Chapter 55

As she made her way home, her phone chimed. Taking it out of her bag, she saw that it was a text message from Youngjae. “Just wanted to check up on you to see if you were okay. Is everything okay?”

Sighing, she finally decided to respond back to him. “Yes, I'm fine. Everything's fine. Why, what's up?”

Suddenly, her phone rang and after a few rings she finally answered. “Yes?”

“Bull,” Youngjae's voice rang out from the other end of the line. “I can see right through you, Annie.” She rolled her eyes as he said this. “So are you gonna tell me what's going on or do I have to pry it out of you?”

She sighed. “I'm fine, Jae,” she assured him but from the tone of her voice, he begged to differ. “I'm just a little tired, that's all. You see, I've had a very stressful past few days and I'd like to go home and rest.” She said matter-of-factly.

There was a long pause before Youngjae decided to speak up again. “I'll let you go, just this once,” he told her. “But you know you can talk to me, right?” He reminded her.

“Of course,” she remembered, grinning as she dug into her bag for her house keys before entering the building. “Just so you know, I got home safely. In case you're wondering.” She pointed out.

“That's a relief,” he chuckled. “I'm glad you're home safe and sound. I am a little hurt by the fact that you turned down an offer from me or Dae to give you a ride back home.”

Annie rolled her eyes and sighed. “Jae, I'm perfectly capable of getting home myself without you or Dae helping me,” she retorted back.

“You know, you could have also asked Himchan hyung,” he pointed out. “He seemed a little bent on seeing you today. I mean you should have seen the look on his face when you stormed out like that earlier.”

Annie's jaw hardened. “Oh really?” she managed to say. “I didn't notice.”

“Well, it was kind of obvious,” Youngjae informed her.

“What a bummer,” she said flatly.

“Did something happen between the two of you?” he asked finally. “I mean last time I checked, you guys were best friends. Now, it just seems like you guys are strangers. I can smell the tension in the air. Is something up?”

She sighed finally in the hopes of avoiding the subject. “Look, Jae,” she said, “I'm getting a little tired. Can I talk to you later? I really want to eat my dinner, take a shower, then head to bed.”

“Thanks for sharing your nightly routine with me,” he commented.

“Thanks for prying into my business like always,” she sarcastically remarked. “It's always a pleasure.”

“You're sure you're okay?” he asked once again.

“I'm fine, Jae,” she said a little impatiently. “Look, can we please talk later? I'm not in the mood, right now.”

Reluctantly, he said, “Okay. Talk to you later, Annie.”

“Bye, Jae,” she said before hanging up.

As soon as he hung up, he turned to Lucy and Daehyun. “So,” Daehyun spoke up. “How did it go?”

He shook his head. “She's not saying anything,” he said somberly. “I can already sense it's something really bad for her to keep it to herself all this time.”

“What did she say?” Lucy asked suddenly.

“Not much,” he shrugged. “She was avoiding the topic the whole time. For some odd reason, when I mentioned Himchan, she immediately decided to avoid talking about him.” Soon, the three best friends glanced over at Himchan, who was eating his dinner as well as conversing with Jongup and Zelo as they were going about their work. “If I didn't know any better, I'm sensing something must have happened between the two of them in order for her to avoid him.”

“That doesn't make any sense,” Daehyun finally said. “Aren't they supposed to be best friends or something?”

Lucy sighed. “Maybe I should have a talk with her when I get home,” she said. “I already owe her an explanation about what happened between me and Jesse...”

Someone scoffed. “You could do so much better than that jerk,” Daehyun muttered bitterly. “Seriously, Luce, you're better off without him. Good thing me and Jae intervened at the right time.”

“Why don't you learn to mind your own business, Dae?” she barked back angrily. “What goes on between me and Jesse is clearly between the two of us and I don't need you to meddle into my business.”

His lips quivered. “I was just trying to help--”

She held up her hand to prevent him from speaking. “Well, I hope you're happy because he's gone for good,” she finally said before walking away.

“Dae,” Youngjae placed a hand on his best friend's shoulder to prevent him from calling after Lucy. “You should just let it go. You've already had your say.”

Daehyun sighed. “You're right.”

“I'm thinking we should talk to Himchan hyung,” Youngjae suggested, glancing briefly at Himchan then back to his best friend. “Maybe he'll give us some insight as to what's up.”

“That doesn't sound like a bad idea,” Daehyun nodded in agreement.

“Annie,” Himchan called out to her as she walked ahead of him making her way towards the piano room while Daniel got changed out of his school uniform.

Annie stopped abruptly before turning to face him with a darkened expression. “I thought I clearly told you not to speak to me,” she said through gritted teeth. Initially, he would often thought she looked cute when she was angry but he knew better than to joke around at the moment. The girl before him was actually downright scary. She was clearly not the girl he knew but he could actually understand her position in the situation.

“I know you did but--”

She held up her hand. “I have nothing to say to you,” she cut him off. “You disgust me,” she spat out bitterly before proceeding to walk away from him.

Miranda stepped out of the room, “Hello, Annie,” she greeted her calmly.

“Hello,” she greeted her curtly before entering the room completely ignoring the both of them. She already couldn't stand being in the same room as them so there was no reason for her to stick around.

Himchan stood still as he watched her retreating figure enter the room. Miranda glanced back at him. “You weren't kidding,” she remarked having heard the tense exchange between the two young adults.

“ off,” he spat out, which in turn left Miranda dumbfounded, before following Annie inside where she sat and waited for Daniel. He slumped into his own chair looking away from her.

Annie couldn't bring herself to eat that night. Alone, she found herself thinking back to her conversation with Youngjae, she clearly remembered the look of hurt on Himchan's face when she left. How could she face him again after what she knew about him and Miranda? Daniel's feelings were on the line and she had every right to be angry. The poor child did nothing to deserve any of this and yet here he was, obliviously suffering the consequences. Just thinking about seeing Miranda and Himchan together in the hallway when they got back from school was enough to rile her up.

However, she thought back to the brief conversation she had with him that day. Well, it wasn't exactly a brief conversation but it was more along the lines of Annie going off on him then saying some hurtful things as a result. She, of course, didn't mean it but she was too angry and her pride was too high for her to suddenly take it back immediately. She was even more angry when Miranda had to emerge from the room which clearly did not help matters. She could have sworn she heard him go off on Miranda briefly. She remembered glancing back at them and seeing Miranda's stunned expression. And as crude as it sounded, Annie did happen to enjoy seeing Miranda deem speechless. She kind of deserved it and Annie had to commend Himchan for it. It's about time someone puts Miranda in her place, she chuckled to herself.

Instinctively, she took out her phone then proceeded to scroll down her calls log. Soon, she came across Himchan's name and fought the urge to call him. Maybe just this once, she was willing to swallow her pride so she could speak to him again. Truthfully, she somewhat found herself missing him as a friend. He deserved a second chance but she needed more time to cool off before fully forgiving him. Before long, she found herself contemplating the phone call. “To call or not to call...” she mused to herself pacing around her apartment.

“Hello?” a deep and husky sounding voice rang out from the other end.

Annie froze. Did she accidentally press SEND? “!” she panicked.

“Hello...?” the deep-voiced figure sounded a bit irritated. From what Annie noticed, he sounded like he had just woken up. “Annie, I know you're there. I can hear you breathing.” She could recognize Yongguk's voice.

Her eyes widened. Pulling the phone away from her ear, she soon found herself eying the name across the screen: Bang Yongguk. “...” she chanted to herself. Did she just happened to -dial Yongguk? It sure appeared that way as she could hear his husky laughter at the other end.

“I can actually hear you, you know,” he pointed out.

A/N: Hi guys! I'm sorry for leaving you guys hanging for a few days... I've had a pretty eventful weekend and it's gonna take a toll on my updating schedule. I'm dealing with some personal issues that's leaving me feeling really stressed and overwhelmed atm... I hope you understand! Sorry for this chapter, it was kind of sloppy and it was somewhat of a filler chapter. I'm so sorry... And to those of you who saw the Japanese Version of Warrior, I agree, three words: OH HOT DAMN XD but because of my personal issues, I couldn't bring myself to fangirl as much as you guys so sorry... :/

Anyways, I'll let you guys enjoy reading! Happy reading! ^^

P.S. Also, to those of you who purchased the "BAP First Adventure: 10,000 miles in America", please do not post videos or pictures from the DVD. You guys are ruining the fun, no offense. It kind of pisses me off knowing you're spoiling everything to those who haven't bought the DVD and to those who are awaiting their's in the mail such as myself. Thank you. Just thought I'd throw that out there. Didn't mean to sound like a prude.