Momo was the one who wanted to take Nayeon back home to see her mother but Nayeon had denied her offer, not wanting to hassle her when it was almost exam session. Of course, she wanted Momo to come along but now was not a good time.

“I promise I’ll message you when I get there. Don’t worry about anything, okay? Make sure you study!” Nayeon scolded Momo as she left her room.

Nayeon didn’t stop by her dorm, instead, she rushed home as soon as she left Momo. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to stay longer to tell Sana, Nayeon was just too panicked in her state of mind that she just needed to see her mother first. Her siblings would also be alone and her dad would be stressed over her mom, so Nayeon needed to step up to be the strong one at the moment. She really hoped that it wasn’t a big accident and that her mother would pull through. She’s a strong woman.

She could take a breather.

It wasn’t a big accident.

Nayeon walked into the hospital fearing the worst due to her father’s call. But she was extremely relieved to hear that her mother had just fractured her foot.

“Hey sweetie.” Nayeon’s mother greeted her with a tired smile.

Nayeon’s eyes watered upon the sight of her mother being so weak. She was so used to the strong figure that it broke her heart seeing her on the hospital bed looking so defeated. She reached out to hold her hand and her mother wiped away Nayeon’s tears, scolding her for making her cry too. Her siblings were asleep on a chair in the corner of the room and her father was currently out in the cafeteria.

“I’m sorry to bring you back.” She apologised. Nayeon shook her head. She didn’t need an apology. She wanted to be here with her mother no matter how big the injury was.

“I’ll take care of things. You don’t worry at all, okay? I’m going to be here with you all.” Nayeon smiled, kissing her mother’s forehead.

Her injury would just make things complicated for things around their home, including her siblings. She was the one dropping them at school and their father was busy. So, it would have to be Nayeon to be the one to drop them now. The only thing was that Nayeon had to travel between college and home which meant she was really busy and never really in the dorm room.

Not only that, sitting through lectures was also too difficult for her and when she attended her classes, she just sat at the back and bolted as soon as it was done. Thankfully, Lena was sweet enough to be writing notes for Nayeon.

It wasn’t like Nayeon told her about everything out of the blue. She bumped into Lena when she was heading towards the hospital – it was a weird sight. Lena had pointed out about not seeing Nayeon in classes and that’s where Nayeon told her everything about her duties. From there, Lena made a copy of the notes from the lectures they shared and handed them to her after classes. She never stayed long enough to talk to anyone else, even Momo.

Though, Momo was constantly blowing up Nayeon’s phone when she was done with her exams. She already knew the condition wasn’t serious but it was Nayeon that Momo was worried about more. Nayeon rarely cared about her own wellbeing when someone else was sick or injured in the family and it really frustrated Momo.

“You really need to make sure you eat. Isn’t Jaebum able to cook? I’m going to message him to get some sense into you. Also, have you talked to Sana at all lately? You were meant to tell her about your situation because you weren’t in the dorm.” Momo scolded Nayeon over the phone.

Sana.

Oh god, Nayeon had forgotten to tell her all about it. She’d been so busy with everything that she hadn’t talked to the one person it was most important to talk to.

---

Mina was extremely worried for Sana. The girl was walking around like a ghost, not eating and barely getting enough sleep for her to stay awake in her classes. She was absolutely exhausted. It was a complete turn-around from the day she returned from her trip with Nayeon and her other group mates. And the worst thing about all of this was that Sana wasn’t even opening up to Mina. She hadn’t said a single word about everything that had happened and now, it seemed like it was going to be even harder.

But, Mina never failed in anything – and she wouldn’t fail in getting Sana to talk about what’s eating her alive at the moment.

“That’s it. I’ve had enough.” Mina growled at Sana, who was absentmindedly staring outside. “You need to tell me what’s wrong. Stop keeping it inside.”

Sana shook her head, not able to voice what she was feeling.

“Can you at least tell me what it’s about? Is it about your group work?” Mina tried to get through to her.

Sana flinched and Mina knew she was heading down the right path. If it was about her group work, then it would definitely be about Nayeon.

“So, Nayeon?” Mina sighed, turning to face her best friend. “What is it? I thought things were okay? You told me that you weren’t believing your friend’s words anymore and Nayeon was really a sweet person.”

Sana sniffled and Mina’s frown deepened. Just what had happened to make her feel like this, because of Nayeon? Sana was actually upset with her roommate which was different from the start, when she tried to be mad at Nayeon. Mina hated seeing Sana like this because it reminded her of the time of Sana’s senior year.

“I was the one who assumed that she changed, but I’m the one who regrets believing that now.” Sana laughed. “She just disappeared. Out of nowhere. Gave me hope and then dashed out, playing with my feelings.”

Mina’s anger grew as Sana spoke. How can someone treat a person like that after giving them hope? How can you trample on someone’s feelings like it’s just trash?

“Mina? Hey?” Sana held Mina by her shoulders in an attempt to get her attention again. “Don’t you dare do anything! I can see the wheels turning in your head.”

“I’m just surprised that she’s heartless after all. I’m going to talk to Momo about it.” Mina grumbled.

“It’s my fault for being so trusting, again. I don’t know why I can love so easily. I don’t know why I cause myself this pain, falling for people who don’t care.” Sana smiled bitterly.

She really thought that Nayeon was different. Actually, maybe it was that she wanted to believe that Nayeon was different. After the entire semester, they managed to survive as roommates, even acting together and moving past their immaturity, Sana had some high hopes for their relationship. But perhaps that was Sana’s biggest fault.

Maybe she had too much hope in someone who couldn’t live up to.

Maybe, she was too trusting.

---

Momo wasn’t expecting an angry Mina when she walked into their shared dorm room. Her glaring terrified her and Momo didn’t even know the reason.

She replied to all of Mina’s messages as soon as she could.

She drank at least a full bottle of water every day.

She studied for her tests and was now waiting for her results.

Had she forgotten something in the midst of worrying over Nayeon and her mother and her end of semester exams?

“H-hi?” Momo stammered as she neared Mina.

If her aura could be visualised, it would be screaming swirls of red and orange.

And then she smiled so sickeningly, gesturing for Momo to sit beside her. Momo could feel her own palms beginning to sweat in fear of what was to come. Mina had the ability to switch her personality like the flick of a switch.

“Where the hell is Nayeon? Why has she abandoned Sana like she doesn’t care about her after everything that happened?” Mina growled, feeling overprotective of her best friend.

“Wait. What? You’re not angry at me?” Momo attempted to clear out their misunderstanding.

Mina’s face softened upon hearing Momo’s questions. She hadn’t meant to come across as critical of Momo but she even assumed that Mina was angry at her – this was a messy situation.

“I’m sorry Momo. I’m not angry at you. I didn’t mean for you to think that I was.” Mina mumbled, placing her hand over Momo’s as she focused on their hands. “It’s just that I just came back from talking to Sana and she was upset and it rubbed off on me too. I didn’t mean to make you feel like it was you at fault.”

Momo was silent for a few moments and it doubled Mina’s guilt.

“I didn’t take it that way. Despite thinking that I might have done something to upset you, isn’t that normal? You felt the same way when I was tired and didn’t talk to you. Sometimes we just need to talk it out more and we’re getting there. Don’t hold back on what you’re feeling. If we don’t communicate, won’t things get messy?” Momo chuckled, kissing Mina’s forehead tenderly. “Now, what is this about Nayeon and Sana? I thought Nayeon talked to her?”

Mina took in Momo’s words of communication first, nodding and agreeing to whatever she said. Communication was key. Continuing on, she referred back to her conversation to Sana. “No, she didn’t. Sana’s been emotionally detached for the past week at least. I thought she’d talk to me about it, but she didn’t so I pushed her to talk today. Apparently Nayeon ghosted on her, not even coming to the dorm room and it came off right when they were going further with their relationship? I know Nayeon likes Sana and Sana likes Nayeon, so I don’t understand.”

“It wouldn’t be my place to say, but Nayeon was meant to talk to Sana about everything, I guess she got side-tracked. A lot has been going on...”

---

Nayeon nervously fumbled with the keys to her dorm room as she attempted to unlock it. In all honesty, she didn’t know what to expect from Sana when she opened the door. Maybe she didn’t care about Nayeon’s random disappearance. Maybe, her hinted feelings were ignored before everything had happened with her mother.

Slowly, she opened the door, letting out a sigh of relief when she saw Sana in the kitchen, back facing Nayeon. She crept towards her bed and dropped her bag before sitting down.

“Seriously? Coming in after a week and not saying anything?” Sana’s disappointed voice echoed through Nayeon’s ears, catching her off guard.

“What?” Nayeon failed to form a proper response.

“I really thought you cared, you know? I tried to not let my friend’s words repeat in my head. I thought she was wrong. But I was hoping for too much.” Sana chuckled.

Nayeon had no idea where Sana was going with their conversation. However, she saw the sadness in Sana’s eyes as she approached her, leaving the kitchen.

“You never really changed. You’re heartless, just like in high school. You don’t care about anyone’s feelings. You just toy with whoever you want to, lead them on and then abandon them.” Sana accused.

Each sentence tore a piece of Nayeon’s heart. What was Sana saying? She never did anything like that in her life.

“I want you to leave this room. I want you to leave this room and I don’t want to see you again. You had time to meet other girls, but no time to talk to me? To me, it looked like you liked me but then you disappeared. Did it make you happy? Are you happy that you made me fall for you? You continued to play me along and I foolishly chased after you like a cat running after yarn.” Sana paused. “I’m done with you.”