Minkyung falls in love with Jieqiong by accident.

It's an accident, because she had never intended for this to occur. She knows very well that she shouldn't have. She knows better than to develop romantic feelings for someone from a completely different world than hers; someone who still believes in the integrity of people and how things will always work themselves out in the end. Jieqiong is an optimist, if not because of her innocence and naivety. She is warm, affectionate, and forgiving, like a home. She is the persistent house that remains standing, though bruised and broken in some parts, after the passing of a storm.

On the contrary, Minkyung believes that people are inclined to strive for self-gratification, and they will only appear 'good' so as long as their desires are morally acceptable. She knows that things can fall apart in the end, regardless of how much you do to try and prevent it. She fully grasps just how different she is from Jieqiong. Minkyung is the quiet yet deadly storm that bears the potential to tear down anything it can touch. And Jieqiong is the last thing she wants to break.

Minkyung had always known about Jieqiong's feelings for her, even before the drunken confessions and slurred pleading. Minkyung is supposed to be the rational one, the one who doesn't fall in love too because that only results in greater pain for both of them. Yet she still falls in love with Jieqiong. By the time she realizes it, she's already in too deep, accumulating dirt and blood underneath her fingernails from trying so desperately hard to crawl out of it. But she's in too deep, so she can only watch, fallen to her knees in helplessness, as Jieqiong collapses piece by piece right before her eyes. Jieqiong will hurt now, battered and weakened by the storm, but at least she won't be broken by the end. She'll eventually be okay; she is surely able to recover.

Minkyung, however, is too far gone.

"You're leaving to drink with Jieqiong again?" Nayoung questions in that monotone voice of hers, peering over her laptop to see a dressed Minkyung walking towards the door.

Minkyung pauses in her steps, stopping in front of the door and adjusting her coat. "I am."

Minkyung's first impression of Nayoung was that of someone who minds her own business, a person who turns away even when she senses trouble abrew. After being her roommate and friend for some amount of time, Minkyung realizes that Nayoung is actually one of the very few people in the world who genuinely cares for others, though it is difficult for her to express. Nayoung stares at her for a moment, her motionless eyes flickering with vague concern.

"When will you stop leading her on?" At this moment, Minkyung would've preferred the person she thought Nayoung was. "You know that she loves you."

"Wouldn't it hurt more if I avoided her entirely?" Minkyung can sense Nayoung's disapproval, though her facial expression never indicates it. She must know that it's a poorly-made excuse. "Besides, she k