Marisa’s POV

“Hey,” I see an arm wave over to me from the outside of the school. I smile and run to greet him by the gate. “You were late today,” he says with a pouty face.

“Sorry,” I say. “I have more stuff than usual.”

“Let me take it," he says extending his hands out.

“No, I can carry it,” I say taking my bag back from him, but he won’t have it. He takes it right back out of my hands and puts it on his back like a backpack, even though it’s not supposed to be like that. “What if you break it?” I ask after I see him wear it like that.

“Then I’ll just get you another one,” he says simply rubbing the top of my head and messing up my hair.

“Sungyeol-ah,” I say as I fix my hair.

“Okay,” he says nodding his head. “Shall we get a move on?” He offers me his arm.

“Sure,” I say taking it.

Five very long months have passed since the announcement of me being Jinyoung’s girlfriend. We’ve gone out a couple of times, but it wasn’t anything like a date and it didn’t even have one romantic vibe about it. It was mostly with the other members and Jinyoung and I would always arrive separately from the other members to give off the impression to other people that it was a date. The other members were always inside the restaurant already, unknowingly to the outside. We were always in a separate room within the restaurant, also.

“Where’s Jinyoung?” Sungyeol asks looking at me. I just shrug my shoulders. “You don’t know?”

“He’s probably at a meeting or maybe on a schedule. Did he leave class early?”

“I’m not sure,” Sungyeol says laughing and scratching his head. “It’s alright, though, we can still have fun.”

“Of course. Where are we going today? Are Sandeul and Gongchan coming along, too?”

“They’re going to meet us there,” Sungyeol says. “Everyone else is going to meet us there, too. Let’s get going or we’re going to be late.” We start walking down the street away from the school.

Jinyoung’s POV

“What are you doing?” I ask her. “Why did you have to pull me aside? I have somewhere I have to go.”

“Don’t leave, stay a little longer,” she protests.

“You can’t order me to do anything, I’m the class president,” I tell her. “I’m leaving. I would advise you to do the same.”

I start to walk away when I feel her hand on my arm. I was taught to never beat up a woman and I don’t want to break that habit, but she’s being annoying.

“Jinyoungie-oppa,” she says looking at me straight in the eyes, “didn’t the rest of your friends leave?” I quickly take a look out of the room. “I sent them off because you said that you had something important about school to tell me. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to leave. And oppa is what you call someone who is older than you are. I’m younger than you are.”

I attempt to make my way to leave again, but she gets up and blocks my way from the doorway. “Why don’t you break up with her?” she asks me looking me up and down. “I know where you can get a much better girl.”

“Sorry, no need,” I say as I brush right past her and make my way out of the school.

Ever since that confrontation five months ago when walking home from school, she’s been bothering the heck out of me. What’s even worse is that she’s the vice president of the class and because I’m the president, most of our time during school hours is spent together. When I’m not in class because of schedules, she always tries to call me, but I always ignore her calls. It’s not good for me to answer them if I’m trying to drive her away and have her leave me alone, that much I know. If it’s something so important, one of the teachers can contact me instead. She can just leave me alone.

I walk the streets and wonder where the rest of my friends went. I take out my cell phone and decide to call someone.

Marisa’s POV

“Where are you dragging me?” I ask Sungyeol.

“Well, Jinyoung’s birthday is coming up next week, right?” he asks suspiciously. I just simply nod my head. “So, we’re going birthday shopping and planning his surprise party.” Sungyeol jumps up and down upon announcing the news.

“Wait, a surprise party?” I ask. “Who’s planning a surprise party?”

“We are, we all are,” I hear Gongchan say.

I turn around and am faced with mostly all of the members of both groups.

“Sunggyu-hyung and Dongwoo-hyung had to go to their schedules,” Sungjong explains coming up. “But everyone else is here.”

“And everyone besides Jinyoung-hyung is here,” Baro says looking around.

“Where is he?” Gongchan asks.

Everyone just looks at everyone silently. No one knows where he is.

“I think Seohyun wanted to talk to him, if I heard correctly,” Myungsoo pipes up. Silence falls us once again because of the name. Sungyeol got the mood up and that name just brought it down. I kind of wish that Dongwoo-oppa was here. He would surely make us all laugh again.

Sensing an awkward atmosphere, I hear Sandeul say something, but I don’t understand it. I think he’s talking in his dialect. Since my mother taught me Korean and since I lived in the United States, I don’t really understand his dialect outbursts.

“Okay, let’s go with Sandeul-hyung’s idea,” Gongchan says.

“What did he say?” I ask.

“Let’s go shopping,” Sungyeol says pushing me along.

We go to the mall and walk around in a big group. I see girls looking at us and whispering. It doesn’t bother me like it used to, I’m kind of adjusted to it now, if that makes sense. I guess being around it for so long, someone would get used to it.

“Hey, how about we just all pitch in and get him one big present?” Hoya asks everyone.

“Do you have something in mind?” Myungsoo asks him.

“I was thinking that maybe we could get him something to record his songs or something,” Hoya says. “I’m not entirely sure about names or anything.”

“I am,” Shinwoo says, “Jinyoung always talks about it at the dorms. That sounds like a good idea, though. I think he could always use some new equipment.”

“Then it’s settled,” Woohyun says standing up. “Let’s go look for these things.”

While they’re talking about presents, I just stay quiet. I’m not sure what to get him. I’ll help with the group present, but I think that I should get him something by myself, too. If they’re holding this surprise birthday party, won’t it seem weird if I’m the only one who doesn’t get him a present? It’s understandable that the boys would all want to pitch in and get him something expensive, but how well do I know Jung Jinyoung?

Jinyoung’s POV

Where did everyone go? Why did they leave me with her? Why does she always have to follow me? She’s one step from being called a stalker. Why isn’t anyone picking up their phone? Are they just all abandoning me? Are they with Marisa? What is she doing now? Why do I have so many questions?

I think to myself all of these things as I walk back to the dorm. I told our manager that it would be better if I walked; I have some things that I need to think about. It’s been five months. Five months and I’m still doing all of the wrong things. I watch Sungyeol wait for her after school every day with a heavy heart. I should be the one waiting, but he took that spot within the third week of us dating. I never did do anything good for her, anything special. I don’t even know when her birthday is. Does she even know when mine is? It’s next week, does she know that? Do we even know anything about each other? It seems like she’s gotten a lot closer with the other hyungs and dongsaengs than with me. I feel as though I’m the outcast.

I watch her, Gongchan, and Sungjong eat lunch together and talk excitedly about class or what they’re going to do later on their separate time when they aren’t together. Even though I’m sitting right next to her at lunch, I still feel as though we aren’t connected at all. Maybe it’s because I’ve had a cold front up for the past five months. Maybe she doesn’t know where the line is drawn in our relationship.

I should do something for her. We are both stuck in this mess together, but before I do something, someone always beats me to it. Maybe I should try to think one step ahead of everyone else. I’m beginning to form an idea. I start to run back to the dorm while it lasts.

Marisa’s POV

“Oh look, one missed call,” Myungsoo says looking at his phone while we’re sitting in the food court. He opens up his phone. “Ah, it’s from Jinyoung-hyung. Should I call him back?”

All of us stare at each other. ‘Sure,” I tell him, I’m the first one to talk and they all look at me suspiciously. “We already know what we’re going to buy him, right? So we can tell him where we are,” I say.

“Okay, then I’ll tell him,” Myungsoo says getting up and distancing himself so he can use his cell phone.

“You’re really okay with Jinyoung-hyung coming here?” Sandeul asks me coming up. His accent was in there a little bit, but I could understand him for the most part.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” I ask looking at all of them.

“Well you are boyfriend and girlfriend,” Woohyun responds.

“Just because he was with Seohyun doesn’t mean anything,” I say shaking my head. “It’s been five months. I should trust him, right?”

“Yeah,” Sungyeol says looking at me and lightly draping his arm around my shoulder. A nervous chuckle escapes from his mouth. “Why are we making a big deal out of nothing?”

I smile at them, too. As much as I don’t like him being with Seohyun, I have to act as though I trust him. Then again, he can do whatever he wants as we have agreed on countless times. We’re not in an actual relationship so it shouldn’t matter what the other person is doing. Why am I so concerned with getting him a birthday gift then?

Jinyoung’s POV

“I thought you’d never come home,” Seohyun says. How in the world did she get to the dorm before I did? How in the world does she even know where I live.

“I thought you were at school,” I say coldly. I don’t want her messing anything up right now.

“I was, but then I realized that you were probably going to go back home with all of your friends, so why not come home first and surprise you?”

“This isn’t your home,” I tell her. She tries to make her way over to me, but I just walk right past her. I hear my phone ring in my pocket; it’s an instrumental of something that I’ve been working on lately. “Yeoboseyo?” I ask.

“Hyung.” It’s Myungsoo’s voice.

“Jinyoungie-oppa,” I hear Seohyun say. She’s standing close to the phone. She wants whoever’s on the other line to hear her. She probably thinks that it’s Marisa. “Would you like to go into the dorm now? It’s kind of cold outside.”

“Hyung?” Myungsoo asks on the other line. “Is someone there with you? Jinyoung-hyung?”

“I told you to stop calling me oppa,” I say back to Seohyun away from the phone. “And you’re not coming into the dorm. You can freeze your off out here for all I care.”

“Then would you rather have me call you just Jinyoung-ah?” Seohyun asks with a fierce look in her eyes as she gets closer to me. I just stare back at her and talk back to Myungsoo.

“What’s up Myungsoo?” I ask him.

“I was just returning your call. All of us are at the mall besides Sunggyu-hyung and Dongwoo-hyung. Would you like to come?”

“Sorry,” I say to him. “I have something that I have to do first.”

“Ah, no problem,” Myungsoo says, but something doesn’t sound right about his voice.

“Is everyone alright?” I can’t help but ask.

“Everyone’s fine,” he states. “So, I guess we’ll see you later.”

“See you later,” I say hanging up the phone. “Seohyun, our time together is over. I’m going inside.” I quickly make my way inside and lock the door so Seohyun has no chance of getting in. I quickly go to my computer and start it up. I can’t forget this idea that I had, I have to write it down or else it’s going to go away.

Marisa’s POV

Myungsoo came back to the table, his face looked kind of down. “What’s wrong Myungsoo-oppa?” I ask.

“Ah, nothing,” he says with a stern face.

“Oh, well, I think my parents are expecting me home,” I quickly say. “I’m going to head home.”

“I’ll walk you,” Sungyeol offers.

“Sure,” I say nodding my head. “I guess I’ll see you all later?”

The food court rang with ‘yes’ and other callings to tell me to text them later all of which I agreed to. Sungyeol followed me out of the food court and walked me all the way to my house. The fangirls are used to seeing me with the other members of both groups so me being out with one alone isn’t that much news nowadays. Our walk home was thankfully peaceful.

Myungsoo’s POV

I sit there at the table fiddling with my fingers. “Hyung, what’s wrong?” I hear Sungjong say. There’s nothing that can get past this boy, he can read into everybody. It’s like he’s a girl, they just have that sort of natural instinct.

I debate internally on whether or not I should say anything about hearing Seohyun on the other line and about her being at the dorm. If I didn’t tell, then Marisa would get hurt, but something hasn’t been right about their relationship for the past couple of months. They only started going out like six months ago, but for the last half, it seemed as though something was wrong. Is this it? Is Jinyoung making his relationship worse? Marisa is a nice girl. I don’t know why he would want to hurt her, I don’t know why he doesn’t want to protect her.

“Hyung,” Sungjong says. He’s not standing right in front of me shaking me. “We thought that there was something wrong with you.”

“I’m fine,” I lie.

“No, you’re not. Tell us what’s wrong,” Hoya says.

I look at all of them, Woohyun, Sunjong, Hoya, Shinwoo, Baro, Gongchan, and Sandeul. All of them are waiting for me to say something. We’re all Marisa’s friends and Jinyoung has been acting strange recently.

“When I called Jinyoung,” I finally begin. They’re all staring intently at me. Can I take this type of pressure? “He was with Seohyun.” I hear deep sighs from all of them and a deep intake of breath at the same time. “They were at the dorm together.”

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What happened to Jinyoung and Marisa's relationship? What happened three months ago? Who is together with who, Sungyeol and Marisa, Jinyoung and Marisa, Marisa and nobody? What is Seohyun's motive?

Why are there so many questions?

3rd chapter is done. Hope it was eventful.