Whenever Kyuhyun is texting or chatting with Yesung, he is either alone or whenever he is with people, he is wearing earphones or his mind is just simply drifted off with Yesung only on his world. He avoids distractions because not only does he only have texts, IMs and calls to communicate with Yesung but their time is limited as well.

So that night, shortly after texting with Yesung, he removes his earphones and the next thing he hears is his mother almost tearing his dorm room door.

! What Mom’s doing here?? Did she receive the detention letter that fast?!

“CHO KYUHYUN OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT THIS SECOND!”

Kyuhyun almost stumbles on his own feet to reach the door to open it. He considers escaping by jumping the building but argues against it. If he does that, he’ll probably die and he won’t have any chance to meet Yesung for real. So he takes a deep breath and mentally prepares himself for whatever torture he’s going to suffer next. Then, he slowly opens the door.

“What the hell are you doing not opening your door? Don’t you know I’ve been knocking for the past thirty minutes?” Mrs. Cho literally screamed at her son, pinching his son’s ears and letting herself in her son’s room. “Come on in, Sooyeon.”

Kyuhyun wonders why their landlady let her mother visit at that time of night, with her voice as loud as ambulance’s sirens. He’s still wondering and already thinking of excuses why he can’t hear her mother’s knocks without having to mention Yesung’s name but when he hears Sooyeon’s name, he struggles to free himself from his mother’s grasp.

“What’s she doing here, Mom?” Kyuhyun snarls, looking critically at Sooyeon who’s walking behind her mother, still in her school uniform and looking down. What? She’s ashamed now that her evil act is already discovered? Kyuhyun can’t be fooled once more.

“Kyuhyun,” her mother’s voice changes as well and if Kyuhyun guesses it correctly, Sooyeon already told her mother something. Probably lies again to save herself, Kyuhyun thinks, eyeing Sooyeon curiously. “Sooyeon told me everything. She’s here to apologize because she said you’re not answering her calls or messages. Come on, Kyu, you’ve got to put all this behind. She’s your childhood friend, right?”

Kyuhyun literally wants to throw out his mother out of his room because of that. It’s like she’s saying that just because Sooyeon’s his childhood friend, he’s obliged to forgive her and forget everything that has happened that easily? What if he did hit Sooyoung that afternoon? Will he be able to forgive himself for that stupid mistake? Will Sooyoung ever forgive him? Will Joohyun and Jongwoon do? What if he and Jongwoon got into a bigger, messier fight? What if Jongwoon’s body wasn’t able to take everything? What if Jongwoon died?

“Eomma~ Please go home,” Kyuhyun says after taking a deep breath. He can’t make any more irrational, unthinking choices. He needs to remain calm to be able to think, to find out the truth in the choices at hand, and to be able to choose what’s the right choice.

Yesung would be proud.

But Mrs. Cho remains standing in between Kyuhyun and Sooyeon, tugging his son’s shirt and saying, “Kyuhyun, Sooyeon didn’t mean what she did. It’s an accident!”

Kyuhyun moves his gaze from his mother to Sooyeon who’s still looking down, playing with her fingers behind Kyuhyun’s mother. “Is that what she told you?” Kyuhyun asks his mom.

“Sooyeon would never do something like that purposely, Kyuhyun!”

Kyuhyun kind of laughs, but in a sarcastic manner that averts Sooyeon’s eyes from her fingers to Kyuhyun’s. “Seriously, eomma, how long have you really known Sooyeon?”

“I’ve known her since she was young, Kyuhyun. You grew together. I know she’ll never do something like that. She’s being accused, alright?”

“You know what, eomma,” Kyuhyun begins, turning to face his mother and Sooyeon. “We grew together and I thought I knew her well enough, too, but what happened his afternoon,” Kyuhyun says, stressing ‘what happened his afternoon’, “proved me otherwise.”

“You’re going to believe what they say about Sooyeon than Sooyeon whom you know ever since you’re young?!” his mother asked him incredulously, like it’s the most impossible thing in the world to believe at.

“It’s never how long you knew someone, eomma,” Kyuhyun says, remembering his words. “Please go home. It’s late and I’m tired.”

“KYUHYUN!” Mrs. Cho shrieked. Who says mothers can’t be really difficult sometimes?

“WHAT? You’re waking up the whole dormitory, eomma.”

“This is Sooyeon. She’s apologizing. Why don’t you forgive her?!”

“That is Sooyeon whom I don’t know,” Kyuhyun says icily. He’s not close to talking to Kyuhyun so why the hell would he even be close to forgive her for what she did that she can’t even admit? “The Sooyeon I know is a girl who’ll never hurt somebody just because it’s fun or whatever the hell the reason is.”

“She’s apologizing? Really? For what? For the thing she can’t even admit she did? How the hell do I forgive that, eomma? Tell me, how the hell should I forgive somebody who made a mistake, can’t even admit that mistake and doesn’t plan on changing anytime soon, like say admitting what she really did and apologizing to the real persons she made the mistake to? HOW?!”

If anything, Mrs. Cho is taken aback. Silent follows and nobody says anything until Sooyeon finally looks at Kyuhyun’s eyes and says to Kyuhyun’s mother, “It’s alright, auntie. Can you please let me talk to Kyuhyun-oppa alone?”

Kyuhyun’s mother is reluctant to let Sooyeon talk to Kyuhyun alone like Kyuhyun will murder Sooyeon and throw her to someplace faraway and fleeing from the crime scene because seriously, as calm as Kyuhyun face and voice’s looks, the intensity on his voice tells the opposite.

But after more pushing from Sooyeon that they’re going to be alright, Mrs. Cho can’t do anything more but stay at Kyuhyun’s room while Sooyeon and Kyuhyun go to the dormitory building’s rooftop.

“Now what, Sooyeon?” Kyuhyun says impatiently when they’re already at the rooftop and Sooyeon isn’t saying anything.

“Are you that mad at me, oppa?” Sooyeon asks, smiling sadly and if Kyuhyun doesn’t know her from their childhood days, he won’t recognize that pure smile behind the lipstick and lip shiner covering them now.

Kyuhyun remains silent because he’s mad, if not really, really mad and that prompts Sooyeon to continue, “I did that because I like you, oppa. But you’re complimenting Joohyun so I got jealous…”

How many times have Kyuhyun heard this? If he remembers correctly, ever since they’re in middle school, Sooyeon has been saying over and over to him that she likes him. At first, Kyuhyun doesn’t really know how to react to that because he has always seen Sooyeon as a friend and nothing more nor will he see her as something else in the near future but as they grew, Kyuhyun got used to it and is counting it merely as Sooyeon nagging him whenever she tells him that.

“Sooyeon-ah, you don’t like me.”

Sooyeon looks at Kyuhyun’s eyes, surprised.

“You like the idea of liking me because it’s easy and it’s convenient. But you don’t like me. You never liked me, as more than a childhood friend, I mean.”

“What are you saying, oppa? I like you.”

“You don’t,” Kyuhyun says again, “because if you really do, you wouldn’t have done what you did to Joohyun. If you really do, you wouldn’t have lied to my mother. You did that to Joohyun because she’s being a threat to your convenience. If you really do like me, it’s not about convenience.”

Sooyeon doesn’t say anything.

“Don’t escape; don’t settle on just what’s convenient, Sooyeon-ah,” Kyuhyun continues. “And,” he adds, when he’s about to leave and return to his room, “if you’re going to apologize to somebody, it’s not me whom you should be apologizing. Don’t hurt others just because you can’t admit what you want for yourself.”

Kyuhyun turns around but stops when Sooyeon softly says something, “You’ve changed, oppa.”

“Changed?”

“You’re in love,” Sooyeon says, a matter-of-factly, smiling.

Kyuhyun is silent for a minute or two but then, he returns his smile to Sooyeon and says, “I guess it’s true that love can really change people. Do the right thing, Sooyeon-ah. I know you’re more than this. I know you can do it.”

When Kyuhyun is gone, Sooyeon lets the tears fall.

“If only it’s that easy, oppa,” she cries, her knees weakening as she falls. “If only it’s that easy.”