I kept my mouth shut for the whole day and did whatever Kyungsoo asked me to. I've been staying at their dorm for 2 days and it has been too long. I had to go back home sooner or later. The dorm has been quiet the whole day and I thought they were out for their schedule. 

I've already dressed up to go after cleaning up Kyungsoo's side of them room. Feeling satisfied when I saw how tidy his room was I went out of the room and closed the door as softly as I could.  

I thought I was alone in the house until I hear soft voices speaking from the living room. I heard someone-- Minseok I guessed, he mentioned my name. I froze on my spot and hid myself in the shadows as I silently listened to their conversations. It involves me so it's not rude for me to eavesdrop … okay. 

"You have to think carefully." I could easily recognize the accent and soft voice as Luhan's. 

"I know." That was Kyungsoo. "This happened at the most unexpected time. I'm sorry guys, we should've been more careful." 

"What did the people from the company said?" Jongin spoke up. 

"I don’t know, I just …." Kyungsoo sighed.  

I decided that it's time for me to come out. It sounded like it was a serious matter and I'm pretty much sure it includes me. 

"What's going on?" I spoke up and all of them looked at me with widened eyes. I looked at Kyungsoo who looked worse than yesterday and I grew worried.  

"We'll give you guys some time alone." Chanyeol patted his back and smiled at me reassuringly. All of them spread out and into their own rooms, leaving both of us. Kyungsoo pat the space right next to him and I saw down. 

"What is this about?" I asked curiously. He took my phone which was still charging since the first day that I came. He typed something on it before returning the phone to me. 

And I froze looking through the website. I thought it was a joke, I prayed that it was just a sick joke. But it wasn’t. It was a real article from a real popular website with the real me and real Kyungsoo in a real picture on it. It was pretty much real and I was trembling. 

The pictures were from the night at the park. Both Kyungsoo and I were walking side by side but we were not holding hands. I still remember that it was when he found out that I have fever and he jokingly said not be anywhere near him. 

I was obviously sulking in the photos and Kyungsoo was laughing, seemed pretty much satisfied with my reaction.  

The photos had no proof that Kyungsoo and I were in a romantic relationship and I breathed out a sigh of relief at that. But there were pictures of me getting in their car. 

"When … when did this come out?" I whispered and Kyungsoo answered, "On the same day, I'm sorry I didn’t tell you." 

"Was that why you went back and forth from the company?" I asked to which he nodded. "The doctor said you're stressed out and to give you some time off, that's why I didn’t tell you." 

"It's okay, I understand." I weakly smiled. "So what choices do we have?" 

Kyungsoo lazily leaned on my shoulder, "The safest choice is to say that we're only friends." I nodded, urging him to continue. 

"We could save you and say that I'm dating another trainee or we could just tell the truth." 

Everything has its consequences and both of us would get hurt either way. "We can't do that now, you guys are making a comeback in less than a month." 

"I know that." He sat upright but leaned his head back on the couch behind us. I looked at him and sighed, "You're not thinking of revealing us, right?" I waited for second and when he didn’t answer, I punched his arm.  

"What was that for?!" He hissed and rubbed the sore spot in pain. "You can't reveal us. That's selfish." I scolded him for even thinking about it. 

"What do you plan to do now?" I asked and he ran his fingers through his hair. "Since the pictures are not that bad, we could just lie." 

I nodded understandingly, "Did everyone went crazy about this?" I asked and he scrunched up his face cutely. "I'm number 1 on the search ranking for 2 days , now. It feels great." He sarcastically said. I chuckled, "When are we going to clear things up?" 

Kyungsoo shrugged, "I don't know, sajangnim asked me to stay quiet, you too."  

I leaned against him and he slung an arm around me. Both of us stayed quiet for a while, I was still shocked, and I had to admit, I was scared of what to come. 

"Don't worry." Kyungsoo spoke up after a few minutes of silence. "How can I not?" 

"Just promise me you'll take care of yourself when I'm not around." He looked at me and I nodded. "I will." 

The statement was out and everything was cleared up that I was just a friend of Kyungsoo's. The scandal died down in a couple of weeks. Those 2 weeks were tiring.  

Friends from school called me , sending me text messages asking about my relationship with Kyungsoo. I didn’t even know half of the people that called.  

"Wow you're only dating him because he's famous, huh?" 

"I thought you guys were just friends." 

"I know you guys are close but not that close." 

Sometimes I just rolled my eyes and answered them sarcastically and sometimes I just hung up before they could ask. It was getting out of hand when fans started calling me too, and sending me hateful text messages. So I changed my number. 

And when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, when I got home from college , there were fans waiting outside of my house. I was walking back home, dragging the heavy bags from the bus stop.  

At first I thought it was just some random people lazing around outside of my house but it was wrong. They were holding cameras and some even dared to walk up to me. 

"Can you please not get too close with oppa?" I tried so hard to be polite and not to scoff. Kyungsoo told me to keep my mouth shut in these situations and I did. I politely smiled and slightly bowed my head before passing her. 

"Yah, did you not hear what I said?" She yelled and I paid no heed. Upon seeing the ruckus, the guards came out.  

"Miss, this is a private property. You can't do this here." They told to the girl who was shouting. 

One of the guards saw that I was struggling with my bag so he helped me with it. I thanked him. "Tell those girls they will get sued if I see their faces making a fuss around here again." And I was not lying.  

The gate opened, allowing me to go inside and I saw how some of them tried to go in but failed miserably. These were the rare moments where I'm grateful that I was staying in a well guarded place. 

"Did you bump into them?" Minki asked as soon as I stepped into the house. The guard placed my bag right by the door and I bowed in gratitude. I nodded, replying to Minki's question. 

"Are you okay, noona?" He asked worriedly and I smiled, loving how he was worried about me. I tousled his hair and walked past him with him following closely behind. "Did they do anything to you?" 

I shook my head, "I'm not a damsel in distress, I know how to take care of myself." Although the guards did save me from that girl but I don’t want to make my little brother to worry so I lied.  

"I think it's good that you quit college. You don’t have a reason to go out anymore and just stay quietly at home until everything dies down." Minki said and I felt so happy and not because I had to stay at home for the time being. 

I quit college and for the first time ever, I felt so free and relaxed that I do not have to think about essays and projects. I felt bad for leaving Iseul behind, though. 

We were having a dinner for the night, mom and dad wanted to celebrate that I finally have a job. They were just happy that I can make my own money and I don’t have to depend on theirs anymore.  

I didn’t know what happened but Minki started to spend more of his time with me and it was weird. We were closer than ever and when I asked him why, he replied with a shrug, "I just want to hang out more with you." 

We had a sibling bonding time for a few hours in my room but was cut off short when my dad knocked on the door. "Welcome home, sweetie." He said and I hugged him. It has been so long since I last seen him. 

"We have something for you downstairs." I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously. "You're not making me clean the house, are you?" He chuckled and pulled me up, "Just go." 

When I didn’t see anything downstairs, I followed my dad outside and I gasped in shock. "You're kidding me." I squealed in excitement when my dad threw a car key towards me. "It's all yours." 

I made my way to my new shining baby and I was so excited, I ran to my dad and hugged him. "You're the best." He ruffled my hair, "I spent a lot of money on that so you better not crash it." 

I pushed him jokingly, "I'll try." 

"You can drive that to your Aunt's this evening." Upon hearing his words I turned to him. "You're kidding me." I gritted my teeth. "We're having dinner at your Aunt's tonight so get ready." 

First of all, it was stupid to even drive to my Aunt's since we were living on the same property, we could've just walked. Second of all, I hate this monthly dinners that we always have. I've been avoiding it for the whole year since I made up an excuse about college but now that I've stopped college, I had to go. 

"No excuse, honey." My dad said, leaving me outside still in shock. The reason I hate the dinner was because I hate my relatives. They were all just a bunch of stuck-up spoiled brats that only think about money. I admit, I do spend money on useless stuff sometimes but I'm not even half as bad as my cousins. 

I could already hear their whiny voices and judging looks. I shuddered by even thinking about it. The happiness that I felt was now vanished and I wordlessly entered the house. 

"I hate my life."

Last chapter for the year. No, this is not the last chapter, we're not even near the end of the story yet XD Thank u so much for subscribing and I hope I can write better chapters for u guys next year haha. I'll be on a 2 weeks (or more) hiatus, not very long considering how I did not write for months lol.

I hope next year will be a better year for us <3 Happy new year everyone!