“Hey, how’re you feeling?” Chae heard as soon as he opened her eyes. There, beside her was Minzy with her beautiful face laced with worry.

“F-fine.” Chaerin managed to croak out. Fine was nowhere near what she was feeling right now. She felt like and her whole body hurt like hell, plus she was having a major head ache.

“I’ll get you some water.” Minzy stood up and left her in her room.

She clenched her eyes tight remembering how the hell she got home last night. She remembered she was hammered. She totally got wasted after Jiyong left her and then she danced like there’s no tomorrow and then…

Her face paled as she remembered the rest of what happened last night and her eyes started to water too.

“Unnie, what’s wrong?” Minzy immediately approached her, setting the glass of water down on the bedside table. “Why are you crying?” she asked again and rubbed her cousin’s back to try and ease her.

Chaerin shook her head trying to forget everything that had happened. She looked at her arm and saw a prominent bruising. It turned dark purple now and that disgusted her even more.

“Unnie. Do you remember what happened last night?” Minzy asked cautiously. She actually wasn’t there, she just knew because Dara called her, asking if she was with Chae so she asked what happened and Dara told her everything so she came to her house first thing in the morning.

Chaerin wiped her tears with the back of her hand and nodded her head. She didn’t want to cry in front of Minzy. She’ll just scare her.

A pained expression showed on Minzy’s face. “I’m so sorry unnie. We shouldn’t have left early.” She said, regret clear on her voice.

“Minzy, it’s not your fault. It’s no big deal. like that happens.” Lie. Of course it was a big deal. But of course she wouldn’t want to let Minzy think she was too affected. She felt so empty right now. Last night had to be the worst night for her. She could still clearly remember how she felt when she saw Jiyong walking away from her. Maybe forever. Who ing knows?!

“Unnie, where’s Jiyong? I was so sure he’d be here with you.”

Chaerin let out a breath bitterly. “Don’t expect him to be here anymore or better yet, don’t expect to see us together.” she said and just the reality of those words shook her to the core and she could feel a new batch of tears forming in her eyes.

“Unnie… what happened?” Minzy asked shocked. Never would she have expected this. One, because the two clearly were in love and Jiyong wouldn’t be stupid enough to break up with her, surely.

Chaerin just smiled painfully at her, not wanting to say the words because it would make it more real and she just wasn’t ready.

After showering, Chaerin and Minzy went on and cooked their dinner, actually having fun in the process because it had been so long since they goofed around in the kitchen.

“Hey.” Somebody said from the counter that separated the kitchen from the dining room and there stood Youngbae and Daesung, smiling at them.

“Hey guys.” Chaerin said smiling but a bit confused as to why they were here but of course they were always welcome there.

“Hi oppa!” Minzy excitedly said and went directly to Daesung who welcomed her big hug.

“Hi baby.” He said and pecked her lips.

“Get a room!” Chaerin said faking disgust.

“Sure. Can we use yours?” Daesung said jokingly and Chaerin made a barfing face making all of them laugh.

It was nice. For a while there, she forgot all about the pain inside her. But of course that didn’t last long. As soon as the laughter died, she felt the smile slip off her face.

Youngbae didn’t miss the sudden change in Chaerin but the two lovebirds were too caught up in their world to notice.

Chaerin shook her head to shake off the feeling before anyone noticed anything wrong. But it was too late because when she caught Youngbae’s eyes, she knew he knew so she just smiled bitterly at him.

“Anyway, it’s good you guys are here. We cooked a hell lot than we can finish.” Chaerin said, trying to avoid Youngbae’s gaze. “Go sit and I’ll prepare it.” She said and immediately turned around to hide her watery eyes.

The couple went and sat down the table but Youngbae stayed behind, feeling a bit sorry and worried for Chaerin. “I’ll help.” He offered but before he could take a step forward she stopped him.

“NO! it’s okay. I got it.” She said, without turning around, because the tears she was trying to keep in uncontrollably fell.

She thought he had left so let out a silent whimper and let the tears fall hoping they’d dry out already. She knew she’d been crying last night too but she can’t remember everything that happened after the incident.

Then she felt a light pat on her back. “Chae, what happened?” Youngbae said quietly. He knew she was crying judging by the rise and fall of her shoulders.

“Nothing oppa. I’m fine. Just had something caught in my eye.” She said as she wiped her tears and turned to him smiling.

Youngbae creased his brows and hugged her, feeling that brotherly side of him that she was always talking about. “Chae, I thought you said I was like your brother. Then, talk to me like I’m your brother.” He said as he rubbed her back.

“Oppa…” Chaerin started but her voice broke and she started crying again. She really felt grateful for him right now. She can’t cry like this to the girls because they’ll worry like hell and they’d cry too but crying to Youngbae felt easy. He didn’t say anything and just rubbed her back. It felt like she hugged him and cried forever and when she finally calmed down, she wiped her tears with the sleeve of her sweater and pulled back and started to laugh which made Youngbae even more confused now.

“What’s so funny?” he asked, amused.

“It’s just… your shirt. I’m so sorry. It’s totally ruined now.” She said and wiped her face more.

Youngbae looked at his white shirt and saw a clear black smudge. It had to be her eyeliner. It wasn’t a nice sight. He looked like he rubbed himself on charcoal.

“It looks like art. Why are you sorry about it? It probably made the shirt look better anyway.” He said to her and she just smiled at him. Then suddenly remembered she should be serving dinner.

“Oh crap.” She said and started pulling out plates and utensils and filling up bowls with food super fast, leaving Youngbae smiling as he watched her fumble in the kitchen.

“I thought you decided to eat everything on your own.” Minzy said, standing up and helping Chaerin set up the table. “That took FOR-EVER.” The younger said with an emphasis in ‘forever’.

“Why? Were you bored with me, Minzy-ah?” Daesung said, feigning a look of hurt.

“Aigoo. You know that’s not true.” She said and pecked his lips. “Let’s eat. I’m so hungryyy~~” she said and took the first bite.

Youngbae and Chaerin didn’t talk about what happened in the kitchen. Youngbae decided to ask her about Jiyong when they were alone. For some reason, he felt like Chaerin didn’t want to talk about it in front of the others. He actually got a small idea of what happened, since Dara just said they were in some kind of a fight but he didn’t think it would be to a point of breaking up.

He was so confused. What the happened to the two of them? All he knew was Jiyong was angry and Chaerin is hurt. It was a weird actually since just last night, they were okay. Well, before Jiyong stormed out of the club without turning back.

“Thanks for the dinner Chae. It was awesome.” Daesung said while rubbing his hand on his belly.

Chaerin smiled softly. “You should let Minzy cook for you. She’s a pro.” Chaerin said raising two thumbs up.

“Tsk. Unnie’s the pro.” Minzy said shyly. Actually she was very close to Chaerin in the cooking department. They both enjoyed it and it was a good thing they had the hands for cooking. “Anyway we have to go. We have this… thing planned.” Minzy said blushing making Chaerin chuckle.

“Well, don’t let me stop you.” She said already ushering them towards the door.

“Hyung, let’s go!” Daesung called out for Youngbae who just came out of the restroom.

“Uhm… actually, I was thinking I would stay for a while and help Chaerin clean up the mess we made.” Youngbae said. Chaerin knew that wasn’t the reason. He wanted to ask questions and she wasn’t sure if he was ready.

“You don’t need to, oppa. I can do it.” Chaerin said.

“Actually I just don’t wanna be stuck in the same car with those two” he said motioning to Minzy and Daesung “they’d be all over each other and I’m not sure if I can handle that.” he said, wincing. It was just another excuse of course.

“Pft. Whatever hyung.” Daesung said whilst Minzy blushed from embarrassment. “But really though, how’re you gonna leave. You didn’t bring your car, remember?”

“Dara’s coming here later. She told me.” He said, smiling like an in love idiot. Just mentioning Dara’s name made his heart flutter.

“Well, that explains it.” Minzy said smiling. “So we’ll go now. See you tomorrow unnie. I hope you’re really okay.” she said, still worried. But Chaerin nodded and smiled at her to reassure her. “Okay then. Bye to you too, oppa!”

Daesung said his goodbye too and they left.

“And then there were two.” Youngbae said as he closed the front door.

“So come and help me then, oppa.” Chaerin said, slowly starting to fix the table. She hoped Dara would come sooner so Youngbae wouldn’t ask too much questions.

Youngbae worked fast. In just ten minutes, everything was fixed, washed even. Chaerin tried to slow down the process but Youngbae was having none of that. He knew Chaerin was moving slow on purpose so he practically just did everything,

“Whoo. That was easier than I thought.” He said and flopped down the sofa.

“Here.” Chaerin handed him a glass of orange juice, feeling a bit guilty that he did all the work.

“Thanks.” Youngbae said and downed the drink in big gulps.

Chaerin sat on the sofa too, giving just the right amount of space for friends. They didn’t talk for a while which was actually so awkward, since even the television was on so they could practically hear every movement making it extra awkward.

“So…” Youngbae started. “I went to Jiyong’s place this afternoon.” He said looking at her to see her reaction.

But Chaerin kept her poker face. “Oh really?”

“Yeah. Apparently, he didn’t go home last night. His father called me.”

“Ahh…” Chaerin said, nodding her head a bit, still remaining stoic.

“Was he here with you?” Youngbae asked carefully. He didn’t want Chaerin to get angry too because he remembered how Jiyong reacted when he asked if he was with Chaerin.

Chaerin sighed. “No. He wasn’t here... I think.” She said suddenly unsure since she couldn’t really remember everything from last night. “Oppa…” she wondered if he knew something.

“Yeah?”

“Do you happen to know how I got home last night?” she asked a bit embarrassed.

“Hmm…” Youngbae was surprised with the question because all the while he thought Jiyong was with her but since they both denied, he actually didn’t know too. It was because he was the designated driver last night. TOP and Seungri were hammered and Daesung already left earlier with Minzy, leaving him responsible for the two guys and their girlfriends too. He had just said goodbye to Dara through text then since he couldn’t do to the bar anymore because he couldn’t leave his friends. But Dara was very understanding and just told him to be careful.  “I’m sorry Chae, I don’t know…”

“Oh…” Chaerin just nodded her head.

After a few moments of silence he started again. “So what happened between you and Ji?”

There was a fair amount of silence before she found her voice. “I think we b-broke up.” she said trying to feel strong but failing miserably. Tears found their way to her eyes again but she wouldn’t let them fall. Not this time.

“You’re kidding right?” Youngbae’s jaw fell and his small eyes got real big.

“I wish I was.” Chaerin whispered.

“Wait. Maybe you just had a misunderstanding or something. Jiyong he… he… sometimes he says things he doesn’t mean when he’s angry.” Youngbae tried to help his friend and Chaerin appreciated the effort.

She just smiled sadly at him.

“What really happened, Chae?” he asked, still wondering how they broke up when clearly they’re crazy for each other.

“He told me not to wait up for him in the morning anymore.” She said taking a deep breath. “That’s practically the same as ‘We’re over. Don’t bother me anymore.’”

“No its not. Maybe he just said that because he was pissed or something. What happened?”

“He saw me talking to Jay and just got angry. I didn’t even do anything. Jay just ordered and said sorry for disrespecting Minzy before and that’s it then the next thing I knew was me and Jiyong screaming at each other and him walking away.”

“That’s it?” Youngbae asked, confused since if it was just that then why the hell was Jiyong so angry this afternoon and where the hell was he last night if he wasn’t with Chaerin?

“Y-yeah?” Chaerin said unsurely. She wasn’t sure if Youngbae knew what happened to her and Dara last night at the club. She was gonna talk to Dara about it first.

“But Ji—“

DING DONG.

The house beeped making both of them jump a bit. Chaerin let out a breath of relief, realizing it was probably her Dara unnie.

“I’ll get it. “ she stood up and went for the door.

“Hey Chae. How you doin?” Dara said and wrapped her slim arms around Chaerin.

“I’m good. You?”

“Been better.” She smiled and was surprised to see Youngbae standing behind Chaerin. “H-hey Bae.” She said then looked to Chaerin who mouthed ‘Don’t tell him about it yet’ and she just nodded her head and went to hug Youngbae.

“Hey. Sorry I couldn’t stay last night. TOP and Seungri were wasted.” He said apologetically and kissed her cheek.

“It’s okay.” Dara smiled understandingly. “I didn’t know you’d be here. I thought we would meet up later?”

“Well, I accompanied Dae here a while ago since Minzy was here and decided I would hang with Chae here for a bit while waiting for you too so I would see you sooner.” He smiled sweetly.

“Aww. Sweet.” She said and pecked her lips.

“Bleh.” Chaerin said catching their attention. They laughed at her fake disgusted expression and continued to act sweet.

Deep inside Chaerin was really just jealous since Jiyong and her used to do that every time and it was them who would throw disgusted expressions their ways. She missed him.

She missed him so much it hurt.