The music for Underground Life faded out as the three froze in their positions, waiting a few more seconds before moving and all but collapsing onto the floor. Jeri managed to haul herself over to a set of nearby chairs, stealing a water bottle from the case on her way. Downing the bottle in one go, the bent over her knees and hung her head as she attempted to regain her breath.

“If I say hi are you going to eat me?”

Jeri blinked a few times and lifted her head, catching sight of Henry standing in front of her with a nervous smile stretched across his lips.

“Only if you come with maple syrup,” Jeri laughed.

Henry’s smile grew before he sat down on the chair beside her, offering her a cracker from the box he had brought with him, Jeri accepting the offering and taking a few out and munching away.

“So I heard from the guys about this feud that you’re all having…”

Jeri didn’t know if she wanted to sigh, pout or roll her eyes at the reminder.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Henry asked.

This time Jeri did sigh, her bottle of water falling limp onto her lap as her head fell back against the wall. Henry didn’t speak as she attempted to try and find the proper words; she didn’t want Henry to turn on her like the others had, she needed him to understand her viewpoint, for him to understand why this whole thing had bothered her to such an extent.

“Did they tell you or show you the article?” she asked.

“They didn’t show me but I looked it up after they told me about it, talk about foot-in-mouth,” Henry chuckled, attempting to lighten the somber mood.

“It was so insensitive! How could you allow yourself to say something like that in an interview?” she began, already feeling her body begin to heat up from anger. “I have no problem-well no that’s a lie, I do have a problem with them thinking that way, but I have no right to tell them that their way of thinking is wrong and I understand that, but the fact that they said something where hundreds if not thousands of female fans could hear and be affected by it… it just made me feel sick to my stomach! How can you possibly think saying something like that is OK!?”

“They apologized for it didn’t they?”

“Henry that’s not the point!” Jeri barked, shooting up from her chair and finally turning her head to level a glare at her friend. “The point is the fact that they said it in the first place! It was like a case of word vomit that had the capacity to hurt so many people and somewhere in their minds they thought, oh yeah no it’s fine, I’m famous so no-one will care if someone else gets hurt!”

Henry stood from his chair and cautiously approached his friend, gently placing a hand on her shoulder as she paced with her hands tugging at her hair.

“Jeri c’mon. I know that this is really upsetting for you, and I’m not a girl so I can’t understand how much it upsets you, but really? Like you said, it was a bad case of word vomit and they apologized for what they said,” he began. “Besides, it’s not like anyone hung themselves of threw themselves off of a bridge because of it, so no harm done.”

Jeri’s hand seemed to move faster than her brain, because one moment she was facing Henry with her head slightly bowed and hands tangled in her hair from frustration, the next her head was raised, her left hand extended towards the opposite side and could feel the utter rage boiling through her blood.

The loud ‘slap’ brought the attention of Jun and Setiawan from their conversation, able to use Jeri’s raised hand and seething expression and Henry’s turned face and dazed expression as a good indication of what had just happened.

“Get. Out.”

Henry raised his hand to cradle his stinging cheek, bringing his eyes back to his friend to meet her enraged expression with one of hurt.

“Jer-”

“GET OUT!!”

Henry flinched at the pure volume she used to scream at him, quickly lowering his eyes and retreating from the practise room, leaving Jeri behind as her entire body shook from contained rage.

“Should we-”

“Unless you want her to snap at you next, leave her alone,” Jun sighed, watching his sister sit down on the floor and hang her head in her hands.

-=-=-

Two weeks, five days and fifteen hours have passed since Jeri's alienation of the Super Junior boys; two weeks, one day and three hours since she slapped one of the people outside of her group that she thought would understand her actions and back her up only to find herself disappointed and even more upset.

At the beginning, they tried with all their might to try and make the girl see that she was being overdramatic, but after getting a firm cold shoulder they had decided to leave her to her own devices, figuring she'd calm down sooner or later.

Jeri on the other hand was a mixture of frustration, indignation, pride and the tiniest hint of guilt. She and she alone seemed understood why she was taking things so far, her brother and Setiawan simply acting as fence sitters between the two sides of the miniature war.

Jeri took her clothes and shoved them into the washer, closed the door and turned it on, the machine jumping to life as she sat on the floor in front of it. As strange as it may have sounded, the girl found the rotating of clothes in a washer calming of sorts; her mind was able to wander into the deeper parts of her conscience and think about things that bothered her without straying away from her train of thought.

Leeteuk had always been a bit ist, finding girls were "weaker" than guys, and to an extent Jeri could agree with him, but he never blatantly disrespected women, and if he caught himself doing it, he would usually give a genuine apology.

Yesung was very blunt whenever he spoke, sometimes trying too hard to be comedic like the others, and that tended to make people offended. Like Leeteuk however, he'd apologize if it was ever brought to his attention.

Shindong was a mixture of the two men. He had a good variety and comical sense, but sometimes when he pulled lines out that were meant to be funny, they came out offensive or hurtful, and he rarely apologized unless it caused some real damage. It also bothered her that he of all people commented about weight issues; he did his best to diet and exercise to get thinner but he was still classed as overweight; shouldn't he understand the type of hurt that was caused with such harsh words?

None of it made sense to her. She tried several times to try and see things from their perspective, but no matter how many times she did, she never found what they did acceptable.

The washer beeping brought Jeri out of her thoughts, standing to pull the door open and transfer the clothes into the dryer.

She waited until the dryer sounded and pulled the clothes out, tossing them into her hamper and carrying it towards the room she shared with her brother. She placed the hamper on her bed and started picking her clothes out to fold them, Jun appearing in the doorway with a raised eyebrow.

"Dude… how long are you going to give them the silent treatment?" Jun asked, leaning on the doorframe of their room.

Jeri didn't turn nor acknowledge that she heard him, simply continuing to fold her clothes. Jun gave his sister a glare, walked over and snatched the shirt out of her hands.

"Go ahead and give Super Junior the silent treatment, but don't you dare give me it!" he barked.

"Is it a friggin crime to think?!" she shot back, snatching the shirt back with a glare.

"Jun."

The duo turned to see Setiawan standing in the doorway with a stern look on his face. The younger man sighed and swiftly walked out of the room, Jeri hearing him muttering some choice profanities in German along the way. Setiawan continued to stand in the doorway, simply watching the girl in the room. After a couple minutes, she sighed and sat down on her bed.

"What?" she sighed, knowing this behaviour all too well.

"You have a phone call," Setiawan stated, tossing her his cellphone.

Jeri was caught off guard for a second, fumbling with the phone, then raising an eyebrow at him, bringing the phone to her ear as he walked away.

"Hello?"

"Woman, how many times do I have to tell you…?" the voice on the other end groaned, a slight laugh behind it.

"My apologies Your Highness, Ni Hao," she corrected with a grin, her mood instantly improving.

"You'll get it one of these days, I have faith in you," Hangeng laughed.

"Why thank you, your faith is sure to pull me through," Jeri laughed.

"So… A certain lovable tree tells me that you're having issues…"

Jeri groaned and rolled her eyes, finally connecting the dots.

"Want to talk about it?" Hangeng offered.

Jeri sighed, bracing herself for another person to turn around and once again tell her she was just being a drama queen.

"A couple weeks ago, Jun found an article online about how Shindong, Yesung and Leeteuk were bashing heavier girls, calling them irresponsible and lazy," she began.

When Hangeng didn't say anything, she continued.

"Well… I confronted them about it, and they didn't find anything wrong with what they said. I mean, sure, everyone's entitled to their opinion, but opinions like that hurt people, so they should be kept to yourself and-"

"Jeri, Jeri! I get it," Hangeng interrupted with a small laugh. "I know Leeteuk and a couple of the others had their… moments, but I never thought they'd say something like that…"

"I know!" Jeri agreed.

"However! I'm still not understanding the point…"

"Hangeng!" Jeri cried, a disbelieving look on her face. "How can you not understand why I'm angry at them?!"

"I do understand why you're angry at them, but yelling at them and refusing to talk or even be around them? Isn't that… over-reacting a little?" he replied. "That and it was just those three, why are you punishing everyone?"

"Because they were backing them up! Saying that it's freedom of expression!! Even Kyuhyun and Henry sided with them!!" she cried, tears of frustration bordering her eyes.

Hangeng didn't respond for a couple seconds and Jeri furiously rubbed at her eyes.

"Why do I get the feeling… that there's more to this that you're not telling me…?"

This time, Jeri didn't reply, biting her lip and silently cursing her best friend for being so perceptive.

"Hit it right on the nail huh?" he laughed when she didn't reply. "Jeri… what's the real reason you're so upset with them?"

Jeri brought her legs up to her chest and gripped the phone in her hand.

"I'm not a twig…"

Hangeng was silent for a couple seconds and Jeri fidgeted with her pant legs.

"You think that since you're not skinny… that they're… what… pretending to be your friends? Jeri, they all adore you! You're like a younger sister to them-"

"And they reminded me of my mother," she interrupted, a dark tone in her voice.

"…OK, now that I can understand why it would bother you," he replied, fully aware of Jeri’s history with her mother. "Jeri, they're nothing like your mother."

"I've been proven wrong before…" she muttered.

"Jeri," he sighed, sounding slightly aggravated. "I worked alongside all of them for years, I got to know them, and from what you've told me about her, they are nothing like your mother."

When Jeri stayed silent, Hangeng continued.

"Yes, what they said was stupid and unfair, I know that there are girls out in the world who have physical issues, and a lot of people try to compare cucumbers to zucchinis-"

Jeri snorted, covering in an attempt to stop her giggles.

"But you also have to remember that men are pigs… except me, I'm perfect."

Jeri couldn't hold back her laughter anymore, nearly dropping the phone.

"My point is," he laughed. "It's not just guys who do it, women will discriminate against different guys too; it's just a harsh reality. The thing that you have to remember though, is that even if someone's words or opinion hurt you or others, rather than yelling at them about it, you have to tell them why it bothered you so much. That way the person will understand and if you give them a valid argument, it could even change their view-point."

"Is there a point in your ramble?" Jeri droned, having a feeling where this was going.

"You need to tell them why the article upset you so much. You don't necessarily have to tell them everything, but you should explain your view on it, that way you can all reach a consensus and avoid blood and tears. I know what they said scared you, but no man is a mind-reader, and you females are pretty hard to understand the majority of the time."

Jeri laughed and drew circles on her knees, letting his words sink in.

"You have to give them the benefit of a doubt when it comes to understanding feelings, especially considering I'm pretty sure a handful of them are still s…"

Jeri burst out laughing, covering her face in embarrassment, Hangeng's laugher joining hers.

"So?" he asked after they calmed down.

Jeri sighed and looked over at the picture that was still hanging on her wall. Even though she was angry at the men, she didn't have the heart to take down the group picture they had taken a couple years ago at the waterpark.

"I'll think about it…" she replied.

"That's my girl."

Sorry that this chapter is so super late guys, I really struggled with getting everything planned out and typed down, but I hope that you guys enjoy it none the less~~

Leave it to Hannie to tame the Jer-Bear~ such a good boy~

Thank you for subscribing and following along with me as I attempt to bring you an even greater experience with Jeri and the gang~!

Thank you to all subscribers as well as silent readers, and a special thanks to arandomperson, iheartbts, FixRate, DolphinWorld, Arashi93 and Xxdreamergirl for upvoting~!