Chapter 41: Beyond the Strong Exteriors

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In the middle of the night, Yiseul awakens to hear soft snoring beside her in her bed. Sighing, she turns to find Jaewon fast asleep. This is the first time that she would catch him before morning came. 

Sitting up, she places her hand on his shoulder and decides last minute not to wake him. 

Jaewon seems to be stressed out and unhappy lately and if staying in her bed comforts him just a little, she’ll let him get away with it for tonight. 

Grabbing an extra pillow and small blanket, she heads out of her room and make way to the couch in the common area. Setting up for the next few hours, she looks over to the second-floor windows and notices some movements of shadows below. Walking closer, she looks down at the ground from the height and discovers a group of girls running off. 

She wonders what they’re up to so late. 

Surely, they’re not waiting out in the cold for Jaewon, are they? Too bad nothing would wake him at this point. 

When she’s finally laying down and getting comfortable on the couch, she ends up staring at the ceiling. Embracing the unusual silence, she thinks about Jinhwan’s upcoming birthday until her eyes close and sleep visits her. 

***

“Dorm head!”

Startled awake, she opens her eyes as someone calls out for her again.

“Dorm head!”

“I’m in here,” she manages to answer. It did come out more as a groan.

Bobby does hear her and stops at the doorway of the common area. “I couldn’t find you in your room,” he takes a moment to explain. “Anyways, you need to come see this.”

Wrapping herself up in her blanket, she follows after Bobby into the hallway and towards the entrance of the dorms. Jisoo and Joohyuk are both outside in the cold, waiting for her. Like her, it seems they had just been woken up and dragged out of bed. 

“Stay inside where it’s warm, Bobby,” she says before leaving him behind the doors. 

She finds both dorm heads staring up at the side of the dorm building. 

She follows their line of sight and finds graffiti all over its surface. 

“Do you know where all your residents were last night?” Joohyuk asks. 

“It wasn’t my residents,” she answers.

They both turn and look at her. 

Her eyes focus on the window above it. “I saw a group of trespassers last night.”

“Did you alert anyone?” Jisoo asks. 

Yiseul shakes her head. “It wasn’t the first time they’ve been hanging around the building.” She thought to explain the whole Jaewon and his fans situation, but ends up keeping it to herself. It might result in Jaewon taking the blame. “It didn’t seem like they would cause any trouble.”

Well, until now that is.

“Are you sure about what you saw, Yiseul?” Joohyuk clarifies. “It was the middle of the night, you could have been mistaken.”

“I’m sure about what I saw.”

“Yiseul, I don’t think you’re trying to fool us,” Jisoo makes sure to say. “But, I do think you should check with your residents first. We would probably be asked to anyways.”

“We’ll do the same with our residents,” Joohyuk quickly adds. “We won’t try to single out anybody.”

***

“We didn’t do it.”

Both Jisoo and Joohyuk requested it, so she had to do at least what they asked of her. But, she did find it pointless. 

“They better not be trying to make the responsibility of cleaning it up fall on us,” Chanwoo is quick to say.

Yiseul points at him. “Chanwoo, I need to see you after this–,”

And, Seunghoon is quick to add, “There’s no reason for us to clean it when it isn’t our fault.”

“We always get the end of the stick. We’ll end up with the blame anyways,” Jisoo remarks with a sigh. 

“I’ll clean that mess up when hell freezes over,” Junhoe comments. 

“If we’re saying that hell exists, that will never happen,” Donghyuk softly responds.

Junhoe shoots him a look. “That’s the point, Donghyuk.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

Her short response draws a deafening silence from her group of residents in the common area. She looks from one face to another, their expression unreadable. 

“Huh?” Junhoe is the first to react. 

“I said, I’ll take your word for it. If you say you didn’t do, then you didn’t do it.”

“No, this is where you accuse us of lying,” Seunghoon corrects her. 

Jennie could be seen smiling to herself. Mino has his arms crossed upon his chest, seemingly unbothered by the situation. The boys, Junhoe, Bobby, Seunghoon, and Seungyoon look at her in confusion–,

“Yiseul?”

The call of her name draws her attention towards the doorway of the common area. Joohyuk peeks his head inside and another boy could be seen joining him. Immediately, she recognizes him from the blackout. 

“Ugh, what are you doing here, Jongdae?” Junhoe reacts at the boy’s appearance. 

With a smug look, Jongdae responds, “I’m just here to observe.”

“In my defense, I did tell him not to follow me,” Joohyuk quickly explains upon seeing such unhappy expressions. 

“I’m glad you stopped by,” Yiseul says with her attention on Joohyuk. “My residents are not responsible.”

“They’re most likely to do it,” Jongdae interjects.

His comment immediately receives a fiery response from her residents. 

“They said it wasn’t them,” she responds.

Joohyuk leans forward and in a quiet voice, he asks, “And, you trust them?”

She answers back just as softly, “I know my residents. If they did it, they would most definitely take pride in it.” 

Joohyuk straightens up and hums, “Well, someone has to clean it. The dean has heard about it and since we don’t have any idea who the people you saw may be, we can’t exactly hold anyone responsible. She’s going to want to see the mess on the building gone before she makes her visit in the next two weeks.”

Yiseul is suddenly taken aback. She had forgotten that the dean would soon be checking on their progress. 

“Don’t look at us,” Bobby directs his words to Joohyuk. “We’re not going to clean up a mess we didn’t make.”

“That doesn’t say much,” Jongdae retorts. “You lot wouldn’t clean it up even if it were your mess.”

“Jongdae, do you really have any business being here?” Jisoo points out. 

“If you want it cleaned so bad, then you clean it,” Chanwoo adds. 

To end the bickering, Yiseul interrupts calmly, “I’ll handle it.”

“Dorm head!”

Her residents are fast to react from her words. 

Joohyuk and Yiseul merely share looks between one another before he leaves

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Sriracha31
Hi everyone! Just trying to get the message out as efficiently as possible- if you would like to connect outside of fanfics, follow me on instagram at staceface_art.

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Comments

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Wanderer_bj
#1
Chapter 62: Ohh how I miss reading something not so heavy like this. I just love this and the end was just perfect. 😍
peachyjoonie_
#2
God, I miss you. Thank you for writing.
WholesomeRain
#3
Chapter 62: I miss these characters so much I’m going to puke.
WholesomeRain
#4
Chapter 60: It makes me sick that they aren’t all real people 😔 (even tho they are, but you get what I mean haha)
WholesomeRain
#5
Chapter 35: Oh, I’m also referring to Jinhwan, of course✊💯
WholesomeRain
#6
Chapter 30: That post that says “girls don’t want real men, they want fictional men written by women’ but I’m solely referring to the versions of Hanbin that you write. (Rereading chapters, yet again)
Amsohappy
#7
Chapter 62: Wow! I finally get to finish reading this breath of fresh air. I love your style.
All through the earlier chapters, I was chanting girl stand up for yourself like a mantra. I knew it wasn't easy to just up and switch. It took time, but I'm glad she achieved it in the end. Thank you, for this refreshing read.
Amsohappy
#8
Chapter 52: Girl, that's the spirit.
I don't want to.
maysui
#9
Chapter 57: The way Hanbin gives Yiseul a space and choice for her to decide shows how much he respects her.

All this time, she can't say no and I can't blame her for that. I hope they can leave safely and live how they want to.
maysui
#10
Chapter 55: Manipulating? Brainwashed? seems to be talking about herself hahaha I'm so proud Yiseul is speaking up for herself!