Jin was having lunch with his mother for the first time in the past ten years. If it wasn’t at a lunch or dinner meeting with one of her business partners, she wouldn’t eat with Jin either. She was never home and barely had been ever since Jin’s dad passed away so he had gotten used to eating alone. Usually he’d just grab something at a convenience store. That’s why her unusual request to eat together made Jin very suspicious of his mother today. She either wanted information out of him or try to brainwash him a little more to see Sunhee more often or invite her over.

“How are things at school?” his mother asked cutting into her steak, “did your grades improve?”

“I recently got 72 out of 100 on an English essay,” Jin didn’t look at her as he spoke absentmindedly, she wasn’t really interested in his grades anyway. She had made a deal with the school to let him graduate no matter what he did. He had learned about this when the rest of BTS kept getting in trouble and suspended from school if they did something but nothing ever happened to him beside the occasional scolding he’d get.

“Woah, 72?” his mother paused and glanced over to him. “You never had a passing grade for English before—you’ve really been studying more like Sunhee said.” 

“I have a tutor,” Jin simply replied, not getting into details. He knew Sunhee​​​​​​​ hadn’t told her he had been studying more—but that he had been studying with a girl. And of course, she wouldn’t be the controlling mom if she didn’t jump right on top of it.

“Oh, is that so?” she said and put a piece of steak in . She chewed a few times before she continued, “invite him over sometime, I would like to meet the person who got my son to study.”

Jin rolled eyes at her acting. “It’s a girl.”

“A girl?” his mom feigned surprise. She waited for him to say something but when he remained unresponsive she cleared and picked up more food with her fork. “A girl you’re interested in?”

“A girl who’s smart and doesn’t rely on her parents money to achieve things.” Jin was shocked at his own answer. It wasn’t like him to defend people, what had gotten into him? He had to admit he liked hanging out with Hana a bit more than he thought he would—but to the point of defending her? That was something even he still had to get used to.

His mother cleared and patted her lips with a napkin, “anyway, Sunhee​​​​​​​'s parents asked us to meet them for dinner tonight and naturally I accepted.”

Jin scoffed, of course it was something like that and like hell he’d go.

--

Hana sighed in relief as she straightened her back. Doing housework was no joke. Ever since little she had tried to help out wherever she could and she’d eventually ended up doing most of the chores around the house. The reason was because neither of her parents would be home most of the time and her stepsister, Kang Minam, was trying to get into a modelling agency and said she had to spend a lot of time with likeminded people. It would help her gain connections and maybe someone could help her land a job, not to forget they kept her up to date with the latest trends. 

“AH!” Hana cried out when something hit her on the back of her head. She rubbed her skull, trying to ease the pain.

“What is this?!” Minam angrily waved an envelope in front of her face.

Hana’s eyes widened when she realized it was the money she’d been saving for college since her parents couldn’t pay for both of them. Hana gasped and made a grab for the envelope but Minam moved her hand back.

“Unnie!” she desperately tried to get it back, only to get hit by Minam on the arm again.

“You have all that money and you never once helped pay the rent? How selfish are you to live so comfortably by yourself while Eomma works nightshifts and Abeoji roams around doing small jobs here and there?!” Minam was furious. “Even I decided not to go to college so we could save money!”

“I’m not living all comfortably by myself! That’s all the pocket money Appa gave me in the past and the money I earned working at the convenience store,” Hana snatched the envelope out of her sister’s hand. “You know we can’t pay for college for both of us so I got a job.” 

Minam scowled, “your dad sure favors you.”

“That’s not true! you got money too but spent it on clothes and fashion items.” Hana clenched her fists trying not to get angry. Minam had decided not to go to college? No one had told her anything about it. If that was really true it meant they could pay for Hana’s tuition. But of course Minam was just saying nonsense to make her feel bad because even if she had decided not to go to save money, why was she spending it on other things th