Taemin was outside with Byunghun, who handed him the journal. For a second, he stared down at the journal for quite some time before taking it from Byunghun's hands. When he flipped over to the latest page to read, his eyes widened after he read Byunghun's journal entry. 

"You're dating the manager girl?" Taemin asked, blinking his eyes.

He turned slightly red. "W-Well, yeah. I asked her out and we kind of started dating…"

"I thought you were into Sunyoung."

"I was, but she changed and she has a boyfriend."

"Yeah, but I heard that they've been fighting. I thought you were going to take advantage of the situation and ask her out or something. I never thought that you'd date the manager girl."

"Sohyun," Byunghun finally clarified. "The manager's name is Sohyun." His ears turned even redder. "At one point, I guess I kind of liked Sohyun better than Sunyoung."

"Or maybe it's because you just like managers," Taemin playfully remarked.

"Whatever, bro. Anyway, do you have any tips? You've been dating Soojung, right?" Byunghun reminded him.

Taemin slightly frowned. It was true that he was dating her, but things haven't been going so well. For all he knew, Myungsoo was crushed. Whether it was because of Soojung's tactics or not, the sole purpose of being in a relationship with her was gone.

So why wasn't she breaking up with him?

"It's a bit complicated, but we're getting somewhere," Taemin muttered. Maybe we'll go nowhere soon.

"You seem like you're having trouble. What's going on? Tell me," Byunghun said, giving his friend a small nudge.

Taemin forced a smile. "No, it's nothing. Really, don't worry about it. It's just something between me and Soojung."

Soojung knew that Taemin was waiting for her. It wasn't that he was waiting for her at the café, but he was waiting for her to break off the relationship. So why wasn't she keeping up with the deal?

She didn't know.

"I'm so sorry that I'm late," Soojung said, gasping for air. She looked down at Taemin, who was casually drinking a cup of coffee at a table in the corner.

"It's fine. I was kind of expecting you to be a bit late, anyway," he said. "Hyeri texted me, saying that you were coming from her house."

Soojung frowned. "Hyeri did?"

"Yeah. We talk to each other occasionally," Taemin said, sipping some coffee. Actually it's her sending me the messages. I don't really reply.

"I-I see," Soojung muttered, nodding her head. She always wondered when he got close to her best friend. Sometimes, she wondered why he was even friends with Hyeri. As for as she knew, he wasn't really interested in making friends with strangers.

Maybe it's because he thinks that since she's my best friend, he has to treat her nicely, too, Soojung reasoned. She frowned and shook her head. No. Impossible.

"I need to talk to you," Taemin said, his lip.

Soojung frowned. Is this it? Could this be it…?

"Can you help me pick out a gift for my friend?" he asked. "Do you remember Eunji? She actually has a boyfriend, but her boyfriend is in critical condition. He's in the emergency room, and she can't even visit him. My friends decided to pick out a gift for her, but I'm not sure what to give her." He paused. "I would also like to buy a gift for her boyfriend, but I don't know if he's going to get better…"

"Well, that's a little mean," Soojung commented. "You're basically stating that you don't believe that he will live and just die. Death isn't an easy topic."

"Look, there's two types of people: those who already gave up and believe in death, and those who still hold onto hope and miracles. It just happens to be that I'm the first type of guy, and my friend is the second type," Taemin said, shrugging his shoulders. "When time is up, the time is up."

"Funny," she remarked sarcastically. "So what were you thinking of?"

"Didn't you listen to me? I don't know what to give her," he repeated.

"Okay, well tell me about her personality."

"She's…the mature one? Maybe less mature than another friend. She's less dependent on us, I guess? But she's also the dependable one, too."

"You with descriptions."

"I don't think you can do any better," he retorted.

"Is that a challenge?"

"Isn't everything a challenge for you?" He kept quiet for a moment. Then, with a small frown, he continued. "Um, Soojung? Speaking of challenges, don't you think that you're done with your task with Myungsoo? Isn't he crushed already? I don't know if you did it or not, but he's at the state you want him to be: crushed, broken, and depressed. Isn't it time for us to bre—"

"You know what? I know this cute little shop down the street, and I'm sure they have tons of stuff you're looking for!" Soojung exclaimed. She pulled him out of his seat. "Come on! It's not like that store is going to open all day, am I right? What's really important right now is for you to choose that gift for your little friend!"

What am I doing? she wondered. Just when Taemin was about to cut off all ties, she stopped him. She changed the subject, and tried to drag him along with her own pace. I hope he doesn't know that I know what's going on.

She glanced over her shoulder. He gave her this look—a small frown and pursed lips—that told her that he knew. He knew that she knew about the need to break up.

However, he didn't say anything, as if he still wanted to spend a little more time with Soojung, too.

Hours passed by. The two jumped shop from shop, trying to figure out the perfect gift to give to Eunji. It was difficult for Taemin to pick out the gift, and every time Soojung suggested something, he'd disagree on the gift.

"It's too cute."

"It's too bland."

"Do you really think someone like Eunji would like that?"

Soojung started getting annoyed. She never thought that Taemin would be so picky with his gift. Maybe he felt a little something for this 'Eunji' friend, too?

Oh, come on, Soojung. You're being pathetic, she thought, rolling her eyes. You can't get jealous over something this. You just can't.

"Maybe I should just get her some led pencils or something," Taemin said aloud. He wasn't used to shopping for hours. He was getting irritated with himself, too. "Eunji really doesn't need anything. She's perfectly fine with what she has right now."

"Wow, you're giving up pretty quickly," Soojung remarked.

He sighed. "It's not that I'm giving up. It's just that she's so prepared and everything that she never needs anything. Maybe I'll just give her some lessons or tips for school. Maybe I can take a test for her or something."

"No way. You'd never cheat," Soojung said. She looked up when he kept quiet. "You've cheated?"

He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "It's not exactly cheating…"

"I want to hear about this," she said, her ears perking up. "What did you do?"

"It's actually something I did at my friend's house," Taemin said, looking through a couple of cute notebooks at the side. "To be honest, I wasn't really supposed to be in the special class."

"What did you do?" Soojung asked, eyes wide.

He hesitated. "It's nothing, really…"

"Nope. You can't take it back. I'm totally interested in this topic," she said, grinning. His facial expression dropped, and Soojung knew that it was serious. She stopped smiling, then gently reached over to touch his hand. "You know that you can tell me, right?"

He pressed his lips. Then, he let out a loud sigh.

"I stole her identity," he said quietly.

Soojung frowned. "What?"

"I wasn't supposed to get into the special class. You see, something happened with the school system when we enrolled to the high school. They lost information except for the numbers. The numbers we carried would tell them if they were accepted to our school or not, but they had no idea who would go in the class. So, I stole Junhee's number. She was originally supposed to be in the special class, but I managed to swap it when I went to her house one day." He looked down at his shoes with guilt. "So, I stole her number, registered with my name and my information, and boom! I was part of the special class. Junhee found out and she was furious at me because she was in the normal class now. Then I went on and became a jerk. I told her that she didn't even belong in the special class, and I think that kind of hurt her. She went along with it, of course, but she was a lot more quiet after that. Of course, I apologized, but the guilt never disappeared."

Soojung blinked her eyes. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, if you didn't steal that number, you wouldn't have met me…"

Taemin stared. Then, he looked down again with difficulty.

"Soojung, I've been wanting to talk about us," he started slowly. Before she had the chance to say anything else, he slipped out the words as fast as he could. "We should break up."

She didn't say much afterwards. "Why?"

"Don't you want to break up?" he asked. "I mean, there's no reason for us to keep our relationship together."

"W-Well, that's true," she muttered awkwardly. "That is very true…"

"So why are we still together?"

Because I like you, she answered silently. She was quite surprised that she was able to find such an easy answer. Was that it? "I was thinking we could spend a little more time…in case you felt hurt."

I ruined it, she thought, her heart dropping. Her ego had gotten in the way of their conversation. She looked up, biting her bottom lip. She saw Taemin stare at her, surprised. 

Then, he brought one hand over his chin. He thought carefully about her poor excuse. With a slow nod, he began to agree with her response.

"I guess that's reasonable," he said. "I do feel a bit upset that we're breaking up for childish reasons." She widened her eyes, but he stopped her trail of thoughts when he extended his hand. "So, this is the end?"

She looked down at his hand for a long time. It took her a while to understand that he was asking her to shake his hand. It would be a shake that would break off all ties—the end to their relationship.

Don't cry, she told herself. You brought yourself into this sticky mess.

With a weak heart, she reached over and grabbed onto his hand. She felt his firm grip around her small hand, squeezing it as if he didn't want to let go. Before his emotions could get to him, he let go and withdrew his arm.

"Goodbye, Soojung," he said firmly. He walked passed her, leaving the shop. Before he was out of her sight, she chased after him outside.

"W-Wait! Taemin!" she exclaimed. He stopped and turned, which ached her heart. "We can still talk to each other at school, right?"

He paused. "I guess, but we wouldn't be doing the things we do like before."

"Then what's our story?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why did we break up?"

He looked at her. "Obviously I'm playing the bad guy."

She blinked her eyes. "What?"

"Make me the bad guy, and I'll confirm whatever you made up," he said. He turned around and waved his hand. He walked faster this time, hoping that Soojung wouldn't stop him.

Don't think about it, he told himself. If you think about it, then you'll lose focus.

Ring, ring!

Taemin kept walking and pulled out his phone. He accepted the call, not knowing who it was.

"Hello?" Taemin answered. When he heard no response, he looked at the screen. Eunji's name was displayed across the top of the screen. He placed the phone back against his ear. "Hello? Eunji, what's up?"

"… I hate myself," she whispered. Before he had the chance to ask her what was the problem, she hung up. Blinking his eyes, he stared at his phone. 

The next few minutes, he received a text from Jieun. His eyes widened, and started running to his house.

Help. the text read. Eunji's boyfriend passed away a couple of hours ago.

"Have you talked to Eunji yet?" Taemin asked through his phone.

"She hasn't been picking up. I'm worried," Dasom said. She let out a shaky sigh. "Was it always so hard to communicate? Why couldn't she just tell us that she's upset over Howon's death?"

"This is Eunji we're talking about. She's always the one who can help us when we need her." He paused. "I guess she never felt that she could lean on us."

"I'm scared, Taemin. This hasn't happened before. Eunji was never the one suffering. She doesn't deserve this," Dasom mumbled.

"She doesn't," Taemin agreed. "What did the others do?"

"Oh, they tried everything. She wouldn't even pick up Jieun's calls and refuses to let anyone visit her," Dasom reported. "We're planning to check up on her before the funeral date. You're coming, right?"

"Of course," he replied. He looked down at his desk and spotted the journal sitting there. He stared at it for a long time, flipping random pages. Then, with a short sigh, he ran his fingers through his hair. "Dasom, about the journal… I'll write my entry, but can we stop writing the journal until second semester starts? I feel like it's just going to be filled with bad memories, and I'd hate to put that."

There was a long pause. Dasom was hesitating, but she could definitely see what Taemin was trying to say. With a big sigh, she continued.

"Okay," she said. "Hide it somewhere safe. We'll start again in second semester."

"Alright. I'll see you soon," Taemin said. He hung up, then tossed his phone on his bed. He took the journal from the desk, wrote his journal entry, and tucked the journal under several other notebooks in his desk drawers.

"I'll see you next semester," he whispered to the notebook. With that, he closed the drawer and never opened it until second semester began.

Author's Note: So part 1 (or semester 1) has ended. Part 2 will wrap things up. I can see this story going up to 60 chapters, but I'm going to try to shorten the length of total chapters. Anyway, here is the new (and improved) character chart for semester 2: