After staring at the trees that whizzed past his line of sight for what seems like forever, Minho took a quick glance at the woman beside him, her head drooped and bobbing in perfect sync with the car's movements. Sleep was eventually going to catch up with her after all. He had been making a conscious effort to drive slower whenever he reached a turn, so as to prevent her from a rather painful wake up, and wondered if he should wake her up himself, since they were reaching soon. Maybe he should just leave her like that, considering the amount of sleep she's been getting lately.

Minutes later, he parked the car after finding a convenient parking lot. Bora was still in dreamland, so he unbuckled his seat belt, switched off the engine and waited. The heat would wake her up, right? To be honest, Minho didn't want to bring her out of her slumber. Bora looked so beautiful when she's asleep. The steady rise and fall of her chest, her long eyelashes that gently rest against her skin, those soft and partically opened strawberry lips... Man, those lips looked so kissable.

For a second, he wondered if they were.

"No Minho!" He scolded himself. "You're her best friend, not her boyfriend. Behave!" One more look at Bora though send his defenses crashing to the ground. He wondered if Bora had ever thought the same thing as he did.

If she like him as much as he did.

It's been years since he started feeling like this, even before they became friends. She first pulled his heartstrings when she debuted, her quirky and bubbly personality grabbing his attention immediately. He was the first one start a friendship between the two, and it took time before they were inseparable. Well, almost inseparable. She wasn't fully his yet.

He wished she was.

Inching closer to her face, he stared at those mesmerising lashes, their lips barely apart. One gentle push forward was all it took to connect his lips with hers. He held his breath as the sweet scent of her cherry flavoured lipgloss overwhelmed his senses. Amazing. It took a while for him to actually realise what he was doing, causing him to abruptly jerk back. What in the world did he just do?! Minho wanted to slap himself. He just kissed his bestfriend, for goodness sake! What will he do if she found out?

While Minho was busy panicking at himself for being such a impulsive fool, the young girl shrugged, rubbing her eyes with her backhand and blinking a few times. "Oh, are we here already oppa?"

Surprised, Minho jumped from his seat. "Ye-ye-yeah!" He stammered, feeling his cheeks burn with embarrassment. "YYou-you were sleeping so-so I didn't want to wake yyou up."

"Chill dude. Breathe and get your act together. You're not usually like this." Bora gave two resounding hits onto Minho's back. "And sorry for making for making you wait."

"It's okay. You were tired. Want to go now?" Minho opened and car door and walled out. He didn't need an answer. As Bora followed along, she unconsciously began to smile. It surprised her, for the feeling came for no reason. She watched the older man walked further ahead.

And stop, her lips, and carried on.

Bora felt rather intimidated to be stepping into such a prestigious school. The competition to get in here was extremely tough. Even though Bora's SAT scores were rather impressive, she couldn't get through, setting for Myungji University instead. She didn't stop working hard though, working hard in both her studies and training when she signed her contract. Her parents were so proud of her.

So was Hyorin.

 The two began questioning the people around the school if they knew who this family was. They started of with the students, as they found it both less awkward than talking go teachers, and moreover the students take the initiative to run straight at their Idols. Unfortunately, the student had graduated so long ago that even her juniors aren't around any longer. Despite that, more and more students were advancing the two stars. Only realising the bad position they were in later, Minho quickly pulled Bora out and away from the massive crowd that formed around them, running off to find a secluded area of the school to catch their breath.

"Let's stop asking students." Minho huffed. "Teachers won't be so crazy right?"

However, the teachers themselves weren't such a great help either. Most of the teachers were fairly new, as some of the older folk stepped down from teaching to enjoy their retirement. The rest could recognise that girl, but the only information they could derive was that she was very smart. They couldn't even remember her name. Minho and Bora was just about to give up when one of the female teachers suggested talking to Mdm. Jang, the senior biology teacher of this school. "That girl was her favourite student." The teacher had told them.

As they walked towards one of the bio labs, the two found Mdm. Jang busy with something on the table. They opened the door to find out that something came in the form of a frog just on the verge of being dissected by a knife. Minho turned to Bora to see if the young woman was frightened, but she was not. In fact, she even looked sad, as if she wanted to let the frog free. Maybe it reminded her of things she didn't want to remember, of things she didn't want to see.

"Oh dear." The old woman spoke, putting down her knife. "Class doesn't start in another hour."

"We're not here for classes, teacher." Minho replied politely. "We aren't even students here. We need you to help us identify someone."

"Hm. I see." The teacher picked up the frog and placed it back into the aquarium before removing her gloves. "That little guy has a few more moments to live. He should be grateful for you guys. So, who do you have to show me?"

Minho pulled out the photograph from his bag, handing it over to the teacher. She adjusted her thick rimmed glasses to get a better view. A smile soon formed on her face. "Ah, she. She's a good one."

"So you do know her." Bora said, rather pleased at finally getting results.

Why yes. I do, Ms. Bora?" She replied, giving Bora a shock. "Haha, an idol shouldn't be surprised at people recognising them should they. My son is a big fan of yours. Now where was I? Oh yes." She continued. "This girl was my favourite student. A brilliant scholar, dare say. She was one of the brightest students I had had, not to mention her passion for biology was inevitable to not notice. She could have become a brilliant scientist, if only she didn't choose another path."

"Another path?" Bora questioned.

"Yes, another path. Every child has different dreams, and despite being intellectual, she wanted to be like you, young lady, an idol star. And it wasn't a far-fetched dream, I can tell you that. She had talent, both in her feet and in her voice. When I asked her why she didn't want to pursue her dream when she was already so ready, she just laughed. 'I want something solid to fall back on.' She replied me with that. Like I say, she's a smart one."

Hearing this, Bora was reminded of Soyou, who herself had gotten her own hairdressing certificate before becoming a trainee. "She must now be pursuing her dream, mustn't she?"

"... I'm afraid not." Mdm. Jang's smile faded, making the atmosphere die down. Both of the two young ones felt umconfortable, as if a thick sense of dread began to rise from the bottom of their stomachs.

"What do you mean? Was she unable to get a contract? Did nobody want to choose her?"

"More than that, young lady. She... died. Murdered, to be more exact. And nobody knows why." This immediately shock the pair.

"Murdered?! How-how could this be?!"

"I would like to know that too, child. She never had any enemies or competition. The girl loved to keep to herself most of the time. To have such a bright and sweet girl sent to heaven so soon is really a pity."

Bora was confused. The girl is dead? Is this where the trail ends? How does this link to the house where Hyoyeon died? Hyorin, what am I suppose to do?

"Do you remember her name?" Bora asked softly.

"I do miss. I do." The woman walked over to the window beside the table, looking over the school grounds.

"Her name was Hyora." She spoke softly.

"Lee Hyora."

Hyomin was frustrated.

Nothing around her was going her way.

First of her schedule was packed.

She had to run to and fro from place to place, greeting the crowd as she leaves and jumps in her van, only to be zoomed to another place to greet people when she arrives. She was super exhausted.

Second, there were food problems.

Hyomin rolled her eyes as she continued to listened to the extreme protest made by her member to her manager against having no dinner that night. The basis of their argument was the fact that they had the performed and most other girl group are at least given the right to a small snack. The manager shut everyone off with the fact that they had to diet and lose weight in order to beat their competition.

Oh please.

Take a look around you. See Sistar? They eat like elephants and everybody still loves them. How about A pink? 2NE1? Do they skip dinner. What logic is there that just by skipping one meal- no, skipping an ENTIRE DAY of food going to help us slim down?!

Seriously, you're just trying to kill us.

Hyomin would love to join in the radical movement of her groupmates, but suffering the whole day without a bite to eat was leaving her deprive of energy. She's saving the last of it for the last performance of the day. If she can tolerate it just a little longer, plates of food with greet her in front of her eyes.

At least, that's what she believed. After all, they planned to sneak out of their dorm for a midnight feast.

With that conviction, Hyomin find her strength to pick up her mike and get on stage to perform.

To perform her last concert.

"Whoo! Glad that's done." Eunjung happily said. "Want to watch the other performances guys?"

"Yes! Yes!" The girls exclaimed. Qri even pointed out that fact that Infinite, Beast and other handsome boy groups were performing later on. The girls squealed in delight.

"You guys go on. I'll wait in the dressing room." Hyomin weakly told the girls. She was clutching her stomach tightly, and a painful expression covered her face.

"Omo! Are you okay?" Boram asked with worry. "You look pale."

"Hungry, that's all. I'm okay. Once the show closes after the final stages we can get home and eat right? Go along. I can wait."

"Okay. If anything happens just call us okay?" Watching the girls run off to get a better view. Hyomin walked slowly back to her room. Her stomach growled and her vision was a little blurry. To be honest she really didn't believe she could survive another minute but for the sake of her member's fun she wasn't going to burst their bubble. With luck however, Hyomin opened her dressing room door to find a plate of ham and cheese sandwiches on one of the tables.

Talk about diets.

As first, she was a little suspicious of the slices of heaven that just appeared in front of her eyes. But, then again, why look a gift horse in the mouth? Hyomin took a slice and began munching on it greedily, enjoying the taste of the soft honey ham and the melted gooey cheese. She took another slice after the first, and finish it just as quickly as she did with the first. Oh, how satisfied was she when she was done.

But not for long.

Hyomin's vision began to blur again. Her head became foggy and she felt dizzy. She was surprised, for this never happened before. Her first instinct was to shout for help, but the momentum of her legs giving out on her and landing hard on the ground knock the air out of her lungs. Now she's just struggling to breathe. What could have caused all this? She wondered, frantically trying to get her limbs to function again. The answered lied on the white paper plate siting on the top of the table. 

The sandwiches.

And as her vision darkens, Hyomin watched as a blurry image walked towards her, saying words she could barely grasp in her head.

"My new dream..."

===============

Legit sorry this took a long time. I believe the last time I updated this was a year ago?! I had so many ideas but so little time. Believe me, this chapter was in draft for so many months and I could only complete it today. I'll try my best to update all my fics and maybe complete this story soon enough, maybe about 10 chaps more? Anyways enjoy guys!