The living room suddenly falls silent as the males only turn their heads to stare at Suzy the moment she lets them know of her presence in the room, the only noise they can hear are the indistinct chatter of their frat mates upstairs and the advertisement currently playing on the television. Kai looks worried and surprised, as he knows how the news will affect not only Suzy, but also his girlfriend. Yixing has his eyebrows lifted, like a kid who got caught red-handed but is willing to deny his little mischief, and Chanyeol… Chanyeol just has mortification written all over his face.

Chanyeol is frowning upon seeing the photo. He must be wondering how on earth his brother got caught by the paparazzi because Baekhyun had always been careful. Suzy almost feels bad for him because the answer is already laid out to them, except that she doesn't, because goddamn, is she hella furious.

Suzy shuts her eyes and tries to count one through five to calm herself, although she opens them as quick as a lightning as soon as she realizes that that never worked on her before and it will not work now either, so there's no need to fool herself, really. She can feel Jongdae's apprehensive eyes on her, but she decides to ignore that. Suzy's just too busy trying not to scream at the moment.

Focusing her attention on Yixing, Suzy forces a smile and she says, "That's really so sweet of you, though, oppa."

Yixing shrugs and he returns the smile, "I try."

The smile on Suzy's face doesn't stay longer than a brief second. Her gaze meets Chanyeol's and she only raises an eyebrow at him before turning to her best friend.

"I have to go, boys. Thanks for last night, it was fun. I think," she mumbles with eyebrows knitted, as if trying to recall a small memory from last night's party, but she fails. She turns around and begins to walk towards the front door, waving a lazy goodbye.

"Sue," Jongdae calls her before she could completely step outside.

She doesn't want to look at them, but when she does she sees their concerned faces. Chanyeol still looks tensed which doesn't surprise her, and Suzy just wants to pat him on the back and tell him it's okay, that she knows who the man is anyway, so he doesn't have to try so hard on playing it cool. Then again Suzy's just as unsettled as he is, probably even more so.

When Suzy confirms that she's listening, Jongdae continues, "Don't do anything rash."

That causes Suzy to snort a sardonic laugh. Jongdae knows her so well, she believes that he may have already realized that saying that is useless, but she appreciates the thought.

"Have I ever?"

Jongdae winces slightly at the response. Always.

* * *

She lets her sisters know she's arrived when she throws her phone over their table, startling them.

"Now, what the hell is going on."

"Hey ladies," Kai's greeting follows after Suzy's blatant entrance.

Kai has followed Suzy out of their frat house before she can even leave. He volunteered to give her a ride to the café in Pyeongchang-dong that their friend owns where she and her sisters frequently chill in; since he wanted to make sure how his girlfriend is doing after the scandal broke out.

The café is where they usually meet whenever they have to discuss about important matters that can only stay among them. Like planning the details on how they're going to ruin their mother's current or next relationship, for starters.

"Hey Kai. Wearing that shirt again? It’s the third time this week," Irene japes, giving the younger male a teasing smile while Kai only chuckles boyishly before scratching his nape at the embarrassment of wearing a shirt with a mug shot of his own face printed on it, holding an 'I made my girlfriend mad' placard. Irene's gaze shifts to Suzy as she is sipping on her mug of cappuccino. She says, not even minding Suzy's fierce approach, "Good morning, Sue, coffee?"

"Don't offer her coffee, unnie, that'll only fuel her anger," Krystal differs, lifting her head to look at her angry sister. Krystal steals a clandestine glance to her lover, trying not to smile at how embarrassed Kai looked all of a sudden. She pulls Suzy to sit beside her, "Don't look at me like that, I wasn't the one who was caught making out with your ex-boyfriend."

It’s not that it’s already left Suzy’s mind — because it clearly hasn’t — but the mention of the photo of her mom and Baekhyun kissing makes her even angrier she can’t help but to kick the leg of the table. Luckily, both of her sisters are holding their own drinks.

“Now you fueled her anger,” Irene prompts, making Krystal giggle a small oops.

Okay, so her sisters knew about her past relationship with Baekhyun. Of course they do because they were with her when the two first met. The three of them had just came back from States that time and they’d discovered an interesting game of exchanging dares with each other to spice up their daily lives. Almost two years ago, Krystal and Irene had given her a dare to sneak into a strip club and be the center of the show. That was one of their most bizarre dares, but Suzy had willingly accepted it. That may be one of her best decisions in life, too, because there she met Baekhyun who wasn’t even planning to be inside a strip club and had only gotten dragged by his friends. It was the small leap of their fates, and they were grateful for it. They caught each other’s interests then, and Baekhyun had never stopped pursuing her since.

Well, he did stop, eventually, because if he didn’t then he’d be kissing her instead of her mother.

"What, that's—?!" Kai's eyes widen slightly at the revelation. He sits on the empty couch across Krystal. He leans into the table, making his knees bump Krystal's... and Suzy's. The latter knows he did it on purpose to get his girlfriend's attention, it's almost disgustingly endearing. Kai's next words come out a whisper, "That's Byun Baekhyun?"

Alright, Kai knows, too. He and Krystal are truly inseparable, it’s almost impossible to know which one between Suzy and Kai is Krystal's twin

"Yeah, you should've paid attention to Chanyeol's reaction," Suzy says, before setting her back against her seat. She sighs indignantly, "Why is this happening?"

Her head is throbbing, her body feels sore, her mother is in another scandal yet again which pisses her off as per usual, and what’s worse is her ex-boyfriend whom she still have undeniable feelings for is involved in that scandal. Absorbing everything seems to be taking a toll on her and she just wants to hide under the covers and get back to sleep, it doesn’t even matter if it’s either her own or back in Jongdae’s (or Baekhyun’s. It pains her because she knows she prefers Baekhyun’s, but then thinking about that just leads her back to the cause of her stress). Somehow her exhaustion is overpowering her anger, surprisingly.

“Do you remember our conversation three weeks ago before you disappear into your apartment? When we noticed mom seems to finally have a new prospect. Apparently, your Baekhyun is that prospect,” Irene replies, looking more appalled now.

Under different circumstances, Suzy would’ve giggled at how Krystal still says your Baekhyun, like they still acknowledge Baekhyun as Suzy’s, and will always be Suzy’s, but now it only makes her feel worse. She knows the truth. She knows they shouldn’t even be addressing Baekhyun as hers because he no longer is.

Suzy takes a moment to look at her sisters. Krystal and Irene don’t appear to be in a good mood either. Although the news is affecting Suzy more terribly, she knows that it’s upsetting her sisters almost as much. Suzy and her siblings, they haven’t been in good terms with their mother ever since she and their dad separated. Since then, they didn’t like their mom’s decisions for herself and her children, thus causing them to go against her. Krystal, Irene,