Since their fight, if it could even be called one as Sojung had one sidedly decided everything for them, SinB hadn’t seen Sojung around their dorm room as often as she used to. The kitchen was dark and cold in the morning, the same when it was time for dinner. SinB didn’t know whether it was Sojung forcing herself to take more jobs to stay out of the house, or if she was in and just avoiding her at all costs.

It did hurt SinB, it hurt quite a lot, she had only found out on the same day of their fight. For Sojung to assume that all her kindness building up to this point was just sweet talk and just throwing her aside, SinB really wanted it all to be just a nightmare. Sojung had cared for her when she was feeling vulnerable from Eunha, she had even gone to waste her time watching amateurs do her job at Yewon’s class. Surely, she meant more to the older than she let off right now.

Walking through the hallways alone, SinB stopped and looked out the window. It had started to rain.

“The sky is about as heartbroken as you are, I would say.”

Turning around slowly, SinB held her hands behind her back as she faced Eunha. They were shaking, and she didn’t want to show any weakness.

“It’s nothing.”

“You sure? Eunbi ah, I can listen to you, but you seem to not want to talk to me.”

Of course, SinB didn’t want to talk to her, even if there was a possibility that everything wasn’t Eunha’s fault, she still took part in it, whether she knew it or not. SinB could feel her blood drain from her face as Eunha walked closer.

“D-don’t come closer, please.”

“Why not? Eunbi ah, talk to me.”

Eunha looked innocent, she really did. But SinB didn’t have the strength to find out, dashing down the hallway, she ran as fast as she could without getting yelled at by the teachers.

Crashing into another person, SinB quickly apologized and tried to walk away but the guy grabbed her arm.

“Oi, look at me and apologize kid!”

“I’m sorry, please let me go.”

She was being pulled by her collar and this guy was several inches taller than her, talk about bad luck. It was as if the world was mocking her for feeling happy that she had found a safe place in her dorm with Sojung, then decided to rip everything away from her. Memories of her bullying started to resurface; her breath started to quicken.

“I can’t hear you!”

“I-I said I’m sorry! Please let me go.”

Her voice was getting weaker and her head was starting to spin. What were they going to do? Push her into the bathroom and slap her until she passed out while they jeered at her? Did they already throw her desk out the window? Was her bag already in the trash can under everything disgusting scrap leftover from the day’s cafeteria? The world was slipping away from her as her knees crashed to the ground and the guy let go out of shock.

“Eunbi?!”

Sojung’s eyebrows raised when a call from her resident advisor came in the middle of her work. Her manager had stopped the shoot and handed her the phone, recognizing that anything college related, she was to handle by herself at utmost importance after his last blunder.

“Hello?”

“This is Yerin, your RA. Can I ask when you will be home tonight?”

“Why? Is there something wrong?”

There usually never a reason for Yerin to make a call, as resident advisors usually sent really nice and long emails to explain events and the like. The other reason would be if her courses were in jeopardy and she needed to right them in order to be on course for graduation, even if it was set to be four whole years later.

“Can you just answer the question?”

“I’ll be home around 11pm, can you tell me why now?”

“Well….I just needed to make sure SinB wasn’t alone. I’ll see you then.”

The call cut and Sowon stared at her blank screen. SinB? Alone? Warning flags started to raise in her head, but also the thought that it wasn’t anything that she did. After all, she hadn’t done anything to SinB, she hadn’t interacted with the girl a single time since their fight. SinB’s hunch was correct, she had lost herself in her work, only sparing enough time to attend classes and do homework. The shoot she was at right now, could be put on hold.

But did she want to go? Was there a reason to go? With that heavy question weighing on her mind, she reminded herself that Yerin had said she’d be there when she returned, meaning she was with SinB in their dorm as of this moment, until 11pm as she had said. Going back on set and giving her best charismatic look down at the camera, she took a few more photos in that outfit before stomping into the dressing room, throwing on her oversized clothes, tying her belt properly around her waist and finally fished out her manager’s keys from his pockets and left.

In the car, Sowon had the time to think as traffic had caught her. Avoiding SinB was almost the hardest thing she had to do to herself; as an icon, she wasn’t supposed to have anyone she gave special benefits to, private life aside.

Not only did she hate that she had to listen to SinB softly calling her name whenever she holed herself up in her room, this was going against absolutely everything she had come to college for. She wasn’t living a normal dorm life, she wasn’t interacting with the few people she had grown close to, and it was all her own fault.

If she had managed to keep her secret properly, if she wasn’t so scared of getting caught in a scandal, if she wasn’t so afraid of the spotlight.

Sowon, no, Sojung looked up determinedly as the light switched to green. Why should she ever be afraid of the spotlight? When had she lost the dream of becoming the best model, face of every brand she could dream of? Gripping the steering wheel with a more firm grip than she had original held it with, Sojung turned into the university campus.

The first thing she needed to do was make sure that SinB, her precious roommate who hadn’t done anything wrong, was okay. Then, she was going to have a long talk that involved her future, and SinB’s camera.

She impatiently tapped her foot as the elevator took it’s time arriving and going up. She unlocked her dorm front door in a hurry and instantly frowned. Yerin, she had expected, Eunha, she did not.

“Why are you here.”

It was more of a demand than a question, it was very clear to Eunha that Sojung did not welcome her. Eunha hurriedly ducked her head and greeted Sojung.

“I’m here because I brought Eunbi to Yerin unnie.”

“She’s telling the truth Sojung unnie.”

This seemed to make Sojung’s glare harden and Eunha scooted back a little.

“What happened for you to need to bring her here.”

Eunha stammered out that she didn’t know and Yerin could only shake her head. They had no clue besides the scene that Eunha had happened upon, which was SinB falling over as another guy stepped back in surprise. When prompted to answer, he said he had done nothing at all.

“I swear all I did was try to talk to her.”

Sojung pinched the bridge of her nose and breathed a deep sigh, side note, she had noticed her glasses were missing. She must have left them back at the studio when she was in a hurry.

“I can take care of her now.”

“But-“

“You can leave.”

Eunha reluctantly let herself get pushed out by Yerin, who made the signal to message her. Yerin needed to know whether SinB was going to be alright as she needed to report to the faculty if SinB needed help. Sojung locked the door behind them and turned back into the living room of her once warm dorm.

SinB lay on the sofa, her face contorted in perhaps fear and pain. Sojung wanted to help her, maybe waking her from her nightmares would be good, but then SinB also needed rest. Hesitating several times with her hand wandering the air over SinB’s shoulder, Sojung finally moved to shake SinB awake. Even if she rested now, the nightmare would make it worth nothing.

“SinB, SinB ah, wake up.”

After a few more shakes, SinB jolted awake finally. She looked around quickly, relaxing when she finally realized she was at her dorm. Making eye contact with Sojung, SinB curled up on herself, arms hugging around her knees. She seemed afraid of even Sojung.

“Hey, it’s okay.”

SinB still didn’t move.

“I’m sorry.”

“Wh-what for?”

“For pushing the blame on you. I know that everything you did, you did earnestly.”

“Oh.”

Sojung held out her hand, for a handshake, intended for making them friends again.

“I was being selfish and scared, but it was wrong of me to accuse you of ruining my college life.”

SinB took Sojung’s hand carefully.

“Will you forgive me?”

Sojung intended to help SinB, after she was forgiven. The reason being was that it could be seen as a way to earn SinB’s favor, and she didn’t want it to seem like she was only helping her to be forgiven. She genuinely wanted to make sure that SinB was alright.

“Yes, but promise you won’t glare at me like that again?”

“Of course.”

Sojung ran her thumb gently across the back of SinB’s hand, it helped her calm down and relax more. She would have gone for a hug, but that might have been too soon.

“You know, I’m quite the idiot.”

“Pardon?”

Sojung chuckled as SinB let go of her knees, sitting properly on the sofa.

“I’m only now doing what I want to do.”

“What you want to do?”

“Yeah, I wanted to be nice to my roommate, have a normal college life, have good friends, and have a good time. But I had pushed everything away because I was being an idiot.”

“It’s good y-you realized it.”

“Hm?”

“I-I mean! It’s good you were able to realize it, so you don’t regret it or something.”

Sojung carefully patted SinB’s hair, she may have been kneeling in front of the sofa and looking up at SinB, but with her height, she wasn’t that much shorter than SinB was seated anyways.

“Can you tell me? What happened?”

SinB bit her lip, Sojung pressed forwards.

“I want to make it up to you SinB ah, you’ve been so warm to me, so I want to return the favor, can you let me?”

SinB looked at Sojung, it may have been sudden. But so was their temporary break up that was now over. Sojung was clearly not used to doing these sorts of things, but she was making an effort. SinB, wanting to change and gain back her confidence, hoped that one day they’d be close enough to bicker like siblings. With that in mind, she nodded.

“I’ll tell.”

===============

i said I'd do it in winter break and here I finally am! It took me approximately 4 hours to write this chapter but even now I'm certain that it's not perfect, but what can I do but hope you enjoy it? haha I think it'll be updated again in two days