“When did you become a hermit? You didn’t even celebrate Taeyeon’s birthday with us three weeks ago. Don’t you think that as your best friend, I should’ve gotten a memo,” said Hyoyeon, hitting her best friend’s shoulder lightly.

Sooyoung has never told anyone about Yuri and Tiffany’s conversation. She didn’t want to accept the possibility of Yuri going behind her back and making a move on her now ex-girlfriend. She started avoiding Yuri, wanting nothing to do with the tanned girl. She was angry at her and yet she didn’t want to say things to her that she’d eventually regret so she chose to ignore her. In the process of trying to avoid Yuri, she ended up avoiding everyone. How could she go out with her friends when all she could think about is Yuri and Tiffany acting all sweet together. Sure they might not do that but hearing that conversation has made if wary of their every move.

“I’m just busy.”

Hyoyeon raised an eyebrow and flicked her best friend’s forehead, “I saw you the other day just lying around, eating and playing computer games then sleeping. Last night I heard you talking about Diablo III with someone on the phone. So stop lying right now and tell me what’s up before I go diablo on you amigo.”

“Nothing’s up.” She got off her bed and picked up her bag. “I have a class in ten. See you later.” She hastily left the room before she gets chased by Hyoyeon.

She opened the front door and was surprised to see Yuri, looking like she was trying to open the door as well.

“Soo.”

“I’m running late. Can’t talk,” she said but she didn’t have the chance to move when Yuri blocked the doorway.

“Are you trying to avoid me? Did I do anything that upset you? Do you want to talk about it?”

“No,” the taller girl replied shortly and tried to get out but Yuri was determined to know what was wrong.

“So you are mad about something that I’ve done. I don’t know what it is but avoiding me won’t help. If you’re mad at me then go ahead, scream at me and tell me you’re mad. If you want you could punch me or do whatever it is that you want. I don’t want you to bottle it up and I certainly don’t want you avoiding me. I don’t have a lot of friends and I don’t want to lose the first friend that I’ve ever made when I got here,” she said, setting down the grocery bags she was holding.

Sooyoung stared at her and said, “I don’t want anything to do with you so just let me through.”

Yuri refused to move. “No. We’ll settle this here right now. I don’t want you av—“

She was cut off by the taller girl’s fist. Yuri put her hand over , still shocked that her friend actually punched her. “Y-yah,” she stuttered, backing away from the girl.

Sooyoung smirked and walked closer to the girl whose bottom lip was now bleeding. “I should’ve just done this before instead of trying to avoid you. Did you know I wanted to eat at Taeyeon’s house so badly and to hang out with my other friends, huh? Because of you I missed all that.”

“Yah, Choi Sooyoung, how did you even know how to punch like that?”

The taller girl scoffed and cracked her knuckles. “Just because I can’t run like you and I don’t do sports well, you think I can’t pack a punch? Come here and I’ll prove you wrong once again.”

Yuri was really not expecting this. If she knew Sooyoung would take her offer to vent her anger towards her, she wouldn’t have said that.

“I’ll give you a beating that a lying opportunist deserves.”

“Eh?” She backed away even more while thinking of why Sooyoung would say such thing. Lying opportunist? No way…

“Going behind my back like that, huh? You’re not going to fall head over heels for her, you say? You’re full of crap Kwon Yuri,” Sooyoung spat angrily. She held Yuri’s collar before punching her once again making the tanned girl fall on the ground. This time her fist landed on Yuri’s nose.

“I…” she struggled talking when she felt blood trickling down her nose.

“Save it. I would probably be less upset if you just told me the truth but no you had to lie about what you really feel about her. You had to make look stupid! Do you feel better now that she chose you? Does it make you happy that all of those things you did behind my back while we were still together are now paying off?” The taller girl was on the verge of tears.

Yuri stood up and glared at Sooyoung. She wasn’t supposed to be mad but hearing all of those things that she didn’t even do is pushing her off the edge. “Yah!” she shouted as she gave the other girl a shove. “You could be mad at me, you could punch me and push me but I won’t let you accuse me of doing things that I didn’t even do.”

There was a role reversal when Sooyoung started backing up and Yuri was the one closing the gap between them.

“Not once have I showed Tiffany any sign that I liked her. I could have and I wanted to so bad…but I didn’t because I didn’t want to risk losing our friendship. I know how much you like her and I know she liked you too so I kept mum. I tried so hard to forget about my feelings for her because I didn’t want to get in between you two. Do you know how it feels having the girl that you love so near yet you can’t do anything because you’ll break someone’s heart if you do? Do you?” She walked away and sat on their lawn, leaning on the wall of their house.

Sooyoung sat next to her and let the tears that were welling up in her eyes fall. “I hate you.”

“I can tell that much from the punches you gave me. I never meant it to be like this, Soo. I wasn’t lying when I told you before that I won’t ever fall for her…I just wasn’t aware that I already have. I never made a move on her behind your back. I tried to stay away. I even tried to ignore her. What was I supposed to do when she told me that she thinks she’s in love with me? Was I supposed to say I don’t feel the same way? Am I not allowed to be happy? I’ve tried being selfless, can’t I try to be selfish, too?” She tilted her head up and covered her nose with the back of her hand.

“Idiot,” Sooyoung mumbled and pushed her head making her lean forward. “You’ll vomit blood if you keep doing that.” She reached into her pocket and gave her handkerchief to Yuri. “Pinch your nose.”

“Am I supposed to blow here?”

“No, stupid.” She checked the time only to realize that she’s already late. She stood up and grabbed her bag and left, not forgetting to leave Yuri a threat. “Hurt her and I’ll break your neck. Go inside and drink plenty of water.”

Yuri obeyed the younger girl. She stood up and made her way to the door, grabbed the grocery bags and went inside only to see Tiffany who looked like she just got out of the shower.

“Yah, Yul, what the hell? Is that blood on your nose?”

“It’s ketchup. I’m a messy eater,” she said and grinned.

Tiffany went closer and examined her roommate’s state. “Yah, that is blood. Why is your lip also bleeding? Who did this to you?”

Her roommate was without a doubt furious and she’s scrambling to make up an excuse. Saying Sooyoung did it would cause a lot more trouble for everyone so she blurted out the first name that popped into her head. “Taecyeon.”

Sorry dude, I’m desperate. 

She thought about the guy when she remembered him talking to Tiffany the other day and the guy was too close for comfort. That and the fact that this same guy tried to hack into her computer last year.

“Why would he do that to you? It doesn’t make sense.”

“I know, right? I just said his ears could serve as a lampshade. I was just kidding but he took it seriously.” When she noticed that the other girl didn’t seem to be buying it, she added, “I think the guy’s had a little too much to drink.”

Tiffany huffed and checked to see if there were other wounds or bruises forming. “That still doesn’t give him the right to hit a woman. He’s going to pay for this. Him and his Detective Conan-like ears.”

“I bought you beers,” she said in hopes to distract the fuming girl and it worked.

“Really? Thank you. That’s so sweet of you. Let’s get you cleaned up.”


---


“Taeyeon-unnie,” Yoona called and closed the door behind her. “I thought you’d be out spending Sica-unnie’s birthday today.”

The girl lying on her stomach looked up and said, “We can’t celebrate her birthday today. She had to meet up with her group mates. Project.” She buried her face on the pillow once again and minutes later, she fell asleep.

She woke up in the middle of the night but Jessica was still out. She was going to call her girlfriend but when she read the latter’s text message, she just sent a reply and went back to sleep.

To: Taeng
From: Sica
I’m going to stay the night at my group mate’s house. Don’t wait for me.

To: Sica
From: Taeng
Take care. Call me tomorrow if you want me to pick you up. I love you.

Next morning, Jessica woke up in an unfamiliar bed, shirt soaked into what seemed to smell like a fruit punch. She got up and saw Jaebeom passed out on the foot of the bed. “What the hell is he doing here? The hell am I doing here?” She noticed a red plastic cup beside her that probably contained the beverage that was spilt on her shirt by god knows who.

She walked to the closet to see if she could borrow any clothes not failing to notice the pictures mounted on the walls of the room. “Aish, I’m in this idiot’s room.” She grabbed a random pink button down shirt from Jaebeom’s closet and went to the bathroom to change.

“Does it look like a man’s shirt?” she asked herself, twirling around. “This’ll do.”

She grabbed her things and hurriedly made her way back to their own house. She was still sleepy but she needed to go home right away before any of her housemates get up and sees her.

She sneakily went inside their room and checked if her roommates are still sleeping. Yoona’s still sleeping, drooling and snoring even. Taeng…where the heck is she?

The bathroom door opened revealing a short girl yawning and rubbing both eyes. “Sica?”

“Taengoo,” she made her way to the shorter girl and discreetly discarded her shirt which landed on top of the hamper. She hugged her girlfriend and said, “I’m sorry I didn’t go home last night.”

“I know. You sent me a message saying you’d stay at your group mate’s house. For your project, right?”

She nodded but she doesn’t really remember sending her that message. She only remembers falling asleep at someone’s bed.

“That’s not your shirt,” Taeyeon said when they broke the hug.

“Yeah, it’s Seungyeon’s shirt. She likes pink like Fany,” she lied.

The shorter girl frowned when she noticed the buttons on the shirt that Jessica was wearing. “Seungyeon’s a girl, right?”

‘Eh? Of course, I think you’re confusing her with Seunghyun, that other classmate that we have on that…other subject which I forgot.”

She frowned even more when she realized that not only was Jessica lying to her about the shirt, she’s also lying to her about her whereabouts last night.

“I see.”

Jessica pulled her towards their bed and said, “Let’s go back to sleep. It’s too early.”

The blonde haired girl fell deep into slumber in a matter of seconds while Taeyeon continued on trying to make sense of what just happened. Why would she lie to me like that?