“Darcy had major issues with the whole premise. She kept saying how unrealistic it was – no man would cheat on his wife with a much-less-attractive woman. I guess I am disproving her theory. “

~ “Something Borrowed”

~A year ago~

“Do I look fat in this?” Minah swiveled from side to side, frowning at her reflection in the fitting room mirror.

“Of course not.” Rainie replied. “You look great.”

Minah nodded approvingly and checked her side profile again. “This shirt does fit quite nicely. I think I’ll try on that blue one over there. Pass is it over, please.”

Rainie obediently handed over the shirt and hung up the one that Minah took off.

“Do you think Sungjae would like this one?” Minah said eagerly. “I caught him staring at me the other day at your place.”

Rainie examined the blue shirt. It flattered Minah’s curves and showed off her nice figure. “I suppose so.”

“I’ll get it then!” Minah shot a dazzling smile at Rainie, who uncomfortably returned it.

“Where should we go next?” Minah sighed happily as the two friends walked out of the clothing boutique, arm in arm. She clutched several new bags of clothes.

Rainie looked around the mall, considering her options. She’d planned to find a certain book she wanted to read at the bookstore, but she knew Minah hated shopping for anything not related to clothes and accessories. A crowd was forming across the mall toward the food court, and Rainie decided eating was a pretty good compromise.

“Let’s go check out what everyone else is looking at.” She said, pointing towards the crowd.

“Ooh, okay!” Minah tugged at Rainie’s arm.

The girls approached the large group, which by this point Rainie realized was comprised dominantly of girls. Teens, to be exact. Many of them had their phones out, videotaping and taking pictures of whatever was at the head of the crowd. Minah gripped Rainie’s hand tightly and pushed through the throng towards the front.

“Sungjae-oppa! Look this way, Oppa!” the short, chubby girl behind Rainie called out loudly.

“Sungjae!?” Minah jumped up excitedly and yanked Rainie’s hand. “Let’s go talk to him!”

“Minah… I don’t think that’s a very good idea.”

“How come? He’s your brother, for pete’s sake!” Minah nearly growled at her.  

“You know I’m not allowed to talk to him in public.” Rainie tried to pull away from Minah’s firm grasp.

“Who cares about that? It’s not like he’ll shun us.”

With that, Minah ran toward the tall boy with Rainie in tow. Sungjae stood by the smoothie bar, a baseball cap and a pair of sunglasses covering his hair and eyes. They did nothing to conceal his appearance, hence the pack of fangirls. He was accompanied by a handsome boy Rainie didn’t know.  

“Sungjae-oppa! Wow, it’s a surprise to see you here!” Minah said with a newly adopted gentleness. Her voice was all soft and cute in way that made Rainie a bit sick to the stomach. Minah was doing her “acting” again.

Sungjae turned around slowly. “Hello, Minah.” He smiled politely and pretended not to see his sister. His friend eyed the two girls with interest, but didn’t say anything.

“How are you? You look so thin, you need to eat more, Oppa.” Minah reached out a hand to pat his arm.

Sungjae shrunk away from her touch. “I dance all the food I eat off, sadly.” He laughed, a bit awkwardly.

Minah giggled. “Oh, of course, Oppa has to work so hard!”

“It’s not too ba–.”

“Do you like my shirt, Oppa? Rainie said that you told her it’s your favorite, didn’t you Rainie? She said this blue was your favorite color on me.”

Rainie looked away blankly. She’d never said such a thing.

“My favorite color is green, actually.”

Sungjae’s friend wrinkled his nose and whispered under his breath. “Ouch.”

Minah opened to clear up her embarrassing words.

“Here’s your order, sir. Have a good day!” The small female cashier passed Sungjae his smoothie and blushed when he smiled genuinely at her. Minah glared ferociously at her. 

“Thank you, you too!” Sungjae turned to Minah, who immediately threw a sticky smile on her face. “It was nice seeing you.” With a slight nod of his head, he walked away, his friend laughing behind him.         

All this time, Rainie had stared off into space, deliberately acting like she didn’t know Sungjae. Things between them were not exactly ideal; his parents had forbid them from speaking in public because they thought she’d ruin his reputation and image. She knew that if those fangirls’ pictures surfaced online, she’d be in for it. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t said a word to Sungjae; she’d still get the blame as the unwanted one.

“What is wrong with you!?” Minah Rainie.

“What do you mean?”

“You should have backed me up! You just made me look like a complete idiot in front of Sungjae. Why do you always do this to me?”

“I never said that your shirt was his favorite though.” Rainie frowned.

“I can’t believe you.” Minah pushed Rainie backwards and stormed away.

Rainie could hear the sound of phone camera’s snapping fiercely behind them. 

*Bringgg*

Rainie’s phone rang in her pocket. She pulled it out to see that it was Minah. With a slow breath, she answered. “Hello?”

“I’ve decided to forgive you. Wear that red dress I bought you for your birthday and meet me downtown. We’re going clubbing.” Minah said quickly. 

“But Minah, we’ll get caught. We’re still underage, and we don’t have IDs.”

“I’ll get you in, don’t worry.” Minah started whining. “Come on, Rainie. Don’t be a party pooper.” 

“Well, okay. But – .”

Minah had already hung up.
 

Rainie walked into the nightclub behind Minah, wobbling nervously in her flats. She’d opted out from wearing heels.

“Here, sit down. I’ll get us drinks.” Minah smiled and pointed toward a relatively open table off to the side of the dance floor. Half of the table was occupied by a drunk couple making out like the world was about to end. Rainie edged over and dragged her chair as far as possible from them.

“Martini?” Minah handed Rainie a pink drink and sat down, holding her own identical drink.

“Are you sure?” Rainie eyed the alcohol warily.

“I asked for an extra fruity one, don’t worry.”

Rainie took a cautious sip of the liquid. It was extremely sweet. Seeing Minah’s encouraging expression beside her and not wanting to disappoint, Rainie downed the drink in one go.

“Hey, Minah.” A muscular boy from school, who Rainie vaguely recalled as a senior named Hyukjae, reached for Minah’s hand and pulled her onto the dance floor.

Minah shot Rainie an apologetic look behind his back. Rainie waved at her to say she was fine. Sitting at the table alone with the kissing couple, Rainie started feeling bit woozy. She closed her eyes tiredly, then opened them quickly to see that the couple had detached and the girl was facing her. 

“Are you okay, darling? You look sick.” The girl slurred. 

“No, I’m fi – .” Rainie said as the world started to turn black.

“Oh my god, look at this video!” A girl in desk near the front of the classroom giggled. Her friends surrounded her, eagerly trying to catch a glimpse.

“Wow, what a .” A boy to her left scoffed.

“I knew her whole -Mary act was a joke.” The girl standing beside him nodded in agreement.

Rainie walked in at this moment. The group immediately ceased talking. Suspiciously, Rainie walked towards her desk, pretending to be absorbed with the bulletin board at the back of the room. The boys and girls at the front of the room restarted their conversation, throwing scathing looks back at Rainie.

More students filed into the room, each staring pointedly at Rainie, who opened her textbook in an attempt to look busy. Finally, Minah arrived. Rainie started to get up, wanting to find reassurance and comfort in her friend. What she didn’t expect was for Minah to walk over and slap her full on in the face.

“How could you!? You !” Minah screamed at Rainie.

“What are you talking about?” Rainie asked angrily, holding a hand to her stinging face.

“You know that I like Hyukjae, yet you still go and sleep with him!? What the hell is wrong with you?”

“I didn’t sleep with him!” Rainie cried indignantly. “You’re the one that’s out of your mind, Minah.”

“Yeah, say that to the video of you and him together that everyone has seen.” Minah grabbed Rainie’s textbook and threw it angrily to the floor. Rainie stood speechless, staring at the disheveled book upon the ground.

At that moment, the speakers in the room . “Rainie, report to the headmaster’s office. RIGHT NOW.”

Rainie bent down and picked up her book, and grabbing the rest of her things, fled the classroom with her head down.

Rainie ran down the hallways blindly, refusing to cry. Upon arriving at the headmaster’s office, she opened the door to find her parents and the headmaster sitting before a large TV. From the doorway, Rainie could see a video playing of a girl wearing the same dress she’d worn the night before at the club sitting astride a shirtless boy. The girl had the same hair color as Rainie, but her face was obscured by her hair, which hung like a curtain over the boy’s face as she bent down to kiss him. The two shifted a bit, and Rainie could see that the boy was Hyukjae. The girl’s black-heeled feet were wrapped around the muscular boy.

“Rainie, would you care to explain this video to your parents?”

“I’ve never seen it before, Headmaster.” Rainie looked down. She knew that the girl in the video couldn’t be her. It couldn’t.

“You filthy, useless girl.” Rainie’s father stood up and grabbed Rainie roughly by the arm. He shoved her onto the ground.

“Did you not even once consider your brother’s reputation!?” Her mother yelled as she walked over and slapped the same spot as Minah had.

“That’s not me.” Rainie whispered as she curled away from them and held in her tears. 

“It sure as hell looks like you! Minah says you wore that exact dress yesterday when you convinced her to go to the club with you.”Rainie’s father’s anger was terrifying to behold.

“That’s not true.” Rainie clenched her fists and only then did she realize they were bleeding from the rough contact with the stiff carpet.

“To protect the image of our school, you will be suspended for two weeks, Rainie.” The headmaster looked at her with a strange expression. It seemed like a mixture of pity and disgust.

“Let’s go.” Rainie’s father yanked Rainie to her feet and shoved her out the door.

A/N: The more I write, the more I confuse myself with all the ideas flooding in. I feel like I’m constantly clarifying things. I hope you guys don’t mind >.<  Alright, so this fic takes place in the present time (as evidenced by the existence of Big Byung). This flashback is to a year before the main story takes places, back when Minah and Rainie were friends.  Double update for ya’ll, thanks for being so patient with me!