____ HYUKJIN'S POINT-OF-VIEW ____

The door flew open. "Hello!" I held a stack of papers to my chest tightly. "I'm the exterminator that the county has called to check the neighborhood's houses. There has been a complaint that rodents have been digging up holes in backyards and finding their way into homes. The check is necessary because you could be put into an apartment if it gets serious." I took a breath and told myself silently to stop sweating. The fake badge I had just bought at the cheapo store a few blocks away was kinda believable?? And if he was drunk, he probably wouldn't even be able to see. Relief flowed through my body as he nodded approval. "Quickly." His voice was still gruff and cold, but his stare was even worse. I felt better when he left to some other room in the small mansion. He lived here by himself? The house was a lot bigger on the inside than it looked from the outside. I stepped aside from the pieces of glass in some corners of the living room and padded my way to the backdoor. If I could get to the front yard from the backyard then I could just find Jia and leave. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and went to check out the backyard.

It was unbelievably huge. Still, it was cluttered with red solo cups and random things. I saw pieces of a broken table and several lawn chairs in a grassy area that was still trashed with papers. There was crumpled up beer cans underneath a broken swing set and I spotted a broken pot filled with dirt. I felt so horrifically bad for Jia. "What are you doing!!!" I heard a shout from above. When I turned around, Jia's dad was shaking his fist with a cigarette in his mouth from an open window on the third floor. "Ah, my apologies, sir! I have to, uh, check for holes and cracks in the walls." I called back and pretended to be looking at the grass. When I nervously turned around and noticed that Jia's father had closed the window, I snuck to the side of the house where I had previously seen ghr bushes rustle. I automatically found Jia, cuts and bruises covering her arms. I checked her breathing. It was fine, but she wouldn't wake up. Holy-- I couldn't believe what he had done to his own daughter.. I hauled her up, swinging her arm around my neck and picking her up with all my strength. All the working out and running around so much helped a lot as I laid her gently across the back seat of my car. My body got tense as I heard a grumble that sounded like a few feet away from me. 

"Hey! That's no rodent!" Jia's father yelled from the front porch, chuckling to himself. As soon as he realized that I was speeding away, he began running after me before stumbling and falling on the grass. Soon after, Mr. Meng was just a tiny dot far behind me and the hospital was only a few miles away. I tapped the steering wheel, thinking and panicking about how I could be arrested for illegally pretending to be an exterminator. No one would ever know, right?.. It didn't matter if Jia wasn't okay, anyway. The closest parking I could find from the hospital building was about a block away, which meant carrying Jia that distance. I told myself to stop shaking, I knew she'd be alright.. It was only a second story drop and at least she didn't fall on cement.. As soon as the sliding doors parted, nurses and doctors immediately began questioning me and finally got Jia into a room to be examined. I sat in the waiting room, dialing Baekhyun's number over and over to hear his same cocky voicemail. "Hey! It's the one and only Byun Baekhyun! Miss me already? Leave a message." Ugh, stupid kid. I rang Jieun's phone and heard Baekhyun pick up.

_____ BAEKHYUN'S POINT-OF-VIEW _____

I turned my head to get a better view of Hyukjin's ex-girlfriend. "Huh.. Sunyoung noona?" I called out, meaning for it to be quiet, but it ended up in a loud tone. Sunyoung spun around, her eyes almost popping out of their sockets. "Ohmaigosh! Baekhyunnie~" She came over to pinch my cheeks and hug me. "I've missed you! How have you been? Woh.. Wait.." Sunyoung looked around, seeming to forget that she was in a hospital. "Why are you not in there with Jieun?? Omo.." Her cheeks were bright pink. I noticed the ring on her finger. 

"Aish.. Noona, we aren't together anymore. We haven't been for a long time. And where have you been all this time?" I pointed to her expensive purse and coat. She laughed which made me laugh, not sure why. She had dropped the subject of Jieun and I, which actually made me relieved. "I work as a college professor at Seoul University now and my husband's.." Her voice got slightly quieter as her sentence trailed off. "The head of the school there.." Startled, I was beginning to feel a little angry. She was here all this time and she never once came to visit! I'm only talking to her because I recognized her after all these years! I stayed quiet, staring at the ground. "What happened to that U.S. trip..?" I managed to spit out, a bit worried about what would happen if Hyukjin and Sunyoung saw each other. "Oh.. I went, of course. I just.. Didn't stay as long as I'd hoped. My English wasn't as great as I thought and I couldn't land a job. My aunt couldn't provide housing for me much because she was low on money. I stayed for 7 months and came back.. 3 years ago." She murmured, almost as if she was speaking to herself. I huffed, and I knew she knew that I was angry about these 3 years that could've been happier. Hyukjin was so.. content with himself when Sunyoung was around. He would actually do things besides work. I haven't seen him truly smile in a while. 

"I'm really sorry, Baekhyun. I didn't mean for us to meet this way. I felt like it would've been better if you just assumed I was doing well in the U.S. When I returned, I was too ashamed.. Your brother.." She laughed softly, wiping her eyes with a sleeve. "He would send me letters and letters and so many phone calls that I would never pick up.. I cried every time.. He was so proud that I was brave enough to go to the U.S. and he was so certain I was going to do well! ..I couldn't face him." She stood up once again and strode toward the hospital rooms, turning back once. "I definitely can't see him now. I don't want to cause anymore stress." I got up from my seat, pulling her by the arm outside. "Sunyoung.. I swear to God.. You know. You truly know, Hyukjin wouldn't have given a damn if you came back with no money and he wouldn't even care if you were the most wanted criminal! Don't you dare say you didn't want to hurt him because ditching him after he loved you for a ing year is much worse than anything else you could've done! The hardcore truth is that you wanted to marry rich!" I stormed into my car, that had a giant dent on the side, but I didn't care anymore! She didn't interrupt me once, she knew that everything I said was true. Completely forgetting that I had to stay in the hospital until ,y brother paid my fee, I rested my feet on the dashboard, thinking and slowly falling asleep.