They began walking away from the direction their friends had just left in, heading toward a slightly more residential side of the area.

“So you finally had a chance to meet the girls,” Daeho offered as they moseyed off. “What did you think?”

She raised an ironic eyebrow before bursting out laughing - somehow, after all of the chaos with Soonbok throughout the night, it struck her as funny that he could ask that so matter-of-factly.

“I like them both a lot,” she informed him, grinning widely. “I wish I’d gotten a chance to talk to Mikyung a bit more, though…”

“Oh, you’ll have plenty of chances,” he announced dismissively. “We’ve been doing a better job lately at forcing her out from under the mountain of work she creates for herself.”

“It’s funny, she said almost the exact same thing,” Caden revealed, remembering Mikyung’s parting words.  She glanced over at Daeho, studying him carefully for a moment - an unspoken inquiry resting on the edge of her lips.

In the end she shook it off, choosing to address another point of interest instead.

“The Club President…” she began thoughtfully.  Daeho groaned good-naturedly.

“Yeah, the President always hanging around doesn’t make that job any easier,” he chuckled.

“They don’t really get along,” Caden observed pleasantly.

“That’s a bit of an understatement,” he said with a thoughtful smile. “Although I’ve never expressly asked the President about it, I’ve watched them interact for a little over a year now, plus I’ve listened to plenty of tirades from Mikyung.  From what I can tell, he resents her for being so capable and reliable among the members, despite her lower position and the fact that she splits her time among other clubs-”

“I caught that as well,” Caden pointed out with a grin. Daeho paused, looking down at her proudly.

“Ah, so smart!” he said, reaching out to give her an affectionate squeeze. “Noona catches on so fast.”

She laughed, swatting him away jokingly.

“-and the other theory,” he continued, grinning mischievously, “-now realize that I came in at the tail end of this, but apparently when Mikyung first joined the club in her first year, the President immediately developed the same awkward infatuation toward her that he now has toward Soonbok.”

Caden gasped over-dramatically.

“Jilted love!” she murmured, sharking her head sadly.

Daeho, who had been poised to continue with his story, paused to look her over with a mixture of confusion and amusement.

“Just where exactly did you learn that phrase?” he demanded teasingly.  She stopped to seriously consider this for a moment, apparently just as clueless as to how this phrase managed to work its way into her vocabulary.

“Must have been my historical dramas,” she announced finally, nodding slowly.

Daeho shook his head at her with a grin before noticing that they were beginning to drift slightly off topic.

“Now if you’re quite finished distracting me with your weird Korean words,” he teased. “Where was I..?  Oh yeah, the President’s feelings-

“Obviously she took his awkward confession even more poorly than Soonbok-”

Caden raised a doubtful eyebrow.  Daeho chuckled, proceeding to explain,

“True, Mikyung wasn’t physically violent,” he said with a grin, “but all she needs are her words to effectively crush the spirit of a man who displeases her.”

Caden burst out laughing at this.  Daeho grinned, pleased by her reaction.

“You’ve noticed that despite Soonbok’s attacks and general distaste toward the President’s feelings, she still hasn’t managed to shake them?” he continued pointedly. “Such was not the case for Mikyung.  And thus, their current relationship.”

“I see,” Caden replied, feigning serious consideration. “Yes, I think I understand now.”

“It’s a pain for her, but eh… the President will graduate after this year anyway,” he concluded with a shrug of his shoulders.

“She’s probably counting down the days,” Caden joked with a grin.  She paused, looking thoughtful for a moment before inquiring,

“So have you only been an English club member for a year?”

“I’ve only been a college student for a year,” he replied cheerfully.  She looked over at him with some confusion, mentally calculating their age difference versus the amount of time that she’d been out of high school.

“Oh - don’t hurt yourself now,” he teased in English, before continuing in Korean with a grin. “I completed my military service right after graduating.  Honestly, I figured it would be best to get it out of the way before doing anything else, rather than having to stop in the middle later.  Hyung did the same thing - that’s why he and Mikyung are in the same year of schooling and Soonbok is only a year behind.”

“That’s interesting,” Caden said contemplatively. “I didn’t think that most guys completed their service so early.”

“It’s not that typical,” he agreed. “I think that most guys can’t stand the idea of their classmates becoming their sunbaes, so they start at least a year or two of school before joining.  Some wait until much later, after graduation even.  It just depends.”  He paused before shooting her a grin. “Actually, I think Mikyung is ten times more bothered by the fact that she’s become my sunbae than I am.”

“Were you and Mikyung classmates in high school?” Caden asked in slight surprise.

“We were in the same year in school, yeah.  We weren’t in the same class though,” he informed her mildly.

“Hyung, Soonbok, Mikyung, and I all grew up in this area.  We went to the same high school, but I wasn’t close with Mikyung back then - we didn’t have any of the same friends.  We only started spending time together after I started college and joined the club.  Of course, by then I had already heard plenty about her from Soonbok.”

Caden grinned widely at this.  Daeho smiled back before glancing around.

“Ah, here we are,” he announced happily.  They approached a nice looking apartment building on a relatively quiet side street.  

Daeho quickly entered the code for the front door, holding it open to allow Caden to walk past.  He nodded pleasantly to the person behind the counter before directing her toward the elevator.

“So, obviously I know how you and Jung Su know each other,” she continued, chatting casually while they waited. “How did you and Soonbok become close?”

“Ah, the elevator,” Daeho pronounced brightly, maneuvering her gently inside before pressing the button for his floor.

“I mean, she was a grade below you,” Caden continued when he didn’t immediately reply, hardly bothering to notice that they were traveling downward. “Were you also childhood friends? Or- she and Jung Su haven’t been dating since high school, have they?”

The elevator came to a stop and the doors slid open.  Daeho sighed, looking over at her with an expression of mildly amused exasperation.

“No, they didn’t date back then,” he admitted finally. “Actually… Soonbok and I dated in high school.”

He grinned at her surprised expression before nodding toward the open door, making his way off the elevator and down the hall.  Caden stood frozen, apparently stunned, staring after him in confusion.

When Daeho reached his door to find that she had still not followed, he glanced back with a look of impatience.

“Are you coming?” he asked plainly.  It wasn’t until the doors began to close on her that she finally snapped out of it.

She caught the door, hurrying after him belatedly.  Daeho shook his head with a small grin, entering the code on his door before leading her inside.

It wasn’t until that moment that she finally registered that they were in the basement.

She had read up a little on half-basement apartments while checking out possible living situations in Korea before she had landed her job with YGE.  From what she could tell, there tended to be somewhat of a stigma toward basement apartments - both because they used to be much worse than they were currently and had a higher likelihood of flooding, pests, and temperature control problems - and because Korean people might view someone living in a basement as not being able to afford a “real” apartment.

According to most of the foreigners online, as well as her eyes, as she looked around Daeho’s place, most half-basements were typically fixed up, relatively nice and clean places which were slightly cheaper than their aboveground counterparts.

She wasn’t particularly surprised that Daeho wouldn’t be turned off by other people’s perception of his quarters.

“This is nice,” she offered with a smile, allowing her attention to momentarily drift from the minor bombshell that had been dropped on her in the elevator. “Do you have a roommate?”

“Nope, it’s all mine,” he replied cheerfully. “If I had wanted a regular apartment, I probably would have had to find a roommate, or live in a shared house, but I’d rather just pay less and live alone to be honest.”

Caden grinned to herself, proud of her entirely accurate characterization of her friend.  She followed him over to the small ottoman that stood in for a couch or other seating arrangement.

The moment they sat down and began making themselves comfortable, Caden was back to business, shooting Daeho a knowing look as she waited for him to get settled.

“What’s that look for?” he joked after a moment, upon noticing her attentions.  She gave him an impatient look.

“So?” she pressed, waiting for him to elaborate upon the origin story of his group of friends.

“So… tonight was pretty fun, wasn’t it?” he asked brightly, laughing at Caden as her face instantly screwed up in annoyance. “I’d say that was a successful first meeting, don’t you?”

“Yes.  Stellar.  Couldn’t be better.  A night to remember,” she shot back sardonically, which only made Daeho grin.

“Did Jung Su and Soonbok really meet because you and her dated?” she prompted finally when it became clear that he still refused to restart the conversation by his own free will.

Again he shot her a look of half exasperation, half amusement.

“It’s true,” he finally admitted. “Well, sort of… We didn’t date immediately, but Jung Su did meet Soonbok because of our friendship.”

“Is that what you guys were talking about all ‘cryptically’ earlier at the convenience store?” she prompted slyly, throwing some English in to describe a concept that her limited Korean couldn’t properly express.  Daeho laughed in mild surprise.

“Wow, I thought you were too drunk to notice,” he teased, earning a swift elbow from Caden.

“Yeah, you’re right though,” he eventually admitted with a sheepish grin. “Like I was telling Hyung - I knew I would fill you in on my backstory soon… I just didn’t expect it to be brought up almost immediately.”

“You severely underestimate my ability to be totally awkward,” she joked in English, which set him laughing in earnest.

“Well, I might as well tell you the whole story then, since it came up,” Daeho pronounced agreeably. “I wouldn’t want you thinking that I’m hiding anything, or that I don’t trust you.”

The smile on Caden’s face faltered just a fraction of an inch.  She suddenly heard Naira’s voice in her head, lecturing her regarding her own omissions, as she waited for her friend to continue.  She pushed those thoughts aside, focusing on the discussion at hand.

“Soonbok and I actually met in middle school,” he began casually. “We were both attended the same school and English hagwon- shocking turn of events, I know-”  He paused to grin while Caden laughed appreciatively.

“Anyway, we got along quite well from the beginning, even though she was a year younger.  We had a lot in common… a similar world view, as it were.  I guess I’d say our philosophies meshed?  We started hanging out with each other’s group of friends at lunch.  I introduced her to Hyung, who was surprisingly tolerant of our annoying middle school attentions.  She started coming over after school - my parents and all of my various exchange siblings inevitably fell for her, as people are apt to do.  We even stayed close for the year that I moved on to high school without her, surprisingly.

We usually referred to each other a ‘best friends’ - in English of course, we were different ages, but closer than just a sunbae/hoobae.  Eventually, after years of becoming closer we fell into that high school mindset - you know, if you like someone AND find them attractive at the same time, you have to be dating.  I think it was my… second year of high school when we started?

We were only together for just over a year, but even that was probably longer than it should have been.

I think we were so determined to stick it out once we’d started because we were terrified that breaking up would mean totally cutting ourselves off from our friendship.  But in the end, we figured out that dating each other just really wasn’t working, and that we’d always been better as friends.  So we went back to being friends.”

“Why was it that it wouldn’t work?” Caden inquired carefully. “When you think about the two of you, it kind of makes sense that you could have been perfect for each other.”

“‘Seems’ being the keyword,” Daeho joked.  He shook his head, “I get what you mean though.  By all accounts we appear compatible.  I think it had a lot to do with us being too young and stupid - we both had silly expectations about what dating was supposed to mean… We always ended up fighting and bickering over stupid stuff that never bothered us before.  When it comes down to it, we’re just better as friends.

“As friends we enjoy each other’s company and shared interested.  We appreciate the weird quirks.  As a couple all we ever did was fuss and argue.  Trust me - it’s much better this way.”

“No complaints here - I’ll take your word for it,” Caden teased.  She paused for a moment, considering her next question carefully before finally working up the nerve to ask.

“The beginning of Soonbok and Jung Su’s interest in one another… didn’t have much effect over the end of your relationship… did it?” she asked, phrasing her curiosity as delicately as possible.

Daeho grinned at her effort.

“No, Hyung was already in the middle of his service when we were breaking up my senior year,” he informed her plainly. “They didn’t get together until a couple years after, once she’d graduated and begun university.  Much smarter of them - could explain why they lasted all this time.”

“So they didn’t spend much time together until college?” Caden mused, somewhat to herself, somewhat as a question.

“A bit, but Hyung graduated right before Soonbok began high school, although we all attended the same one,” Daeho answered somewhat thoughtfully. “To be honest, I was a little surprised when they told me that they might start dating - not because we’d previously dated, but because Jung Su hyung had already been quite jaded towards relationships - towards girls in general, honestly - that I was a little shocked that he felt comfortable enough with anyone to start dating them.”

Caden shot him a quizzical look, but he was still musing to himself.

“It makes sense that it would be Soonbok though - it didn’t hurt that he already had a previous donsaeng/friend-of-dongsaeng relationship with her from before.  Plus her personality is perfect to combat his issues with women.”

He glanced over at Caden, who was nodding up at him encouragingly, clearly prompting him further.  He scoffed, then smiled with a small shake of his head.

“I suppose you’re wondering how Hyung got so jaded?” he guessed, trying not to sound amused.

“I wasn’t going to pry,” she responded innocently, which was met with a disbelieving snort.

“Sure you weren’t” he teased, which earned him a sly smile.  He sighed, eyes turning somewhat unreadable.  Almost dark.

“Well.  You know how it is.  Attractiveness, intelligence, talent… they’re heavily regarded here from a young age.  And I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we kind of have it.”

Caden refrained from any snarky comments, seeing that he was attempting to be sincere.  She listened quietly as he continued,

“Anyway, it’s probably not surprising that hyung has been this way pretty much his entire life.  His personality I mean.  Somewhat cold, keeps his distance from strangers, cared more about working on his art than dealing with people.  He always got flak for it as a kid, but starting in high school, he grew.  Suddenly he was taller and handsome, so now that antisocial behavior was perceived by the girls at school as deep and manly, rather than unpleasant and off-putting.  But you’ve met him.”

Daeho paused to shoot her an amused grin,

“Hyung was certainly no more interested in people, let alone girls, than before.  And I think he took it as a personal offense that a change in appearance could dictate a change in treatment, particularly when his personality had remained exactly the same.”

“I could see that being a problem for him,” Caden piped up, trying not to smile too much.  Daeho nodded firmly in agreement.

“On top of that, there were many girls - not only just at our school, but in neighboring areas as well… somehow word of the broody, artistic bad boy had gotten out - who wouldn’t take his supreme lack of interest for an answer.”

“I mean sure he’s handsome, but…” Caden started, turning her head in slight discomfort.  Daeho took her meaning, sighing again with some annoyance.

“Things like this seem to get blown out of proportion in high school.  Students are always categorizing each other as the top something or other - top fighter, top student.  If you’re known to be the most handsome, it gets around.  Suddenly you become more of a challenge than a person.  That mindset didn’t help matters.”

“Hmm,” Caden murmured delicately, looking her friend over closely.  She thought back to both he and Jung Su’s reaction at the cafe when they’d first met. “I wonder if you also had some experience with that...”

Daeho’s expression darkened briefly, before he shook his head with a wistful sigh.

“Probably not as bad,” he muttered, tilting his head first one way, then the other as if weighing the options. “I don’t know if that was because my personality is naturally more inclined to be more comfortable with attention, or because my looks aren’t on the same level-”

Caden opened to chastise his wording, but Daeho only nudged her playfully.

“I have plenty of self-esteem, no need for a lecture,” he informed her, only somewhat jokingly. “My point is, although I was inconvenienced in some of the same ways, it never got to me the way it got to Hyung.  Thus, his incredibly off-putting, suspicious, and jaded personality.”

“Way to hype him up,” Caden teased in an attempt to lighten the mood.  Daeho only rolled his eyes with a slightly phony grin.

“Maybe now you understand why I was so shocked that he’s taken to you,” he joked. “Though, honestly, I should be more surprised that you like him.”

“I have low standards, what can I say?” she teased back, drawing a true smile out of her friend.  It faltered slightly as he looked around at her, expression becoming resolute.

“There is something else that I’d planned to tell you eventually - kind of a secret.  Since the rest of my ‘origin story’ is out of the bag, I might as well get it over with.”

Caden couldn’t help but chuckle at his wording - clearly reminiscent of all the Marvel superhero movies that had been coming out lately.  She nodded expectantly, waiting to hear whatever he’d been waiting to share.

“So…” he began, then stopped.  He took a deep breath, “the thing is…”

Caden tried to make her expression as open and non demanding as possible as she patiently waited for him to find the right words.

“Regarding my parents…” he began again, carefully considering his statement with a furrowed brow.  “I live alone, right?  Even though I’m from Seoul, and my parents live here and everything.  It’s pretty uncommon to move out of your parent’s house unless you’re moving away.”

He paused again rather abruptly.  Caden forced herself to refrain from shifting uncomfortably in her chair as she sensed the seriousness of the topic at hand.

“I told you about the way I grew up a little bit already,” he started slowly, looking over at her rather imploringly. “On the first day we met, remember?  My mom worked for one of the International schools that hosted all the children of diplomats from around the world that are stationed here in Seoul.  The Embassador of this, the Interpreter for that.  I told you that she forced me to learn English, not that I’m complaining about speaking English… You know what I mean.”

Caden nodded mindlessly before he continued,

“My dad is an International Lawyer, well respected, all that.  I don’t particularly like telling people this, but I grew up fairly wealthy, to be honest.  Growing up in that lifestyle… it came with a lot of expectations.  I mean, most Korean parents have expectations for their kids, but… mine were a little more… micro manage-y I guess.  Like, they weren’t going to be okay with me merely being successful - I had to be successful in exactly the way they wanted me to be.  And that way was following in my dad’s footsteps down to the last detail.

“Well you, know me,” he paused, grinning. “I couldn’t make it that easy on them…  Plus, I never liked that side of the business.  The upper level, management, on call 24 hours a day, no one can make a decision without consulting me.  All of that sounds practically unbearable to me…

“I put them off for a while by doing my military service right out of high school - they can’t really argue with that can they?  They were almost pleased with me even - sure I missed out on some early networking, but once I completed it, I’d be able to maintain a continued presence in the industry for my entire potential career.  Sounded good on paper.  But even then, I think they had an idea that nothing that I did could possibly go that smoothly for them.  They had their suspicions.

“In the end, they gave me an ultimatum the day I came home.  I informed them that I would be majoring in Travel and Hospitality, at the school where Soonbok goes instead of my father’s alma mater.  They threw a fit.  It was to be expected, but…”

He paused, looking down at his hands.  Caden remained quiet, but reached over to give his arm a supportive squeeze.  Daeho smiled slightly at this, clearly trying not to allow his hurt to display on his face.

“They threatened to cut me off - they weren’t paying for school if I didn’t go where they wanted me to, and they weren’t going to support me if I wasn’t in school.  So I decided to make good on their threats for them.  I left.  I lived with Hyung for a while, got myself a job, took out loans on school and here I am.”

He looked up at her probingly, attempting to gage her reaction.  Caden let out a quiet sigh, scooting herself over slightly so that she could lay a supportive head on his shoulder.  Daeho turned his head away quickly, hiding a smile of relief that she wouldn’t have been able to see anyway.  Caden didn’t say anything, and once he had gotten himself somewhat under control, he continued,

“I didn’t want to… keep all of this from you.  That is-  I mean… I don’t want you to think that I was hiding anything about myself from you.  We hit it off so well from the beginning that it was starting to feel like that was what I was doing.  It’s just… I don’t usually tell people this.  Period.  Unless they already know, like Soonbok or Jung Su hyung - or if we’re really close like Mikyung and now you.  I don’t like the idea of people coming to their own conclusions about me because my family is well off, or because I got cut off, or… or anything like that.  I mean, you’ve noticed.  Status means a lot to Korean people.  Right now, I don’t want to make friends with anyone who thinks of me in terms of anything but Daeho from English club.  Does that make sense?”

“Completely,” Caden murmured, head still resting comfortably on his shoulder.  They sat for a moment in quiet contemplation.

Learning the details of her friend’s backstory had really opened her eyes to his full character.  Of course nothing that he told her would have made her think of him any differently (unless he killed a guy or something) - she was more interested in the way people acted than where they came from when it came to choosing friends.  A pretty Western concept it seemed now that she was getting used to interacting in Korea.  She realized that learning about his family - realizing that he wasn’t just the carefree college kid she’d initially thought she was befriending - only made her appreciate him more.

She looked over at him, moving away a little to get a better look at his face.  Daeho - who had been staring blankly into space directly in front of him with a slight look of melancholy - took notice of the motion.

“What?” he asked with a hint of amusement. “Like what you see?”

Caden couldn’t even roll her eyes at this goofy response.  Instead, she offered him a somewhat sappy smile.

“Thank you,” she said finally, smile widening, “for telling me.”

“Thank you for listening,” he replied with a genuine smile of his own.  They remained that way, grinning like fools there, together on the couch for another few moments before Caden gently changed the subject.  She had come to a conclusion about her own supposed ‘secrets’ and she knew what she had to do.

“Wow, it’s insanely late and neither of us have gotten a wink of sleep,” she announced casually, stretching in an obviously over-exaggerated manner.  Daeho watched in mild amusement, patiently waiting to see where she was going with this.

“But we’ve managed to stay up long enough that the trains are running again,” she continued pleasantly. “Why don’t we make our way over to my side of town and grab something to eat?  I can show you my place and we can grab a few hours sleep - I have a spare bedroom.”

“That all sounds well and good,” Daeho mused, clearly teasing, “but considering I’m already home, where I could easily sleep, I’m not sure if this is the most efficient plan.”

“Ah, this is true,” Caden countered, “but you see, I have something to tell you.  If we’re bearing our souls, and all.  Only if you’re interested, of course.”

“Incredibly interested,” he confirmed with a grin.  “Food sounds great if you’re buying.”

“Deal,” she agreed.

“Then what are we waiting for?” he queried, standing with a flourish. “Let us be off.”

They both quickly grabbed their belongings and headed for the door, each wearing the smiles they’d given each other.

Caden waited until they were seated on the practically empty subway car before she began spilling her guts.  She told him the whole story of her first day in Korea - meeting the boys, landing her job - and everything that followed.  She explained why she has been reluctant to tell anyone initially, and even repeated her conversation with Naira and Shoko about keeping things from Daeho himself.

By the time she had caught up to the present, they had managed to grab breakfast and the first restaurant that was open and make it back to her apartment where they sat talking on the couch.

Like she had, Daeho spent most of the time listening, with the odd comment here or there.

Once the big reveal was out of the way, it was practically mid-day and they were both so exhausted, they could barely keep their eyes open.

Caden gave him the world’s shortest tour of her apartment, she showed him to the guest room.  This sent him into a hysterical fit of laughter that quickly spread to Caden as she had completely forgotten about the ‘Punishment Studyroom’ and how it would look to guests.

She frantically apologized and tried to explain the concept between fits of laughter.

Once they had both finally calmed down, they bid each other goodnight (though the sun shone in through the windows) and happily proceeded to pass out until late in the afternoon.

*    *    *

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Don't say it.  DON'T say it!  I'm the worst.  I know.  I know I'm the worst.

I'm sorry T_T

This chapter really hung me up.  I knew I needed it for character development, but I skipped it at first and then going back to get everything right was just pulling teeth for the longest time. 

That being said, I do like how it turned out ^^  I love my OCs.  Don't know if I've said that enough lol

But next chapter (already written, don't hate me!) we will finally get a Big Bang reappearance.  It's been a while.

It's a little odd coming back to this story and chapter now that all the Top drama has gone down.  I'm pretty bummed about all of that to be honest.  It feels a little witch-hunt for someone that lives in a state that has recently legalized recreational marajuana.  But that's just my two cents.

Either way, poor Top doesn't go through any of that crazyness in my Big Bang universe.  So try not to let current events separate you from the characters or story if you can.

I hope you enjoyed this update!

I will make sure to post the next chapter within the week, although I can't make any promises for the chapter after that lol

Thanks for bearing with me!  Feel free to leave a comment!  What was your favorite part?  What are your guesses for what's to come?  Who or what do you want to see in the future!  Let me know!  <3 y'all very much ^^