School resumed, and the students got back to business as usual.

Hee Joo was in the library studying for a major exam when Joon Hee and Bo Woon passed her by. She looked at them enviously.

"Odd. Why do I feel this way?" she asked herself.

She realized she missed having Joon Hee follow her around and doing her instructions like a personal boyfriend slave. She stood up and went to them.

"Ya, do you have this history book?" she rudely asked them while showing a piece of paper with the name of the author.

Joon Hee, clueless as ever, shook his head. "Geu chaeki eobseo (We don't have that book)."

Bo Woon realized what Bratty Princess was doing, so she snapped at the latter.

"That is just an excuse to talk to Joon Hee, is it?" Bo Woon told her.

"Of course not!" Hee Joo snapped back.

"Wae andwae (Why not)?" Bo Woon retorted. "What else would you be doing here, wanting to talk to Joon Hee when you purposely left him the night before Christmas?"

"Do I have no right to talk to a schoolmate about homeworks?" Hee Joo asked.

"Oh, I remember, you have no friends, and Joon Hee was your only friend," Bo Woon told her sarcastically.

"Was?" Hee Joo asked. "What do you mean, 'was'?"

Joon Hee looked at her in hurt.

"You stopped being my friend when you left me heartbroken," Joon Hee sadly said. "I cared for you when no one believed in you, but you broke my heart."

He pulled Bo Woon and went away, leaving Hee Joo shedding tears in anger.

"I so hate them!" she screamed.

"Keep quite!" the librarian shouted from afar.

**************

Hee Joo walked slowly as she went out of the campus to go home. She was not in the mood to take the limo, so she contacted the driver and told him not to fetch her. She decided to hang out some places where she could be alone.

"I think I could use Ki Young's help," she thought.

She sent him a message, telling him to meet with her in the department store. Ki Young replied, saying that he could meet her only at around six, as he still has work. That means, she would be alone for two hours.

"Why not go to the dancing room and practice dancing like I used to?" she thought happily. "Maybe that could lift my mood."

She did as planned, and spent more than an hour dancing her heart out. Finally, before six, she got ready for her meeting with Ki Young.

**************

She got to the department store on time, and saw Ki Young standing near a food stall. She went over to him and smiled.

"Annyeong, Oppa," she politely said.

Ki Young smiled at her and asked her what she wanted to say, and she said they better go somewhere else where there is no food.

"But would you mind if I buy food first?" Ki Young asked. "I'm hungry."

Hee Joo had forgotten that not all people are bulimics like her. She hesitated as she nodded. No to food was her motto in her life.

********

Both of them sat on the benches overlooking a fountain.

"Well, what is it?" he asked.

He knew that she dumped Joon Hee on Christmas eve because she told him, but he did not know why she invited him for dinner the day before Christmas eve.

"I just want to say thank you," she told him. "For coming to my house last Christmas eve."

Ki Young smiled his heartmelting smile. "Ah, I should be thankful to you and to your family for inviting me and my parents."

There were some moments of awkwardness, because Hee Joo did not know where to start.

"Actually, I just want to ask you something," she started.

She told him that although she "broke up" with Joon Hee, she felt envious that the drummer started dating Bo Woon.

"Are you just sourgraping that they are happy and you are not?" Ki Young asked her matter-of-factly.

She sighed. "Maybe. Maybe I was just feeling this way because I missed having Joon Hee around."

"But have you loved him?" he asked her.

She shook her head. "I was just thankful to feel his love and to have a friend like him, but I did not appreciate his friendship and took it for granted. Eotteohkaji? I just don't love him."

Ki Young let out a smile.

"I understand how you feel," he told her. "You cannot instruct your heart on who to love and when to love. It will just come to you."

She smiled sadly at him.

"Maybe I cannot find someone who will love me because I have no manners and I am a ," she replied.

Ki Young looked at her in hurt.

"You really thought no one will love you?" he asked her.

She nodded sadly. "Ne..."

Ki Young placed one arm around her shoulder, pulled her close, and allowed her to place her head on his shoulder.

"If you need a shoulder to cry on, just tell me."

Hee Joo shed some tears upon hearing his assurance.

"I love you," Ki Young told her out of the blue.

Hee Joo sat up straight and looked at him. "Mwo?"

He felt embarrassed having to explain himself again, but he said it anyway. He told her that he started liking her in secret when she came to him one time in the empty hall, when she told him that if he were to perform, he should not ruin her presentation. He knew that everybody loved to  hate her, but her approach to him at that time was friendly and mild. Of course, he was not dense like Joon Hee, but he thought that his secret crush on her should remain a secret. Everytime they rehearsed and they kissed, he always imagined that she kissed him for real. Because of that one encounter, he also had one reason to change and be better than he already was.

"Oppa, do you still love me?" she asked.

"I won't confess if I no longer love you, right?" he said, unsure of the right words to say.

Hee Joo broke into sobs and pulled him into a kiss. Ki Young was caught off-guard because she kissed him like she was hungry for love. Her tongue began playing games with his, and he had to give in because tasted as sweet as her looks. When both of them broke off the kiss, he saw a blush on her cheeks.

"Saranghae, Oppa," she confessed.

"Do you.... love me too?" Ki Young asked.

She nodded and confessed that the first time she felt she liked him was when he announced that he will be working in a drama theater company. She felt sad not being able to see him again, and when Soek Hyun told them about the drama musical, her hopes went up. She kept her feelings hidden because she was still dating with Joon Hee. And after the incident in Catharsis when she and Sa Rang pulled Joon Hee's hair, the drummer hugged her in happiness after she promised to be kind to his friends. She had mixed feelings because she started to feel for the drummer, but she felt strongly for Ki Young more. That was the reason why she told Joon Hee that she does not love him. That was also one reason why the day before she let go of Joon Hee, she invited Ki Young over to her house for Christmas.

"Everytime we are together, I felt more secured, like no one is gonna harm me," Hee Joo said.

Ki Young wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight.

***********

That night, he brought her home, and it was a coincidence that the Madame went out of the gate. Ki Young greeted politely, and the Madame greeted him amiably. She invited him inside the house for dinner. He accepted, and thus, he came in with Hee Joo.

At dinner, Hee Joo announced that she and Ki Young are a couple, and Madame and the Chairman had all smiles for them. They liked the young man for being sensible and "normal", unlike Joon Hee, who, for them, was weird.

Well, it seems that Madame only likes people from the same crowd.