"I can't do that!"

I pulled down my phone, realizing my surrounding startled at my high pitched voice. I bowed slightly, apologizing before bringing the phone back to my ear. "Hye Jin seriously, I can't do that," I spoke again, with a lower voice.

I could faintly hear my sister sigh on the other line. "Unnie, this is my first stage ever in the campus and also the first time in my life. As my guardian, of course, I want you together with my brother in law."

My heart wrenched hearing my sister words. I knew it wasn't not only a meaningful event for her, but to me and Hyun Jin as well. I knew it very well, how much she wanted to be on stage and now when the times come,  she certainly wanted her family comes to see her to celebrate the special event together. But if she wanted me to bring him along, how could I do that?

"I'll come together with Hyun Jin, isn't it enough?" I said, my voice almost sounded desperate. After a few seconds of silence, Hye Jin sighed heavily, and I continued, "Besides, it's impossible to invite him to the event. He'll become the attention if he comes, and the worst case people will start to get suspicious of him and start spreading rumors."

It was a reasonable excuse to silenced my sister although another reason was that I wasn’t brave enough to ask him face to face. However, I shouldn't show my sister the side of my awkward relationship with him.

"I understand," Hye Jin replied, sighing heavily once again. I relieved inwardly only to sunk seconds later when Hye Jin continued. "You can go together with Hyunjin. But you can't stop me to invite my brother in law because it's up to my decision."

"What? No, Hye-" my words stopped as Hye Jin hung up the call. I hissed frantically, trying to call her again but the line was busy.

No way, she couldn't possibly call him right away. I exhaled deeply, my hand massaging my forehead.

"Are you okay, Yu Jin?"

I swiftly turned to the manager and flashed him a smile. "It's okay."

He eyed me suspiciously. "Does your head hurts?"

I pulled my hand down. "Nope. Family problem." I blurted out.

"Does something happen to your brother and sister?"

"Huh? No, just some bicker with my little sister. You know sometimes she gets very stubborn and hard to handle." I expected to hear the manager asking me further, but he ended up nodding his head and pat my shoulder. I seriously need to hold myself from blurting what inside my mind in the future.

"Don't be too hard on her, Yu Jin. I know Ye Jin is a good girl, same as you. She needs extra affection from her surrounding, especially you."

Hearing his words reminded me of the old times when he gave me advice when I was a trainee. When I remembered those days, I feel so blessed to have friends and someone like him who always there to support and cheer me up. But now, what's left? I lost contact with all of my trainee friends. My closest friends are treating me like a stranger even though we live under the same roof now. All I have now is only my brother and sister. Sometimes I was thinking, If my stubbornness to live abroad and leave everything behind hadn't gotten in the way priority, I wouldn't have lost everything, maybe.

"Hello?" I blinked, looking at the older who waved his hand. "Look, you're spacing out again. Something must've bothered you so much."

I chuckled at his skeptical look and shook my head. "No, nothing happened. Don't worry you'll be the one I'm looking for if I have a problem."

"No, don't look for me, look for your husband." he blurted out. I cast him a weirded-out look as he continued, "You know, others might have a toddler now if they were you."

A snortled left my lips as I rolled my eyes. "Others married with their own will, while I'm not. It looks like you forgot that we never develop any romantic feelings since the start. And a baby? What do you expect when he's still an idol, my lovely brother." I gave him a sarcastic look.

He scoffed. "There's no way you easily agreed on this arrange marriage if you don't have any feeling for him."

Acting as if I hadn't heard his words, I shoved him lightly and walked toward the door. "I'm leaving. I'll call you later." I waved my hand, ignoring him who called my name behind.

Taking a bus, I went back to the apartment and arrived when the clock struck 9 PM. I was very exhausted today when the manager came in the early morning and picked me up to buy some fabric for the boys' costume. Not to mention the sleepless night I went through since these past weeks since I need to complete the costumes preparation in time. Sometimes I forgot to eat and fall asleep on my sewing machine or eating in the midnight, and on the next day I'd woke up swollen or having an upset stomach. But tonight, maybe I could ease down my hectic work and cook something for my dinner. But there was nothing I could get in the cabinet and the fridge, not even a ramyeon or an egg.

Sighing, I closed the fridge. But what's new about it, of course, life will always give me some struggle.

Walking outside the apartment, I decided to go to the quiet convenience store located nearby and bought a cup of ramyeon and two pieces of bread. While I was paying my food, I heard the laughter coming from a group of people as they entered the store. One of the laughter sounded familiar to me that it made me turned my head to see the owner of the voice but their back was facing me, and I turned back my head, walking to the table near the window and busying myself with the food I paid. 

"I bet she won't give you an A this time."

"Forget about an A, be grateful if she gives you a score since you only attend twice in her class."

Even though my eyes glued to the cup of ramyeon in front of me, their voice was loud enough to get my attention.

"But her daughter is his fan I bet she'll come to him for an autograph and whoosh the A you're hoping will flying to you, buddy."

"Stop saying nonsense thing why are you two still here?" I heard a girl voice interrupting the two this time.

"Aw, Seol I'm hurt, you don't need me anymore now when Mr. Choi is around you?"

"Should I point you the way to get out of here?"

"Okay, we're leaving. I'm sorry we can't take you home tonight. Mr. Choi, don't forget our bet!"

I was about scoffing my mouth with my food when I saw the owner of the voice I eavesdrop left the store as they share a last look in my direction. At first, I thought they were waving at me, but when I turned my head to the side and met a pair of eyes that seemed startled just as much as I was, I slowly lowered my head.

No wonder that voice and laughter sounded familiar.

I looked around, luckily none of his friends was left here, so I thought that's why he was so brave to sit next to me while opening the lid of the vanilla ice cream in his hand.

"Why are you eating here?"

Even when my focus landed on my ramyeon and his on his ice cream, I knew his question was directing me.

"Because I'm hungry and found nothing I could eat in the kitchen?" I replied spontaneously. I heard him chuckled lightly, the corner of my eyes tried to catch his activity when out of sudden I heard a voice called him out from behind.

I glanced over his shoulder and saw a long-haired girl walking over to where we were sitting and sat in the seat beside him.

"I won't ever want to team up with those two if we ever have a group project in the future. What did they contribute to this project? Nothing." I watched her tie her hair up as she continued blabbering how annoyed she was with the two boys who left earlier.

I raise an eyebrow at her voice. Something in the back of my mind was tickling me, telling me I've heard this familiar voice before, but I push it back down as the girl out of sudden looked at me.

"Who is she?" she nudged the boy's arm. Her question was loud enough for me to hear.

"Oh, she lives next to our dorm."

I almost choked on my food hearing his blunt answer when he turned to me and continued, "She's my friend, Kim In Seol."

I looked at the said girl; her eyes were what I first notice. Hazel. They are big with perfect length eyelashes. The natural makeup on her face blends perfectly with her pale skin. A dimple cut deep into her left cheek as she flashed me a friendly smile. Even as a girl, I couldn't deny that she is cute.

"Youngjae, I need to go. I'll do your homework assignment, so you don't need to attend for tomorrow class." the Kim In Seol girl flipped the notebook in her hand closed and threw it inside her bag as she patted the boy's shoulder.

"No, I can do it. I'll attend the class if our practice ends early, but I'll send it to you if it takes a longer time."

The girl nodded. "Call me if you need help."

"Do you bring an umbrella?"

As I tuned in their conversation, I continued eating my food in silence.

"No."

"I'm not surprised. I'll take you to the bus stop. Let’s go." I heard both of them chuckled. When he suddenly stood, I glanced up and caught him staring at me. "I think it's going to rain, come home soon."

I didn't know why but I shifted my eyes to check out the girl reaction which was still smiling and even wider when our eyes met. Our eyes locked for a moment and as if her eyes speak to me, I suddenly felt uneasy.

"Okay?"

I diverted my eyes back to Youngjae as he looked at me waiting for a reply. I nodded as a reply and watched them walked toward the exit door. They look close, I thought.

I blew out a breath and put down the chopstick. The clouds starting to produce a flash of lightning and rumbling thunder fell continuously. I flinched at the sound and quickly gathered the stuff I bought and left the store. In the distance, not far away from the store, I saw someone running toward me. I halted, watching the figure approaching in haste. Unknowingly, I smiled.

"Where's your friend?" I asked as he tried to catch a breath.

"She's walking to the bus stop."

"Aren't you going to take her home?"

"No, I gave my umbrella to her.” we walked side by side, not too fast but not too slow either. Usually, a silence like this would freak me out a little, but weirdly enough it calmed me at some point, so I think I started to get used to it.

"Aren't you guys have a practice at eight tomorrow?"

"Yes." he nodded. Short answer. Just like him. I tilted my head a little to look at him.

"How do you have time to do your homework?" I asked curiously. They had practice for almost sixteen hours every day for their upcoming comeback. Imagine how tired and stressed he and s over it, rationally thinking if I were him, I wouldn't be able to do another task like homework.

At my question, he looked at me. "I don't know, but I'll try."

"I can help, you know, I'm not a bad student as long I remembered."

I heard him chuckled at my answer, thus made me quickly turned my head to see his reaction. A thin smiled appeared on my face, a little surprised seeing him smiled for the first time in a long time at my words.

"It's okay I can do it by myself. This assignment might determine my score for this subject, so I need at least work harder for a good result."

I  didn't want to make a big deal about it, but honestly, it did fascinate me a bit to hear him talk to me more than twenty words. After a moment, I was debating inside whether or not should I talk about some matter to him because I was afraid it'd ruin the moment, but another part of me urged me to ask this one question that had been bothered me for a while.

"Yongjae..." I breathed in, collecting courage and proper words. He looked at me, slowing down his pace when he real