April 2015

The sun was shining and the birds were chirping outside. It was a beautiful day but Klaire was stuck in Ms. Hong’s office. Ms. Hong was the new therapist after her former one raised the white flag on her. To be really honest, Klaire was glad Ms. Jang gave up on her because she liked Ms. Hong much better, eventhough this was only their second meeting. The difference between the two therapists was that Ms. Jang always pushed her to talk while Ms. Hong shared her stories to her when she refused to share hers.

“You look very different today from the first time I met you.” Her voice startled Klaire from her daydreaming. She was looking at the flock of birds outside the window.

“Yeah, I dyed my hair one shade darker.” Klaire said, running her fingers through her hair.

Ms. Hong chuckled hearing the answer. “Nice colour. I personally think darker shade looks better on you.”

Klaire nodded in agreement. She preffered dark hair too but her hairstyle wasn’t always up to her. She still remembered when she cried her eyes out because the company forced her to dye her hair blonde for 'Hoot' comeback. She didn’t mean to be racist or want to stereotype but spending her childhood in the States, she was used to this cruel but widely popular stereotype that blonde girls were dumb. Now, how dumb would she be if she, an American-born Asian, with a perfectly fine black hair dyed her hair blonde? And not that she could say that excuse out loud since some of her members were having or have had their hair dyed blonde as well. So she mentally suffered by herself for months until the promotion and the year-end packed schedules were over before dying it back to her preferred colour, brunette.

“But what I meant was.. you seemed cheerful today.” Ms. Hong pointed at Klaire using her opened palms. “Anything you would like to share with me?”

Klaire pondered then smiled. “Let’s just say that there were things that I’ve been dying to say to someone and I was finally able to do it.”

Ms. Hong was impressed. Before she met the idol for the first time, she spent hours reading through Ms. Jang’s report on the girl and it wasn’t a pleasant read. Ms. Hong was now excited since she would probably get something out of the girl that her predecessor couldn't before.

Klaire liked Ms. Hong. She noticed the difference between her former and current shrink the first minute they talked to her. Ms. Jang tried to fix her right from the start, while Ms. Hong tried to befriend her.

-

The laptop was burning hot, but the owner was laughing her off while stuffing chips into . Klaire was doing a Big Bang Theory marathon. She had been catching up with the whole three seasons she had missed and she was currently on the 18th episode she watched on that day alone. A large bag of her favourite hot and sour potato chips was by her side as she laid on her stomach watching the show while there was an empty bowl on the floor near the bed that was filled with kimchi ramyun just about twenty minutes ago.

Klaire has been really enjoying herself since the break. It was like summer holiday when she was still in elementary school in New York. Doing nothing, stuffing junk food in her mouth, getting fat. The best kind of life.

Klaire was laughing at Sheldon Cooper’s unique behavior on the show when she heard the sound of door being slammed. She instantly hit the pause button and her ears concentrated in listening. She could hear people arguing outside. After contemplating for a while, she decided to go out to bring the dirty bowl to the sink while checking the situation.

The girls were there and the mood was certainly not good. Handbags were thrown carelessly on the couch and the floor. They were standing here and there, spreading from the living room to the kitchen, communicating and shouting to one another. Except for two girls, who were sitting down. One was crying, the other was comforting her.

“Er.. what’s going on?” Klaire asked hesitantly.  When everybody just stared at her without saying anything, Klaire turned her head to the crying girl. “Yuri-unnie, are you okay?”

It was actually a rhetorical question from Klaire because she didn’t expect Yuri to actually answer her since the girl was still sobbing pretty hard. However, Yuri shouted at her and gave her a shock. “This was all because of you!”

Klaire spent her whole day away from her phone, so naturally she didn’t know what happened in the world that day. Apparently, the K-pop world was once again shocked by yet another dating news by one of the Girls’ Generation member. This time, it was Yuri and a baseball player Oh Seunghwan.

Yuri and Seunghwan met last year through mutual friends. The two were attracted to each other and had since met for casual dates. However, their relationship was