“So…” Jae Hwa’s mother drifted off as she sat down in one of the chairs in the living room. “Soohyun is a very nice boy,” she declared.

Jae Hwa didn’t look up from the book that she was reading on the floor, absentmindedly scratching Sohee’s head. “He is,” she smiled. Jae Hwa realized that it was very quiet and slowly peeked over the top of her book to see her mother’s expectant look. “Umma, Soohyun and I aren’t getting married anytime soon.”

Her mother sighed and rolled her eyes. “You always assume that I want you to get married -”

“That’s because you do!” Jae Hwa laughed and put down her book. “Umma, every time you call, you’re either telling me about everything that I’m missing at home, or you’re interrogating me about my love life! You’re always asking me, ‘so, do you have a boyfriend yet?’ or, ‘Jae Hwa, when am I going to have grandchildren?’ even though I’m hardly twenty-two!”

Jae Hwa’s mother pouted and opened to object, but Bae walked in and flopped down on the couch.

“Ye, umma,” He smiled lazily, starting to appear tired. “I’m hardly sixteen and you’ve already started harassing Eun Mi every time I bring her over. Why do you think I don’t bring her to visit anymore?”

Their mother huffed and stood up. “You’re so mean to me!” She declared overdramatically and walked away with her nose in the air.

--

“So… Do you miss her?”

Soohyun rolled his eyes at Kevin’s question. “Kevin, it hasn’t been three hours yet.”

“But…?” The more obnoxious member of U-Kiss leaned irritatingly close to Soohyun, fluttering his eyelashes.

Soohyun groaned and rolled his eyes. “Fine – ye, I miss her! But it’s no big deal! She’s happy, and we’ll be seeing her in less than two days!” He slouched in his seat and glared at the window. “Aigoo…”

“Something I thought was kind of funny?” Eli brought up randomly.

“Bwoh?”

“Her brother.”

“What about him? He was really nice,” Xander shrugged.

“He was also unnaturally mellow later on, awhile after he saw Jae Hwa again…” Kibum mused.

“I’ll call and ask her,” Soohyun smiled, taking out his cell phone. He paused when his finger was poised over speed-dial one because he saw all of the guys staring at him with sly smirks. “Bwoh?”

“You are practically lunging at the opportunity to call her!” Kiseop smirked.

“Shut up!” He snapped, hitting speed-dial one and holding the phone to his ear.

--

“Yah, Bae…” Jae Hwa began to say slowly, lowering her book. “That episode you had earlier…”

“I swear, Jae Hwa, it was the first one I’ve had in awhile,” Bae shrugged one of his shoulders and changed the channel on the TV. “I’ve got it under control.”

“Are you sure? Umma implied that you’ve been walking Sohee for me; you could always pay one of the neighborhood kids -”

“Ani,” he cut her off. “Jae Hwa, in case you forget – you’re the only one who Sohee completely listens to. And she only listens to me because you trained her to. Trust me; I have everything under control.” He stopped when Jae Hwa’s cell phone starting buzzing on the table in front of her.

They both glanced at the screen and then Bae smirked when he saw her eyes light up at the sight of the screen.

Soohyun

Jae Hwa put down her book and was about to nudge Sohee’s head off of her lap so that she could get her phone, but Bae stopped her. “I’ll get it for you,” he told her, picking up the phone and hitting the green button. “Yoboseyo?” He answered. Jae Hwa’s phone was so loud, and the room was so quiet, she could hear what was being said on the other line.

“Yah, Bae?”

Bae smirked at Jae Hwa, who was holding out her hand expectantly. “Hyung!” He grinned. “I know why you’re calling, Jae Hwa’s right here!” He handed her the phone and sat down again, leaning towards her and watching her with sleepy eyes.

“Soohyun!” She said brightly into her phone, “Why are you calling so soon?”

“The guys were wondering something…”

“Ye?”

“Well, Eli started it, and then Kibum started thinking about it, and now even Dongho’s curious -”

“What is it, Soohyun?” She leaned back in her seat and continued to scratch Sohee behind the ears.

“Your brother’s kind of funny.”

Jae Hwa laughed. “Is that so?” She asked, looking up at her brother, who looked like he had just inhaled an entire tank of “happy gas” because of what he could hear.

“Ye, but they wanted to know why he kept looking so tired after you showed up; and that fainting thing…”

Jae Hwa looked up at her brother and moved the phone away. “Are you comfortable with me telling them?” She whispered.

Bae slouched back and shrugged. “I guess…” He muttered.

“Direct answer, please.” Bae looked up at his sister, and then nodded.

“Soohyun,” Jae Hwa began slowly. “My brother has mild narcolepsy.”

“Oooohhh…” Soohyun’s voice came through her phone. It was silent for a second, and then Soohyun said, “What’s narcolepsy?”

Jae Hwa smiled when she pictured Soohyun’s confused expression while he scratched his head.”Narcolepsy is a sleeping condition. People with narcolepsy are prone to excessive drowsiness and have a tendency of randomly falling asleep -”

“Usually at really bad times!” Bae yelled so that he could be heard over the phone. He and Jae Hwa could hear scuffling over the phone, probably one of the other guys trying to wrestle the phone from Soohyun’s hands.

“How does he have it?” They could finally hear Kevin’s curious voice.

“It’s hereditary, on my appa’s side,” Jae Hwa explained, off-handedly. “My uncle has it.” The other end of the phone was silent for a moment and Jae Hwa shook her head, chuckling. “Don’t worry, Kevin-ah,” she laughed, “I don’t have it. Bae was the unlucky one.”

“I think the one who’s more worried about you falling asleep randomly is Soohyun, what with the two of you having se-”

“Kevin!” She yelled, glancing up at Bae for a second. “What did I tell you about talking that way?”

She heard scuffling on the other end and yelling, and then she smiled when she heard Soohyun’s voice again. “Yeobo, I’m going to take care of Kevin, so I’ll call you back tonight!”

She restrained giggles because of the frustration in his voice. “Alright, I look forward to it,” she paused for a second and glanced up at Bae, but then her eyes looked towards her phone and her smile softened. “Saranghae,” she said with her smile evident in her words.

 “Saranghae~,” he cooed in response. She snapped her phone shut and smiled down at Sohee, but then was aware of the dead silence in the living area. She looked up at Bae’s scarred expression and had a mini-seizure when she realized what he had just overheard because of her crappy phone.

“You and Shin Soohyun are -”

“Ani!” She gasped, shaking her head. “Kevin’s just being a ert and jumping to conclusions!”

“…Whatever. I’m going to go take a nap.”

--

“What about my puppy?” Dongho whined randomly.

“What about your puppy?” Kibum said, glancing up from his book to look at the maknae out of the corner of his eye.

“Sohee’s almost three or four times the size of my puppy!” He declared, stretching out his arms and nearly smacking Eli in the face.

“I’m sure they’ll get along just fine,” Kiseop yawned, leaning his head back. “Jae Hwa’s dog is nice, your dog is nice – they’ll do fine. Quit whining.”

Dongho pouted, “I’m not whining!” He objected.

“You’re totally whining,” Kibum deadpanned.

“I’m not -”

“Yes you are!” All of the members of U-Kiss declared, except Soohyun; he was staring out the window.

Kevin noticed this and leaned towards him, obnoxiously so. He stopped when his face was a few inches from Soohyun’s shoulder. Soohyun slowly turned and looked over, finally noticing Kevin. “Kevin?”

“Ye?”

“…What are you doing?”

“You’re acting weird,” Kevin declared. “We’re teasing Dongho. You’re usually worse than we are about that.”

“I’m distracted, okay?” He mumbled, looking out the window.

“Thinking about your lover?” Kevin said the word ‘lover’ with a suggestive tone while wiggling his eyebrows and grinning ersely.

Soohyun groaned and rolled his eyes. “Aigoo, Kevin! Will you shut up about it already?” He crossed his arms and slumped down in his seat.

The truth was, he was thinking about being more than Jae Hwa’s boyfriend. He did want to add the ‘lover’ aspect to their relationship, but he knew that would be a very, very, very bad idea. He hadn’t been thinking obsessively about when he invited Jae Hwa to his room the night before. He had wanted to test the waters of her sleeping beside him. He was hoping to test ‘other’ waters, but when he saw the look on her face when she reached that possible conclusion…

Soohyun would have shuddered, had the others not been around. He never wanted Jae Hwa to look that angry ever again. If he could have his way, he would never see anything less than a smile on her face.

--

“Hyung, you’re obsessing,” Dongwoon stated. He glanced up at Junhyung, who was pacing furiously back-and-forth in the middle of the living room.

“We’ve been over this, Junhyung!” Doojoon groaned, flopping down into one of the chairs and running one of his hands through his hair. “You were a and she ran away. You screwed up, get over it.”

“Is she who you think about whenever we perform the songs begging the girl for forgiveness and a second chance?” Yoseob asked sarcastically.

“Shut up, Yoseob!” Junhyung snapped, glaring at him.

“It only makes sense,” Gi Kwang declared with equal sarcasm, nudging Yoseob’s side.

“Yeah, after all – he raps about how much he’s sorry, and he’s begging her to come back,” Hyunseung glared at Junhyung as he spoke, crossing his arms. Junhyung cried out in frustration and stormed into his room, slamming the door behind him.

All of the members of BEAST had known Jae Hwa. In fact, they’d all been quite fond of her. When she left, she severed all ties with Junhyung. It must have been very painful for her – she affectionately referred to all of the boys except Dongwoon and Doojoon as ‘her babies’ because they were all so adorable. The maknae and the leader she called her younger and older brothers, and Junhyung was her yeobo.

They were a second family to her – one to distract her from the family she missed. She had never told Junhyung much about her family; but he had never asked. And now he regretted it.

Apparently, she cared about her family tremendous amounts. She had done something with that Soohyun guy that she had never done with him – she kissed him in front of other people; and all because he took her to see her family. It made his blood boil when his brain replayed the clip of her kissing Soohyun on live television. She never liked receiving or giving pecks on the cheek in front of his friends.

But he did have a smug thought – he had Jae Hwa’s innocence. That was something that Soohyun would never have. But Soohyun could know the touch of her soft hands and lips on his bare skin, and the feeling of her smooth skin beneath his hands. Junhyung flopped onto his bed and sighed with sadness, trying to recall as much of Jae Hwa as he could. He tried to remember as much of the last night he spent with Jae Hwa as possible. He tried hard to recall the way she smiled at him when she said she wanted to be his, and he tried to remember the way his skin felt when she touched him.

Unfortunately, Junhyung couldn’t remember her smile. Whenever Junhyung tried to remember Jae Hwa, all he could see was the look of pain and anger on her face with tears building in her eyes as she whispered, “I hate you for this,” before she turned around and walked out of his life. And when he tried to remember how her hands felt against his skin, he could only remember the stinging on his cheek where she slapped him, right before delivering her final words.

Doojoon was right. He had screwed up – big time.