explained the reason for my lack of updates on my other fanfic and my thoughts about Jessica's dismissal in my other fanfic- click here if you're curious!

“So, why did you call me here today, despite your schedules?” Seohyun asked but she had a feeling she already knew why.

“Stop asking the obvious.” Yoona muttered while munching on a bun. Seohyun grabbed the bun and tossed it onto a plate. ‘Don’t eat that, you’ll get fat.”

“But I haven’t eaten one in ages,” Yoona pouted, and reached out for it. “Just one!”

“No. “Seohyun smacked her hands away. “I don’t want to receive a call from you later at night and listen to you whine on how you shouldn’t have eaten the bun for an hour.”

“Gosh, you are such a nag, Hyun.” Seohyun stuck out her tongue playfully. “So why did you call me here? I need to go soon.”

“About that, erm…” Yoona shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “You’ve already seen it, right? On the news?”

“No, what?” Seohyun tried to keep a straight face and was THIS close to laughing. Yoona looked so scared.

“That…I’m starring in a new drama with him.” Yoona said timidly. “Kyuhyun.”

“I mean, it’s not even up to me!” She continued. “My manager just signed me up for the role because he thought that this could help me gain more popularity. My agency even reprimanded me when I was hesitant at first! They were like, who in the right mind would reject a role with Kyuhyun-“

“Yoona.” Seohyun cut her off, and gave a reassuring smile. “I’m okay with it.”

Yoona lifted her head and looked at her. “Really? You’re okay?”

“Yeah.” Seohyun gave her a slight smile. “I understand that this is your job, and besides- you are my bestest friend in the world. How could I?”

Tears started to well up in Yoona’s eyes, and she grabbed Seohyun’s hands. “Thank you, Hyun, you have no idea how important this is to me.”

“This is what I should do, after all that you’ve done for me.” She gave Yoona’s hands a squeeze.

*

As Seohyun walked home, she did lots of thinking.

Did she feel jealous? Nope.

Was she angry with Yoona? Definitely not.

Was she hurt? No.

So what was this lingering uneasy feeling in her heart? As her feet slowly took her home, she suddenly got it….

She was neither hurt nor upset. She was worried. For Yoona.

“Unnie.” Hana flicked a grain of rice at her. “Why do you look so…… tired?”

“I’m not.” Seohyun gave Hana a half-hearted smile. Her mind was still thinking about Yoona and everything that could possibly happen.

“Talk to me, I’m so bored.” Hana whined. “You’re no fun.”

Seohyun sighed and sat up. “Hana…… if you know one of your friends are gonna get hurt, what would you do?”

“Save her, obviously.”

“But what if you can’t?”

“I’ll do everything I can.” Hana told her. “When there’s a will, there’s a way, right? You’re the one who told me this.”

Is there really a way?

That night, Seohyun sat on the windowsill, contemplating whether she should stop Yoona.

Of course she wanted Yoona to take on a role that would shoot her to more fame, but at the same time, she didn’t want to see Yoona get hurt. Yoona was the only friend of hers whom stuck to her from the beginning to the end. Even when all her “friends” left her after her family became bankrupt, Yoona stayed.

“Yoona….” Seohyun sighed as she stared at the photo frame on her nightstand, displaying a picture of their happy faces taken during graduation night. “Please steel your heart.”

*

Flashback:

(Seohyun is 15 and Yoona is 16)

Seohyun slipped into a seat and let out a grunt. It was only 15 minutes into her first day of school and she was already waiting for the school year to end.

She looked around and tried not to glare at the people that were staring at her. Didn’t they know that it was rude to stare at someone? She was about to get out her phone to complain to her mother when someone stopped at her seat and cleared .

“Hey, this is my seat.”

Seohyun turned to face her, and was simply….struck with awe. She had never seen someone this pretty before, and was amazed that someone could be this pretty. She was even prettier than Seohyun, but of course Seohyun wouldn’t admit it.

“But I got here first.”

“Whatever. Can you get off my seat now?”

This wasn’t a question or a plea; it sounded more like a demand. Before Seohyun could open to say anything, she cut her off.

“Hey Miss Seohyun-shi, I don’t care if you’re rich and famous, but this is my seat.”

This was interesting. Nobody had ever dared to talk to her in this manner (except her parents, of course) and this was something new to her. She liked this girl’s feisty attitude, and the fact that she was different compared to the other girls that had tried to get into her good books on the way here by showering her with compliments.

Subsequently, she found out that her name was Im Yoon Ah.

And later, Im Yoon Ah became her first friend in the school.

*

“Hey, you’re finally here!” Taeyeon beamed as Seohyun stepped into the house. “You were taking forever.”

“It was raining!” Seohyun panted as she closed the umbrella and wiped her face with her hands. “You have no idea how freaking heavy the rain was-“ She stopped in mid-sentence as she stared.

Standing in front of Seohyun was a woman whom face she knew so well.

“Mrs Jung?!” Seohyun almost screamed with disbelief.

Mrs Jung walked over to her and hugged her. “I missed you so much, Hyun! Look at how much you’ve grown.”

Taeyeon watched the whole exchange with wide eyes. “How do you …..”

“She was my teacher as well as my personal counsellor back in high school.” Seohyun laughed. “Whenever I had problems, I would go and find her. She knows all of my secrets.”

“Oh…that’s cool. You do know that she is Master Yong’s mother, right?”