Days passed and Jieun tried to forget about the incident. She was determined to return back to her usual life, back to when he hadn’t asked her for the favour. Thankfully, it wasn’t too difficult to do so.

Initially, she had been afraid that her appearance on the show would cause people to recognize her on the streets. However, becoming recognized wasn’t so easy. She was starting to pity those rookies who wanted to be famous.

Just one appearance on a show didn’t mean that everyone would remember her. And not everyone watched the show either. She had kept her appearance on television a secret from her parents, and she was sure neither of them watched the show.

So it really was easy to return to life without Lee Howon.

The only obstacle was his messages. He was still sending messages to her and occasionally, she would see missed calls from him as well. Out of habit, her fingers would automatically swipe to unlock her phone, but she would always manage to stop herself in time from reading his messages and answering his calls.

She tried to convince herself that she was doing the right thing. He had wanted to stop the friendship. So why was he still contacting her?

And however hard she tried, why was there still a voice in her head telling her to read his messages, to reply him, to give him a call back? At times, she felt so conflicted that she thought she couldn’t continue pretending that he was out of her life. But fortunately, she always managed to persuade herself that she could do it.

Contacting him again would not help things. She nodded to herself in affirmation.

Brr.

She grabbed her phone instantly. Oh, it wasn’t him… Wait a minute, Hong Jieun. You are supposed to ignore him! She gave herself a knock on the side of her head before replying Nayoung.

The girl had asked her for a meet up at some cafe, saying that she wanted to try out the drinks there. Apparently, the cafe sold some unique drink flavours. Knowing that if she stayed at home, she would just be moping around, she decided to agree to the meet up.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

“Huff, huff. I’m so tired, oh my god. These dance practices are killing me.” A certain choding complained as he laid down on the floor, his arms and legs all sprawled out.

“The weather is insanely hot too.” Woohyun fanned himself as he sat down next to Sungyeol, giving a look to Sunggyu.

Sunggyu then piped in, “Hey guys, shall we get some cold drinks to cool us off?”

“Your treat, hyung?” Dongwoo immediately asked while grinning at him.

After shooting a glare at Dongwoo, Sunggyu agreed reluctantly, “Sure, sure. But let’s just get one person to go.” Damn Dongwoo! That genius in disguise… His poor wallet…

Sungyeol shot up upon hearing the conversation. “The usual then?”

The members looked at one another, before putting out their hands.

“Scissors, paper, stone!”

Hoya groaned at the result. Six papers and one rock. Why ever did he put out that rock?

The rest of the members guffawed in delight, especially Myungsoo who finally showed some reaction by giving seal-like claps. The rest of the members were busy hi-fiving one another.

“Americano for me!” Sungyeol ordered gleefully after the mini celebration.

“Me too!”

“Me three!”

“I want caramel macchiato.”

“Lat