There had been a riff since the brunch meeting. When Monday came around, Subin almost forced herself to go to school earlier to meet up with her friends, something that she always looked forward too. It wasn’t Jisoo, or Jennie, who she saw no trouble in making conversation with, who she even looked forward to chatting with. It was Chaeyoung, and the mixture of feelings that surrounded her whenever she thought of their last encounter. Before anything, she was filled with anger. It was almost incredulous, Subin thought, how Chaeyoung treated her like more of a child than anyone had. It was stupid how she had to explain herself, how she felt like she was being lectured by a parent over something that should’ve been a fun story. So what if she wasn’t doing what was good for her? When had she ever? And when had Chaeyoung ever decided to be her guardian over it? 

But under that, she was guilty. As much as the motherly act annoyed her, Subin couldn’t help feel guilty for making Chaeyoung worry. But that was in the back of her mind. She had the right to be angry, and she was going to be angry for as long as she could maintain it. So when she decided to ignore every text message she sent her that weekend, she stuck to it. Even when reading her textbooks, she avoided calling her with any questions. She avoided everyone. 

But now it was Monday morning, and she could no longer be passive aggressive. She had to decide whether to remain a coward, or finally stand up to the girl without thinking about her fragile emotions. 

She almost felt herself getting sick as she saw their figures getting closer while she approached the table, a feeling she was all too familiar with since she had been dealing with the loss of Baekhyun all on her own. Subin thought about turning around, or turning to find anyone else that she could kill time with. But Jisoo had already spotted her, and there was no use making it a bigger deal that it already was. Subin took a deep breath, moving towards the table that was now all anticipating her arrival. Chaeyoung had her usual disappointed frown on, and the only thing she needed, Subin thought, was to cross her arms to truly appear like a caricature of an upset mother. Subin nearly rolled her eyes, but had the willpower to refrain from doing so, knowing that she didn’t need to add it to the list of reasons she was going to be lectured by someone who wasn't her mother. 

As if answering a prayer that she didn’t quite know she was whispering, a voice called out to her and stopped her mid walk. 

“Good morning,” Jinyoung called over to her as he half jogged to meet her. She shot him a small smile, thanking him mostly with her eyes. 

Subin looked back to the group of girls, who was still looking at her, and shrugged in a pseudo apologetic fashion. Chaeyoung immediately stood up, walking towards the building where they had class even though it was too early. Jisoo grimaced in the direction of Subin, and followed after Chaeyoung immediately. Jennie hesitated before following as well. 

“Oh, yikes,” Jinyoung said, following the girls with his eyes. “Did I do something I wasn’t supposed to?” 

“No, trust me, you saved me.” Jinyoung laughed at how genuine Subin sounded. 

“I just thought I’d check in with you before class,” Jinyoung continued as they took small steps, not truly walking in a definite direction. 

“Well, I’m alive, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Subin answered bitterly. 

She didn’t really have it in her to be embarrassed. Thinking about how drunk she was, and how she basically led people to see her confess her infatuation for a stranger, didn’t really do much but make her groan at the responses. It was like she was tired of everything, too tired to have rational responses. 

“I was just,” Jinyoung struggled to find the right words to say, “it really wasn’t like you. So I was worried…” He was cut off when Subin began quickening her pace, too annoyed to deal with another prying eye.