“Whats taking so long?” Ariel asked urgently, tapping her foot anxiously. 

She was seated with Luke, Uncle Jay, Ara, and Chanyeol, who tagged along with for support, in the hospital’s waiting room. None of the doctors will talk to them right now as much as Luke and Ariel constantly tried. 

“Its been 4 hours already.” Luke announced as he checked his watch. “I just want to know she’s okay.”

“It’ll be okay Luke.” Uncle Jay reassured as he patted Ara’s head which was on his shoulder.

“Nothing’s okay.” Ariel mumbled under her breath. 

Chanyeol, who was sitting beside her, placed his hand on her shoulder for comfort. “Your mom’s going to be fine.”

“Ariel!” A voice shouted from further down the hallway. “Ariel!”

The group looked in the direction of the voice to see Kai running down the hall once he saw them. “Ariel!” He yelled when he reached where everyone was sitting. 

Ariel rose from her seat and stared at Kai emotionless. “Kai? How did you..?”

“Chanyeol told me what happened. Is your mom okay? I’m so sorry.” Kai immediately rushed his words and embraced Ariel to comfort her since he knew how excited she was to see her mom. “I’m here okay. Its going to be fine.” Ariel wrapped her arms around his waist. 

Why do I feel weird all of a sudden?

As if my heart is going to burst into…

Unicorns?

“Thanks.” Ariel pulled away from Kai’s hug and sat back down into her seat, waiting for the doctors to update them on her mother’s condition while Kai sat in the empty seat next to Luke. 

As much as Chanyeol just wanted it to be him to comfort her, he had to call Kai. After all, Kai is her boyfriend. Not Chanyeol. 

“This is taking way too long. What are they doing thats making us wait 4 hours?” Jay said, expressing his agitation with the hospital’s service. “My patience is getting low.”

“You and me both.” Ariel quietly added as she thought about the weird body contact between her and Kai. It kept bothering her because something about that hug was unusual. It wasn’t the same kind of annoying hug she would receive from Kai, but a unique hug which made her feel weird all of a sudden. 

Ariel shook these thoughts away as she saw Uncle Jay stood up from his seat, which made Ara looked at him with a puzzled expression. “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to talk to the doctors.” Jay announced. 

“Well I’m going with you so you don’t injure anymore doctors like the last time.” Ara urged as she grabbed her coat and purse from the chair next to her and scurried off following Jay towards the main desk. 

“I’ll be back.” Ariel announced after Jay and Ara left. 

“Where are you going?” Kai asked as he looked up from his sitting position. 

“To get some coffee from those machines.” Ariel immediately answered without even looking at Kai. She didn’t want to experience that weird feeling again. 

“Hey, I’ll come with you.” Luke said, standing up and joining Ariel to go to the coffee machines. 

The two walked to the vending machines, and Ariel inserted her coins to pick her coffee flavors. 

“Father wants you to come back.”

Ariel raised a brow at Luke’s sudden announcement and scoffed since he knows what she’s going to say. “Are you kidding me right now?”

“I know. I don’t know what to tell you. He want you to come back incase any rumors surface.”

Ariel shook her head. “No, not that. I’m talking about this machine.” She slapped the machine, “It ate my money.” She pouted when she realized her coins weren’t coming back. “Do you have a dollar I can borrow?”

Luke sighed, he reached into his pocket for his wallet and handed Ariel a dollar. “Ariel, come on. You need to come back.”

“Why should I?” She muttered. “I’m perfectly fine living with Uncle Jay.”

“Because I cannot stand to be in the same roof with father and Sooyeon and their soon to come newborn. I need someone else I can bear the pain with.”

Ariel hummed in response to Luke’s reply. She read the screen from the coffee machine which read ‘Please wait 5 minutes for coffee.’ 

“Ariel come on, please come back for me. I need someone with some kind of intelligence.”

Ariel’s leg shook as she patiently waited for her coffee. “I don’t know Luke. Living with that beast isn’t really a home.”

Luke glanced down at Ariel’s shaking leg. He raised a brow at it then looked at Ariel. “Have you been taking your medicine?”

“I told you, I don’t need to take them anymore.” She explained as she saw her coffee emerge from the machine. “Ah its ready~ White chocolate mocha.” She grabbed the cup and took a small sip. 

Luke shook his head furiously at Ariel’s nonsense. “Ariel are you kidding me?!”

She looked at him with confused eyes, “What? I like white chocolate. Do you want some?”

Luke his teeth at her response. “Not the coffee! You not taking your medicine!”

“I don’t need to take them anymore. I’m perfectly fine without them.” She said cooly as she began making her way back to the waiting room. 

Luke followed behind her as he protested more. “Thats not what your doctor and therapist said! Its going to hurt you in the long run especially when you have an anxiety attack.”

“Minor details minor details.” She brushed off his response. “I’m doing my breathing exercises like the therapist taught me. So I’m okay.”

Luke halted in front of Ariel before the entrance of the waiting room. “Regardless if you’re okay right now without them, you need to start taking them. Why are you so hard headed?”

“She gets it from me.” A voice answered. 

Ariel and Luke turned their attentions behind them, where the voice came from, and gaped their eyes with shock. 

“What are you doing here?”

Mr. Choi stepped closer to his children. “Sooyeon had a doctor appointment for the baby. And you?”

Luke glanced at Ariel, who was blankly staring at their father. “Mom arrived in Seoul early.”

“Oh yes, I heard. But that doesn’t answer my question.” Mr. Choi answered. 

“She got hurt so she’s in the hospital to get proper evaluations.” Luke obediently answered. 

“He doesn’t need to know about mom.” Ariel declared. “They’re divorced for a reason.”

“That doesn’t mean I can’t be her friend?” Mr. Choi questioned. 

“Friend? What kind of ex husband/friend stresses them to the point where they need to take medicine for it and have weekly doctor appointments?”

“Okay! It was nice seeing you Dad.” Luke interrupted, grabbing Ariel by the arm and leading her into the waiting room. “Why did you say that?” He whispered yelled. 

“I was simply speaking the truth.” She replied nonchalantly, drinking her mocha. 

Luke and Ariel returned to their seats and continued waiting along with Kai and Chanyeol; while Jay and Ara who were still trying to find information about her mom. Chanyeol and Kai left minutes later, explaining they needed to go back to their dorms before their managers freaked out about them.

Ariel’s phone began buzzing from an incoming call. She looked at the caller’s name and wondered why she was receiving a call from her manager, Megan. She informed Megan of her family emergency earlier, so she wasn’t expecting a call from her since she halted her schedule for the day.

“Hello?” She whispered quietly, to keep her voice low from everyone. 

“Ariel, I know I told you that I canceled everything scheduled for you today..”

“Yeah and?”

“The CEO is rescheduling everyone’s flight to Japan… tonight.”

“Wait why? We’re not suppose to leave for another 2 whole days.”

“He wants everyone to leave early so we can arrive before any fan mobs.”

Ariel stayed silent for a moment to gather in the information she received. She won’t be able to see her mom the second the doctors tell everyone she’s okay, she’ll be in Japan. 

“I’m sorry Ariel. I tried to schedule a flight for tomorrow night but they wouldn’t allow it.”

“Its fine. I know you tried your best for me.”

“Be ready and have all your bags packed in 2 hours.”

Ariel peeled her phone away from her face to check the time, 6:31pm, then said her goodbye to Megan. 

Luke looked at his sister with a concerned expression and switched seats to be closer to Ariel. “Whats wrong?”

“I have to early for Japan.” Ariel answered with stress written all over her face. 

“Go.”

“Excuse me?”

“Go. Our mom’s strong. She’ll understand why you had to leave early. She’ll be fine. We’ll go to Japan together and she’ll be able to watch you.” Luke gave Ariel a comforting hug in their seats. “Come on. I’ll take you to Jay’s apartment so you can pack.”

Ariel sauntered her way through the airport with Megan as they were making their way to luggage check in. 

“Do you want some coffee?” Ariel asked Megan as they arrived at the check in line. 

Megan, who was on the phone with someone from the company, nodded her head as she stayed in line. 

Ariel left her luggage with Megan and walked towards the coffee shop in the airport. She placed her orders and proceeded to wait for them at a side table near the coffee maker machines. 

“Hey.” 

Ariel glanced to the side and returned her attention forward. “Hi.” She greeted quietly. 

“Hows your mom?” 

Ariel sighed quietly, “I don’t know. I had to leave before I could find out.”

“I’m sorry.” 

“Thanks.” Ariel grinned at Chanyeol’s comfort. She was grateful having him around when no one was. “Is Kai not with you? He said he would buy me coffee one day.”

Chanyeol glanced around the area then shook his head when he didn’t see Kai in sight. “I haven’t seen him yet. He’s probably waiting at check in.”

“What are you doing here anyway?” Ariel asked as she tapped her foot lightly against the floor. 

“I just got my drink and I saw you standing here. I just wanted to check up on you.” Chanyeol held up his drink. “Anyways, I have to go before my manager starts worrying about me. If you need anything, just call me.” Chanyeol announced as he waved goodbye to Ariel and left the coffee shop. 

“Two iced mochas for Ariel!” The barista shouted and placed them on the pick up table. 

Ariel grabbed two straws and took the drinks to head back to Megan, who was waiting for her outside the coffee shop.

Ariel held out Megan’s drink in front of her. “Ice mocha.”

“Thank you so much. Coffee is very much needed right now.” Megan took a sip of her iced mocha, “Now come, we have to go to the gate.”

Ariel nodded her head as she followed Megan to the waiting area until the flight was to board. There, she saw Sojin sitting by herself as she was writing something into a journal while her other members were listening to music. Ariel sat down in the empty seat next to Sojin and sighed loud enough for her to hear it. 

“I’m sorry about your mom.” Sojin kept her eyes down onto her journal. She removed her attention from her journal and looked at Ariel. 

“How did you know?” Ariel asked curiously. She hasn’t even had the time to tell Sojin since it happened. 

“Kai told me he went to the hospital to be with you.”

To be with me?

“Yes to be with you idiot.” Sojin giggled as she shook her head. “For someone whose his girlfriend, she is very clueless.”

“Yeah girlfriend.” She mumbled blankly. 

Girlfriend.

“Hey Ariel? Wanna know something?” Sojin asked leaning towards Ariel’s ear. 

Ariel tilted her head slightly and nodded her head in reply. 

Sojin whispered into her ear, “I know you’re not really dating Kai.”

Ariel moved back in her seat, taken back from Sojin’s sudden knowledge of their relationship. 

“Please Ariel, honey, dear.. I could tell when I first saw you two together. It looked so unnatural. But don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.” Sojin assured. 

“No one’s really suppose to know about that…” Ariel mentioned. 

“I know. Why do you think I haven’t said anything about it?”

Ariel changed her seat position by facing her body to Sojin and sitting with her legs crossed in her seat. “Why did you bring it now then if you weren’t going to mention it to me?”

Sojin changed her sitting position just like Ariel did. “Because in the beginning, you both were completely unnatural as a couple.”

“And?”

“And now, it seems genuine between you two.”

“Genuine? Me and Kai? He annoys me to death.”

“Yes, you and Kai. It hurts me to say this as a Cha-Young.. But it seems that you’ve developed some feelings for Kai.”

“Me? Choi Ariel?” She pointed a finger at her face. “Like him? I never liked a guy before.”

Sojin’s eyes widen from Ariel’s response. “You never liked a guy before?”

“Never. I never paid attention to boys.” Ariel shook her head. “What does it feel like to like someone?” She questioned as she placed her hand over her chest. 

Sojin placed her journal on her lap to let Ariel see it. “This is my journal. Its filled mostly about my daily thoughts.” Sojin grabbed her notebook and flipped through some pages before landing on a certain page. “I wrote this about 2 years ago when I had a crush on a trainee named Myungsoo.” She cleared before speaking, “I didn’t think I liked Myungsoo this much. As I thought about him more and more each day, I thought to myself, ‘why do I like Kim Myungsoo?’ When that came to mind, I thought about it even more. Why did I like him