Sora glared at Ynna for a moment and when she noticed a professor passing by, she just cussed under her breath and stormed away. “Are you alright?” Ynna asked as she turned to Milan who didn’t go to her class. “I’m fine, really. My things are sabotaged though and I don’t have enough money,” Milan sighed. “Can’t you borrow some from EXO?” Ynna asked. Milan shook her head. “They shouldn’t know I still study. I don’t want any of them to find out. I want my university life to be kept a secret,” Milan told her.

“Whatever. Anyways, let’s go to class together. Philosophy’s the way to go!” Ynna said as she locked her arm with Milan’s. “Gladly!” She cheered.

Meanwhile…

The boys were rehearsing for the next comeback. The lyrics were done and the tune was imported from a good friend of Milan’s. All they had to do was follow the dances given to them by Nana, a famous choreographer in China. It was a 15 minute break, the first after hours of dancing. The boys were dead tired. They haven’t got used to this type of rehearsal.

“Hey, Chanyeol-ah, what’s up? You’re not too jumpy these days,” Baekhyun said as he sat next to Chanyeol. Chanyeol rotated the bottle of water in his hands before smiling at Baekhyun. “What do you mean?” He asked. “Fess up. Is this about Mil?” Baekhyun whispered so no one else could hear. “What? Uhh…” Chanyeol paused for a moment.

“You like her, don’t you, Chanyeol-ah?” Baekhyun said as he confronted Chanyeol in their room. “Who?” Chanyeol asked as he blinked his eyes a few times. Baekhyun approached him and stopped him from strumming another tune on his guitar. “You know who I mean, Chanyeol. Now, tell me, do you like her?” Chanyeol bit his lower lip, avoiding the other’s gaze. “And what if I did?” “What do you mean what if you did? Chanyeol-ah, stop that nonsense. I don’t want her to be in a heap of trouble if you like her. She’s here for work and not romance. And you’ll get hurt in the end…”

“Mil is working hard for us, ah. She’s working hard for her family too. We may not know a lot about her,” Baekhyun said as he shook his head. “So the best thing to do is support her and not be an obstacle to her goal. She never wanted to work with us anyway,” Chanyeol hinted hurt in Baekhyun’s voice. It was obvious he was still affected by what Milan said weeks ago.

Baekhyun was one sensitive person after all.

“It looks like you’ve come to like her too,” Chanyeol remarked, avoiding Baekhyun’s gaze. He slowly nodded. “She truly became EXO’s little sister. I never thought I could have a little sister like her. She knows how to let us feel the love you can get from a woman,” Baekhyun said. “Pretty much, she knows how to handle us. Almost like our manager,” Chanyeol laughed a bit. “It’s like there’s nothing wrong with her life. It’s like she was living the dream if you ignore the fact she doesn’t like her job that much,” Baekhyun said.

“She’ll learn to love it someday. I know she will.”

“I hope so.”

“So who does she like?”

“Excuse me?”

“Who does she like? I mean, who’s her bias out of the twelve of us?”

“Do you really want to know, though? I promised her to keep it a secret. You’ll know by her actions though.”

Chanyeol played with his phone and soon opened it up. He saw an article with a familiar face in the picture. “Mil?!” Chanyeol almost stood up. “What? What’s wrong with Mil?” Suho asked immediately after hearing the younger one’s outburst. “It says here she pulled someone’s hair and insulted that person. They have proof but we know Mil’s not that type of person,” Chanyeol said as he showed them his phone.

They all were shocked and Kris took the initiative to call Milan through Line since she was more active there. “Hello?” Kris said in English. “Oh, oppa?” Milan said. “What’s with this you pulling someone’s hair?” Kris said in English of course so the members hardly understood him. “Oh, I knew that’ll come on the net soon. Well, I’ll explain later. I have something to do now. Bye,” Milan hung up.

“So what did she say?” Suho asked. “She’ll explain later. I’m being suspicious what that girl does when she’s not with us already,” Kris said. “At least she’s not a sasaeng,” Luhan remarked. “Nothing is scarier than those people. Those people get pictures of us in creepy ways,” he said as he put his hands on his hips. “Real creepy,” Xiumin added as he nodded.

“Let’s just trust her for now and practice harder. We shouldn’t let this bother us. Mil will surely scold us if she knows we’ve been talking about her instead of working hard,” Suho sternly said. All of them nodded except for Chanyeol and Lay. “I hope she’s okay,” Lay mumbled before taking one more gulp of water. “We all hope she’s okay,” Chanyeol whispered before stretching his body.

After school hours…

“That Sora really gets on my nerves. Ugh!” Milan almost slammed her bag into the cemented streets. “Now EXO thinks I’m a violent person,” she mumbled. “You aren’t?” Ynna innocently blinked her eyes. “I’ve always thought you are though,” she remarked. “Well, here in Korea, I’m not. I’m trying hard not to start anything big but then that lame excuse for a dancer comes in and destroys everything,” Milan hissed.

“How am I going to explain this to the boys?” Milan sighed as she looked at Ynna. “Nothing’s wrong with telling them you’re still studying and you’ve been bullied by their fans,” her friend said as she combed her hair with her hand. “Why are you so sure about that? I don’t want to make those boys worry you know.  If they knew I’ve been studying, they’ll surely make me concentrate on my studies first before my work which I don’t want to do if I want this hellish assignment to be done. And if they knew I’ve been bullied, they’ll surely confront every person that told me to stay away from them. I don’t want that. I never wanted that,” Milan shook her head.

“You also never wanted to work with them and here you are, being their little sister. Milan, you have to tell them sooner or later or they’ll find out. What’s your excuse for the incident today then?” Ynna asked Milan, looking into the other’s eyes. “I…” Milan shrugged. “I’ll just tell them that woman started it and sabotaged my things during my work since it is the truth,” she said after pausing a few seconds.

“Sora won’t stop soon. You know that, don’t you?”

“Of course, I know. That girl is more stubborn than I am or when Chen-oppa is when he wants something.”

“Just… be careful, okay? I don’t want you to get hurt. I shouldn’t have forced you to go here with us.”

“It’s alright. Without you, it’ll be pretty lonely in the Philippines. I wouldn’t have a best friend to bother.”

Ynna just smiled gently at her. “That’s nice,” she said. “Anyways, this is where we’ll go our separate ways. See you tomorrow, Milan,” Ynna said before departing. Milan sighed to herself. The climate was cold so Milan had to hug herself tightly as she walked towards the dorm. Her bonnet hid her hair fairly well, and she was thankful because of it.

“This is what a woman like you deserves,” Sora used a pair of rusty scissors to cut Milan’s hair after school hours. She was cornered by the other sasaeng fans that studied in their university. “That fits you,” Sora said before throwing the scissors at the wall behind Milan and leaving her there with her ruined hair. Milan didn’t think of crying. She held unto the tips of her hair and just frowned. She took the bonnet out of her coat’s pocket and put it on her head. “I really have some explaining to do,” Milan said before going out of the building to meet up with Ynna.

Milan stopped in her tracks when she saw EXO’s van pulling up in front of the dorm. She heard the boys’ chattering, complaining about their rehearsals and how they were tired.

How am I going to explain /this/ to them again?