“Where are you sneaking to so early in the morning?”

Yiseul finishes closing her room’s door as she looks down the hall. Hanbin is standing outside of Seunghoon and Jinwoo’s room, his hand carelessly messing up his bedhead even more.

“Why are you in this wing?” she wonders.

He yawns. “I fell asleep playing video games with Seunghoon.”

She offers a smile and a nod. “I’m heading over to Mina’s– I’ll be there for a while.” She pats her overnight bag to show him.

There’s some hesitation coming from Hanbin, but he finally says, “Stay warm.”

The door behind Hanbin clicks open and Seunghoon’s sleepy form peeks out. It doesn’t take long before he also takes notice of the overnight bag slung over Yiseul’s shoulder. 

“Tell me again why this is necessary?” Seunghoon asks. 

“It’ll only be for a little while,” Yiseul responds. 

It wasn’t like she wouldn’t be back from time to time. She had to check on things here and Mina couldn’t exactly stop her from doing so. 

“You can text or call me, no matter how late,” she adds.

“Don’t say that around Junhoe,” Hanbin warns softly.

***

The residents immediately take notice of the time and the one person they haven’t seen all day. It’s strange, to say the least.

“I wonder if this is how it’ll be like,” Rosé says with a sigh. She had forgotten about her studying for a while now as she zones out. 

“Like what?” Lisa asks.

“When Yiseul leaves.”

The common area goes silent. 

“There’s something about her; don’t you think?”

“About who?” Jisoo wonders half-heartedly as Junhoe distracts her from her studying.

The other residents in the room also look up. 

“Junhoe, we said at least 30 minutes of quiet time,” Jennie reminds him.

“Rosé did it first. Besides, you sound like the dorm head,” he remarks.

“Yeah, the same person we promised that we’d study hard for our exams.”

“Who are you talking about?” Mino asks, refocusing Junhoe. “Mina?”

“Yeah!” Junhoe answers. “She rubs me the wrong way. But, it’s not like I’ve dealt with her much.” Even to him, it’s weird to have such feelings towards someone he barely knew. 

“You’re late to the party,” Jennie responds before looking back at her laptop. 

“Huh?”

“We all think there’s something off about the girl. If we had it our way, Yiseul wouldn’t be hanging out with her anymore,” Jisoo explains this time. “That includes staying over in her room just to help her study.”

“I mean, dorm head is sensible,” Yunhyeong chimes in. “Why do you think she still does?”

The girls shrug their shoulders.

“Hanbin, what do you know?” Jennie asks. He has been uncharacteristically silent during the conversation. And, it definitely didn’t have to do with him being studious. 

“Have any of you ever asked Yiseul anything about her life?” he wonders.

The question stumps the residents. 

Jennie opens to answer, but hesitates. “We didn’t want to pry.”

“Or if we did ask, she doesn’t exactly reveal much,” Suhyun responds.

“Yiseul once told me that her mom works for Mina’s family,” Hanbin reveals. “I don’t know what her mom’s role is, but it seems to have something to do with Yiseul always being at Mina’s beck and call.”

“But, friends don’t order friends around,” Donghyuk comments. 

“Right,” Hanbin remarks. “That’s the problem, isn’t it?”

***

“Isn’t the trek back and forth difficult, Yiseul?”

Slipping off her winter coat and boots, Yiseul takes advantage of the warm dorm room that she enters. “I can do this much,” she responds. 

Mina doesn’t respond, instead she heads over to her desk.

“Do you have your study materials?” Yiseul asks.

“Yup.”

Taking the second seat beside Mina, Yiseul takes a look. “Why don’t you start by creating study guides?”

“Can’t you do it for me?”

“You’ll learn as you do it.”

Pouting, Mina gets to work. 

Yiseul is content to find Mina somewhat more attentive on studying than she normally would be. Maybe it had something to do with her mom. And, with the silence, Yiseul manages to get her own studying in. 

“Will we get dinner together?” Mina asks after some time.

“Sure.”

Then, things took a turn. Ever since dinner was mentioned, that was all Mina seemed to think about. When should they leave? Where should they go? What should they have? Studying after that didn’t seem to be useful anymore, so Yiseul decides to call for an end of it.

With a stretch of her limbs, Mina gets up from her desk to get ready. 

“Yiseul, why don’t you just stay here with me up until the exams instead of returning every few days?”

“The exams aren’t for another two weeks and I can’t sleep here every day.” She had also promised her residents that she would be gone 1-2 days at a time. 

“Yeah, but then, I’ll be motivated to study. I don’t think I can study much on my own.”

“I can’t just leave my residents completely for two weeks–,”

“It’ll be nice to get through the next two weeks together as well,” Mina suddenly says, her attention placed on picking out her outfit. 

Understanding what Mina may be suggesting, Yiseul finds herself at a loss for words. She didn’t know what to say to that.

“You know why you have to be present, Yiseul,” she continued, calmly. “I only lost him because of you.”

***

In the morning, Jaewon is more