I can only give you three names. Somi. Doyeon. Nayoung.

I stare at the three names over and over again, but I can’t seem to recall any memories. I rub my temples to ease away the morning headache. I don’t why I couldn’t sleep anymore and it was 6:30am in the morning. I don’t usually wake up at this time. Why? I stare into the darkness of my room again, drowning in the unnecessary thoughts. Uncontrollable thoughts. Dark thoughts. And then at the back of my head, I started to burn up a small memory.

Mid April last year during school, Umji was talking to three girls. Her eyes, she was scared. Her eyes, they were constantly roaming around to looking for help. Her eyes searched and stopped at me standing in the corner, but I didn’t understand what she wanted. She quickly looks away and returned her attention back to the three girls. And so I left, because I thought it wouldn’t be much of a problem. I thought, and I thought wrong. Small things. Why did they mean so much bigger? Small things that I failed to stop before it got too big. Those three names Yuju would’ve send them to me without reason. I rummaged into my thoughts a little longer. No they couldn’t, could they? They could’ve bothered our Umji? Right? I picked up my phone again to call Yuju but stopped and called Umji instead.

I have to know from her. Small stupid ing things.

“Hello?”

“Hello Umji?”

“Ah! Sinb everything okay?” How can she sound so happy, when all these things happed to her? She should be angry. She should be so angry with me. But she didn’t even though all this should be my fault. Because I was blind. I hated that she didn’t.

“Yeah, everything is okay. Are you still at home?”

“Yeah, do you need something?”

“No I don’t. Can you meet me at the train station by 7:45am and we’ll catch the train together?”

“I don’t see why not.”

“Okay, see you there then. Bye.”

“Bye.”

I hung up, jumped out of bed and quickly brushed my teeth and changed into my clothes. I slipped into my shoes and grabbed my bag, closing my apartment door. I ran as fast as I could to the train station, racing up the flight of stairs I struggled to make my way to platform A. Seeing Umji in the distance, I couldn’t help but feel guilty. How can I face her? She was standing there rubbing her arms to keep warm from the morning chills. I ran to her and hugged her tightly.

“I was so worried about you. You called me all of a sud…”

“Umji I’m sorry. Please forgive me.” I cried, not letting her go.

“Sorry? For what?”

“For everything. It was all my fault.” I open my eyes a little and I could see a fresh bruise on her neck. I quickly shut my eyes. No.

“Sinb. What are you talking about?” She laughs.

“How can you be so okay Umji?!” I screamed “How? After I failed to see! Umji. How?!” she didn’t say anything.

“You need to stop pretending this is all alright. You need to stop putting on that smile and should’ve told me. Why?” The tears couldn’t stop now, I cried into her until I could feel the dampness of her shirt against my face.

“Sinb, I still don’t understand what you are talking about.” I let her go, to look at her face. There was something about our relationship. I loved her platonically. She looked at me smiling again, look at those damn innocent eyes.

“I’m, going to ask one more time. Are you okay Sinb?” I wipe away my tears.

“Everything is okay with me. This is not about me this is about you. You’re not okay are you?”

“Of course I am.”

“Stop lying to me! It is? She hesitated when I asked her the second time.

“I don’t know.” She looks at the ground. “Why would you worry about me?”

“Is someone bothering you? And I want you to answer me honestly.” She was silent again, fiddling with her fingers. I place my hand on her chin and lifted her head up.

“There is someone, isn’t there?” Tears started to form in her eyes. It hurt me so much to see her this way. It hurts me so much more that all this was true. That she had to answer in the most painful way. The pain wrenches my heart that for all this time, I didn’t know. I gathered her up in my arms, embracing her.

I’m never going to let this little flower go. “Name them.”

“Sinb it’s okay, they won’t bother me anymore. I promise.”

“Umji. Please I’m begging you. Tell me their names.” She let out a sigh

“Somi, Doyeon and Nayoung.” Sh*t. Yuju knew.

“It’s okay Umji. Your secret stays with me.” She nods in my shoulder. “They will never hurt you again. Do you understand? I will destroy them.”

“Did Yuju tell you?”

“It doesn’t matter who told me what. What matters now is you. You need to be safe. You need to get a hold of yourself. I’m scared Umji. I’m so scared. What if I not always there to look after you. And when I’m not there to help you, what if bad things happen.”

“It won’t.”

“Umji, I don’t know. It always happens. People I care about always get hurt.”

“I won’t get hurt. Sinb trust me.” I let go of her and wipe her tears away with my thumb. We stood there waiting for the train to come, when I received a call from Yerin.

“Hello?”

“Ya. Sinb?”

“Yeah? What’s up?”

“Where are you right now?”

“I’m at the train station with Umji.”

“Sh*t, stay there. Don’t go anywhere, we’re coming.”

“The train is coming in like 10 minutes so hurry. Unless you want to be late for school.”

“School?”

“What does that mean Yerin? That expression in your voice. What are you thinking about?”

“Not today Sinb. No. Not today.”

“Is skipping school what you are imposing?”

“Bingo!”

“You’re not thinking this through.”

“You have to trust me.”

“Yah hurry up Yerin!! It’s cold standing here.” Someone screams on the other line.

“Who’s with you?”

“Eunha and Sowon.”

“Okay just get your asses here at the train station first, and we will sort this out.”

“Okay, cool. We’ll be there soon. Bye.”

“Laters.” And she hung up.

“Who was that?” Umji questions.

“Yerin.”

“She’s skipping school today isn’t she?”

“Yep.”

“Thought so, that’s probably the only reason she would’ve called early this morning.”

“And she is dragging us along with her.”

“Exactly.”

“We just know her too well.” Umji laughs and I laugh along with her. It wasn’t too long until they arrived at the train station. I waved at Yerin to get her attention and soon she was in my arms.

“Ya the amount of effort you go through to skip one day of school.”

“Hell yeah.”

“Hey what about Yuju?” Sowon asks.

“Sh*t I forgot about her. Do any of you have her number?” Yerin says

“Yeah I do.” They all turn to me.

“Call her.” Umji beams.

“Okay two secs.”

“I smell something fishy here.” Yerin blurts out.

“Yeah I know right? Is there something going on between you guys?” Sowon whispers.

“No? We’re just friends.”

“Friends huh?”

“Shut up Eunha.” I say to her as a called Yuju

“Hello?”

“Hey where are you at Yuju?”

“What?”

“School?”

“What time is it?”

“It’s 7:55am.”

“What day is it?”

“Yuju, it’s Tuesday.”

“Oh my God! Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! I’m going to be late.”

“Calm down.” I laugh

“Call me back.”

“No. No. Yuju hold up.”

“What? Make it quick.”

“Get dressed and everything for school but we are not going to school.”

“What? Am I hearing this right?”

“Ya, hurry, hurry we’ll come and pick you up.”

“Bye~” We all say to her. Yerin grabs the phone and hung up.

“Okay first off. What is going on in your head right now?”

“I don’t know it’s such a beautiful day to be going to school and staring at whiteboards until our eyes bleed isn’t the best thing right now.”

“Guys she’s back to normal.” I say clapping her shoulders

“But don’t you guys think the teachers would get suspicious that the six of us are like missing altogether?” Umji says

“Damn, I forgot about that.” Yerin swears and then massages her temples.

“We’ll make something up like Sinb’s grandpa in hospital or something.” Eunha suggested.

“If you children get caught I’m going to be so devastated.” We all turn to look at Sowon.

“Never in a million years have I ever seen you worry about us.” Umji says

“Maybe because she’s involved in it this time.” Eunha says laughing and we all burst out laughing with her.

“Shut up Eunha.” Sowon went to ruffle her hair.

“Ya, that means that…” Yerin starts

“WE GET TO GO TO NOREBANG!!!!” we all says, ecstatic as .

“Guys we gotta go pick up Yuju.”

We arrived at Yuju’s house and I pulled out my phone to call her.

“Come out, we’re here.” She opened the door with her phone still against her ear, she puts it down and walked towards my direction. I smiled at her but she didn’t back.

She slapped me hard on the arm. “What do you think you are doing? We can’t just skip school like this do you understand?”

Sowon and the rest shuffled around awkwardly.

“Yuju, it’s okay it’s just one day.”

“You don’t understand.”

“One day of fun that’s it we won’t do it again. Right guys?” I turned to them, all nodding.

Yuju glared into my eyes for the longest time. I could tell she was trying to hold in her anger at me.

“Guess it is fine, since we can have fun before our first mock test.”

We all lightened up.

“Trust us it’ll be fun.” Eunha shouts from the back.

YUJU

I pulled Sinb over to the side to talk to her privately.

“Mock test are coming up and it is not an excuse for you to slack off okay? Rank 267?”

“Did you just insult me?”

“I don’t know did I?” I laugh at her and the corner of her lips lifted a bit. She walks past me to go to her group.

“I’m not done with you yet.” And grabbed her arm and pulled her back, until we faced each other. We were so close that I could feel her warm breath against my chin.

“What is it?” she almost whispers. She leaned closer to me, tilting her head a little. Our lips almost touch. I closed my eyes, but opened them when I couldn’t feel her warmth against me anymore. I was left standing alone back facing her friends. I smile a little when I thought about what happened just now.

“What are you waiting for? We don’t have all day you know!” She shouts, I turn around to catch up to them. I squirm a bit inside out of embarrassment.

We’re just friends.

Sinb runs to my side whispering in my ear “We don’t have to wait till Friday to meet again. We can do it everyday.” And she runs off laughing, linking arms with Yerin further in front.

I jumped a bit when Sowon linked her arm with mine. I looked up at her, to only find her smiling. Eunha did the same linking arms with me on the other side.

Friends. This is what it feels like.

“Sowon?”

“Hmm?”

“You’re the class representative right?”

“Yeah and…?”

“What exactly are you doing here?”

“Having fun.”

“Are you serious? Wow, I thought you would be in class right now setting a good example.”

“Not today.”

“Okay then.”

“Since I’m the class representative, it’s less of a worry.”

“You’re using your advantage huh? What about us what if we get in trouble?” Sinb says.

“Well that’s your .” Sowon unlinks her arm with mine, running wild up front ahead of us as Sinb came charging towards her, with full speed.

“There’s no mercy when it comes to Sinb. Just be very mindful about that.” Umji says, and we chuckle at them attacking each other. Only soon after Sowon still with her pride as the class representative, dragging her victim by the ear.

“Sowon! Let go it hurts!”

“No.”

“Sowon unnie!”

“Have you learnt your lesson?”

“Yesssss~”

“Good girl.” Sowon says letting go of her ear.

“It’s your fault in the first place.” Sinb mutters under her breath.

“What did you say?” grabbing onto her ear again.

“Nothing.” Sinb flashes her biggest grin at Sowon, before she lets go.

After eating the biggest snack in the history of snacking. We sat there in the restaurant for a bit until we can all breathe properly again.

“God I am so full.” Yerin groans

“Me too.” Sowon says

“Me three.” I looked over to see Sinb almost passed out.

“Guys it’s almost late and we cannot miss out on this once in a lifetime opportunity.” Yerin says

“Norebang! Kids get the hell up, we are going.” Sowon stands up and I do also. We headed out of the front door thanking the owner as we left. We crossed the street to the closet Norebang place we find. I opened the door for our group to go in.

“Lucky last Sowon!” I smile at her.

“You go in first, I need to do something.” Sowon says

“Ya, go find a room and we’ll be right there.” I yelled as the others walked up the stairs. I close the door behind me and trailed along with Sowon.

“You didn’t have to come.”

“It’s cool.”

“I just needed some fresh air, I’ve got a little bit of a headache.” She says before fishing out a small container from her bag.

“Pills?”

“Yep, let’s get high on drugs.”

“You sure you’re gonna be okay, I can tell them we can go home?”

“I will trust me. Plus it’s a very long time since the kids are this happy. Especially Sinb.”

“Sinb? So you’re saying she was never like this?” the breeze picked up and blew our hair back.

“Not really. Poor kid.” She says as she gulped down the painkillers.

“What happened?”

“A lot of things. She has no one in her life, even though she has me and the others, it wasn’t enough to lift her spirit up. Not until you came.”

“Me? I’m no different from you guys, I’m well below average if you were to say.”

“She sees something in you. The way she looks at you, and the way her eyes would lighten up every time she sees you. Sinb is a very hard person to impress. So tell me you’re below average, Yuju?” she laughs.

“I don’t know.” I smile at her.

“Her family was broken. Her father was in one place, her mother in the other. And that left her in between, nowhere to go. And as her friend for a very long time, I took her in, and when she was old enough she felt like a burden so she left and went her own way. Burden she says, that’s the best I can do for her. My parents didn’t agree at first but where is this beat gonna go? Her parents were so selfish.”

“Gosh.”

“I know right. But there’s one thing I need to tell you.” She turns to look at me. “You have to promise me that you are not going to go around and say anything about this. Not even Sinb.”

“Promise.” I held out my pinkie and she took it.

“Before Sinb’s mum supposed death, I saw Sinb’s mum with another man at a café.”

“Why didn’t you tell her about this?”

“It will only hurt her more. She was so close with her mum. And I think the reason she hates her dad so much, was that her dad told her the false information. He was putting the blame on himself in order to protect Sinb. Now her fathers out in the streets somewhere, coming back to her every so often, to remind himself what his reason was to keep living. To protect Sinb, but she doesn’t see that.”

“I can’t say anything but feel so bad for the both of them.” I say

“Same. Enough with all this bullsh*t, let’s get up there and sing our life away.”

We headed up to the karaoke room, and from the distance we could hear them singing their heads off to Big Bang. We opened the door and went in to find Yerin jumping on the sofa, Sinb dancing to herself in the corner of the room and Eunha screaming in the microphone and I am convinced she was going to eat it soon. Umji seemed to be the only normal one sitting on the sofa, smiling. The room was dimly lit, with the screen filling up most of the wall.

“Welcome to our family.” Sowon says.

“Nice, very nice.” I went in a dropped myself on the sofa, the song ended shortly after and Sinb came to sit next to me.

“Have you ever been to Norebang before?” she asks

“Nope, this is my first time.”

Sinb gasps. “I can’t believe you’ve never been. You haven’t been living.”

“Are you insulting me?”

“No? What are you talking about?” I laugh at her.

“Shocking I know, so shall we get started.”

“Okay.”

“Who’s singing?” Eunha asks

“Yuju volunteers!” Sinb raises my arm.

“Ya, what are you doing?!”

“Yeah, Yuju. Get up there!” Yerin yells.

“Give it up for Yuju!” Sinb says shoving the microphone in my hand.

“I don’t sing.”

“Of course you do.”

“Choose a song.”

“I don’t know.”

SINB

“Yes you do. Choose a song.” I smile at her shaking body.

“You choose for me.”

“Fine.” I fiddle with the song menu and pressed in the code on the remote.

RAIN- Taeyeon

The screen lights up with the music video and everything that surrounds us fades out so that it feels like it was only us in the small room. I shuffled closer beside her and her nervousness bleeds into me.

“Are you a good singer?”

“Not really.”

“Too bad because you’re going to sing with me.” She says as she runs her hand through her hair, pulling it up into a ponytail and tying it up with the rubber band around her wrist. A few strands of hair falls into her face and she tucks it behind her ear. I couldn’t help but stare.

She turns to look at me with her sparkling eyes and her warm smile. I turn away quickly and I could feel my cheeks heating up. I fan myself to cool down my embarrassment.

Putting her hand over her heart she sings the first verse. I let my hand drop. She’s definitely out of my league. I couldn’t join in, so I let her let herself go and so I close my eyes and let myself drown in the melody of her voice. It was so powerful. She hits every note so perfectly. Control, she had so much control. She knew what she was doing. It was like she had been singing all her life. Except she didn’t, it was singing inside of her and it wasn’t till this day that she had let it all come free.

It was a long song and she was out of breath by the end of it. We watched the screen together until a number popped up with a 99%, bursting with confetti. I clapped my hands so hard that the stinging sensation still remained after. I was so mesmerised by her outstanding voice. The rest of us joined a few seconds later, due to the amazement of her hidden talent. They had a bit of a delay in the celebration. Yuju hid her face in her hands out of embarrassment. How can you not love her?

“Ya! Daebak!” Yerin yells while clinging onto Yuju.

“So what was that Yuju? You don’t sing?” Sowon teases

“I said don’t. I didn’t say I couldn’t sing.” She walks past me, our arms brushing against each other. I feel absolutely ridiculous for noticing such things, but I do notice. She sat back down on the sofa and I slide beside her. I could feel the sweat on the back of my thighs sticking against the leather sofa, and I felt self-conscious about it and tried to wipe it away. I had nothing else to do as the others chatted to themselves in the corner of the room, while Sowon left to go to the bathroom. I took a chance to glance over at Yuju, who wouldn’t stop smiling since she finished singing.

“Did someday meant today?”

“Hmm?”

“That I got a chance to hear you sing?”

“You kinda forced it, but I guess so.”

“Sowon okay? She looks kind of pale.” I asked

“She’s got a headache. She’ll be fine.” Yuju turns to look at me with her smile again.

Sowon came back standing at the doorway.

“Let’s go it’s getting late now.”

“Okay” I say. We all walk down the stairs and Sowon stops at the door.

“What is it?” Yuju says

“It’s raining.” Yuju opens the door and peeks outside. She turns to face all of us

“A little rain never killed anybody.” She says

“No we are definitely not taking that route.” I says.

“Come on Sinb you .” Yerin teases and pushes in front of me going out the door. Eunha and Sowon held hands and pushes out the door.

“1,2,3 here we go.” Umji shouts flinging the door open and a little spits of rain sprinkles on my face.

“What are you waiting for lets go.” Yuju held out her hand and I hesitated for a bit. “You wanted to have fun right? ”

“Yeah?”

“So what’s the hold up? You said that to me.” And so I grabbed her hand and pulled her out the door and we ran wild into the pouring rain. Yerin and Umji were kicking and splashing in the puddles and Sowon and Eunha danced. I ran to them and kicked the puddles of water at them and it was complete chaos. We were like little children again enjoying the last moments of childhood before we have to grow up. I don’t want to grow up that’s the problem. Yuju grabbed both my hands and spun me around in circles, before we landed on the flooded road laughing at our silliness. We stood back up and she leaned in closer to my ear and whispered.

“Make a wish.” And so I closed my eyes, clasped my hands and made a wish. “What did you wish for?”

“It’s a secret.”

“How can I grant your wish if you don’t tell me?”

“Fine. I wish you were with me.” She laughs

“You are. Make another wish.”

“That is my wish.” She only smiled.

“Think about it Yuju.”

“Ya, Sinb! We’re gonna head home okay?” Sowon yells in the loud pouring rain.

“Make sure you get home safe!” Yerin shouts.

“Thanks for today Yerin!”

“Anytime!” she shouts back. The four of them ran off, and I watch them as they fade away in the distance. I returned my attention to Yuju as I notice that we were still holding hands.

“Looks like I have to go too.” She nods.

“Okay.”

“See you tomorrow then?”

“Yeah.” I let her hands go and turn to walk away in the other direction.

“Sinb!” I swing my body around, only to be surprised by her embrace. I wrap my arms around her and hugged her tightly. We stood in the rain a few moments more.

“I’ll think about it.” She lets go and runs off.

A/N

Hello there! How you guys been? Damn it's raining. Hope y'all enjoyed this chap. Take care!