It was half past midnight and Wonwoo was staring at his phone, debating with himself whether to call, text, or just do nothing and leave Eunhye alone. It had been a battle almost every night and his coward self usually won. He would usually send a short goodnight which she would answer with an even shorter one, if at all. Most of the time she would answer in morning, or left it at READ, very much like when they were just student and TA.

That night, though, he was craving more. He always did, ever since this weird setup she requested, but now, he was more on edge than usual. It had been over a week since his birthday tragedy and Wonwoo was getting sick of the silence. Back when everything was normal, he usually thought his girlfriend sometimes talked too much, especially when they became confortable with each other. Now, he barely got anything. 

Deciding a text would be more casual, he pulled up his messaging app.

Wonwoo: sleeping?

Right after he sent it, he locked the screen and threw his phone on the bed beside him. It was not like she was replying anyway. Now that he thought about it, he should probably delete it. She probably have not read it yet.

It made a ping as soon as he picked it back up.

Mine: nope
Mine: pubg?

Wonwoo bolted upright and replied he would play before she could change her mind. Quickly, he got up to Seungcheol's room where his computer was. After knocking once, he went in, only to find hyung getting ready to go to bed and Wonwoo stood there hesitantly.

"You want to play?" Seungcheol guessed. He just got back from his parents' house and might be tired.

"Can I?"

"Just don't yell too much," he said, putting earplugs in his ear.

Promising he would not be loud, he turned his computer on to log in to the game. When he went to his phone to tell her he was going to login, she had sent another message.

Mine: nvm
Mine: everyone's offline already
Mine: going to bed
Mine: goodnight ♡

That was the first heart emoticon he received from her since forever. Also, true enough, when his game already loaded, he saw Eunhye's username to be "online 5 minutes ago", along with a few familiar names such as ZeroDeathsXCIII. Mark Tuan. It looked like they played earlier.

"You can play," Seungcheol repeated when he saw Wonwoo shutting the computer down.

"It's fine. I'm going to the gym."

Wonwoo did not feel like playing and thought he needed to let off some steam. It was the perfect time to go to the gym as well, because none of the usual people like their friends were there. In thirty minutes, he was at the gym, putting down his bag and taking his usual warming up spot.

"Hey, kid."

He looked through the wall mirror into Woo Zico's reflection, sitting on the bench press. Great. Of all people to run into, it had to be Eunhye's male best friend, who they recently discovered had been in love with her when they were younger. It was a mess, involving a fist Eunhye threw at her friend's face, saying she was cutting hin out of her life, then getting sad over it that Wonwoo had to push her into making up with him. He knew he made the right thing, but he still could not help but feel a little insecure about this friend of hers, for a lot of reasons.

First, Zico had his own place, and Eunhye used to stay there whenever she pleased long before Wonwoo met her. He drove an expensive car. The two of them knew each other for over a decade, and his parents treat Eunhye like she was their own daughter. Wonwoo have yet to meet her parents, and tell his own that he was seeing someone. 

"Hyung." Wonwoo acknowledged his presence, returning the high five he offered. "Thought you quit the gym."

"I was busy with schoolwork," Zico explained. "My partner had to go to some vacation trip so I had to do extra."

"Sorry about that."

The older guy laughed. "Don't be. I got more work done without her. All she wanted to do was talk about you."

"Huh."

"I heard it was your idea," Zico started again after finishing his set. "Her talking to me. Even after you knew what it was, you made her come to me. Why was that?"

Wonwoo guessed he might be dying to know. Unfortunately, he did not really have any cool or heroic reason. He just thought that he might lose the Eunhye he loved if she lost the things SHE loved. Even though he did not really like it at times, there were some things he just had to accept.

"She needed it," he answered. "She looked like she lost some part of herself so I just helped her get it back. I didn't expect her to really go and sleep over at your place, though."

"You probably need to hear this from me, man, so I'll tell you. I don't love her like that anymore. Okay? Not since I met..." He seemed to change his mind about finishing his sentence. "Although, that didn't work out, too. But hey, She didn't sleep over.  I actually had to send her home because she just kept working."

"Yeah, I was at her place that night."

"How's that by the way?" Zico asked, remembering something. He got up and moved to the next gym equipment.  "I heard you fought. Did you two make up yet?"

Wonwoo took his time answering, working on some weights. He wondered if he should tell him. From what he gathered, the guy was good at giving advice and he knew Eunhye well, so it might be a good idea.

"It got worse, actually," he admitted, not believing himself that he was opening up to this person. But he was running out of options, and he really needed to know what to do. "She asked for some time off."

As soon as he said it, he regretted it. The guy could be lying about not having feelings for Eunhye anymore, and take this opportunity to get together with her. But when Zico let go of the chest fly machine to look Wonwoo in the eye and talked, he saw why his girlfriend ran to the guy for help.

"What did you say to her?" he asked, and for a moment there, Wonwoo had a feeling of getting caught. "She never did that before. At least not this long."

"It was actually my idea," Wonwoo answered. "I thought she needed space from me. She insisted she didn't but I pressed on. When she actually asked for it, I couldn't do anything."

The older male crossed his arms together in front of his chest, deep in thought as if processing his words one by one.

"Why exactly did you think she'd need space from you?"

This time, Wonwoo was really caught in the trap. He should not have opened his mouth. There was something in his tone that made Wonwoo want to tell the truth.

He decided to come clean and told Zico what happened, including that night in Eunhye's room when he almost used force on her even if she said, no, multiple times. He left out the part that he got mad because she came home at 4AM, coming from Zico's place to work on their thesis, as well as Wonwoo meeting his first love before that. He also recounted what happened in their trip that led to Eunhye granting Wonwoo's wish for space that he did not really want.

Surprisingly, Zico took the news of Wonwoo's sin quite calmly. He thought the guy would come at him with fists the moment he said it, but he just creased his eyebrows and listened to everything Wonwoo had to say, asking a few questions here and there.

"She's always extra clingy after a fight," Zico stated. When he said that, Wonwoo realized it was true. "Didn't you realize that?"

"W-we rarely fight." He could count in one hand the time they had a huge fight. 

"Are we talking about the same person? She's the only one with more complaints than me."

"I'm serious," Wonwoo insisted. "The only one I can remember was after that... you know. The thing with Professor Lee."

Zico's brows were still creased in disbelief. "Then, now you know that she is. She hates conflict so she avoids confrontation at all cost. When the peace is disturbed, she gets stressed. And so when you make up, she'll force to bring things back the way it was before. Why did you think she came to my place to work on the thesis?"

"She said you needed to work on it together."

"Yeah, but we could have done it at their place where there were other people. She insisted to come over. She wants to prove to herself nothing had changed between us after all that sh*t."

It made so much sense that Wonwoo did not know why he did not see it before. Probably because he did not know Eunhye as much as he thought he did.

"That's why she was quick to forgive you. She didn't want anything to change."

"How could she?"

"I honestly want to strangle you because of what you did," Zico told him. "But you came clean about it and that takes courage, I appreciate it. And you stopped, so, that, I appreciate. Do you have a sister, Wonwoo?"

"No. Just a younger brother."

"Well, she's like one to me," he warned. "A very fragile one. So if you ever do that again, you'll need dental implants when I'm done with you."

"That's fair," Wonwoo agreed. "I promised myself I would never hurt her ever again after that. I want it to be the way it was before all of this happened."

"Then why did you push her away?" Zico asked. "You made her feel rejected."

"I guess I was too guilty. I don't deserve her. How could I?"

Zico sighed loudly. "This is just exactly like talking to her. How can the two of you think so alike, yet don't understand a thing about each other? All she does is talk and worry about you, and you're just the same."

"I don't know what to do. What if she wanted nothing of me now?"

" 'What if he breaks up with me?' " Zico said in immitation of Eunhye's voice. "What did she tell you to do?"

"To come to her when I'm ready."

"So, why are you still here? Are you not ready?"

"I am. But what if she isn't?"

Zico aimed a punch at him. "You really won't go anywhere if you're like that. Just break up. I'm sick of you, two."

"She's avoiding me."

"Eunhye avoids everything," he pointed out. "She's the best at putting up walls and burning bridges. You should act before she got used to not having you around."

***'

"Still no time for coffee today?"

Sunmi had to rush out even though they still had almost an hour left with their dancing session, and did not even wait for Eunhye to be finished gathering her things. Something about a fashion gig getting cancelled or a sponsor backing out (or both).

"Sorry," Eunhye apologized with a forced smile. "I don't think so."

"Fine by me," Yibo shrugged, picking his bag up and turning off the AC. "I'll probably just have a couple of runs with a certain game."

Right. He was also a gamer. She felt a little bad about turning his invitation down so she pretended to be interested. "What game?"

He told her which one, and her ears suddenly perked up. "Really?"

"I'm practicing for an Open next week when I'm not working," he explained. "I lost the T1 Reserve spot, but there's another team holding a competition for Trainees. Not as good as T1 but Hayu's CastleHouse is pretty decent."

"I know CastleHouse."

"They seem to be getting the top place back after that rookie left. They said he could be the next Heechul but he's not a match even to Jaehyo."

Eunhye smirked. Ahn Jaehyo was a sunbae from highschool. When she said she knew CastleHouse, she meant that she met them, played with them and rejected them when they recruited her. And what Yibo said about the ousted rookie made her like him