Yoona opened the door to her apartment, leading Seohyun inside.

“Take a seat.” She said politely with an awkward smile. “Want something to drink? I still have Iced Tea.” Seohyun just nodded and Yoona went to the kitchen immediately.

After she got back from the kitchen, she handed the younger one a glass with iced tea and sat down next to her.

“Thank you.” Muttered Seohyun, although from the tone she used and the way she said it, Yoona knew she wasn’t actually referring to the tea.

“Anytime.” Yoona replied, eyes staring into Seohyun’s still watery eyes, “You can cry you know,” Yoona started. “You don’t have to hold back with me.”

“I’m…” Seohyun said, blinking the tears away or at least trying to. “I’m not holding back.” She sipped her tea, hoping it would help her distract herself from the tears that were fighting their way out from her eyes. “I just don’t want to cry anymore, I’m not weak and only weak people cry.” She finished as if talking about the most obvious thing in the world, before she placed her tea on the table.

Yoona hesitantly moved closer to Seohyun, fearing she would scare her off, in a swift movement she wrapped her arms around the younger one and hugged her tightly.

“You’re not weak, you’re very strong.” She said in a soft tone, not any louder that a whisper, yet as confident as a yell. With one hand she started rubbing her back and with the other she started brushing her long hair. “But crying doesn’t make you weak, it makes you human.”

As if something cracked in Seohyun upon hearing those words, she wrapped her arms so tightly around Yoona, the latter felt the air being knocked out of her lungs. Yoona took a deep breath and allowed the younger one to hug her, although she wasn’t crying she could feel this was the taller one’s way to let go of whatever was tormenting her, and even if the doe eyed girl was dying of curiosity about what had happened, she was willing to let the curiosity die before asking her and probably making her upset again.

After a few minutes of hugging, Yoona felt the younger one’s grip on her start to loosen only for her to lean out of the comforting hug and look straight into the older girl’s eyes.

“I was working,” Seohyun started, her eyes seemed scared and sad, yet the determined look from the younger one allowed Yoona to know that she was ready to speak about it. “The guy that hired me was very drunk; I want to assume it was because of that, so he… tried to take advantage of me.” Yoona felt her blood boil and if it wasn’t because she knew Seohyun needed her, she would’ve headed back to where she picked the younger girl up, find out who was it and beat him senseless. “I didn’t allow him and tried to stop him, so he got a bit violent, the other men at the party heard me scream and helped me.” Yoona hadn’t even realized she tightened her grip on Seohyun’s back until the latter placed a hand on her cheek and looked deeply into her eyes, calming her down.

“Why… why did you call me?” Asked Yoona out of the blue, the question rising as she closed her eyes, enjoying Seohyun’s touch. “Why didn’t you call Taeyeon? Don’t get me wrong, it’s just that I would’ve thought I’d be the last person on your mind in a situation like this.”

“Taeyeon has been my hero for far too long.” Seohyun replied in a whisper. “She saved me twice as a kid and she hasn’t stopped saving me and protecting me ever since, so I knew how she would’ve reacted, and she’d just get in trouble, again.” She replied simply.

“How did she save you?” Yoona asked, hoping the younger one would reply but not really expecting anything.

“My father was an alcoholic.” She said simply. “When I was seven, my mom got tired and ran away from him, leaving me there, Taeyeon was my neighbor and when she heard my dad’s rage, she broke into my house and took care of me until my dad passed out and stopped his outrage, she wanted me to stay there but I wanted to go back home.” The hand that was on Yoona’s cheek ran all the way down and grabbed one of the girl’s hands, intertwining their fingers as she did so.

“He continued drinking and he started verbally abusing me, but one day he got violent and once again Taeyeon broke into my house as she heard all the yells, she had just gotten back from work, she was a stripper. She got so mad she beat my dad senseless, she took me away and kept me in her home. My dad called the police and Taeyeon was arrested for aggression and apparent kidnap.” Seohyun’s eyes got glossy and she blinked the tears away.

“Tiffany is the daughter of the past owner of the strip club, so she had money and they were together, so she got her a nice lawyer and managed to get my dad in jail and they became sort of my legal tutors.” She sighed, her eyes closing as she did so. “Tiffany’s dad found out and he took away all her money, but he gave her the strip club so she had something to work on. Then they took me in and took care of me like a family did, but I didn’t want to be a burden, so when I turned sixteen I started working in the strip club, although they tried to stop me too many times, but they know I’m far too stubborn to be stopped.”

Seohyun smiled at the last part and Yoona smiled too, happy to know the younger one trusted her enough to tell her this, but this didn’t cool down the anger she felt from everything bad that had happened in the younger one’s life and what had happened just today.

“But… why me?” Asked Yoona again, the question burning her as she spoke. Seohyun smiled slightly and hugged her tightly one again, her head fitting into the crook of Yoona’s neck perfectly.

“Because I know how you feel about me, the way you look at me reminds me of how Taeyeon looks at Tiffany and how Tiffany looks at Taeyeon,” Seohyun started, her voice drowsy. “Reminds me of how both of them look at me.” She continued. “And I really hoped you’d be the one who saved me.”

Yoona felt the colors rise to her face and she felt her heart pick up its pace, had she been that obvious? Yes she had. But what did she mean with the last part? Did that mean she felt the same?

After a few minutes of her trying to calm her racing heart, she decided to ask.

“Do you… do you feel the same?” Asked Yoona, only to be welcomed by silence. “Seohyun?”

Just then she turned to look at the younger and she noticed she had fallen asleep, her steady breathing fanning her neck, she smiled softly at the younger one and decided to join her in her sleep.

Yoona woke up in the middle of the night, her body still glued to Seohyun’s while the latter slept, a dream had come to her while she slept, a dream that told her how she could save Seohyun, to free her from being a stripper for the rest of her life.

Seohyun had left early in the morning, since she had classes, so Yoona took full advantage of this and went somewhere just when Seohyun had left.

She entered an old looking building, heading straight to the office where she knew she could find them, Taeyeon and Tiffany.

“Hey.” She said as she entered their office, surprised not to see them making out.

“What do you want, Yoona?” Said Taeyeon, not lifting her gaze from her work.

“I want to talk to you.”

Yoona then explained them everything, what had happened last night and just like Seohyun had predicted, Taeyeon got up and nearly went up to beat up the guy.

“That , I’m going to ing kill him!” She exclaimed as she got up, heading to the door.

“Wait!” Exclaimed Yoona. “I have something else to say, it’s a way of getting Seohyun out of this work field.”

“Talk,” Said Taeyeon. “And make it quick, because if I don’t beat up that guy soon I’ll beat you up.”

“Look, my family’s company gives scholarships to overachieving students, they pay for their university expenses and the only condition is that they have to start working in our company, but they work on something related to their major, so they get to earn experience in their work field.” Yoona said. “The payment isn’t much, but if you no longer have to cover university expenses it’s more than okay.”

Taeyeon and Tiffany just stayed silent, staring at Yoona in a way that made her continue.

“This process takes months to be possible, but I’m sure I can make it happen in a week.” Yoona continued, confidently.

“Why are you telling us these? Why not tell Seohyun?” Tiffany asked.

“Because I want to give it to her as a birthday gift, so it must be a surprise.” She replied simply.

“But what do you need us for?” Asked Taeyeon, her gaze firmly placed on Seohyun.

“Because I’ll meet my parents today to present them the idea, but I need a copy of her birth certificate and her academicals records, so I can show them to my parents and prove that she’s actually a Korean citizen and a worthy student. I know them, once I tell them how amazing she is, they’ll just want to meet her, so I’ll arrange a dinner on Friday and by Saturday I’ll have her scholarship for sure.”

Taeyeon and Tiffany exchanged looks before she looking back at her.

“At what time do you need those?” Asked Taeyeon while Tiffany grabbed her car keys.

Yoona got back to her apartment after talking to her parents, she had told them everything, even how she met Seohyun and explained her difficult situation to her parents, she showed them the younger girl’s clean records when it came to her studies and even showed her some comments from Seohyun’s teachers that further proved that she was a great student, they understood and agreed, and just like Yoona had thought they wanted to meet her. Just to make sure.

She sat down on her couch and took out her cellphone, she stared at Seohyun’s personal number and she smiled brightly before dialing it.

“Hello?” Was heard from the other line soon enough.

“Hey Seohyun,” Started Yoona. “I already know what we’re going to do on Friday.” She said confidently, not being able to fight the smile that appeared on her features as she thought about helping Seohyun once and for all.

“You sound excited,” The younger one said. “What is it?”

“We’re having a formal dinner with my parents.” Yoona replied.

“What?! But I don’t have any formal clothing.” She said in a worried tone.

“Then get ready, cause tomorrow we’re going dress shopping.”