It was August, and Teen Top’s promotions were still going strong. Rachel glanced at the calendar, knowing that her 17^th birthday was in a couple of weeks.

She scowled. “I'm getting old,” Rachel whispered to herself.

Emily walked past her, glancing over Rachel’s shoulder. “Morning.”
Rachel turned, looking at Emily. “Good morning.” Rachel smiled to herself, hearing her accent.
“It’s Saturday right?” Emily asked, heading towards the kitchen.
“Sure is, did you want to do something today?”
“Yeah why not. Are we going out with Teen Top again?” Emily reached into the cupboard, taking out a box of cereal.
“That’s not a bad idea actually,” Rachel thought for a second, knowing that they could begin ‘pranking’ Ginger.

Emily helped herself to the milk, generously pouring it into her bowl. “You right? You look like you’re thinking of some master plan.”
Rachel shrugged, sitting at the table next to her. “You haven’t met Ginger yet, haven’t you?”
“Ginger? Why would you call your child a vegetable?”
Rachel snickered. “Today’s gonna be fun then.”

Emily looked at her curiously, finishing her cereal and pouring another serve. Rachel smiled, taking out her phone, pressing speed dial. Emily waited, knowing that she was able to understand, write, read and speak Korean faster than she usually thought thanks to Rachel.

So now Emily was patiently waiting for Rachel to start speaking so she could eavesdrop. 

“Hello?”
“Jonghyun, I think it’s time to tell him.” Rachel replied bluntly.
“Whoa, Jagi, what brought this on?” Changjo sighed on the other end.
“It’s August Jonghyun. His birthday is one week after mine. You really wanna tell him on his birthday?”
Changjo thought for a minute. “Jagi, do you have any idea what to say to him?”
“We don’t need to rehearse it. Honestly, I think you should say more that I.”
“But you’re the one who made the decision,” Changjo replied with a groan.
Rachel rolled her eyes, Emily watching her. “Fine. We’re doing it. Today. No excuses.”

Changjo chuckled on the other end. “Whatever you say. You coming over?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll see you then.”

***

Rachel and Emily walked over to Seoul’s place, which were a few streets away. When they knocked on the door, they weren’t surprised to see CAP open it.
“Minsoo oppa, you’re gonna get in trouble,” Rachel said simply.
“It’s not like I'm breaking all the rules,” CAP replied.
Emily and Rachel looked at each other, before shaking their heads. “Oppa, you are breaking all the rules.”  They both said.
CAP sighed, nodding. “Yeah I guess I am.”
“What the heck are you doing here anyway?” Emily asked.
CAP looked at her blankly. “Your Korean is good.”
Emily grinned. “Thanks.” 
“Don’t change the subject,” Rachel said, gently pushing CAP back inside the house.

Seoul walked out, watching the three of us. “Oh, don’t say ‘hi’ or anything,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“Shush, unnie, I'm trying to figure why Minsoo oppa is here!” Rachel waved her hand in Seoul’s direction.
“He only came a few minutes ago,” Seoul replied.
Emily and Rachel groaned. “Well, that ruins everything, we thought we could use it against you,” Emily ‘hmphed’.

“You think so, but no.” Seoul laughed.
“Let’s go get Mizuki,” Rachel replied, heading towards the door once more.

***

Mizuki lay underneath the sheets of her bed, her closed eyes and fringe the only thing visible apart from the sheets. The small alarm on her bedside table blared loudly, stirring her from her sleep. “Mmph,” Mizuki groaned, her hand attempting to turn off the alarm. As she failed miserably, her bedroom door opened, and Jung-Hwa walked inside, turning the alarm off.
“Mizuki, wake up,” Jung-Hwa poked his girlfriend’s cheek.
“Neh,” Mizuki replied, turning over.
“Rachel, Seoul and Mizuki are here,” Jung-Hwa continued to gently poke her.
“…This early?”Mizuki groggily sat up, her hair a mess.
“Babe, its 10am.”

Mizuki sighed, getting out of the bed. “I’ll be down in a minute or two,” she said quietly, heading for the bathroom. Jung-Hwa smiled, and walked out of the room and down the stairs.
“Where is she?” Seoul asked.
“She just woke up,” Jung-Hwa replied.
Rachel and Emily sat on the couch. “We can wait. That gives us time to think of what prank we want to pull on Ginger today,” Rachel smiled proudly.
“Are we pranking today?” CAP asked.
Seoul and Rachel nodded.
“Guys, fill me in,” Emily said helplessly.
“Ginger is Changjo’s childhood friend, and she wants him. Naturally, Rachel would want her to burn into a thousand flames, but that’s a little unreasonable. So we decided to ‘prank’ her until she would want to leave,” Seoul replied.

Mizuki walked down the stairs, still looking a little groggy. “Good morning,” she said sleepily, stretching her arms.
“Morning! Come on, we’ve got to prank Ginger today,” Rachel smiled happily.
“Why couldn’t you call me earlier?” Mizuki replied.
The four visitors didn’t reply. “I guess we didn’t think of that,” CAP said.
“We thought you’d be awake by now,” Emily reasoned.
“It’s Saturday, I generally sleep in. At least let me eat some food before we go,” Mizuki headed toward the kitchen.

After an hour or two, the group made their way back to Teen Top’s dorm, CAP leading the way, knowing a short cut that he discovered not too long ago. Rachel narrowed her eyes, having a feeling that CAP was sneaking out more than he stated. The morning sun shone on all of them, causing them to all groan in discomfort. Summer was never kind. At least one member of the group yawned every ten minutes, not used to the early morning wake up calls. Soon, they were all thinking of how to prank Ginger for today.
“You have to let me see her first,” Emily said.
“Trust me, there’s nothing to see,” Mizuki replied.
“What does she look like anyway?” Emily looked at everyone as they all stopped at a pedestrian crossing.
Everyone pointed to Rachel. “Like her,” they all said.
Rachel laughed wryly. “Except she’s skinny, pretty, and ten times better than me.”
Seoul smacked Rachel’s arm, shaking her head. “Changjo chose you. That means something.”
Rachel shrugged. “If I didn’t exist, he would’ve chosen her.”
“But he didn’t. So stop belittling yourself,” Mizuki said.

As they all crossed, Jung-Hwa frowned, looking at Rachel’s hand. “Hey, what’s that?” he asked.
Rachel looked at her hand, not knowing that she still wore the ring given to her from Niel. “It was…a gift.” She said quietly.
“From?” CAP asked.
“…Niel.” Rachel replied.
Everyone stopped walking, and Rachel braced herself for the worst.

“The boy gave you a ring!? You have couple rings!?” Seoul shook Rachel’s shoulders.
Rachel nodded simply, not saying a word. She knew that this caused a problem, but Rachel couldn’t take it off. It somehow…kept her whole.

Despite the fact that she felt whole even before he gave her the ring, this was different.

“Does Changjo know about this yet?” Mizuki asked.
Rachel shook her head. “He hasn’t seen it.”

***

They reached the dorm, and CAP opened the door, letting everyone inside. Ginger was already there, clearly amused.

The rest of Teen Top didn’t share her ‘amusement’ though.

“Hello,” CAP said.
“Hyung, where were you?” Ricky asked.
“I went for a walk and ran into them,” CAP pointed back to the rest of the group who were still walking in. His excuse seemed to be legit enough.  
Ginger smiled when she saw Seoul and Mizuki. “Hey,” she said.
The two girls smiled back. “Hey.” They replied.

If Rachel didn’t know them for as long as she did, she wouldn’t have caught the distaste hidden in her friend’s voices.

Niel and Changjo looked at Rachel, both giving her adoring smiles. Rachel smiled back, and she absent mindedly dragged Emily with her to sit down, as a way of breaking the tension between the boys and herself.
“Emily, this is Ginger,” Rachel said emotionlessly, pointing to Ginger.
Ginger glared at Rachel for a moment before quickly changing her angry expression to a welcoming face. “Hello,” she said brightly.

“Wow, she looks like a total ,” Emily said in English, causing L.Joe and the girls to snicker.

“Huh?” Ginger replied, cocking her head to the side.
“She’s an actress and she doesn’t know English?” Emily asked again.
“Remember, she’s starting up,” Rachel said, trying to restrain her laughter. Changjo smiled a little bit, not caring too much about the open dislike to his childhood friend.

Before Emily and Ginger could speak, Rachel and Changjo exchanged a knowing glance. Changjo saw the silver on her hand, and frowned.
“What’s that?” he mouthed to his girlfriend.
“I’ll explain after we talk to him,” Rachel mouthed back.

***

~A FEW HOURS LATER~

Niel, Rachel and Changjo walked out of the dorm, and down to the spare room that Niel and Changjo shared when the ‘fight’ occurred. Niel fisted his hands in his pockets, slightly nervous. He quickly remembered back to when Rachel and Changjo asked if they could talk to him earlier.
“Look, Niel,” Rachel said, opening the door to the spare room. Changjo walked inside first, sitting on the couch. Niel walked in, and looked at Rachel as she closed the door.
“What?” Niel asked; his voice a little shaky.

Rachel went to sit on the armrest of the chair, while Niel walked over, standing a metre away. “I have something to tell you,” she said quietly.
“What, you’re pregnant and it’s Changjo’s child?” Niel asked sarcastically.

The air grew tense.

“It has nothing to do with me being pregnant,” Rachel replied.
“So what is it then?” Niel asked once more.
Changjo looked at Rachel, waiting for her to say something.

Rachel cleared . “I’ve been lying to you Niel. Last year–”
“Last year you told me that I was the one for you. Are you telling me that you lied? All that time?” Niel stared at Rachel’s emotionless face.
“Yes.”
“What did I even mean to you?”
Rachel kept shut.
“You played along! You went with me to the café! You took the ring!”
“Ring?” Changjo asked, standing up.

Niel pointed at his Dongsaeng. “Don’t speak.”
Changjo held his tongue, looking away.
“Niel I–”
“How could you?” Niel looked at Rachel, begging for an explanation.
“I thought that I made the right choice. I thought that I didn’t need Jonghyun. I thought that I would be happy with you.” Rachel felt her eyes sting.
“How long have you been cheating on me?”
Changjo crossed his arms. “Have you actually taken her on a date? Except for that time you both went to the café? Which was, a few weeks ago?”
Niel kept still, his lips pursed.

Rachel felt a tear run down the side of her nose. As long as they weren’t beating each other up to a pulp, she would be fine.

“You had a year. You had a year to make her yours. You thought that by her choosing you, you would be with her forever?” Changjo stepped forward, looking Niel in the eye.
Niel didn’t say a word.
“Weren’t you going to do anything? Did it cross your mind to comfort her when I was in hospital that day? What did you do Niel? You stayed at the dorm, while Rachel sat in my hospital room. Did you even bother looking for her? Call maybe?” Changjo uncrossed his arms, his voice strong.
“So you’re proving me wrong Changjo. Is this what you wanted?” Niel replied.

I could hear his voice breaking. It didn’t help my quiet, broken sobs, and Changjo glanced at me, worry in his eye before looking back at Niel.

“You think I wanted you to feel bad? You think I intentionally wanted to hurt you? I'm not that type of person Niel.” Changjo said quietly.
“So, why are you saying this?”
Changjo glanced at me. “Telling you the truth, it’s hurting her as much as it’s hurting you.”

Niel saw the tears run down my cheek, and he unconsciously wiped his eyes, looking at the wetness on his hand. He stood silent for a moment, and I took advantage of it, walking over and wrapping my arms around him.

“I'm sorry Niel.” I whispered.

He tentatively pushed me away, shaking his head, looking at me with what I thought was a little contempt. “It’s funny,” he said, a broken laugh escaping his lips.

Changjo and I looked at him, bewildered. “What is?” I asked quietly.

He tapped my nose with the tip of his finger.

“Even after telling me that I was nothing but a back up for you, even after Changjo told me that I did nothing to keep you with me, when I had the perfect opportunity…” he trailed off, and kissed my cheek before heading to the door.

I looked at him. The only sound that I could hear was the rapid beating of my heart.

He turned to face me, and smiled, despite the continuous tears flowing down his cheeks.

“I'm still in love with you.”

And he walked out the door, closing it quietly. 

hello everyone, sorry i took so long to update..

it was a painful chapter to write

and sorry the chapter itself is HUGE. i looked at the word count and it was 2000+ 

gah, writing this made me feel uber depressed. OTL 

till next time readers, i love you all~~ 

PS. 

If you have a tumblr, follow me! littlemissandromeda.tumblr.com

and my roleplay one (i roleplay Changjo. How ironic) dirty-changjo.tumblr.com 

^regarding the Changjo one, i'm actually dating so uh...*awkies* yeah just follow ok? 

LOVE YOU ALLLLL