They were cooped up in SaTzu’s room where they sat around in a circle on the bed and made sure their door was locked. “DOES NOBODY IN THIS HOUSE HAVE ANY GOOD PARENTS!?” Sana complained, feeling herself get riled up from hearing Mina’s story about Chaeyoung from last night and Mina covers to quiet her, while Momo sighed to herself and looked at the latter. 

She gave her a warning look. “Be quiet Sana and let’s talk in Japanese.” She suggested, worried that someone will overhear them and she earned nods of agreement from the others. She then hesitantly met Sana’s eyes. “I haven’t seen my parents since I was young.” Momo slowly confessed with upset evident on her face and Sana frowned at the latter, knowing she must’ve gone through hard times and Mina stays quiet, already knowing of her past. 

Sana places her hand on top of Momo’s. “I’m sorry…” She muttered, feeling bad for the girl and also Mina since they didn’t have any family support anymore. 

“It’s okay.” Momo muttered back, genuinely getting tired of feeling upset over her parents. 

“Maybe, we should start like a plan to prevent this from happening again?” Mina offered with a small smile on her face and the others bore their eyes at her in return. 

Sana raised an eyebrow, clearly offended at what the latter just said. “Is this some sort of game to you?” She asked in a threatening voice, making the other girl shrink in her spot. 

“I’m just saying…” The ballerina whispered under her breath and felt Momo comforting her by placing her hand on her waist. “We don’t know what the other families are like.” She stated the true facts, referring to the guest-mate families. 

Momo glanced at the two of them, remembering something on the spot. “Jeongyeon’s parents are very nice, one of them is a cook. I remember her father cooking for us once.” She shows a closed-mouth smile, feeling water at the memory of the great dish. “I’ve never met Nayeon’s parents because they’re exactly like her daughter, always busy.” She dramatically says, emphasizing the word “busy” and the others nodded as they comprehended the information, thinking that’s why the med student is comfortable with her hectic schedule. It was in her genes. 

Sana grabs the squirrel stuffed animal that Tzuyu gave her from before and places it on her lap, playing with its soft paws. “Tzuyu’s parents are sooooo nice.” She cooed with a warm smile and Mina slightly rolled her eyes at the girl who was definitely in love with the Taiwanese. 

“And we all know about the Park family…” Mina added and they all went silent as they thought about Jihyo’s mother, sending their silent prayers. “What about Dahyun?” Mina then asked as she broke the silence, sensing how tense the two went when she mentioned the basketball player. She quirked a brow at the two, specifically at her significant other and Sana stutters for a second. 

“Uh, we don’t know.” She shrugged her shoulders and felt uncomfortable talking about the girl but Mina doesn’t get the message since she doesn’t know anything that the others know about the basketball player.

Momo suddenly changes the topic back on Chaeyoung. “So, what are we going to do? She needs our help.” She wanted to help the girl since Chaeyoung has always made Momo felt comfortable around the guest-house and the younger girl is the very first friend that Momo made since she was very little. 

Mina frowned, remembering the events from last night. “Her father told me to take care of her.” She mumbled, feeling all of the responsibility for Chaeyoung was on her. 

Sana’s eyes perked up as she thought of an idea and pointed at the couple in front of her. “You can be her parents!” She exclaimed like it was the obvious plan, earning confused noises from them. 

“Eh?” 

Chaeyoung woke up in her bed to see Jihyo sitting beside her on a wooden chair. She turned to the side to face the older girl and the latter caresses her face with the tip of her finger. “What time is it?” Chaeyoung croaked out, still feeling sleepy and the latter glanced at her clock on the drawer. 

“It’s almost ten o’clock.” Jihyo announced before tightly hugging the younger girl in her arms. Chaeyoung sighed into the embrace, slightly sitting up so the position could be more comfortable. “Are you okay?” She carefully asked, earning a small nod from the latter. “Dahyun told me you weren’t feeling well last night.” Jihyo stated before placing the girl’s head on her chest and Chaeyoung felt her eyes go wide at the mention of her name. 

Dahyun!?  

“She said you came home and passed out from exhaustion on the couch.” The older girl checked the temperature of her forehead and Chaeyoung had an unreadable expression on her face. She couldn’t believe that Dahyun would lie for her. “Where did you go yesterday?” She asked and Chaeyoung felt herself go “uh oh” at the one question she hoped the latter would never ask. Jihyo eyed the yellow dress she still wore which she assumed the younger one wore to wherever she went.

Chaeyoung paused, keeping the unreadable expression on her face and weirding Jihyo out as she stared at the girl. “I went to go see my parents, that’s all.” She simply stated with her head still placed on Jihyo’s chest, pretending it was nothing but Jihyo started to overreact. 

“Your parents?” She whispered out in confusion. “You told me you haven’t seen them since they forced you to live here.” Jihyo’s eyebrow quirked at her, feeling that there was something suspicious going on and Chaeyoung swallowed the lump of regret in . 

“Yeah, it was just a little family reunion.” She lied, technically Chaeyoung didn’t totally lie. She just forgot to tell the part where her parents basically disowned her from their lives. The younger girl was just glad the latter wasn’t seeing her face right now. 

Jihyo caressed the girl’s hair, brushing it out and placed her chin on top of Chaeyoung’s head. “Why didn’t you just tell me yesterday?” She asked again in confusion and felt Chaeyoung gripping the side of her shirt in reassurance. 

“I didn’t want you to worry, sunbae.” The younger one looked up to meet eyes with the latter as they shared a smile, getting lost into each other’s eyes. 

Jihyo just wanted to kiss her lips but at the same time, she didn’t want the other to feel like she was abusing the younger girl’s lips. Jihyo wanted to wait for the right time and now probably wasn’t it, considering the amount of time the girl was counting in her head before her father was going to break down the door and -block the two. “You should get ready, the rehearsal for the music festival is soon.” She warned before leaving the embrace and Chaeyoung felt suddenly cold. She felt guilty that she had to lie to Jihyo like that but she needed to find a grasp of herself before doing so.  

The younger one almost forgot about the festival that was occurring tomorrow. Every year, during the summer, the University of Seoul (or more specifically, the music department) holds a music festival to showcase people’s talents whether it be singing, dancing or even acting, and people from the university or people from the nearby neighborhoods would come to watch the shows. Chaeyoung was offered a proposal to write one of the songs that would be performed and have another person sing it, and that person was nonetheless Park Jihyo herself. 

Chaeyoung inhaled and exhaled when she sat up on her bed, she expected for a concerned Mina to come barging in her room, asking whether she was okay by last night’s event but no one barged in the room. She sat, staring at the door and waited another few minutes but no one came. She tilted her head in confusion and shrugged her shoulders as she went to go rummage through her drawers and change out of the yellow dress she was still wearing. 

“Hi, Sana. It’s me, Dahyun. Kim Dahyun, the “Lucky Seven” on the University of Seoul’s Women basketball team.” She introduced with her best attitude, showing her famous smile and held a flower in her hand as she waved with the other. “I was thinking— No, I just noticed that you’re acting differently to me ever since that day you ran out…” She paused and her smile was now turning into a cringe. “And I was wondering if it was because of me?” Dahyun questioned, not really sure of the answer herself and sighed in defeat as she lightly slapped her face. “I’m such a narcissist. Stupid, Dahyun.” She insulted herself before continuing her apology. “Whatever it is, I hope that we can become good friends again because… I like being friends with you.” She exhaled a deep breath, feeling the slight sense of relief and then looked over to Seulgi who was looking at her crazy. 

“How did I do?” Dahyun carefully questioned as she finished her practice run on her apology with Sana, not even sure what she was doing in this moment was normal.

Seulgi awkwardly scratches the back of her neck and pulls up her gym bag that was drooping over her shoulder. “Uh, it was definitely apologetic.” She was unsure of how to comment on this whole thing. 

They both shared a look saying that this wasn’t going to work for the famous basketball player and Dahyun groaned out loud as she threw the flower on the sidewalk. “WHY CAN’T I BE GOOD AT APOLOGIZING!?” She shouts out in disbelief, thinking back to her times with Chaeyoung and earned weird looks from the people passing by on the streets. 

Seulgi looked at her teammate in disappointment, thinking this whole situation was just sad as she patted the girl’s shoulder. “Y’know if you didn’t throw the flower, maybe it would’ve worked.” She quietly stated her opinion and Dahyun hissed at her like a snake, making Seulgi raise her hands to defend herself. “Hey, I was just saying!” She slightly stepped back and went to go pick up the ruined flower that was now missing a petal or two. 

Seulgi notices how down the latter was about Sana and slung an arm around her. “Hey, I was just joking.” She slightly lied to encourage the girl. “You’re going to do fine when you talk with the hot chick.” Ever since Seulgi first met the Japanese on the bleachers, she deemed her as the “hot chick” but it was only because she knew Dahyun would get a little mad at her.

“It’s Sana.” Dahyun slowly says her name before sending a death glare at the girl. Seulgi unconsciously smiles like the class clown she was and shook the latter that was in her arms. 

“Right~” She dragged out with a smirk forming on her face and corrected the Japanese’s name to make Dahyun feel better. “Sana seems like a nice person that will forgive you for whatever you did.” Seulgi encouraged, also not having a clue on what the latter was apologizing for and they both do their signature handshake. 

Dahyun nodded to herself, now feeling all spirited thanks to her friend. “Thanks, Kang.” She gently punched the girl right on the shoulder, feeling embarrassed since the two never really talked about this type of stuff and Seulgi does the same in return, also feeling the embarrassment as she passed her teammate the flower she got as a gift for Sana. 

“Uh, it’s no problem Kim.” She awkwardly says with a small grin. “Although, my best advice is that you never introduce yourself like that ever again in your whole life.” A disgusted expression forms on her face. It wasn’t even necessary for Dahyun to do so since Sana obviously knows the girl from the beginning. She squinted her eyes and said with concern. “I thought I was going to throw up.” Seulgi places her hands on her stomach, pretending to vomit on the ground as she made retched noises, earning laughter from Dahyun. 

——

Chaeyoung was on the couch, minding her own business. Today was the day of the festival but she didn’t have anything to do until it actually started so she got bored really easily and started to read one of the magazines that JYP always received in the mail and a stack full of them was placed under the table. JYP went to go buy enough groceries that could fill up to six mouths but he usually buys extra since he knows Momo’s eating habit has not changed. She didn’t really know where Dahyun was but didn’t care at the same time and assumed that she was at a basketball practice like usual. Jihyo went to meet her friends from the music department to do a short practice session before they did the real-deal in the festival since Jihyo was also involved in a group performance. Chaeyoung remembered the latter insisting that she needed to rest since Jihyo still thinks the younger one isn’t feeling well. And that left Momo, Sana and Mina at the residence but the odd thing was she hasn’t heard a single peep from any of them ever since the others left.

Chaeyoung thought it was oddly quiet in the house and started to get weirded out since she just remembered that sh