo?”

“I do… I adore these boys a lot! I just can’t help but think of them as my children despite my age. Isn’t that right, baby Boo?” She cooed, pinching Seungkwan’s cheek once again.

“I can see you’ll be a great mother one day.” His father chuckled, watching his son start to pout all over again. “I hope you’ll continue to help take care of these boys, even with us parents busy with work, they don’t have a lot of motherly figures. Not to say you should be the mom.”

“But I am.” Soo Min chuckled. “My sons are right over there! And my Honey is with them.”

Seungkwan laughed at his parents confused expressions when she said that, pointing across the room to Jisoo, Hansol and Minghao.

“There’s a family joke that’s been going on ever since she moved here.” Their son explained. “Sadly, I didn’t make the cut to be her son.” He added with a small sigh, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Awh, baby Boo, the Meanie couple needed a kid, otherwise I would have totally adopted you!” Soo Min giggled, pulling him into a side hug.

Just then, the front door opened and in walked Jeonghan and his roommates. Everyone else greeted them right away but Soo Min stayed put, suddenly feeling uneasy. She thought she could just put those feelings aside for the duration of Seungcheol’s party, but the moment she saw Jeonghan and Won Woo walk in, they looked like they were avoiding each other and that kind of brought those feelings up front and center. Even when she accidentally locked eyes with Won Woo who was nearby, he looked away a bit irritated while navigating further away from her spot. That sort of took a blow to her, to see him walk away from her.

I didn’t want this… She thought to herself, watching him talk with the others, but that hint of irritation was still present. She eventually scanned the room to see Jeonghan talking with some of the others, too… he seemed to look bothered as well. Did they talk before coming here? Did they fight? She sighed, standing by herself in the corner while everyone socialized.

“Noona? Is something wrong?” Seungkwan snapped her out of it as he approached her with Hansol and Chan. “You look upset?”

“Oh, sorry. Just was thinking about some things… I’m okay.” She forced a smile. “Has the party started yet?”

“No, not yet. We’re waiting on a few others to show up.” Hansol answered. “Some of Seungcheol’s old high school friends, but there shouldn’t be that many since he didn’t invite a lot of people. He didn’t want it to be too crowded.”

“I see.” Soo Min just nodded.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Chan asked, looking worried. He noticed how strange she’s been acting since she got back from Jeonghan’s place earlier.

“I will be.” She nodded, reaching over to pet him on the head. “Don’t worry.”

With that, the party started.

About two hours into the party, Soo Min didn’t feel too well… the stress from everything started to get to her and she excused herself from the conversation she was having with Seungcheol and the others. They didn’t really notice anything out of the ordinary when she left them, and she was glad since she didn’t want to worry anyone while at this party. She started to think maybe she should go home, there was no use in sticking around if she burdened everyone with her poor mood.

“I think I’m gonna leave early.” She mentioned to Seokmin who was the closest when she returned from the bathroom. She tried to splash some cold water on her face in hopes it’d knock her out of it and make her feel better, but it didn’t. She just felt even worse now.

“What? Why?” He frowned, excusing himself from the conversation he was in with a few people Soo Min didn’t know.

“It’s nothing. Just let Jisoo know I went home.” She shook her head before heading to the front door.

“Wait!” Seokmin followed after her. They went unnoticed by everyone at the party luckily though, Soo Min didn’t stop for him and walked out the front door. The younger made a quick decision and left out the front door, leaving the party, too. He was worried about her of course and wanted to make sure she was okay. “Noona!” He said after catching up to her. “Noona, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” She said softly, still walking down the sidewalk, not stopping once.

“Noona!” Seokmin reached out and stopped her, turning her to face him. “You’re starting to really worry me. Did something happen?” He asked, looking at her seriously. He could see the upset look in her eyes as she looked up at him.

“I don’t know, everything seems to suddenly be going wrong…” she sighed, dropping her head. “Jeonghan is getting jealous and insecure about guys being around me, even guys that are his friends, too. I overheard him talking to Jisoo about it last night after he left the room because he couldn’t sleep. I didn’t know when he was going to bring it up to me so I decided to do something about it on my own and talked to Won Woo about toning our meetups down and he got upset. Now he’s mad and I think those two might have bumped heads before coming here, they don’t seem to want to be near each other and look so bothered.” She took a shaky breath before saying the next few words in a broken voice. “And it’s all because of me.”

Seokmin frowned, feeling bad for the poor girl… she was on the verge of crying and he didn’t really know what to do right now since they weren’t particularly close yet.

“I feel like I need to just stay away from everyone until it all dies down.” She added when Seokmin didn’t say a word.

“Perhaps that’s a good idea.” He managed to say in agreement. “Sometimes people just need space to think, and so I do think maybe you should give yourself some time. I’m sure things will blow over soon enough… knowing my friends, they’re never angry at each other long. Maybe they need time, too. Time to think about it all and they’ll eventually talk it out. So go and try to relax for a bit, Noona. It’ll be okay.”

“Thank you, Seokmin…” she gave him a sad smile. “I’m sorry that I worried you.”

“It’s okay! Friends worry about each other all the time, no need to apologize.” He assured her with a bright smile. “Take care of yourself, noona, please.” He added, reaching over to pat her on the shoulder.

“Thanks, I will. I’ll go now, but I’ll see you around.” She waved, ready to turn and leave.

“Bye, Pikachu~! Have a safe trip back to Pallet Town!” He called after her. She giggled and waved at him once more, in a better mood this time. He watched her disappear around the corner and let out a worried sigh. I hope she’ll be okay. He thought as he returned back to the party.

“Where were you?” Soonyoung asked once he was inside.

“Ah, I stepped out for a few minutes… getting some air.” He hesitated, Soonyoung looked like he didn’t believe him, but before he could question it someone said it was time for Seungcheol to burn out the candles.

Everyone gathered around the massive cake sitting in the middle of the round table, Seungcheol standing the closest to it as he smiled at everyone. “Thank you all for coming today. I’m grateful to have you all here.”

“Hurry up and blow out the candles, we wanna eat!” Mingyu joked in the back, earning a laugh from everyone. As expected from the guy who loves to eat.

Seungcheol just pouted a bit before looking back to his cake. He thought up a wish before blowing out the candles and everyone cheered afterwards. “Time to eat!” Seungkwan exclaimed. The birthday boy just shook his head, watching everyone run to the tables full of food like they’ve been starving this whole time! As he watched them all chat and serve themselves, he couldn’t help but notice something was missing… someone was missing. “Where’s Pikachu?”

“Hey, Chibi!” Minhyun greeted when he opened the front door of Aron’s place. “What brings you here?”

“Ah, I came to tell Aron to pass a message to you, but I guess since you opened the door…” Soo Min muttered quietly, suddenly feeling bad again.

“What is it?” He tilted his head, curious.

“Who’s at the door?!” They heard Aron call from the living room.

“No one.” Soo Min whispered, shaking her head telling Minhyun not to answer.

“It’s Chibi!” He ignored her quiet pleas and yelled back his answer. Chibi was a nickname he gave her since she was like a mini Min Hee. Min Hee’s Chibi. Though she really hated it, it kind of grew on her a bit and she stopped getting upset about it. She knew Minhyun didn’t mean it like she wasn’t her own person, he just thought it was cute.

“Who?! Raspberry?!”

“Are you deaf?” They could hear JR scold.

“I just came to say I might not be able to make it to your party tomorrow. I’m sorry. Things came up and so… yeah. Bye!” Soo Min said quickly to Minhyun before turning to leave.

“Wait!” He reached out to stop her by the shoulder and turned her around. She was starting to hate that cliché move as she almost lost her balance on the step. “What’s all this? You’re not coming to my party tomorrow? What happened?” He looked really concerned now.

“I just… stuffs been happening and I just don’t think I’d be very good company right now.” She mumbled, eyes casted to the ground.

“Who’s at the door, Min?!” Aron finally came up behind Minhyun and quickly spotted her. “Soo Min?! Hey, what are you doing here?” He asked with a smile before it falter when he saw the dejected look on her small face. “What’s wrong?”

“Did you say Soo Min’s at the door?” She suddenly heard Ren’s voice, footsteps hurrying to join the small scene at the door. When she saw him come into view her jaw nearly dropped to the floor. His long precious light brown locks were now jet black. “Soo Min, hey!” He smiled in greeting.

“I’m not allowed to talk to strangers, I have to go.” Soo Min turned around to make a run for it but both Minhyun and Ren stopped her again, dragging her inside Aron’s house and shut the front door, the little boy across the street dropped his basketball when he saw it happen. “What was the number for the police station again?” He muttered to himself until his mother called him inside for dinner. He then forgot about it.

“Has anyone seen Soo Min around?” Seungcheol asked Seungkwan and his younger friends.

“Noona?” Chan asked before looking around. “She’s not here?”

“Did she get lost again?” Seungkwan frowned, also looking around.

“Should we send a search party?” Hansol joked, but frowned when Seungkwan nodded and pulled out his phone to dial a number. “I was kidding! I think she would have contacted someone by now!”

“But what if she forgot her phone? What if her phone died? What if she’s stuck in a bathroom?” Chan blurted out. “We should go find her!”

“She left.” Seokmin suddenly said nearby. They watched him make his way over to them with a somewhat worried expression. “She left earlier before blowing out the candles.”

“Why?” Seungcheol frowned. He knew someone was missing when he looked around earlier.

“Oh, Soo Min left?” Mingyu overheard their conversation and joined them. Won Woo was with him so he reluctantly turned to see what they were going to say about it. “Why would she leave?”

“I’m not sure she’d really want me telling everyone her business like that.” Seokmin frowned. He wanted to tell them but decided it’d probably be best if he didn’t. Sure everyone was going to be worried but he didn’t want tell them and cause more drama if she didn’t want everyone to know. He just happened to be there to hear her vent earlier.

“Is something going on?” Soonyoung and the others noticed them crowded in a small circle and naturally came to check it out, besides the other guests who weren’t really a part of their group.

“Soo Min’s not here.” Seungkwan answered. “Seokmin said she left earlier before Seungcheol blew out his candles.”

“She left?” Jisoo already could tell why and glanced over to Jeonghan who looked slightly bothered. He then glanced to Won Woo who also looked bothered.

“Okay, what’s going on?” Seungcheol said in a more serious tone. “It seems like Soo Min’s been acting strange ever since she came back from their place.” He pointed between Jeonghan and the other three who were the Meanie couple and Junhui. “Not only that, it looks like you two must’ve heads or something, you’ve been avoiding each other this entire time.” He now pointed between Jeonghan and Won Woo. The latter scoffed, looking away with folded arms.

“This isn’t the time to discuss this.” Jeonghan said flatly. “This isn’t about us. It’s your birthday, so can we get back to the party?”

“No.” Seungcheol frowned. “Something’s wrong and I’m worried… How am I supposed to enjoy my birthday if I know my friends are having issues?”

“Then would it be better if I just left, too?” He said in a dejected tone before turning to leave.

“Jeonghan, wait, come back!” Junhui called after him. “Don’t be like this!”

“I’m leaving, too.” Won Woo muttered, leaving the small crowed. “I’ll be at home.” He mentioned to Mingyu.

“Babe!” His boyfriend frowned watching him leave out of the room.

“What’s their problem?” Jihoon shook his head, feeling bad that their leader’s party wasn’t going so well anymore.

“Whatever it is, I think we need to give them some space. Let them cool off for a bit before we try to talk to them again.” Seokmin spoke up, stopping both Mingyu and Jisoo from following after the other two. “Same for Soo Min. She requested to be alone for now…”

“Now I’m even more worried.” Seungcheol sighed, running a hand through his hair. What kind of drama is going down now?

Just outside of Seungkwan’s front door stood Jeonghan and Won Woo. They weren’t facing each other but Jeonghan was standing a few feet ahead while Won Woo was a few feet back. It was quiet for a bit before Won Woo finally spoke. “I get you have issues, but you shouldn’t let it control you.”

“Easy for you to say.” Jeonghan snickered, looking over his shoulder. “If only you knew what you were talking about.”

“Don’t give me that bull. I don’t think I need to be cheated on to know how you feel. And even if I knew how you feel, I’d still tell you to get your together and move on. You’ve got a great girl now. Don’t ruin that by letting your past ruin you.” Won Woo said harshly while walking past him.

“And so why are you mad at her?” Jeonghan asked, causing Won Woo to stop in his tracks. “I saw the way you avoided her earlier.”

“I’m mad that she’s letting your issues complicate my friendship with her.” He said, not looking back at him. “Because she doesn’t want to upset you, she’s going to avoid all of us.”

Jeonghan didn’t say anything and stared at the ground. He felt terrible and was starting to hate how he let himself get so affected by his past breakup to the point now it was affecting other people. “I’m sorry.” He managed to say.

“I know you are.” Won Woo sighed before walking away.

Jeonghan stood there, watching his friend walk away, a thousand thoughts running through his head. What am I going to do? He wondered as Won Woo disappeared. How am I going to fix this?

“What was the point in bleaching it blonde if all you were going to do is dye it black?” Soo Min muttered as she was sitting between Ren and Minhyun on the living room couch. Aron, Baekho and JR were on the other couch nearby, watching what was playing on the flat screen before them.

“I just had a sudden change of heart.” Ren chuckled. “What, you don’t like it?”

“It doesn’t matter what I think.” She kept her eyes on the coffee table in front of her legs. “Don’t ask me, ask my sister.”

“Eh, something wrong?” Minhyun frowned at her slightly harsh reply.

“No.” She mumbled. She actually wanted to go home, but then realized Jisoo and the others would be there. Should I go to my parents?

“Someone having boy trouble?” Aron teased from his seat only to get scolding looks from Ren and Minhyun when Soo Min sighed and covered her face looking upset now. “Oh, jeez! Sorry, I didn’t think you really were!”

“What happened?” Ren asked, sounding completely worried now. “Did you and Jeonghan fight?”

“No…”

“Did he do something?” Minhyun asked next.

“No…”

Both Ren and Minhyun looked to each other, confused on what could be the problem.

“Did you do something?” They asked in sync.

“... I overheard him talking to Jisoo. Some of the things he said made me feel bad… because he was cheated on in his past relationship with Mi Young, he’s starting to have issues about other guys being around me. He’s letting it really get to him and so I went to Won Woo to tell him we should stop hanging out for a bit and then he got upset… and they probably butted heads since they live together and it’s just becoming a mess… all because of me.”

“Maybe she shouldn’t be here, either.” JR pointed out. “Isn’t this making it worse.”

“Then where am I supposed to go?” She started to cry. “I… don’t have anywhere else to go.”

“Damn it, JR, shut up.” Ren glared at his friend before returning to Soo Min. “It’s okay, I know what we can do.” He rested a hand on her shaking shoulder. “Want to go visit halmoni?”

“H-Halmoni?” She looked up at him to see his kind smile. Did he mean her grandmother all the way in Busan?

“Let’s go visit halmoni.” He said once more, thumbing away one of her tears.

Chapter three~!

ALSFJKLGKJSG

REN AND HIS LONG BLACK HAIR HAS BEEN KILLING ME FOR DAYS

*SCREAMS INTO PILLOW*

*FAINTS*

Jeonghan: Author-nim, have you forgotten this is my fic, not Ren’s~?!

Author-nim: I know, but you’re having some stuff going on so you need to sit in the corner and work on your issues… *MEAN*

Jeonghan: …

LOL

Long time no update.

School, internship, Meanie fic with 300 subs…

I’m sorry OTL

I’ll try to update all my fics more often and will stop playing favoritism

Jeonghan: You were playing favoritism all this time?

Author-nim: Jeonghan, please… you’re in the Meanie fic with Soo Min, too. Chill out.

Jeonghan: I guess as long as I’m in all your fics…

Author-nim: … seriously rethinking your parts everywhere

LOL OKAY ENOUGH

I’ll try to be back with another chapter soon, so please be patient! ^^

Until next time~!