I cleaned the house from top to bottom, leaving my mother with more questions than praises. She was circling me, peeking into whatever room I was in, murmuring to herself every now and then. I honestly didn't pay her much mind; I wasn't in the mood to explain myself to her and burst her bubble regarding her ideal son-in-law. My mind was already full to the brim with thoughts of what my life would be like when I finally made it back to school. How much of it would be different? How many people will I have upset or hurt?

  I huffed another sigh and reached for the rag I had rested on the edge of the bureau to finally clean the mirror of my vanity when I heard a knock on my door.

   "Lu," Jace said by way of greeting.

   "I thought that you were having lunch with the other two." My wipes made wide arcs over the reflective surface.

   He sat on my bed which creaked a little under him. "Jae advised that I should let Mom see my face, so I'm here for the night."

   "That's good advice. Mom had been asking for you," I lied. 

  It was definitely better that he wasn't around while the matter at hand was discussed...

   "Sounded like they were talking about you."

  ...unless it was already too late...

   I shrugged innocently. "You know they talk like teenage girls, Jace. They're always talking about somebody."

   "But is there anything that you'd like to tell me?" he went on, clearly unperturbed by my attempt to throw him off the scent. "You know, about Jae. Or Jun. Or, well, both of them?"

  I turned to face him at the tone he used. It grated on my nerves and hit me in the gut at the same time--a tone of disappointment. Why the hell was he disappointed in me? It wasn't my fault that his friend was a smug bastard yet he had the audacity to glare this muted expression of displeasure in my direction. After the morning I'd had, I was ready to kick him the hell out of my room.

   The rag was tossed back on to the bureau for me to be able to put both hands on my hips. "What are you implying, Jason? And you better stop looking at me like that before I toss you out on your ear."

   "Apparently my sister can't keep her hands to her damn self," he hissed. "I guess I'm lucky that Micky isn't here too or things would've been worse." Ignoring my raised brows, he scraped his nails across his scalp. "Look, I know that they're pop stars and you like them, or whatever, but my friends are off limits. And that's just the equation before I factor Andrew in! What in the world were you thinking?"

   I stared wide eyed at him. "What? Your friends are off limits? Well, tell Jae to stop trying to come on to me. I have never cheated on An--" The now made untrue phrase was stuck in my throat; I swallowed uncomfortably around it. "You have no idea what it is that you're talking about, Jace. What you think you know isn't the whole story, alright? I almost want to punch you because of how easily you would write me off as a ."

   His scowl was deeply embedded into his face. "You words, not mine," he disclaimed with a shake of his head. "But having dated both Junsu and Jae, why are still messing with them even though you have a boyfriend now, Lu? The kid isn't quite on your level, but dammit, be faithful to him! I heard about what happened this morning and I can't believe you."

   "Funny. You can't believe me yet you haven't given me the chance to give you something to believe in," I snapped. "And don't you try to be all high and mighty with me. Since when have you become the poster boy for monogamy?"

  Jason tilted his head to one side, in disbelief. "Don't try to make this about me."

   "You don't know the whole story, so before you come in here pointing fingers, I suggest you get your facts straight. Secondly, what I do is none of your damn business, so stay the hell out of it. And third, if you want to preach to someone about keeping their hands to themselves, go give your sermon to your best bud Jaejoong."  I lifted my arm and pointed into the hall. "Buh-bye."

 "Baby. I miss you so much." Drew chuckled. "I didn't think that I'd be the one like this."

  I sighed into the crook of my elbow, the phone cradled against the side of my head by my raised shoulder. "You should know that you indeed have your girl moments, Andrew." I chuckled, but sighed. "I miss you too, you know."

   "But you have family and stuff to distract you while I'm just here pining for you."

  Why did he have to say things like that? My heart seemed to sink in my chest just a little and I clutched at that spot with my free hand.

   "I'm glad you're alright though," he went on. "Your message sounded so urgent. I thought you were hurt or dying or something. I was about to book the next flight to Jeju and come down there to see you—"

   "No, don't do that!" I tried to taper down my panic. "You don't need to spend all that money."

   He sighed. "Then tell me what's going on. Please."

  I had to think of the best way to word my confession. The goal was minimum backlash, minimum damage control. How much of that I would accomplish? It all depended on how well my brain worked with me. 

   "One of my exes is here. I met him in the airport and I...made out with him earlier." I cringed even at my own words. "It wasn't because I like him more than you, 'cause I love you, but we just had some unresolved issues and things just kinda happened. But its not your fault and I'm really sorry. We didn't do anything more than kissing and I regretted it all 'cause then you texted me and I felt super duper guilty about everything....." My lips pressed together in the silence. "I'm sorry but I just had to tell you, Drew."

   He was silent for a bit longer with only the puffs of his breath letting me know that he was still there. "What?" he inquired, his voice deathly soft. “That's what you're calling to tell me?”

   "If that's what I'm calling to tell you?" I repeated incredulously. "Yes! Dang it, Andrew, I was freaking out all day. I needed to tell you or I'd have died of guilt while you texted me your lovey dovey notes."

“I can't believe you, Luci. I really can't.” His voice was still barely a whisper that I had to strain to hear. “I thought you were hurt. I thought something had happened in your family, but this is the crap I end up hearing? I trusted you.”

“I know and--”

“You're supposed to be the mature one.”

“I understand, but--”

“Here I was always thinking that I wasn't good enough for you.”

“Drew,” I groaned. “Please don't go there.”

“How can I when you're proving me right?”

“It wasn't like that!”

“Then how was it? Huh? Did you go to him? Did you entice him or did he remind you of how good things were between you? Did you...like it?” he inquired, his sentence breaking at the end. “I bet he's older or has some ridiculously well paying job or is as smart as you are. Go on, Luci. Tell me he's not at least one of those things!”

I squeezed my eyes shut against tears, not wanting to lie to him anymore. He had the right to do what he was doing. He needed to do this.

   A heavy sigh was huffed into the receiver. "I knew it."

  Click.

  It wasn't until I heard my phone beep that I realized that he had hung up on me. 

  Andrew hung up on me.

  It was unprecedented and I honestly didn't know how to feel. I sat in silence for a while, refusing to even look at my phone for fear that the tears would start falling. I was half irritated but more regretful than anything; he had never been the type to ignore someone in anger, especially me. Were we over? Was he going to call back? I really had no idea what my relationship status was but I couldn't just leave things as they were and let them evolve into something ugly.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and shot him a text. // I'm sorry. I know you're mad but please talk to me... //

// Please, Andrew, answer me back.... //

// He's not better than you, I swear. He's a rotten bastard and he's nothing like you. //

// Andrew... //

I swiped my hand at the salty trails running down my cheeks. // I love you....ok? I love you so much that I'll wait until you can face me again. I can only hope that you can forgive me and give me a chance to talk to you again before I'm back on U.S. soil. I would hate to spend the rest of our break wondering whether of not you hate me. //