The following day Eunbi arrived to school half an hour before school started. Not only so she would get to class in time, but also because she wanted to avoid Sehun as much as possible. It wasn’t like she’d forgotten about their incident the previous day, something that were still fresh in mind. It’d even given her a bigger insight in his state of mind, how broken he seemed to be. But that didn’t give him the right to act like a douche.

A cry slipped from her lips when Ahbin latched onto her arm, a reaction that immediately sparked the other girl’s attention, “why? What’s wrong?” Eunbi wasn’t too keen about telling her friend what’d happened, not when Ahbin was known to have a fiery personality. It could cause trouble, something she’d had enough of for the time being. “Nothing, it’s nothing.” a smile always helped in such situations, for it showed that it was end of discussion. And much to her relief Ahbin let it go by changing the topic, “let’s hangout after school.” she nodded without a second thought, thus agreeing to yet another day where she would lose precious study time. But Eunbi needed it, she needed to get away from her life for a short while. To escape the horrors of everything back home. Most importantly, she found it to be the perfect way to avoid Sehun. “Great. I’ll go ask Yixing and Kai whether they want to come too.” the other girl darted off and thereby left Eunbi to relive the images of Yixing’s bare body, a feat she’d rather not have done for it caused her cheeks, once again, to flush. Embarrassed by the thought she palmed her cheeks, as if it would magically make the blush dissapear. It didn’t of course, and Eunbi arrived to class looking like a tomato.

The hours ticked by and the school day seemed to pass by uneventful. Well, that until a girl cornered her in the girls’ restroom. Eunbi recognized the other one as Yuna. Sehun’s number one fangirl, as Ahbin had described. “You need to stay away from my oppa.” it didn’t take a genius to understand the other girl was referring to Sehun and that she should keep her distance, which would be kind of hard considering they were living under the same roof. “We’re living in the same house.” and with only a wall separating our bedrooms. She didn’t include the last part, believing that it was only going to cause bitterness. But Eunbi realized pretty soon that even the words she’d spoken was more than enough to spark irritation from Yuna. “Don’t remind me.” feeling slightly uneasy she took a step back, thus making it obvious that she were bothered. “I’m not interested in him if that’s what you think.” Eunbi said it aloud, the whole thing was so ridiculous she wanted to laugh. That anyone could think she harbored feelings for him was downright hilarious.

“Do you think I’m stupid?” she wasn’t going to answer that, nor would she just stay there and take the accusations Yuna were throwing around, “I have a class to atten -.” Eunbi was cut short mid-sentence though, with the other girl taking yet another step closer, as if to intimidate her. “Did I say I was done?” no. But the next period started any minute and she couldn’t afford to be late again, something that most definitely would be reported to her mother, whom Eunbi knew were going to make a huge deal out of it. That she’d gotten away with the previous day’s punishments were only because of the principal, who’d let her off easy since it was her first time getting into trouble. And it was safe to say he wouldn’t be so forgiving if she continued arriving late and skipping class.  

“Do you understand?” Eunbi blinked at the question, she hadn’t listened to anything the other girl had said. She’d riled up Yuna by not doing so, a feat that now caused the girl before her to lash out, “are you stupid or something?” yes. Eunbi was an idiot for not realizing it sooner. That she should’ve run when Sehun did. That she should’ve escaped everything by taking the train back to Daegu. “I saw you yesterday, alright. What you did and how upset Sehun got.” she was baffled to say the least, and not to mention, creeped out. The thought of Yuna spying on them made Eunbi uneasy, more so since she didn’t know whether it was something the other girl occupied herself with frequently. But it also caused her irritation, “so? What Sehun and I do have nothing to do with you.” Eunbi couldn’t help it, she needed to vent out the anger built up within. Her little outburst weren’t exactly well received by Yuna though, who, much to Eunbi’s surprise, stared right into her eyes and, with a menacing voice said, “he’s mine, so stay away.” and with that Yuna left, thus leaving Eunbi completely dumbstruck and staring at the door as if she wasn’t quite sure what’d just happened.

Ahbin questioned why it’d taken so long once they met up in the hallway again, to which Eunbi, instead of keeping quiet, told the other girl about Yuna and how they’d run into each other. “Did she do something?” there were no point in lying, it was unnecessary in a situation that didn’t exactly matter. “I’m pretty sure she told me to stay away from Sehun.” it would be impossible though, for obvious reasons. A fact Ahbin also pointed out, “isn’t that kind of unreasonable? I mean, you two live in the same house.” yeah. It was definitely unreasonable even if she, to her best capacity, were trying to ignore and avoid him. Then, all of a sudden Ahbin laughed, almost as if she realized something. “She thinks you’re a threat.” unbelievable. ing unbelievable. How in the world were everyone's brains working? Did anyone at the school even have one? Apparently not. Really. Why was it so incredible hard for everyone to understand that they were step siblings. Nothing more, nothing less. “I’m not.” Eunbi shuddered, just like she did any other time the thought came to mind.

Never in her life would she fall for him. Never in her life would she fall for either of them.

School ended two hours later and after a painstakingly hard math test they’d forced to take. See this as preparation for the midterm, was what the teacher had said whilst he handed out the slips of paper. Eunbi hadn’t been able to concentrate at all, for Yuna’s words kept on repeating themselves inside her head. The girl hated how she felt bothered by it, a problem that were going to show on the test, one she’d failed miserably. But to talk to Sehun was out of the question. Eunbi wouldn’t do that. Not until he apologized or showed some sort of remorse for his actions. Knowing him though, that weren’t happening anytime soon.

“Let’s go. Yixing and Kai are waiting down at the gate.” Ahbin grabbed her hand, eager to meet up with them. Eunbi wasn’t nearly as excited, but made no attempt to get out of the situation despite the humiliation of yesterday’s occurrence. The two males stood, just like Ahbin said, at the gate. Yixing greeted them both with a dazzling smile and a hello. The mere sight of it caused her cheeks to flush and heart to jump. Once again Eunbi was embarrassed. “Did you wait long?” Ahbin asked, and to which Kai then replied, “no.” the girl felt relieved, she disliked waiting and therefore made sure to not make others wait for her. “Shall we go then?” once again it was Ahbin who spoke. Not that she minded. In fact, Eunbi was glad the other girl were handling the situation. That until her friend advanced forward, latched onto Yixing’s arm and tugged him along, thus indicating to both Kai and Eunbi to start moving.

Fifteen minutes later they all entered the nearby mall, one that housed countless stores, a variety of restaurants, a cinema and last but not least, an arcade. “Any suggestions?” the four of them looked at each other, as if expecting someone else to speak up first. No one did and Eunbi decided to make her opinion known, “arcade?” it’d been such a long time she’d indulge herself in such childishness and it would be nice to think of something else for a while. “That’s okay with me.” her pulse accelerated at the sound of Yixing’s voice and the fact that he’d agreed to her choice of activity. She’d in fact been a bit shy to mention it at first, believing that they were going to think it was too childish. Obviously they didn’t for both Ahbin and Kai followed suit to say that it was okay, and soon enough all of them stood inside the enormous space that was the arcade.

Eunbi glanced between the various games that filled the floor, trying to decide which one to begin with. A decision Eunbi didn’t have to take, for Ahbin motioned her over towards one of the machines, “let’s play this together.” she stared at it, it’s picture of wounded people, guns and fire caused her to hesitate. “I haven’t played this before.” Ahbin shrugged her shoulder, grabbed a hold of the toy gun hanging on the side and then said, “it’s easy. All you have to do is shoot at your enemy.” how would that be easy if she didn’t even know who was her enemy? Eunbi kept her question to herself and reached out for the second gun. The plastic object felt weird in her hand, which wasn’t all weird considering she’d never held in a gun before. “Here, hold it like this.” Ahbin tried, in a rather ridiculous way, to teach Eunbi to hold it right. An ordeal that took a few minutes and resulted in quite a few laughs from the two of them. “There. Now let’s start.” the machine swallowed the coin and she clung onto the gun as a battlefield showed on the screen. It was a war game.

Excited yet scared, Eunbi used the gun to shoot at the enemy soldiers, only to be rewarded with a joyous cheer from Ahbin every time she hit the targets, “I thought you said you’d never played this before.” she hadn’t and believed it to be nothing more than beginners luck. The luck however, ran out pretty quick though, because her character received a bullet through his head a few moments later. The game was over for Eunbi’s part, but Ahbin continued the vicious battle to defeat the bad guys, something that earned attention from both Kai and Yixing who came over. “Haven’t you grown out of this game yet?” the latter asked, thus giving Eunbi the impression that the other girl and Yixing used to play it in the past. Another detail in their relation that bothered her.

She didn’t hear Ahbin’s answer, for her cell phone began to ring and thereby overshadowed the sound of the other’s voice. The call however, was one Eunbi ignored after seeing it was her mother. She was certain the older woman would demand her to go home, that she needed to study and didn’t have time to play around. The situation was all too familiar and Eunbi dreaded to think of all those times she wasn’t allowed to be with her friends when they lived in Daegu.