When Soojung passed her project Monday morning, the teacher gladly accepted and looked at her work. She left the room afterwards and went to the lockers, where her friends are waiting.

 

“Hey guys, what happened last Saturday?” Soojung asked them, wondering why Amber had a bump on her forehead.

 

“We were having so much fun at the arcade playing basketball. Amber was just so good that a guy actually challenged her. She won and out of too much excitement, Jinri raised her hands, hitting Amber on the forehead,” Sunyoung explained the incident. Soojung kept laughing while Jinri kept apologizing to Amber.

 

“You know it won’t be this bad if it didn’t hurt, but it did,” Amber complained, making Jinri feel so bad that she promised to buy Amber food, to which the latter agreed anyway.

 

“Ayoo ladies!” Chanyeol raised his hands up in the air and jumped with them.

 

“What’s with the laughter pretty ladies?” Jongin slips his arm on Soojung’s waist and they both giggle.

 

“Hey, I just noticed that you two seem to be glowing? Especially you, Soojung,” Sunyoung pointed out and the others looked at Soojung.

 

“I do?” Soojung touched her reddened cheeks. She recalled when she read where it said that those who just did ‘it’ will emit some kind of glow. Maybe it was an effect of what they did.

 

“Soojung, are you okay?” Her thoughts were interrupted by Jongin’s shake.

 

“I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be, right?” She nervously chuckled.

 

“Yeah. Anyway, what are your plans this Christmas?” Baekhyun asked.

 

 

_*_

 

 

A month after, it was already December. Soojung had been having frequent headaches each morning, but ignores it since it will only last for a short while. She thinks that it is because of the stress of the school that causes her to be like this. She finally had a vacation and it feels just so good to rest. She feels so lazy all of a sudden and rolls around her bed.

 

Her eyes end up landing on her calendar. She noticed the red x written for last week, which meant her monthly period should have arrived last week. She just shrugs it off thinking that stress caused her to miss her period. But she hasn’t missed it in two years. But then again, the stress of the last few months of being a high school student is just so much.

 

“Soojung-ah,” her sister knocks on her door, indicating it was dinner time.

 

Soojung comes down dressed in a red Christmas dress she brought with her sister. They took their yearly family pictures before eating their Christmas dinner. She felt her cellphone vibrate and took out to see Jongin’s message.

 

‘Merry Christmas, Soojung! ^^ I love you~ =3=’

 

Soojung smiles to herself at the message.

 

“Soojung, tell Jongin that you’re having dinner and that you’ll talk to him later,” her dad said and Soojung immediately sends Jongin a message.

 

“Merry Christmas too! I love you too~ <3 Talk to you later. We’re having Christmas dinner right now.”

 

Soojung proceeds to eat when her phone vibrates again.

 

“Where’s my Christmas kiss? =3=”

 

Soojung bites her lower lip, preventing to not smile so much. Her father clears his throat and Soojung sends back a message before her father gets mad.

 

“=3=~ There. I said I’ll talk to you later because dad is getting mad at me~ T.T”

 

With that, Soojung hides her phone and finishes her food. After dinner, they went to the living room and talked about Christmas stories.

 

“When I was young, your grandfather would really go and find a real tree to chop down and put in the house. No wait. He places it outside the house. I don’t even know why he does that,” their father tells the story.

 

The next hours was spent with family stories over hot chocolates. It was simple, but Soojung would rather have this than being in grand places and be alone. Soojung suddenly felt that she wanted to eat something.

 

“Eonni, I’m craving for a shake,” Soojung pouted at Jessica, who just chuckled.

 

“Then go make one.”

 

“But I want an apple, mango and avocado shake.”

 

“That’s a lot to drink.”

 

“No. I have this crave to have them in one shake and drink them.”

 

“You’re weird.”

 

“Eonni please!” Soojung pouted and Jessica had no choice but to go to the kitchen to make a shake for her. Jessica tasted it and found it weird how Soojung was smiling all throughout drinking it.

 

 

_*_

 

 

The holiday vacation was always short as ever. It’s already a new year and Soojung thinks that she’s just about 2-3 months from graduating then college will begin in less than a month after that. College results will also come out at the end of the month.

 

She takes out her phone and stares at her wallpaper, her and Jongin. She smiles to herself because college meant more freedom which means more chances for them to go out. But then she remembers that Jongin may go to abroad. A nauseous feeling crept up to her and she decided to throw up. It was weird how she threw up at the moment. The only time she had thrown up was when she was so drunk during one party.

 

She washes and just prepares for school the following day.

 

 

_*_

 

 

“Today is the day,” Jinri says and everyone gulps nervously. After months of waiting, the results of their SAT and special college applications were out. One by one, their names were called and they hold in their hands the papers that will determine their future.

 

“Let’s open it together with the guys later,” Amber suggests and they waited until their break until they could open their envelopes.

 

“At the count of three,” Sunyoung began to count. The eight of them gathered and nervously exhaled. Once Sunyoung has counted to three, they opened their envelopes and they were very happy to find out that they had at least passed 2 of the three colleges they all had applied to.

 

“I got in!” Soojung hugged Jongin because of so much happiness. Jongin hugs Soojung back and everyone looks at them. “Did you?” Soojung pulls away from the hug to ask Jongin if he also passed. He nodded and Soojung pulled Jongin again for a tighter hug.

 

“We’ll still be in college together, right?” At this, Jongin’s smile slowly fades away. Soojung remembered that he’s waiting for his scholarship results will be out in 2-3 more weeks. She forced a smile and looked at Jongin.

 

“It’s okay. So, who’s going to the same university as I am?” Soojung changed the topic to avoid the talk regarding Jongin’s college.

 

By the time she was home, her parents made most of Soojung’s favorite. She smiled upon seeing the feast they were going to have in celebration of the results of her college. Before she could even reach the table, she smelled something that is not to her liking and sent her running towards the nearest bathroom and made her throw up.

 

“Soojung, are you okay?” Jessica knocked from her bathroom.

 

“Ne, eonni. You go ahead. I must have eaten something bad from earlier.”

 

Soojung suddenly became nervous. She remembers that it’s been two months since she also did it with Jongin. The fact that she still hasn’t had her period scares her. Shaking her thoughts away, she gets out of the bathroom and goes to the dining room. She pretended to be happy and dismissed the look of worry. It was all about the celebration of her college admission. She should be happy. She just hopes she does continue to go to college.

 

After dinner, she calls Jongin.

 

“Oh, hey Soojung.”

 

“Jongin-ah…”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“Jongin-ah…”

 

“Soojung-ah, is this about the college application? Listen—“

 

“I love you.”

 

Jongin stops thinking and a smile is on his lips. He loves how Soojung can say these things out of the blue.

 

“I love you too, Soojung.”

 

“You’ll be with me no matter what happens, right?”

 

“Of course I will. You sound like I’ll leave you when I won’t. Is something wrong? You’re scaring me, Soojung. Are you sick? Are you dying?!”

 

“No! I’m just—No matter what happens, you won’t leave me, right?”

 

“Of course not. I love you so much. I don’t see any reason as to why I will leave you. At this moment the only reason I’m leaving you is death but—“

 

“Jongin.”

 

“I won’t. I love you, Soojung, okay. Don’t worry.”

 

Soojung sighs. As of the moment, she’s not sure what to do. She hopes that there’s just something wrong with her period and not something else.  

 

---

 

 Long time no update~ Will say more on the next chapter. Double update~ :>