The next 2 weeks passed by pretty slow. Dae and Ha-Neul had not seen much of Eunmi or Miyoung since they spent most of their time in practice rooms with the guys. Even Dae and Ha-Neul were shocked about the inspection and they promised to provide all the support their friends needed. Dae even persuaded Eunhyuk to help them train.

That day, Dae and Ha-Neul both had their classes canceled so they spent the whole day shopping. They were walking back to the car when someone bumped into Ha0Neul, causing her to drop her frozen yogurt.

“What the hell!” She looked up and was surprised at who it was. “Minwoo? What are you doing here! Aren’t you supposed to be at practice?”

“I was, but the others sent me to go get them lunch.”

“Aww, bullying the maknae?” Ha-Neul was pinching his cheeks as if he were a little boy.

“Ha-Neul, you’re lucky you’re a cutie. I don’t let people touch me, and if it were anyone else, I’d probably be punching their face into the wall.

“Wow, no wonder you don’t have a girlfriend. Your pick-up lines !”

“Whatever. I gotta go.”

“Oh wait, when you see Miyoung can you tell her that she left her jacket at our place. I was gonna drop it off but nobody was home.”

“Yeah, I’ll tell her…but only if you go on a date with me…next Friday?”

“Hell No!”

“Aww, come on. I know you secretly want to”

“Umm…okay. Who told you that lie.” She laughed teasingly and continued to walk towards the car, pulling Dae along with her.

Minwoo was left standing in the middle of the street alone, watching them walk further and further away from him. “Is that a no?”

The girls were half way home when Dae noticed that Ha-Neul was being exceptionally quiet as she stared out the window.

“So that was Minwoo?”

“Huh”, Ha-Neul finally broke from her silence. “Yeah, he’s okay I guess, but sometimes he can be a legit .”

“Yeah, I can tell….” Ha-Neul was still looking outside the window, not even turning her head for a second. “Hey, is something wrong? You seem…distracted”

“No. Just thinking.”

“About? Is it Ryeowook?”

Ha-Neul shook her head. “Ani, I was just thinking…in 3 weeks it’s winter break.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“That means that I would have to go back home for the whole break. That’s like 2-3 weeks.”

“Oh…is it really that bad?”

Ha-Neul didn’t answer.

“Why don’t you just stay here for the break? You’d have the entire apartment to yourself.”

“Ha! Have you met my family? I have no choice!”

“Why not?” Dae stopped the car in the parking lot and face Ha-Neul.

“Me and my parents made a deal my freshman year. They said that if I go to this college then I’d have to get the grades and I’d have to come home whenever they want me. If not then I have to go back home for good and follow in the footsteps of my sister.”

“Really?”

“Yes. And to make matters even worse, since I didn’t go through with the plan my parents had set up for me, they’ve been treating me like crap…”

“So that’s why you never want to go home…” All of a sudden, Dae felt like she was meeting her roommate for the first time. She had no idea Ha-Neul was been keeping this from her. Ha-Neul usually avoided any questions about her family and eventually, Dae just stopped asking.

“They’re so disappointed in me. I can’t even look at them in the face without feeling like I’ve let them down.”

“Okay, now I really don’t want you to go home. I mean, if it’s gonna be that hard for you.”

“Hard doesn’t even begin to describe it. Life at home is a living hell!”

“Calm down. Look, as soon as you’re done with college, you’re free. And then you and I can buy that apartment we promised to share. And then we’ll do everything together, like going on shopping sprees and vacations, maybe even a few concerts. And we’re going to live happily ever after with our hot husbands…And if you’re willing to wait, you’re family will accept you. They’re not going to shut you out, it may be tough now, but it’s gonna get better.”

“But..”

“No buts. And if anything goes wrong