“If you want to appear like you’re okay, you shouldn’t sulk there in the corner.”

Seyoon stared at Kris with a scowl as she sat up from her bed to face him. “I’m not sulking. I just miss my room so—”

“So you’re staring at the ceiling since we got here and you still haven’t changed your clothes. Are you planning to be like that till the weekend?” Kris plopped beside Seyoon on the bed with a stern look plastered on his face. If Seyoon remained stubborn then he would be more stubborn. “Isn’t this what you want – to be free once again?”

Seyoon’s eyes on Kris suddenly diverted away. “It’s…of course, it is. This is better for everybody.”

“Is it really?” Kris asked with a serious face. Seyoon remained silent for a while because even she didn’t know the answer to Kris’ question. It was supposed to be okay. It was what she wanted since then but she couldn’t understand why it felt heavier like the air was too heavy for her to breathe in, like she created her supposed to be cleared path darker when she’s supposed to see a light of hope at the end.

Something still felt out of place.

“Can’t I ask you one thing?” Kris asked in which Seyoon replied with a nod. “If,” Kris hesitated at first but he still continued. “If Jongin tells you that he has feelings for you—”

Just those words said and Seyoon looked at Kris with a frown on her face.

“—Will you reconsider your feelings for him? Will you accept him again?”

“You know…” Seyoon unblinkingly looked at Kris. “You’re right. I think I should stop sulking and maybe I should change my clothes now,” she replied.

Kris remained unfazed. He already half expected for Seyoon to avoid his question but he didn’t thought she could change the subject smoothly as if she never heard his question. He just remained seated on her bed while Seyoon went to her closet.

Seyoon turned at Kris. “What are you still doing here?”

“What?”

“I’m changing clothes. Shouldn’t you go outside?”

“Why? It’s not as if your body changed since you were fifteen. Even though you’re nineteen now, your body still belonged to that of a sixteen year old.”

Kris smirked when he saw Seyoon getting pissed. At least, she didn’t turn into a stone-faced and broken-hearted teenager, Kris thought. Pissing her like this with her reacting normally still made Kris feel relieved. He just felt the fear in Suho’s voice when he called earlier saying that he should look after Seyoon closely especially if there were any signs of depression or mental breakdown or else Suho would kill him if something happened. For the sake of his life, he must make sure that Seyoon’s feet were still touching the ground. He just felt relieved that she seemed semi-alright.

“Kris, I’m changing. Will you please go out? Just wait for me downstairs,” Seyoon asked again, snapping Kris from his contemplation.

“Fine. Just make sure that you’ll go down. I don’t want to go up here again and see you sulking or worse, watching some heavy dramas. It won’t bring you anything good.”

Seyoon heaved a sigh before tugging Kris’ hands and pulling him up from her bed as she pushed him towards the door.

“Ah, ah, wait,” Kris pleaded when he tried to make his steps heavier.

“What?”

“It just that I think you should have this,” Kris said before pulling a small envelope from his sweater.

“What is this?”

Kris just shrugged. “I think you should just check it out. I just printed it yesterday. And,” Kris was halfway to the doorway when he spoke again, “This is just my opinion but I think you should talk to Jongin soon. I mean if you don’t show up to him and sulk here for the rest of the days to come, he might just blame himself more especially when he knew that part to blame was his girlfriend who did mean things to you.” Seyoon didn’t argue a word when Kris closed the door without looking at him.

He never blamed Kai for anything. In fact, there was no one to be blamed because it was her decision all along even before Krystal tried to deceive her from getting the scholarship. If there was anything to blame that was her immaturity for letting things come at this point. She shouldn’t have but all happened anyway. All she could do was to gradually adjust to everything.

She grabbed the envelope only to be lifted upside down so that the contents spilled on the floor. And before she knew it, she was already starring at their pictures, the one they took two weeks ago during the school festival. Most of them were failure shots since eleven of them couldn’t really fit inside the frame without anyone being left out or without someone looking distracted and missing the countdown. However, among the pile of photos scattered on the floor was a photo she wasn’t aware really happened. It was that one photo where Luhan and Chanyeol tugged her and Kai in the middle but instead of looking at the camera, Kai was looking at her with a smile on his face – a smile she had rarely seen.

“This is for the better, right?” she asked herself.

---

Seyoon woke up the next morning or rather noon because it was already lunch time when she went downstairs and Kris was already gone to the university said her mother. It was weekend and she had nowhere to go or nothing to do. She just stayed in their apartment for a couple of months but going back to her main house still required a lot of adjustments. Usually, her friends would visit their apartment during the weekend or she would go with Kyungsoo to the library to do some schoolwork, but since she was a few kilometers away from school now, all she could do was to stay inside her room and probably sulk all day.

“Seyoon!”

Seyoon jumped out her bed when someone suddenly barged into her room. “Luhan?”

“It’s not only me.” Luhan opened the door widely until Kyungsoo and Sehun walked in.

“Hi!” greeted Kyungsoo.

“Mind if we come in?”

“Of course,” Seyoon gave Sehun a nod. “May I ask why you are here? And how did you know that I’m back home?”

“Kai,” Luhan automatically replied but then he realized he shouldn’t when he saw Seyoon’s lips formed into an ‘oh,’ then her gaze fell on the floor. “Ahh, I mean, oh are those our pictures taken by Kris during the school festival?!” he diverted the topic immediately hoping that Seyoon would turn her attention to the pictures.

“Yes, they are.”

“Can we look at it?”

Seyoon nodded with a smile before handling the pictures to the boys. “Do you want some drinks? I’ll go and get some downstairs.”

“That would be great! Can we have tea please?” Kyungsoo requested and Seyoon noticed the awkward smile plastered on his face but she just shrugged it off and went downstairs to leave the boys behind.

“Now, what?” Luhan asked immediately once Seyoon closed the door. “Should we tell her how Kai cried yesterday and how he tried to drown himself in alcohol?”

Sehun shrugged. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. We don’t even know why he was acting like that yesterday.”

“Well, isn’t it obviously because Seyoon doesn’t go on with the audition and about what Krystal did to her?”

“I don’t think that’s all about it.”

“Well, what shall we do? We went here so we could at least get some hint why Kai was acting like that. Besides, why is Seyoon here and not in their apartment?” asked Luhan.

“Don’t you think Seyoon will start avoiding Kai again like what she did two years ago? I can’t bear to see that happen again. We’re on our last year and it is only four months before graduation,” Kyungsoo followed.

Sehun didn’t understand why these two kept on asking him what to do when he himself didn’t know anything to approach the problem. It was true that Kai got drunk again yesterday while continuously whining how everything was his fault and how dumb and insensitive he was about Seyoon’s situation. If only Seyoon knew the situation they were in yesterday, she would realize how broken Kai was.

---

It was eight in the morning when they heard knocks coming from the door – ‘they’ being Chanyeol and Baekhyun who were sleeping on the living room of Kai’s apartment after hours of trying to sober the broken boy before falling into sleep from too much exhaustion. And even if the two also got some couple of drinks, they weren’t as intoxicated as their friend. They were lucky to get a cab on their way home but of course, it was Chanyeol who paid for their fair because he was the only one whose mind was working at least eighty percent compared to Kai and Baekhyun.

Chanyeol, who was groggily opening his eyes to take a peek of his surroundings, lazily crawled towards the door without even bothering to fixed his disheveled hair. He stood up wobbly before he opened the door only to see a frowning Kris looking at him.

“What do you want?” the lanky boy asked hazily.

“Chanyeol? Why are you here?” the other tall man asked, eyebrows more furrowed because Chanyeol was looking at him with half-lidded eyes and a very messy appearance. Not to mention, he was only wearing his school pants and nothing else.

Chanyeol noticed how Kris was looking at him confusedly and he didn’t realize why until the cold draft hit his body especially his upper torso. That’s when he realized he wasn’t wearing anything waist up because, again, Kai accidentally spilled his stomach’s contents on him when he was carrying him to his room.

“Come in. This will be a long talk,” said Chanyeol.

Kris entered the house which looked like a mess. Just on the way to the living room were scattered neckties and school shoes. On the couch was a sleeping Baekhyun whose mouth was still hanging and drool flowing from his mouth.

“I slept on the floor.”

Kris just gave a nod to Chanyeol before tip-toeing to the dining room where it seemed more peaceful and visitor friendly. Chanyeol freely grabbed something to drink inside the fridge as if he was the one living there and offered Kris one. Kris swayed his head and instead went to the kitchen isle to look for anything to cook. It was a good thing he went earlier than expected. He never expected that he would use his cooking skills so early in the morning.

“Mind telling me what happened yesterday that you look like you just came from a stormy expedition or whatever?”

Kris saw Chanyeol pouted before burying his head on the dining table. “You just don’t know what happened yesterday. Kai was a freaking mess. When you left with Seyoon yesterday, we saw Henry coming from the office. Kai almost punched him. Luckily, Sehun and Baekhyun were fast to know Kai’s move so they stopped him before he could start a fight. Then, he dragged us to go to Sehun’s building in Hongdae. We just agreed because it looked like he won’t give up. Then—”

“Then, he got drunk so Chanyeol and I had to carry home in freaking one in the morning,” said Baekhyun who lazily went beside Chanyeol in the dining room. “Sorry, can’t help but smell the food.”

“You know what he even tried to do when we got to the cab? He was insisting to the driver to go to their company in Gangnam. I thought the driver was going to kick as out but Baekhyun was too impatient so—”

Chanyeol wasn’t able to finish what he was saying as they heard one of the room doors opening. They lifted their heads towards Kai’s room and saw Kai coming out with disheveled hair as he rubbed his eyes. Kris didn’t need to know what Baekhyun did to Kai because by the time Kai’s hand got away from his eyes, he saw the bruise under his eyes, just above his cheeks. Baekhyun was scary when he got impatient, Kris noted.

“Why are you two so noisy?” They thought that Kai was still half-asleep or half-conscious because he didn’t notice Kris’ presence just behind the kitchen isle as he joined Baekhyun and Chanyeol on the table. His eyes opened widely immediately when he heard clattered noises from the kitchen sink. “Seyoon,” he mumbled as he turned around only to be greeted by Kris wearing an apron with a smug smile on his face.

“Good morning,” Kris greeted.

---

The three boys were eating peacefully – well, not after Chanyeol and Baekhyun pulled Kai away from Kris when he instinctively about to attack the taller man. But a frown was permanently plastered on Kai’s face all through breakfast.

“Good. Just eat because we’re going to have a manly talk later on. And you two, do you mind if I talk to Kai after this?”

“Just stay here,” Kai firmly stated.

Baekhyun and Chanyeol looked at each other. Kris gave Chanyeol a stern look. “Ah, I think we should go to our dorm first to change clothes. Remember when you…you…you know. I don’t want to sit here all day ,” said Chanyeol.

It was Kai’s time to frown at him but Chanyeol resisted with a stone face.

“Chanyeol is right. Besides, I may not tell anything but Chanyeol really stinks.”

“Hey!” Chanyeol nudged Baekhyun. “I only stink because…”

“Fine you can go. And sorry about what happened last night.”

Kris smiled while watching the three. Kids…

---

“You what?!”

Seyoon was already expecting them to freak out but Luhan’s voice was too loud that her mother even bothered to check them just to see if everything was okay. She even thought it was Seyoon who shouted because Luhan’s shriek sounded like that of a girl’s. Sehun just stood there as if he was already expecting the thing to happen while Kyungsoo remained gaping with his eyes opened widely.

“You withdrawn from the contract marriage?” Kyungsoo muttered.

“Yeah. I have to. It just became a burden to us as time went by. I think Kai was suffocated by this tie that our parents did to us. I just have to let go. Besides, I think we can move on with our lives without affecting each others’ decisions.”

“I don’t think so,” Sehun finally spoke. “There’s a reason why we’re here, Seyoon. I don’t think Kai was able to take your decision completely.”

“What do you mean?”

---

“Why are you here?” Kai asked coldly once he heard the door closed. Chanyeol and Baekhyun left for their dorm while he and Kris were left in the dining room.

“You should know why or are you still unaware of what Seyoon did?”

“I know,” Kai replied coldly but Kris was sensitive enough to catch the sad tone embedded in his voice. “She withdrew from the marriage. I wouldn’t blame her. This is not what we want in the first place.”

Kris remained stagnant in his seat. “Sure. But I don’t think you know the full details of it. There’s a reason why I am here and I think it is time that you make your own move not only for your sake but for Seyoon as well.”

Kai lifted his head to look at Kris with a soft gaze. “Is—is she alright?” Kai’s eyes were filled with concern and even though Kris didn’t want to look at him directly because of the bruise that Baekhyun left, he couldn’t help but felt sorry for him.

He heaved a sigh before replying. “She’s probably not as wasted as you look right now but she isn’t different from being absent-minded like you are. She just stayed in her room all night. She was still asleep when I left this morning.”

“It’s my fault,” Kai mumbled.

“Although I would agree that it was partly your fault but you should stop blaming yourself. Instead of drowning yourself in alcohol, isn’t it better if you do things for her once. In other words, let’s get down to business,” Kris said and the next thing Kai did was to jump off the table when he heard a large thud because of a manila envelope. If only not for Seyoon, he might have strangled Kris right there and then. Did the other even know that Kai was very sensitive to surprises? He almost got a heart attack when Kris slammed the envelope on the table.

“Did I scare you?” Kris chuckled. Kai just frowned before returning to his seat.

“What is that?”

“Don’t you think it’s too easy for your parents to give up on the marriage when you already half prepared for everything?”

Kris was right, Kai thought. He also thought of that yesterday while downing drinks in Hongdae. That was also one of the reasons why he insisted to go to their company that night. There was no way they agreed to her easily. But Baekhyun punched him on the face before he could protest.

Kris opened the envelope and pulled out stacks of papers. He laid it on the table for Kai to see. “In exchange for the marriage, your parents and Seyoon’s parents asked her to—”

“Application for business courses?”

Kris nodded once again. “Yup. The reason why she quit the audition is because of that and not because of what your girlfriend did to her. “

“How did you know about that?”

“I have my sources.”

“Let’s not talk about her and she’s not my girlfriend anymore.”

“Of course,” Kris grabbed the paper and returned them to the envelope before giving it to Kai.

Kai scowled when the envelope was handed to him. “Why are you giving it to me?”

“I don’t know. Secretary Chen gave it to me yesterday but I don’t think I should be the one deciding on what to do with them. I just want to ask you one thing, do you think Seyoon will be happy to take the path she doesn’t want to go to at all?”

“Of course…not.”

“Well, I think you know what to do with that.”

“But, even if I throw this away, she already refused to audition for the scholarship.”

“Well, there’s another solution for that but I don’t think you’ll be okay with it.”

---

“What do you mean you let Kai drink yesterday? Didn’t you all know that he couldn’t take alcohol well?”

“We’re sorry Seyoon but he was already on the brim and we couldn’t do anything about it,” Kyungsoo apologized.

“He looked so desperate yesterday. If only it isn’t Sehun’s family’s business, we would’ve to pay big for everything he consumed. Well, all of us drank but he was beyond control,” said Luhan.

Seyoon plopped on his bed and buried her face on her palms. “I never thought he would be like this. It’s all my fault.”

Kyungsoo sat beside her to give her consoling rubs on the back. “Don’t blame yourself. We know that you’ve been through a lot. He just felt helpless because he wasn’t able to do anything about you and Krystal. I know he regretted everything but Kai cares for you a lot. You should know that.”

---

 Kai and Kris’ conversation ended just on time when Chanyeol rang the doorbell of the house.

Kris was about to open the door to leave when Kai pulled his wrist. “Can—can I just ask you one thing?”

Kris just looked at him without saying anything and that gave Kai the signal to go on. “Why are you doing this? Don’t you like Seyoon too?”

Kris’s eyebrows twitched before smirking. Kai hated that gesture of him but he wanted to know Kris’ answer. He doesn’t have ulterior motives, does he?

“I like Seyoon.” Kai’s was surprised by Kris unblinking eyes when he answered blatantly.

She must really like her.

Kris turned around to turn the door knob and opened slightly to see Chanyeol smiling awkwardly and Baekhyun standing behind him.

“But not the same way as you do,” Kris finished off before walking towards the elevator. “I’ll see you when you convince Seyoon!” he shouted before the elevator door closed.

Chanyeol looked at Kris then at Kai then at Baekhyun. “What did he tell you?”

“A lot but more than that, I think you two should go. I’m going somewhere”

“Where? “ asked Baekhyun.

 “To our parents’ company.”

---

“No way…” Luhan mumbled in the corner while he fiddled with his phone. He just couldn’t take his eyes off the screen as he read every word Chanyeol had sent him. Sehun and Seyoon were busily talking in the living room so he quickly grabbed Kyungsoo who just happened to pass by after getting a drink from the kitchen.

“What?”

“Look at this,” he said as he handed his phone to Kyungsoo.

“No way,” the other reacted almost similarly as Luhan.

“Chanyeol and Baekhyun followed him when he decided to go to their office.”

“I think he is really determined to do things for Seyoon,” said Kyungsoo.

“I don’t know. This is too much to handle,” Luhan replied as they read Chanyeol’s message once again.

---

Chanyeol and Baekhyun followed Kai to their company in Gangnam. It took time and too much effort before the two were permitted to enter the building. If it wasn’t for Jongdae who happened to pass by to buy his lunch and recognized them, the two would be stuck in the entrance forever.

“Kai is here? I didn’t see him.”

“But we followed the cab he was in and it stopped here. We’re sure he’s here.”

“He’s probably in the conference room. His father and Seyoon’s father are there right now to discuss some stuff and—Hey, where are you going?”

“Thanks for the information Mr. Secretary. See you next time,” shouted the two as they ran towards an almost closing elevator.

“Ha, kids these days,” he mumbled.

Chanyeol and Baekhyun landed on the top floor as what one of the employees told them to go but even on the top floor, there were still a lot of rooms that made it really hard to navigate around especially for first-timers like them.

“What do you want?” asked a young looking lady with the nametag that said ‘Im Yoona’.

“We’re looking for Kai. Has he been here?”

“Kai? You mean Jongin. I think he went to the conference room. It is the room on the furthest right. Why? Are you—”

Before she even finished her question, the two already made their way to the conference room. And right there was a situation they never imagined Kai would be in. Right in front of a huge table, where at the other side were two old men whom the boys recognized as Seyoon’s and Kai’s fathers, was Kai in a kneeling position.

---

Kai went home that night with an aching back and knees from being in an uncomfortable position for too long. He was about to go inside his room when he noticed that Seyoon’s room door was slightly opened. He rubbed his eyes to see if what he was seeing was true because right in front of his eyes was Seyoon who was busily putting some of her things inside a box.

He didn’t bother to wait anymore as he opened the door which startled Seyoon. She turned around only to find herself captured in a tight embrace.

“Don’t go…”