"Unnie!"

"Yah! Lindi-ah!"

"Lindi, wake up!"

Waking up with a headache isn't the most comforting thing in the world. The only thing going through my mind at this very second is why the room seemed different. The ceiling of the SM dance studio looked different. Instead of the familiar graffiti that I had grown to know after three years was gone, replaced by a white ceiling with pale yellow paper lanterns. The spherical light fixtures were strung above my head.

For some reason, that was the first thing I saw.

The four strange faces surrounding me completely escaped my focus.

"Babe, can you hear me?"

I blinked a few times to see who just called be "babe." I'd never been called that before, so my reaction probably wasn't what they had expected.

"Excuse me?!" I shot up.

Oh.

Bad idea.

A full dose of vertigo made it's way to the front of my head.

The four strangers rushed elsewhere. One by one, they came back with a different kind of remedy.

Two of the faces were young girls. Judging by what they had called me, one was older than me and the other younger.

The first came back with a pillow. She placed it behind my back. Her eyebrows scrunched together. "Unnie, I swear, you have the luck of Onew Oppa sometimes."

Onew Oppa?

"Who are you?"

My voice seemed different. More fluid, I think. I coughed.

"Odd."

Even as I said such insignificant words such as that, my voice sounded like a marble rolling on the floor, smooth.

"Unnie!" The young girl's already large eyes became noticeably larger. "How could you forget me!! I'm your dongsaeng! Young-ju!"

I sighed.

Lie, Lindi Shen, Lie.

"Sorry, Young-Ju. I hit my head pretty hard..." I sat up with little difficulty. "What happened?"

"You tried one move.. I forgot what it was called, but you slipped and hit your head." Young-Ju motioned over to a table that must have been the cause of my injury. "Hana Unnie found you soon after."

"Hana Unnie?"

I assumed that this Hana that Young-ju spoke of was the older girl.

Just as we spoke of her, Hana walked in with an ice pack. I flinched as she placed it on my forehead.

"You okay, dongsaeng?"

"Neh." I nodded. "Thanks, Unnie."

"No problem." She flashed me an eye smile.

Immediately after she left me to hold the pack on my own and the ice had gotten to my headache, I remembered something.

"Who called me 'babe'?" I asked.

Hana raised her left eyebrow. "Did you forget your Oppa already? You must have hit your head really hard to forget him...”

“Oppa? Onew Oppa?”

Am I dating Onew? Omo! There must be some mistake! Am I dreaming? Such a thing could not occur in this reality even if it has been in my dreams!

Unnie furrowed her eyebrows. “Onew? Unnie, you might not want to say that in front of Jonghyun.”

“Huh?!” I practically shrieked.

“Um, yeah?” She nodded. “As far as I know, you haven’t called Onew ‘Oppa’ since your trainee days.”

“What is going on!” I screamed.

Low and behold, the two other strangers weren’t strangers at all.

One was Jonghyun and the other was Onew.

Although… Jonghyun looked different. The blond lowlights I had grown so fond of were gone, replaced by his natural brown color.

I blinked.

“Lindi!” Jonghyun sprinted to my side and pulled me into his arms.

I didn’t remember him being this touchy… What exactly did I miss?

“Are you okay? How’s your head?” He asked while piercing me with sincere eyes.

I nodded. “I’m fine.”

He smiled.

Before I even had a moment to ask what I had done to fall, I felt Jonghyun’s warm breath on my cheek with his lips pressed to mine.

I tensed. My eyes closed in an instant.

What's... happening...

I opened one eye as Jonghyun pulled away. He my cheek softly. His skin was warm. I lifted the left corner of my cheek and placed my hand atop his as if I knew what was going on.

“I’m fine.” I said once more.

Just passed Jonghyun’s head, I saw something I didn’t expect to see.

Onew just had his back up against the wall behind Jonghyun, glaring. If I hadn’t have looked, I would have completely forgotten that he was even there at all. With his arms folded across his chest and a burning stare in his eyes, he just stood there, motionless.

“Oppa, what’s wrong?” I suddenly asked.

“Nothing.” Jonghyun answered.

“No, no, no.” I shook my head. “Onew. Onew Oppa, what’s wrong?”

Onew’s and Jonghyun’s eyes flickered towards me. The two both seemed to mentally ask the same thing, why I called Onew ‘Oppa.’

I nodded to Onew. “…Oppa?”

I waited for his reaction.

His stance softened. “I’m alright. Just tired.” His voice was coarse. He avoided eye contact with me.

Jonghyun slipped his arm around my waist. He rested his hand on my hip.

“Why won’t you look at me?” I found myself asking harshly.

The rest of the room was quiet.

Onew tensed. It seemed as if he didn’t expect that question as well.

“Oppa?” I felt myself shake.

What’s going on? Why was Onew acting like this?

“Unnie, you should really get some rest….” Young-ju cut in.

I bit my lip.

Onew still avoided my question. This was enough to make me feel like crying.

A girl’s worst nightmare is to be ignored by someone she cares about—or worse, someone she thought cared about her.