“You’re going out?” Hyejin asks Yubin as soon as she sees the said girl opening her closet and searching for a pair of clothes. 

“Yeah.”

“With whom? Your boyfriend?” Hyejin asks her curiously as she turns her chair around and fully faces Yubin’s back. She crosses her legs, rests her elbows on her knees and her head on her palms as she observes Yubin curiously, her gossip mode on. 

“I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“Girlfriend then?” Hyejin asks casually. Yubin wasn’t surprised by such a question because she never had any problem with her ual orientation. It wasn’t hard to find out that she liked girls and it wasn’t that hard to accept it either so she is pretty much ok with it and with any question related to that. She is just slightly taken aback that Hyejin is pretty cool about it. 

‘She likes Hyojung though, you ! Of course she’s cool about girls liking girls! Idiot!’  Yoobin thinks to herself for a moment.  

“Nope. No boyfriend, no girlfriend. I’m single as a pringle like-” She stops midsentence and shakes her head with a small smile and a light groan leaving her lips. She can’t believe that she’s actually using Jiho’s lame jokes but here she is doing it. 

“Like?”

“Like my best friend jokes a lot. But it doesn’t really matter. So, yeah. I’m single. What about you? You never told me.” Yubin asks as she turns around to face Hyejin for a few seconds. 

“I’m single too. But not for too long.”

“Found the one?” 

“Yeah. Hyojung, your ex friend.” Yubin wants to correct her and tell her that she’s actually going to meet up with the group at any moment and maybe when she would return back she would be back to being friends with them, including Hyojung, if they wanted to forgive her and be her friend that is. But she decides to not tell her yet. It isn’t that important. So she focuses on another question she wants to ask. 

“Isn’t she with Seunghee though?” 

“Are they? That’s the real question.” Hyejin asks Yoobin. Yoobin turns to face her closet again but frowns, totally confused.

“You ask me? How am I supposed to know? It’s been a year since the last time I saw them.”

“Forget it then. I’m just saying that I’ll court her, no matter what. If she rejects me, so be it.” Hyejin says confidently. 

‘Wow this girl is bold!’ Yoobin thinks. 

“Oh… ok. That’s bold of you. But isn’t it unfair for Seunghee?”

“No. I don’t see anything unfair. She has her. But she also has to make sure that she will have her. I can try it out but if Hyojung really likes Seunghee then I don’t think it’s unfair for her. She’s fine, she’s gonna be and she doesn’t  have to worry about a thing.” Hyejin says and shrugs her shoulders. Yubin hums in response, not really sure of what to tell her. It doesn’t sound too unfair but it doesn’t sound moral at all. And Yoobin has morals, she’s nice and caring so she would have never been like Hyejin and acted like her. So carelessly and hurt her very own friend. But after all, no matter how hard she has tried… the result was the same as Hyejin’s was going to be. Jiho got hurt like Seunghee is going to be. 

No. Yoobin has seen this happening before. She needs to do something! Anything! She doesn't want to see Seunghee getting hurt like Jiho did. She won’t take this. Seeing the same story unfolding again. 

But what can she say? What can she do? 

She clenches her fists, trying hard to think of something to say when the door of their dorm is knocked. She sighs and goes to open it. 

“Jiho?” Yoobin calls out the girl’s name, confused. But as soon as she sees who else is with her, she’s even more confused. 

“Yewon? What are you guys doing here?”

“We came to pick you up. Told you she is not even going to be ready.” Jiho says as she turns towards Yewon who stares at Yoobin from head to toe and hums in response. 

“Why did you come to pick me up? We said we were going to meet at the park in the middle of the campus.” Yoobin asks even more confused. 

“Yeah. We did. But times passed by… we were both ready and waited for you, called you even, but you were gone. Literally. So we decided to come and pick you up. Ghosting your best friend on your first day? Such a nice start Bae!” Jiho teases Yoobin as she walks in their room, past Yoobin who turns around and stares at her, still confused. 

“Hey I wasn’t- nevermind.” Yoobin says and shakes her head. She walks back to her closet, not really caring what Yewon was going to do. The girl walked inside the dorm as well and closed the door behind her softly. She stood by the entrance awkwardly and silently while Jiho walked around and looked around making noise as always. 

“Nice dorm. Smaller than the one we used to live in, for sure. But it’s warm, welcoming and so you. Unlike mine and Yewon’s. I’m afraid I made Yewon my little minion there. Not even her side is clean now.” Yoobin laughs but turns to look at Jiho curiously. 

“You’re roommates?”

“Ah yeah. We are. You should pass by once and help us clean out. The dorm is such a mess! I think it’s slightly bigger than yours but I can’t really tell by how messy it is and-” Jiho stops mid sentence as her eyes finally land on Yoobin’s roommate who’s still sitting on her chair and stares at them curiously. She freezes completely and stares hard at Hyejin, totally shocked and unprepared. 

“Gosh Jiho! You’re unbelievable!” Yoobin groans as she searches through her closet. She hasn’t seen Jiho’s state yet. She grabs an outfit and turns towards Jiho as she asks her,

“What do you think about this outfit?” She asks her but it goes on deaf ears. Yewon stares at Jiho for a few seconds and finally decides to answer instead of Jiho since the girl is spacing out. 

“It’s cute.” 

“That’s what I also thought.” Yoobin mumbles to herself and places the outfit back in her closet. She picks a new one and asks Jiho again,

“How about this one? Hello? Earth to Jiho?” She says as soon as she sees that her friend isn’t responding. 

“Un… is she alright? She’s been spacing out… you know…” Hyejin says slowly as she finally decides to speak up. Yoobin turns to look at her then back at Jiho. 

“Ya! Kim Jiho!”

“What? Jeez, stop screaming! I’m not deaf!” Jiho finally responds with a groan. 

“You were. Till a few seconds ago.”

“I wasn’t. You didn’t tell me that Shin Hyejin was your roommate.”

“You didn’t tell me Yewon was your roommate as well.” Jiho laughs but then becomes serious all of a sudden and says again,

“It’s not the same.”

“Oh really? Why do I feel like it is?” Jiho smirks at Yoobin’s smirk and challenging tone and gives up. 

“I think you’re overthinking it, friend. That outfit over there looks the best on you.” She finally says after a few seconds of silence as the two of them stare at each other knowingly. Yewon’s slightly surprised as to how Jiho was totally spacing out seconds ago but still somehow managed to see the outfits Yoobin was looking at all this time. Yoobin on the other hand, isn’t. This is Kim Jiho after all. Multitasking is her speciality. One of the many she has. 

“Where do you know Hyejin by the way?” Yoobin finally asks as she places the rest of the outfits she has placed on her chair before back in her closet. 

“Oh she’s friends with Hyojung. They share a lot of classes together this year. So you do realize that whoever is around Hyojung is basically known among our friend group as well.” Jiho tries to say as casually as she can as she stares at Hyejin.

“That’s true.” Yoobin only hums. So that means that Seunghee already knows about Hyejin’s existence. Does this mean that she already knows about Hyejin’s plans or whole behaviour? Is she already hurting? Probably. 

“Come on! Seunghee is gonna scold us for being late again! I’m gonna put the blame on you this time because, hey it’s true!”Jiho says loudly as Yoobin fixes her hair. 

“She won’t scold us, actually. As soon as she sees Yoobin unnie her heart is gonna melt and she’ll totally forget to scold us.” Yewon points out. Yoobin notes to herself that Yewon actually called her with her full name and not with her nickname that she, herself has made. 

“Yeah, Ye. We know that. But we’re supposed to make her get ready sooner. Now how are we going to make her do that? Are you that genius?” 

“Oh. Right.” 

“I’m ready. Jeez, stop grumbling already! Let’s go?” She says as she picks up her bag and heads towards them. Jiho looks at Yoobin and smiles at her. She’s happy that she had her best friend back so all she can do is wrap her arm around Yoobin’s shoulder and drag her towards the door with a nod. As soon as they reach the door though… she turns around and faces Hyejin. 

“Actually… we all know Hyejin. A bit. Except for Hyojung who knows her better. And now you know her too. So it won’t be awkward if she tags along right? Of course only if you want to.” She says to Yoobin and turns to Hyejin at the last part. 

“Uh… I don’t mind but I’m not part of your friend group and it’s a friend group so I don’t want to ruin that precious moment of yours.”

“You don’t ruin anything. You are invited. If you want.” Yoobin says gently, agreeing to Jiho’s idea of tagging Hyejin along. She’s not sure why she accepted that offer. Hyejin is for sure going to accept so she’ll be around Hyojung more. But she wants to hope that Hyejin won’t dare to do anything in front of their whole group of friends and Seunghee. But she doubts that. Hyejin is bold and she doesn’t seem to care about anyone and anything. As hard as it sounds… that’s the truth… 

"Hey guys! We're not late, are we?" Jiho greets the girls as they all meet at one of the backyards behind their library at college. It has become their place, kinda, after Yoobin left because they wanted to feel her close to them. Jiho has talked to them about what Yoobin's mother has told her and Yewon has also told them her part of the story and asked for their forgiveness so the group was back on good terms with everyone. 

The girls raises their heads from their phones or turn around to face them and as soon as they see Yoobin in between Jiho, Yewon and Hyejin their jaw drops in shock as they scream in disbelief. 

"No way!"

"It can't be!"

"Binnie ah!" Both Hyojung and Seunghee scream happily as they're the first ones to rush towards her and hug her tightly. 

"We missed you!" They say in unison.

"So, no hugs for me? I guess that's a no. Ah damn it Yoobin you're famous today!" Jiho exclaims and Yoobin giggles. She's too emotional and moved by the tight hug from both Hyojung and Seunghee, the two most important people in her life after Jiho. 

"Hey move aside. I want to greet her too!" Mihyun groans as she pushes them away. It's hard to do so, but she's strong and she manages to push them away after a few efforts, even though both of them are whining and struggling to keep their hold on Yoobin. They're acting exactly like babies, crying and being too attached to their mothers. 

"Hey dude. I missed you." Mihyun says as she smiles at Yoobin and wraps her arms loosely around Yoobin's shoulders. 

"I missed you too." Yoobin finally says and hugs Mihyun a bit more tighter around her waist, bringing her closer to her. 

"Yoobinnie!" Shiah exclaims and hugs Yoobin as well. 

"Hey. Shiah I…"

"Shhh. Let's not talk about it. It's in the past!" Shiah says happily. 

"No, I… I want to say sorry for ruining Junsun's party. I still feel so bad