I grabbed her hand and walked downstairs. Preparing a lot of coffee and pastries…now it’s just the two of us…alone. I turned to her and look straight at her eyes but she bowed down. “Haera.”

+Haera’s POV+

               “Haera” Aron’s cold voice reached my ears. I-I don’t know how to respond. I froze as soon as I hear him call my real name. “Haera…”

               “K-Kwakie…w-who’s Haera?” I tried to bluff.

               “Haera…” he continued.

               “A-Aron, stop it” I said as a wipe tears that had started to roll on my cheeks. “…I-I’m sorry I had to keep this from you…I...I-I know you must have heard from them…how evil I am…”

               “So…you’re really Haera?” he asked in a serious tone. “Why? Don’t you hate bullies?”

               “Yes…but!” I suddenly raised my voice. “I…I’m sorry…It’s Gyuri! She’s too influential…I don’t know how to deal with her…I just did what she said I must do…I don’t want to be bullied so…I became a bully myself…slowly changing…I’m afraid as day continues to pass by. How am I supposed to know what to do? She said that if I don’t do as what she says … she’ll ask her family to remove all the investments on my father’s company. I-I just want to…”

               “Sandy” he called my name and hugged me tightly. Leaning on his chest he continued. “Are you feeling sorry for what you did?”

               I nodded.

               “Then everything’s gonna be okay” he said. “Please stop crying…I don’t know what to do when you start to cry.”

               We stopped when we heard a noise from the stairs.

+Minhyun’s POV+

               “I wonder where they are. Hmm?”

               “Haera…” Aron-hyung’s voice called. Haera? Jung Haera is here? What is she doing here and why does Aron-hyung knows her. I decided to take a peek and there I saw Aron-hyung standing with the girl from earlier but I don’t see Haera around.

               “A-Aron, stop it” the girl replied. “I-I’m sorry I had to keep this from you …” this voice seems like Haera’s…could she be..?

               “So…you’re really Haera?” he asked in a serious tone.

               “Minhyun.”

               “Ren!” I said in shock that I had made some noise.

+AUTHOR’S POV+

               “Just stay behind me” Aron said. “I’ll try to explain everything to them.”

               “But…JR and Baekho hate me down to the marrows…”

               “Let’s just try” he said with hope.

               “H-Haera?!” JR asks in surprise. “What are you doing here?!”

               “Wait, JR. I’m going to explain” Aron said. JR and Baekho’s expression got even more serious. While Minhyun and Ren are sighing on the corner.

               “Explain what, Aron-hyung?” JR asked.

               “Please, calm down, JR” Ren requested. “Your high-pitched voice makes my head ache.”

               Haera seemed to be troubled by JR’s reaction, “I-I think I’m not welcomed here though…I guess I need to go home…uncle might be back home now.”

               Minhyun seemed to be alarmed. Baekho looked down clenching his fist. Ren stared at Haera and Aron dropped his shoulders. They still care for her…

              “But you’ve got no one to go back to” JR interrupted. Aron looked at him and saw his cold eyes that show no emotions.

               “JR!!” Aron fiercely warned him.

               “Why, Aron-hyung? Are you planning to keep it from her?” he asked. “That’s the bitter truth and no one can change it.”

               Minhyun saw Haera bow down and clench her fist.

               “Don’t think that I’ll show mercy on her, hyung. She deserves it and it’s the truth I’m telling her” JR shouted over Aron.

               “JR!!” Minhyun tried to stop JR.

               “JR!!” Aron can’t hold it anymore. He stood up…and gave him a hard punch for being stupid. “She’s a woman, JR! A woman!”

               “So what if she is? She didn’t even think twice to hurt, Ren!” JR shouted.

+ARON’S POV+

Hurt Ren? Ren is an important friend of mine and Sandy is also one… I can’t… *bam* the feeling woke me up in my delusion …JR punched me on my left cheek. This is so wrong…I’m the hyung here…I should be the one making this okay but…I just made it worse.

              “So you’re siding with that girl?! FINE!!!” JR ran up to their room.

Baekho glared at me like he was saying: “I can’t believe you punched him for that girl”. He grabbed Ren, whose innocent eyes seem to ask why, and followed JR at the room. Minhyun was left there standing. I clenched my fist until it bled…I can’t believe I just punched JR…this is the first time I’ve done it to him… me… who had been against violence ever since… why? Why did I punch my best friend?

               “T-This is my entire fault” I heard Sandy – I mean Haera said. “Because of me…you and your friends…”

               “Haera…” Minhyun walked towards her.

+Minhyun’s POV+

               “Haera…” I called her and unintentionally hugged her. “It’s not your fault.”

               She pushed me away, “No…it’s all because of me. You don’t have to sympathize with me… I’M BAD!!! I’M EVIL!!! I deserve all the rejections! I deserve everything that’s happening to me now!!! But now…I had Aron in my personal problems! And now…h-his friends…” she stopped bowing down, hugging her knees close to her body.

               I turned to Aron-hyung and ask him: “Aron-hyung, why don’t you say something?” He didn’t respond. He just stood there the whole time and then I noticed blood dripping on the floor… “H-Hyung?!”

               “I’m going home” Haera said. She quickly walk pass by me but I tried my best to stop her. I don’t know if I must really hate her because of what she had done to Ren but… I’ve seen who she is from afar. She’s not like what they think she is… she’s…different…rumors are just rumors that can’t prove anything…

               I can still remember the day I first saw her…she’s still the same, she didn’t changed a bit. It’s just that she keeps her emotions behind that strong front…

“You can’t” I grabbed her wrist. “Your uncle died with your father in the Plane accident.”

               Her eyes widened in shock. She tried to talk but no voice would come out… she fell on her knees. “W-why?” she bit her lips.

               I lowered myself and hugged her, I don’t care what the she may think but I can’t leave her now… she is now… just a helpless girl who had lost a lot in a day.

               “Haera, its okay…” I whispered to her. She leaned on my chest, she gripped on my shirt…inhale…exhale… slowly she calmed down and her grip loosened. I can feel her warm breathe and forehead over my shirt. Forehead? Wait, she’s…: “Hyung! Haera has a fever, hyung!” Aish! What is he doing?

               It’s no use. Aron-hyung won’t move a single step from where he is standing. So I decided to carefully carry Haera on my arms and lay her on my bed. I covered her with my blanket, look at her gloomy face and realized how much trouble she had gone through. I went outside and tried to wake Aron-hyung from his delusion.

               “Hyung!” I gave him a not so hard punch just enough to sting his left cheek.

               “W-What? What is that for?”

               “That’s the best punch I can give to a confused friend” I smiled. “Haera has a high fever. Take care of her.”

               “Minhyun” he whispered. “I don’t want you to get involved here, so please stay by JR’s side.”

               “I can’t! You two are my friends and I’m already involved here since you two are my friends. I’m going to be biased if I side to only one!” I raised my voice. “Hyung! You’re the one who taught us that friendship is important and that friends are people we should take care of equally!”

               His expression changed… “But I became biased just now…”

               “Aniyo, hyung. You just did what you think is right. Sometimes JR is blinded by his hatred to Haera. He sometimes tries to get revenge… then he won’t realize that he’s no different to her when he does. A mistake is something that a mistake can’t correct. You just made JR realize that it’s wrong so, hyung. Don’t feel so sorry” I continued.

+JR’s POV+

               I’m wrong?! Am I really the faulty one here? I just told her the truth.

               “JR!” Ren hit me. “You shouldn’t have done that!”

               “Why? What is that for?! Isn’t she the one who hurt you?” I asked him with a cold glare.

               “But…! It’s Youngjae not her” he insisted.

               “No! It’s her! She asked Youngjae to do that! Isn’t it obvious?!” I started to raise my voice.

               “JR…” Baekho interrupted. “I think that…for now we’re really the ones in fault here but I still can’t believe that Haera is Aron-hyung’s friend.”

               “That’s what I’m trying to say!” Ren said. “Haera is Aron-hyung’s friend then that means that she is also our friend, right?”

               “Are you saying that you’ll forget everything that she had done to you?”

               “Yes”

               “Why?”

               “Because I can see the pain in her eyes” Ren’s voice echoed.

               Pain…in her eyes…the pain in her eyes… I used to see that tender eyes before but now I can’t… is it because I had closed my heart on understanding her?

The next day…

               I woke up early as usual… I saw Aron-hyung cooking at the kitchen. I opened the fridge, grabbed a bottle of milk and sat down. “So…you’ll keep her here?”

               He stopped and stayed quiet for a while, “No, she’s not comfortable here.”

               “Good” I said while taking a sip from the bottle.

               “Why is it that you hate her?” he asked.

               “Things happen for a reason” I said coldly.

Finishing my drink I looked at him, turned the other way and we coincidentally say, “Sorry ‘bout that”, simultaneously. We then both looked at each other and saw a smile form on our lips. I think we really can’t stand being in a fight.

               “But I’m not yet forgiving her, okay? She’ll need to repent and pay for everything she did” I said while walking towards the room.

               “Okay,” I heard him replied.

               If it’s not just for Ren…and for our friendship…I must have done the opposite.

Sorry, for late updates~~

Been very busy these past few days... oh well... What do you think of the new chapter?

Me? I'm getting intrigued with Minhyun LOL~ \(^.^)/ I love him haha :3

Guys!! Do you know what day tomorrow is? It's Nu'est 400th Day since Debut~~ yey! Maybe I'll put the next chppie tomorrow~~ though it's a bit lame~ xD

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