“Yah, guys… Isn’t that Seungie and Junnie?”

“But who’s that with them?” Yoseob asked, looking up from the diary. “I thought they went out with Da Eun today… Where is she?”

“Yah,” Gikwang smacked him. “Why are you reading that? Isn’t that violating her privacy?”

Yoseob pouted and closed it. True… But he’d never gotten a chance to return it. Sighing, he opened his bag to put it back.

Dongwoon’s eyes widened as they caught on something. The bag that girl was carrying, it was the one… “She’s walking towards us right now.”

Yoseob stopped what he was doing and looked up.

“Omo. That’s Da Eun?” Doojoon asked, disbelief evident in his voice.

“That’s not Da Eun. No way,” Gikwang denied.

“Nope. I don’t believe it,” Yoseob said.

“Who else could it be? Of course it’s her,” Dongwoon replied, already over the initial shock. He waved to the three, just entering the café. “Over here!”

***

“Don’t be nervous,” Hyunseung told Da Eun.

She nodded, taking a deep breath.

Junhyung coughed awkwardly, as if he was going to say something, but thought the better of it. “Come on, let’s go in.”

A wave of silence hit them as they walked in, and a barrage of stares made Da Eun’s steps falter.

Hyunseung nudged her. “They’re just jealous. Don’t look at them,” he reassured her.

“Over here!” Dongwoon’s voice carried over the silence.

Da Eun jerked at the sound, and as if his presence grounded her, her eyes were glued to his as she made her way to their table.

“Annyeong,” she smiled radiantly, relieved to see him again.

“Come on, sit,” Dongwoon patted the seat next to him. As she sat, the entire café exhaled dejectedly. Hyunseung’s lips tightened, but the movement went unnoticed, the whole table’s attention focused entirely on Da Eun.

Junhyung elbowed him, gesturing for Hyunseung to pull up a chair. As he did so, he forced himself to smile. “We didn’t get to do much other than give Da Eun a haircut, so we’re just dropping in for lunch.”

“I see that,” Dongwoon grinned. “The tags are still on the clothes.” He flicked one of them teasingly. “Anyone have scissors?”

There was a silence as Da Eun blushed.

“Why would anyone carry around scissors in their bag?” Doojoon questioned him.

Gikwang stood up suddenly. “Mianhamnida, but… Anyone have scissors I can borrow?” He called.

Yoseob shook his head at him. “Aish… That show-off.”

“What’s he doing?” Da Eun asked, confused.

“Taking advantage of innocent girls,” Dongwoon answered her, grinning. “Typical.”

Da Eun watched, astounded, as a girl came up to the table and bowed shyly, handing over a pair of scissors to Gikwang.

“Kamsahamnida.” He winked at her as she flamed red. “I’ll return this to you soon. Where are you sitting?”

“Wow.” Da Eun stated. Despite her disbelieving expression, she could tell what she saw in Gikwang, wearing a tank top and a just-finished-working-out look. In fact, both Doojoon and Dongwoon appeared exactly the same way. “Did you guys just work out?” She asked, curious.

“What, scared I’ll get my sweat all over you?” Dongwoon teased, leaning in close.

Da Eun squirmed away until she hit something. Tilting her head back, she saw Hyunseung. “At least you’re not sweaty, Bambi,” she grinned up at him.

Smiling down at her, he pushed gently, pretending to be miffed. “You’ll mess up your pretty hair,” he scolded. “Yah, Kwangie, give me the scissors, will you?”

“I’ll do it,” Dongwoon intercepted the scissors as Gikwang handed them across the table. Hyunseung’s smile faded and he coughed.

“So, Seobie, what happened today at the radio station?” He changed the topic.

Da Eun’s eyes widened. “The radio station?”

The whole table went silent. Hyunseung winced. In his haste to cover up his fluster, he’d slipped up.

Da Eun looked at Yoseob. “You work at the radio station?” She asked calmly.

In the midst of the tension, Gikwang noticed something. Next to Yoseob’s placemat lay a little black book; he’d forgotten to put it back in his bag. Unfortunately, Da Eun noticed also.

“That-that book.” She pointed, half-standing. “That’s-“

“I- I can explain!”

She shook her head, backing away from the table. “I knew… it was too good to be true.” Turning, she ran out of the café in tears.

The six of them jostled the table and knocked over chairs in their haste to follow, but they were blocked before they could leave.

“Did something happen?” Someone inquired confidently. A girl stood beside their table and winked at them. “Gwenchana… She wasn’t very pretty anyway.”

As one, they snarled. Her smile vanished and she shrank away in shock. Dongwoon, especially, wanted for the first time in his life to hit a girl. Before any of them could do anything, Doojoon stepped forward, the voice of the group, and growled: “Just because you’re jealous, you’re insulting someone else to make you feel better?” He curled his lip. “Come on.” He jerked his head at the others and they headed out.

***

“I knew it. I knew it.” Da Eun repeated blankly to herself, staring at the sun she could see nothing but white. She closed her eyes against the tears that threatened to flow again. “I knew it I knew it I knew it I knew it…”

She rocked on her feet, from the ball of it to the heel to the ball to the heel to the ball… She couldn’t see anything, couldn’t feel anything. She started to walk.

“Da Eun!”

She clamped her hands over her ears and let out a silent wail of despair… unheard by anyone.

Opening her eyes against the glaring white that was all she could see, she welcomed the all-too-familiar darkness as it came to wash it away.

***

“Where did she go?” Dongwoon cried, frustrated.

“Da Eun!” Hyunseung called, worried.

“She couldn’t have gone far,” Junhyung said as calmly as he could, masking his own anxiety.

A sound broke the air.

Hyunseung and Dongwoon were the first to react. They sprinted towards it, spurred on by fear. The others followed almost immediately, not knowing what was wrong.

As they rounded the corner, horror made their footsteps falter.

A solitary figure stood in the middle of the road. The lights flashed to yellow, then to green, as they watched her legs fold, as if in slow motion.

Yoseob was the first to react. “It’s my fault,” he said, but Hyunseung dashed forward.

Something bit into Dongwoon’s heart and tore it to pieces. He shut his eyes and welcomed the pain as it washed over him, obliterating everything it could find.

“No!” Junhyung cried. Voice cracking, he screamed again, but he couldn’t move fast enough, couldn’t reach him in time.

The others could only watch, frozen, hoping against all hope for a miracle.