“I hope today wasn’t too rough on you,” Haneul murmured worriedly later that evening. The two of them were curled up in Risae’s bed in their warm pajamas, drinking hot chocolate and watching a drama on their tiny television.

Risae shrugged rather emotionlessly. “It was fine,” she muttered, even though it hadn’t been. Not really. She had been tried physically by her dance and vocal rehearsals, and she’d been tried emotionally by her encounters with Minseok and Luhan. All she really wanted to do was curl up in a tiny ball and never get up again.

Her best friend seemed to sense this further depression, so she began rubbing Risae’s back comfortingly. “It’ll get better,” she said, for what seemed like the millionth time in the past few days.

Risae didn’t answer. Haneul was starting to sound like a broken record, and she really wasn’t helping despite her good intentions.

She was still thinking her miserable, morose thoughts when someone knocked on their door. Haneul frowned at Risae. They weren’t expecting anyone, and it was sort of late for visitors anyway. When the person knocked again, Haneul curiously got out of bed and went to open the door.

It was Jongdae and Yixing, two more members from the group Minseok was debuting with. Risae saw who it was and groaned, burrowing back under the mounds of blankets piled on her bed. If they were there to try and talk to her about her now ex-boyfriend, she didn’t want to hear it.

Haneul, on the other hand, went a rather alarming shade of red and began fidgeting relentlessly with her hair. “O-oh, hi guys. What are you doing here?”

“We came to talk to Risae-noona,” Jongdae answered. As the only other Korean member in their subgroup, he and Minseok had become close since they’d been split into groups.

“I don’t want to talk to you,” Risae grumbled, loud enough for the boys at the door to hear.

Yixing, who was good-intentioned but a little blunt sometimes, wrinkled his nose at her. “Well too bad. We’ve got something to say and you’re going to listen.”

“Come in,” Haneul said quickly, stepping aside so the boys could enter their dorm room.

“Unnie!” Risae whined in disbelief, but Haneul had always been painfully oblivious when it came to Yixing.

Jongdae walked over and sat on the edge of Risae’s bed. She flinched away from him, glaring, and he sighed. “Look, noona, you have every right to be upset with Minseok-hyung and-”

“Of course I do!” she interrupted irritably. “Nobody seems to dispute the fact that I have every right to be angry, and yet everyone is still trying to convince me to forgive him! Why can’t people just accept that we’re through and let me get over it in peace?”

“You’re being childish,” Yixing said sharply, and now Risae’s burning glare turned in his direction. “You’re mad; we get that. He deserves it; we get that too. But you should at least talk to him. At least let him apologize, even if you don’t forgive him. You guys were together for so long. You at least owe him that.”

“Yeah, well he owed me more than cheating with some dumb ,” Risae muttered under her breath.

That was all it took for Yixing to snap. “You’re meeting him Friday night after rehearsal. At that restaurant near the ice cream parlor not far from here.”

“I’m not going,” she retorted childishly.

The look he gave her was stern. “Do you really think you have a choice in this, noona? You’re going.”