Joy speed-walks through the hallway, not paying attention to the people she’s bumping in to. She looks in every corner of the school as she is determined to find and confront Rosé. While making her way Joy is thinking about all the possible places Rosé could be. Since it’s currently lunchtime no one will be in the classrooms. That’s when she realizes where she possibly is.

 The music room, their usual hang-out spot.  During their lunchbreak they usually go to the musicroom where normally no one will be found since there are no big musicheads at school, except for Rosé. While she plays the guitar and composes her songs, Joy eats her lunch and listens to her play .

When Joy walks into the musicroom she sees her. She sees Rosé sitting down on a chair, not doing much and just holding her guitar. Joy walks up her, drags her by her arm and makes her stand opposite of her. Rosé drops her guitar as she was forced to get up and looks up to Joy, who she finally recognizes. Her body stiffens. She knows what is about to happen and didn’t expect it so soon.

Joy uses her full force to give Rosé the biggest slap she’s ever given. A big red mark is visible on Rosé’s cheek. The  painful feeling didn’t come until seconds later, being unbearable and making Rosé shred a tear.

“You’re the fakest person I have ever met in my life Chaeyoung” Joy yells while pushing Rosé to the ground. “I know you did this. I know it’s you!” Joy kicks Rosé in the ribs and walks away. She is never this aggressive but at the moment she has difficulties controlling her feelings right now.

Rosé whimpers and clams her arms around her rib cage. “I’m so sorry” Rosé  starts sobbing because of the different sorts of pain she is feeling. 

“Sorry? Really? That’s all you have got? You leak my diary and expose the fact that I got abused? Here’s how much your sorry means to me” Joy picks up Rosé’s guitar and smashes it multiple  times. After three times smashing it Joy’s arms are starting to give up. It’s heavier than she imagined. Joy puts the remains of the guitar down and sits down on a chair to let everything sink in.

“You didn’t deny it. So you really did it, huh?” Joy can’t finish her sentence and starts bawling her eyes out. “How could you Chaeyoung? How could you do this to me? I thought I meant more to you than this”

Rosé gets up after being too scared to move because of Joy. She slowly walks towards a chair to sit on.  She sits down and is too afraid to look Joy in the eye. Her temperament is scaring her. Rosé has seen Joy mad before but never at this level.

“I want to know why you did it. I deserve to know” Joy grabs her chair and moves it towards Rosé so she can face her when they talk. “Start speaking up. Now”

Rosé looks down and remains silent, not letting a word out to Joy. She tightens her grip on her chair.

Joy starts getting annoyed as Rosé refuses to speak up but tries to give it some time. After a full minute of waiting Joy starts losing her patience.

“Chaeyoung, you need to speak up right now” Joy raises her voice. Rosé remains silent and won’t look up. Joy gets up and walks towards Rosé. “Chaeyoung I swear to god if you don’t speak up right now I will hit you again” Rosé still won’t look up and Joy starts losing it. She raises her hand again but changes her mind. “Honestly, you’re not worth my touch” Joy starts walking towards the door to exit the classroom.

Rosé looks up as Joy tries to leave and stops her. “Sooyoung, wait…” Joy stops but is still facing Rosé with her back. A part of her is also scared of the confrontation.

“Sit down, I’ll tell you everything” Rosé starts biting her nails. It’s one of the bad habits she has when she gets nervous.

Joy turns around and sits opposite of Rosé, the spot she sat on in the first place when Joy herself initiated the conversation.  She almost trips while trying to sit and it makes Rosé laugh a little. Rosé’s smile went away when it earned a deadly glance from Joy.

Rosé starts tearing up and is struggling to start telling her side of the story, but when Joy puts her hand on her shoulder she feels a bit more comfortable. “Just start the damn story Chaeyoung”

Rosé looks at Joy who is starting to get annoyed again so she decides to collect her courage and starts spilling everything.

“I did take your diary but I didn’t leak it, I promise. It was Jisoo who leaked your diary”

“What? Jisoo? What the-” Joy asks appalled. “Why would Jisoo do this to me? How did you even plan this all with her?” Joy shakes her head in disbelief. Something immediately came to mind. “Are you planning something to hurt my sister? I swear Chaeyoung if you ever touch her again” Joy gets up and shows Rosé her fist but gets stopped, making sure Rosé  has nothing planned against Yeri.

“Remember back in 2013 when my parents invested in that massive upcoming entertainment company? They lost all of their money because that company announced that they were shutting down because no artist wanted to be signed with them since that huge cult scandal? Well times were hard for us”

Joy nods as she recalls 2013 being a horrible year for Rosé. Seulgi insisted that Rosé stayed over at their house because both Irene and Seulgi could see how happier Rosé became when she was away from the house. It was the year they started becoming best friends.

“Obviously now we recovered and things have been getting better. My parents were able to borrow money and rebuild their financial life again so things have become great now, as you know ofcourse. The thing is, the people we borrowed money from were close relatives of my parents. I didn’t even know those people were close with my parents until they told me that family lend my parents a huge amount of money”

Rosé feels like she is about to cry again and looks up to the ceiling before she is able to continue. Joy hands her a bottle of water and Rosé takes a sip from it.  Rosé takes a deep breath and tries to continue.

“My parents borrowed money from Jisoo’s parents” Rosé looks at Joy who shoots her a look back. In full confusion Joy tries to say something but is unable to. She’s confused because it makes no sense why Rosé would hide all this from her. Joy wonders what made Rosé not tell her that news, what made her keep this a big secret.

“So what does this have to do with the fact that Jisoo leaked my diary? Why did she target me and not you? Why the hell am I even in the picture?” Joy frowns.

“I think literally everyone noticed this besides you, but about a year or two ago she was really into you. When I say really into you I legit think she was in love with you Sooyoung. I even think she still kind of is”

“What? We never really interacted, I think I have said hi to her four times in my entire life” Joy says surprised. “I have no idea where this is coming from… and you said everyone knew? Why didn’t you tell me?” Joy shakes her head, trying to deny everything that is happening right now.

Rosé gives Joy a reluctant look. “When I found out Jisoo liked you I got jealous. I already was in love with you back then, so I was scared that she would steal you away from me. I know it’s stupid because I never even told you I like you but I just felt like I would ruin things between us. Guess it’s already too late for that”

Joy gasps. “You have been in love with me all this time?”

Rosé nods without looking at Joy. “I know things might have been confusing the last few days but I kissed you out of love. I never did it with no feelings”. She shreds a tear. “Anyways, let’s talk about how we got to this mess”. Joy clenches her jaw and waits for Rosé’s continuation.

“Jisoo knew that we were close and wanted to ruin things between us. One day she came up to me and threatened me by saying she would talk with her parents to sabotage their relationship with my parents. She said that she would make sure my parents were broke again and that I should not take the risk of not trusting her on it. I got scared because I genuinely believe  that she can ruin things and I can’t go back to that time I felt miserable. I never meant to hurt you Sooyoung but I had to put me and my parents first. I did consider putting you first but then I got extremely scared. I can’t go back to that dark place I was in” Rosé starts sobbing.

Joy puts her hand on Rosé’s shoulder to comfort her but to be honest it is also a lot to take in for herself. Yes she is mad at Rosé for doing the things she did but Joy can also understand where she is coming from.

“It is okay Chaeyoung. I mean, it is not, but I get where you are coming from. I just need time to process it all but I will come around, I think. Don’t be too hard on yourself” Joy pats Rosé’s shoulder.

“I think we need to spend some time apart. I will talk to you when I am ready” Joy gets up from her chair and hugs Rosé. While sobbing Rosé puts both of her hands on Joy’s arms that are embracing her.

Joy exits the classroom and walks towards her locker. The nasty message is smudged off her locker and is replaced with hearts. Looking at the hearts she recognizes the ugly shaped hearts Yeri always used to draw in her notebooks. Usually Joy gets mad whenever she sees Yeri drawing hearts on her belongings but now she appreciates it more than anything. She sits against her locker and starts crying. This day, actually the entire week, has been very rough for her. Joy just sits there for a while in silence. The only thing that can be heard in the hallway are the sounds of her crying since everyone else has class at the moment. Few students that pass by give her a look of spite but leave her alone. Spending some time by herself eases her mind.

Irene puts down the phone and starts shaking. She can’t believe what the school’s principal just informed her. Irene starts walking around the house trying to contain herself. Right at that moment Seulgi enters the house but she isn’t informed about the situation yet. Giving Irene the usual ‘I’m home’ kiss she cheerfully smiles to her wife who is not able move and it worries Seulgi.

“What’s wrong babe?” Seulgi looks at Irene who is still unable to respond. “Joohyun, what’s wrong? You’re scaring me” Seulgi shakes Irene a little.

Irene is at the verge of breaking down and looks at Seulgi who is still very worried. She slowly starts speaking up and tells Seulgi about the terrible incident she was informed about through the school’s principal.

Seulgi turns pale and can feel her getting sick to her stomach. “Let’s go to school, now. We need to be supportive and delicate with  Sooyoung. Don’t be too emotional towards her or maybe she will feel even worse. We need to do this right Joohyun, we can do it” Seulgi hugs Irene who is still in tears. After hugging for a minute they decide to make their way to school to pick up Joy.

Joy is still sitting against her locker and having some time to herself made her feel lots better. She feels like her mind is a bit clearer. Her feelings are still all over the place but she had the time to process stuff and let her feelings all out. That’s when something happened that she had feared for a long time. Mr. Jeon is on his way to her.

“Hey! Why are you making things up and spreading them around the entire school? Do you even know what you have done you dumb b itch?” Mr. Jeon yells at Joy while walking up to her, which makes her get up and want to walk away but she is too slow. Mr. Jeon pushes her against the locker and keeps Joy in a position where she can’t escape.

“I am probably getting fired because of you while we both know you wanted me to do all of those things that day. I see the way you look at me Joy, don’t deny it” Mr. Jeon tries to touch her and Joy isn’t able to move since she is triggered to what happened last time he got so close to her. Joy shuts her eyes but opens them when she hears a sudden thud.

Suddenly Mr. Jeon is on the floor pressing his hand to his eye. He checks if there’s any blood on his hand and is expressing his pain. Grunting on the floor Mr. Jeon starts swearing at the person that hit him, hard.

Joy looks around to see who did that to him. A smile appears on her face because she would never expect that person to do something so bold.