As I was tumbling out into the living room with enough noise to wake the whole house, I wasn't surprised to see Junsu coming out of his room, but I was taken up short for a moment when my eyes landed on Yoochun who came out of the room behind him with a game controller in one of his swinging hands.

    “Uh,” I began. “This isn't what it looks like.”

   Jun merely rolled his eyes but Yoochun - bless his soul – came toward me and gave me a hug that I returned sloppily. “Its good to see you though it looks like you're running away right now.”

    “Yeah, I gatta get home. I didn't expect to be here so long.”

    “I can drive you.” Junsu came forward and I looked over his very casual sweatpants and tee shirt and figured why not.

   I said my goodbyes to Chunnie, making some promises I wasn't sure if I was going to be alive after that night to fulfill, and followed Jun out to the car after we had gathered all our things. The air was cool but nothing compared to the chill on my neck from the fear clenching my heart. Why in the world was Andrew in Korea? Did our conversation sudden make him want to pay a visit? Was he that angry? What was he going to do? My fingers rose to my mouth, finding a place on my lips where my teeth could comfortably nibble on my nails.

    “Stop that.” I expected him to smack my hand away from my mouth, though Junsu had never been violent to me in his entire life, but instead he merely pushed it gently to the side. “I thought you were over that.”

    “My boyfriend is here,” I blurted in panic. “He's here and I don't know why. The last time I talked to him, I told him that I cheated on him with Jae and now I'm scared. I'm so scared, Jun.”

   Normally, I would have taken one look at my jittery, near tears self in the mirror and told myself to get a grip. To be logical. To man up. Such thoughts were the farthest thing from my mind and my companion could see it plain as day on my face judging from the way he sighed. A warm hand rested on the hand that had been moving to my mouth once more, using steady pressure to bring it down to rest on my thigh where his could cover it in an act of comfort. The physical contact got me back down to the more manageable levels of stress – the fact that Junsu even remembered little things like this about me made me relax even more in his care.

    “He came a long way,” he said softly. “He must care a lot about you to spend that kind of money to get here.”

   It was indeed an expensive trip – one that I wasn't even aware that he was capable of making. The only money that I recalled that he had that would be around the necessary amount would be his savings for his new car. I hoped with everything in me that he didn't use that money to come here and break up with me. The streets were fairly empty so we slid through the light traffic with an ease that came to people who spent their free time behind a steering wheel like the men of JYJ. I wasn't expecting to see Andrew standing on the porch with his rage evident on his face, but just because I didn't see him didn't mean that he couldn't be inside already. My mom may not have loved him, but she wouldn't leave him on the porch.

   When Jun's borrowed car pulled up on the curb, I took a deep breath and surveyed my family home from my seat. Nothing about it looked out of place. Nothing looked as if it had changed while I was gone even though literally everything had change since I crossed the border.

    “You should go now.” Jun's voice was gentle but firm. “You need to face him and tell him the truth – no secrets, no evasion. Just be straight with him and let him make his own decision. Whatever happens, you still have a date with me and Yoochun tomorrow.”

   Not even the promise of video games with two of the most easy going men I knew was enough to pick my mood up. The situation was looking really dismal.

   Still, I met his gaze and nodded in determination. Nothing would change if I stayed in the car, staring so I climbed out onto the sidewalk with my head held high and my mouth set in a thin line. I was rewarded with an encouraging smile from my companion that made me warm a bit inside as I shut the car door behind me.

   “Wish me luck,” I said softly.

  But for some reason the universe decided on that moment to show me just how much it owned me by allowing Andrew 's taxi to pull up right behind the car Junsu was parked in. When he stepped out of the vehicle and spotted me leaning into another vehicle, my heart sank as I saw what he was seeing in my mind's eye.

    I was on him before he was half way to the car which made the way his approach pushed me back into my original spot even more impressive. “Drew! This isn't what it looks like, I swear.”

   I don't where that terrible conversation opener came from for the second time in one night, but I knew that it never had the desired effect, so when my boyfriend was moving me out of the way to glare daggers into an unsuspecting Junsu, I was not surprised, though I pushed him back from being so obviously threatening.

    “Are you the guy?” he snapped.

    “Uh...” The sound was a long drawn out one as Jun tried his best to find the best answer to the question in English; the solution he came up with was, “What?”

    I didn't roll my eyes that hard, I'm sure. “Hey.” My tugging on his arm brought Andrew's attention to me once more. “Leave him alone. He's not the one you think he is. He just brought me home.”

    “So you're riding in guy's cars this late at night all alone?” he shot back. “I guess that just makes everything better right?”

    “You prefer that I walk?”

    “I prefer you not be riding with weird guys all by yourself!”

     The urge to smack him was strong, but I managed to resist. “He's not weird. Well, he is sometimes, but this is not one of those times. He's just my friend. The guy I told you about isn't here. Did you think he would be? Is that why you came all this way? To see if you could 'catch me in the act'?”

   My voice had risen the more I spoke – my hand gesturing as I shouted eased Andrew out of the window of the car to turn his body to me instead. I could feel Jun's eyes on us in worry, could feel his indecision about leaving me just yet and I was grateful or his concern though I looked to him and gave a brittle smile.

   “Thanks. I'll talk to you later.”

   His gaze slid between my furious boyfriend and myself once more before he nodded, giving up on English. “OK. I'll see you tomorrow. Be careful. You should take this discussion inside.”

    “I will,” I assured him with a light pat to the door of the car. “Don't worry about me.”

    Junsu glanced over at Andrew who was gearing up for another wave of arguing . “I always worry about you.”

   The words weren't spoken with me in his focus but I felt them like a weight in my chest. As he drove away, I watched him go out of habit and a sort of longing to have his ability to escape this situation. Of course I had no right to wish for such a thing, not after what I did. I had brought all of this upon myself - despite how much I wanted to blame Jaejoong and point Andrew in his direction, I knew better than to take on a victim mentality when I was a woman in charge of my own uality. So head held high, I met Drew's gaze face on, taking his hand and and trying not to feel to hurt when he shook me off. I took all the responsible steps and invited him inside, with his gym bag of clothes in tow made him some tea and brought some cookies in on a plate as mother had raised to do when guests visit. My mother came out somewhere in the middle of it all and nearly had a heart attack.

    “Andrew?!” She turned white a a sheet in what could either have been fear or surprise. “What in the world are you doing here?”

    Ever the respectful boy he was, Drew schooled his expression when facing my mother. “Mrs Cho. I'm sorry for coming on such short notice. I just really needed to be with Luci.”

   I could just hear her protest forming on her lips when a hand landed on her shoulder, easing her back into Minwoo's arms. “Its a pleasure to meet you, son.”

    Drew rose from his seat this time, coming meeting my appa half way and shaking his hand. “Likewise, Mr Cho. I really am sorry. I have a reservation at a hotel for later so...”

    “Nonsense,” the other man cut firmly over him in an accented voice. “You don't speak much of the language, if any at all and I won't have you getting lost. Stay here. We have a guest room.”

   His tone of voice left no room for argument from anyone, including both myself and my mother who looked on as Minwoo flexed his rights as man of the house. I bit into a chocolate raspberry cookie idly, only half listening to the proceedings that were getting more and more complicated each second. If Andrew was here with us, he would want to be with me (possibly arguing) which meant that I couldn't even attempt to see head nor tail of the boys if his reaction to Junsu was anything to go by. My mind was running a mile a minute with all the ways that this could possibly bite me in the and the outcomes were many and almost equally annoying.

    “Lulu.” I started as Drew's voice tore me from my thoughts. “Are you listening to me?” he asked, tone sharp in irritation after my parents had disappeared to Heaven knows where.

    My fingertips rubbed my temple in gentle circles. “No. I wasn't. I'm sorry.”

    “See? That there is our problem!” He threw his arms in the air before pointing an accusing finger at me. “You don't even take me seriously, do you?”

    “Drew...”

    “No. That's how its always been – you were the smart one, the mature one, the one with a goddamn study schedule drafted up every semester for the both of us.”

    “Is it so bad that I wanted to help you?” I inquired out of pure curiosity. “You didn't have a problem with it before.”

   He gave me a look of pure incredulity. “I've always had a problem with it, I just did it cause it made you and my mom happy to see me put more effort into school. It wasn't like I was failing any classes.” I shot him a pointed stare. “Well, not any that mattered.” My brow lifted gently and he swiped a hand across his face in frustration. “I swear that I'm never going to need to know when somebody hopped on an boat to go to Spain for the millionth time in history,” Drew snapped. “And that's not even the point. You're acting like I'm your project and not your boyfriend. Like I'm something for you to fix.”

   The air stilled as his accusation circulated in the air. I blinked in surprise at the venom in his tone even as his shoulders seemed to lower, his emotions coming down from the high they had risen to so quickly.

   In a softer, more vulnerable tone that I couldn't read in his expression, Andrew turned his statement into a question. “Is that how you feel, Lulu? Do you think that you need to make me into what you want for me to be good enough?”

   The look in his eyes, the set of his mouth, the way his fingers squeezed together in a tangle of digits – all of it made my heart crack in a few different places. This was not the discussion that I was planned on having. I wasn't supposed to go this way. He was supposed to be mad about Jaejoong and ask me what happened. He was supposed to shout and make me shout back until we hashed out that knot and I make him see that Jae and I were just friends now; I had prepared myself for that.

   But in the face of this....this debate of compatibility based on decisions I had made with him in the front of my mind rather than the back, I was completely and utter speechless.