enjoy.

-

Karina’s plans on trying to talk to Winter are ruined the next morning. She’s walking down the stairs when she hears noises in the kitchen. 

Frowning, she curiously walks in that direction, not even thinking about the possibility of someone breaking in.

Her frown quickly changes to surprise when she spots her mother serving breakfast on the table. Her eyes widen before a huge smile breaks on her face. 

“Mom, you’re home”.

The woman turns around, smiling just as big as she opens her arms to welcome her daughter in them. 

Karina doesn’t hesitate and runs to her. She hugs her as tightly as she can, feeling like crying just as she did when Irene came home.

“When did you get here?” She pulls away, searching for the woman’s eyes.

The elder cradles her daughter’s face in her hands. “Last night, baby. You were already asleep so I didn’t want to bother you”.

Karina smiles. That’s good because the alcohol made her shed a few tears, obviously.

“I missed you”.

“I missed you too, sweetie. I prepared breakfast so you’re not leaving until you eat, come on”, she playfully pushes Karina towards the table and makes her sit down.

Karina missed this. She looks at her mom before she starts eating, feeling content. 

“Unnie was here just yesterday, you missed it”, Karina speaks through a mouthful of pancakes.

“I know, I talked to her yesterday and speaking of... she told me something”, the woman puts down her mug and Karina stops eating.

“Something about what?”

“She said you feel alone, but that’s not true, right? She was just being dramatic”. 

Karina gulps down the food, feeling her stomach twisting. “Y-Yeah, I don’t know why she said that. I’m okay”.

Her mother smiles, taking a sip of her coffee. “That’s great baby because I can’t stay for long. I’m probably leaving tomorrow, I have something to attend to. I’ll try to leave after you get home but no promises, you know how this works”.

Karina has to try her hardest not to have the same reaction she had with Irene. But her heart hurts again.

“I need to go now, I just remembered I have to be at school a bit earlier”, Karina clears , feeling a big lump forming.

“Have a good day, sweetie! I’ll see you later, we have to talk about school!” The woman yells after her daughter, waving her hand.

Karina gets in her car and starts taking deep breaths to hold back her tears. She wishes she could be stronger, not a crybaby. She’s sure no one cries over their mom leaving them for day but the complete opposite instead and yet here she is always acting like a child.

-

Yeonjun spots Karina walking through campus and he clenches his fists. He starts marching towards her, angry. Seeing his little sister come home crying over Karina once again made him furious, he had no idea Karina was such an .

He catches up with her and roughly stops her by grabbing her arm.

Karina looks at him confused, her eyebrows creasing in the middle. “What the hell?”

“Why did I have to see Winter come home in tears last night? What did you do to her?”

Karina scoffs and pulls her arm away. “I don’t have time for this”.

“No, you will listen to me”, he reaches for her arm again but he’s met with a hard shove instead.

“I said I don’t have the time!” Karina rises her voice and before Yeonjun says anything, he sees her eyes bright with tears. 

He watches her back as she walks away and he stands there, confused. 

Karina looks for a place where she can be alone for a while and she ends up near the back of one of the buildings. She sits down and though her eyes are burning with tears, she refuses to cry. She doesn’t like it, it makes her weak and vulnerable and that’s not Yoo Karina.

Instead, she tries to calm down, alone and away from anyone that might want to get in her business.

-

Winter tries but she can’t focus in class all day. She has mixed feelings about Karina and what happened last night. It would’ve been a perfect night if she never apologized for a kiss, as if it was the worst thing she could’ve done. It made Winter feel unwanted, unattractive. Is it really that bad to kiss her?

“Karina kissed me last night”, Winter blurts out with a sigh after she and Ningning decide to sit on a bench after class. 

“Wait, what? Wow, this is huge news”, she scoots closer to her best friend with a smile, though it quickly fades as she sees Winter’s expression. She looks anything but happy. 

“Doesn’t matter, she said she shouldn’t have done it and then left. I wanted to slap her so bad, Ning. She made me feel like , the regret in her voice- it, it felt so real”, another sigh leaves her lips and Winter lets her head fall on Ningning’s shoulder.

“Hey, maybe there’s an explanation. Maybe she freaked out, you know? But she’s an either way, Win. She doesn’t deserve you and she’s too stupid to see what a great girl she’s missing on”.

“We slightly bit drunk too, so it makes it worse. I just don’t understand, Ning. Am I that bad? Why does she treat me like she wants me and then just-“. She huffs, defeated. “I don’t understand what goes through her mind, one minute she’s being all nice to me and the next she doesn’t