“Are you two okay?” Taemin asked.

“Fine!” They roared at the same time. 

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Another sigh escaped Jinhee as she flipped through the racks of dresses before her. They all seemed too pretty, too chic, too expensive to be worthy of being worn by her. She let her eyes wander to the interior of the boutique once again, taking in the elegance of it all and sighed once more.

“Just pick one,” Minho whined. He had been watching her go back and forth between racks, attempting to look for the perfect dress. He stood a few feet away, leaning onto a rack with his forearm placed on its horizontal metal bar.

“Can’t,” She muttered. “Too expensive.”

“Look, I told you, I’m going to pay for this.” Minho reminded her. He brought her to the boutique he was most familiar with having been there a lot to get his suits fitted.

“See, that’s why I can’t,” She groaned. “How could I just allow you to pay for such an expensive piece of cloth?”

“It’s not like you’re forcing me to!” He retorted. “I want to buy it for you, please?”

He shot his million dollar smile at Jinhee hoping she would forget about the price for once and accept his offer to buy it for her as a gift. She threw her head back and groaned in defeat knowing Minho would never stop pestering anyway. “Fine.” She huffed.  “But just this once.”

“Just this once,” Minho repeated. “Promise.”

Jinhee smiled and looked through the racks once again; carefully this time, looking for the one that catches her eye. She picked up a black, body hugging, v-neck dress and held it up high for Minho to see.

“Black? Really?” He examined the dress, and raised his eyebrows at her choice of colour.

“What?” She replied looking at it herself. “I like it. It’s simple.”

Minho shrugged, not wanting to disagree with her choice seeing as how it was hard enough to get her to choose one and he really didn’t feel like waiting any longer. The salesperson standing by took if off Jinhee’s hands and showed them to the counter.

“Why don’t you wait outside?” Minho said to Jinhee. “I’ll be right out.”

“Oh, okay!” She chirped and walked in the opposite direction towards the exit of the store. Her eyes scanned the mall for a familiar face. Luna was supposedly there; looking for her own dress. She looked back into the store and saw Minho by the cashier, chatting and sharing laughs with the ladies there, displaying his gorgeous boyish smile.

She sighed and decided to take a stroll hoping to bump into Luna in one of the stores.

When she passed by a jewellery store, her feet moved on its own accord heading straight towards the glass window display were the items on display shined and glistened as if calling out to her. “Wow…” She mouthed, eyes sparkling from the reflection of the necklaces and bracelets.

“Beautiful aren’t they?”

She whipped her head to the right, almost in shock, to where the voice which snapped her out of her thoughts came from. Rolling her eyes at the familiar face, she turned back to the display and ran her eyes over the jewels once again, taking in their beauty. “Nice to see to too, Jieun.” She said disinterestedly.

“Certainly,” She said with a slight giggle. Jinhee felt herself being scrutinised by those sharp eyes of hers which were now eyeing every inch of Jinhee. “Are you out shopping or?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact I am.” Jinhee said. She straightened up and looked Jieun straight in the eye. “You too?”

Jieun nodded. The smile on her face never faltered as though she was teasing Jinhee with her joy. A shopping bag was brought up to Jinhee’s face making her stumble back a few steps. She furrowed her brows in annoyance. “Just bought my dress for the welcome back dance!”

“Oh!” Jinhee exclaimed in excitement, clapping her hands together. “I just got mine too!”

“Really?” Jieun asked. “Where is it?”

“Minho’s paying for it,” Jinhee said while pointing over her shoulder to the boutique she was in before. “There,”

“Ooh, is he your date?” Jieun smiled innocently. Jinhee nodded and smiled back, looking past that innocent expression she knew was fake; knowing that Jieun already knew and was only asking such questions for God knows what reason. 

“I’m going with Jonghyun,” She said proudly. “He promised to be my date months ago.”

Jinhee bit back a scowl and said through clenched teeth, “Of course you are! Who else would you go with…” At this point she knew the only reason Jieun had started this conversation was only to and at that very same moment a light bulb struck in her head.

“Careful though,” Jinhee whispered. “He doesn’t keep his promises.”

Two can play that game. If Jieun could , Jinhee figured why not join in on the fun. Like they say, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Jieun chuckled. “You’re funny,” She said. “Don’t worry, he loves me enough to keep that promise.”

A thousand knives plunged right into Jinhee’s heart as the sentence slipped out of the devil’s mouth. She made sure to keep her expression in check and tried to fight the urge to choke Jieun to death right there and then.

“Did he tell you that?” Jinhee shook her head and placed an arm on Jieun’s shoulder as though trying to give empathy. “Oh darling trust me, he doesn’t really mean it when he says those things.”

Jieun blinked with an empty stare. “Of course he does. He means it. He loves me.”

“I mean weren’t you the one who warned me about this before?” Jinhee asked nonchalantly. “I specifically remember you saying that he can’t be trusted and my oh my look at how you were right! So you know, just warning you before you find out he’s dating some other girl which he loves as well.”

“Shut up!” She cried. “That was different. He didn’t love you back then—“

“Oh I’m pretty sure he did,”

Jieun snarled and ran a hand through her smooth hair which fell back in its place instantly. “You just mind your own business. Because if he really did love you then why would he cheat on you?”

“That’s exactly my point!” Jinhee snapped her fingers. “He told me he loved me –and of course I believed him, but he cheated on me. So what makes you think he’s not cheating, on you?”

“I’m pretty sure—“

Jinhee closed the gap between them leaving minimal space left to even breathe. She looked Jieun dead in the eye and said, “I don’t care what you’re sure about, what you’re not and what you think you’re sure about but I am pretty sure about two things: that he did love me back then, and that he doesn’t love you now.”

The words slipped out like ice, freezing every part of Jieun’s body leaving her unable to think of a reply fast enough. Jinhee smirked at the girl in front of her before winking and strutting off quite pleased with herself.

She grinned as soon as she was already metres away and when her eyes met with her best friend standing just across her, the grin grew wider. “Luna!”

“Hey, are you okay?” It was the first thing Luna asked her as soon as they were face to face with each other.

“Um, yeah?” Jinhee replied cautiously. “Why?”

“I saw you talking to Jieun so I thought—“

“Oh her?” Jinhee interrupted her waving her hand as she did. “Don’t worry about it, I handled it. Did you get your dress?”

“Right here,” Luna sang, holding up the black sleek shopping bag.

“Aw but I didn’t get to see you in it!” Jinhee pouted, pulling on the edge of the bag to take a look inside.

“Neither did I,” Taemin mumbled, his bottom lip pushed out in a cute pout.

“It’ll be a surprise!” Luna hugged his arm. “So I’ll get to see a genuine reaction from you that night.”

“But what if I don’t like it?”

“That’s not an option,” Jinhee said. “Just pretend you—”

She jumped. The sudden ringing of her phone interrupted their conversation. She pulled it out of her pocket and excused herself from the group, walking a few steps away to answer the call. She raised an eyebrow at the name plastered on her screen. It was unusual for her brother to call her; normally he’d wait till she was home to tell her whatever he needed to say.

“Hello?” She answered.

“Where are you?” The voice on the other line asked immediately, barely allowing her to finish.

“I’m at the mall…with my friends,” She said slowly. The worry in her brother’s tone made her heart beat fast. Something was wrong.

“Come back home as fast as you can, okay?”

“Yeah okay.”

__________

“How could you do this?!”

Jinhee winced. Her father’s voice echoed through the house. He never gets angry, never. But this time she sat by the top of the stairs, listening to her father blow up at her brother. Noticing the strange atmosphere when she arrived in front of her house, she gave only a brief hello to her father before sprinting up to her room.

When she heard yelling, curiosity got the best of her and at the top of the stairs she sat, eavesdropping on the conversation down below.

“What’s going on…” She whispered to herself.

No other explanation crossed her mind as to why her brother made such a foolish decision except one; he was desperate. Why else would he turn to loan sharks for money when he knows the risks and consequences of not being able to pay them back on time?

The voices died down and she guessed it was because they finally decided to work things out instead of yelling. She messed up her own hair in frustration and let out a small groan. This time she did not want to be out of the loop and her determination brought her down the stairs and into the living room where the two men went quiet.

“There’s no point in keeping it a secret,” Jinhee said. “I already know.”

She made her way past the coffee table and sat next to her brother who gave a sad smile still feeling guilty on his part. The air was tense and she didn’t like it. But she knew blaming anyone at this point would do no good. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. It just happened to turn out this way.

“What’s our current plan?” She asked.

“To pay back the money borrowed as soon as possible. “ Mr Jang said. His hair was slightly dishevelled from all the ruffling of his own hair.

“Using the money we have in our joint account,” Wooyoung continued. Mr Jang’s eyebrow rose. Jinhee pouted not knowing what account they spoke of. She had one account of her own but she never knew about any other accounts.

“But that money is reserved for—“

Jinhee blinked and waited for her dad to continue. He abruptly stopped halfway and eyes flickered over to her. She raised her brows at him still waiting for him to finish his sentence. Wooyoung then turned to her slightly before sighing and looking back at his dad. That’s when she understood what the money was for.

“The money is for me?”

“Sort of,” Wooyoung replied softly, his hand playing with the back of his hair.

“For your studies, Jinhee,” Mr Jang said with a smile. “You’re going to need it in the future.”

“I don’t need it right now,” Her tone raised worry in the other two. Something was brewing in that mind of hers and Wooyoung was sure he wouldn’t like it.

“What if I—“

“No.” Wooyoung said firmly. His eyes bore deep into hers trying to make his stand clear.

“You don’t even know what I was going to say!” She defended and went on to whine about how unfair her brother was being.

The little bell which indicated the start of a fight rang in Mr Jang’s head and he had to stop the two before their war of words continued. “I don’t need this from you two right now.” He said sternly, pointing his fingers at the both of them.

They remained silent, both looking in the opposite direction. Jinhee had her arms folded and the invisible voice in her head continued with the ramblings over how unfair she felt she was being treated.

“I knew what you were going to say,” Wooyoung suddenly said. His fingertips were pressed together as he hunched over with elbows resting on his knees. Jinhee’s brows raised in anticipation.

“What?”

“You were going to tell us to forget about your future and use up all the money,” He said. “Right?”

“Well…” Jinhee said in high tone. “It’s actually more detailed than that.”

“Then I don’t want to hear it.” Wooyoung turned his back to her and already shut out the possibility of even agreeing or liking the idea.

“Why not?” Jinhee cried. “Do you want to pay off our debt or not? Just give me a chance…I’ve been thinking a lot and I think my idea is worth a shot.” She said calmly, not wanting to break out into a fight once again. She was tired of fighting. Right now all she wanted was her idea to be given a thought and maybe just maybe, their family could be happy and stress-free again.

“Okay,” Her dad said, nodding. “I’d like to listen to your idea.”

Her eyes widened and she turned to her brother waiting for his approval. Wooyoung looked sceptically at his dad before sighing and slowly nodding at Jinhee.

“Yes!” She cheered. “Okay, so this might sound kind of rushed but, here’s my idea….”

__________

“If we don’t leave, we’ll be late!” Taemin exclaimed for the twentieth time that morning, testing Luna’s patience. She rolled her eyes over to him and gave him a deadly stare. He raised his hands in defence and took a few steps back.

“Jinhee’s not here yet.” She muttered. Her foot tapped against the pavement and her hands tugged on the straps from her bag impatiently. “Where is she?” She mumbled to herself.

Time was ticking and Luna knew Taemin was right; if they didn’t leave now, they’d be late for school. And detention was something they didn’t need; again. She glanced one last time down the street, hoping for at least Jinhee’s shadow to appear. But it didn’t.

Luna sighed in defeat and turned to Taemin who was now looking at her with a smug look on his face. “Fine let’s go,” She muttered, knocking her shoulder against him as she walked past him.

He chuckled and caught up with her, clutching her hand in his as he picked up the pace and pulled her along. “I knew you’d listen to me,” He said.

“Shut up.” Luna said. “You’re annoying, you know that?”

“Isn’t that why you fell for me?” He cheekily responded and pulled her forward so she was now walking next to him.

“Oh please Taemin,” She scoffed and shook her head at how narcissistic he had become lately. “You were the one who liked me first!”

“Yeah but you liked me back.” He said as-a-matter-of-factly.

He giggled when she punched him like he knew she would. “Whatever,” Luna said. “Aren’t you worried? We haven’t seen or heard from Jinhee for two days!”

“That’s a lie, she texted us yesterday saying she was fine.” Taemin’s left brow rose, giving her a look.

“It’s still worrying!” Luna cried. She allowed her head to rest on Taemin’s arm with their hands still locked together for the rest of the walk to school.

It was different without Jinhee and particularly more since the last time they had seen her was on Tuesday, at the mall, before she left once she received a call from her brother. When she didn’t turn up for school the next day, they got worried. Even Minho heard nothing from her.

Until yesterday evening when she finally decided to return their texts. It was a simple one, saying she was fine and would be back soon. Still, it left Luna worried.

“Stop worrying so much,” Luna heard Taemin say. He slowly slipped his hand away from hers and moved his arm over her shoulder allowing her to rest her head on his shoulder instead. “I’m sure we’d be the first to know if she’s ever in trouble or anything.”

“Yeah, okay…” Luna mumbled half-heartedly.

School was bustling with students as usual and amongst the crowd, Taemin managed to spot Minho waving in their direction. He was already standing next to Taemin and Jinhee’s locker, waiting for them.

“Did you guys get her text?” He asked earnestly and looked back and forth between the both of them.

“Yeah,” Luna said. “Says she’s ‘fine’.” She did air quotes at the mention of the word fine.

“She better be,” Minho sighed. “She’s my date for the dance!”

“Is that all you can think about?” Taemin chuckled, taking his Physics textbook out of the locker and shutting it once again.

“Yeah!” Luna smacked him and ran her eyes over him. “Why are you here anyway? Aren’t you prince charming? You should be with her right now! Who knows what sort of trouble she’s in or—“

“Luna...” Taemin eyed her, giving her the same look every time she brought up the possibility of Jinhee being in danger.

Minho shook his head playfully and ruffled Luna’s hair. “I’m not her prince charming anyway,” He shrugged.

“Of course you are!” Luna said. “Who else would it be?”

“Come on, don’t act as if you can’t see how much Jinhee still loves—“ Luna’s finger abruptly positioned itself over Minho’s lips, pressing on them and stopping him from saying anything else.

“Don’t say the forbidden name.”

“You mean Jonghyun?” Taemin said casually.

“Taemin!” She cried. “You said the forbidden name…”

The two boys stared at her and then at each other, with weird looks on their faces.

“Okay Luna…” Minho cautiously spoke. “I’ll catch up with you guys later. Bye.” He waved and his heel, strutting down the hallway towards his area of the school.

“I think you need some stress relieving,” Taemin patted Luna on the head before walking her to class, tuning out as soon as she starting speaking about Jinhee’s safety again.

__________

“Who are you going with?” Minho dribbled the ball and aimed carefully from the mid-court line, ready to shoot. Focusing his eyes onto the basket, he bent his knees and bounced a couple of times before lifting his feet off the ground and giving the ball a good throw, watching as it flew in the air and made rounds around the top of the basket. “Yes!” He punched his fist in the air as it fell through the basket.

He turned to Key who was standing just a few feet away with arms folded and a less than impressed face Minho had hoped for. “Bet you can’t get a throw in without jumping in the air.” He muttered.

Ignoring his friend’s comment, Minho ran after the ball and picked it up, dribbling it on the way back. “You didn’t answer my question,” He said.

“Why do you want to know?” Key raised his brows. He swiped the ball from Minho’s hands and ran across the court, jumping a few feet in the air as he made a shot. A grin appeared on his face as the ball fell through the basket just as Minho’s did. He turned towards Minho again. “Who are you going with?”

“Jinhee,” Minho spoke. His hands were placed on his hips as he watched Key. Even if he tried to act as if it was nothing, he could feel someone’s stare on him as soon as he mentioned Jinhee’s name. He ignored it for now. “So? Who’s your date?”

“Aeri,” Key said and abruptly passed the ball to Minho without warning.

He swiftly caught the ball with his hands: it almost hit him right in the face. “Really?” His eyes were wide.

“I should ask you that,” Key sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. “Jinhee, really?” He walked towards Minho and spoke softly careful of the other students around them. “You have a thing with Aeri and yet you’re going with Jinhee…really?”

Minho sighed and walked towards side of the court where Onew and Jonghyun were—Jonghyun’s eyes still focused on him ever since. He took a seat next to Onew and placed his arms around his knees. “I don’t have a thing with her,” He whispered to Key who was now seated in front of him.

“Yeah, right.” Key rolled his eyes. “But whatever. You ‘not having a thing’ with her allowed me to be her date. Yay!”

“Yeah, yay…” Minho mumbled.

“What? You have Jinhee, don’t you?” Key asked, once again bringing Jonghyun’s attention to their conversation at the mention of Jinhee.

“Not if she doesn’t come back soon,” Minho said.

“Come back?” Onew turned, his attention torn away from his phone and on to them. “Where’d she go?”

Minho shrugged, pouting a little. “Don’t know. She’s been missing since two days ago.”

“Missing?!” Jonghyun cried, turning the heads of the three other guys. They stared knowingly at him. Key almost had to bite back a smile that was forming. Jonghyun cleared his throat and looked away, pretending he hadn’t just had an outburst of worry over Jinhee. Pretending his heart didn’t race with jealousy at the thought of her going with Minho.

“Yeah,” Minho finally spoke again. “We don’t know where she went to but she hasn’t been in school or at home. She left a text saying she was fine but, I don’t know…”

By then, Jonghyun had drifted off into his own world again. His mind and soul were elsewhere, leaving only his body behind. When he turned towards the other court on the other side of the fence where the girls were, his eyes met with Jieun who waved happily.

He waved back lifelessly, hand sluggish and heavy, before returning his attention to nothing once again.

__________

The smell of coffee filled the café and Onew was more than happy having a plate of his favourite Black Forest Petite Cake and a couple of chocolate chunk cookies right in front of him.

“You really can eat a lot,” Taemin said, bewildered. He only had a small carrot cake and already he was struggling to finish his iced caramel macchiato.

“Only when the food’s great,” Onew said. “I come here for the food, unlike you…”

Taemin smiled and his left, leaning his face against the palm of his hand. “Yeah I come here for something else,” He said, looking at Luna behind the counter as she took orders.

Onew grab hold of his head and turned it back to him. “Don’t gush over her so obviously. Please.” He said.

Taemin simply chuckled and took a small sip of his macchiato. The small bell at the door jingled, signalling new customers and thinking nothing of it, Taemin turned to look only to gasp in surprise. “Jinhee!”

The older boy almost choked on his cookie, leaving a mess on the table as he stuffed whatever he could into his mouth and turned to look in the same direction.

“Hey,” Jinhee said softly, walking to their table and taking a seat next to Onew.

“Where have you been? Are you okay?” Taemin asked, curiosity overflowing. “You had Luna worried sick…”

“Only Luna?” She teased.

“I was most worried!” Onew said, his mouth half-full.

“Aw, really?” Jinhee giggled and gave him a small hug. “I’m so sorry for worrying you guys.”

“You!”

Jinhee’s eyes lit up at the voice of her best friend who now stood in front of them with her hands on her hips. “Luna!” She cried. “I’m back,” She giggled.

“Do you think it’s cool to just disappear for days and suddenly come reappear at my workplace without warning?!” She let out, breathing in short pants.

“Aww, I’m so sorry Luna!” Jinhee said. She got up and ran towards her, giving her a big hug.

“Okay well…maybe I forgive you,” Luna muttered, still with a frown on her face but it slowly turned into a small smile.

“Good!” Jinhee said. “Cause I have something to tell you. Sit down.”

Luna slowly took a seat and watched Jinhee plop back down onto hers. They all looked at her with anticipation.

“Since only the three of you are here, guess  you guys will be the first I tell this to,” Jinhee said almost seeming sad.

“What is it?” Taemin asked carefully.

“I’m…” Her words felt heavy, and it felt like the whole world’s attention was on her as she spoke. “I’m moving.”

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Oh noooo, Jinhee is moving??? D: 

I know I took forever to update this I'm sorry ^^ I still have tests and exams in the upcoming weeks so I hope you guys can wait for a while more while I try to ace my studies T___T I feel bad whenever I don't whenever I say I would so I'm not going to promise any specific date hehe.