What’s wrong, darling?” Subin’s head snapped up when she heard Jimin’s voice behind her. Hearing the kind, almost careful voice with her almost made her cry. Subin clenched her teeth tightly, sending the tears back down and faked a smile, shaking her head.

“Nothing’s wrong. Why should there be something wrong?” she asked, her gaze quickly turning from her best friend to the book she was reading.

“Well…it’s Tuesday and you’re at home…aren’t you supposed to be in school?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be at work?” Subin shot back a bit too defensively, making Jimin wince.

“I’m just about to go there, but it’s almost nine o’clock…is Seohyun..” Jimin wasn’t even able to finish her sentence, Subin stoop up stiffly, both her hands balled into fists.

“Nothing’s wrong. Nothing happened. Let it go and go to work.” Without letting her reply, Subin rushed to her room, slamming the door behind her, leaving a shocked Jimin.

“What just happened?” Jimin muttered under her breath dazedly, gathering her things.

“Might be just cramps or something…” she tried to calm herself as she walked out of their apartment, still felling the burden on her heart. Something went really wrong and she didn’t know what it was, that’s the worst thing.

Meanwhile, in Subin’s room, the lone girl stood braced up against the door, biting her lip viciously to prevent her from sobbing. Subin felt so afraid of Jimin finding her that way, she didn’t dare to lift her hands to wipe the tears from her face, so she let them fall down her chin and then drip off. Hearing the front door close, all the tension in her body disappeared and Subin crumpled to the floor, numbly staring at the carpet.

This was too much.

-

Jimin was far too glad that Taecyeon decided to visit her at the café that day. She needed someone to occupy her mind and not thing about Subin for a while, and Taecyeon did a good job at that.

They weren’t afraid of showing their affections slowly, because a lot of other celebrity couples started coming here as well. At that moment, Super Junior’s Eunhyuk and his girlfriend Haneul were occupying the corner of the coffee shop, away from the teasing glances of Taecyeon and Jimin. Eunhyuk tried to explain them frantically that they weren’t together, but Taecyeon only sarcastically said he believed him while winking at him and Jimin lectured him that isn’t not nice to strongly oppose to acknowledge your girlfriend in front of somebody, making both of them blush and shuffle off in the corner. In the other corner of the café was SNSD’s Taeyeon with the Suju leader, shocking both Taecyeon and Jimin- they never seemed to be a couple, but now when they saw them together, they looked so cute, it wasn’t possible.

“It’s so cute, how this changed into a couple café.” Taecyeon said out loudly, looking expectantly at the blushing Eunhyuk, making Leeteuk and Jimin laugh.

“We should stop teasing him already-“ Jimin’s voice was interrupted when the bell rang and a certain somebody entered the shop. Jimin’s eyes straightened at the approaching Seohyun, who walked in like she owned the place. She was lucky Jimin was behind the counter or else she would have already charged at her.

“What do you want?”  Jimin asked her coldly, making Seohyun scoff.

“Is this a way to greet your customers? Crappy place, it seems…but I’m not shocked.”

“If you want to insult this place, please leave. It’s very insensitive and rude.” Taecyeon spoke up politely, not wanting to create a scandal. Seohyun only looked at him from the corner of her eye, before staring right back at Jimin.

“One caramel latte to go.”

“Which size?” Jimin asked through clenched teeth.

“Big.” A grin appeared on Jimin’s face, as she reached for the cup.

“Looking at you, I would choose something small and died. But go on, rock that muffin top.” Seohyun glared at Jimin’s back for a while and Jimin savored the moment of complete victory as she heard Taecyeon stifle a laugh with his hand.

“Oh, you two are laughing? That’s nice, not knowing you destroyed someone’s life, huh?” Seohyun spoke up, making Jimin tense.

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, this is rich. You’re telling me Subin didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?” Jimin turned around to face Seohyun, her order long forgotten. Seohyun looked more interested in her nails than in what she was actually talking about.

“Didn’t you hear? Subin…got kicked out of school because of you.” Jimin felt as if she got hot coffee poured over her head.

“Come again?” Taecyeon had to tell her, because Jimin’s voice was gone.

“It’s just a rumor but…there’s a story that someone saw you two on a date, took pictures of you and then blackmailed her with them, saying if sh-“

“Get out.” Jimin’s dead voice cut in Seohyun’s sentence. Seohyun looked offended.

 “What about my order?”

 “Get out, you .” Jimin only retorted.

“What did you call me, you ugly, gold digging-“

“That’s enough.” Taecyeon’s cold voice interrupted Seohyun in saying anything else. She wanted to retaliate, but when the beast idol stood up, towering over her, Seohyun shut .

“I just stopped by, saying you should be damn grateful.”  Seohyun snapped at them, before turning on her heel.

“You should be damn grateful there is a counter between me and you or YOU WOULDN’T HAVE A FACE ANYMORE, YOU UGLY, STUPID, GOOD FOR NOTHING-“ Taecyeon covered before Jimin was able to finish her string of insults.

“Let it go, Jimin. Let it go.” He quietly calmed her.

“That’s why Subin acted the way she did this morning…” Jimin realized, sinking into a chair. Taecyeon grabbed her hands in his, sitting down facing her. They both were quiet for a while, their heads full of thoughts. Even the two other couples looked genuinely helpless, not able to pick up any connections.

“Oh god, Taecyeon, what did we do?” Jimin finally spoke up, her voice quivering. Taecyeon stayed quiet.

“Journalism is her dream, oppa. What did we do?” Jimin asked again and Taecyeon embraced her tightly, tucking her head underneath his chin.

“What should we do?” Jimin’s voice died down after the last question, gripping his shirt tightly. Taecyeon responded to her hug, his arms flexing around her.

“I really don’t know…”

-

Subin didn’t know how long she laid on that floor, but she was awoken by a concerned Wooyoung, who cradled her upper body in his arms, slapping her cheeks. She felt confused, because she didn’t remember what happened before she passed out. Seeing her eyes flutter open, Wooyoung let out a breath of relief.

“Thank god. You know what, some girls surprise their boyfriends when they come over, but I’m sure they don’t do it by falling asleep on the floor of their bedroom and scaring three years off their lives off them.” Wooyoung commented dryly, making Subin giggle. She scratched at her face, the dried up tears made her skin itchy.

“I’m sorry, oppa. I’ll know next time.” She told him with a small grin and Wooyoung nodded, kissing her forehead.

“Promise?”

“Promise.” Subin confirmed, sitting up slowly. She wanted to stand, but Wooyoung grabbed her hands, pulling her down.

“Okay, now that we have a sincere hour, explain why you’re not attending school.” His face was no joke when he stared at her and Subin felt a sudden pang of panic rush through her.

“W-what?” she stuttered, feeling her body shake slightly.

“Why aren’t you going to school?” Wooyoung repeated his question.

“Jimin told me while I was at the café that she was concerned as to why you’re not attending…she asked me to talk with you about it, since she feels like you don’t trust her anymore.” The ending killed something in Subin. Hearing that from her boyfriend’s mouth about her best friend made her so much pain. Subin felt too burdened about her secret, that she held for more than a week now.

The only one she had to talk to was a bottle of Tequila hidden under her bed. It was already halfway down.

Wooyoung saw the hurt and fear in Subin’s eyes and he became slightly concerned. He cupped her cheek delicately, tilting her to him.

“You know you can trust me in anything, right?” Subin nodded, shakily.

“Please, tell me what’s wrong. It’s killing me inside to see you like this.” Subin was quiet for a while. IT was all too much, she needed a release. When she agreed inside herself, the trigger of bottling everything up came off and tears pooled in her eyes.

“Promise you won’t tell anyone?” Subin’s voice shook, as she stared pleadingly in Wooyoung’s eyes. He nodded mutely, urging her to continue.

“I…I…I left school and journalism because if I stayed…”Subin’s voice suddenly broke and  a few tears fell from her eyes.

“If I wouldn’t have left, Seohyun would reveal pictures of Jimin and Taecyeon kissing. They must never find out. I don’t care about journalism anymore.” Subin quickly continued, more and more tears spilling from her eyes.

“I don’t care if they find out though, they would blame themselves and I don’t know why they should since-“ Wooyoung cut off her blabbering by enveloping her in a strong embrace, holding her close to him. Subin’s form shook against him as her hand gripped his shirt tightly for support.

“I get it.” He gently said, kissing her head.

“I get it.”