Mirae kicked the pillow into the air, catching it with her feet, a skill she had mastered at the age of eight. She lay on her bed, tired from the load of school work that had attacked her lately. She planned on spending the day lazily,just in a pair of shorts, a baggy shirt she had stole from her brother and her hair in a bun that looked like a bird's nest on the top of her bed. She flopped her legs down on the bed. She reached for the speaker on her nightable, attaching her phone to it and softly allowed for Park Hyoshin's soothing voice to fill her head with soothing thoughts. 

Only that didn't work. Guess who popped up in her head? 

Yup, the cockroach.

Mirae kicked herself mentally, flailing her limbs in the air in a frustrating manner. She clutched the pillow in her hand, and quickly changed the song to something else. Some classical music that she didn't mind listening to. She calmed down, and just laid there, taking deep breaths.

Of course,knowing her luck, she wasn't going to get any rest, because her brother burst in through the door.He shoved the phone in her face, "It's someone named Aya".

Miwook frowned a what she was wearing"Hey! That's my shirt." Mirae looked down at what she was wearing, quickly grabbing the phone from her brother's hand, she shoved the little brat out the door. 

Slamming the door behind her, she answered the phone."Hello?"

"Haha what was the loud noise on the other end? Is everything alright?"

"Oh yeah just fine, you know, siblings."

"I totally understand." Aya laughed.

"Anyways, what's up?" Mirae brushed off the mundane topic, glancing at the clock. It was around noonish and her mother wasn't going to be home for atleast another seven hours. 

"Oh nothing, just wanted to ask if you wanna hang out? My day has been pretty bad, and it hasn't even started." Mirae heard Aya sigh on the other end. 

"Why? What happened?" Mirae cocked her head to the side, supporting the phone between her shoulder and cheek, checking for anything to wear. 

"Hm? Oh nothing. So are you up for it?" Aya quickly changed the topic. Mirae frowned. That wasn't like Aya, usually she would have told her. Whatever had happened must have been bad. 

"Oh..okay, so where do we meet up?" 

*     *     *

"Mirae! Over here!" Aya waved to catch her attention. Mirae paced over to where Aya was standing. 

"So your idea of hanging out...was at a park?" MIrae looked around where they were standing. Several children and adults alike were either platung or preparing picinics. It was a sunny day, after all, why spend it indoors?

Haha yeah right. 

"Yeah, I thought it would be nice, why? You don't like the out doors?"

"Not in particular." Mirae answered truthfully. The sun was directly up in their faces and it made Mirae's eyes sting. She wished she had brought a hat or sunglasses or something to stop the stinging. 

Aya gestured Mirae to follow her. they walked through a pathway that blocked the sunlight and caused a serene feel. Aya seemed to look quite solemn and she seldom ever spoke, while Mirae made random commentary on some flowers or other forms of vegetation that had inhabited the pathways. 

Mirae stopped. Aya noticed, mirroring her movements.

"Okay, what's wrong, you've barely even spoken, is everything alright?" Mirae asked, crossing her arms. Aya had a small smile on her face, she pointed at a nearby bench, where they decided to sit down.

"Now tell me, whats going on?" Mirae looked at Aya, she hadn't noticed before, but Aya's face seemed pretty tense. Aya heaved a sigh, "Is it that obvious?" Mirae nodded. 

"Sorry, I came out to get my mind off of it, but it seems to not be working that well." Aya apologized. Mirae shook her head, "Its alright. Tell me."

Aya twidled with a lock of her hair. "Well I was talking to..Hongbin last night and I have no idea what was going on, but he was apologizing to me for some reason, saying he was sorry for leading me on and what not." Aya's voice cracked a little. Her head was low, her long black locks were covering her face, she lightly kicked the ground, as she swung her foot slightly. Mirae tried to peak over to see Aya's face, but to no avail. Mirae's heart tightened up. Uh oh...the guilt...the guilt was rushing over her once again. Mirae silently took a deep breath.

"...Did he say anything besides that?" Mirae asked. Aya, raised her head, which Mirae saw, filled with damaged bliss, almost like a child who's chrstmas presents were taken away. 

"Yeah. He told me he ultimately had no feelings for me." Aya gave a whoop of laughter, but not the kind to laugh along with it. It felt cold and repuganat. Mirae felt horrible. She was holding herself responisble. 

Aya turned to Mirae, "He told me this in person. Honestly, he is so strange, sometimes I can't understand him. Like, does he like someone else? Could that be it? I don't even know where I went wrong. I've told him about my feelings for him several times in the past, but he always seemed to brush them off, but why all of a sudden..." She trailed off, sighing, swinging her feet.

Mirae suddenly couldn't deal with the constant hurt any longer. She embraced her arms around her Aya, and hugged her tight.

"I'm sorry. I am so sorry."

Aya chuckled a bit. "Why are you sorry? It's not your fault."

it's not your fault

not your fault

That sentence alone gave Mirae a lifetime of stab wounds. She would need to fix this. And the only way, was to confront Hongbin, as much as she didn't want to do that, she was doing it for Aya. And only Aya.

Right?

*   *   *

Mirae stood, shivering. She instantly regretted not bringing a hoodie or jacket with her. It was soon going to be winter and it was starting to get cold. Thankfully her goosebumps weren't visible from the lack of sunlight.

"Mirae?" she heard a voice behind her. She whipped around instanlty to be greeted by a confused Hongbin. She breathed out, her breaths in little puffs of air that was visible in the cold air surrounding her. Hongbin noticed her shivering, ever so slightly. He began to take off his hoodie, which resulted in his shirt being lifted up a bit, revealing a glimpse of a scar. Nevermind the rock hard abdominal muscles he had, bu the scar took Mirae by surprise. She bit her tongue to refrain from asking, not only because it would seem rude or the fact that she was even staring there in the first place, but because she didn't want to sway from her initial motives. 

He handed her his hoodied. She looked at it, her arms crossed.

"I'm fine thanks." she said coldly, turning her head. Hongbin rolled his eyes, taking the hint, before taking his hoodie, and draping it over his arm. "Its cold ouside, what in the world did you call me out for?"

Mirae whipped her head back to face him, glaring at him as hard as she could. She unfolded her arms, and punched him with all she could, without warning. He didn't flinch.

However, Mirae was the one who got hurt. She yelped out in pain. Hongbin was quick to react, taking her arm, and looking at it. "You okay?" he managed to say between his obvious attempts of not laughing at what had just happened. 

"It hurts. This is all your fault." Mirae pouted. Hongbin didn't take the opputunity to stiffle his giggles, and he began to sing out a full scale of laughter.

"It's your fault for being a weakling, you know. Look at your ams! They're like chopsticks and so are your legs. I'm surprised you didn't snap your arm into two."

Mirae shook her head, they were getting off topic. "Yah! That's not why I called you out here for."

"Then what is it?" Hongbin raised an eyebrow, a semi-smile gracing his lips. There seemd to be a pink blush over his face, making him look gorgeous as ususal and   sublimal...almost iridescent. Mirae was completely shocked by the perfection that is Lee Hongbin.

Mirae blinked, coming to her senses.

"You." she pointed to Hongbin, her index pointing at Hongbin's nose. Hongbin stared at it, making him cross-eyed in the process. Mirae dropped her hand. She blew her bangs out of her face before continuing, "What have you done to Aya?". Hongbin looked confused at first, before the realization dawned on him. He furrowed his brows. "That has nothing to do with you." he stated simply.

"Yes! Yes it does!" Mirae exclaimed. She couldn't believe it. What a jerk. "Are you really going to be like this?"

Hongbin crossed his arms. "Like what?"

Mirae's face flushed to the point that she looked like a tomato. "You cockroach! You broke my firend's heart and this is has everything to do with me! You're doing this because-"

"Because I like you?" Hongbin snickered, the humour was long gone from his face. Mirae stammered on her words, taken aback from the bluntness. 

"Well...yeah."

"Don't flatter yourself." Hongbin took a step toward Mirae, Mirae took a step back, coming in contact with a wall. She squeaked slightly, mentally kicking herself at the fact that she hadn't watched enough k-dramas to know NOT to stand near a wall in situations like this. 

"Why would I dump someone like Aya for someone like you" Hongbin's words came out nasty, almsot fillled with disdain at her accusation.

Mirae felt angered as well, clenching her fists. She felt like lashing out at the cockroach, she bit her tongue, and just glared at him. 

"What do you mean?"

"I don't like you."

That stung a lot. Like knocking the wind out of someone, it felt like someone had punched Mirae in the lungs. She recovered quickly on the outside. She couldn't make it seem like it hurt otherwise that could have gotten her into trouble.  

"You're lying." She said, sternly.

Hongbin glared at her. She glared back, ready to get into a fist fight; she was compltely expecting it.

Hongbin sighed, before placing his head in his hands. 

"Can you please just stay out of it? It has nothing to do with you, Mirae. Don't hold yourself responsible. I don't have feelings for Aya and never did. I thought I did at one point but its completely gone now. I tried telling her this yesterday and she just seemed to get angry at me. I don't know why though."

"Because you lead her on, you idiot!" Mirae yelled. She was about to explode any moment now. She wanted to punch something, but seeming as though her hand was already throbbing in an attempt to punch Hongbin, she thought it wise not to do it again. Hongbin stayed silent before looking at Mirae, his face completely solemn. He had nothing to say. He did admit that he did lead her on, but he never thought it would lead to this. 

"Look, I'm sorry. To both you and Aya."

Mirae frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"It wasn't my intention to kiss you like that either. I was lying when I said I didn't like you, but there's nothing that I can do about it. Your Ken hyung's girlfriend and I feel terrible, but I can't say I regret it either because I don't. I'll just have to deal with getting over you."

Hongbin held out his hand, trying to smile brightly.

"I'm sorry. I promise to never do that again. We can forget about the incident and start afresh. I'll be a friend. Just a friend. I won't interfere between you and Ken hyung again like that in the future. I'm terribly sorry, Mirae. I'll also talk to Aya and tell her exactly how I feel instead of beating around the bush like that."

It felt foreign to Mirae's ears to hear him say her name. She wasn't quite used to it. Hoever, for some reason she felt quite sad at what he had said, digging her nails into her thighs to refrain from crying. Not to mention, she began to feel confused. Why was she so upset when Hongbin basically surrendered. She knew, that she was debeliping feelings for him, but she didn't expect it to hurt this much. Yet, another part of her at the same time was angry at her for liking someone else, and wanted to deny her feelings but the truth was, the only reason she got angry at him for kissing her was the fact that he had made her realize her feelings for him as well. She knew she had to get rid of him, like a craving, but the only way to do that was if they were friends. Just friends. Nothing more.

Mirae sighed, extending her hand to shake his.

"Fine. Sounds good."

Mirae wasn't sure how she felt about this.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: *sigh* well it was one hard week without the internet as I was planning on finishing so many things that required the internet including this fanfic. I've been so busy with getting textbooks and all that fun stuff, I've barely gotten any sleep.  Ah well, hope you like it. :)