SoKyung walked into the kitchen with HanMi cradled in her arms. She flashed a quick and tired smile to Hana before going over to the fridge in search of something eat.

            “So?” Hana called from their tiny table in the cramped kitchen, using SoKyung’s nickname, which was a sure sign that something was wrong.

            SoKyung let out a heavy sigh and placed HanMi in her high chair before sitting down across from Hana. “Yeah?” she asked.

            Hana chewed on her bottom lip for a while, studying SoKyung’s face. Another sign that something was wrong.

            “Spit it out, Hana.” SoKyung said teasingly. Hana cracked a small smile.

            “You know I love you and HanMi living with me and all.” Hana began. “But this place is so tiny for the three of us, and the rent is just too much for two struggling single adults to handle. I mean we can barely feed ourselves!” Hana heaved out a heavy sigh as if she was holding the world up on her shoulders. “I just don’t think it’s best for HanMi to be living here. Don’t you think it’s time to find a place of your own?”

            Hana searched for a sign of anger on SoKyung’s face but found nothing but passive thoughtfulness. SoKyung shrugged.

            “Yeah, you’re probably right. It’s just that I can’t afford a new place.” SoKyung sighed. “But today I’m supposed to be getting a raise, so maybe by next month?” Hana nodded quickly.

            “Take your time moving out! I just want you to do what’s best for you and HanMi, especially now that she’s growing up.” They both turned to look at HanMi, who was occupying herself with twisting a spoon around in her hands. They both smiled in amusement before carrying on with their daily lives.

            After dropping HanMi off at the daycare down the street from her job, she entered the torture chamber that she worked in with great reluctance. It wasn’t like she hated the job, in fact she quite enjoyed helping to keep her boss organized and fixing his schedules or whatnot. She didn’t even mind the random errands he sent her on throughout the day.

            It was the stares from everyone that worked there.

            They all knew that she was a single mom of a one-year-old daughter, but since SoKyung never brought up HanMi’s father and whether or not he was still in the picture, they just assumed that SoKyung was some kind of promiscuous girl. She wasn’t, but she’d given up on trying to convince others of that, on account of no one believed her. Even her own parents had thrown her out and disowned her because of the shame and embarrassment they thought she would bring to the family.

            Taking a deep breath, she opened the door of the office and made her way towards the back where her desk was. She felt the stares practically burning through her, but she kept her head up and simply ignored them all.

            The hours passed by slowly but what kept her going was the thought of getting that raise she had been waiting so long for and finally moving into a place that HanMi deserved to grow up in. Hana had been a great support over the year, but where she lived was much more suited for young adults without kids, and as a mother, SoKyung found it hard to be around all the wild parties in the clubs just down the street.

            SoKyung lost herself in her thoughts as she skimmed through adds on the computer about apartments in Seoul. She found herself smiling just a little bit, continuously imagining herself and HanMi living in one of them. So at first, she didn’t hear her boss calling for her.

            “SoKyung!” he yelled from the doorway of his office right behind her. She jumped in her seat out of shock and turned to look at him. “Can I see you in my office please?”

            She nodded and quickly turned back to her computer to exit out of the website she was on, smiling to herself. Finally, he’s going to give her that raise.

            But a raise was not on her boss’s mind as he sat down behind his desk and folded his hands together. “SoKyung-sshi, first I must tell you how grateful I am for all of your hardwork this past year.” SoKyung nodded, waiting for him to get to the important part. “But, unfortunately, we’re cutting back on staff this year, and you’re the first one that will have to go.”

            Her heart sank to the ground in disappointment. “W-What?” she asked, hoping he was just pulling a mean joke on her. He frowned and nodded grimly.

            “Our company is doing so well lately, so we’re going to have to cut back on a lot of staff. This includes you. I’m sorry SoKyung-sshi, I hate to see you go, but that’s just the way it is.”

            Just the way it is. She’d heard that before. The doctor had told her that when he’d told her she was pregnant. Her parents had said it as they were kicking her out of the house.

            She’d said it as her goodbye to the one guy that had actually cared about her.

            With a small nod, SoKyung stood up and went to go pack up her stuff. She found a box in the recycling room that was just big enough to place all her personal items in, so she packed as soon as she got to her desk. Without a word, she walked past the other employees and out the door of the office, stepping onto the elevator with a sigh.

            On the upside, at least she didn’t have to deal with the stares, right?

            But that’s all Hana did when she came home to find SoKyung and HanMi already there. Hana just stared and stared at SoKyung almost as if she expected SoKyung to crumble right in front of her.

            “Take a picture, it’ll last longer.” SoKyung said in a hollow voice, not looking up from her bowl of ramen. Hana blinked and quickly looked away.

            “I’m just worried about you, that’s all.” Hana mumbled before getting up to put her dishes in the sink.

            “Well, I’m fine, so you can stop that now.” SoKyung said, leaning back in her seat and glaring at the table. “I’ve had enough of people underestimating me, and I don’t need my roommate to start now.”

            “Okay, okay.” Hana said, holding her hands up in surrender.

            SoKyung let out a sigh. “Goodnight.” She finally said, getting up and going into her room.

            She’d thought that now that she didn’t have a job, she’d be able to sleep.

            Hana had other ideas.

            She stormed her way into SoKyung’s room, with HanMi in her arms, but of them yelling at the top of their lungs.

            “Wake up! We’re going on a road trip!” Hana said, yanking the blankets away from SoKyung. “So, get up! We’re going to Seoul to go house hunting.”

            “I have no money for that and neither do you.” SoKyung grumbled, pulling the pillow over her head in hopes of drowning out the loud noises.

            “We’re not buying a house! Just pretending we are.” Hana grinned as SoKyung lifted the pillow up and stared at her.

            “You’re insane.”

            “Glad you finally came to that conclusion, now get up.”

            They drove the three hours it took from Mokpo to Seoul that morning, blasting different CDs in the car and singing along like the dorks that they were. Once they had gone through every CD in Hana’s car, SoKyung the radio.

            “Oooh, Kiss The Radio! Don’t change it!” Hana said, bouncing up and down in her seat. SoKyung rolled her eyes but leaned back in her seat to listen to the voices coming out of the radio.

            Sungmin and Ryeowook were introducing a new band that had just debuted, and apparently they were called B.A.P.

            “What kind of name…?” Hana began to say, but her voice trailed off as a familiar voice spoke. SoKyung and Hana sat there in disbelief as B.A.P’s leader introduced himself.

            Bang YongGuk.

            “Change it.” Hana said quickly, reaching her hand out to turn off the radio, but SoKyung stopped her, listening intensely.

            “Did he just say his name is Bang YongGuk?” SoKyung asked, her voice coming out at barely a whisper.

            “No.” Hana said quickly. “He said Yang. It’s Yang YongGuk.”

            SoKyung gave her a disbelieving look before turning the volume up. They had finished introducing each of the members and were asking each of them questions. SoKyung didn’t pay so much attention to their answers, but focused more on their voices. Out of the eight voices taking turns speaking, one of them made her heart skip a beat and break at the same time.

            Who would have thought she’d be hearing him on the radio? Of course, she’d always told him that one day she would, but that was before everything had gone down between them.

            SoKyung leaned back in her seat. “If only we were on good terms.” She mumbled. “HanMi could stay with him until I get a stable job and enough money, you know?”

            “So…” Hana said slowly, glancing to the back seat where HanMi was sitting in her car seat. “He doesn’t even know about HanMi, remember? You walked out on him before he could find out.”

            SoKyung said nothing in response, just pretended like she was too focused on the radio show.

            Hana spent hours driving SoKyung and HanMi around, looking at houses. The two would talk about each house, pointing out the good and bad qualities of the houses before moving on to the next. It helped get SoKyung’s mind off her worries for a while.

            Soon, both SoKyung and HanMi fell asleep, leaving Hana to her thoughts.

            She had gotten an idea after SoKyung had begun to talk about YongGuk, and although she knew SoKyung would be angry, she also knew that this was exactly what she needed at this time. So she drove down to the apartment complex that she’d found the address of just a few minutes earlier on her phone and parked the car.

            “Hey, wake up, we need to talk.” Hana said, shaking SoKyung’s shoulder gently.

            SoKyung opened her eyes and looked around before looking at Hana. “Where are we?”

            “Their dorm.” Hana answered.

            “Whose dorm?”

            “B.A.P.” Hana said simply, taking the keys out of the ignition and getting out of the car. SoKyung sat there for a second before also jumping out. She walked over to Hana’s side of the car.

            “Why are we at their dorm?” SoKyung asked as Hana pulled HanMi out of her seat and placed her in SoKyung’s arms.

            “You want to give HanMi a better life? Well, here you go. A better life. One where she knows her own father.” Hana gestured towards the building. SoKyung stared at her for a moment before looking up at the building. It definitely wasn’t the nicest apartment complex she’d seen, but it was better than the one she was living in.

            “This is insane, he’s not going to take me back.” SoKyung said, turning back to Hana. Hana shrugged.

            “The least you can do is try, right?” Hana tilted her head to the side. “What do you have to lose, So?”

            It took a good half an hour for Hana to finally get SoKyung to stand in front of their dorm. And then another ten to get her to knock.

            Just as the door began to open, Hana suddenly whisked HanMi out of SoKyung’s arms and hid down the hallway. SoKyung stood there in dismay.

            “Han—“

            “Hello?” SoKyung turned and found herself face to face with a kid with a curly mop of blonde hair. She blinked a few times, slightly surprised at how young he looked.

            “Hi.” She said, and then paused. “Does Bang YongGuk live here?”

            The kid stared at her for a while. “Are you a fan of hyung?” he asked.

            SoKyung smiled. “An old friend. If he’s here, do you think I could talk to him?”

            The kid nodded, turning around and calling out “YongGuk-hyung, someone’s here for you!”

            While his back was turned, SoKyung let out a sigh and closed her eyes for a second. Hana was going to pay for this.

            “SoKyung?” the sound of his voice brought her back. Her eyes snapped open and she looked up just in time to meet his eyes.

            “H-Hi.” She said, giving him a small wave. He stepped out of the dorm, closing the door behind him. SoKyung took a step back.

            “What are you doing here?” he asked, looking confused.

            She had hoped he wouldn’t have acted so distant. But then of course, if he had run to her and hugged her, she wouldn’t have probably wanted that either.

            “I wanted to talk to you.” She bit her lower lip and looked away from his face. “I walked out on you without a reason, and it’s been killing me ever since. So I thought I would come and explain.”

            “Now?” he asked. SoKyung nodded and looked back at him.

            “I was pregnant, and I didn’t think you would want to stay around and deal with all of that, so I left. And now I have a little girl—she just e a couple days ago—and I just wanted you to know.” She had said it all in one quick breath, so at first she thought she’d just confused him. But then she saw the shock on his face and knew he’d understand perfectly.

            “You thought I wouldn’t want to deal with you?” Why did he sound so hurt?

            SoKyung sighed. “Also, I lost my job and can’t pay rent so soon I’m not going to have a house to raise her in, so I was hoping that maybe you could help me? I don’t expect you to, I just wanted to ask, because—well—I have nothing to lose, you know?” she flailed her arms slightly out of awkwardness then let them drop to her sides.

            “Okay.” YongGuk said, leaning against the door. “Sure.”