I let out a slight groan as Lizzy put her entire weight on my back, forcing my nose to meet my straightened knees as my fingers reached out towards my toes. This marked the end of yet another intense cheerleading session as we were engaged in our cool down stretches. It was off-peak season so the team's focus was on building up our foundations; repeated routines practised till we could perform it with ease and confidence. Today's focus was on our 360degrees mounting of pyramids moving onto 720degrees and that was equivalent to me being the main star as the team's top flyer. All the jumps and rotations left me giddy from exhaustion after two hours.

“Alright team, good job today. I'll see you guys on Monday,” Nana concluded the practice session.

With my eyes barely opened, I dragged my feet over to my bag and picked it up with all the remaining strength within my body.

“Hey Yuri, you ok?” Raina asked in concern.

“Well...I'm dying haha,” I joked half-heartedly in between the truth.

The YaDong couple shot me concerning looks before asking the question,”Is Woohyun picking you up today?”

The question could have been easily answered with a firm yes had it been asked a few months ago in the early stages of our championship trainings but recently, things were totally different. The routine of picking me up after trainings were gone, so were the mornings he sent me to school and evenings he'd pick me up; everything we were used to had changed. However, the standard transport arrangements were not the only thing that changed, it was obvious that we were drifting apart. Without the frequent meet-ups before and after lessons, the times we actually met each other was greatly reduced as well since we had no common classes. We only met up once a week during the weekends when we would either just laze around because Woohyun claimed to be too tired or simply hang out at the mall where I would indulge in some shopping for the both of us. Woohyun barely stayed overnight at my place, I knew a bulk of those nights away from me were spent with his notorious gang and would undoubtedly be full of alcohol. However, the most painful difference has to be the emotional aspect, the connection I used to feel with my fiancé, my best friend, was gone.

“No he's not but I'll be fine,” I replied after the long pause.

“Come on princess, we'll walk you home,” Hoya graciously offered the services of his boyfriend and him.

Unable to turn down such a kind and attractive offer having such fun company on my walk back, I accepted it with a smile.

The walk back was fun and comfortable as we talked about everything under the sun; from examinations to training to our personal lives.

“So how did you do babe?” Dongwoo directed the question pertaining to our mid-semester exams at me.

“Oh, I did really well!” I exclaimed excitedly, evidently proud of my personal achievements after working hard.

“Oh yah, did you score for the psychology assignment? The one you were working on with Myungsoo over summer?” Hoya asked out of curiosity.

“Yeah I did.”

“So...did you score with your hot partner as well?” Dongwoo couldn't help but tease me about getting paired with Woolim's heartthrob.

I replied his question with a whack on his back and subsequently began another round of laughters amidst the three of us. However, the next query from Hoya threw me off.

“Hey, really, what's wrong between you and Woohyun?”

I was hoping that this topic would be avoided but I should have known better, things like this could never escape my close friends. I remained silent, hoping that they would brush it off but to no avail.

“Things are so different nowadays...he doesn't fetch you from trainings any more...and letting his precious fiancé walk home alone at home? That doesn't feel right for Woohyun at all. I know he is probably hanging out with his friends and all but that's no reason to abandon his beloved girlfriend right? Did something happen between the two of you?”

I shook my head in honest response; I sincerely did not know what was wrong. As far as I was concerned, we were fine.

“Is he hiding something?” Dongwoo prompted; causing a wave of uneasiness to surface from within.

Hoya and Dongwoo exchanged worried glances before continuing with their advices.

“Communication and trust is essential in a relationship babe, you should never hide things from each other. If he's mad at you for any reason you should definitely make him tell you, you can't prolong things this way. Me and my honey over here, I never let him sulk at me for more than twelve hours,” Hoya explained as he placed a kiss on Dongwoo's lips as emphasis.

Their innocent peck on the lips evolved into one involving tongues and teeth and I found myself shifting my eyes away from the free gay .

We arrived outside my dorm soon enough and we bid our final goodbyes as the YaDong couple assured me that I could look them up any time I wanted if I need help and advice, an offer I graciously accepted once again.

I hit the showers the moment I entered my apartment, letting the water wash away both my physical and emotional weary. Thinking back on the conversation with the affectionate YaDong couple, I had to admit that Hoya was right, it was important for me to get to the bottom of this situation, Woohyun was my soul mate for nineteen years after all.

Stepping out of the showers, I took a glance at my clock and realised that the night was still moderately young; 10pm. Taking into account that it was a Friday night, I grabbed the cardigan hanging off my clothes hanger and made the decision to go over to Woohyun's for a surprise. It had always been him coming over to my place and never the other way around, guess it was time for me to put in some effort in making a meeting happen.  

I inhaled deeply before raising my hands into a fist to give a knock. Drawing my wrist backwards, I suddenly hesitated, unable to comprehend why there was a wave of uneasiness crawling up my back. Pushing the sensation aside, I drew in another breath as I proceeded to knock on the front door of my fiancé's apartment.

Knock. Knock.

Placing my hands back down to my side, I patiently waited for Woohyun to open the door. A few minutes passed and I was almost about to turn and head back home after a failed surprise when I heard a moan emitted from within the apartment. Curious and confused, I proceed to deliver a couple more knocks to the door, louder this time round.

This time round, the door swung open partially within seconds and my fiancé's face appeared through the crack with a head of mess. His annoyed expression turned into one of complete shock when he realised who had turned up uninvited at this hour.

“What...what...are...you...erm...doing here?” Woohyun started stammering; something unusual for someone of his confidence level.

“Well...do I need to have a reason to visit my fiancé?” I remarked, uncertainty evident with every word.

Awkward silence filled the air between us once again, making me regret even trying to come over to fix things. Unfortunately, the tension only thickened subsequently as a moan of 'baby' suddenly sounded out from within his apartment, causing my orbs to widen unnaturally.

“What the hell was that?” I blurted out.

Woohyun's face depicted that of horror and my suspicions were only growing stronger by the second, my mind running wild and uncontrolled at a possible affair happening right underneath my nose.

“I was...erm...erm...watching ,” Woohyun breathlessly sounded out.

“Oh,” I replied in complete understanding, dispelling all negative thoughts I was harbouring about my cheating fiancé moments ago.

“I'm sorry baby,” I apologized.

Woohyun instantly returned to his familiar confident self I was used to, shrugging off the apology, “it's alright, no biggie.”

“Erm...you need help?” I kindly offered.

Instead of being grateful and excitedly accepting my offer, Woohyun returned to his flustered state and immediately started refusing me profusely.

“It's fine baby, why don't you go back and get your beauty sleep and I'll come over first thing in the morning alright?”

At that, I relented graciously with a soft goodbye and goodnight, looking forward to a better tomorrow.

“Sungyeol is behaving worse than a demanding girlfriend, he wants a striptease performance for his birthday can you believe it?! At Super Club! A prestigious classy place!”

Woohyun started whining to me about his new best friend's outrageous demands the moment we met. I stirred my hazelnut milk coffee whilst listening to him rant, feeling uninterested in the current topic and nervous knowing that I had to bring up the main topic of discussion soon.

“Baby how do I convince Jongwoon-hyung to allow me to have strippers in his club?”

Despite my disinterest, I had to satiate my fiancé anyway, “I don't know, maybe you get him another turtle to add to his collection? When's Sungyeol's birthday any way?”

“Next week! And baby you're a genius!” Woohyun excitedly exclained whilst placing a peek on my cheek.

Next week. The 27^th of August. What a coincidence, it was also the anniversary of our engagement party; the day we officially started calling each other fiancés. I couldn't believe it. Did Woohyun actually forget? For the past three years we never failed to celebrate the day with either a fancy dinner, a romantic day out or even a short vacation.

“Next week as in the 27^th of August?” I attempted to drop my fiancé a subtle hint.

“Yup the 27^th...I can't believe he made me book the entire club for a freaking Saturday night as a birthday present...the huge amount of money aside, I had to fight with twenty other possible events Jongwoon-hyung had lined up...”

Yup. He definitely forgot.

“Oh my god babe! I completely forgot!” Woohyun suddenly stopped rambling and yelled out, initially shocking me before I saw a glimmer of hope, maybe he didn't forget after all.

Shooting him a small smile, I waited for him to continue his sentence.

“I haven't called to book the DJ the boys want! That hot girl with huge .”

I felt my heart drop and as Woohyun put the conversation to a halt and started scrambling for his phone to make his all important phone call, I decided that I didn't feel like talking anymore. 

Cutting across the administration building to get to my psychology class, I slackened my pace as I had ample time to make it to class punctually. However, just as I was passing headmaster Kim's office, an all-too-familiar person made an appearance; exiting the room and closing the door behind him with an angry face.

“What are you doing here Woohyun?” I asked in pure shock.

“Oh there you are princess. You would know wouldn't you huh?”

“What the hell are you talking about?” I angrily retorted, no idea what my fiancé was insinuating.

“Headmaster Kim threatened to pull me out of the soccer team.”

“Why would he do that for no valid reason? What did you do?!” I was getting more and more annoyed by the second, there was definitely something going terribly wrong with Woohyun which I was unaware of.

Woohyun gritted his teeth and hissed in anger before replying me with the truth,”I flunked my mid-semester examinations.”

My mouth hung open in pure shock; we were both A-grade students. I suddenly felt extremely betrayed and my eyes started b in tears. I honestly couldn't even comprehend the turmoil happening within; my emotions were all over the place.

“What? How? Why? Which ones?” I was beginning to be incoherent; spurting out random words.

“All of them.”

“Nam Woohyun! What have you been doing these past months huh?! How could you just lack behind in your studies like this?! You know this isn't just about you right? How are you going to live up to mum's and dad's expectations?! You're letting not just our family down but the entire Nam and Lee empire!” my outburst was unintentionally but Woohyun's comeback was totally ridiculous.

“You're screaming at me?! What have you done huh?”

“What have I done?” I countered back.

“You! You and your little toy boy. You set this up didn't you?”

“What the are you even talking about Nam Woohyun?!”

“I'm sure Kim Myungsoo had something to do with this. The both of you are just out to ruin my life right? Forcing me to quit the soccer team? Dream on !”

With that final hurtful statement, Woohyun stomped away, leaving me behind as I felt the first drop of tear slide down my cheek.  

Who will have the last laugh?

Author's Note:

The contest that I have entered this for has it's deadline in exactly a month's time from now...6 more chapters till the end + 1 epilogue and possibly another ending note linking back to the contest...

Thanks for all the support so far...I love the bunch of you who never fail to comment <3