Chapter 1

"Please." I begged. "Just, just give me another month. I promise I'll pay you."

"A month?" the woman questioned. "I already gave you 3 months to solve this, any issue you've been going through, right?"

"If you know I've got issue can't you find some place in your mind to help me? Just another month. Please."

"Look, I got family alright? My husband is currently facing hard times at work and I needed money. How can I help you when I couldn't even help myself?"

"See, um, I got interview for job tomorrow and after I got my very first salary, I'll pay all of the rental payment. Please. Just, help me out."

"Oh, God." That woman sighed heavily. "We're not doing this again."

"Mrs. Kim. You gotta help me out." I almost even kneel at this point.

"I know you're a good person, right? You're kind and all the neighbors seem to like you but I can't tolerate this anymore. There's a limit. So please, don't make me use the hard way. Just pack and go."

*
"Oh my God, Jin Hye-ah," my bestfriend, Se Na came rushing at me. She threw me a hug and took my luggage. "Did she really chase you out?"

"You could actually tell that, couldn't you?" I replied boringly. I mean like, really boring.
 This is Yoon Se Na for everyone. She always tend to ask the thing that already obvious for the whole world to see. 

There was always these cliche moment where she would ask me;
"What are you doing?" where I was clearly munching the whole goddamn blueberry pie by myself. If she asked me "What are you eating?" that would be so much better even though she obviously saw the smeared blueberry sauce all over my lips and the fact that I'm sitting in front of a giant-sized pie, but still, what are you doing? 

Are you kidding me?

I'm mourning over someone's death right now. Why?
Yes, I answer her with that.

We've been friends for as long as I could remember. Which means, really long. Really boringly long. So long sometimes we found out that the only thing left to do together was attempt on killing each other. 

Wait, I think we've done that.

"Yah, no need to be sarcastic about it." She said and rolled her eyes.

"Arasseo." I nodded and patted her back. "I'm sorry that I'm gonna be the third wheel between you and Yong Guk again."

"Uh uh," she shook her head. "What bestfriend use for right?"

Sometimes I hated it when she used that what-bestfriend-use-for or this-what-bestfriend-do phrase. Because it seemed as though I only use her when I'm in a needy situation. Which was obviously not. Se Na practically shared my other half and half of my life revolved around her. I mean, revolves.
She being there was absolutey okay but, yeah. I hated being indebted. Even with my own bestfriend.

"I just need a little more time and then I'm out. I promise." I vowed. The cliche vow that I always said everytime Se Na need to pick me up in the middle of the night. 

In the end, I broke the vow and always found my way back to her.

"Shut it, Jin Hye. Enough talking and let's go. Yong Guk's waiting."

The first time I met her was the first time I learnt how to hit someone with my small hands. The 8-years-old Se Na cried a lot that day. Yeah, I hit her pretty hard. Ever since that day, she had been tailing me the whole time through primary school, middle school and highschool.

I hit her a lot during that period but she somehow manipulated that to use that against the boys that used to bully her. No one dares to mess with us anymore since my hands were no longer small. It grew a lot, so does my body. Like, a lot.

 We had been sticking with each other like heated marshmallow. 

Inseparable.

Another girl that shared my laughs and tears was Hyo Eun. Min Hyo Eun. Hyo Eun also, just like Se Na, got hit by me a lot.

The three of us were really close and we knew almost everything about each other. 

Almost. 

Hyo Eun was the complete opposite of the both of me and Se Na. She was this typical rich girl in highschool that never used her parens money over fashion and stuff. I don't know about that kind of girl actually existed. Well, there's a lot of this unlikely character in novel but back then, Hyo Eun perfectly resembled that girl whose everyone's favourite girl and like those queen-bee-wannabe-bestfriends but she put up with our instead and decided to add up with the marshmallow-combination. 

Just like that, we're bestfriends.

She was quiet, didn't talk much and wise. Not clever but wise. Smart and very educated. Which perfectly summed up with two of us who were crazily loud and stupid. 

Hyo Eun could speak in 8 different language since she was 8 which include Korean, English, Japanesse, French, Germany, Spanish, Mandarin and Arabic. She mastered all these languages when she was 8 and I'm very busy hitting Se Na on that age.
 
However, on the starting of senior year, we got the news that her family had urgent bussiness and quickly moved to California. She left without saying goodbye. She changed her number, e-mail address and pretty much we have no connection with her at all. 

Back then there was no such thing as Facebook or Twitter or anything. So when she changed her e-mail address, that was it. 

Se Na and I also had no intention of looking or searching about her through the teacher or her neighbors because when one person left without any simple goodbye and you ended up finding out about his or her leaving through someone else, it means that he or she doesn't want you to find them. Or try to find them.

I know that the most.

As we approached the car, I could see Yong Guk sat the driver seat. He seemed to be murmuring something while tapping the steering. He bobbed his head from time to time and even making some weird dancing moves. Only Yong Guk could do that without looking so stupid.

If you ever need to know, Yong Guk is one of the member of a popular underground hiphop group. I couldn't remember the name but he done pretty well in it and they hardly faced any difficulties like I am. While on the other hand, Se Na worked at a restaurant. It wasn't much but they managed. 

Unlike me, duh. Nothing really did work out. 

I worked as a salesgirl once but the skirt is too short and I couldn't live like that. I mean, why couldn't the skirt be a little longer. At least until knees? We're trying to sell products not ourselves.

Then I worked as a waitress at a hotel but the manager always looked at me like I'm some piece of meat that he always tend to scanned my body when I was working so I quit. 

Later, I worked as a cashier at a supermarket but I accidently kneed a guy at his stuff who happened to be my customer. Well, for God's sake he was, never mind. Spare the details. 

You never wanted to know.

"Hey, Yong Guk," I greeted him as I entered the car and shoved the bag at the backseat.

"Yah, nan oppa- geodeun.[I'm older though.]" he playfully gritted his teeth. Yong Guk was probably the guy that have the deepest voice I've ever met in my life. Se Na had gone crazy with that deep voice ever since the freshmen year and right away have a secret crush on him after he apologized about some sort of cliche accident. It only took his voice to make her fall complete head over heels for him. 

You don't really wanna know about it. It was so cliche I might puke.

However, they ended up being together and up until now. Even though I've been watching them flirting wih each other practically my whole life, the strength of their love still surprised me.

"Geez, whatever." I rolled my eyes. Yeah, he was older than me, by few years, maybe? But I couldn't find it to call him as 'oppa'. Even the thought of it able to make me vomit.

*

"So," Yong Guk put my luggage on the floor and extended his arms in the middle of the house.
 "Welcome home."

"Yeah, right." I said sarcastically. 

I couldn't count how many times I come-and-go from this house. Every time I got chase out, this was the most likely place I'll be. Even I never mention it, not in front of these two but I grateful for their existence. If it wasn't for this annoying lovebird I surely will be sleeping under the bridge or somewhere at the train station.

I pulled my luggage and went to the second room. This room was actually used to store things so there a lot of things inside but still I managed to sleep at the middle of the room.

Se Na always asked me if I wanted to sleep with her and Yong Guk will sleep alone but nah, I should learn to be grateful. They being nice giving me place to sleep was more than enough.

"Jin Hye-ah!" Se Na called from outside. "Come and eat."

"One second!" I replied and took out my clothes and placed them at the corner of the room. I walked outside to the living room and sat with them.

"Here," Se Na gave me a bowl of ramen. "Manhi mokgo. [Eat a lot.]"

"Thanks," I said and began to eat.

"So, what's your plan?" Yong Guk asked without looking at me.

"Well, I have an interview tomorrow. So, yeah." I answered. "But I'll scraped enough money from my first salary and pay it to you guys later."

"Yah, that's not what I meant though." Yong Guk said. "As long as you able to not letting yourself starve is enough. Don't think about us."

See?

"Geurae, Jin Hye-ah." Se Na butted in.

"Yaedeura, [Guys,]" I called. "Gumawo. [Thanks.]"

"Don't ever think about thanking us yet, ara?" Yong Guk spoke firmly. 

"Ne, ne. Arasseo."

*

A/N : First chap out!