“Welcome back, Sunsaeng-nim! We miss you!”

Yubin walks into her class to receive this loud cheer along with party-poppers. She is surprised her students gave her such a warm “welcome back” greeting. It’s been a week since she had been on hiatus due to the scandal breakout and now that those reporters have given up stalking around the school compound, she is glad to return to school.

“Awww, kids! Thanks for this. I miss you guys too.” Yubin is touched by her students’ gesture.

“Sunsaeng-nim, we were so worried you were never coming back.” Jimin reveals.

“I won’t leave you kids so soon, Jimin.” Yubin misses this bubbly class president the most.  Her singing voice always manages to brighten up her day.

“I heard because of the scandal, your solo comeback will be delayed?” Jaehyung gives a sad concern look.

Yubin simply smiles and nods. “No big deal. I plan to work on that after you guys graduate. That kpop group contest you guys have been practicing hard and aiming for the top prize will now be my priority, ok?”

Her students cheer to that plan and then suddenly there are gasps among the class, some looking out at the corridor outside the class, noting someone familiar standing outside.

“Omo, it’s Taecyeon oppa!” One of her students exclaims and several of the students, especially the girls start scrambling towards the side of the classroom for a closer look through the windows.

Yubin turns to look at Taec outside who gives her that recognizable “We need to talk.” eye signal.

“Kids! I’ll be right back. Jimin, keep the class in order.” Yubin orders before she heads out of the class to meet Taec.

“What are you doing here, Taec?” Yubin pulls him by his jacket along the corridor, looking for a private spot to talk.

“There’s something I need to tell you..”Taec tells her.

“What is it that is so important you have to tell me here in school?” Yubin asks as she leads him to an emergency exit door which he finds it rather familiar.

Yubin and Taec surprises a young couple making out at a corner of the stairway and the student lovebirds quickly break away, bowing and apologizing to Yubin who gave them a stern warning look before they fled.

“Can’t really blame them… This used to be one of our favorite make-out spots as well.” Taec looks around and notes.

“Blame the raging hormones then!” Yubin remembers it too but then folds her arms and gets straight to the business question. “So tell me, why are you here?”

“The investigation results of the photo leak culprit is out, Yub.” Taec reveals.

“Really? Who is it? I wanna wring that person’s neck for nearly ruining my career and image.”

Somehow that kinda scared Taec and he contemplates on whether he should really tell Yubin the truth. But he is a man and should admit it like a man.     

“Ermm.. but I’m afraid we can’t release the statement of the investigation results to the public..” Taec warns Yubin in advance. It was a decision made after discussing with JY.

“WHY?”

“Because…. the culprit is…” Taec slips his hands in his jeans pocket and looks at her like he always do in the past asking for forgiveness whenever he was very late for their dates. “..ME?”

“What? How? What exactly happened, Taec?” Yubin is more confused than mad… or rather she’s not mad yet until she hears a full explanation.

“I couldn’t remember at first because I was so drunk that night. I guess after drinking too much, I started missing you all of a sudden…..and….decided to email you that old photo but instead drunk-emailed it to my university where anyone could have accessed and leaked that photo..” Taec relates and gets himself ready to be hit by Yubin.

But Yubin stands half-dazed, hands on her hips. She shakes her head at Taec.

“You miss me and you don’t call or text me but plans to email me an old photo?!!!”

“I was drunk! And you have been avoiding my calls and texts anyway! I guess I do weird things when I’m drunk, ok!”

“So am I just gonna continue being the prime suspect while the real culprit gets away with it?”

“I mean…. I could fess up but… I already denied I was the one who leaked it. I can’t go back on my word, right?”

 “You could say that you were drunk!”

“And you think the public will believe me? That I suddenly remembered I was drunk and did that act?”

“Aish!!” Yubin grabs her head of hair, wondering why she is a victim of all this when she did nothing wrong. And making statements again on this scandal is not going to help anyway, as long as they can’t trace that their accounts were illegally hacked or someone stole their phones to leak the photo. Taec voluntarily sent it so he was part of the cause of the leakage of the photo but even if he admits to it, yes, people might not believe his ridiculous drunk story. She’d rather he not say anything. She already said her piece that she did not leak it and it is up to people to believe it or not. The only way is to let it go and hope the public will lose interest eventually and stop pursuing the matter.  

“Baby….” Taec murmurs, feeling the remorse and by habit calls her by that endearing term.

“DON’T ‘BABY’ ME!” Yubin warns with angry finger tapping hard on his chest before she turns to leave.

A/N: No flashback portion for this chapter…BUT will make it up with a full flashback chapter next.

Warning: It’s a chapter!