The tense dinner finally ended, with Doojoon making jokes with Jinhee to keep her from attacking anyone, and everyone else looking around in confusion or irritation.

“So, you’ve met the victim and the heroes. I’ll have tabs kept on your family to make sure you’re not gambling again. You will now be flown home.” Jinhee said to the family nonchalantly waving her assistant forward to handle the details. “Remind me to give you a raise!” She yelled over her shoulder to her.

“I already put in the paper work for it.” Her assistant chuckled.

“Atta girl!” She waved. “Right, so what are you two up to now?” Jinhee asked the twins, ignoring the way her cousins were looking at her interlocked hands with Doojoon. Holding hands with him was like holding hands with Junhyung; neither felt anything towards the other. What Jinhee did have trouble ignoring was the way Mina was clinging onto Dongwoon as they were saying goodbye. She also did not miss that the girl jumped to kiss his cheek, and that, of course, he let her.

“Hang out at your place, of course.” They said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Okay,” Jinhee smiled, “Guys, we’re going to hang out at my place; wanna come with, or do you all need to get home?”

“I’m good.” Doojoon and the others shrugged.

“Noona, you won’t believe her house. It’s not a house; it’s a building! A wonderland. It’s magical.” Yoseob said to Hae Yeon.

“Are you sure about that, Yoseob? It’s easy to get lost in my house, but Junhyung knows the place like the back of his hand. He could get lost with your sister and you’ll never find them.” Jinhee smiled eerily.

“Never mind, we’re going home.” Yoseob said, trying to drag his sister away.

“Let go brat, I’m going.” Hae Yeon shook him off and ran to the three ‘Jin’s. “Is your house nicer than this restaurant?”

“Of course.”

“Awesome! I wanna see!”

“Okay. Everyone, into the cars!” Everyone hopped into the same vans they arrived in, except Yoseob was switched with KiKwang to avoid another sibling fight.

“I’m going to be crushed, but oh well.” Jinhee sighed when she climbed into the back with the two broad shouldered, well-muscled students.

“It’s okay, I’m soft when I’m not flexing. You can use me as a pillow and everything!” KiKwang beamed, patting his arm.

“I’m good, thanks.” Jinhee laughed, leaning closer to Doojoon’s side, who wrapped his arm over her shoulder. It was becoming really natural to cuddle with him, and they fit together almost as well as how she used to fit into Dongwoon.

“Are you two dating?” KiKwang finally asked.

“No.” Jinhee answered simply.

“Oh… Okay. You just look like you are.”

“I know.” Jinhee nodded.

“Are you going to tell us your dirty jokes?” He bounced in his seat excitedly.

“I don’t think you can handle it.” Jinhee chuckled. “Plus, Junhyung and I are like real siblings, no one wants to hear their little sister say dirty things.”

“Got that right.” Junhyung smiled. “But I am curious.”

“Just tell us the joke. I still can’t figure out how a grapefruit could be dirty.”

“Fine, but I warned you.” Jinhee smiled and told them the first part of the joke.

“I can’t believe that word came out of your mouth.” They gaped at her.

“Well, that’s not how you’re supposed to react to the setup of the joke.” Jinhee sighed.

“What do they have in common?” Hae Yeon asked.

Jinhee grinned and told them the punch line. They all blushed and laughed, not knowing if they were embarrassed or entertained. They settled for entertained. They had Jinhee tell a few more jokes and the driver had to keep stopping the car because he couldn’t control his own laughter.

 “Where the hell are you when you hear these things?”

“Surprisingly, the library. Some boys gather there to ‘read’ when they’re just panting over a dirty magazine.”

“People also go there for other things.” Hae Yeon laughed.

“I know, but I avoid that part of the library. I don’t know what’s been properly sterilized or not.” Jinhee sighed. “Luckily, that’s where all the boring books are anyway.” Jinhee settled back into Doojoon’s side.

“I texted Yoseob your jokes, but he doesn’t believe that you actually said them.” KiKwang laughed.

“I think that’s the funniest part. People think I’m stiff – I’m not even going to make a joke about that one – so when I say bad things, they’re surprised.”

“And the fact you have no problem saying these things.”

“That too.” Jinhee giggled. They finally arrived to Jinhee’s house, last because the driver had to stop so many times.

“What took you guys so long?” Jinsoo asked when they finally stumbled into the house, still laughing.

“The driver couldn’t handle her sense of humor.” KiKwang laughed.

“It’s a good thing we never crashed.” Doojoon nodded.

“You told them the jokes?” Haneul chuckled.

“Yup.” Jinhee smiled and sat down with the others in the theatre room.

“So we’ve officially decided to go to your school.” The twins smiled at Jinhee.

“Really?” She looked at them skeptically.

“Yes! We want to be in the same class as each other, so twiddle your fingers and make it happen.”

“Fine. But no whining about how much you wish the facilities were nicer, you spoiled brats.”

“Yes ma’am.” They beamed.

“You can control the placements of students in class?”

“Yeah, but I don’t usually. I see no point.” Jinhee nodded up at Doojoon.

“Did you choose to be put in our class?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Why do you think?”

“Hmm, I see.” Doojoon nodded.

“I’m gonna go shower.” Jinhee turned to leave the room.

Dongwoon intercepted her, “Can I talk to you for a second?”

“What’s up?” Jinhee looked up at him expectantly as everyone in the room stared at the two warily.

“Privately, I mean.”

Jinhee thought for a moment, unsure if she really wanted to be alone with him right now. She didn’t want to say something to him that she’d might regret. Doojoon, who was watching extra carefully, moved to get up, but was pulled down and had his mouth covered by Junhyung and Haneul.

“Sure.” Jinhee nodded and the two left the room.

“What the hell?” Doojoon shoved Junhyung off of him when Haneul got up, removing her hands from his mouth.

“Why would you want to interfere in that conversation?” Jinsoo cocked an eyebrow at him.

“Do you like her?” Jinyoung asked.

“It’s not like that. She just needs someone to help her out sometimes.” Doojoon frowned.

“No she doesn’t.” Jinyoung laughed.

“Jinhee could survive by herself in the desert. She’d even start up a multi-billion dollar business there with her bare hands.” Jinsoo nodded.

“Sometimes Jinhee can be stubborn, and she gets lonely, but she can handle these things. She’s used to going through worse things.” Junhyung sighed. “And what happened between those two needs to get solved already. This is unbearable to live with.”

“Our president usually takes her problems head on. I don’t know why she’s not now. I mean, it was clear she was irritated at the restaurant. Normally, she’d say it, but she didn’t.” Haneul frowned.

Doojoon kicked a chair. “And this is clearly all of your problems with Jinhee. You see her as this all powerful, super tough, future CEO of AFA. Or you see her as the strong, friendly, and reliable president of your Critters club that’s always there with a willing helping hand whenever you need her. Being who she is, even her friends aren’t really her friends, because friends are supposed to be equal and give equally to the friendship – she only gives, because she has a lot to give, and she doesn’t enjoy taking anyway. Her cousins are from a branch family with less pressure on them, and Junhyung is like a brother, but even that relationship only goes so far.

“You are her club members, and you guys are just friends of her ‘brother’. Jinhee is always alone; surrounded by people, she is still alone, and she is alone when she sits at the head of the table in a crowded restaurant. She is alone when she wakes up, when she eats breakfast, and when she goes to school. She walks into the school alone, into class alone, and unless we follow her, she goes home alone. In a house full of people, she is still alone. She smiles and jokes about her situation, and she accepts that she is privileged while her friends aren’t.

“Any troubles she has, she keeps to herself – do you think it’s right for her to go to these blind dates when she’s only in her second year of high school? Is it right for her to have to think about logistics of her marriage to all of her prospects? Would he be willing to take her name, because that’s a deal breaker for the family, she’ll also need to have kids – she might not even like the guy, but she absolutely has to have kids. Will the guy handle the social life and activities if he was her husband, because she doesn’t have the time to handle both aspects? Should she have to sit through an entire lecture in class, give everyone her answers, and then be ignored, and if not ignored, bullied?

“She smiles and pretends this doesn’t faze her – but she’s an 18 year old girl, and everyone seems to forget that, just because she’s capable. This is why I care about her, because she needs to be reminded by someone that she’s not invincible and needs to be protected sometimes. I agree, you guys are, or are as close as it gets, to being her friends – but do you really expect her to tell her troubles to you? Would she tell you to save her from an uncomfortable situation? I wouldn’t imagine so, since you guys are so adamant on your beliefs that she can and will take care of it herself. So what if she does? I think she’s stressed enough right now even without whatever the hell happened between her and Dongwoon.”

Everyone stared at Doojoon in shock, only half understanding his angry rant.

“Now if you would excuse me, I’m going to see if she needs help getting out of an uncomfortable situation.” He left in a huff.

I'm just all over the place right now................

Welllllp I hope you enjoyed it, including Doo's little rant.

Tata for now!

Random Question Time:

How do you feel about what all has been happening in KPOP or Korea in general this past year?

I feel terrible. It was like one thing after the other for a while. The Sewol ferry boat was a tragedy that I hope never occurs again, then there was the Kris from EXO thing, the Baekhyun and Taeyeon thing, Bom stuff, CL stuff, general KPOP nonsense, and more recently, we had the tragic passing of two really sweet kpop idols, EunB and Rise. I wasn't a Ladies Code fan, but I did really like them as a general KPOP fan.