“Really?” DooJoon thought, as he rushed out of the BEAST dorm. “JunHyung, you’re not going to help me?” He shook his head. “I don’t care. I’m going to try anyway.”

Once he reached MAKIKO dorm, he knocked on the door and waited. He heard shuffling coming from inside, and he grinned in victory, knowing that at least someone was home. Finally, someone opened the door. It was RaeIn.

“What are you doing here?” she asked him. She was kind of iffy about DooJoon’s visit because to her knowledge, he had not tried to contact her at all since her birthday.

“You’ll let me inside right?” DooJoon asked, ignoring her first question.

“And why would I do that?”

“Because we have stuff that we need to talk about.” RaeIn attempted to close the door in DooJoon’s face, but of course he attempted to stop the door from closing by sticking his hand in between the door and the frame. Why he didn’t use his foot instead, we will never know. “Ouch,” DooJoon yelled, pulling his hand back, wincing as he shook it. After a mini-examination of it, he noticed a small cut. He stuck his hand out in front of RaeIn’s face. “I’m injured.”

RaeIn sighed. “Okay, come in.” She held the door open for DooJoon to walk inside. DooJoon gladly took advantage of the opportunity and scurried inside with a triumphantly smug smirk on his face. “Sit,” RaeIn commanded, gesturing to the couch as she went to the bathroom to grab a First Aid kit. She returned to the couch and opened up the kit, laying out bandages, cotton balls and its other contents out on the table in front of them.

“All right,” RaeIn said as she picked up DooJoon’s hand to look for the cut. “What did you want to talk about?”

“I’m sorry.” RaeIn looked up and briefly made eye-contact with DooJoon. Then she returned to her initial goal in locating DooJoon’s “injury.” Realizing she had the wrong hand, she quickly grabbed his other one.

“It took you long enough to talk to me,” RaeIn stated as she began to inspect this hand.

“I’m sorry for that, too.”

“Why didn’t you see me on my birthday?” RaeIn interrogated. Of course, she already knew what happened, but she wanted to hear what DooJoon had to say.

“I don’t want to lie to you,” DooJoon started.

“Lying to me should not even be an option,” RaeIn commented, grabbing a cotton ball from the table.

“Exactly, and that’s why I’m going to tell you all about my stupidity.”

“Yes, please do tell me of your stupidity,” RaeIn said, wetting the cotton ball with antiseptic. She glanced up at him. “So?”

DooJoon took a deep breath. “On the day of your birthday party, I was at the High Kick cast party.”

“So far so good,” RaeIn thought. She couldn’t help but feel her heart soften just a little bit because he told her the truth. But she couldn’t just stop there; she couldn’t let DooJoon off too easily. “Why were you there?” She wanted to be mean by continuing her interrogation, but to be fair she gently grabbed his hand and tenderly dabbed at his cut with the cotton ball.

“My friend invited me,” DooJoon continued.

“Isn’t KiKwang your only friend in the High Kick cast?” RaeIn asked, continuing to dab at his cut. “Because he was at my party first,” RaeIn continued. She had to admit, she was kind of enjoying seeing DooJoon squirm at her words. As much as she wanted to smile, she knew she had to hold it in for now.

“No, he’s not,” DooJoon replied, continuing his golden streak of truths.

“Oh, I see,” RaeIn said. “So was this friend a boy or a girl?”

At this point DooJoon was freaking out. RaeIn’s face was completely serious, and the questions just kept coming! As much as DooJoon tried, he could not read her at all. Yes, she was treating his cut – that had to mean something good right? But DooJoon still could not tell: was she still mad at him? Was she going to forgive him? But why wouldn’t she forgive him? Then again, he had gone to the party with Shin SeKyung. What would she say if he told her that? “But I could never lie to her,” DooJoon thought. And so out loud he answered: “…boy.”

DooJoon mentally slapped himself, knowing very well that he deserved it. It was too much of a risk to say that he was with SeKyung. Even though RaeIn had never shown signs of jealousy before, he knew how girls could get. Exhibit A: Jang KaHee. Everyone was all too aware of how the wrath of KaHee could be unleashed if any girl tried to get near KiKwang. Since RaeIn and KaHee spent a lot of time together, who knew if RaeIn would pick that trait up as well? With that reasoning, DooJoon figured he didn’t regret his answer.

“Oh, ho, ho,” RaeIn laughed sarcastically, bringing DooJoon back to reality. “I can not believe you just lied to my face.” RaeIn pressed the cotton ball, still wet with alcohol, roughly on DooJoon’s cut causing him to pull his hand back and flinch from the stinging sensation. She stood up, which had her towering over DooJoon despite her height.

“Wh-what?” DooJoon stuttered, unsure of what was happening.

“KaHee and KiKwang told me you went to the High Kick party with Shin SeKyung,” RaeIn said, her hands on her hips. “They said that you were her ‘date.’ I can’t believe you. You lied to me! And to think that I even said that I love… ugh!” RaeIn threw her hands up in frustration. DooJoon stood up also now, and he grabbed her wrists to try to calm her down.

“I-I don’t know what I was thinking—“

“Exactly! What are you thinking? Why did you say that your friend was a boy? You had to hide the truth, and that just makes this whole thing all the more suspicious.” RaeIn broke loose from DooJoon’s grip, turned him around and started to push him towards the door. When she was about to kick him out of the dorm, he turned to face her again.

“Wait! RaeIn, I’m really sorry. I don’t even know why I said that. That was the only thing I lied about, you know that,” DooJoon pleaded. “You’ll forgive me, right?”

“I don’t want to see you right now,” RaeIn said, ignoring his comments. “It’s me, DooJoon. You should’ve known that of all people, you could at least tell me the truth. If you just told me the truth, everything would be okay.”

“Would it really?” DooJoon retaliated. “If I told you I went somewhere with my friend who happened to be a girl, would it really turn out better than saying I went somewhere with a friend who was a guy? You would have gotten mad at me regardless.”

“Yeah, because other than that I have no reason to be mad at you, right?” RaeIn retorted, referencing her birthday party. “Just give me time to myself to think, and if I forgive you, I forgive you okay?”

“And if you don’t forgive me?”

“Then I guess I don’t forgive you. I just… don’t feel like talking to you right now, or for a while.” RaeIn attempted to close the door on DooJoon, but he interrupted again, this time using his foot to stop the door from closing.

“You’re not going to avoid me now, are you?”

“Maybe.”

“We’re in the same company.”

“We’re not the only ones in the company.”

“Don’t forget KaHee’s birthday is coming up in a couple weeks. We’re gonna have to talk at least by then. You can’t avoid me forever.”

“Oh, I’m so glad to hear that you’ll be at KaHee’s birthday party. If only my birthday party was just as important. If only my party could have had the same pleasure to be graced by your presence.” RaeIn coated every word in sarcasm before successfully closing the door on DooJoon’s face.

——-

She had switched her phone on vibrate because MAKIKO and manager SaRang were having lunch together at a Korean BBQ restaurant down the street from their dorm. That’s why when RaeIn received the first phone call, she disregarded it. After taking a bite of kimchi, she checked her missed calls list and found that it had been from JiYong.

“That’s odd, I wonder why he was calling me,” RaeIn thought.

“Who was it, Unni?” KaHee asked, stuffing a bunch of bulgogi and kimchi into as well.

“JiYong,” RaeIn replied. Suddenly, her phone started vibrating again.

“Maybe you should take that,” SaRang suggested. “JiYong doesn’t usually call you, right? It seems urgent.” RaeIn nodded and excused herself, answering the phone as she exited the restaurant. They were all wearing disguises so she wasn’t too worried about being noticed.

“Yeoboseyo, JiYong-oppa?” RaeIn answered.

“Ah! RaeIn-ah! I’m glad you answered!” JiYong’s voice was frazzled, and he seemed stressed. He also sounded very busy, as there was a lot of noise in the background.

“What’s wrong?” RaeIn asked.

“There’s too much going on,” JiYong said on the other line, though it wasn’t directed at RaeIn. “Could you talk to RaeIn-ah first? I have to take care of this.” The voice on the other line declined, however JiYong insisted. RaeIn heard another voice telling JiYong to give them the phone, and soon the phone was passed onto JiYong’s companion.

“Ah… RaeIn,” the voice said, sounding just as tired and stressed as JiYong.

“Oh… YoSeob, what’s going on?” RaeIn asked hesitantly, immediately recognizing the voice.

“We had a little accident… got into a little trouble… with the car… And DooJoon…” YoSeob said. The line was breaking up a bit, and all RaeIn could really pick up were the words “accident,” “car” and “DooJoon,” which made her start to worry. It had been almost a week since she turned DooJoon away, and he had been giving her space, just as she wanted. However, that didn’t mean that she wasn’t allowed to worry at a time like this.

“What happened with DooJoon? Where are you guys?” RaeIn quickly asked.

“We’re in front of the dorm…”

“Got it, I’ll be there soon,” RaeIn said, hanging up the phone before running towards the BEAST dorm.

Once RaeIn reached the dorm, she found JiYong pacing the front, talking on his cellphone feverishly. He didn’t even notice her arrive. YoSeob was standing next to the wall, hovering over his companion. DooJoon was slumped over next to the wall, leaning his head for support. His eyes were closed. She rushed towards the two as soon as she spotted them.

“What happened with the car?” RaeIn asked YoSeob, kneeling down next to DooJoon. “DooJoon…” she trailed off as she looked down onto his face.

“The car?” YoSeob repeated. “The car is fine. What are you talking about?”

“You said there was an accident,” RaeIn said looking up towards YoSeob, though still staying by DooJoon’s side.

“Oh, I didn’t mean a car accident. I must’ve said it wrong,” YoSeob said, laughing nervously with one arm behind his head.

“So no one was hurt? You mentioned DooJoon on the phone…” She looked down at DooJoon’s face again. His eyes were open now, looking back up at her. She blushed.

“I’m not hurt,” he said.

“DooJoon-hyung locked the keys inside the car, so now we can’t get into our dorm,” YoSeob explained. RaeIn could feel her blush deepen from embarrassment.

“Ah, I see. So everyone’s okay…” RaeIn stood up and backed away, hoping that YoSeob and DooJoon wouldn’t notice the heat in her face.

“Wait,” DooJoon said, getting up as well. “Don’t tell me… you were worried about me.” He smirked a little bit, in an annoying, teasing way.

“I was worried about all of you, not just you,” RaeIn said, her face hot as ever. She could not even fathom how she looked like at that moment.

“You thought I was in an accident,” DooJoon thought out loud as the idea dawned upon him. “You were worried about me~”

“Yah~” RaeIn shouted. “Yoon DooJoon, I was not worried about you! Pabo!” RaeIn quickly about-faced and left to go back to the restaurant. She did not think to tell her companions that she was leaving, since she thought that JiYong, YoSeob and DooJoon had a real emergency.

DooJoon chuckled to himself as she walked away. YoSeob looked at him confused.

“You’re not going to follow her?” he asked his hyung.

“Nope,” DooJoon said. “I’m satisfied already.”

“Why is that?”

“Now I’m positive that she still cares about me.”

“Ah, I guess,” YoSeob said, still confused.

“Yoon DooJoon,” DooJoon repeated his name in his head. “RaeIn-ah, don’t you know how hard it is for me to not talk to you, to not see you? But I have to hold myself back because you want your space. But how is it that as soon as you call me by my birth name everything gets better?”

“DooJoon,” JiYong said, interrupting DooJoon’s thoughts. “RaeIn left already? I thought she was going to help us get back into the dorm?”

“Ah, see you should’ve followed after her,” YoSeob said, poking the leader’s cheek.

“Yah,” DooJoon said annoyed, rubbing his cheek. “You didn’t follow her either!”

——

“Sorry for taking so long,” RaeIn said as she sat back down in her seat, her face still a bit flushed.

“We were wondering what happened to you,” SaRang said. “What happened?”

“Nothing really,” RaeIn muttered.

“Well, we’re done eating now. We just paid for our check. We weren’t sure if you were coming back, sorry.”

“That’s fine, I’m not hungry anymore anyway,” RaeIn answered, though she was still a bit hungry especially after running all that way. Suddenly her phone vibrated again. She felt heat rush to her face as she remembered what just happened, and she hoped that whoever was texting her was not JiYong or Yoseob and most of all, not DooJoon.

And it wasn’t. Instead, she had received a text from JunHyung.

RaeIn-ah, are you free right now?