A week had passed since Chaeyoung knocked personally on Mina's apartment door.  Ever since that day, she stopped contacting the elegant girl through texts — quite bothered by her guess that she was being avoided. She was quite bothered by the changes in their relationship and she found it quite bothering how Mina's time used to be always available for her, and then suddenly it wasn't. 

"Son Chaeyoung-ssi, are you just going to play with that penguin key chain on your bag or are you planning to listen to what I am commenting on your artwork?" her forgotten professor invaded her ears. She looked up while still fumbling the penguin between her forefinger and her thumb. The cub was in her professor's faculty office for that scheduled checking of their class's artwork progess. Her canvas was resting on Park Jinyoung's own stand as he commented the positive traits of the painting and suggested techniques to be used to finish it. "What's keeping your mind occupied and away from my words?" her professor asked her and stopped gesturing over the painting. The cub faked a smile, "No one." Her professor gave her his warmest smile before he spoke again, "You're so bad at lying, Chaeyoung-ssi."

Her ears perked up with his words. "I asked what's on your mind but instead of answering me with a thing or event, you hinted a person," he laughed at her, "Clearly, your head is up in the clouds." Chaeyoung sighed, the expertise of teachers in their students was frightening, "Did you plan to let us show our works in your faculty office just so you could act like psychologist to your students?" she firmly asked him. He laughed once again, "I will not push you to say anything if you're not okay with it, kid."

"But you know that I can be an available listening ear to you," he added as he shook his head like he knew that the cub will spill some information. Chaeyoung frowned but nonetheless talked again — in defeat, "I think my friend is avoiding me." She heard him hummed in understanding, "It's probably your fault," he nonchalantly said before he crossed his legs. The cub frowned again, "You're bad at this," she commented.

Park Jinyoung waved his forefinger in the air, "Or your friend is probably at fault." "You're really bad at this, you know that?" the cub mused and then continued to roll her eyes. "I'm just stating the possibilities, Chaeyoung-ssi," he said and then seriously looked at her in the eyes. "Did you do something to your friend that led to avoidance?" he added.

Chaeyoung once again sighed, "I don't know," she rubbed her nape, "I'm not sure but I don't think she'll avoid me over a missed call," she honestly answered.

"But I felt like she was avoiding me even before that because she stopped replying back to my texts and she even avoided the place where she usually hung out," she reasoned out. "When did you realize she was avoiding you?" he asked the student. "A week ago," the cub simply replied.

"So I stopped texting her and looking for her in the library since then," she whispered.

The professor sipped from his mug of water before he spoke, "You're overthinking about this when you can just wait for her after class." He placed the mug back at his table, "I don't know why you haven't done it because that is the best way to get your answers. It will ease your mind and the questions in your head." Her professor looked at her intently as if reading what was currently on her mind, "Does the idea never occurred to you or are you having doubts about confronting her when you thought that she might be avoiding you?"

"What?" the cub blurted out unknowingly, "Of course not," she defended. Her professor continued on analysing her expression. "I just don't want to cause any trouble if she was really having a problem about me," she added. Her professor chuckled, "Does that mean you are really at fault here, Chaeyoung-ssi?"

The cub slumped on her seat, "I don't know. I'm not really sure of anything right now," she frowned once again to her professor. The art expert offered his gentlest smile, "Just talk to her. You, suddenly stopping with the efforts, can send off that there was indeed a problem between the two of you," he said as he gestured to the small frame of the down tiger cub.

"And it can just be a simple misunderstanding waiting to be talked about and be fixed," the middle aged man added. Chaeyoung furrowed her brows as she looked at him, "Can I leave now? I got lectured by you instead of just commenting about my artwork," she huffed. Laughter burst from the man. "Art is not always about the of your brush or how realistic your sketches are. Art is something deeper within each artist. Art is that immense feelings engraved and caged in our hearts that needed to be expressed in our own little ways," the professor left wisdom to the student. The cub scoffed but she couldn't hide the smile on her face, "No wonder art students are deemed as bunch of softies and saps."

Chaeyoung grabbed her canvas and steadied it in her arms. "I am looking forward to the finish product of this one, Chaeyoung-ssi. It's really beautiful," Park Jinyoung said. The small girl looked at him for one last time as she struggled to hold the canvas, "You better be looking forward to it," she showed her dimpled smile before she walked out of the office' door. As she walked in the hallway, she glanced at her phone to check the time. 12:47 pm, she realized that she didn't have much time for her idea — an attempt to be more precise.

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The cub wanted to see the penguin. She had to, so she could shove the fact that she didn't have doubts in confronting her. She was almost running with how she walked. Curse the campus' structure for making the cub and the penguin's departments too far out from one another. Fatigue was getting in the cub's system so she huffed and tried to regulate her breathing. Curse the canvas for being too big for Chaeyoung's small frame.

By one in the afternoon, the campus will be swarmed by students who finished the first half of their schedules. She had to hurry up before she lost the penguin in the sea of students. Her determination was briefly interrupted when she heard her name being yelled from the crowd of moving bodies. The cub glanced to her left and saw her best friend happily waving at her.

The short girl couldn't quite understand how she still managed to excite the tall girl with her appearance when they spent most of their time together. With another great idea in her head, she hurriedly approached her roommate. "Hey, uhm, can you place this in my room?" she asked and at the same time demanded. Before Jeongyeon could answer back, Chaeyoung had spoken again, "Sorry but I need to see Mina."

With that stated, she trusted her artwork in her best friend's hands and now she could fully run to her desired destination. She arrived at the penguin's department just in time of the swarm of deprived students.  They were already getting out of the building while she, on the other hand, was trying to squeeze her small frame back inside. She wasn't sure if Mina was already out or not, so the idea of meeting her inside was a gamble of success. 

She bumped onto multiple bodies and witnessed both familiar and unfamiliar faces as she scanned the area. She decided to trace the route back to the penguin's class. That way,  she could walk into her. She realized that meeting up with someone was absolutely difficult without the aid of texting or calling, and the fact that person might be avoiding her.

Chaeyoung passed through walking bodies, not one of them was her penguin friend. Her attention was caught by a specific someone. Finally, it was Mina. The elegant girl was walking with her head looking only on the bland tiled flooring of the building. The cub smiled because she got a glimpse of her friend. She began to turn herself and walk to the penguin's direction.

How can you know if your friend's visiting you in your department when you're out here looking only downwards, she thought with a smile on her face. She squeezed herself through series of students until she was walking behind Mina, without her knowing it.

She smiled before she held the penguin's left hand with her right one, "Mina," she softly called out. She watched the girl turned her head to see who stopped her from walking. "Chaeyoung," Mina said under her breath with slightly confused and surprised look in her eyes. The cub's smile faded upon seeing the elegant girl's expression, so she could only give a gentle squeeze to her hand as a form of a reply. 

Mina's attention was brought to her hand by the given sensation. She looked at it for a brief moment, "We should start moving because we're lagging the other students behind," she stated before she slipped her own hand off of the cub's. Chaeyoung followed her advice and walked beside her. 

The cub walked quietly as she watched her friend — the crowd of students completely forgotten. The orbs of her eyes never left the face of the other girl. Sunlight grazed on their skin when they finally got out of the building, and for the span of their walk the cub realized that the penguin never even glanced at her. Without knowing, she blurted out her concerns, "Are you avoiding me?" she asked in neutral tone.

Mina turned her head and looked to the cub. She smiled before she answered, "I'm not," she lightly chuckled, "I was just really busy with my works." The cub continued to watch her carefully. She remained quiet because she couldn't tell the med student tha