Chapter 5: Sungyeol Hates Me

I walked back to the dorm, and saw Jong scanning the whole block. I figured he was looking for me. I managed to hide behind a parked car just a few steps away. Then I saw him go back inside the dorm. That was the time when I decided to eavesdrop. Yes, the fan girl inside me was waking up.

I stood just outside one window of their dorm, and overheard them.
 

“Where have you been?” I recognized Hoya’s voice.

“Yea, and what’s with the face?” added Nam. I guessed Jong looked confused.

“Well, I was just worried about the girl. Remember when-”

Myung cut him short. “Ah! We forgot to ask her name.” I peeped through the window and saw him face palmed himself while holding a cup of Ramyeon. The typical Myung. 
 

Gyu shouted from the bedroom, "Ya, why is there a girl's shirt in my hamper? Oh wait," he went out the room holding a shredded looking shirt that was very familiar. And it suddenly came to me. It was mine. "I think this is hers," he held up the filthy clothing and showed it to the others. 
 

"Oh, hyung. Sorry. I put it in your hamper when I changed her shirt. She looked really ridiculous in that." Jong pouted. 
 

I dropped my jaws. Leaving my shirt in there was bad enough. Jong changing my shirt and seeing my inner clothing was.. Oh God. I looked at what I was wearing. I didn't know whose shirt it was but it's definitely not a girl's shirt. I suddenly felt a little grateful that the rapists didn’t rip my pants.
 

The looks on the other boys' faces seemed like they're used to Jong changing girls' shirt. Like it was a normal thing Jong does.
 

Jong knitted his brows, and said, "Although I'm still wondering what's her name.."
 

“Why would you want to know her name? She’s not even Korean,” said Sungyeol. There he was again. What did I do to make him hate me that much? I frowned, and continued listening to the very interesting conversation of INFINITE, which was all about me.
 

Sungyeol continued, "..and why do you care so mu-"
 

“Shut up, hyung! You’re heartless. Have you heard what she said? She was looking for her friend,” said Jong, defending me on my behalf. “Even if I was in her situation, I would have done the same. Plus, it doesn't matter if she's Korean or not. She's still a girl going through so much. So shut up.” I smiled. I was starting to really like Jong despite the changing-shirt thingy. 
 

The conversation kept going, and it seemed like a debate was going on. Finally, Sungyeol said, “Why do you talk like you knew that girl all your life? You should be siding with me! We’ve been together for years! ”
 

The other members tried stopping the argument, but Sungyeol and Sungjong seemed very aggressive towards each other. Oh no, I thought. I felt really bad for being the reason of their non-sense argument. If I could just knock on their door and stop the fight..
 

And then Jong talked. “Remember when she cried a little while ago?” he said calmly, like they weren’t fighting at all. The other members nodded, Dongwoo said “Yeah, what about it?” Sungyeol still wore his straight face, like he really hated the topic. Well, he actually really hated it, I supposed. 

Jong continued, “She pulled out a handkerchief. The same, identical handkerchief I had given to someone non-Korean I met at the park bench a few months ago. Do you remember that hyung?” he faced Gyu. “I told you about it after I got back to our training room.”
 

Gyu nodded, and said “Yea. But there may be hundreds of handkerchiefs like that all over the wor-”
 

“..it was made by my mom. For me.”
 

Everyone fell silent as they processed everything. Dongwoo asked, "So you're saying, that girl we saved from rapists is the same girl you met before?"
 

"Yes."
 

Dongwoo nodded. “Why did you give it to her anyway?”
 

Jong laughed a bit, and explained, “She was crying when I saw her. And she was alone. So I asked her what was wrong.” He looked at every one of them. “She said she got rejected by Woollim, and I know how that feels, so I gave her my handkerchief. And I didn’t notice it was the one made by my mom. I was looking for it ever since then. I didn’t know I gave her that one.”
 

My hands were shaking as Jong said everything. I felt very happy that he remembered me, not to mention that he accidentally gave me the handkerchief that his mom made just for him. But I felt the urge of giving it back to him since it was really special.

It was a very rare moment in my life. I decided not to interrupt the conversation, so I sat on the stairs going up to the main door of the dorm, and fell asleep.

I woke up with a poke on my back.
 

I looked up, and saw Myung smiling with morning glory in his eyes, and still in his pajamas. 
 

"Good morning, dongsaeng!" he shouted, and I was so surprised, I fell down the stairs and landed on my .