The next day while on my way to the dance studio, I saw that Jongin was only a few steps ahead of me. I was going to catch up with him so we could walk together but at that moment, his cousin came and pulled him off to a hall on the side. Out of curiosity, I decided to listen in. This was unusual for him to do, at least to Jongin.

"What the hell, man? I thought you said you two aren't dating?"

"Whoa, Baek, what are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about you and Momo!"

"Dude, we're just friends, chill. I don't see why it should bother you so much."

Baekhyun scoffed. "Everyone is talking about you and her. I even saw pictures of the two of you on social media. It makes me shudder." He made a gagging noise, to which I rolled my eyes.

"Wait, what? Are you serious?"

"Oh, right, you don't use social media. Here." After a few moments of silence, Baekhyun spoke up again. "Everyone is talking about you two. I think some people already formed an online fan club. Of course, there are the girls that are upset, but who could blame them."

"Can you not be an for even a minute. They're threatening to hurt her! This isn't good. Can you please post something? To clear things up?"

I had enough. I walked the opposite direction, towards the restrooms, taking this all in. Not only do people think I'm dating him, not only do I have a price on my head, but if this gets crazy enough, I could lose my chance with Sana...

I went into the handicap stall and paced around for a bit. I then checked my twitter and Instagram feed. Maybe it was because I didn't follow many of my classmates but I saw nothing of the rumors. Still, I decided to say something.

Hey everyone. I heard some of these rumors. Whatever you think, they aren't true

I took a deep breath and shook it off. I'll have to deal with this later, right now I have to focus on dance. It's my first time choreographing for a group.

All throughout practice, I heard people saying things. During breaks and when they thought we couldn't hear.

"They're awfully close, they're definitely dating."

"He seems to really like her... must be nice."

"She needs to back off, they don't even look good with each other."

Finally, when it was over, I couldn't wait to leave. I walked through the door so quickly, I almost ran into Sana.

"Oh, Momo! Hi! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine!" I lied. "What's up?"

"You wanna go out today?"

"Yeah, sure, why not?" I took her hand and quickly walked towards the entrance.

Once we were outside, Sana halted. "Momo, why are you acting so strange?

"What are you talking about?"

"You know, walking super fast like you're running away from someone. Jongin in particular. He was trying to catch up with you but you just ran out. Is this about the rumors?"

I sighed. "We're really not dating, okay? Please don't listen to them, please!" I begged. I was near tears.

"Hey, it's okay, Momo! Don't be upset, I believe you, okay?" she pulled me into a hug. "You don't gotta worry about me. If anything, you should be worried about your crush hearing about all this."

"..."

I pulled myself together and cleaned my face with my sleeve. "I'm sorry, that was so childish. Anyway, where do you want to go?"

We ended up picking an affordable restaurant with Thai cuisine. It was very delicious. While eating, we started discussing the rumors. I didn't want to, but Sana was curious.

"Why is it that people assume things like this? Maybe it's because you two have gotten close."

"To be honest, any girl that lays eyes on Jongin becomes a target."

Sana shook her head. "I'm not talking about the crazy ones, Momo. I'm talking about your fan club."

"They're not crazy?"

"Hmm... it's kinda cute, to be honest. I would have joined it if you hadn't insisted that you don't have a crush on Jongin anymore."

"It's cuz it's true!" I exclaimed, a little too loud. I calmed down a bit. "Jongin and I are really just friends. Yes, we've become pretty close, but it's... it's a comfortable closeness that could only be between two friends."

"You mean, like us?" Sana smiled.

She didn't know how much just those four words could hurt me.

"Yeah... like us..." I looked down and quietly continued to eat my food.

After a few minutes of silence, Sana realized the shift in my mood. "Momo... what's wrong? Did I say something bad?"

"Hmm? No... of course not." I faked a smile and continued eating.

I didn't know how much just that expression could hurt her.