"You broke up with Wonwoo?!"

Eunhye had to pull Hani back to the sofa after she came back home with some news. After talking it through with Wonwoo the previous night, they agreed it would be best that they stopped seeing each other for the time being.

"We didn't break up," she corrected, rolling her eyes. "Not like that. We just agreed to take a break for a while."

"I have 145 IQ but I still don't know what you're talking about."

She gritted her teeth. Hani always needed to rub it on her that she scored higher on that IQ test they took together. Eunhye's own 142 IQ sounded lower that it usually was because of it.

"We're still together but we just won't see each other for the meantime," Eunhye explained.

"But why?"

"Some reason." It was not something she was still comfortable to talk about, and she did not think she would ever be able to. The only two people who would ever know the full details would be her and Wonwoo.

"Did he cheat on you?" Hani guessed.

"No!"

"Did youcheat on him?!"

Eunhye could not help it and kicked her best friend in the hip. "Of course not. Stop guessing."

"Then what's wrong?"

She pursed her lips, thinking, calculating how much she should tell her friend and how to not betray any of the details, or give out any hint that would make Hani want to press her for more information.

"You look like him when you do that," Hani commented. "You know that, right?"

"We kind of fought," Eunhye began, ignoring her friend's statement about her resembling Wonwoo. "He... uh.. said some hurtful things. I did, too. So to make up, I thought it would be good to go to this trip that he planned so we went to Busan."

"So, the trip went wrong?"

She shook her head. "It was perfect. Everything was beautiful but there was this... invisible wall between us. I tried taking it down, but he just kept building it up all over again. I got tired of trying to get through and I sort of realized I had been building my world around him too much."

Hani nodded understandingly. "You kind of were. I'm actually surprised you caught on. Saving me having to tell you."

"What he, uh, said to me, was probably unforgiveable," Eunhye went on. "But I was willing to look past it and tried to move on. He wouldn't, because of his guilt, so he pushed me away. We went to the aquarium and did you know he left me in the underwater hallway surrounded by sharks?"

"He what?" she exclaimed, making Eunhye having to pull Hani back down to the seat again. "What were you doing in the Busan Aquarium in the first place? That's just like going underwater."

"Wonwoo doesn't know about the Han River thing," she explained. "Don't blame him. Don't tell him, either. I don't want him to think weird about me more than he already does after Junki."

"Oh, babe," Hani sighed, taking Eunhye's hand in hers. She noted that her friend was able to say the guy's name now as if it was nothing. "So now, what?"

"Nothing," Eunhye answered, shrugging. "I just need some personal space and he does, too."

"For how long? Five days?"

"I'm not sure," she admitted with a sigh. "Why five days, you say?"

Hani gaped at her. "You didn't know? Or did you just forget?"

"Know what? What's in five days?"

"Wonwoo's birthday, you stupid!"

***'

He was the first one who suggested giving each other space, but Wonwoo never thought she would actually ask to spend time apart. When he thought she was breaking up with him, his chest had tightened and he was reminded of the gravity of what he did, even though he had expected the worst. It felt different when he was actually in that situation when she told him she was going to leave him. He almost begged her to think again, that he was wrong about the space thing, that he would just spend the rest of his life making it up to her, but then she explained what she wanted.

"You're not required to answer any of my calls," she had said. "No pressure to call me, either. I'll try my best to not bother you, as well. It's actually better because I have to focus on schoolwork anyway. I'll tell you right off the bat: I will have to work with Zico a lot on this, so please be honest with me right now whether that's okay with you or not."

"I-It's fine. I know how important your requirements are for you, and how important he is to you as your friend--"

"I was asking about you. Not what you think I need."

"Yeah. I trust you."

She stared into his eyes for another moment and Wonwoo had to look away for fear he might start to tear up.

"You can come to me whenever you think you're ready," she continued, her voice cracking a bit. "When you think you're not that guilty anymore, or that you can live with whatever you did. Or if ever you don't think there's a chance. It's now up to you. Just don't ask me to not forgive you, because that's not something I can do."

He nodded, not trusting himself to speak. What if he said the wrong thing and she ended things for good?

"I don't want to push you into getting comfortable around me again, when you're clrearly not," she told him. "But I also want to get my own feelings straight, so I'm sure I'm really able to let it go. I don't want to be a hypocrite."

"What if I miss you?" I miss you now.

A tear fell on her cheek but she wiped it away quickly. "You're supposed to. I'm doing this to punish you, too, genius."

"Okay," he sighed. He deserved that. He asked for it so he should not complain. "But will it be okay if I slept here tonight?" He pointed to the bed they were on. Now that he knew they would stop seeing each other, he felt the need to be close to her as long as he could before it happened.

When Eunhye nodded, he felt relieved. At lease she did not push him away like he was doing to her. He had been complaining about her mind skipping from this way to that, confusing him, but he realized once she was done weighing the pros and cons, she could make big decisions. Scary ones. He also found out he was not as mature as he thought he was.

The moment he arrived back in their dorm, his first instinct was to pull out his phone and text Eunhye that he got home already. Staring at his messaging app, he wondered if he would be invading her space if he sent her any message. Deciding it was pretty basic, he sent her a brief one, just saying he arrived. Almost an hour later(yes, he timed it), he received a reply.

Mine: rest well.

Wonwoo stared at the message. He tried reading it in different tones in his head and decided he wanted a version of Eunhye's affectionate murmur instead of the dry sentence that he first came up with. That trip was originally supposed to be a healing time for them, as well as an early celebration for his birthday but everything was ruined now.

"How was the trip?" Jeonghan asked when he saw Wonwoo was back. The guy practically lived there, even though he was renting a space in the unit on the 8th floor. He even had his own room, which Wonwoo was really envious of at the moment. He did not really want to talk to anyone right now but with his bed being in the living room, he did not have that much choice. "Did you at least bring us any dried squid?"

"Do you think he'd bring something as 'smelly' as that?" Seungcheol stated, knowing full well Wonwoo hated dried seafood the most.

"Well, Noona could have thought about us and brought us something!"

"She doesn't do seafood, either," Seungcheol reminded him. He pointed to Wonwoo. "They came from the same spaceship."

"Did you, two, use protection?" Jeonghan asked, sitting on the sofa and getting ahold of the remote. "I'm sure I slipped in a couple of condoms in your bag. Did you use them?"

After finally finding out who kept slipping him condoms, Wonwoo took the foil packets out of the pocket of his bag and tossed it at his hyung. "Stop giving me rubber. I don't need them."

"Oh, she's on the pill?"

"I'm going out," Wonwoo announced, getting up and grabbing his phone, wallet and gym bag. He headed for the door. "Don't wait for me for dinner."

"Where are you going?" Jeonghan called after him as he opened the front door. "You don't have friends aside from us!"

***'

Eunhye stared at the boxes of the keyboard she was planning to buy up on the display rack of her favorite gaming store. Two of her picks were side by side. One was the Corsair k70, which was what she had wanted to buy last year, but did not because she still had the one Mark gave her. The other was the newer model from the same brand, which she felt was a bit pricey for its specs, although would be the one she would get for herself. She had always thought of buying a gaming keyboard for Wonwoo and use his birthday as an excuse, but she had forgotten it was coming because she was busy with other stuff. She did not expect it to be this soon. She did not have the budget, but she could not think of anything else to give him.

Heck, she was not even sure she should talk to him after agreeing they would not see each other for a while. 

She remembered how he reacted when she bought those couple NS Pro controllers so she was a bit cautious in buying such an expensive gaming keyboard. Even though the keyboard he had was old and pretty basic, he barely played anyway, so maybe she should just get him something else. But what if she gave him a gaming keyboard and he started playing again? That meant they would be spending more time together with something they both like, right?

Then she remembered she was supposed to stay away from him. She sighed and stared at the two keyboards again, finally making up her mind. The K70 was a few dollars cheaper, so Wonwoo probably would not get mad that she spent that much money. It was not even her money because she took it from the stash Yunho regularly sent her but swore never to use. Just as she was about to call the attention of the store personnel, he appeared beside her and took the box of the k70 down. Frantic, she followed the guy to the counter, where another customer was waiting.

"Uh, excuse me," she called the attention of the personnel. "I was going to buy that."

"I already paid for it," the other customer said, waving his wallet. "Apparently, there's just one left."

"Why? The K95 is a better model."

The guy nodded. For some reason, his accent reminded her of Minghao, the Chinese exchange student living in the same apartment unit as Soonyoung and majored in Fine Arts. Also, his lean and tall build made her think of the first time she met Wonwoo. He used to be that thin until recently. "I know, but I am good with the K70 so I bought it."

"If you really want the K70, we can put in an order," the personnel offered as he handed the guy the resealed box of K70. It was the same spiel she would hear from him whenever they did not have what she wanted in stock. "We'll have them in 2 weeks."

Two weeks? Wonwoo's birthday was today! She worked her off to finish her schoolwork came Friday, and during the weekend she had wasted her time debating with herself whether she should talk to Wonwoo or not. If she was even just an hour earlier, she could have gotten to this store before this guy did. Sighing, she took out her own wallet and handed the personnel the card she almost never use. "I'll get the K95, then."

The other customer's eyebrows raised at how fast she came to that decision. The clerk's eyes bulged, surprised he was getting such big sales in just a few minutes.

"Okay," he said before Eunhye changed her mind. He turned to the male customer. "Uh, do you mind waiting another minute, I'll just get the K95 and discuss with the both of you the warranty guidelines."

"Whatever."

When the K95 was in her hands, they were told about the warranty rules. As she left the store, Eunhye's eyes still followed the other customer and the K70 he was carrying. She could already hear Wonwoo nagging at her that she did not have to buy something as expensive as the K95. What if Wonwoo did not like it and decided to break up for good?

Before she could stop it, she found herself running after the guy.  "Excuse me."

He stopped and gave her a look as if she was holding him up for something really important. "Yes?"

Jerk, she thought, but put on a smile. "I'm about to offer you something crazy."

"I don't do that."

"What?" It took her a moment to realize what he was implying. "No! I was talking about the keyboards."

The guy hugged his new purchase as if his life depended on it. "What about them?"

"What if I traded my K95 with your K70?" she blurted out. "You don't even need to pay me the price difference. They were bought the same day and have the same warranty rules anyway."

"Why would you do that?"

She sighed. "I'm going to give it to my boyfriend as a gift. He doesn't really like if I spent too much on him."

His brows furrowed for a moment, but then the corner of his mouth curled up in a smirk. "How about we traded the keyboards, then you give me your number so I can pay yo