Nicole thinks—because as far as she knows, it's never supposed to be like this—if it's the snow that's persuading her muscles to stage a rebellion act against her.

Or if it's just purely the doings of her nerves because they're used to the warm weather in Singapore and being here in Korea where the coldness is not even funny is making them uncomfortable and so they are unhappy and unhappy and they decide that such is the best way of revenge.

It has to be the weather.

Because it just couldn't be because Junhyung had just—all of a sudden, out of the blue—decided he had enough of Nicole's game and click the exit button. It definitely wasn't because of that, nope. The whole idea is just plain ridiculous and cannot be even considered a reason because Nicole knows very well this is a game and this is her game—so it should be played by her rules except Junhyung doesn't do that— so it's definitely not the reason because who the hell gets sad over some gamers who left the server early?

The weather has to be the reason because it's the only logical explanation as to why her muscles froze without her approval two weeks back when she sees Junhyung's hand tightly wrapped around Hyuna's. It definitely has to be the low temperature that made her tear ducts activate right when she managed to take control of her leg muscles and she runs and runs and runs until she came to a halt a few streets down and she leans onto the nearby wall for support, the warm fluid slipping downwards and off her face onto the ground. 

She can blame anyone, anyone and anything but herself because this, this cannot be her. Because she's the sharpest knife in the kitchen, the toughest clay bowl that doesn't break even when smashed onto the ground so any other knife that doesn't cut as fast, any other bowls that is flawed with fault lines, they'll never be her.

It's the weather. That's why her heart had been clenching too much these days.



But this time, it has to be her.

This time it's not the weather anymore because the weather's only capable of making people weaker than they are and this, this is definitely not something a weak would've done.

A weak wouldn't stand in a room she'd never been in before, in front of the rack, facing a shiny corset top, a scissor in her hand.

The left end of her lip twitched upwards into a smirk.

This is what Nicole would've done.



And this time, it's Hyunseung's turn.

It's Hyunseung's turn and he looks much, much smaller as compared to Doojoon. He's smaller and he talks lesser too, a lot lesser and a lot softer in comparison because Doojoon's the leader and without a certain strength and loudness, no one's going to take his words seriously.

Hyunseung looks less intimidating than Doojoon, but that doesn't mean that he's not a sharp knife, a tough clay bowl too.

And while Doojoon did it simply with a sentence, Hyunseung chose to surprise her with just a single, firm—

"No." He grabbed her hand and yanked it away from the corset top, snatched the scissor and tossed it towards his right.

Doojoon left right after his sentence, Hyunseung stayed in his position, staring straight towards Nicole with a pair of eyes too huge, too dark, too stern for comfort.

"I—I—it's just." She swallowed, her teeth biting down onto her bottom lip.

Doojoon listened to her and kept silent and believed it's for the best. With Hyunseung, she wasn't sure what kind of threaten will work because he's a mystery and Nicole doesn't like mysteries.

"I don't know why you're doing this, but cutting a hole on her shirt won't make him come back to you. If anything, it'll make it worse. And there's plenty of other stuffs for her to wear anyway, 4minute's dresser likes bringing extra costumes just in case of, you know, people like you."

It worked with Doojoon because they talked pretty fairly much before everything happened and she knew he cares about his bandmates more than anything so there was something for her to work with. Hyunseung probably had less than 5 sentences of conversation with her so—

"I don't care." She glanced towards the scissor that's on the ground below the make-up table. "It doesn't matter if it's going to get worse, because it's just a game, and if I lose, I'll find a better game."

Doojoon may have caught her the last time, but at least she managed to cause some damage.

Hyunseung could've said something, anything except he's a mystery and he's unpredictable so he did the unexpected—walk away.

Nicole thinks that perhaps, perhaps he should've been the leader instead.

Right now, she is thinking that the weather’s probably out to destroy her entirely and this is just plain cruel and obviously human abuse so it’s definitely a crime and the weather should totally be thrown into jail.

Nicole instinctively cupped her hands to her face and huff and puff the warm air into her palms as she slowed down her pace along the sidewalk of the park which, irritably, is filled with piles and piles of snow that’s probably caused by the heavy fall yesterday. Her mind, as if on auto-pilot mode, is slowly starting to generate words for her in preparation so she wouldn’t look stupid stuttering later.

It’s not like Junhyung’s someone important anyway, it’s just, it’ll be utterly rude to stutter when you finally bump into someone you haven’t talked to for two weeks, right?

It’s definitely not Junhyung that’s making her heart beat twice as fast.

It’s just, it has to be anything but him.



When she finally decides on the words she’ll say, Nicole raises her head and―



Junhyung is already walking towards another direction, away from her.

He’s alone, alone but there was two cups in his hand.

And he’s smiling.



Nicole just isn't sure if she should be interested in knowing where he’s going.

Or who he’s going to.

A/N: I could've said that it's because of my studies that's keeping me from updating except it's not completely true because I did had time during some weekends but it's just, pure laziness on my part and mind-block on my brain's part.

My only explanation to this chapter is that among the evil and scheming Nicole, there is a weaker and softer side to her except she doesn't recognize it and is in denial.

Ahh whatever, just, enjoy it or something, I don't know.

@amburritosRtacos I was seriously thinking about your suggestion regarding Doojoon except I couldn't do it because my interpretation of him is just the caring, soft-hearted leader who will never hurt his bandmates so.. I added Hyunseung and who knows how it'll go from here trololololol.

@rofllmfao Hmm, let's just say he's confused and hurt.

@f_mama Yes totally I've seen fancams of them during my stalker mode and they're just, I can't even :o but sadly this story is not about them two :/

@aremoyoona :/

@dnakaram Really! I love you omg seriously but that can wait because if I were to go into a Yoseob stan like right now, this story will be put on hold even longer and that cannot happen :o

@shineekey Thank you! :>

@Erikaluvbeast Firstly, welcome and thank you for reading! And secondly, OMG it's just, I'm so so sorry for making you wait *shoots myself in the head*. I know it's unforgivable but I still hope you enjoyed this chapter!

I can't believe I'm still having new subscribers.. It's so undeserving and heartwarming.