- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Doyeon steps inside the tiny house of hers and sets the bag of groceries onto the table. She glances over into the living room, finding Kai's eyes glued to the TV, watching animations run across the screen. Exhaling heavily, she removed her items from the bags and started to prepare dinner for the two of them. Kai removes his eyes from the television and walks over to his friend and watches her as he leans against the wall, his arms crossed. "Do you need help with anything?" the boy asks. She shakes her head and continues to work. If you lived alone, would you be happier than you are now? He walks towards Doyeon and watches her fry two eggs. "I didn't know you cooked," Kai says as he watches the girl shuffle away from the eggs and towards the rice steamer.

Doyeon ignores Kai's comment and stuffs big spoons of rice into two small bowls, "Go sit down. Dinner's almost done..." Kai obeyed the girl and sat down in a seat at the table. He watches as a plate of kimchi, another plate of eggs, and their rice are set down on the table. Kai blinks at the food that was set out in front of him. He couldn't believe it. Just that morning, he was eating high quality food, now he was eating eggs, rice, and kimchi? This was great for the boy! Kai grinned as he picked up his chopsticks and stuffs his mouth with eggs and rice, filling his mouth with such deliciousness. He ignored how Doyeon just stared at him like he was some creature, and he didn't care. He was eating delicious food, served by the girl he liked. If his mother were to see him now, he wouldn't care, even if she was scolding him. In fact, he would love to eat just eggs, rice, and kimchi every day. That would be great. He loved it. It was one of the greatest meals that he had ever had in his life. He glances up, meeting Doyeon's dark, cold eyes. He swallows his food and coughs a tad. Doyeon's still eyes shifted towards the food, and she starts to move again, eating slowly on her rice and kimchi. "...How unique." Kai looks at her, confused. Doyeon shifts her eyes back to his, "It's amazing to see how you changed from living a high society life to a low life. So from what I see from your actions, you don't like how your life is like right now, right?"

Kai's eyes dropped down to his rice as he gently stabs his half-filled bowl of rice in his hand, "I just really like the food..." he mutters, nearly inaudibly. He avoids his friend's eyes and continues to eat, but not as eagerly as before. He feels awkward under her gaze, but continues his action.
"Stop lying, Jongin," Doyeon says. "It's obvious that you miss the normal food that you have ate as a child."
"...No. Don't you remember? I was born in a rich family."
"So you're trying something new?"
Kai shifts in his seat before answering, "Not really..."
"What are you trying to say then, Jongin?"
He sighs before stuffing his mouth with kimchi. "Nothing..." Doyeon's eyes narrowed, but she says or asks no more. So they sit at the table, eating slowly in awkward silence.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

A blanket was gently draped over her relaxed body. Kai sighs as he steps back from the sleeping Doyeon. He stretches out his tired arms before backing out of her bedroom and quietly closed her door before making his way back to the living room where a blanket and pillow waited for him on the sofa. Kai glances at the still television and strides to the kitchen where he finds a pile of dirty plates and bowls in the sink. He stands at the sink, slipping on rubber gloves before he starts to wash all the dishes. As he washed, he lets out small yawns, rubbing his tired eyes with his arm. He was tired, but he wasn't tired to help Doyeon out. He hears his phone vibrating against the wooden table behind him, but he doesn't bother to glance at it or even answer. The boy continues to wash the dishes, ignore his calls from his mother's.

When all the dishes were washed, there were only two messages on his phone, but Kai didn't bother to glance or listen to them. He grabs his phone and shuffles into the living room, collapsing onto the somewhat soft sofa. He groans as he stretches out his arms and tries to get comfortable on the sofa. He hugs a pillow and turns onto his side to look at the TV, flipping through the channels as he yawns. His interest finally stops on a random cartoon that was shown late at night, but Kai eventually ends up sleeping instead of watching the animations fly around the TV screen.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

The smell of ramen filled the whole house, bringing the sleeping boy on the sofa back to the wake. Kai sits up, his arms on his knees as he tries to gain a good vision of where he was. Glancing around, he finds Doyeon in the kitchen leaning against the kitchen counter, waiting for the two bowls of ramen to finish. "There's an extra toothbrush and towel in the restroom. Get ready so we can eat," Doyeon suddenly says. Kai obeys her command and trudges towards the bathroom. Once he back out, he finds his breakfast on the table, and his friend in the seat beside him, her eyes on her phone instead of her ramen.
Kai pulls out the chair and sits beside Doyeon, "What's going on?" he asks, after recognizing the serious, stressful face of hers. She shows him her phone and goes back to eating her ramen. 'The Jang Family Stole Their "Lottery Money"?' Kai stares at the heading, confused about the article that he was reading. He reads the whole article, and once again, Doyeon's family had received another false rumor that is spreading. "Oh," was all he says as he hands Doyeon back her phone. 

He knew how upset she was, judging from how she was when an earlier rumor was spread. He remembered it very well, and he and Doyeon never liked to speak about it. It wasn't very long ago when the rumor about the two were dating spread across the nation, in fact, it happened right when the two started to become close. The false rumor effected both families, but they knew they couldn't stop the spreading rumor. That year when the rumor was still around, he found out how one of their classmates told the news to the reporters just for the money. He was angry of course, but he kept in his anger, realizing that Doyeon didn't even care about how the rumor was spread. She even said, "A rumor is a rumor. People who don't know the truth will eventually get no life." He didn't understand her last sentence, but what she said was true. Plus, Kai realized how it was better that the people around the two knew the truth than the others, that was the only good thing that made the two forget about the now-dying rumor.

"What are you going to do about it?" Kai asks as he slurps on his noodles.
"Punch my cousins in the face for giving out false rumors. Hope that they will never come back to life," Doyeon simply replies.
Kai only smiles at her comment, "If you do, mind if I watch?" Doyeon glances at the boy beside her, giving him an unnoticeable smile. This is why you're my friend.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

"Why don't you shut your mouth?" Doyeon snaps at her cousin.
"Why don't you?" her cousin replies.
"I'm not the idiot who's spreading around the nation."
"Well, I'm not the idiot who's trying to receive attention here!"
"Both of you, shut up," Doyeon's father says, leaving the two letting out an angry huff.
Her aunt suddenly butts in, "You know, my son is right," she says, nodding. "You only called us here to get attention. You already received enough bad publicity."
"That's exactly why we got you here, to give you the bad publicity," Kai suddenly says, glaring at Doyeon's cousin.

The room stays silent for a while, until Doyeon starts muttering. "The one that's trying to gain attention is you, twit."
A raise of the brow comes from her elder cousin, "Excuse me? Watch who you're talking to-"
"If we wanted to receive the attention," she glances at her cousin, crossing her arms, "We would have been the ones who should be saying all that about you."
"But we wouldn't try to hold a stupid family meeting!"
"People like you don't belong in this world," Doyeon says immediately after the boy across from her finishes his sentence. "So, I suggest that you should either shut up, or spread rumors the right way by telling people the truth instead of all this crap. Plus, all this shows that you're weak."
"You didn't try to stop the rumor of how you and that dark kid beside you were dating. You're the weak one around here!" her cousins raged.

Doyeon sighs and gives a subtle roll of the eyes. "That's because I believe that people who don't know what the heck is going on are just damn idiots. What matters is that the people around you that knows the truth believes the truth. I don't need thousands of people across the nation to believe me or not. I just need someone to believe me. It doesn't matter who doesn't or who does or how much of the people that will believe me. If I'm the only one who believes truth, then let it be. I don't need everyone's stupid opinions on every single thing that happens. I never wanted the publicity anyway. I would choose my old life if I had a choice!" She exhales angrily while Jongin slips his hand into hers, lightly squeezing her hand for comfort. "I'm leaving..." Doyeon says as she stands up and heads up to her room with Kai following behind her.

Kai closes the door as Doyeon sits at the foot of her bed and turns on the loud TV. He sits beside her and studies her face, "You okay?" he asks.
A sigh comes from Doyeon, "Yeah." Silence surrounds them, letting the loud noises from the TV echo in the room. "Kai?"
"Yeah?" he replies, still looking at his friend.
"Would you leave if I leave too?"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Sorry for not updating a lot lately. Writer's block, a lot of studying, and I've been thinking about college a lot lately cause god dammit it's only 3 years away! ugh. I've been really annoyed lately, so I just had to write about this. yeah. sorry it's confusing.