I didn’t want to go home after that, but I just couldn’t stay in the apartment, in the bed that Taeyeon had slept in. Minhye’s place wasn’t big enough for me, and I knew of only one other person that I could call: Minah.

“Yeah, sure unni,” she told me over the phone when I asked her if I could stay at her place for a few days. “Do you need me to pick you up? You can stay as long as you’d like, but what’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“I’ll tell you later, okay? Thanks.”

Chae Minah’s apartment make mine look like chump change. It was….huge, almost unrealistic. Well, for my world, it was unrealistic, but Minah lived in a different one. There were a ridiculous number of rooms, specially for one, occasionally two, people to live in. Every other thing was voice activated, and the furniture looked like it cost more than everything that I owned combined 

“You can pick which ever spare bedroom you want,” she told me, leading me in and handing me a key. “Just use this instead of the security codes to get in here.”

“Thank you,” I replied, sitting down heavily. A small white cat padded into the room, pausing by my bag and tilting its head to study it closely.

“What happened, Unni?” Minah bent down, picking up the kitten, it as it purred and cuddled into her.

“I’m not so sure myself,” I sighed back. “Look. Minah, don’t tell anyone that I’m here okay?”

“Only if you tell me why you’re here in the first place,” she insisted.

So, I told her the whole story.

“I wasn’t able to go to that party, but I know Hae was there. Should I see if I can find out what happened?” Minah asked.

“It doesn’t matter in the end, he still broke our promises. Besides, I already threw the ring at him, so I think we might be over.” It broke my heart to say it, but it was the truth.

“Let me see what I can find out, okay?”

I decided to take all of my vacations days that I had saved up working for Vogue Girl USA and Vogue Girl Korean all in one go, and called for a 2 week break from work. I stayed in Minah's wonderful apartment, feeling like Peter Pan who never wanted to grow up and face his fears.

From what Minah could descreetly get out of the other members, none of them knew exactly what had happened. Taeyeon had been all over Leeteuk at the party, like she always was everytime she was around him. It hadn’t been anything notable or out of the ordinary. Leeteuk had had a few drinks, and then he left the party. That was all Donghae and Heechul seemed to know.

It was a little lonely in Minah's place. She had to work every day, and even the white kitten, which was apparently Donghae's, had been returned to its owner. The silence in the house soothed me though, and gave me time to think.

Mother managed to reach me on the phone the next day, and was confused as well as annoyed. It seemed as if Jungsu had not told her exactly why I had taken off this time. “Where are you Nana?” she had demanded, immediately. “Come home right this instant.”

As if.

“I’m staying with a friend for a few days,” I told her.

It was only 5 days in when Minah came to me, distress evident in her face.

“Unni, I can’t do this anymore,” she said, voice somber.“I can’t hide you here anymore; it’s killing me and my conscience. Leeteuk is really upset and Hae suspects that you’re here since I told him that he couldn’t come here for a couple of days. I can’t keep lying to him, unni. I hate lying to Donghae, even it is to protect you. Plus, Kyuhyun is driving the rest of the members crazy. Can I get a room for you at the Chae Luxe? At least then I can stop lying to Hae and tell him that you’re not in my apartment.”

“Ani, it’s fine.” I thanked her for her hospitality, and decided to move out again to a small, temporary apartment. It was there that I finally had the chance to calm down and to think.

I realized that I was, yet again, doing exactly what I had promised myself to stop doing. 

Just like 6 years ago, I was running away from my problems. I had hid myself away, preferring that over dealing with anything. No matter how strong of a person I claimed to be, I was definately "flighty," there was no way around that.

But I wasn't a reckless teenager anymore, and I really needed to stop running. I needed to face my problems head on and work through them, hearing all sides of the same story. It was with a clear mind that I decided that it was time to finally, go home.