When Yujin received the call in the middle of her slumber, she was muttering some curses – but seeing the contact she immediately answered it without second thoughts. Expecting to hear another voice, only to be surprised to hear Chaeyeon’s, asking Hyewon to be picked up.

She didn’t hesitate to get up from her bed, grabbed her keys, and went out of her apartment. Yujin didn’t even bother to check her appearance, she knows she’s just wearing her pajamas – but she doesn’t care a bit. She needs to go and pick up Hyewon.

So, when she arrives, she ignores the stares that is given to her by the customers in the restaurant. She glanced around and saw Yena nodding over to the staff room, and Yujin quickly walks over. Opening the door, she was greeted by a sleeping Hyewon being hugged by Chaeyeon.

“What happened?” Yujin breathes out, crouching in front of the sleeping girl. Hyewon looks so peaceful.

“Just some mix up on the reservations.” Chaeyeons explains, “We handled it, but Hyewon started to get – and she just fell asleep.”

Yujin knows what Chaeyeon is implying, the both of them knows. The former just looked at the older girl who can only smile, not her usual bright smile – but a smile that tells hundred of words, and Yujin understands.

“Okay, I got her.” Yujin said, grabbing Hyewon’s arm. “Unnie, hey.”

No response.

“Unnie, hey. I’ll drive you back to Minju’s apartment, okay?” Yujin said, grabbing the sleepy girl who is only muttering gibberish, and mouthing ‘thank you’ to Chaeyeon who gave her Hyewon’s bag.

“Come on unnie. You weigh a ton.” Yujin breathes and started walking out of the room, ignoring again the stares and muttering ‘thank you’ to some customers who moved out of the way. She then nodded to Yena who can only give her a worried look – and she doesn’t blame the girl. Because she is also worried.

Situating Hyewon inside her car, she quickly drives off to the said apartment. Hoping she would not wake Minju up – but she knows that the girl would be awake the minute they made a noise, she’s a light sleeper after all.

So, manhandling Hyewon all her own, which surprisingly easy since the sleepy girl is really obedient, the both of them managed to reach the apartment without any problem.

Yujin holding Hyewon by the waist as the latter’s arm is around her for support, until Hyewon almost slipped making some noise – and Yujin thanks her fast reflexes preventing Hyewon to completely fall. But in a blink of an eye, a door opened and there stood a wide-eyed Minju staring at them.

“What are – “

“Can you help me?”

Without saying anything Minju just walks over the two and grabbed Hyewon’s arm and the three of them started walking towards the other girl’s room.

“Is she drunk?” Minju questions.

Yujin scoffs, “She’s too smart to drink on her shift.”

“Then what happened?”

“She’s just exhausted.”

And Yujin opened Hyewon’s door, entering the room the other two slowly laid Hyewon down on her bed. Minju putting her things on the ground, and Yujin staring at her friend.

“Please take care of her.” Yujin announced as she stands up, “She’s really tired so she’d be hard to wake up. But she has classes tomorrow around 10AM. Just do some calculations and wake her up.”

Minju glares at the younger girl who is now stalking away from the room, and Minju follows her – her mind full of questions.

“Yujin, what the hell happened to her?”

“She’s just exhausted.” Yujin repeats her answer, as if that explains everything. But it doesn’t.

“Yujin if you don’t – “

Yujin turns around to look at her, and Minju shuts up. She never saw Yujin sporting that look, it’s like as if she doesn’t even want to talk about it – like she’s begging for Minju to just stop asking questions.

“She’s exhausted.” And with that she left.

Minju just holds her head, expecting a headache to come soon. She then walks over to her own before but right before she can enter, she took a turn and went inside Hyewon’s. The girl is just wearing a shirt – unlike her usual attire of oversized hoodies, and Minju could see that Hyewon’s shivering.

She decided to just walk over the girl and properly put the blanket over her body, shielding her from the cold. Then she saw Hyewon’s hands grabbing the blanket quickly and turning to flip her position. Minju stared, and walks out of the room quietly.

Then she remembers her conversation with Yujin the day she helped Hyewon to move in.

“Because even if you won’t want to, you won’t have any choice but be in it.”

And one thought lingered in her mind until she was consumed by sleep. Just who are you Kang Hyewon?

/

Yujin walks over her apartment and laid down on her bed. She quickly fished out her phone and dialed a number.

Sakura grumbly answers her phone without bothering to look at who’s calling.

“You better have a nice excuse for calling me at this hour.”

Yujin shakily breathes out, “Kura-unnie.”

“Yujin,” Sakura says, much more awake than before. “Why are you still – “And what she heard next left her breathless. Something just broke inside her.

“She’s not okay.”

//

Yena quietly enters her apartment where she lives with her girlfriend, Yuri. They’ve been together for almost 2 years now, and if someone asks if they get tired of each other – the answer would be no. Relationships always have its ups and downs, but the both of them manage to overcome the downs – no matter what.

Just like that, Yena is quietly slipping off her shoes when the door from their room opened and revealed Yuri who just woke up from her sleep. Yena smiles at the sight as Yuri walks sleepily over her.

“You look exhausted.” Yuri mumbled, and hugs the girl’s waist and kissed her cheeks.

Yena scrunched her nose since she’s feeling conscious of her own sweat – after all, they needed to do some double work since Hyewon went home early.

“Needed to do some double work,” Yena says softly, “We were one man short.”

Yuri frowns, “What do you mean?”

“Kwangbae went home early,” Yena sighs trying to smile, but she just couldn’t. “She had one of her..”

“Oh.”

And Yuri was awake now, staring at her girlfriend’s defeated look. She knows how important Hyewon is for Yena – and she found her heart having a soft spot for the former too. That’s just how Kang Hyewon works, no one can deny it.

Yuri hugs Yena tightly and whispers comforting words, pulling the older girl inside their room.

“Come on, the dishes can be done tomorrow.” Yuri says softly, “You need to sleep.”

“Okay.” Yena answers shortly.

Her mind straying to the earlier events, and she hopes that everything would be alright. In time.

/

Minju wakes up 30 minutes earlier than her alarm, standing up from her bed she decided to just start preparing for her work. Sometimes she’s thankful that she’s the boss of her own work, meaning that she could enter anytime she wants – but of course, she wouldn’t do that. She knows her responsibilities, and she wouldn’t use that advantage for her own gain.

But remembering Yujin’s reminder last night, maybe going to work late for an hour wouldn’t hurt – after all, she always goes to work an hour early. I’ll just text Chaewon.

Wearing some smart casual clothes, she sent a quick text to her secretary slash friend – then she went out of her room.

Will be late for an hour. Need to do something.

That’s new. You’re seeing someone.

She rolls her eyes and sent a quick reply.

Need to wake up my roommate, as per Yujin’s favor.

Need to meet this roommate of yours.

Minju ignored the message and the television, watching whatever she could watch to past time. It’s too early for her to wake up Hyewon up, especially after seeing her absolutely exhausted last night – the girl needs to get her proper sleep.

I’ll just wake her up around 8:30 then. Minju thought, then she heard her phone chime only to see Yujin texting her.

Tell Hyewonnie that she doesn’t have any shift today, it’s covered.

Noted.

Thank you unnie!

/

Hyewon turns to her another side when she feels something or someone touching, shooing the person away as she grumbles some response. She doesn’t have the energy to get up from the bed – from this very comfortable bed.

Minju on the hands, looks incredulously at the still sleeping figure who she has been trying to wake up for the past 10 minutes – but to no avail, she only receives gibberish response and a hand swatting her away.

“She sleeps like a rock.” Minju whispers to herself, she then turned to see that it’s almost 8:45 in the morning.

She then decided to just lean in slightly to shake the girl hoping that this would wake her up – she doesn’t want her to be late on her classes, especially that Yujin asked her to do this.

“Hyewon, please wake up.” Minju says softly as she shakes the other girl’s body. “It’s already quarter to 9.”

“5 more minutes.” Hyewon sleepily said.

“You have classes in 10.”

With that said, Hyewon opened her eyes quickly and looked around. She realized she’s in her room – how did she even get here? Then she looked beside her to see another person, Minju, looking down at her. She then remembered her class, and she quickly sat up panicking again.

But Minju was there to hold her by the shoulders, after seeing the obvious panic on her roommate’s eyes.

“Hey, you still have time. You can take a shower first.” Minju tries to calm down Hyewon.

The latter looks at the time and indeed, she still has plenty of time to prepare. She then looks at Minju who is already standing up from her bed.

“How did I get here?”

Minju looks at her and answers, “Yujin carried you here, you were exhausted.”

“Oh, sorry.” Hyewon could not help but to apologize. “I must have made a ruckus.”

“No.” Minju quickly denies, because she did not – that’s the truth. Though she was pulled out from her sleep, other than that there’s nothing to be worried or apologizing about.

“Don’t worry, you were really obedient.” Minju reassures her, “But you need to get ready, I already prepared some breakfast.”

Hyewon quirks an eyebrow, “You used the toaster?”

Minu scoffs at the question, “No, it’s just oatmeal.”

Hyewon nodded, “I’ll teach you how to use that toaster soon.” And she stood up from her bed.

“You play?” Minju could not help but to ask, now that she managed to actually look around the room. Though it’s not as full of hers – to be honest her own room was only full because of office documents and what not, while Hyewon’s matches her personality.

Only a few books on the table, a laptop, mirror, and some used clothes but folded nicely. But what got her attention is the case on the corner, a violin – judging from its size. And Hyewon followed her gaze, and stared at the said instrument.

“No.” Hyewon answers, “That’s not mine.” And off she goes to the bathroom.

Leaving a confused Minju, again.

Hyewon finished her shower and dressed in her black oversized hoodie – Minju already out of her room probably waiting for her to finish. She then looks at the corner and saw the object of curiosity of her roommate earlier, and everything just hurts just by looking at it. But Hyewon could not find in herself to just throw it away, and so she did what’s best.

She grabbed it from the corner and put it under her bed, away from her sight. Away from the pending questions of Minju. She then grabbed her bag and walks out, proceeding to the kitchen to see Minju drinking her coffee.

Hyewon then looked at the bowl of oatmeal, and sat on a chair as she starts eating it. Tastes like oatmeal, nothing new.

“Coffee?”

Hyewon looks up to Minju offering her a cup of coffee, and she shakes her head. “Not today, but thank you.”

Minju nodded and continued to look through her phone.

“Your shift is covered by the way,” Minju says, “Yujin texted me earlier.”

Hyewon frowns, but nodded nonetheless. If Yujin saw her yesterday, Hyewon already expects for Sakura to know whatever happened.