I HEARD Heungmin barking and I forced myself to stand up even though I am really sleepy. It's four in the morning and I just got into sleep but there goes Heungmin barking all of a sudden.

He isn't the type to bark like this at early morning. He stays quiet as long as he knows that his family is sleeping but I wonder what's making him noisy this early.

I have to calm him down or else the neighbors will get mad at us.

I went out of my room and heard the doorbell ringing. Heungmin immediately went quiet when he saw me so I gave him a pat on the head. "Good boy." I praised him while yawning.

I then went to get the baseball bat that my father told me to use in case a burglar tries to get in the house.

Looking at the monitor of the doorbell, I was surprised to see that it was Yujin. She has plasters on her face and her eyes are swollen. Looking at her state, I immediately opened the door for her.

She then smiled at me a very vexed, exhausted smile. "W-Wonyoung..." She called me in a very frail voice. "Sorry if I... disturbed your sleep."

Yujin couldn't even lift her head up. She can't even look straight at me and my heart hurts just looking at her state.

Out of instinct, I held her by the hand which made her flinch. "Come inside."

She just nodded and walked with me inside. Heungmin started wagging his tail at the sight of Yujin but instead of forcing Yujin to pat him, he went to her and rubbed his head on her. It seems like he can feel that Yujin is sad.

I had her sit in the sofa and she obediently did. "Do you want me to get you some drink? I can make you some tea."

She shook her head. "It's okay. Don't trouble yourself."

“Did something happen?” I asked. “I know it is a silly thing to ask… but I am just trying to know if you want to share what happened to me.”

She didn’t answer. She just hung her head and stayed silent… Just as I expected.

“Don’t involve yourself with them.”

I don’t know why but those words of Chaewon keeps on echoing inside my head. It is one of the main reasons why I couldn’t sleep. It’s making me crazy thinking that I could be one of those people. I wonder how they will treat me once I tell them that I am probably attracted to girls as well. And I know there’s one way for me to avoid all of this.

Believing that she won’t open up to me, I left the seat. “I’ll go prepare the mattress so you can sleep too.”

I was about to leave the living room but then I felt her hold me by the wrist. “Don’t go…” She uttered under her breath.  

I gulped. Don’t do this to me, Yujin. You know I am weak if you do this to me. You know I can’t say no to you. You know I can’t really leave you.

“Yujin-ah…” I called as I turned to her. “You need to sleep. Take a rest. Everything may remain the same when you wake up but at least you have to get some sleep.” Said the one who really couldn’t sleep earlier. But hey, at least I exerted efforts to sleep and Yujin just put all those efforts to waste. I guess she doesn’t really want to let me sleep today.

I tried to go once again but she still didn’t let go of me. “Yujin, please--”

“He was making fun of Minjoo.”

That very statement of her stopped me completely. She’s finally opening up to me but why do I feel afraid of what I am about to know?

“W-Who?”

“Her boyfriend.” Yujin sighed. “I decided to take a run before I go home but then I saw him smoking with some of his friends. I tried not to pay attention of him but I can’t just let what I heard pass just like that.”

Her fists balled; I could feel anger filling her again.

“He was bragging to his friends of how easy he got Minjoo. He was bragging about how she’s head over heels for him. He was even telling them about how she’s good at—” She gritted her teeth in anger, she couldn’t even continue the next words because of how disgusted she is.

“He was degrading her to his friends. He was making stories about how easy Minjoo is and I know that she isn’t that kind of person. She was NEVER that kind of person.” Yujin started shaking. This was actually the first time that I saw someone this angry to the point that her body started shaking.

“I can’t just l