It was Saturday morning and as I walked to the kitchen, mom stared at me over the rim of her coffee cup while she sat at the dining table, not for the first time this morning. I had the creepy feeling that I had some sign that said "LOOK AT ME" taped to my forehead. Normally my mother never spent this much of her precious time concerning herself with me. She should be in her office by now. Sad to admit, yes, but it was entirely the truth. 

I set my empty bowl of oatmeal in the sink and turned to stare at Mom, gripping the kitchen counter. "Is there something on my face?"  

Mom tsked into her cup of coffee and shook her head. "Don't take that tone with me, young lady." 

I almost blurted out a horrific obscenity at her words - a clear sign I'd been spending too much time around Sehun. The boy cussed like a sailor.  

"Okay," I said. "Sorry."

"How is school going?"

Now it was my turn to stare at her like she had something sticking out of her head. 

"Uh...mom I’m in winter break it’s been a couple of weeks now.”

“Right.” She answered pretending to know. “Don’t know why I forgot. How’s working in the café?”

"The café is fine," I said as coolly as possible. I downed my glass of water and gave an awkwardly polite smile in Mom's direction before making my way to my room.  

"Not so fast, Jennie!"

I scrunched my eyes closed, muttered a under my breath, and turned back around. 

"Yes, Mom?"

"About you and that boy..." Mom trailed off, looking just the slightest bit embarrassed. 

"You mean Sehun?" I hinted, trying not to sound too rude. 

Mom nodded, clearing .  

"What about him?" I asked.

“Are you two...you know...dating?" 

Fortunately for me, but unfortunately for Mom, I'd heard this so much these past three days that I was able to keep the shock and horror off my face.

“No," I said as calmly as I could manage. "We're not. Just friends."

It stung a little at how easily Mom believed the horrible lie coming out of my mouth. Sehun and I really weren't dating, but we did sort of have...a thing or whatever. And my mother didn't even know enough about me to realize that I was obviously head over heels for "some guy".  

"Well, then," Mom said, blowing out a sigh. "Have a good day then. See you at dinner later today"

I stared at her for a moment before I managed to wipe the shocked look off my face. "Thanks. Have a good day at...the office." 

I turned and sprinted back to my room before Mom had a chance to say anything else.

So far this morning was turning out to be pretty weird. Dad called to ask about my restaurant preferences for dinner. Mom, though, never bothered herself with chitchat. A long time ago she used to ask me how my day went when I got home from school and she'd help me and Kai with homework. Once I got shipped to New Zealand things changed. Whether for the worse, I wasn't sure. 

I tried to keep Mom's awkward behavior out of my mind while I showered and got ready for some needed me afternoon time. I had bigger fish to fry today. 

Mom was gone by the time I dragged myself out of my bedroom and out the front door. My mind was mostly in the clouds as I made it to the smoothie place me and Jisoo decided to meet. This was nothing out of the normal. Jisoo was already waiting at the booth when I finally arrived, and she instantly started babbling at me about anything and everything in her typical Jisoo way. 

Today, for some reason, this didn't bother me. If it were any other day, I probably would have told her to shut up. But my mind was focused on something else. Something else like Sehun.

I couldn't explain the feeling that was slowly starting to creep over me as Jisoo and I finished ordering our smoothie bowls. It was as if there was this heavyweight pressing down on my shoulders, and my stomach was twisting with butterflies. I kept looking over my shoulder every moment or so, having this overpowering sensation that I was being watched. Nobody was paying any attention to me, but that did nothing to quell my nerves. 

"Okay, what are you looking at?"Jisoo demanded.

“Nothing," I said slowly. "Nothing at all." That was certainly a total lie.

Jisoo’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Yeah, right. Already daydreaming about Sehun aren’t you?" 

"No," I sighed exasperatedly. "I'm not. Let's just focus on girls' time?"

Jisoo kept shooting me shrewd looks as we got our smoothie bowls, which just made me all the more annoyed. This day had started out weird, and now it was turning into something I knew wasn't going to be too particularly pleasant.

Jisoo and I parted ways after we stepped through the front doors of the smoothie place, and I walked off to my car with that creepy feeling hovering over me. Something was wrong here, and I wasn't too eager to find out what it was.

The coffee house wasn't in need of extra help, was it? The coffee house was doing just fine to my knowledge. Was Grandma Jungsoo alright? Did Eugene have another flashback or something? Did something happen with Mia and Daniel? The possibilities of what could have happened were endless. My hands were shaking as I dropped into my driver's seat and I nearly knocked my water bottle off. I don’t know why I was starting to feel so paranoid. 

Every possible frightening scenario was currently running through my mind and it was all I could do not to burst into tears in the middle of the road. I knew I was sort of a crybaby about all of this. There was no getting