Kris opened the door to the practice room, letting Chaerin in as he followed suit.

"Oh! Hyung!" both whipped their heads up to find Jongin speaking. "The others went to the cafeteria." he smiled, nodding towards the door. He stood up and bowed to Chaerin, returning to his seat near Minji, fidgeting as he spoke "She came to look for you, Sunbaenim” he darted his eyes to Chaerin, quickly averting it as their gazes met. “you weren't here so —"

"— So he gave me company." Minji finished for him, flashing him a smile. Which Chaerin noticed, was different from the way she usually smiles, it seemed to say something without actually her actually speaking. My dongsaeng has a crush. Chaerin thought, amused.

"Oh, I see." She replied casually as she also noticed how Jongin turned his head away, stealing glances at her donsaeng. — and she’s not the only one.

"We should head back Minji-ah." she said, peeling her eyes away from the two new love birds as she glanced at Kris, who stood  near the stereo system, zipping his jacket.

"We'll be leaving. Thank you for your company." Minji bowed, quickly to be returned the same by Jongin, who stood up and glanced at his Hyung then back at the girls.

"Hyung, I'll go and see them off." he smiled. "wanna come?"

"Sure."

"It's okay guys. Really. You don't have to." Chaerin suggested, holding Minji's arm as they trudged their way to the exit.

"I want to." Kris said as he gave his Dongsaeng a light squeeze on his arm and gestured him to move ahead with Minji.

"You're awfully quiet." Chaerin commented as the younger ones walked ahead.

"You made sure of that." he replied, not really meaning to light any fire. Quickly realizing how he sounded he bit his tongue. "I—I'm sorry I didn't mean it like that."

"Don't apologize Kris, I already feel horrible as it is and you being so . . So nice, makes me want to strangle myself." she mumbled and turned around to grab his wrist. She took a deep breath before she spoke. "Kris, lash out at me, just, do something, yell at me, scream at me, or—or, I don't know, do something! I deserve to be treated like that. Please—"

"That's rubbish Chaerin, I cant believe that's coming for you." he chuckled half-heartedly. "Come on." he ushered her to walk but she didn't move.

"I don't want to lose you!" Chaerin exclaimed, closing her eyes as she inclined her head and repeated the sentence in a soft murmur. "I did horrible things to you,you gave me comfort and support when I needed it and, I lead you on."

"What horrible things? As far as I remember. Chaerin, you gave me your time, you made me realize how beautiful loving someone is." he explained. "And the things I did, I didn't do it because I expected something in return. I did it because I wanted to."

"I'm sorry"

"No, I'm sorry Chae." he quickly replied, making Chaerin stare at him in surprise. After shifting his weight on his feet, he shoved his hand into his pocket and sighed; shaking his head as he closed his eyes and opened them again, wearily. "I'm not strong enough to say that I'm happy for you, because I'm far from that and aside from that, I don't know if—if I can handle being around you for a while because I can't guarantee that I'll not take you away and hide you in my pocket." he said in a light tone, making Chaerin chuckle softly.  "I hope you understand i-if I—I avoid you for some time." He gulped and quickly lifted his gaze to meet the sad one of Chaerin’s. He knew deep inside he was being ridiculous. He’d promised himself that he’d be there for her no matter what, disappointed at himself for not being able to keep his words. He cursed himself mentally but eventually reminded himself that he was doing this for his own good, and for her; his staying away would be the best for everyone, at least for now.

Chaerin smiled weakly and nodded.  "I'll try."

"—And about the press. I'll talk to someone from the agency and explain." he scratched his neck, bending down to redo the Velcro on his Chrome hearts high-top, dusting the knee on which he supported himself he muttered light heartedly. "Is 'Just friends' okay with you?" his tone was indeed light as he'd aimed to, but Chaerin knew him all too well. Quietly she nodded and started to walk forward with a smile on her face, that didn’t reach her eyes.

They continued to walk and reached the lobby to find Minji and Jongin discreetly exchanging numbers. Chaerin bowed to Kris (as any professional would do) and walked over to the door, calling Minji to join her. What she didn't hear was Kris quietly speaking to himself as he watched the love of his life walk out from his life.

"I hope he loves you as I much as I do."

She dropped Minji to her house, not forgetting to greet her parents before she left. Since her own parents were always moving around, she had become accustomed to being treated like a daughter by the parents of her group members and each of them were special in their own ways, Minji's mother for instance was always ready to give her good advices, comfort and never failing to remind her how blessed she was. And she couldn't deny, she was blessed.

After reaching home, she went straight to her room, unplugging the charger from her phone.

17 missed call(s).

2 new message(s)

All from her friends, Jeremy, Yulia, her sister Hyelin and Bom; not even one from someone she expected the most. Feeling nauseous, she went over to the kitchen to grab a bottle of apple juice, she heard the front door open.

"Should we tell it to the others?" a soft male voice said. Chaerin wasn't sure who it was since it wasn't really clear and probably, whoever it was, didn't know she was in here too.

"We should. But I don't know how to. What should we d—" another voice replied, this time around, Chaerin was sure it was Dara. Suddenly, the conversation died down and Chaerin wondered what happened. She peeked from the door to find both Dara and Youngbae sitting on the couch, looking at her. "Pudong-ah~" Dara smiled, calling her Dongsaeng with the gesture of her hand. "We didn't know you were here."

"Yeah—" Chaerin smiled awkwardly, feeling like an idiot. She had been caught. "I arrived early morning. But I had things to take care of, so— I went out and reached few minutes ago." she sat herself beside Youngbae who raised his hand for a high-five. "What's up?" she replied, returning the friendly gesture.

"What's up? Aren't you the one to tells us what is really up?" Youngbae wiggled his eyebrows, eyes disappearing as his lips curled up and he smiled. "How'd things go baby girl?"

"It was whatever."

"Something happened?" Dara asked, removing her leather jacket.

"Well, we talked but —Chaerin pulled her legs up, crossing them.

"but?" Youngbae prompted. Eagerly rubbing his knees and he listened attentively.

"—but nothing happened really. I kind of blamed him for not being man enough to tell me how he felt about me. After we talked, I thought hard about it then got myself ready to give him a piece of  my mind, but Kiko-"

"Kiko?" Dara gasped. "What the hell was she doing there?" she bent forward, slapping the coffee table with her palm.

"She lives there—" Youngbae supplied but was met with a pair of furious eyes and he halted immediately. Noticing the intense glaring going on between the two, Chaerin waved her hand in the air, ignoring the endless assumptions going on in Dara's mind.

"We talked and . . . and I realized what an I was being the whole time. I mean, we are all best friends right?" she paused. The other two nodded, unsure where the conversation was going. "I realized, ever since I started dating Hyunjoong Oppa, I started distancing myself from you all, especially Jingyo Oppa because I didn’t want unnecessary feud to start between the two. As it is, Hyunjoong oppa didn’t really like the idea of me having a male best friend, because he said 'A girl and a boy can never be friends'" she air quoted and scoffed, "Tch" curling herself on the couch she hugged a cushion and sighed. “I—I guess our time don’t match. I realized it all too late and he— well! He doesn’t think of me that way anymore.”

“Don’t say that Chae.” Youngbae pat his young friend, giving her arm a light squeeze. “You two sure make things so complicated.” He smiled, nudging her playfully until she let a smile take over the serious frown.

"—But he was right, wasn't he?" Dara smiled, referring to the ‘boys and girls can never be friends’ part as she reached for Youngbae's hand on the arm rest, giving it a loving squeeze. Her eyes sparkled as their eyes met. Chaerin glared at them and soon demanded to know what was going o. Her eyes her lit up as she realized what was really going on and she shrieked.

"Since when?" Chaerin screamed in surprise. The two had been dating for about a month already. "Why didn't you tell me Pabo-yah?" she pointed at Dara, then at Youngbae. “You too!”

"You already saw it coming Chae" Youngbae softly replied. "Don't act surprised."

"I'm not acting." Chaerin scoffed in disbelief. "You guys know every little thing that's going in my life. And I can't even be a part of your good news." she reasoned. "I'm hurt."

"You were going through so many things, we wanted to give you time to think about yourself Pudong-ah. I couldn't wait to break the news to you." she smiled cheekily, rubbing her dongsaeng's arm. "Besides, we're still thinking of how to break it to the president." she shuddered at the thought of it and Youngbae laughed, kissing her hand sweetly.

"He'll be happy." Chaerin added. "—And besides, you can replace the headline about me and—" Chaerin stopped abruptly with the name of Kris hanging at the tip of her tongue. He'd been so gentle with her after all she said, asking her if she was okay with him avoiding her. He didn't even blame her for misleading him, giving him false hopes but giving her his honest words.

"I'm going to miss him" she muttered, lowering her gaze to her toes. Soon she felt thin arms pull her into an embrace.

"I know Pudong-ah. I know."

Author's note: I've been gone for a long time haven't I? Hehe.
I have these weird phases, when I don't feel like doing anything or feel like talking to anyone.
I can't say I'm out of that phase yet, but, yeah— I'm trying.

Thank you all so much for being so supportive this whole time, never failing to surprise me with those funny comments. :D
I swear my story is not good enough to have so many subbies. A big fat  THANK YOU! you !
 

I'm so so so so so excited about AON! I feel like Imma bout to burst with so many feels. Just 3 days to go for our queen's birthday! :)

With love
E