It didn’t take long for the boys to notice something was wrong. After I left at the end of their performance that day, the manager must have made some kind of excuse, but when I didn’t show up on Monday for their photoshoot, they started texting me.

 

Especially Jongin.

 

From The Bestest Boyfriend Ever, My One and Only Love:

Hey where are you?

 

To The Bestest Boyfriend Ever, My One and Only Love:

I’m in class.

 

From The Bestest Boyfriend Ever, My One and Only Love:

Oh. You’re not coming to the photoshoot today? D;

 

To The Bestest Boyfriend Ever, My One and Only Love:

Not today :(

 

To The Bestest Boyfriend Ever, My One and Only Love:

By the way, did you change your name on my phone?

 

From The Bestest Boyfriend Ever, My One and Only Love:

No. Why would you say that? :P

 

To The Bestest Boyfriend Ever, My One and Only Love:

Oh nothing. Some idiot decided to mess with my contacts and change your name to “The Bestest Boyfriend Ever, My One and Only Love.”

 

From The Bestest Boyfriend Ever, My One and Only Love:

Sounds about right ;)

 

From The Bestest Boyfriend Ever, My One and Only Love:

I mean….who would do something like that?

 

To Kkamjong (jerkface):

I don’t know. But it’s all good I changed it back now.

 

From Kkamjong (jerkface):

D: what did you change it to?

 

To Kkamjong (jerkface):

Don’t worry about it :P

 

To Kkamjong (jerkface):

I have to pay attention in class now. Good luck with the photoshoot :D

 

From Kkamjong (jerkface):

Tell me!

 

From Kkamjong (jerkface):

Kay fine. Bye :(

 

Tuesday (the day after the photoshoot), the boys were scheduled for a radio show at night. And though I stayed on the computer well into the night to watch and listen to it, it still didn’t feel the same. I missed them already.

 

On Wednesday, I went out for lunch with Ji Eun in between classes, and without much effort, we began to slip back into our old routine, rebuilding a friendship that was slightly burdened from my busy schedule.

 

“How do you do it?” I asked her.

 

She looked up from her phone and swallowed the chunk of sandwich that was in . “Do what?”

 

“You and Chanyeol. I don’t get it. How do you guys make time to see each other so easily without getting caught and stuff like that? I mean I worked with them and all but…”

 

“You just have to find a way around it.” She replied. “I lot of celebrities do it, more than you think. You just have to hope that no crazy stalker is around when you guys meet up. Honestly, its hard some times, but you just have to trust that in the time that you’re apart from each other, your love still continues and though you might have other priorities at the moment, you’ll still love each other in the end.

 

“I mean, I told Chanyeol myself, he needs to focus on his career, and I need to focus on my education. We’re more there to just support each other on the sidelines rather than revolving our days around each other.”

 

“Oh…” I mumbled, “That’s not how I thought of it…”

 

“Of course it isn’t! You and Jongin are completely different from the two of us. Despite how much slack I give him about being a crap boyfriend, it’s really obvious that you two rely on each other a lot. And it’s not a bad thing. I mean, relatively, Jongin does have a lot more pressure as the lead dancer and face of the group, so he needs that extra support. And let’s face it, he has become the number one person in your life.”

 

“Honestly though, there’s nothing wrong with phone calls at the end of the night. Skype is a wonder when it comes to communicating with those guys. On top of that Channie and I barely go out anymore, maybe once a month or something, and maybe every other week or so, he’d visit me and we’d hang out.” She shrugged. “That’s all I can tell you.”

 

Ji Eun finished the rest of her sandwich and stood up. “Now hurry up. We have music history in 20 minutes.”

 

I groaned thinking about the two hour lecture ahead of me. “I hate music history.”

 

“Shut up, you skipped the first half of the course already. Be grateful.” I couldn’t help but chuckle at the truth of her words. Who was I to complain? I only had to suffer half of what everyone else had to suffer.

 

That night, an alarm on my phone went off for the weekly reminder that there was going to be show champion, and for most regular days, I was supposed to be at work. Other than that though, I got no other notifications, and I couldn’t help but feel disappointed that none of the members questioned my whereabouts, not even Jongin.

 

Regardless, I sat myself down with my homework in front of the TV and watched the guys perform flawlessly on stage. After yet another win, I turned the TV off and began to really focus on my work. Ji Eun was right, I should be more prioritized, and really, some time off for myself seemed about right to sort out my thoughts and put my life back on track.

 

Just as I finished my assignment, a knock on my door sent my jumping into the air in surprise. For a moment I began panicking because never before had I had visitors so late at night, and it it were Ji Eun, she would have called before coming over. When I didn’t get up to open the door though, the voices on the other side set me to ease.

 

“See hyung, I told you to call before coming over.” Chanyeol’s deep voice rumbled outside the door.

 

“Please, I know this girl is home, she’s probably too lazy to get out of bed to answer the door or something.” Baekhyun replied. A couple of other voices followed after that, and slowly I began to recognize at least eight voices.

 

“Are all of them here?” I murmured to myself to before getting off of the couch.

 

When I opened the door, the rest of them were still standing there, deep in whatever argument/conversation they were having. The first to notice me was the ever so quiet Sehun who let out a giant grin and came to hug me.

 

“Yoonae~”

 

“Oppa.” I greeted back, almost choking from the lack of air because of his tight embrace.

 

“Yah, yah, yah. Sehun. Stop strangling her.” My boyfriend warned before tugging the maknae off of me. By then, most of the other members had noticed and quieted down. A few of them were smiling, but for the most part, they had the same look on their faces; expressions of confusion and wonder.

 

I smiled nervously at them, knowing exactly what question they were all going to bombard me with. “Uh….do you guys want to come in first?”

 

Never had I had thirteen people crowded into my living room. Back when I first moved in, it was just EXO-K in Korea, so at most, there was only seven people in the apartment. But as each of them attempted to find a place to sit in the relatively cramped space, I realized it was impossible and swore never to invite all of them over at the same time again.

 

“Nice place you have here.” Luhan commented as he tried to relax on the floor in the corner.

 

“Thanks,” I replied. “I forgot the M members haven’t been here before.”

 

“Yeah…”

 

“Anyways!” Chanyeol piped up, breaking the conversation that was quickly falling into an awkward silence. “Where were you today Yoonae?”

 

I sighed, looking around at all of their curious faces, some more concerned than others. “I...I resigned from my job.”

 

A few of them gasped, Baekhyun and Kris seemed to have known all along, and Sehun flinched again as if he was hearing this for the first time again. I risked a peek over at Jongin who was sitting beside me and he simply smiled and took my hand in his, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Something about his reaction made me feel as if he had known all along, but how?

 

“B-but why?” Xiumin asked, breaking out of his usual quiet shell.

 

“It was too much.” I scripted this two days ago, knowing that sooner or later I would have to tell them something. “I couldn’t balance a full-time job and full-time education at once. I started off the job as a part-time assistant, now that I’m the head coordi, the schedule just got too hectic so…”

 

“Wait, then how are you going to pay off your university tuition and expenses and stuff?” Suho asked.

 

I shrugged. “I’ll probably find a part time job of some sort. Also, I needed to put some distance into our communication you know? I think….being around all of you so much, and even living with you, it’s not weird for us but...just in case. I don’t want anyone to be too suspicious.”

 

It was already a close call. I thought.

 

“That makes sense,” Chen nodded.

 

“Are you going to be okay though?” The over-protective brotherly side of Baekhyun kicked in again, and I couldn’t help but feel warmed at the sight.

 

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” I said. “We can see each other still, maybe not as much but…”

 

“Of course.” Suho agreed. “We are one.”

 

“Ewww you’re so cheesy.” Sehun complained, throwing a look at the leader of the group.

 

“Aww maknae come here.” Baekhyun said, as he instantly tugged Sehun into his arms, and almost immediately, everyone in the room joined for a giant group hug surrounding the youngest member.

 

I couldn’t help but laugh as Sehun continued to protest from the bottom of the pile. As we separated, I caught Jongin’s gaze. He seemed to be hesitating about something.

 

“Do you want to talk?” I asked him. He replied with a nod, and because the others noticed, they began to stand up and make their way to the door.

 

“We’ll leave you two love birds to talk for a bit.” Baekhyun said with a growing grin on his face.

 

“We’ll wait for you in the parking lot Jongin.” Suho said, “Bye Yoonae.”

 

“Bye Yoonae!” The rest of them chorused together, and one by one, they left the suite, closing the door behind them.

 

When the room was quiet again, I turned to face my boyfriend who seemed to be deep in thought.

 

“What’s wrong?” I asked him. We both sat down on the couch, facing each other.

 

I watched as he took in a large amount of air before slowly exhaling. “Last week, I talked to Lee Soo Man, he called me in during one of the rehearsals.”

 

Well that was news. I froze as I tried to process what he had said and what it implied. “Do you mean…”

 

He nodded. “The photos right? He showed them to me that day. He said he had showed you already and gave you an option…to leave me or leave the company. I guess I know the answer now huh?”

 

“I couldn’t leave you Jongin.” I said, taking his hand in mine.

 

“I know. I know now, but for a second I was so stupid. He gave me the same options Yoonae, he told me either I leave you, or he’d fire you without another thought. He gave me time to think about it and I was so close to giving in, because I couldn’t risk it you know? I couldn’t risk you losing your job because of me, because of us. And I kind of figured because of those few days that you were ignoring me - probably thinking about this whole situation - that you were probably going to break up with me too.’

 

“You...were going to break up with me?” I could already feel my heart breaking from the thought that he even considered that an option, but then I realized I probably would have, and almost did do the same thing too.

 

“I was so stupid. So stupid to not have confronted you at all about this.” He shook his head in self-loathing. “But then we were here, on our date. And thank God we were here because I thought I could break up with you that night, but when you brought up our future…”

 

“I realized I couldn’t let you go, no matter what.” I finished for him. He let out a small chuckle.

 

“Yeah.” He squeezed my hand a bit, and as if on queue, I looked up to meet his gaze. “I’m sorry I even considered that.”

 

“No, I...I considered the same thing too, but...I guess we’re just lucky right? That everything worked out for us in the end.”

 

He frowned, “not everything. What are you going to do about your job?”

 

“I already talked to the grandma who runs our favourite ramen store. She said I could work there part time, any time I want.” I replied, “I think I’ll start working next week, after I catch up a bit with my school work.”

 

“Oh, does that mean I can visit you for dinner then?” He said with growing excitement in his voice.

 

“Or you can visit me here after I’m done work, and you’re done recordings or rehearsals, I can get take out from the store, and we can have another movie night.” I suggested.

 

He grinned. “Sounds good.” Shifting over, he leaned his head on my shoulder and I leaned mine on his head.

 

“When Lee Soo Man told me that you had resigned, and that we’d never have time to meet each other anymore. He told me to just give it up because eventually we’d be so caught up in our own lives that there would be no relationship anymore and we would break up eventually.”

 

“Well he’s wrong.” I said. “We can get through this. There’s nothing wrong with a little distance.”

 

“I’ll still miss you though.” He said.

 

“And I’ll miss you too.”

 

He lifted his head, and very slowly, our lips met. After a moment of simply enjoying each other’s presence, I finally took in the time.

 

“You should go now, the others are still waiting for you.” I said, as I stood up. We made our way to the door, and bid our good-byes.

 

“I’ll see you soon.” He said, a bitter smile evident on his features.

 

“See you soon.”

 

Leaning down , he gave me one last kiss. “I love you.” He said.

 

“I love you too.”

 

And without a doubt I knew, Jongin loved me. Loved me enough to sacrifice his own happiness for me. Enough to take a risk and continue on our minimalistic relationship in hopes of a better future. We’d be separated for now, but hopefully, at the end of the road, everything will be worth it.