Bom starred at the huge mess in front of her. This just couldn't be happening right now. On one side there was her best friend holding his hand to his face and the rival schools bad boy angrily towering over him.

What Seungho had done to Bom was drag her back to school. The lunch bell had just rung on their arrival. He walked up to students asking where to find Park Jungjin. But, Jungjin had instead found them.

"Bom, is that you?" Jungjin ran up to them. Upon seeing Seungho holding Bom's hand, Jungjin became defensive. "What's he doing here?"

Bom was just about to answer when Seungho cut her off. "You and I need to ing talk."

Jungjin glared at Seungho. He chose to ignore him and continued to talk to Bom. "Are you alright? Raemi told me that you suddenly left school and I--"

"Stop talking to her Park Jungjin!"

His patience slowly decreasing, Jungjin turned to face Seungho. "What the hell do you want Cho Seungho?"

"You know what's pretty sad? That I have to tell you what's wrong with your best friend. Open your eyes, figure out what's wrong! I hate seeing Bom cry. I can't ing stand it! But, you ing can! I don't know if you can tell, but the last time I saw her I knew there was something bothering her. Today proved that. Seeing Bom a wreck proved everything." Seungho inched closer to Jungjin's face. "Her smile isn't so real anymore. Doesn't it bother you at all?"

"Are you questioning my friendship with Bom?" asked Jungjin. "I've known Bom longer than you have, who are you to suspect our friendship?" Jungjin forcefully shoved Seungho. "It's none of your ing business!"

“It is my ing business when someone I care about is hurting!”

Then the loud sound of a punch being thrown was made. Bom cringed. Jungjin had punched Seungho. She watched Seungho shake it off, then as sudden as Jungjin came Seungho threw one at Jungjin. He toppled to the ground and a full fight erupted. Jungjin and Seungho continued to hit each other. In shock, Bom stood still. A small crowd began to gather.

“Jungjin!”

Bom found Raemi running towards them. She gave a quick look at Bom, as if to say ‘Look what you’ve done .’ Raemi took hold of Jungjin and began pulling him out of Seungho’s grip. “Jungjin get up! Stop this right now!”

Seeing this Bom rushed to Seungho’s side. She helped him up. “Are you okay?” whispered Bom. 

Seungho nodded. He was bleeding from his lip and a purpleish blue bruise began to form under his left eye.

“What the is going on Lee Bom? You left school for this ?” yelled Raemi. 

“ off !” retaliated Seungho.

“Why you ing…” Jungjin freed himself from Raemi’s grip and came charging towards Seungho with his fist up.

Quickly, Bom stood between them with her eyes tightly shut, waiting for Jungjin to hit her. 

“Bom…”

Bom slowly opened her eyes and found Jungjin standing before her, his fist slowly going down. At this point Bom’s face was stone hard. She had enough. She turned to Seungho, walked towards him, and grabbed his hand. She whispered to him. “Let’s go.” 

“Bom!”

She turned around. Jungjin was still watching with worried eyes. 

“We’ll talk later.” answered Bom.

Jungjin nodded, turned, and walked towards Raemi. Bom caught Raemi’s eye and smiled. She held up her middle finger at her and mouthed the words ‘ you’. She turned back around and they started their walk out of the school. 

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Bom brought Seungho to her home. She was an only child and together with her parents they lived in a penthouse in the apartments in Seoul. Her parents were both in the medical field, the typical Asian parents. Her father was a surgeon and her mother was a doctor in the oncology department. They were rarely home but Bom kept in close contact and they were very close with each other. At times it was lonely but Jungjin always came over and that made it better. Now, since he had a girlfriend those visits stopped, and it was just Bom again. She had never invited anyone else in her home besides Jungjin. It was time to change that. 

Bom led Seungho inside the penthouse. “I have medicine in the bathroom so sit on the couch and I’ll be right back.”

A few minutes later Bom returned with the medicine in her hands. Seungho was sitting on the couch looking around the room with wide eyes. Bom chuckled. “Are you alright?” 

Seungho nodded. “Yeah, it’s just this place is so big.”

Bom held up the medicine in her hands. “Come on let me see that cut.” She started applying the medicine on his cuts. “Stop flinching, it doesn’t hurt.” She joked. She applied different medication on his bruise to stop the swelling and was done. “There you go, it wasn’t that bad was it?” 

“It hurt a lot” whined Seungho.

“You’re such a baby.” laughed Bom. She stood up and went to put away the medicine. “Do you want anything to eat?” 

“No.” answered Seungho.

Bom returned to the living room. She sat beside Seungho and pulled her knees up to her chest. 

“Are you mad?” asked Seungho.

Bom shook her head. “No I’m not mad.” 

“I’m sorry for fighting with Jungjin. You didn’t look too happy about it.”

“I mean we could have skipped all the violence but I guess that was inevitable there. I could feel the tension radiating from the both of you. I’m sorry for getting you involved. You shouldn’t be in the mess I’m in.” 

“No, I want to be involved. Tell me what happened today. You screaming like that shocked me.” Seungho inched closer and placed his hand on top of hers.

Bom began to tell her story. Bom first told her story about Jungjin and their friendship. Then she talked about Raemi coming along and how everything started falling apart. She explained to him what happened in the morning and the complete meltdown during gym. She explained her own meltdown while walking down the streets of Seoul and she ended her story when Seungho came. 

“Wow I don’t know how you’re so calm about everything.” Seungho played with the tips of her fingers. “Well I’m nothing like you. If my best friend started acting like that I would have kicked his from the beginning. But I’m a bad guy remember? I live for the fighting.”

They laughed. Bom turned to Seungho and rested her head on the couch. “Tell me about you and Raemi.” 

Seungho sighed. “We dated for about three months. She was hot and everybody wanted her. I was just the lucky boy who got her. For all three months we were dating I got crapped on by my whole school. They hated me because I was dating the most popular girl in the rival school. I was just like them she’s hot I’m hot who the cares. Then she got obsessive about where I was what I was doing and who I was with. She wanted all these boyfriend qualities I couldn’t give her. I hated that and I broke up with her. Oh but she got her ing revenge. Those guys you saw chasing after me? Yeah she hired them. That Raemi is one evil .” Seungho looked at her and smiled. “Don’t let her get to you Bom. It’s not worth it. Jungjin just got into her charm. That’s how she is.”

“I’m scared of losing him to her.” Bom said. “I can’t lose him. He’s someone I’ve cared about for so long now it’s too hard to just let go.” 

“Maybe you need some space from him. Maybe you just need a break, to stop worrying about him and to stop thinking about him. You need to focus on you more and your feelings.”

“I don’t think I’m capable of doing that,” replied Bom. “It’s just so impossible.” 

Seungho shook his head. “Nothing is impossible. You’re only making it seem impossible for yourself.”

“Do you think that I really need to have space from him? It sounds a little dramatic for me.” 

“I’ll help you through it. If you need someone to talk to I’ll be there just give me a call.” Seungho reached for the pocket of his black leather jacket. He held out his cell phone for her.

As Bom entered in her number she said, “Well how long should I have this space?” 

“It isn’t about how long it should be. It shouldn’t be set you know? Whenever, you feel comfortable enough to talk to him again.”

Bom laughed. “You sound like such a girl!” 

Seungho grinned. “Thank you, my feminine side just came out like that.”

Bom smiled. She hadn’t had this happy feeling in such a long time. Her honest smile came out when Seungho was around. He made her feel better and forget about her problems in that one moment. It was like Seungho was her Alice and Wonderland’s rabbit hole. A whole new world that Bom didn’t know anything about. It was surprising how courageous she was around him. Seungho trumped Jungjin’s anytime. 

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A few hours later, after a lunch and dinner combined that consisted of ramen and kimchi Bom decided to introduce Seungho to Seohyun and Heyi. She figured it would be a nice walk to the Han River and for Seohyun and Heyi to fall all over themselves over Seungho. She warned Seungho that they were a bit feisty and had very outspoken personalities.

“There they are.” Bom pointed out the girls for Seungho to see.

They arrived at the Han River and the girls were already drinking and smoking away.

Seungho squeezed Bom’s hand. “They look like fun.”

Bom smiled. “Their complete chaos.” They laughed and walked towards Seohyun and Heyi. “Hey guys.”

They looked up and upon seeing Seungho they jumped up and straightened out their skirts. They exchanged greetings, shook hands, and took a seat.

“Would you like a drink?” offered Seohyun.

“Sure.” Seungho accepted the beer and took a sip.

Bom stared at Seungho. She didn’t know he drank. Seungho caught her eyes and smiled. “Don’t worry I can hold my alcohol well.”

“So,” said Heyi. “What brings the both of you down here? It’s usually just Bom.”

Bom turned to Seungho and he nodded. “I’ll explain.”

Seungho began to explain his side of the story. How he had gone to her school and started a fight with Jungjin to going to Bom’s apartment.

“Whoa!” yelled Heyi in excitement. “Bom I didn’t know you had it in you! You dirty girl!”

Bom blushed. “It’s not like that Heyi unnie!”

Seohyun and Heyi doubled over in laughter.

“It’s what they all say!” exclaimed Seohyun as she pointed her beer clumsily at Bom. “Before you know it he’ll be coming over every night baby!”

Bom could feel Seungho inch closer as he wrapped his arms around her waist. He leaned in to whisper into her ear. She felt his smile graze her ear. “You’re right they’re absolute chaos.”

“Look at the two love birds!” Seohyun and Heyi yelled in unison.

They laughed. As they continued on talking, drinking or smoking, and laughing together, Bom took a moment to take the scene in. It was a good moment between the four them. Seohyun and Heyi accepted Seungho, well mainly because Seungho was hot and Bom felt Seungho accept Seohyun and Heyi because they were fun. Friendships needed to work that way. There were no lies between them, no hatred towards each other, no backstabbing. There was just this mutual trust they each felt with one another. That is what true friendship is. Trust.