Yejin pulled herself together and headed to the General Office. She told the clerk that she had a fever and they gave Heechul a call to let him know before giving her a permission slip to leave the school. Yejin took a cab back and entered the house.

“You okay? How did you suddenly get a fever?” Heechul felt her forehead. “It’s not hot—”

“Sorry I lied,” Yejin muttered. Heechul was about to yell at her but stopped when her eyes glistened with tears. She turned and tried to climb the stairs to her room but Heechul held her back.

“Something happened and you’re not telling me,” he said.

“Nothing happened. Just had a bad day and I didn’t want to stay in school.”

“Stop lying to me. I know you better than anyone else does. What happened?”

"You don't always have to act so strong."

JR’s words rang in her head and before she knew it, she was soaking Heechul’s shirt with her tears. When she was calm enough to form coherent sentences, Heechul sat her on the couch and she spilled everything to him.

"I thought you said you wouldn't need oppa to kill him if he did you wrong, because you'd do it yourself? What happened to the confidence back there?" Heechul asked softly as he her hair.

"Honestly, I never expected him to do it. At least not so soon," Yejin said, her words muffled because of his shirt.

"Does that mean I get to kill him for you?"

"No," she shook her head. 

"Look at what he's done to you," Heechul held her shoulder's at arms' length. "Your eyes are red."

"It'll go away soon," Yejin turned away. "I'm going to sleep."

"Sleep. Sleep everything away," Heechul smiled and swiped his thumb over her pale cheek. Yejin took a shaky breath and went up to her room, afraid of what tomorrow would bring.

~~

As much as she hated coming to school, Yejin had to face reality sooner or later. When she walked down the hallway, nobody gave her weird looks or gossiped about her recent break up. All was normal, which in her case was a good thing. Her mental reminders not to let any emotion show prevented her from hearing Minji and Hyosung calling out to her.

"Yejin, we heard what happened," Minji said softly.

"What? What happened?" She chuckled and hoped it wasn't what she was thinking.

"Baekhyun and you," Hyosung  whispered.

"Don't talk nonsense, nothing's happened," Yejin laughed and waved them off.

"Stop trying to deny it, we heard everything from JR," Minji sighed and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"So what if I admit it," Yejin muttered.

"Don't show him your weak side. Let him know what he's lost," Hyosung squeezed her shoulder. Throughout the day, Yejin made sure to avoid going to places where she knew he'd usually be at. They ended up crossing paths only once. Yejin made sure to keep Hyosung's advice in mind and kept a cool appearance. She laughed and joked with Minji as if she didn't even notice him.

"When are you going to tell her the truth?" Chanyeol asked softly.

"Not yet. Just keep what you know a secret for now," Baekhyun muttered and took one last painful look at her before walking away with Chanyeol. When Yejin got home, Heechul was gone and there was a sticky note stuck on the fridge.

At work, don't do anything stupid. I'll be back as soon as I can.

--

"Baekhyun, come here," Heechul waved him over. They were having a ten minute break.

"Neh hyung?"

"Yejin told me everything. But I want to hear your side of the story," he said. Baekhyun sighed and recounted everything to him.

"Hana and I knew each other since middle school. We were pretty good friends, but we stopped talking in the middle of the first year in high school.."

"Baekhyun, we go a long way back, right?" Hana started off.

"Yeah," he nodded, unsure what her motive was.

"My parents are arranging a marriage for me and I don't want to get married to someone almost ten years older than me, not when I'm still in high school. I was thinking.. Can you just act like my boyfriend so I can escape this?"

Baekhyun's jaw dropped as he stared at her. "Why me?"

"We've been friends since middle school and honestly,  I really don't have any guy friends who are as close to me as you are that would do something like that for me. Baekhyun, please. I'll give you anything you want, just help me out this once," Hana begged him desperately.

"I- I don't know.. I'll think about it."

~~

"You okay?" Baekhyun helped straighten her up.

"Yeah. Thanks," she nodded.

"So about what I asked you the other day.."

"I don't know. I feel like I'm doing Yejin wrong," Baekhyun sighed.

"She doesn't have to know."

"Okay, I'll do it. But make sure nobody finds out about us."

"Don't worry."

"That day at the party, we were finalizing the date and time to meet her parents so I could act like her boyfriend. I never expected Yejin to arrive earlier. I should've asked her to meet me somewhere else but I didn't for convenience' sake," Baekhyun sighed in frustration.

"Should've just told her from the start," Heechul shook his head.

"I thought this could just be buried and never be brought up, I didn't want her to worry. I would call her to explain but she's not answering my calls and she doesn't even want me to get within a five meter radius of her, I can't talk to her that way."

"To tell you the truth, seeing Yejin walk around the house like some zombie with puffy eyes isn't really a pleasant sight. I'm not going to help you because seriously, you ed things up and you deserve to feel as much pain as you're feeling now. But Yejin doesn't deserve anything. Fix things, and do it quick."

~~

It's been slightly over a week since that horrible day. Heechul was out for the Saturday night, leaving Yejin alone in the house. She hated when it was quiet, because everytime it was quiet, she'd start to overthink. Just as she was about to rewatch Beauty and The Beast for the thousandth time, her phone rang. Chanyeol was calling.

"Hello?" Yejin answered.

"Yejin," he sounded like he was panting and in a panic. "I was out with Baekhyun. He got drunk and said something about going to look for you, I look away for five seconds and he's gone. We weren't too far from your place when he disappeared, help me look for him!"

"Why the hell did you let him out of your sight?!" Yejin screeched and went to grab a cardigan. "Do you know how dangerous it is for a drunk guy to wander alone?! God!" 

Alright, fess up. Who snuck into my AFF account and read all my pre-written chapters, hmm?

I swear, zeana17 is like psychic or something. Just kidding. But seriously, was I too obvious? Maybe it was just me being cliche. /bricked.