"Hey, um, it's me, Heejin. So are you going to school tomorrow? You sorta missed out a lot of lessons. Call me when you get back okay?" She sighs and drops her phone. After thirty minutes, she decides to call him again.

"It's me again," she says, and sighs. What's the point anyway? Ever since he passed the auditions, he's been skipping classes, if not, leaving after one class or so, and not coming back. She knows this is his dream, his chance to be someone he wanted to be. But she had this strange feeling that he was drifting away from everything else; studies, friends, maybe her.

"Oh never mind," she says. "Just tell me some things when you get back, okay? I'll be waiting." She puts her phone down again and decides to concentrate on studying, realizing that she shouldn't have said she'd be waiting.

"Hey, let's go, guys!" Yunho called, heading outside the dorm. "We're gonna be late!"

"Last five minutes!" Yoochun said, fixing his hair.

"Come on, hyung," Changmin said, dragging Jaejoong, who was busy dialing something on his phone.

"Wait, wait!" He replied, holding on to his phone. "One last call, I promise. Please."

"It's not like she's going to answer your call at six in the morning." Changmin argues. "She has a life of her own." Before he could even press the "call" button, Changmin has already dragged half of his body outside the room.

"Besides," Changmin adds, "she might think you're some strange stalker. Hah, that's good."

"I texted her it was me." He replied, getting up, fixing his shirt after being dragged across their room.

"Still." 

He shot a glare at Changmin, who was half-smiling. He sighed and said, "Whatever. Let's go."

Maybe Changmin's right, he thought, staring at the phone. I'll just call her soon.

As it turns out, he did come to school. Only to borrow some notes and take up missed tests.

"It's okay, you can borrow mine." She said, handing him some of her notebooks.

"You sure it's okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, I studied last night, so you can borrow them for a while."

He thanks her and puts them carefully in his bag. She doesn't ask him about why he didn't answer any of her calls, and she feels too embarrassed to bring the subject up.

"You look pale. Are you sick?" she asked.

He shakes his head, guilty for some reason. Ever since he started training, he has been working himself out, with almost no time to rest. 

"It's nothing," he replied, looking down. "there's nothing for you to be worried about." He smiled, convincingly.

Even if he was dead tired from his everyday routine, a little smile from her will always keep him determined; that there are people believing in him, that he shouldn't just give up.

But there's something in him that makes him guilty. Something he doesn't want her to know, which seemed unfair.

"So, you're going to practice now?"

"Um, yeah." But the truth is, he wasn't going to practice. Since his family isn't that well-off and since he didn't want to ask any penny from his family, he had to pay for his classes and the apartment rental by taking up different jobs every day. It was a difficult time, balancing work, school and training altogether, and he doesn't know until when can he hold on. But he didn't want to let her know about this; he doesn't want her to feel sorry for him, see her face full of sympathy and all. So he bids her goodbye and goes away.

"Take.. care." She said, hoping he would hear her.

She didn't realize she was about to lose him, but she doesn't panic, let alone feel sad. It was meant to happen anyway. 

During breaks, he would check his phone if there are any messages or missed calls. When he sees there's a new unread message, he goes all excited, but disappointed in the end knowing it's not her. He sighed and as he was about to put his phone back, it vibrates.

One(1) New Text Message from: Son, Heejin.

He presses the "read" button with fast heartbeats.

Hey, sorry for replying so late, I just woke up.

Jaejoong felt a pang of guilt as he continued to read her message, biting his lip out of embarrassment.

Anyway, I'll just call you when I get home from work. Okay with you? :)

A smile was seen on his face as he replies to her and sends the message.

It's okay. Sorry for disturbing you~ ㅠ_ㅠ

He gets up, feeling more determined than ever as he shouts to his groupmates, "Let's practice, guys! Come on!"

"Well isn't Mr. Grumpy happy today," Junsu comments.

The day went bright for him. At least she replied, and that's all that matters to him.

A/N: I'm sorry for not updating this for a long time D: and if this chapter's kind of bland, short, etc., sorry ;~; I went on a writer's block right after my vacation, and I took some of my college entrance tests, so that kind of explains why I was "lost" on things.