Heechul came home drunk around 3am on Sunday morning. Since he was still sleeping when she decided to go out, she left a note on his table telling him where she went. Yejin decided to go there a little earlier to get Baekhyun's cousin a birthday present as well as get Baekhyun a little something with the remaining prize money she had left over as well.

“Yejin?” Yejin stopped and turned towards the voice.

“Minhyun? What are you doing here?” Yejin gaped at him.

“Jonghyun and the rest of us were on our way to the arcade,” Minhyunreplied, equally shocked. “You?”

“I’m shopping. Sort of,” Yejin laughed a little.

“Alone?”

“JR!” Yejin smiled and waved when the other four came back from god knows where.

“Where’s Baekhyun?” He asked, wondering why she came alone when she had someone who’d gladly follow her everywhere.

“His cousin’s birthday is today. I was thinking of getting her something,” she answered.

“Jonghyun has a younger sister, maybe he can help,” Aron suggested, giving JR a knowing look.

“Yeah. He knows what little girls like,” Ren helped out.

“But you guys were supposed to go to the arcade together,” Yejin said unsurely.

“It’s okay. We don’t mind. Just take him,” Baekho shoved JR to her and ran off with the other three.

JR and her exchanged glances and burst out laughing at the same time. “Come on, let the child expert help you out.”

“It’s kinda surprising. An intimidating guy like you actually has a soft spot for his little sister. It’s nice,” Yejin smiled.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” he laughed and led her to the toy store. “How old is she?”

“Turning nine if I remember correctly,” Yejin answered. It was hard to keep her cool at all the toys. She was seventeen but a child at heart.

“Same as my sister.”

“That’s a really big ,” Yejin said in surprise.

“I know,” JR smiled and helped her choose a gift. After getting his cousin’s gift, Yejin went on to buy something for Baekhyun. She wasn’t planning on getting JR to help but he insisted he wanted to. Well, it takes a guy to know a guy, maybe Baekhyun would like what JR suggested. It was nearing 6pm when Yejin concluded her shopping, being a little on the shopaholic side, she bought a few things for herself as well as a belt for JR. To reward JR for his help, she decided to buy them both ice cream. They were just roaming around the mall after finishing their cones when Yejin spotted something unpleasant.

“B- Baekhyun..” Yejin felt her heart wrench at the sight.

“What?” JR followed her gaze. Baekhyun had his arm around Hana's waist while waiting at the entrance of a posh Chinese restaurant. She froze at the sight, every negative thought started flooding her mind. The manager of the restaurant led them towards a middle aged couple. Even when they sat down, they still held hands. JR worriedly looked at her to see if she was okay. He couldn’t tell based on her expression. She just looked dazed. Yejin tore her eyes off them and began walking away.

“Yejin,” JR caught up to her and grabbed her wrist.

“Thanks for helping me today. I gotta go, Heechul’s probably awake by now,” Yejin wriggled her wrist free and ran out to the main road to flag a cab home. Her mind was just racing with different thoughts. It was like she was at war with herself. One side trusted that Baekhyun would never do such a thing and that he must have certain reasons. The other clicked all the puzzle pieces together and insisted that Baekhyun was just like every other jerk of a man out there. The conversation she overheard, the lie he told last night to cancel the date, why Hana was always with him. It all made sense. She didn’t know which to believe, Baekhyun or what her instincts told her.

She got home to see Heechul looking into the kitchen cabinets while clutching his head.

“What are you looking for?” She asked weakly.

“Panadol for my massive headache,” he answered groggily. “Where’d you go?”

“I left a note on the table,” Yejin answered plainly and went to help him look for it. After making sure Heechul was feeling a little better, she brought her bags up to her room and locked herself in her bedroom. Yejin changed into comfortable clothes and crawled into bed. She tried sleeping her problems away but not when JR wouldnt stop calling her. Yejin sighed irritatedly and switched off her phone.

Don't you cry, little weakling. You promised Hyunsoo and Heechul that you'd kill him yourself if he ever cheated on you. How are you going to do that when you're here sobbing like some weak damsel in distress. Yejin, you're stronger than that.

~~

Yejin lifelessly walked towards her locker, reminding herself over a thousand times to act like everything was fine. Even after purposely taking longer than usual in completing her usual locker routine Baekhyun still didn’t show up like he usually did. Yejin figured he wouldn’t even bother anymore. She shut her locker and turned to walk to class.

“Hey Jinnie! Sorry I took so long, woke up a little later today,” Baekhyun showed up in front of her smiling like his usual self. Yejin blankly stared up at him. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Yejin smiled and shook her head. “I’ll be heading to class. No need to walk me.”

Before he had chance to say otherwise, Yejin simply walked past him. Thinking it was just that time of the month, Baekhyun went to look for the others. Yejin sat in a daze while waiting for Minji and Hyosung to show up. When they did, she took a deep breath and waved happily.

“Did you do Bald Jang’s assignment?” She asked.

“Yep! Did you?” Minji put her bag down.

“No..” Yejin smiled sheepishly and held her palm out.

“Fine, fine,” Minji laughed and handed her the completed work.

“I’ll be staying in class to do this, you guys go ahead during break,” she said and kept it in her file. “Oh and—”

“Bring back some food, we know,” Hyosung laughed. “You pig.”

“Aish. I’m not the one who eats chips right after her dinner,” Yejin snickered.

“Shut up. Food and I are inseperable,” Hyosung pouted. Lunch break came and Yejin stayed in class while her classmates happily left the classroom. Truth was, she already did the assignment. Knowing how strict her literature teacher was, it’d be the stupidest thing to not do his homework. Yejin gently set Minji’s homework back onto her desk and went back to her own.

Should I act like nothing happened or should I ask him about it? God, this is so confusing. If what I saw was really the truth, how can he just blatantly act like as if he was innocent? How can he betray me with such a bright smile on his face? What good does he get out of this? Jung Hana's rich, maybe it's for money.

“I knew you’d be sitting here, crying like this,” JR snapped her out of her thoughts. Yejin blinked and touched her wet cheeks. She sighed and used her sleeve to wipe them away. But no matter how many times she wiped her tears, they just kept coming.

“I promised myself I wouldn’t be like this. Especially not in school,” she let out a small chuckle. JR gently cupped one hand on her cheek and wiped her tears with his thumb.

“It's okay to cry, you don't always have to act so strong."

“No it’s not okay. I feel like some ing wimp who only knows how to cry, thinking that will solve everything. But that’s not the case. Crying won't solve anything, yet I’m showing how weak I really am to the world,” no matter how much she tried I build a wall around her ocean of tears, they just kept flowing. JR silently leaned forward and gave her a tender kiss at the corner of her lips. Yejin froze at his action and stared at him in shock.

“What are you doing to her?” Baekhyun hissed from the door. He noticed Yejin wasn’t with Minji and Hyosung and went looking for her.

“Trying to fix the heart that you broke, what else?” JR snapped back. Yejin dried her tears and looked away. “You know what? It was a mistake giving her to you. I thought you’d be better for her. But it’s clear who deserves her more now.”

“What the are you talking about,” Baekhyun stormed over and grabbed him by the collar. “Leave us alone.

“Baekhyun, you leave him alone,” Yejin stated coldly, not moving an inch from her seat.

“Wow. So someone kisses you and you immediately fall in love with him? Nice,” Baekhyun ground his teeth in annoyance and tightened his grip on JR’s collar.

“Don’t you dare say that to me.”

“What the hell happened to you yesterday? I waited over an hour for you and you didn't show. You were with him, weren't you?” Yejin felt her irritation level spike up. Yejin noticed Baekhyun's arm slowly rising to hit him.

"Hit him and we're through," her expression and tone was so cold, it felt as if the temperature in the room dropped.

He froze and let his arms fall limply to the side. Baekhyun slowly turned to meet eyes with her. "You're breaking up with me, over this guy?"

"No. I'm breaking up with you because I've finally saw your true colours. You think I wouldn't find out, did you? You think you could just get away with it? You're wrong, Baekhyun. So very wrong. Go to Hana, because that's where your heart has been the whole time, hasn't it?"

"Hana? No, Yejin, this is a mistake. You're making a big mistake!" Baekhyun ran over to her to stop her from packing her bag.

"Let go. Now."

"No. Yejin, you don't understand. Let me ex—" 

"I don't want to hear it!" She shrieked and jerked her hand free. "Don't bother explaining. From the seccond you decided to cheat, I no longer meant anything to you. Because if I did, you wouldn’t do what you did. I'm done with this game."

Yejin grabbed her bag and shoved past him. Baekhyun panicked and grabbed her shoulder only to have JR step forward and pushed him away from her.

"You no longer deserve to even look at her," JR snarled. Yejin took the chance and ran out of the classroom. The first place she went to was the girl's bathroom. Having the whole school find out what happened between her and Baekhyun was the last thing she wanted. She already has so much drama going on, having more would just drive her insane. 

It hasn't even been that long and we've already fallen apart. Forever? No matter how much I want us to be forever, nothing is forever. There we were talking about forever as if we stood a chance against time. What was I thinking? High school love? That's impractical.