“Where have you been? Does it really take you one hour and a half to buy tea leaves?!” yelled Dad.

He was clearly angry, but there were traces of worry on his face. I huffed, and then placed the small bag onto the kitchen counter. “I ran into a friend, and I guess we lost track of time catching up,” I mumbled, avoiding his eye contact.

That wasn’t exactly a lie, nor was it precisely the whole truth.

Mum had decided to join in by now, and was obviously on Dad’s side, “Well then why didn’t you give us a call? What if something were to happen to you without us knowing?! You know how there can be those people that loiter around at night.”

They sounded genuinely concerned, and it reminded me how thankful I was to have parents that actually cared about my whereabouts and health. But, sometimes it just got a little too much for me; the way that they portrayed it through their yelling was really tiring, so I dismissed myself, and quietly headed back to my room without furthering the discussion. Hopping onto the laptop, I checked my emails and deleted the ones that were notifications from social websites and such.

As I did this, I clicked on the instant messenger program and began signing in out of habit. Once in, my eyes instantly searched for the one name that they always looked for.

“Ah! He’s on!” I said with a grin, while double clicking on the name, ‘Keito’.

These days, we haven’t been able to talk to each other that much which made me miss him more than usual; it made me appreciate the time that we could spend together, so much more. Since it was the beginning of our break, I was hoping that we would have used this time to see each other more frequently, but I was obviously wrong. I forgot that he worked, and I also forgot that his work liked to take out big chunks of his free time, since they found out that he didn’t have his studies to worry about any more.

At the end of the day, he would be too tired to talk, or overall, do anything. I try my best not to bother him too much, since his health means a lot to me. At times like these, I’m glad that my patience doesn’t make me out to be one of those girlfriends who obsessively annoy and nag at their boyfriend to talk to and spend time with them. Aside from being upset at how our time allowed together is being classified as a ‘rare’ thing these days, I also feel hurt at how he didn’t seem to put in the same amount of effort that I do for him, when he goes to contact me. I’m sure we will be fine, but the other half of me is quite worried.

‘Sorry, I have to go now. I’ll talk to you soon! <3’ was shown on my laptop screen.

I exhaled noisily, “It’s only ten thirty, and you’re already going…”

We used to talk to about two in the morning, about anything and everything. At the beginning when our time for seeing each other physically had started to become more and more limited, he was so eager to know everything and anything that I had done throughout the day. And at one point, he even told me that he didn’t want to lose ‘us’. But now, our conversations seem to end as soon as they start, and I found myself being more and more disappointed about it each time. I didn’t want him to know that I was still upset about this, because it constantly got us into a useless argument that was always about the same thing.

On top of that, I really disliked going to bed all grumpy. So instead of starting up something, I simply typed back an ‘I miss you’ which was then responded by a, ‘I miss you too. I’ll try to see if I’m free soon, so we can spend some time together, okay? Goodnight <3’

I typed back a goodnight and signed off when his name disappeared from my list of online people. Closing the laptop, I went to brush my teeth, and changed into more suitable sleep wear, before diving into my bed. I ended up not sleeping as soon as I thought I could, so I ended up lying there in the silence, and my mind somehow made its way over to Dongwoon.

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My eyes found themselves slowly opening, and were met with the morning light. But I shut them back as soon as the bright light hit my eyes. Moving my hand around sluggishly in an attempt to find my phone, I was curious to see the time. Upon doing so, I happened to bring the device a bit too close to my face, as the extra sudden brightness from it blinded my eyes even more. I placed it down, and then rolled over to the other side, where I laid there for a bit. Even though the time read eleven o’clock, the thought of being able to lie here for a while longer, made me feel happy. There was no rush, since my winter break had officially started, and for that, I was relieved that my parents didn’t decide to drag me out of bed like on school days.

The only thing that made me miserable about this long break was the thought of my exam results coming back. My parents (especially my mother) had practically drilled in the idea, “You either make it into University/College, or you die” and it was just a really terrifying ‘motivation’, if you can even call it that.

Discarding that thought away, I tried my best to steer my head into a more positive direction. I was going to make sure that this holiday was going to be one where I was able to do all of the things that I have been planning to do. These results were not going to make me stress and panic throughout my holidays, because it’s time to kick back and take the break that I have been waiting for.

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As I walked into the kitchen, I ended up pouring myself a glass of water, and noticed that we had guests over. Out of habit, I quietly snuck away, because I always felt awkward whenever my parents would try to ‘shown me off’ towards their friends or acquaintances. I didn’t like how they would say things that sounded a little too exaggerated about me, and because of that, their friends/acquaintances often gave me compliments that I felt uncomfortable for receiving. I just found it really pointless, whenever they would lie to others about my education, in order to brag about me like that; it just didn’t feel right.

So, I went and decided to hide in Seohyun’s room for a bit.

As usual, I found her on the computer listening to music, while drawing with the graphics tablet that our father had eventually decided to buy, after all of my sister’s nagging.

I found myself singing along to the song as I went to sit down, “Ch-ch-ch-change, boy boy boy, saenggagdaero change~”

Even though I don’t keep up with everything within the music industry and what happens there, or who is who, I knew this song pretty well, since I frequently heard it being played from Seohyun’s room. A lot of people often gave me weird looks whenever they found out that I didn’t know about a specific artist or so. I just didn’t understand why it was so important to know about every single singer that had just recently debuted, or so. Sure I liked music and all, but I was pretty content with my life with or without it.

I finished the rest of my water and placed the glass onto the table, “So did you eat yet?” I asked.

Still looking at the screen, and moving her wrist in those quick movements, Seohyun nodded, “Yeah.”

I looked at the monitor screen to see that she had drawn an adorable orange monkey.

“Eh, I’m going out to eat,” I said casually, “Umma is probably too busy with her friends to make something nice for me, and I don’t want to have to go out there and make weird noises, as an attempt to cook.”

“Are you going to eat by yourself?” questioned my sister, without taking her eyes off the screen.

I dramatically gasped at her question, “No, I’ll call someone to go with me, of course!” And with that, I danced out of her room to the song, and went back to my own bedroom.

Grabbing my phone from the table, I looked through my contacts list and had decided to text one of my closest friends, Minah. We met since year seven, but got closer throughout year eight when our other friend, Lily, had left the school. This girl has been with me through ups and downs, and she was always the one who was able to pick me off the ground whenever I was on the edge of not caring. I adore her to bits, and we’ve been inseparable since then.

A few minutes later a buzz came from my phone, and it turned out that Minah was out with her family. Pouting, I tried my other best friend, Kyoko, who I had met through Minah. Meeting Kyoko had made me become a more confident person, and I was so glad for that. The three of us has always been together as a trio throughout our high school life, and I hope that we can continue to keep in contact for as long as possible.

I frowned when her text message on my screen had informed me that she was out at work. Scrolling further down into the list, I went and tried a couple of my other friends, but they either didn’t have enough money, (even when I had offered to pay for them) weren’t allowed out, or were just plain busy.

“Oh, well this is depressing...” I mumbled, while placing my phone back down onto the table.

Just when I was thinking of eating by myself, my phone gave a quick shake. I picked it up and squealed with delight to see that it was from Keito.

From: Keito.

'Have you eaten yet? How about we go and get some udon at The Noodle House? Let me know, and I’ll meet you there, yeah?'

I quickly texted him back, telling him that I was available and hungry. We then agreed to meet outside of the place soon, so I went and immediately got changed. Checking my hair, I grabbed my essentials and placed them into a small bag, before heading out. I had informed my family about my plans while putting on my shoes, to which they allowed. Grandma had told me that there was some left over kimchi that I could eat along with the rice, but I told her that it was alright, since I was meeting up with a ‘friend’. My parents didn’t really say anything more since they had people over.

Just before I left, I could sense my mother giving me ‘the look’, so I went over and greeted the guests that didn’t see me out of politeness.

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A/N: Hey guys! I apologise if this chapter was pretty boring; it was just to let you all learn more about the people within Eunhee's life. So to make it up to you guys, the next chapter will be filled with plenty of Dongwoon goodness! Or so I hope...well, he will be in the next chapter, that's for sure. Anyway, I really want to thank you all for the encouraging comments down there! I also really appreciate the subscribers for subscribing. Well, until then~ Bye for now! ^^