Yuri was sitting on the edge of her bed when Siwon came into the room they shared. She was fiddling with her cell phone, anxiously mumbling something to herself – a habit that Siwon has become familiar with. It’s her distinctive way to calm herself down.

“Yuri-yah,” Siwon softly called. The girl looked up, Siwon shrank in sympathy once he saw she quickly wiped the trace of her tears away. “Minho has left, I told him to go home,” Siwon informed, cautiously sitting next to her. He wasn’t sure how to react after Minho told him what had happened.

It all began when Minho and Yuri unfortunately ran into Park Yongsoo and his friends. Siwon knew how Yongsoo and his friends were huge troublemakers. It didn’t surprise him that they would harass and humiliate the two about her pregnancy scandal and, of course, making fun of Yuri’s very own scandalous family history.

But Siwon knew that was not the main reason why Yuri was visibly upset.

To his shame, Siwon had his fair share of mocking her family; and she has never been this upset unless it has something to do with Tiffany. Yongsoo also taunted Yuri that the whole drama also affected Tiffany greatly; enough to make the sweet and nice Tiffany got into a vicious verbal fight with other female students which made all the people involved got suspended for three days – not unexpected since their school was mostly known for its strict rules. According to Yongsoo, the three days suspension was also enough to make Tiffany’s father discipline his daughter by sending her to live with her grandparents and grounding her for undetermined amount of time. Yongsoo then proceed to provoke Yuri further by insulting Tiffany and it got more heated.

Minho never expected that things went worse after he suggested Yuri to go to Tiffany’s house for confirmation. They were received by the angry father of Tiffany who pleaded Yuri to stay away from his daughter and accused her of being such a bad influence. It wasn’t exactly the first time Tiffany’s dad told Yuri those thing – he never likes the idea of his precious daughter befriend anyone from the scandalous, infamous Kwons – but it hurt Yuri’s pride nonetheless.

“So,” Siwon cleared his throat, “I heard you punched Park Yongsoo in the face. Twice.” By the tone of his voice Siwon was half amused, half worried. “They didn’t hurt you, did they?”

Yuri quietly shook her head, her brows furrowed.

“Minho told me what happened with Tiffany. Yuri-yah, I know you’re upset but shouldn’t worry about what Yongsoo said about Tiffany –”

“Do you know that they also beat up Minho a while ago?” asked Yuri abruptly once Siwon failed to mention anything about that matter. “They beat him up because they thought… they thought he’s the father of my baby,” her voice trailed away, revealing another main reason why she punched the guy.

“What? Who? Park Yongsoo and his friends?” Siwon’s mouth hung open, feeling both angry and incredulous. He couldn’t believe Minho never told him about that – until he remembered that night when he came home to a badly bruised Minho who refused to tell him what happened.

Siwon took a deep breath. The new information made him upset too, he couldn’t stand how his half-brother was unfairly treated like that; but Siwon knew he has to be the calm one at the moment. For now, his priority was to console the emotionally fragile Yuri who’s carrying his baby.  Siwon believed that’s a part of his responsibilities for them.

“How come it turns out like this?” Yuri quietly muttered, “I don’t want Minho and Fany to get dragged into this… This is my problem – our problem. They have nothing to do with this.”

“I know this isn’t right… but Minho is fine now, isn’t he? And I’m sure Tiffany will be okay too. You don’t have to worry,” said Siwon softly, fully aware that he sounded rather insensitive but he really had no idea of what else to say to soothe her.

“You know how Yongsoo and his gang are! They must have really hurt Minho bad,” Yuri frowned, feeling guilty over what happened to the boy. “And I can’t contact Fany… What if I can’t see her anymore… What if her dad is really going to send her to live with her grandparents? Oh God, Fany hates that place… It’s my fault, it’s all my fault.”

“No, relax,” said Siwon in his most comforting tone, "It’s not your fault and I’m sure you’ll reach her soon, Yuri. Just relax, okay, it’s not your fault.”

Yuri shook her head, “I knew they’ll bother Minho because of this, because of me… And Fany, she’s suspended and grounded because that silly girl tried to defend me… I mean, there’s really nothing to defend but now she got suspended and–“

“Yuri-yah,” Siwon soothed, gently placing his hand on her shoulder. “At least Minho is okay now, and I’m sure Tiffany will be okay too,” Siwon lamely repeated.

Yuri stopped and drew a heaving breath, realizing it was mostly her hormones that make her too worked up. She knew she had a good reason to be worked up, though. Siwon was aware of this too, he already get used to that and their complicated situation. To tolerate his pregnant partner’s emotional moments is something that the doctor always warns him to do.

“I hate that they got into all this unnecessary trouble because of me, I hate that they got dragged into this mess,” Yuri whispered, her eyes swam with tears of guilt once again. “And I just want to make sure that Fany is alright…”

“I know,” Siwon simply nodded, although he felt like he will never fully understand the two girls’ peculiarly deep friendship. “Let’s just wait for few more days, okay? Maybe you can reach her by then.”

Yuri gave him an uncertain nod, feeling extremely heavy in the head. Out of despair, she buried her face in her hand and muttered something about how everything goes wrong.

“It will be alright, everything will be alright,” said Siwon as he gently her back, trying his best to calm her down. “We aren’t in favorable situation right now, but I’m sure things will eventually get better for us.”

“You know that’s not true – it’s getting better for you, maybe, but not for me.
It keeps getting worse, no matter how many times I convinced myself otherwise,” Yuri quietly said, her voice was full with despair and defeat. “Every day I realize that I’m in a bigger mess, that the responsibilities that come with my decision to keep this baby are greater than I ever thought…”

Yuri weakly returned Siwon’s intense gaze, only to quickly look down after that. She took a deep breath, biting her bottom lip. Yuri felt like all the sudden responsibilities and the unexpected consequences of her and his mistake were steadily crushed her away; weaken her spirit by each day. She was faced by the fact that it’s a much bigger mistake than she gave credit for, Yuri thought. This was a mistake that affect not only herself, but also big enough to affect the people she cares about.

She felt both ashamed a