“What did you get yourself into, Donghae?” Seohyun asked as he surveyed his injuries: half-shut left eye, bleeding lips, black and blue right cheek, and some bruises on the arms.

“I didn’t do anything,” Donghae innocently said, groaning when she placed a cold compress on his cheek.

Seohyun sighed. “Your eyebrow is bleeding,” she said, straightening up to get some cotton buds and alcohol on the other side of the room. “It needs stitches.”

“Can’t you just… bandage it or something?” he asked, almost pleading. He gave her the best puppy dog look he could muster.

“That’s not going to work on me and you know it,” she reminded him, rolling her eyes. She dabbed her brow with cotton buds soaked with alcohol.

“It was worth a try,” he muttered, gritting his teeth at the pain. “But I really don’t want to attract attention to myself.”

“Right,” she responded in sarcasm, “because your whole face being black and blue doesn’t attract attention at all.” She put a hand on her hip and glared at him. “How do you intend to keep this from Jessica? She’s not as stupid as you think she is.”

“I don’t think she’s stupid,” he said defensively. “I’m just going to be absent from school for a couple of days, that’s all.”

“That’s not all,” she chided. “Skipping school should never be an option for cover ups.”

“Maybe for you,” he mumbled.

“I heard that,” she told him. She looked at him squarely in the eye. “I suggest you tell her. You should know by now that girls hate being kept in the dark on anything.”

“I just don’t want to stir up trouble,” he said with a sigh. He stood up and walked over to the mirror to look himself over. “I look like Frankenstein.”

“And you’ll be forever Frankenstein if you don’t get those stitches,” she replied solemnly. “You should go to the hospital. You need professional help.”

“I don’t think I can bring myself,” he said, making an excuse. He was sure that Seohyun wouldn’t accompany him. She was already irritated at the fact that he asked her to help him, interrupting her study time.

“That’s what I’m here for,” Siwon said, suddenly walking in. He stopped in his tracks when he saw Donghae. “We really have to do something about him,” he said, referring to Hankyung.

Donghae shook his head. Then he looked curiously at him. “Don’t you have something to do with Tiffany today?”

“She understands,” Siwon said with a tone of finality. “I’m bringing you to the hospital.”

“You didn’t tell her, did you? Coz she’ll definitely tell Sica and—,” Donghae rambled. Seohyun rolled her eyes and shook her head.

Siwon put a hand on his shoulder. “No, I did not tell Fany. But you will tell Jessica.”

Donghae’s answer was merely a sigh.

~ * ~

Seohyun very nearly banged her head on the table. Shortly after Donghae and Siwon had left for the hospital, Hyoyeon arrived. She said she wanted to study with her, which she became excited for. But the whole time she was there, Hyoyeon did everything but study.

“Hyo, I really don’t know why you chose to torture me of all people,” Seohyun whined, burying her face in her hands. She’d been talking about Shindong non-stop. About how she missed talking to him about everything, about how they never saw each other anymore. It was all about her and her non-existent love life.

“I just… It’s weird now that he’s not around,” Hyoyeon mulled over softly. “I didn’t think I’d so affected by him being gone.”

“What are you talking about?” Seohyun asked, irritated. “He lives just around the corner.” She gestured her arm in the direction of Shindong’s house. “Just ring the doorbell and talk to him since you miss talking to him so much.”

Hyoyeon gave her a weird look. “What are you talking about?”

“What?” Seohyun looked exasperated. “I don’t understand why you’re rambling to me when you could go and talk to him yourself.”

“Who are you talking about?” Hyoyeon asked.

“Who are you talking about?” Seohyun shot back, looking confused.

“Shindong,” Seohyun answered.

“Eunhyuk,” Hyoyeon shared at the same time.

“What?” they chorused.

“Stop,” Seohyun said, putting a hand up. “This is giving me a headache.” She looked at Hyoyeon curiously. “You were talking about Eunhyuk? Why were you talking about Eunhyuk?”

“Er,” Hyoyeon stammered, suddenly uncomfortable. So she was babbling to someone who didn’t understand what she was talking about?

“Do you like him?” Seohyun clarified. “Eunhyuk, I mean.” She looked at her friend closely. When Hyoyeon hesitated, she gasped a bit then asked, “Really? Since when? Why didn’t I know about this?”

“I don’t know. Probably because of the whole Taeyeon thing,” Hyoyeon answered reluctantly. She looked at her friend. “I don’t know if I like him.”

“You obviously do,” Seohyun told her surely. She looked lost in thought for a moment and muttered, “I can’t believe I didn’t see this before.”

“I didn’t either,” Hyoyeon mumbled.

“What happened to liking Shindong?” Seohyun wondered aloud.

“Can we stop talking about this?” Hyoyeon pleaded. Now that it was all out in the open, it seemed so final and it scared her to talk about it.

“You brought it up,” Seohyun reminded her. She studied Hyoyeon for a moment.

“What?” Hyoyeon asked fearfully as she scrutinized her.

“I think… I like Eunhyuk for you,” Seohyun finally stated.

“Really?” Hyoyeon asked, surprised. She never asked for her approval since she never liked any of her crushes, but it was nice to know that she liked whom she chose this time.

Seohyun shrugged. “So what brought this on?” she asked curiously. They’d known Eunhyuk as Shindong’s friend and Taeyeon’s best friend. But they never really gave importance to him since they didn’t know him well.

It was Hyoyeon’s turn to shrug. “I don’t know,” she softly answered. “He just… he listens to me, like the things I say are the most interesting things in the world.” She sighed quietly. When he left for Japan, it was so sudden that she didn’t get the chance to say goodbye. Not that she had to or that he wanted her to. But she wished she were able to.

Seohyun stood up and went across the room. She fished something from the bottom of her bag. After sitting down across from Hyoyeon, she looked at her friend for a moment then handed her a piece of paper.

“What’s this?” Hyoyeon asked, looking at it. It contained a bunch of numbers scratchily written.

“I was wondering why he asked me to give you this,” Seohyun recalled. Hyoyeon gave her a curious glance. “It’s Eunhyuk’s number. If you hadn’t mentioned this now, I would’ve forgotten all about it. I suppose it means that he wants you to call him.”

“Thanks, Seo,” Hyoyeon said appreciatively, grinning like a mad woman.

“Now please leave my house, go home and call him,” Seohyun ordered. “Stop torturing me.”

Hyoyeon did as she was told, but not after she gave Seohyun a tight hug.

~ * ~

Hankyung was hanging out with Shindong and Kyuhyun at his house. Kyuhyun was feeling blue and, for old times sake, he decided to say yes to the guys’ invitation to hang out and have some drinks. It had been a while since he was able to hangout with them like this.

“Kyu, drink some more,” Hankyung offered, pouring more Tequila in his glass.

Kyuhyun snickered and drank his refill. At the back of his head, there should be something more important that he should be doing instead of drinking with his old friends, like maybe winning Taeyeon back. But he’d tried so many different things to get her to talk to him that he just grew tired. He didn’t know what else he should do. He didn’t know what else he could do to prove how much he loved her. So now he was just going to drink and enjoy time with his friends.

“So Kyu,” Shindong began drunkenly. “What’s up with you and that Taeyeon girl?”

“Yeah,” Hankyung seconded. “You still going out with her?”

Kyuhyun smirked and shook his head. “She doesn’t want to have anything to do with me.”

“That ,” Hankyung replied, shaking his head. “She was a cute, little thing.” He leaned closer to Kyuhyun. “How was she?”

“How was she…?” Kyuhyun repeated, his brow furrowing.

“You know what I mean,” Hankyung said, patting his back, chuckling. “Was she good in bed?” Kyuhyun chuckled to hide his growing anger. “What?” Hankyung pressed. “Did you make her scream real good?”

Kyuhyun suddenly stood up and grabbed Hankyung’s shirt collar. “Shut up,” he growled darkly. “Just because you disrespect your girlfriend, doesn’t mean we all do.”

“Calm down, Kyu,” Shindong said, standing up and putting a hand on Kyuhyun’s shoulder.

“What’s wrong with you?” Hankyung demanded.

Kyuhyun let Hankyung, who pushed him back, go. Hankyung angrily straightened his shirt and sat back down, while Kyuhyun walked over to the balcony to let his head cool down. This kind of conversation wasn’t anything new between them guys, especially when Kyuhyun used to be into that kind of lifestyle. But he had changed. This was exactly one of the reasons why he shied away from his old life.

Kyuhyun walked back to where the others were. “I’m taking off.”

“Already?” Shindong asked, surprise. He stood up and put an arm around him. “Kyu, c’mon. You know how Hankyung is. He was just kidding.”

“Yeah,” Kyuhyun responded. “I’m still taking off.” He nodded civilly at Hankyung, who just stared at him then walked to the front door. When he opened it to step out, he took a step back. “Jessica, what are you doing here?”

“Hey,” Jessica said, surprised to see him. “I, uh… is Hankyung inside?”

Kyuhyun followed Jessica towards the veranda, where the two other boys were resuming their drinking session. In seeing Jessica, Shindong choked, while Hankyung stood up so quickly that his chair stumbled over.

“Sica,” Hankyung said, taking a step towards her.

Jessica greeted him back with a loud slap on his left cheek. Kyuhyun raised his eyebrows in amusement.

“What the hell!” Hankyung yelled.

“That’s for what you did to Donghae,” she nearly screamed, clenching her fists.

“What he did…” Shindong trailed away, glancing at Hankyung. “I thought you said you weren’t going to do anything?”

“He deserved it,” Hankyung darkly replied. “Nobody messes with my girlfriend.” He got another hard slap because of that.

“In case you haven’t heard the news, I am not your girlfriend anymore,” she declared heatedly. “And I’m not going back to you, Hankyung. Ever.”

“Sica,” Hankyung began, his features softening. He made a move to reach for her hand, but she moved away.

“If Donghae gets so much as another scratch on him…” she threatened. “I don’t care if it’s directly by you or not really your fault, I’m going to hold you liable.”

“I can’t believe you’re exchanging me for that guy, a geek!” Hankyung spat, his anger back.

“He’s a geek that respects me. He’s a geek who listens to me. He’s a geek who knows me,” she calmly stated. “He’s always going to be more than you’ll ever be.”

~ * ~

“What are we doing here? It’s freezing,” Taeyeon said, tightening her jacket around her. Sungmin had asked Sunny, who asked a couple of them to tag along, to a special place that he wanted to show her.

“You didn’t have to go, you know,” Sungmin told her, pulling Sunny closer to him.

“Hey, I asked her to come,” Sunny defended her twin, pulling Taeyeon closer to her and putting an arm around her.

Truth be told, Taeyeon didn’t know why she agreed to go with them. Sunny was with Sungmin, Tiffany had Siwon and Jessica stayed close to Donghae. She was everyone’s third wheel. Sighing, she hung back and walked behind everyone, enjoying the surrounding snow. Everything was blanketed in white, a sure sign that Christmas was just around the corner. It was like walking through dreamland.

“You okay?”

Taeyeon smiled at Jessica. “Isn’t Donghae going to collapse without you?”

“Funny,” Jessica replied, making a face at her. “Have you talked to him?”

“I want to give him the space that he needs,” Taeyeon said, shaking her head. “He doesn’t need me bothering him.”

“I meant Kyuhyun,” Jessica elucidated. When Taeyeon showed some surprise, she bluntly asked her, “Do you even think about you and Kyuhyun anymore? Coz all you seem to think about is Eunhyuk.” 

Taeyeon mumbled something inaudible. Before Jessica could scold her as nicely as she could, Taeyeon suddenly stopped walking and looked around. The place was suddenly all too familiar. It smelled and felt familiar.


“I come here when I want to clear my head,” Kyuhyun said, walking up behind her and wrapping his arms around her.

“Uh right,” Taeyeon said, suddenly lightheaded. Being in this close of a proximity to Kyuhyun turned her brain to goo.

Kyuhyun released her, sensing that she didn’t like him hugging her. “Sorry,” he apologized. “I made you uncomfortable.”

“No, you didn’t,” Taeyeon said, shaking her head. He looked at her pointedly and she sighed. “It’s just… I can’t think straight when you do things like that.”

He chuckled. “Really?” he asked in amusement. “That’s interesting.”

“You don’t have to rub it in,” she muttered, looking down. She was sure her face was red.

He touched her chin and lifted up her face. “I won’t do anything you don’t want me to. I know that you’re very apprehensive about relationships. I want to tell you that I’ll take care of you.” He slowly reached down and held her hand.

She looked down and smiled at him. She then looked out at the view. “So why did you want to come here now? We have lots of other days to go here.”

“I wanted to go now because there are some things that I want to tell you,” he said, looking intently at her.

“Me first,” she suddenly said, squeezing his hand and facing him completely. “I want you to know that, even if I’m not good at this kind of stuff – actually, I don’t know anything about having a boyfriend… I want you to know that I’m going to do my best to be perfect for you, to be the kind of girlfriend that you deserve.” She stopped when she realized what she just said. “Oh my god, I’ve turned sappy. Is this what happens when you get into a relationship?”

Kyuhyun laughed and hugged her, resting his face on the crook of her neck. “You don’t have to try to be perfect coz you already are.”

Taeyeon pushed him away. “If you keep saying those kinds of things, we’re going to turn into one of those mushy couples that I hate. We might turn into Sungmin and Sunny.” She shuddered visibly.

“Alright alright, no more mushiness,” he said, raising his hands in surrender. “Unless necessary.”

“When is it going to be necessary?” she asked, wrinkling her nose.

“Trust me, it will be,” he assured her.

Taeyeon shrugged. She leaned against the railing once more then glanced at him. “So what did you want to tell me?”

Kyuhyun was quiet for a moment. “I just wanted to say that I’m happy when I’m with you and that, no matter what happens, I’ll always be just yours.”


Taeyeon closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Remembering the promise that he made all those months ago, before everything had unfolded, she realized that he had done his best to fulfill it time and time again. Before things had gotten bad, he had been the perfect boyfriend to her. Even when things went downhill, he made sure to make his presence in her life noticed, telling her that he was always going to be around. With everything that had happened, she had failed to be the girlfriend that he deserved. She didn’t even try to understand him even for a little bit. It was unfair. Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes. Maybe it was time that she fulfilled her promise to him.