The guilt only hit him then, when he watched Minhyun’s face fall as manager-noona walked away. How could he have been so selfish? He wasn’t the only one in love; he ruined Minhyun with his selfishness. He also ruined noona’s career. As it all hit him then how much of an impact his plan had on others; he felt himself break down.

JR put his arms around Minhyun’s shoulders, who looked distressed as he watched her go. Aron hugged him from the other side, and Ren from the back. Baekho, on the other hand, excused himself and went into his room. He wanted to hug him. He wanted to give Minhyun comfort, but he felt like a worthless dirty creature that was unworthy of embracing the pure, heartbroken Minhyun.

He lay down on his bed, closing his eyes, trying to block out all the guilt as it came crashing down all at once, and it hurt him so much. So much that he considered doing something stupid like taking a blow dryer with him in the bathtub. But no, he was stronger than that.

Sandy sighed as she read some commentary on the Minhyun scandal online. Another Nu’est scandal. She realized that Nu’est would probably not leave the hotel now that noona was gone, and until the heat from the scandal dies down a little.

Everything was all wrong. She had anticipated these three weeks to be perfect. She anticipated Aron would see her everyday, and she’d see them in concert… but everything is so different than she had expected.

There’s the scandal that happened out of nowhere and then there was Baekho’s unexpected confession.

That confession, it still gnaws at her insides every once in a while. She wasn’t supposed to be bothered by it, but she was. She didn’t really know why either. She said to herself that it’s probably just sympathy and nothing more. He was in love with his best friend’s girlfriend and has been in love for a very long time; that must be hard.

But, the more she thought of it, the more she realized it was more than that.

She scolded herself for thinking like this, but she was attracted to Baekho. He was her first crush in Nu’est and the fact she feels like that makes her feel more sorry for Baekho than she would any other boy.

This attraction though, definitely wasn’t close to the attraction she felt for Aron. She was in love with Aron, but simply attracted to Baekho.

Sometimes she’d ask herself what would have happened if Baekho had confessed earlier, before Aron. Would that have made a difference? It probably would have. She would have probably given in. Aron would not have confessed, and everything would have been different.

She shook her head violently, trying to get such thoughts out of her head. It was too late now. Nothing can be done.

She wanted to talk to Aron. It’s been two days already, and she hadn’t even heard his voice. She took out her phone and realized then that she only had noona’s number, and noona’s probably not there anymore. She sighed and decided to wait until he’d call her.

Another day passed, and he hadn’t called. That day, a press conference was held in Korea, and Pledisboss made it clear that noona had been fired and that Nu’est’s activities will resume as planned.

The next day, she waited, and he still hadn’t called. That’s one week of the three that Nu’est would be in the states, and Sandy had only seen Aron twice. Maybe Aron lost my number? she thought. And maybe their new manager won’t let him see me?

She decided it best to go to the hotel and talk to him herself. When she arrived at the hotel she knew they were staying at, she approached the front desk.

“I am a visitor. I want to visit someone by the name of Aron Kwak,” she said, hoping that the man would direct her to his room.

“I’m sorry, but fans are not allowed as visitors. Please leave.”

“But I’m not a fan,” she said and she realized how hopeless she sounded. After the employee glared at her with disapproval, she sighed and left the hotel, sitting on the pavement. She decided she was going to wait, as long as it takes, until she sees him.

She waited nearly three hours until she saw JR and Ren in the lobby. She quickly went inside, sneaking past the security guard and JR and Ren looked surprised to see her. They greeted her with a weak smile and a bow.

“Where’s Aron?” she asked.

JR looked towards the elevators and then took her arm, saying something to Ren in Korean and then he dragged her with him towards a hallway that came from the hotel’s lobby.

“Stay here,” he said to her, “I will tell Aron, and he will come,” he struggled with the English. “Manager-hyung can not see you,” he finally explained, and she nodded in understanding.

JR then went up to the rooms and knocked on Aron’s. “Aron, get your out here right now! Now is your chance!”

“What chance?” Aron asked as he opened the door.

JR looked over Aron’s shoulder and noticed that manager-hyung was in the room.

JR hesitated to give an answer as he saw hyung’s eyes curiously wander over to him. He’d be furious to know that Sandy, the ‘scandal-magnet’ as he calls her, was there. Aron had taken a chance the other day and told him that he wanted to see her, and hyung was furious. He confiscated Aron’s phone and computer, cutting off all possibility for Aron to contact her.

“Umm,” JR said, feeling pressured, “Ren wants to talk to you in the lobby.” With that JR walked away, hoping Aron would follow and he did. Aron closed the door behind him and followed JR. When they were in the hallway, JR turned to Aron and said: “Sandy’s in the lobby.”

“Really?” Aron said with elation.

“Go see her quickly. Get her number again. I’ll cover for you.”

“JR, you’re the best,” Aron said as he rushed toward the elevator. He saw Ren in the lobby casually sitting on one of the sofas.

“Over there, in that hallway hyung,” Ren said, winking at Aron and pointing toward a hallway in the far end of the lobby.

When he finally saw Sandy after nearly four days, he pulled her into a tight hug and kissed her lips. “I miss you,” he said to her. He decided to forget about the fact she lied. He didn’t have much time with her, and he wasn’t going to use that time making her feel guilty about the lie. For Aron, the lie was forgotten.

“I miss you too,” she said, burying her face in his chest.

“I’m so sorry. I lost your number and then manger-hyung wouldn’t let me see you,” he explained. “He confiscated my computer and my phone.”

“Here,” she said, giving him her own phone. “I’ll call you on this number from my mother’s phone. If you get any other call, ignore it.”

Aron took the phone and put it in his pocket and then looked silently pensive for a while before saying, “I have an idea. We’re five members, so we rented three two-bed rooms. I can give your name to the room with the empty space, and so you’ll be a guest at this hotel. This would authorize you staying there and you can visit whenever you want. Manager-hyung doesn’t visit us inside our rooms, and so you’ll be hidden there. We’ll distract hyung when you want to go and when you want to come so he’ll never know. Basically I’ll spend my time with you in the hotel rooms.”

“It’s a shame we can’t go on normal dates,” she pouted cutely and Aron ruffled her hair. “I really wanted to be alone with you at times. If I stay in the room, we’ll be around the rest of Nu’est…”

Her words struck him hard as he recalled the reason she had lied to him in the first place. She lied so that he’d fight with Nu’est, so that he would spend more time with her. Aron didn’t like the way she was thinking and so suppressed a frown and responded, “I liked being around them though. You should too.”

“You know I like being around them Aron. I love them all, but sometimes it’s necessary to be alone with your partner, and sometimes it’s necessary to exclude your friends.”

“Sandy, please stop getting bitter about this. I really don’t like the way you’re acting recently. Just accept that they’re a huge part of my life and they always will be around me. I share everything with them.”

“Even me?” Sandy snapped angrily. “Aron, you can’t share me with them.”

“I know that. But if you can’t accept that they will be just as big a part of my life as you are, then let’s just stop this relationship right now,” Aron said to her firmly.

Sandy looked to the ground in shame, “okay, I understand. I’m sorry for being a selfish . But really Aron, nowadays, it’s not them. I don’t feel comfortable around one particular member of Nu’est, so I’m not sure how I feel about being around you when he’s around.”

Aron eyed Sandy gravely. There it was: the lie. There she was accusing one of them. He thought that he’d forgive her, and that she wouldn’t dare lie again, but here she was looking him in the eyes and lying to his face. “You’ve changed a lot since I met you in Korea,” he stated.

“What?”

“Sandy, I hate that you’re lying to me.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Are you still denying it?”

“Denying what? That I lied about something? I’ve never lied to you in my life,” she said with wide eyes as she stared at Aron that looked so disappointed.

Just then, Baekho appeared, lightly panting. He saw Sandy and Aron talking. He bowed to Sandy slightly and the turned to Aron, “manager-hyung is looking for you. I think he suspects something.” Baekho looked anxious and scared as he looked up at Aron.

Aron nodded, “there will be no need to suspect anything anymore.” He turned to Sandy and kissed her forehead, “it was nice while it lasted,” he said, “but you’ve changed too much and I don’t like it anymore. I’m breaking up with you.”

Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped slightly. Her eyes became moist as she looked up at Aron, hoping this would be come kind of lame joke, but he just caressed her face and walked away, leaving Sandy staggered.

She dropped to her knees and began to cry as she watched Aron walk away. She didn’t know why he broke up. She didn’t know what she had done. She had never lied to him. She wanted to hurry behind him and ask him why, but she was too much in shock to think rationally.

There she collapsed, broken and dejected, and Baekho was the only one there to comfort her.

-

Sorry for the late update again. I am really, really, really pressured this semester. I’m not sure I’ll survive. >.<

Please bear with me even though I’ll update less often. Please LO/\Es? I love you <3