It’s been days since our dormitory has been shaken by what we have found out. Nayeon unnie was the one who was mostly shaken about what has transpired. I pity her, she’s my cheerful unnie and I wasn’t used to seeing her become silent. She still laughs though, she’d still joke, but all of a sudden she’d stop being so cheerful and then she’d become really quiet. She’d even lock herself in her room. Seeing her like that is killing me. It’s just so out of character for her. 

That night, after we all made sure that Min Woo wasn’t outside anymore, we all drove to the nearest police station. Of course, everyone in our dorm was present in the station. We feared that, if one was left behind, Min Woo might try to break in and something unimaginable might happen. 

At the station, we were given answers for all the questions we needed. It’s a good thing that the station has data about Min Woo. His name really is Jung Min Woo, he’s 27 years old and has recently been discharged from the army only 3 months short for his 2 years old service. The reason why he’s discharged early? Jung Min Woo is a repeat offender, known to stalk women, and is officially diagnosed with mental illness while serving the army. He has also only recently returned to school. 

The information about Min Woo shook everyone to our core. We were scared to say the least. 

Unfortunately, according to law, we couldn’t really file a case against Min Woo unless he does something to us physically. This sounded downright insane, we couldn’t believe the information. How can someone like Jung Min Woo walk on the streets of Seoul, free and enjoying his time just because some stupid law has a ing loophole? We were enraged when we heard this. Tzuyu wanted to smack the police, I understood her. What type of law encourages Citizens to either get killed or hurt before getting justice? 

This is some grade A bull, honestly. 

“Can’t we do something about this? Aren’t there any options?” Asked Sana unnie. The police officer, that scumbag, smirked as if the question wasn’t valid at all. We know that our case is hopeless, but it’s also not easy to be in our situation. 

“This isn’t fast food. No, there aren’t any options here. We already told you what you could do.” One of the officers answered immediately. We didn’t really know what to do, so we just stared. 

All the police station could tell us was to always stick together. According to them, if we all traveled by twos, then it was unlikely for Min Woo to strike. They all looked sorry, except for that one officer. That . Anyway, they wanted to help us but the laws against stalking and filing cases against such cases were really vague. They told us that we can only press charges once Min Woo really has entered our dormitory. 

Basically, we can only report when we’re either dead or really hurt. 

We weren’t satisfied with what the police had to offer but at least we got information about Min Woo that night. We were able to head home around two in the morning, we all made sure that the doors were locked and everything was okay. Sana and Tzuyu slept in Nayeon unnie’s room to give her company. They were sweet enough to do such a thing, however, I just sat in the kitchen. I was thinking because I couldn’t sleep. So many thoughts ran through my head, some were necessary and some were unnecessary. All in all, too much thinking for the day. 

I remember what went down in the Kitchen that dawn. I remember because it hurt me, real bad. 

Everyone during that point was tired, shellshocked even. Too much shock from the previous events surged through our body that nice words weren’t an option for anyone. Harshness, it was something that was felt inside the room. The amount of tension inside the room can only be at some level that if the tension does exceed the expected level, something has to blow up. And it did, something did blow up. 

“Do you really think that any guy who approaches you is interested in you?” Asked Mina unnie, she had this look in her eyes that I haven’t seen before. She sounded serious and to be honest, I’m not a fan. I just stared at her,I don’t understand why she’s acting like this, I mean, what for? 

“What? What are you talking about?” I lift my head up, and stared at her. I didn’t understand where she’s trying to convey but it does sound like she’s not in a good mood. 

“Are you a kid or something?” Mina unnie asked, the way she asked if it was so sharp. Her words stabbed me, her tone hurt me.

“Are you seriously still mad at me?” I asked her, I wasn’t really sure where the conversation might head but isn't this too much? Why does she make it seem like this is all my fault. 

She stared at me, this time I couldn’t really make anything off of her facial expression. Is she trying to restrain herself? Is this only the beginning of her disgust? Does she hate me? How did things escalate so quickly. 

“Please. I’ve had enough for today.” I mutter, not looking her in the eye. I hear her snicker.

“This isn’t about you. It’s about Nayeon unnie.” She replies, she then took the seat right across me. I just stare at her, feeling of annoyance has taken over me.

“I know. But why does it feel like you’re blaming me?” I ask her, she just stared at me. I can’t read her. One time she’s kind and then all of a sudden she’s mad at me. 

“Shouldn’t we be blaming you?” She asked me. 

I just stared at her, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I guess everyone can be angry, but I never thought Mina was this type. If this was someone else talking to me this way, I wouldn’t have a hard time trying to deal with this afterwards. I guess, the ones who make you the happiest can really make you the saddest too. 

“Look, I never wanted for any of this to happen.” I tell her, I feel like my insides were being torn apart as I explain myself to her. 

“But it did happen.” She stubbornly replied. She just stared at me blankly. “And it’s because you just had to date a boy you just met.” I see her give me a dirty look. 

“Is it wrong to date? I was just unfortunate enough—” I stand up without taking my eyes off of her. My pams resting flat on the table. She just stared at me blankly. Her cheeks, they were flushed. “—that the first guy who I thought was interested in me was actually just using me to get close to Nayeon unnie!” I snap at her. I feel my cheeks become hot and my voice becoming increasingly unstable. 

“It’s because you want attention.” She replies, without hesitation.

“I guess I do.” I reply. I felt this sinking feeling inside me. She just called me an attention-seeker. You know what’s the funny part? The person who I am most interested in doesn’t even take me seriously. I look at her, hoping that she’d understand what I am saying. She just stared at me, blinking. It looked like she cannot comprehend what I said. 

“I look desperate, right?” I smiled at her, she just stared at me. I couldn’t read her facial expression. I didn’t wait for her to answer me back, I turned my back and quickly marched to my room. I didn’t slam the door, I just walked in as quietly as possible.

That night, I cried myself to sleep.

Days have already passed since that night. Were the nights and days long? Very much indeed, yes. The days were excruciating and painstakingly long and I hated every minute of it. 

These days, my dorm mates have seem to become a lot looser. Though we are all vigilant because of what had happened, we still make sure that we don’t live our lives miserable just because of some . Lately though, we don’t go out alone and no one is allowed to stay at home alone. We usually have someone to accompany us, we’re all too paranoid about the situation. We couldn’t help it. 

Most of the time, I spend my time with Tzuyu. Since we have classes together and we also belong to the same organization at School, we stay close to each other as much as possible. I’m at least thankful that Tzuyu is around, if it weren’t for her, I’d probably be bored to death.

As for Mina unnie, I haven’t really had a conversation with her since that night that we bickered. Honestly, I’m not mad at her. I don’t really have any reason to be mad at her, I guess she was just overwhelmed with what had happened that night. As for me? I don’t know. Am I hurt? I’m not sure, I feel kind of confused right now.

It just felt unfair that she had to take her anger out on me. Whatever, she doesn’t seem to care though. Whenever I see her around the house, she doesn’t seem to notice me, she tries her best not to make eye contact, and she avoids having a conversation with me. It’s fine with me though, it’s not a big deal. I know I‘ll survive. 

“OKAY.” I hear a senior call out to us and I instantly jerked out of my seat causing Tzuyu to laugh at me. 

“You can’t be short and a scaredy-cat at the same time.” She tells me. I just stare at her, wanting to choke her to death. 

We are currently at a meeting for our school organization. I don’t really know what the meeting is all about but I just indulge our upperclassmen and go to the meeting. We’re inside an empty classroom, about fifty people filled the room. The moment our upperclassman started talking, everyone went completely silent. All our attention was on him. He cleared his throat and opened his notes. 

“Okay, Good afternoon everyone.” He greets us all. We greet him back and he nods. “So for today, we will be talking about the school festival.” 

Basically, our upperclassman wanted to plan what our organization’s contribution will be for the school festival. Usually clubs do their contribution through a presentation or sometimes in monetary value. Our upperclassman thought that it was better for our organization to provide something in monetary value. 

At first I thought he’d want us to sell food during the event. But no, according to him, doing so would only cost so much time and effort. What he wants from us is to go and find sponsors. Everyone seemed to have agreed to the arrangement that he has thought about, so I just nod my head. I stare at Tzuyu and whisper.

“Don’t you think one hundred thousand won is too much?” 

“No.” She replies and then she stares at me. “Honestly, I’d rather give a hundred thousand won than practice for a play or dance.” She sighs. 

“You must be really rich.” I tell her jokingly and she just smiles. 

After the meeting, Tzuyu and I headed out to the main entrance of the University. We’re supposed to go and meet Jeongyeon unnie at the bakeshop where she worked part-time  when all of a sudden she told me that she needs to go some place. 

“I have someplace to be.” She tells me, I can see that she’s a little antsy. I just stare at her, and frown. 

“What? Now?” I ask her, obviously confused with why she has to go all of a sudden.

“Kind of. Is that okay with you?” She asked me. I just stare at her. 

“It’s okay, I guess.” I mutter to myself. I see Tzuyu texting someone. 

“Don’t you worry, Mina unnie will accompany you to Jeongyeon unnie.” She tells me and then she points to a direction. “There she is.” Tzuyu smiles. 

I look over and see Mina unnie walking towards us. She’s wearing a turtleneck, a skirt, and boots. Her hair was down. As she walked closer and closer to us, I noticed that she’s wearing some makeup. I look away and immediately open my phone. I’m pretending to read through my texts. 

What the is she doing here?

“Unnie!” Tzuyu exclaims as she welcomes Mina to a hug. I pretend to not notice her by just scrolling through my feed, but it seemed too obvious so I just turned my phone off. Instead of acting like an idiot,  I just listened to whatever they were talking about.

“Are you supposed to be somewhere now, Tzuyu-ah?” Mina asks.

“Yeah, unnie. I’ll have to go and pick Sana unnie up.” Replies the giant.

“Oh, yeah. Is she going to where Jeongyeon works too?” Asks Mina. 

“Yeah, I just feel bad leaving Chaeyoung that’s why I contacted you.” Tzuyu replies. The second she mentioned me in their conversation, my ears perked up. I was ready to listen. Even though I was pretending to just look around and pretend that nature is beautiful at night. Obviously, you can’t see at night. “It’s no problem. We need to stick together at times like this.” Mina unnie replies. 

“Anyway.” Tzuyu coughs so I immediately lift my head up and look at Tzuyu. “I have to go now. See you guys later.” Says Tzuyu. I just stared at her, I felt helpless. But I can’t really say anything, right? 

I just waved goodbye to her and Tzuyu started to walk off. 

After Tzuyu walked off, Mina and I didn’t talk. There was no conversation between us, we didn’t even look at each other. So in order for us to get to Jeongyeon’s place, I exited the University and of course I know she was following me. And then, I booked a grab for the both of us to ride to Jeongyeon’s place of work. 

The ride was so awkward. Even though we both sat at the back seat of the taxi, we sat far from each other. I didn’t care though, I wasn’t in the mood to talk to her. I can tell she wasn't in the mood to be with me so I just go with the flow, In about less than 5 minutes we arrive at our destination. I was about to pay for the cab when she suddenly spoke.

“It’s okay, Chaengie. Unnie’s got it covered.” She stared at me, I immediately looked away and headed out of the cab. I briskly walked inside the bakery, feeling my heartbeat go crazy.

What the was that, Son Chaeyoung? She just stares at you and then you go Gaga? Get it together. 

As I enter the bakery, I immediately spot Nayeon unnie seated at the table nearest to the counter. Probably so that she’d just be closer to Jengyeon unnie. I wave at her to let her know I’m here, she notices me and then she motions for me to sit next to her. I oblige. 

“So, Nayeon unnie.” I smile at her. She stared at me, she looked tired but she still smiled. “How are you doing?” I ask her.

“I’ve been feeling a lot better.” She replies and then she suddenly stared at the main entrance and then she smiled widely. “Minari! Come sit here!” The girl sounded excited. I just smile looking at her happy.

Mina unnie walks over to us and then she sits right in front of me, I turn my gaze to Nayeon unnie. I don't really want to look at her right now. Too much going on, I’d like to just have a calm night. Thank you. 

“Did you come together or something?” asks Nayeon. 

“We did but Chaeyoung came in first because I was paying the driver.” She replies. I just nod while scrolling through my phone. 

I look up and look around the bakery and smell the wonderful scent of freshly baked bread. I smile and then go back to scrolling through my phone. Just as I was about to ask where Jeongyeon unnie is, the unfunny creature appeared. She was carrying a tray of baked goods and some drinks. 

“Crap, I’ve got no money on me.” I tell them honestly. Nayeon and Jeongyeon just stared at each other, broke motherers. 

“It’s okay Chaengie, unnie’s got you covered.” Says Mina.I turn my gaze at her and notice she’s looking at me. I just blink, not sure. with how to respond. Is she serious right now? 

“O-okay.” I reply awkwardly. How am I supposed to respond then? “Thanks, unnie.” I bow to her politely, just enough to make herr understand that I am indeed greatful. 

“So, Mina. How’s the search going?” Asks Jeongyeon as she sat beside Mina unnie. 

At first never knew what ‘search’ Jeongyeon unnie was referring to. Good thing Mina cleared it up and said it was just a thing that she did to know more about Min Woo. Since we all realized that Min Woo goes to the Same University as Tzuyu, Mina, and I, gathering information about him has become easier. 

“Hold up. Did you hack the school system or something?” Asks Nayeon. We all look at her, wondering whether she was joking or something.

“No, Sillly.” She smiles reassuringly to Nayeon. “I’ve been you know, able to ask around about him. Nothing really interesting came up.” She adds. She then proceeds to drink her coffee. She caught me just listening to her, she then grabs a drink from the tray and then she slowly slides it to me. 

I just stared at her, I wasn’t sure how to respond with what she just did.

“Um, excuse me miss. Do we have a problem?” Should I ask her that? I badly want to ask her that. Instead, I just take the cup and wrap both my hands on it. I continue to listen to their conversation.

“But I was lucky enough to have found one good prospect.” She added as she took a bite off of her cookie. 

“What did your prospect say?” Asks Nayeon unnie. 

“Well, that person told me to just look Min Woo up on the internet.” 

“Is he supposed to be famous or something?” Asks Jeongyeon unnie, she sounded really sarcastic. 

“Yeah. I asked myself that too.” Replies Mina and then she quickly opens her phone and she starts to type something. “BUT.” Adds Mina loudly. 

“But what?” Asks Nayeon unnie in an annoyed tone.

“This.” Mina unnie shows us what she searched. 

MEET THE SOLE HEIR OF ECOTURE & Co. FURNITURES

Our jaws drop the moment we read the Article’s title. Jung Min Woo, the sole heir of ECOURE & CO. FURNITURES in Korea. That’s why he’s so unreasonably loaded. I just stare at the Article title in disbelief.

“Son of a is a ing Chaebol.” Mutters Jeongyeon unnie. “No wonder why he acts like he’s above the law.” She lightly pounds the table with her fist. 

“This also explains why he’s got all that record in police station but without any arrests.” Explains Mina unnie. 

I just look at them, I can see the fear in their faces. I felt scared too. I couldn’t believe we’re actually dealing with someone who’s this powerful. No wonder why the army let him serve a time shorter than everyone else. For ’s sake, the guy is a ual offender ad he’s still allowed to roam around the street and attend school! This is preposterous. 

“For ’s sake, can’t we just stab the guy to death or something?” Asks Nayeon unnie. She’s trying her best to lighten up the mood. However , Jeongyeon unnie wasn’t having any of it.

“This isn’t the time for jokes.” Jeongyeon gave Nayeon this scary stare. Nayeon just shrugged and then she subsequently took a bite off of her cookie. “From now on, you’re not allowed to walk around Seoul all by yourself.” Jeongyeon unnie Bossily commands Nayeon unnie. I expected Nayeon to retaliate but she just nodded.

“It’s not safe for any of us to walk alone.” Adds Mina, she’s staring at me. Probably still blaming everything. I just look away and sip on my drink. When will she stop blaming me, damn.

“Anyway, we can’t really do much about this.” Says Nayeon unnie. She sounded really down. I just put my arm around her, resting my head on her shoulder in the process.

“Nothing bad is going to happen. Trust me.” I tell her. 

I see Jeongyeon unnie and Mina talk, I can’t really hear them though. They’re probably talking about how to have a solution for this problem. I sit straight up and face Nayeon unnie. I smile at her. 

“I’m sorry.” I whisper, hoping that only Nayeon unnie hears what I was saying.She looks at me and then she smiled at me weakly.

“None of this is your fault.” She ruffles my short hair. I just roll my eyes at her, wondering how someone can be so optimistic amidst all this. “He’s a nut job. You never knew any of that.” She adds.

“Thank you unnie.” I smile at her. 

We all hung out for hours, just talking and drinking coffee. Apparently, when we arrived, Jeongyeon unnie’s shift was already finished. Even though we hung out for hours, Mina unnie and I never really spoke directly to each other. There was this tension between us. I, myself, wasn’t willing to talk. I just felt off after our exchange days ago.

How can I talk to someone who called me an attention seeker? It hurts. 

After hours, Jeongyeon unnie proposed for us to head home all together. Just as I was getting ready to leave, Mina unnie walked towards Jeongyeon unnie and then she whispered something. I saw Jeongyeon nod and then she stared at me. 

“Oh, yeah. I forgot.” Jeongyeon declares. “Nayeon and I had someplace to be.” She adds. I just stare at her in disbelief. Are they trying to leave me again? This is unfair. 

“Where?” I ask her, Nayeon unnie was as equally confused as I am.

“Yeah, where?” Asks Nayeon to Jeongyeon. Jeongyeon just stares at her and then she grabs Nayeon unnie’s hand and they start walking away. Just as they were about to reach the door, Jeongyeon turns around and then she smiles at us. “We’ll get going, okay?” and then they walked out of the bakeshop. 

I just stare at Mina unnie who’s also staring at me. 

“I guess it’s just the two of us then.” Tell her. “Aren’t we going to go now or something?” I ask her impatiently. 

“We could walk to our dorm. It’s pretty close here.” She replies. I nod, get my stuff, and then we leave the bakeshop together. Jeongyeon unnie’s workplace is close to our dorms. So, walking isn’t really the issue here. 

As we walked to our dormitory, we were just silent. I didn’t talk, since I don’t want to make things more awkward between us. The night was cold and the moon looked beautiful, I just smiled as I looked up at the sky.

“Chaengie.” I hear Mina call my attention. I turn my gaze to her and see notice how her cheeks have become flushed, most probably because of the cold air.

“Yeah?” I ask her. 

“What I did days ago…” She trails off. I listen to her, I feel this suffocating feeling in my chest. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking properly.” She stared at me, biting her lower lip in the process. She was saying something now, but somehow I couldn’t hear whatever she was saying. Instead of listening, my eyes were fixated on her lips. Her red lips, I have to admit were pretty distracting.

“Chaeyoung…” She calls out to me.

“Y-yeah?” I reply, I was obviously in my own world. 

“I asked you a question.” She stared at me, she bit her lower lip once again. 

“I’m sorry, I’m afraid I didn’t hear you.” I told her politely, we were still walking at this point.

“I said, would you go on a date with me.” She blatantly reiterates whatever she said a while ago. I just stare at her, my eyes wide in confusion. 

What the ?

“A what?” I asked her, almost a little too aggressively.