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{26}

I groaned aloud when Seunghyun spoke. Dammit, they must’ve heard my conversation with Tiffany, or at least part of it. Now I have these two guys who’re no doubt going to bug me through the rest of our day. “Why didn’t you tell us?” the taller of the two frowned and I waved my hand at them. I felt like all I talked and thought about nowadays was money, I didn’t want to even see a dollar sign. “This isn’t something you can tell us off about, Taeyeon.” I wanted to ignore the topic but I knew I couldn’t.

“Don’t worry about it,” I sighed, plopping down the bed, and the two surrounded me by sitting at my sides.

“How much do you owe?” Jonghyun asked and I shook my head. “Tell us.” Should I?

“My lost scholarship covered part of my tuition which was $54,000 for the past two years and housing at $5,000 a year, so far, with tax, I need to borrow $63,425,” I said blankly, not thinking much when I opened my mouth. They stared at me with unreadable eyes. I shrugged, trying to be indifferent about it. I was kind of worried. I’d never seen them this serious, even after the many competitions and performances we’ve done together. When we hung out, we weren’t particularly serious. “I’ll visit the bank within the next few days.”

“You can’t! You went to UCLA was because it covered everything, down to the food you eat, you can’t afford to pay off a student loan!” Jonghyun yelled and his voice grated against my skin. The stress was getting to me, and just when I finally had a conversation with my girlfriend. Great.  

“I don’t have a choice, okay? It’s too much money to ask for help, I’ll just deal with it like millions of other students do,” I mumbled. Where is that food, Jesus Christ, I need a way out of this conversation!

“Taeyeon, look at me. What do I do for a living?” Seunghyun stood, gesturing to himself, and it suddenly hit me. He’s a banker, an executive, a high ranking official in the business at that. He must’ve noticed my understanding for he brought his hands up to his lips. “Banks practically thrive on college students, and I’m not kidding at all, when I say you’re the favorite kind of prey.” A chill flew up my spine. He would know all about it. But I couldn’t let them pay for me.

“Guys, it’s more than double the average student debt, it’s more than the average citizen’s salary—.”

“All the more reason to pay for it,” Jonghyun cut me off and I wiped my hands over my cheeks, feeling the heat get to me.

“It’s too much money! I can’t ask you guys to do that for me,” I reasoned.

“Listen to me, Taeyeon, just listen to what I have to say,” Seunghyun insisted and I bit my lips, nodding for him to continue. Maybe having him as a professional in the field made me feel better about listening to his advice. The whole field of finances and economics was out of my hands, I didn’t know much about it. “If you continued living on campus for the rest of the year then you would have to ask for a loan of about $68,000, including tax. Asking for that much money in itself is a hefty amount, so it’s no doubt that the interest rate will increase a bit.” Oh my God there’s interest for student loans! I bit my lip and he nodded. “Yeah, you forgot about interest didn’t you? Interest is already higher for graduate students, so let’s say it’s 6%, which is realistic,” he walked over to the nightstand and came back with a notepad and pen. He was starting to freak me out a little, with the amount of knowledge spewing from his mouth. Seunghyun was never the intellectual or overly passionate type, at least, he never showed it off when we were in high school if he was. “You earn less than the average citizen’s income for your residency, right? So I wouldn’t recommend throwing money to pay your debts yet, but that would mean by this time next year, if you choose to take out a loan, you would owe $72,080.” I widened my eyes when he showed me his math, circling the number a few times to stand out, and it did.

“Dude, it took me forever to pay off my 20 something thousand dollar debt,” Jonghyun whistled and Seunghyun pointed at him.

“Exactly! The interest rate is what kills, it’s meant for you to stretch out your debt longer and longer so the bank keeps getting money. You would owe nearly four times as much as Jonghyun owed over the accumulation of one year,” Seunghyun told me. Oh my God why is this so difficult?! Why is there so much money involved in this?! I knew my salary as a fully licensed and trained doctor in my field wouldn’t be as large in the beginning as people expected and it made me even more nervous. How would I pay that off? Not to mention, I need to live too, I can’t just take my salary and pay it all off in one go, I’m gonna need some of that money for myself. Ugh, but then everything will all just add up with the interest, and the 6% is just an estimated rate, it could be higher. I dropped my head into my hands and groaned.

“Talking about money makes my head hurt,” I complained. I hate finances.

“Then don’t deal with it! We don’t want you to suffer just because you lost your scholarship, we want to help you, let us help you,” Jonghyun patted my back and I groaned again, rubbing my temples.

“You guys just don’t get it,” I mumbled and the banker stood up, throwing the notepad to the wall.

“You’re not the only person that has financial issues you know! I see it every day, I hear about it every day,” he snapped.

“Why can’t you guys just let this go? I can hold myself up!” I shouldn’t have taken their words to heart but I did, they were really getting me mad. I’ve been taking care of myself all this time, despite the doubts and despite the loneliness. The only reason I screwed up was because the coach ed me over.

“Of course you can but don’t you get tired of being scared?” Jonghyun frowned at me. I opened up my mouth but he stopped me. “We all know you’re scared about money.” It couldn’t be helped.

“I’ve dealt with my fears on my own before,” I sighed. I don’t know what or why, but it did something to Seunghyun and suddenly he looked a little taller and a lot more intimidating.

“Do you know why we call you “Mama”?!” he shouted and I blinked at his loud voice. “Yeah, Jiyong was the best percussionist and he was named our leader, but you were the one who roped us in, took care of us, slapped us into shape!” he started pacing and I could only stare as Jonghyun watched with his mouth open. “You were the mother of the section! You were the one who worried over us and made us listen and made us feel secure; you still do! And goddammit Taeyeon, you keep everything to the side and take all the responsibility for yourself. Let the sons help you for once!”

“Yeah! Let us be filial children for once!” Jonghyun jumped up, the two of them all fired up from all the yelling and energy. I couldn’t help but find the scene funny. “You keep helping us and showing us what to do, this is the one time we can help you back! We’re all grown up now Taeyeon, Seunghyun and I can decide if we want to pay for your college or not! You deserve that money more than anyone, dammit!”

“ Taeyeon, we just ing love you. We don’t care how long it takes to see each other again we grew up together, it’s about time we started helping you out after all the you’ve been through, because Satan knows how much you’ve been through!” Seunghyun yelled out and then he and Jonghyun screamed at each other, face to face, just complete nonsense, too hyped up on their adrenaline. I laughed heartily, easily, until it hurt to breathe. Oh I’m crying. I cried in my laughter, in overwhelming happiness and in utter love for these guys. I was just shell shocked. They weren’t the kinds of guys to openly show how much they cared. I grinned, watching Seunghyun run around with Jonghyun on his back, both of them chanting “Mama Tae” at the top of their lungs, touching me to the bottom of my heart. Maybe they did grow up.

 I relented, and after the two calmed down and were too tired to disturb their neighbors anymore, I decided to let them pay for my bills. They made a good case and when it all came down to it, Seunghyun’s new position gave him $50,000 more than he knew what to do with. To be honest, I was extremely relieved to be rid of the burden. I didn’t want to deal with it at all and I wouldn’t know what to do to pay off a loan that only got bigger over time. Thank God I don’t have to pay for all of my schooling. I practically had to pay for a year of medical school and on-campus housing. “Guys, I don’t know how to thank you—.”

“Don’t mention it, Mama. Seriously, you’ve done a lot for us. You’re worth this money,” Seunghyun smiled and I grinned. I couldn’t say that I didn’t like this kind of compliment, where it didn’t accent what I did but rather who I was. I needed it.

“Well, you’re worth more, but you’ll only let us give you this much,” Jonghyun said and I chuckled, pushing his shoulder as he chewed his pizza that was ordered. I still found the face of the hotel staff hilarious when they walked in on Jonghyun riding on Seunghyun’s back.

“I don’t say this often enough but I love you idiots,” I breathed and they smiled. “The percussionists were my rock in high school; even now I can still trust you guys to be there for me.”

“We had each other, everyone else thought the percussionists were in a cult,” Seunghyun said and I was reminded of the stupid joke that the drummers were in.

“Are you still going to be living on campus for the rest of the year?” Jonghyun questioned, taking a big bite out of his pizza. I shrugged and dusted off my hands.

“I don’t have any other place to go to; I’m not close with the family that’s in California,” I finished off my food and leaned back with my palms on the bed.

“Do you want to move out?” Jonghyun asked and I shrugged once more. I would rather move out, just so my friends didn’t have to pay the school another $5,000 but I didn’t have another home to go to. If I asked the family I had nearby, it wasn’t certain that they’d say yes, and if they did I probably wouldn’t feel comfortable living with relatives I didn’t know very well. I also didn’t have the mean to go out and rent my own apartment and no time to get a job that would fit with my already packed schedule of schooling and interning at the hospital.

“Oh!” Seunghyun smacked my arm and I smacked his in response. “No! I mean, I know a way you can repay us, well, at least me,” he noted and I raised an eyebrow.

“Am I going to have to do some really embarrassing thing out in public? Are you going to make me do those stupid hotel hacks?” I guessed and he laughed, shaking his head.

“You should move in with me and Xiumin!”

A/N: I finished up my first quarter in college, finals were killer!

I have mad respect for everyone going through this, especially those who've been doing it for years, it's hard.

Question: where do all of you think Taeyeon's from? Since I never mentioned it, I'm curious.