Depression and sugar. Not a good mix for her. But now that Sam was here, she was just waiting for the cookies to finish baking so they could leave.

"What'd be cool?" she called back to him from the kitchen.

"If you invested in some satellite TV or something," he responded, and she could hear him clicking buttons on her remote. "These four and a half channels you've got are pretty lame."

She laughed. "I have half a channel?"

"Yep. One of these is so fuzzy I'm not even counting it as a full channel."

She was still laughing when someone knocked on the front door. Walking out of the kitchen, she shot Sam a suspicious glance. "Did you call a cable guy while I wasn't paying attention?"

He smirked at her. "I wish."

Laughing, she opened the door and came face-to-face with Sehun. 

He was standing there in a black Mariners shirt and jeans, his eyes shadowed by the curved bill of a white baseball cap. But, even under it his gaze was bright, intense. 

He looked almost nervous, but then he gave her that devastating, Sehun Oh smile that made her insides melt every time he turned it in her direction. God, he was handsome.

"Hey," he murmured. 

Soojung shook herself. What was he doing here? 

She was about to ask just that when his eyes slid past her, into her apartment, and she turned to see Sam sitting on the couch studying them both with an unreadable expression. For some reason, she got a little uncomfortable and, before she thought about it, stepped into the hall and closed the door.

Inside, Sam watched the door close behind Soojung. He knew that look on Sehun's face. He wasn't happy—at all—to see him here. For a second, his mouth curved up into a small smile. 

He and Sehun had been friends for six years and he loved him like a brother but sometimes Sehun could be a real . Soojung didn't deserve half the crap he gave her so, yeah, Sam found it a little funny to know that Sehun was pissed off about seeing him in her apartment. 

That was too bad for him, though, Sam thought. Sehun might be used to treating Soojung like a piece of furniture, but he hated seeing her the way she'd been these past two weeks. Yep, Sehun would just have to it up.

Out in the hall, a moment passed while Sehun just stared at the closed door. It might as well have still been open because, for a second, the only thing his brain seemed able to process was the sight of Sam. Inside Soojung's apartment. 

And here he was, standing in the hallway like a damn stranger. , this .

He looked down at her.

"Sam's here?" he asked, without meaning to. 

To Soojung, it didn't sound like a question, really. It was more of a statement. And, strangely, that made her nervous.

She hid it though, and asked, "What're you doing here?" 

It'd been three days and he just showed up out of nowhere? This so wasn't like him and she didn't know what to think. The last thing she wanted was another fight, though—she felt like they'd been having the same argument over and over for the past two weeks.

His eyes searched her face, like he was trying to gauge her mood. She wondered what he'd find there because, honestly, she didn't know what she was feeling. Her heart, as always, was pounding from the excitement of being so close to him, but at the same time, she was so tired of fighting with him and part of her just wanted to tell him to go. 

Before she could make up her mind, he said, "I have something for you."

It wasn't until then that she noticed he was rolling and unrolling a few pieces of paper in his hands. He held them up to her and she stared at them for a moment in confusion. 

Then she took them and, smoothing out some of the creases he'd put in them, she read the heading on the top page: Seattle Central Community College—Petition for Late Registration.

Her eyes shot to his face, then back to the papers as she scanned to the bottom of the forms. On the line next to the place where the professors needed to sign, someone had written "Waived" and, further down, there was a signature scrawled in the box next to a line that said, "Department Chair." 

She blinked. Then it clicked—somehow, he'd gotten her into school.

She was shaking her head in disbelief when she finally brought her gaze back to his. 

"How…how did you do this?" she asked, holding up the papers. "I went down there—twice—and they kept telling me I needed the professors signatures to get into class."

Sehun shrugged. "I talked to one of the ladies in the registrar's office and, I don't know, she said that in a rare case she could pass the forms onto the department chair. That way, you wouldn't need the professors' approval."

Soojung was staring at him, trying to come to grips with what he'd done. He wasn't going to come out and say it, but she knew he'd gone down there and put on the Sehun Oh, Celebrity Chef charm to get her into school.

"I didn't know what classes you needed," he was telling her matter-of-factly, "but when I mentioned your name, the registrar remembered you. So I…" he paused, noticing the way she was staring at him, "I hope it's the right department," he said, slowly, then added, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Because you make it impossible for me not be crazy in love with you when you do things like this, she thought.

But she just shook her head again. "Because I…don't even know what to say. Thank you."

His smile disappeared then and his gaze grew more intense. 

"You don't have to thank me, Soojung. That," he gestured at the papers in her hand, "it's the least I can do." He sighed. "I know this is apology number two, and considering how the last one went, you might be about to knee me in the balls, but…I just wanted to say I'm sorry. Again. For acting like such a jerk." 

He paused for a moment. "And I know you have your own life and everything. It's just, when you said you were quitting, all I heard was leaving and, you know," he peered past her shoulder, "I don't think I could take that…"

Soojung didn't need to be told that he was thinking about his mom and she felt her heart ache for him. 

"Sehun," she said, her voice quiet, "I was never going to leave you. Not really. I just feel like it's time to get on with my life. And all I wanted was for you to support me in that."

Sehun bowed his head, not able to meet her eyes when she was killing him with how right she was. He'd taken her for granted. He knew he had. After she'd walked out on him on Thursday, he couldn't even get angry because he knew she was right. 

He'd partly expected her to just forgive him and move on. Then he'd realized he needed to show her that he did care about what she wanted. That's why he'd gone down to the college.

"Yeah," he said at last, "I am happy for you. It's just that we've been a team so long I wasn't ready to let that go. Truthfully, I'm still not."

Her smile turned soft and gentle, the way he remembered it and he felt some of the tension in him easing. "You'll be fine, Sehun. Believe me. You just need to take yourself more seriously. Take your job more seriously, too."

He laughed. "Yeah, I know. I'm turning over a new leaf and all that. A new and improved Sehun Oh. Although," he said, his tone turning teasing, "I'm not really sure how to improve on perfection."

Soojung rolled her eyes and, like old times, she shoved his shoulder. "Get over yourself, will you? You get one cooking show, an invite to a national baking competition and you sweet talk a registrar into letting me into school and you think you're God's gift."

"Hey, that's a damn impressive list," Sehun protested with a laugh. "By the way, I hope you're serious about starting school this summer. Because I totally whored myself out for you."

Laughing, Soojung's brows shot up. "What? How?"

Sehun pretended to shudder. "I don't want to talk about it. But let's just say, there was a bit of a stir when I walked int