Ha Ri walked down the hallway searching for the so familiar figure through the crowd who was enjoying their lunch break. But she was nowhere to be found. She needed to talk to her. She needed to know what was it that made her so distant, so cold, so lonely. Because in Ha Ri's eyes, lonely was the only word that could describe her best friend.

She gave up on searching when she realised that it was useless. Seulbi could even have left since it was something she did a lot lately. Ha Ri went to the bathroom to throw some water on her face when she saw her sitting on the floor eating something she had packed. "Seulbi-ah! Have you been here all along? I've been searching for you everywhere!" Ha Ri said happily and tried to approach her but Seulbi's glare stopped her from doing so. "Why have you been searching for me?" She asked and stood up.

"I want to talk to you." Ha Ri said confidently. "Well I don't." Seulbi replied with her usual cold tone and pushed her so she could leave but Ha Ri grabbed her wrist and turned her around to face her. "Please, Seulbi. Listen to me for once."

 "What? Listen to me for once?! That's how you have been feeling about our friendship? You think I never listened to you?" Seulbi aggressively said and pulled her hand away from her grip. "That's not what I meant! Look, I don't want to start a fight! I just wanted to ask you what's wrong? Why are you being like this? What was it that made you so cold and distant? Why aren't you talking to me? Why did you change Seulbi?" Ha Ri kept bombarding her with questions as her voice faded away into a desperate mutter. A sigh followed her little speech and tried to continue but Seulbi was now glaring at her and had turned her hands into fists as she was trying to hold back her anger. 

"You think I am the only one who has changed? You think that I don't notice your behavior? The fact that this guy and your new 'friends' are changing you each freaking day and you think I don't see it? I've only been away for a couple of days trying to recover from my mum's death and when I came back I realised that not only had I lost my mother, but also my friend had replaced me. And where were you, Ha Ri? Where were you when I needed someone for support, when I needed those comforting words, when I needed a shoulder to cry on? Ha? You didn't even call. Just out of curiosity to ask if I was alive or dead. You never did. And now you're telling me that you want me to be the person I was before and act like I'm your friend and pretend nothing like this happened? Well I'm sorry to say this, but I don't want you in my life. And you should better stopped caring now. Not that you did anyway."

***

...recover from my mum's death...

...replaced me...

...stop caring...

Seulbi's words had captured her mind as she was staring at her ceiling. She was so angry. So angry at herself for not noticing all those things earlier. So angry for letting her go. So angry for being so selfish. Ha Ri would probably never forgive herself after what she had done. She would let time heal her pain. 

Yoongi, I'm sorry about today. But I'm a little sick and I won't be able to come. I promise I'll make it up to you next time. Yoongi read Ha Ri's text with a pout. "My baby is sick." He muttered to no one in particular as he stood up from his chair. He started tidying up his studio and thought about calling it a day. He had been working seventeen hours straight which meant that he didn't get any sleep the passing night. But that didn't seem to bother him as he had nothing else to do since Ha Ri had been sleeping then she was away at school.

He sighed loudly then put everything back on it's place and turned off the computer making sure to save his new tracks. Tomorrow would be a difficult day for him as the dance practises would start, something that he wasn't very fond of. "Aish." He muttered and yawned rubbing his eyes. "I should definitely get some sleep." He kept talking to himself and gazed at the small couch beside the control desk. Then an idea passed his mind.

Yoongi stood up and put his keys and phone on his pocket. He got out of the company after he good byed everyone who was working at this hour. He smiled widely as he walked down the street then entered the small convenience store. "Chicken or vegetables?" He muttered as he raised the two bowls of noodles in front of his face. "Who am I kidding?" He put the one with the vegetables down then picked two bowls of the other. He walked to the shelves of chocolates and took a minute to think. He eventually picked two chocolates of different flavors -just in case- then took two bottles of banana milk. All done.

After paying for his products he used the bus to get at Ha Ri's house then knocked on her door waiting with a smile plastered on his face. This was getting interesting. The front door opened after a while revealing Ha Ri with puffy eyes. She stared at him confused and was about to say something when Yoongi walked in. "Were you crying?" He asked after he left the plastic bags on the kitchen counter. "N-No, I just...woke up." She lied but Yoongi raised his eyebrow. "I know when you're lying. What happened?" 

"I just talked to Seulbi today and it looks like everything was my fault." She explained and bit her lip trying to forget about the scene she had caused at school. "Do you want to talk about it?" He asked and approached her then wrapped his arms around her waist. Ha Ri's stomach growling made Yoongi giggle as he pulled away and dragged her to the kitchen. "Your mum's working and it looks like you'd starve yourself if I didn't come. You'll tell me later okay? Besides, I don't think you're ready to start this conversation now." Ha Ri blushed deeply.

"Why are you here by the way?" She asked quietly and sat on the counter observing him making the noodles. "I came to take care of you since you told me you were sick but it looks like you were just sad so I'm here to cheer you up." He turned to smile at her then kept focusing on the food. "You didn't have to."

"You're right. I didn't have to but I wanted to so...". He replied without looking at her. Ha Ri nodded trying to hold back her smile. "Yoongi, it will sound a little weird but have you ever felt like you don't want to do anything? Like you stress about everything and cry because of it but you can't make yourself do it? The only thing I want to do is cry and sleep. I have lost motivation and those things that once made me happy and entertained me, they mean nothing to me. Just a long lost dream. I feel so worthless and useless all the time and I just want to take off the mask and scream that I'm not okay. But I'm so lonely even though I'm surrounded by so many people, it's still dark. I don't know what to do with my life. I have no goals, no dreams, no reasons to keep up with the others. I feel hopeless and I think I gave up too early."

Yoongi stopped cooking just to stare at her empty eyes. She looked blank. She looked like someone had swallowed the life out of her and had only left her body with that cold expression as a façade to hide the emptiness. He touched her hand. It was cold just like her expression. He kissed her forehead. It was cold just like a corpse. He started wondering if that was his fault. Maybe it was because he wasn't good enough to be with her. Maybe it was because she didn't consider him a part of her life, she met him online which kind of explained the situation. He wanted to ask her. To know the real reason behind this. But he felt that if he started asking if it was his fault, she would feel responsible for him too. And that's something none of them would like to cope with. 

Yoongi smiled a broken one and got her out of the counter so he could pull her in a tight hug. "I'm going to tell you one thing. Nothing stays the same. Sometimes we will have to get into a lot of trouble just to get one kind word from another person. Sometimes we will have to let others step on us just to get accepted. Sometimes we will feel like we had enough of those things and we will let our feelings burst. We will let ourselves go. We feel. We bury them inside. We hurt. We keep them in. We cry. We bite our lips. And that's how the human brain works. Trust me when I say, that there will be a time in your life that you will be so done of breathing, so done of sleeping, so done of eating, so done of everything that you will decide to stop caring. Unfortunately, that doesn't make us feel better. What you have to do is to keep reminding to yourself that the way you feel now, is not you. Someone else had created all those insecurities, all those mistakes, all this pain just to make you bow down so they can step on you. But you can't let them win. And you know why? Because if you do, you're going to die before you even let your last breath. So, don't let them win, Ha Ri-ah."

Ha Ri sighed as she finished her chocolate and stared at Yoongi who still had some. Yoongi didn't notice her as he was too into the movie they were watching on the couch. Ha Ri sighed again a little louder this time so she could be heard but Yoongi kept eating and staring at the TV with wide eyes. Ha Ri frowned and came closer to him filling the gap they had created and wrapped her hands around his arm. This time he glanced at her sudden reaction and raised an eyebrow but decided not to say anything as she was pretending to be watching the movie and he didn't want to disturb. "Oppa!" Ha Ri said cutely. Yoongi turned to look at her confused as that was the first time she had ever called him that. 

"What is this?" Ha Ri smiled and raised her head to look at him with the puppy expression. "Why did you call that?" He asked confused of her. He had never seen that side of her. But he couldn't complain. She looked adorable in his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"Why did you call me Oppa?" He asked again curiously. 

"What? You don't like it?" She sat up still staring at him. 

"I prefer hearing my name." He muttered and the TV but Ha Ri sat on his lap immediately which got him off guard. "What are-"

"Can I have some??" She asked impatiently and pointed at his chocolate. "Ahh, that's why you're acting like this. You scared me." He said after a sigh and was about to give her some but decided to . "No, you have to beg." Yoongi smirked but blushed when he noticed how close she was to him. "Please! Yoongi!" She pouted and started ing softly on his clothed member which made him wide his eyes and pulled her from his lap immediately. "Fine fine, you can have it all." He muttered quickly as he put her back beside him. Ha Ri smirked triumphantly and started eating the chocolate as Yoongi was trying to calm his nerves.

A/N: HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone!

I wish you a happy and healthy year! 

BTW what do you think about this chapter? Please let me know in the comments below! 

See you soon, 

Fox