"Jihyo-ah! Let's go for breakfast. If you're not up in two minutes, we'll just leave you here." Nayeon's voice called from afar, echoing faintly in Jihyo's sleep-fuddled mind.

"Just go ahead without me unnie, I wanna sleep in a bit more." She replied; at least, that was what she thought she said. To Nayeon's ears, it was a string of incomprehensible mutterings that sounded suspiciously close to 'Leave me the alone'.

"Alright you ingrate, don't whine when we're back."

With that she left with Jeongyeon, and Jihyo relished in her silence. Not wasting a minute, she pulled the blanket over her head and drowned in slumber once more.

_____

When she woke a few minutes (or was it a few hours?) later, her friends weren't yet home. Groggily rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Jihyo grunted uncharacteristically as she struggled to stand up. She would have loved to ditch breakfast altogether and sleep in until noon- or better yet, afternoon- but the stomach that had ingested nothing but alcohol for two days insisted otherwise. It was getting increasingly hard to lie still when her abdomen twisted and churned, demanding to be filled with solid food. Before long, she gave up trying to fall back asleep and reluctantly got out of the bedroom in search of something edible.

The next few minutes found Jihyo at the dining table, greedily devouring a bowl of cereal she chanced upon in a random cupboard. It was not her favorite choice of meal, yet for now, the cereal might as well be expired and she would still find it delicious. Finishing her food, Jihyo sad still for a moment and sighed. She couldn't believe she just ate cereal, and found it palatable at that. As she brought the bowl into the kitchen, she rolled her eyes in irritation- in the sink was a total mess, with plates, bowls and chopsticks haphazardly thrown everywhere.

"Jinjja, Nayeon-unnie..." Jihyo muttered under her breath. "It's a miracle how you're still surviving."

Being someone who could not stand looking at a mess, Jihyo grabbed a pair of rubber gloves and got down to cleaning. The ring on her finger made it difficult to put on the skintight gloves, so she took it off and set it next to the sink.

As Jihyo diligently scrubbed sauce and leftover scraps from the dirty dishes, she wondered why her insides were still tossing and turning even though her appetite was already sated.

It was like her mind had forgotten something important and life-changing, but her body hadn't. So it was trying its best to remind her, but to no avail.

Jihyo shook her head and went back to the bedroom, giddy to catch some additional shut-eye.

____________

"Annyeong?" Jihyo lazily picked up her phone. Whoever dared to disturb her sleep better have a damn good reason for it.

"Jihyo! Where are you? Get your to the chapel ASAP! We're all waiting here, I'm at the reception at the moment. Hurry the hell up!" A voice boomed from the speaker. Without giving the sleepy girl one second to reply, the person on the other end of the line hung up. It was Jisoo, her cousin.

Jihyo dropped her phone with a groan. "It's my cousin. She's telling me to get to the wedding quickly. Man, it's still so early..." She flopped back to bed, burying her head in the fluffy pillow.

"You seem pretty close to your extended family, aren't ya?" Nayeon casually asked, her eyes not leaving the laptop.

"Yeah...  It was Jisoo on the phone, my aunt's eldest daughter. We've been together since we were born. Every weekend I visited my grandparents' home, and we played around together. Then we grew up, and somehow things still stay the same." Jihyo answered, smiling fondly at the memories.

"So today is her wedding or something? Damn, you're one heartless , Jihyo-ah." Jeongyeon mocked. Jihyo punched her playfully on the arm, pouting at the short-haired girl.

"Who is it that got me drunk off my last night, and now I don't even wanna go anywhere? If there's a here, it's you." Jeongyeon just laughed off the blame. It had been great fun watching Jihyo's drunken antics, and it was worth an insult or two.

"Anyway, no it's not. Apparently it's her favorite cousin's wedding, and she's really excited about it. My phone ran out of battery, so I received her message just now." Jihyo showed the others said message. They all huddled in to look at the small screen.

Are you up yet? It's my favorite cousin's wedding! OMG I can't believe it. Today's gonna be greatttttt!

Jihyo was still partially on the walk down the memory lane, so she did not notice her friends exchanging strange looks.

"So um, Jihyo?" Nayeon tentatively asked, pulling the girl out of her reverie.

"Yeah?"

"How close you are with this other cousin? I mean, the one that's about to get married?"

"I don't really know whom she's talking about actually. Like, we're one big family, so..." Jihyo trailed off. 

There was something exceptionally wrong here, she realized. Why did she know so little about this wedding girl? She did not even know which one it was among her relatives.

Jeongyeon seemed to notice Jihyo's confusion, so she observed cheekily.

"Seems like you're awfully ignorant of your other family members. ." Jihyo was not about to take this one lightly. She tackled the laughing Jeongyeon down the bed for a round of tickles.

When the chaos finally died down, Jeongyeon managed to give some reasoning between gasps.

"Well I mean, there's no reason why you should care less about them than Jisoo. Her cousin has to be your cousin too...." Jihyo nodded guiltily. She did not expect Nayeon to finish the sentence.

"... or yourself."

Silence.

Jihyo's brain slowly put the pieces together.

The reason why she went out to drink alone, then stumbled at Nayeon's place.

The ring by the kitchen sink.

Jisoo's message about a cousin's wedding.

Then, she shouted the loudest shout Korea had ever heard.

"!!!!!!"

_____

The taxi trip to the wedding venue turned out to be one emotional roller coaster for Jihyo.

As soon as she jumped into the taxi's backseat, she all but shouted her home address to the astonished driver.

Preoccupied with the handy make-up kit she brought with her in the handbag, Jihyo could not spare a glance at her surroundings, until a looming building forced itself into the corner of her vision. Recognizing the familiar sight, Jihyo looked up just as the taxi passed by JYP University, where she and her lover first met.

It had been a chance meeting. Jihyo, being her usual carefree self, was taking a leisure stroll around the campus with an appearance that was more associated with freshmen than juniors such as herself- bright-eyed, light-stepped, seemingly fascinated with everything. It had always been this way with Jihyo; it never mattered where she was, she was always chasing a random fantasy inside her head rather than focusing on the real world. This gave her a constantly fresh and excited looks which was first adored by others, but after an incident where she dove headfirst into a trashcan, people knew the truth- she was an idiot, plain and simple.

That day, the idiot met a girl, who called herself Chewy. Chewy was sitting alone, staring at nowhere in particular, in a rather obscure corner of the conservatory. 

"Hi Chewy! Nice to meet you." Said girl looked at her quizzically.

"You don't... know who I am?" She asked quietly, but apprehensively.

"No, should I?" Chewy looked at her a little longer, calculating. Before long she shook her head with a light laugh.

"No you shouldn't. Nice to meet you too, sunbae-nim."

"Aish! Just call me Jihyo!"

Only two weeks after, when 'Chewy' half-heartedly showed her gold medal hanging on her neck did a flabbergasted Jihyo realize, her new friend was Chou Tzuyu, the most popular freshman in the university thanks to her godlike archery skills, unparalleled beauty, and a volatile personality that only had two modes- either extremely cold, or extremely violent.

Yet they were already friends, and friends trusted each other. No rumor could possibly change Jihyo's steadfast opinion about Tzuyu.

Until the day, something happened that changed their peaceful relationship.

______

"Jihyo-unnie, go out with me."

Tzuyu's voice was calm and quiet, yet her words reverberated and ricocheted through the mind of everyone unfortunate enough to hear it. The entire canteen went deathly quiet, and all eyes turned to look at the speaker with various degrees of shock, disbelief, and jealousy.

Jihyo looked at Tzuyu, who was standing in front of her with a determined look. Her fist was balled up into fists, and she was trying her best to keep herself from running away.

Meanwhile, Jihyo was sitting there, frozen in a comical state. was hanging open, awaiting more food to be shoved in by the spoon on her hand. Which was also hanging on the air.

She could not understand why Tzuyu- the school diva, ace of the archery club, dream girl of many- would be interested in her, whose status could be pretty much described by her current pathetic pose: class clown, average looks, no special traits, everyone liked but no one really paid attention to.

After a few seconds, Jihyo decided she must have misheard the name.

"Um... Tzuyu-ah, I think you got the wrong person..." She frantically looked around for anyone nearby so as to validate her point. Much to her dismay, everyone present had seen fit to give them a wide berth.

"Er... You know what Tzuyu, maybeuuuuuuuu..." Jihyo was stopped as Tzuyu stormed up to her and squished her cheeks together, making her lips pucker out like a fish.

"I'm talking to you, stupid unnie. Be my girlfriend." Frustrated with Jihyo's desperate avoidance, Tzuyu whispered to her through gritted teeth.

For a brief moment, Jihyo wanted to just nod and get this over with. Tzuyu was unbelievably beautiful, possessed a fascinating personality, and- apparently- had taken a liking to Jihyo as well. Still her rational mind vehemently objected; she did not have clear feelings for Tzuyu, and it would only hurt them both if she agreed to be in a relationship. Jihyo treasured their friendship, and ruining it with perfunctory romance was the last thing she wanted to do.

So she shook her head.

"No Tzuyu, I won't. We are only friends." She said simply. To her surprise, a smirk appeared on Tzuyu's face.

"I know you'd say that unnie. I'm just sending a message here. Sooner or later, I'll make you look this way."

With that, she her heels and sauntered away in the awestruck looks of the onlookers. Even in rejection she still managed to appear fabulous, while Jihyo- who would thereafter be known as the stupid weirdo who turned down the school goddess- had to duck away from the canteen in the booing of the student body.

_____

Aside from the make-up and the ring, Jihyo brought little with her on the night trip. Everything else, she kept in her bedroom. So there she was a few minutes later, frantically putting on the wedding gown without sparing one moment to appreciate its beauty.

"Dress, check. Bouquet, check. Shoes, check." She nodded in satisfaction. Exhaustion finally catching on, Jihyo sat down on a chair for a moment of respite. Staring at the blank space in fr