"ITS NU'EST! THEY'RE HERE!", yells a girl, and I turn to see several girls running towards us.

I quickly turn and say a brief bye to the boys, and hurry away, though I hear them calling me back.

I run to my class, and seat myself, breathless.

I take out my books and start arranging them on my table, when I hear the chair next to my table being pulled back.

I look up in interest. No one has sat next to me since I made it clear that I didn't need friends.

To my utmost surprise, its Ren, who looks at me and grins.

Aron walks in just then, and spots us. Waving, he takes the seat in front of me.

"Why did you run off so fast?", he asks, poking my cheek.

"I..er..I just remember that I was late.", I mutter, aware of the disbelieving looks being thrown at us.

A tall, pretty girl walks up to us then.

"Why don't you guys come and sit over there?", she asks, pointing at her table,"You don't have to sit with her."

Before Aron can answer, however, Ren stands up, his lips tight, and face cold.

"We want to sit here. She's nice.", he says, and turns and starts talking to Aron.

The girl looks stunned for a minute, and then she looks at me with a nasty face.

Class starts just then, and I thankfully turn my attention towards the teacher.

The rest of the day passes with me trying to avoid NU'EST, since when they even look at me, I get loads of nasty looks. I shudder to think what would happen to me if they TALKED to me.

Besides, I don't need friends, I reminded myself.

I sighed as the last bell rang, and shoved my things into my bag.

I hurried out the school gates, and started to walk home when I heard someone calling me.

I turned around, to see Aron. He quickly ran over when he saw that he had caught my attention.

"Hey, Krystal, do you want to come over?", he asks me in English, panting.

"You mean, to your dorms?",I ask, confused.

"Yeah! It'll be fun!", he smiles.

"Um, sorry, but I have work", I say. I DID have work, it was Minho's birthday.

"Then tomorrow?", he asks, his face hopeful.

"Sorry, but I'm really busy for the rest of the month", I lied.

"Oh, okay.", he says, looking crestfallen.

As I watched him walk away, a pang of lonliness hit me.

It hurt so bad that I almost ran after him and said that I would go to their place.

But I internally scolded myself, and continued walking home.

Once I got home, I took a quick shower, and wrapped Minho's gift, and helped Rose and Lily make the cake.

"Where's dad?", asks Ramona, coming in, holding balloons.

Dad. I pushed down the envy that threatned to come show it self on my face.

"He'll be home soon.", answered Rose, carefully piping a birthday message onto the cake.

James opened the door just then, and both Lily and Ramona shrieked and hugged him.

I muttered something about checking Minho's gift, and ran upstairs, before actual tears could spill over.

I sat on my bed for a while, until I heard Minho's voice downstairs.

Running down, I jump straight on him.

"YAH! Where were you?", I yell.

"S.M.Entertainment, he replies calmly, ruffling my hair.

"What were you doing there?", I ask, staring at him.

"You're looking at SHINee's new rapper.", he grins.

(Note: Let's just pretend that Minho joined AFTER NU'EST had debuted, okay?)

"You..you joined them?", whispers Marcela, dropping her slice of pizza.

"Yep!", he says, his smile so wide his face might break.

"I'm so happy and proud of you!", I say, forcing the tears to stay down.

"Yeah, I'll be leaving tomorrow. I know this is sudden, but...I want this.", he says, looking at all of us.

"And that's why you'll see me at every concert of yours, screaming so loudly you'll be embarrassed. I can't wait to see up there!", I laugh, jumping back onto him.

I look warningly at James, who had opened his mouth to say something, but after one glare from me, he closed it, and turned his attention to the cake.

After a few hours of celebrating, I excuse myself, saying that I'm sleepy, so I head up to my room, leaving Amber asleep on Minho's lap.

Throwing myself onto the bed, I sob until my tears are dried out.

Minho would be leaving tomorrow. Leaving me.

Of course I was happy for him, but I felt more lonely than I did when I refused Aron's invitation.

I fell into a dreamless sleep, alone.