As the door to Mr. Han's office closed with a click of the latch, Miyoung let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. She finally looked up at Minhwan, but he had turned to walk away.

"Thank you," she called out to him, and he paused.

Minhwan was quiet for a moment before turning to face her. "I wasn't going to rat you out," he said, "I may be strict on you sometimes, but I wouldn't have told him."

"I meant, thank you for changing your mind," she explained, somewhat to Minhwan's surprise, "And I'm sorry. I didn't know you had asked to not be my partner anymore."

"Sorry? For what?" Minhwan questioned as he raised an eyebrow, genuinely curious as to what her answer would be.

Miyoung thought for a moment, "For being difficult... And for not listening to you from the start."

That wasn't the answer Minhwan wanted to hear. If she only felt sorry now that he had almost given up on her, she obviously hadn't learned anything at all.

"If you knew you were being difficult, why did you act that way?" he pressed, "It doesn't seem very sincere to apologize only now that you've been called out for it."

Her eyes fell to the floor. "I know," she said simply, "I'm sorry it took me so long to realize that. I didn't realize how much I was taking you for granted. It might not mean much, but I'm going to practice really hard for this showcase. I know I can do it; if you believed in me for this long...I just know I can."

"So you're saying that you can't even give me one good reason why you've been so irresponsible?" he asked.

Miyoung bit her lip, her hands fidgeting anxiously by her side. Finally, she shook her head, her expression veiled with shame. "No," she replied reluctantly.

That was the answer Minhwan had been waiting for. He didn't want her to resort to excuses like she usually did; he didn't want her to try and gain pity by saying she was having a hard time; he didn't want her to put the blame on anyone other than herself. "Good," he nodded, smiling ever so slightly.

She looked up at him in surprise, having expected him to get angry.

"So I expect you to be ready for the onstage practice tomorrow, alright?" said Minhwan, and he suddenly found Miyoung hugging him tightly.

"Ne, sunbaenim! I won't let you down this time!" she happily exclaimed as Minhwan scratched the back of his neck bashfully. He quickly pushed her back to arms-distance, smoothing out both his shirt and his composure when he heard Jonghun and Haeyoung walking down the corridor.

"So I'll see you at the dry rehearsals, then?" Haeyoung confirmed, and Jonghun nodded. Haeyoung was still going ahead with the piano composition, much to Jonghun's delight. After running into Yonghwa, he had been worried that Haeyoung might have been changing her mind. He was eased only by the fact that she had rarely brought up the topic of guitar again after that.

"Careful out there, it's really slippery with all this ice lately," she advised.

Jonghun chuckled; he was just about to say the same thing, but she had beaten him to it. "You don't have to worry about me, noona," he assured her.

"Is your manager picking you up today? Tell him to drive carefully," she added.

"Um, ne," he scratched the back of his head as he looked over at Minhwan, "I will."

Jonghun simply wasn't used to being taken care of. He was usually the older one, the one that was thoughtful and the one that was there for people to depend on. He didn't want Haeyoung to just see him as