Leina’s POV:

  “Ow – you’re stepping on my foot!”

  “It’s not like you’d lose it if I do.”

  “I swear I will – “

  “SSH!” More than one person shouts.

  “Keep your voice down; they might hear us eavesdropping!” Chanyeol scolds his girlfriend gently, and then puts his ear back to the door, just like the 15 other of us do, in front of Lee Soo Man’s office. Just like we all have been doing for the last ten minutes.

  I can’t hear anything anymore because the voices in the room have lowered, so I stare at the hand on mine, wondering of its owner knows whose hand his is on.

  “I still can’t believe you guys didn’t tell me.”

  Chohee pulls away from the metal door. “Mianhae, Leina-ah… but seriously, it was the only way – “

  “The only way was to put on an act without telling me? And letting me think you guys really were having a fight, and scaring the wits out of me, and – “

  The hand leaves mine and rests on my shoulder. “Leina,” Baekhyun calls. “It’s not their fault, how many times do I have to tell you? I was the one who told them not to tell you about the little show we planned to put on in the cafeteria. It was the only way to make it look real, to fool Jason whom we knew were spying at us from the shadows. Besides,” he adds with a smile, “you reacted so realistic that we really fooled Jason, making him think everything is going out of order, and as predicted, go find Vi. It was a big success, all thanks to you.”

  I try to fold my arms without making a big movement, not wanting his hand to leave my shoulder. “Because I did think it was real. Even the push – “

  “Aw man, Leina, that was for Tess, you know?” Chohee jokes. “We shove each other like that all the time.”

  But it really hurt, I think. Well, I’m not as boyish as they are, so yeah…

  As if he can hear my thoughts, Baekhyun says, “What you did in the cafeteria was absolutely brave and amazing, Leina.” His hand leaves my shoulder – but a second after my disappointment he leans forward, his face near mine, his nose just a few inches away from mine. “It was brave of you to stand out for Tess like that, to accept the blow. And I’m sorry if I didn’t run to you immediately to see if you were okay because I was so shocked by your reaction…”

  “G-gwenchana.” I smile, heat rushing up to my face. “It’s Violet who’s more important, anyway.”

  I don’t mean anything; I don’t sense any bitterness in my words or anything, because what I just said is true – Violet is the one who the act was all for. Violet was the one who triggered Jason to spill out his purpose behind all his previous acts.

  Violet was the one who almost – I shiver – got done something very, very terrifying by Jason. It shocked everybody when we barged into the training room and found Violet pinned to the wall by him, by his body, his hand moving across the side of her like a snake. I had never thought anyone would actually have the nerve to do something so horrible in a public place, and… oh, and Baekhyun. His face had gone from purple to red, just a tiny bit a shade lighter than the color on Sehun’s, who we ran into when we were leaving the cafeteria to Violet’s training room.

  Their faces, and the thought that something bad could have happened to Violet if we had come one minute late, left me shivering outside Lee Soo Man’s office, with the others. Maybe that’s why Baekhyun’s hand was on mine; he was trying to stop my shivering?

  Or maybe his hand just couldn’t find an empty place on the door, so it decided to rest on anywhere it could find.

  “Leina,” Baekhyun says as he turns to face me, all so suddenly. “There is something I have been wanting to tell you about – “

  All of a sudden, the door opens, and Jason walks out with an emotionless face. We all stop what we are doing to stare at him, because we know – that he has been fired. Even banned from the company, maybe. I know he feels the stares just by seeing the tense of his muscles, but he chooses to walk away with his chin high, his eyes staring straight in front of him.

    Violet’s POV:

  “But – “

  “He was going to you, Jung In!” Sehun shouts, his face red, his calmness all gone. He turns to face me. “Stop being the good, kind-hearted bishop for just this once, Jung In; don’t defend for him – “

  “Mr. Oh, please control the volume of your voice,” Lee Soo Man warns, his elbows on his desk. “Do not make me regret letting you in this conversation while everyone else can only eavesdrop through the door.”

  “I wasn’t defending for Jason, Sehun.” I try to stay calm. “I know what his intention was, but it didn’t happen, and he was just blinded by revenge!”

  I hate this. After a week of wanting to fade into dust in my training room, I finally get to see Sehun again – but we’re arguing. With Lee Soo Man present. And Jason, too, with a confused face.

  What a happy reunion indeed.

  “An intention is already enough, Jung In!” Fire blazes in Sehun’s eyes, and I will so hard of myself not to run into his arms. “He was going to… he was going to…” he balls his hands into fists.

  Okay, so maybe I understand. Sehun is furious at Jason, but he’s more furious at me wanting to forgive Jason. But I don’t really want to forgive… just forget. It’s just… Jason’s actions were all based on and clouded by the burning revenge in his heart and…

  Am I being too nice? Wanting to forget what he had almost done to me, even if it was something so terrible?

  “Mr. Oh has his point.” Lee Soo Man’s voice startles me, and by the looks on their faces, Sehun and Jason, too.

  “Su – “

  “What Mr. Han intended to do is something that cannot be forgiven, Ms. Kim. It is a very horrible thing; I am sure you are aware of that?”

  “Ne… but – “

  I swear his voice has taken on a softer tone. “You might be kind-hearted enough to forgive him and forget the… incident, Ms. Kim, but I am not, and I’m sure nor is Mr. Oh. So there is only one punishment for him that can fit us all well.” Lee Soo Man turns to Jason, who, instead of looking scared, is staring at me with an unreadable look. “Jason Han, I had expected so much from you,” he says in a stern voice, not bothering hiding his disappointment. “I never thought you would do such a thing like that. And so, from now on, you are to never come back, to never step foot in SM Entertainment ever again. Am I clear, Mr. Han?”

  I dash out of the room after him. “Wait – “

  “Lee Soo Man told me to walk out the building without looking back, Violet. So no, I’m not going to ‘wait.’”

   A second later, I stop in front of him, blocking his path. “Fine; then at least listen to me.”

  Jason looks me in the eyes. “I won’t stop walking.”

  “Then walk like a centimeter a second,” I reply with a roll of my eyes.

  Jason sighs, something I have never seen him do before. “What do you want, Violet? I’m finally leaving now; isn’t that what you want? For me to forever vanish from your life?”

  “Where did the 24/7 arrogant Jason Lee go?” I slightly frown. “Look, I hated you so much I never knew I could hate anyone so much in my entire life, okay?”

  “Yippee, I feel so honored.”

  “And you destroyed my love life with Sehun.”

  “Not something one gets to do every day.”

  “But, I also kind of… thank you.”

  Jason stops so abruptly I have to skid to a halt on my heels. Confusion is sprawled all over his face, as if he has encountered a question he’s never seen before. “What do you mean?”

  “Uh – “

  “Why did you want to forgive me, Violet?” His voice has turned gentle, gentle in a way that it reminds me of a child who is genuinely curious of what someone has just shown to him. There are no secret mischief gleaming in his dark eyes; just plain confusion. “I don’t get it; I was going to do something bad to you – “

  “Oh wow, I thought you didn’t know that.”

  “– but you still argued with your boyfriend over me.”

  “Ex,” I corrected him. “You broke the two of us, remember? And besides, we didn’t argue over you… it was…” I sigh. “You let me understand something, Jason. You made me realize that I had been living such a successful life, and I had been stepping over others without noticing I’m doing so. I brought pain to others without knowing.

  “So from now on, if I win another award or something – yes, I am shameless enough to say this – I would remember my opponents, thank them on stage for their existence, for their efforts they have made, and encourage them that they won’t be ignored, that their efforts won’t be done in vain. I would let them know my gratefulness towards them, because… because if there were no competition, what would winning a prize even mean? It would have no value.”

  After taking a deep breath, I extend my hand. “Thank you, Jason Lee – or Han, whatever – for letting me realize the shadows, the dark sides of what I am in and didn’t know. And as much as I don’t really want to touch you, I’m being nice enough to shake hands with you…?”

  The look on Jason’s face is so priceless I regret leaving my phone in Lee Soo Man’s office, with him and Sehun behind, also. Jason looks as if a thunderbolt has struck him, and he couldn’t move. He doesn’t seem to even be breathing.

  Finally, after what feels like years of me holding out my hand in the air and feeling like a pabo, Jason recollects the muscles on his face, and return to his previous calm, I-don’t-care-about-anything-in-this-world state. “I didn’t… Kim Jung In.”

  “Yeah?”

  “I never thought… that you would be like this.”

  I grin a little. “Like what; so forgiving that you can’t help but see me as an angel?”

  “Like an absolute, stupid, out-of-your-mind idiot.”

  My jaw drops as does my hand. “Excuse you – “

  Jason just huffs, and proceeds back to walking. “When someone wants to do something, like , to you, even if he doesn’t succeed, only idiots forgive him. And you, Kim Jung In, who has the mind of a ten-year-old, are the biggest pabo I have ever seen.”

  As he walks toward the front door of the SM building, I watch him with my jaw still on the floor. “Did you… did you just refuse my shaking hands with you?”

  “Ne,” he replies, without looking back.

  “Jason Han! You come back here and shake your damn hand with mine! I’m trying to be nice to you even if you… besides, I am not stupid! I – “

  Jason waves his hand, a step before the doorway. “Goodbye, Kim Jung In, Violet Scott.” Maybe it’s just my imagination, but he seems to stop for a few seconds before the door opens. “I guess I was wrong about you… and I’m sorry.” Then he vanishes into the crowd of fans outside, leaving me in the building, staring at his back before he disappears.

  I definitely imagined that last sentence.

    Leina’s POV:

  When no one rushes after Violet, who, to everyone’s utter surprise, runs after Jason, I whirl around to face Baekhyun.

  “Aren’t you supposed to go to Violet – “

  Baekhyun shakes his head. “I’m not supposed to.”

  My ears are failing me. They have to be. “But – “

  “I know now, Leina.”

  I try to hide my surprise at his sudden statement, because there are other people around us, and I have a feeling that what he’s about to say won’t be something good. And I don’t want to be humiliated or embarrassed in front of so many people. “You know now… what?”

  “Everything. And I’m sorry, for being so stupid, for being so blind,” Baekhyun says.

 [Baekhyun's Flashback]

  “Kyungsoo-ah, have you seen Leina?” Baekhyun blocked Kyungsoo’s way to the restroom.

  “Ani.”

  He frowned. “Do you think she’s avoiding me? I mean, she hasn’t talked to me, not even once during singing practice, and it’s weird…”

  “I need to pee, Baekhyun.”

  “I need answers, Kyungsoo.”

  Kyungsoo sighed. “If I answer you, would you let me in to finish this very important procedure in daily life?”

  “Ne.”

  “Fine. Yes, she’s avoiding you.”

  Baekhyun’s frown grew deeper. “Why – “

  “Hey, I answered your question! Now let me in to pee!”

  With a huff, Baekhyun stepped aside, and Kyungsoo rushed in with a mumbled ‘thanks’ to a booth.

  “Why is she avoiding me?”

  “Are you really going to do this? Interrogate me when I’m in the middle of doing something utterly important?”

  All Baekhyun did was smirk. “We’re boys, Kyungsoo.”

  “So?”

  “And, we’ve washed together before, so – “

  “Arra, arra!” Kyungsoo yelled in embarrassment, exhaled when he finished, and walked to the sink to wash his hands. “Okay, so Leina is avoiding you, and because of a very obvious reason.”

  “Obvious? But she seems so… down.”

  “Well, yeah, because she is.”

  “Then why don’t you go comfort her or something?”

  Kyungsoo choked out a laugh. “It’s not my comfort she wants.”

  Baekhyun made a sound of unbelief. “That’s impossible; who wouldn’t want the comfort of the one they like?”

  For a moment, Kyungsoo didn’t speak. When he finally did, and lifted his head to stare at Baekhyun’s reflection in the mirror, his voice was barely above a whisper. “You… you think she likes me?”

  “Ne… Doesn’t she? I mean, you’re the reason she auditioned in, right? You’re the reason – “

  “But that was before, Baekhyun.” Kyungsoo shook his head. “She still loves me; but in a we-were-bosom-friends way. The boy who she really loves now is someone else. The one she wants comfort from is someone else.”

  “I don’t understand – “

  Kyungsoo looked straight into Baekhyun’s eyes, as brown as chocolate. “Remember when I once told you, that we tend to fall in love with people who hurt us the most? That maybe the person we love, is actually in love with someone else who could never be his?” He didn't smile. "You're clever, Baekhyun. I know you know what I'm talking about."

 [Flashback End]

  “I had been living in misery for a year; misery I had put myself in. I was stuck in the past. I couldn’t move on ever since Vi said she couldn’t return my love towards her, ever since I knew her heart belonged to someone else. I grieved over it so much because I had never fallen so hard for someone; it was as if I had been sinking into a sandpit and didn’t realize until then, I had no means to pull myself back up again.

  “But then you came, Leina. I don’t know how it happened, but it just… started. You appearing in my everyday thoughts started happening. At first I would just, maybe suddenly in the middle of a break, wonder if you were adapting well to your trainee life. I would wonder if you had made any friends yet, if you had felt your belonging here yet. It was just the same random thoughts I had about other friends.

  “Then the everyday practicing began. We met every day, to sing, to learn each other’s singing skills and understand each other’s good parts and bad parts; we got to learn everything about each other. I learned that you hate peanut butter sandwiches, that you love quiet places, that even a black spot on the white wall fascinates you. You started occupying my every thought – I would worry if you had a good night’s sleep, if you had tired yourself too much during individual practices, even if you had enough protein you would need during breakfast.

  “I thought you liked Kyungsoo. I really did; it’s why I kept telling you about my love for Vi. And I… I thought… I had this feeling that you deserved to know, although I didn’t understand why I would think that.

  “But after one stupid, crazy talk I had with Kyungsoo in the men’s restroom, Leina, that’s when I realized how blinded I was. That’s when I realized that your heart had been on your sleeve all along, that even the others noticed it, but I didn’t, because I thought I was still helplessly in love with Vi. Jeez, if I had known your true feelings, Leina, I wouldn’t have… I wouldn’t have told you all those stuff about my depression of not being able to forget Violet – “

  “My true feelings?” I can’t help but interrupt him, my face feeling as if it had been shoved into a heated oven. “What do you know about ‘my true feelings’?”

  Baekhyun stops raking his hair with his fingers and stare into my eyes, the brown in his steady. “That you like me.”

[A/N] oh wow is this new word font is so cool but it's hard to read lmao.

SO YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH I AM BACCCCCCCCK. I apologize for suddenly disappearing for like a month... the most hectic month ever omg.

Just so you know, this story is about to wrap up!! HEHE HOW DO YOU GUYS LIKE THE CLIFFHANGER KEKEKE /gets thrown into an oven/