Silence. There was no movement made by Hyunrae as she was immobile and was ruminating. It had never occurred to her that her mother would fall sick all of a sudden and she had to clear the hospital bill within 3 months or else they would have to stop treating her mother. Could this day have gotten any worse? She was chased by a e and wild dogs. On top of that, she even lost her job which she had applied to add some income to clear the debt. To make it worst, she stinks! Curse Seulra and her stupid idea of hiding in the ing waste container!

                “Yah!” Jinae jokingly bumped her shoulder against Hyunrae. “What’s up with you? I didn’t see you since yesterday and you skipped school today,” she puckered her lips.

                Hyunrae grunted , ignoring Jinae to daydream. Donghwa pulled a chair next to Hyunrae and slung his arm around her shoulder while saying, “You look troubled. Come on, tell us what’s going on. You texted me saying that you were at a hospital. Why? Are you sick?”

                Still continuing being mute, Hyunrae just shook her head and bit her lips with hesitation. “Oh my god! You’re pregnant aren’t you?! I told you to use the freaking !” Donghwa shrieked dramatically and almost immediately, he received a smack from Hyunrae.

                “I’m not a , you !” Hyunrae scolded Donghwa.

                The rest of her best friends just chuckled at Donghwa who was groaning in pain on the floor. Seulra came closer towards Hyunrae and squeezed her shoulder as an act of comfort, “But Donghwa is right, you look troubled. What’s going on?”

                Slowly, they started to surround Hyunrae and were bombarding her with questions while expressing their concerns. “Hyunrae-ah, you have to tell us. You can’t carry the burden alone. We always tell you our problems. How about you try telling us your problem?” Minkyung patted Hyunrae’s back.

                “Yeah, we’re here to solve your problems,” Aerin beamed.

                With a sigh, Hyunrae lowered her head and said, “It’s about my mom.” As soon as Hyunrae mentioned it was about her mother, an image of a petite looking woman with a bright smile on her face ran through their minds. “She collapsed again a few weeks ago and was admitted to the hospital. I went to the hospital today and they said that if I don’t clear up the bill within 3 months, they would stop treating her,” Hyunrae muttered.

                “What?!” her 5 friends gasped.

                “That’s why I applied a job as a babysitter. I needed the extra money,” Hyunrae confessed.

                Automatically, the atmosphere turned solemn. The 6 best friends were in their own world. Hyunrae’s words rang in their minds as their own problems started to surface up in their minds. People may assume that they were a happy bunch but the reality was; their lives were nowhere near joyful. Money and family issues had been the biggest matter in their life but that had never stopped them from smiling. They believed that money can never bring happiness and as long as they have each other, they would be content enough to continue on living.

                Even though they had a positive mindset, life could be really harsh.

                Minkyung suddenly stood up from her chair. Tears were rolling down her cheeks as she croaked, “Life is unfair,” catching her best friends’ attention. Then, she continued on, “Look at us… Why is the world being so unfair? Look at Hyunrae, her mother is sick but she doesn’t have the money to treat the mother. Jinae is an orphan and she needs to bring in the money herself to continue on living. Aerin is getting chased by loan sharks because of her gambling father…”

                She started to sob violently and said more, “And… Seulra has to take care of her two younger brothers and make sure they won’t be sent away to the orphanage.” Minkyung faced her cousin, Donghwa and whispered, “You have gone through a lot because of those haters at school!” Finally she plopped on the floor and cried, “And…I just ran away from home… Away from my abusive father… Away from that sadistic man.”

                Indeed, Minkyung’s step-father was a psychotic man and ever since her mother had left the world, she was stuck with him. Every single day, she would be abused but she was never physically hurt but she was mentally bruised. The nasty words coming out from her step-father’s stinky mouth made her despise him even more. He hits her whenever he was drunk and forced her to give him money after working hard at the café. Minkyung was done. She could not live in such condition any longer, so, she ran away from home which was more like hell for her.

                Worried, Donghwa and Aerin walked towards Minkyung to help her stand up as they guided her to take a sit beside Jinae. At that moment, Seulra stood up with her hand clasped together, she spoke out in a bright tone, “Guys, don’t look so down! The world is being a , so, we have to be more y! Smile and be optimistic!” Seulra’s statement had made Hyunrae smiled as the two embraced each other.

                Soon, Minkyung’s cries had turned to sobs as it eventually dies down into hiccups. “You really ran away from home?” Jinae asked as Minkyung nodded as a reply and sniffed. “You sure are a brave girl,” Jinae smiled and pinched Minkyung’s nose.

                “Where are you going to live now?” Aerin came with a glass of plain water for Minkyung.

                “I don’t know,” Minkyung cupped her face and groaned.

                With any hesitations, Donghwa came to Minkyung’s side and said, “How about you stay at my house for now? I mean, we are cousin and my mom has been asking a lot about you these days.” Minkyung was tempted to accept the offer but appeared hesitant, so, Donghwa continued to say, “I’ll tell my mom to keep it a secret from your dad.”

                “But your mom’s…” Minkyung was saying but Donghwa cut her in mid-sentence.

                He said, “I know, her cooking is bad. Really bad to the level where I cried at the age of 6 because of that horrible soup she forced me to eat. Its okay, we can order something from outside. I’ve been doing that for years to stay alive.”

                It all started from Seulra’s childlike giggles. It was so contagious that it spread among the friends like a virus and soon enough, the 6 of them were on the floor, laughing like a bunch of maniacs. Passersby saw them from outside the café stared at them with different expression; some thought that they were crazy meanwhile some of them had smiles on their faces, reminiscing their teenage years and the others just ran away avoiding from coming any close.

                In the midst of laughing, Donghwa’s cell phone suddenly beeped indicating that he had just received a text message. While letting out his last bits of chuckles, Donghwa checked his cell phone and immediately, his eyes bugged opened as he shrieked, “OH MY GOD!” Then, he started to let out his gaily giggle while hugging his cell phone to his chest.

                “What’s up?” Hyunrae asked while walking towards Donghwa and catching her breathe.

                There was no reply from Donghwa as he was too busy twirling around and saying, “Oh my god. Oh my god!” He twirled some more, jumped and giggled and continued on to say, “I’m going to their concert. It is a must!” Donghwa flailed his arms around and hugged Hyunrae who was standing beside him with her eyebrow raised.

                “Huh?” Jinae looked confused.

                “What concert?” Aerin asked innocently.

                “Yah! Let go of me!” Hyunrae pushed Donghwa away as he staggered backwards.

                “Someone call the animal control, I think they lost a baboon,” Seulra stuck her tongue out at Donghwa who glared at Seulra for calling him a baboon.

                “Cousin, what’s wrong with you?” Minkyung asked.

                Giddily, Donghwa stared at his cell phone and said, “Super Junior is in town and they’re having a concert in two weeks. Oh my god! I’m so going!”

                “WHAT THE ?!” the 5 girls stared at Donghwa.

                “What…?” Donghwa stated dreamily.

                “Sorry but I’m more of a TVXQ fan,” Hyunrae smirked with her arms crossed.

                “Yeah, I love Beast more!” Aerin shrieked randomly.

                On the other hand, Jinae snickered smugly and voiced out, “Donghwa-ahh, we thought it was a big problem but it turned out to be those 10 clowns coming to town to sing some weird and happy song. Sorry to say, all of them looked kind of the same to me.”

                “YAH!” Donghwa screamed at Jinae who rolled her eyes.

                “Oh, just shut up Donghwa,” Jinae waved her hand.

                “No, you shut up!” Donghwa argued.

                “I’m older than you by a month, so, respect me,” Jinae said.

                “No wonder you’re blind and you can’t even differentiate who is who among the Super Junior members. It’s because you’re super old, your eyesight is slipping away. On your face mother er!” Donghwa huffed and flicked Jinae on the forehead.

                That was how the bickering mania between Jinae and Donghwa would usually start. While the two of them were busy continuing with their childish act, the other friends had gone back to do their work. Aerin was busy admiring the cake in the display, Minkyung had gone back to the counter and Hyunrae had decided to wipe the cups. “Stop trying to hack into my account!” Hyunrae yelled.

                “Okay, okay, I’ll stop,” Minkyung stuck out her lower lip into a pout.

                Meanwhile, Seulra who was in-charge of sweeping the floor on that particular week was deep in thought. Since she was so caught up in her own little world, Seulra was only sweeping at one spot in the café and that had caught Aerin’s attention. “Seulra-ahh, you can’t sweep that one spot only…” Aerin stated sweetly but was ignored.

                Sulkily, Aerin went to Hyunrae’s side and tugged her sleeve. “What’s up?” Hyunrae said.

                “Seulra is acting weird… again,” Aerin stated making Hyunrae stopped wiping her cups and craned her neck to look at Seulra.

                At that moment, Seulra’s face suddenly brightened up as Hyunrae’s eyebrow rose in curiosity. Minkyung who was also looking at Seulra studied her friends with a blank expression. After a while, gasps came out from Minkyung and Hyunrae as both of them hurried towards Seulra. “Yah, Seulra-ahh, shut up. Don’t say anything please,” Hyunrae begged.

                “What?” Seulra smirked.

                “You’re making your I-got-a-stupid-idea face. Just keep quiet,” Minkyung added in.

                “What’s wrong with my ideas?” Seulra harrumphed.

                “It’s stupid but we always end up doing it,” Aerin pointed out.

                “True,” Seulra nodded.

                Not caring about her friends’ pleads and cries, Seulra put aside the broom and stood on a chair. She clapped her hands to get some attentions but Donghwa and Jinae were still arguing while the others refused to listen to her. Finally, after screaming at the tops of her lungs, Seulra managed to catch the attentions of her friends. “What?” Jinae sounded irritated.

                Without saying anything just yet, Seulra started to giggle and laughed wildly making her friends stared at her in horror. “She finally lost it,” Aerin shook her head and slung her arm around Minkyung’s shoulder as Seulra continued on laughing madly.

                Frustrated, Donghwa put his hand on his hip and said, “Stop laughing and tell us what’s on your mind can you? We know we would end up doing it no matter how ridiculous it is. So, make it fast Seulra.”

                “All of you want money right?” Seulra asked.

                “Hell yeah,” Hyunrae and Minkyung chimed.

                “Super Junior is coming to town right?” Seulra further questioned.

                “, yes!” Donghwa shrilled alone as Jinae rolled her eyes at him.

                “I’ve got a brilliant idea. It’s the most brilliant idea ever that not even a single soul in this whole universe would have thought about it but I, Ji Seulra had thought about it minutes ago and….” Seulra was saying but Donghwa interjected her.

            Donghwa spoke, “I said make it fast.”

            Seulra sighed and stated, “So impatient. Okay, where was I? Oh. I know. I, Ji Seulra had thought about the idea minutes ago. We are going to kidnap Super Junior and demand for a ransom. How’s that? Am I right or am I right eh?” She crossed her arms and tilted her head upwards proudly.

            “WHAT THE ?!” her friends stared at her in bewilderment.

            “Have you finally lost your freaking sanity, Ji Seulra?!” Hyunrae roared.

            “This is the stupidest idea in your stupid ideas compilation,” Jinae shook her head.

            “I think it’s a brilliant idea,” Donghwa smiled.

            “Really?! Thanks Donghwa-ahh…” Seulra faked some tears.

            Meanwhile, the other 4 friends had their backs against the other two. Their minds could not receive such absurd idea as they just sat on the chair with a blank look on their faces. “Guys, I seriously need the money okay? I have 2 little brothers to support and we are running out of food supplies. They’re getting older and I need money for their education too…” Seulra frowned.

            Stubbornly, Minkyung crossed her arms and said, “I don’t want to do this.”

            “Let’s do this,” Seulra said optimistically.

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Finally! Another chapter is up! Keke~ Happy, happy!>< What do you think about this? Good? Bad? Comment, comment alright~ Peace out!