Everyone was very uptight and focus that whole week. We spent more time in the library, doing our own revision while exams were still on going. Except for me, the rest of the girls already had their last paper on Thursday while I still had two more papers on Friday.

I was the only one up as I got ready for school. Since their exams were over, the girls decided to sleep in as they had no classes that day. I was wearing my shoes at the door when I heard someone's bedroom door opened. A few seconds later, a sleepy looking Taeyeon appeared, yawning away with her messy hair.

"Jae, good luck. Will you be coming back to the dorm or going straight to futsal practice later?'

"My 2nd paper will end at 5pm so I'll just see you guys at the sports hall later. Go back and rest okay." I saw Taeyeon nodded her head as I exited the dorm.

I was on the way to campus when my phone beeped. I looked at the message and smiled.

From Jessica:

Jae, good luck for your papers. Hwaiting!!

To Jessica:

Thank you. It's too early for you to be awake. Go back to sleep okay. :P

After sitting through the first paper for 3hrs, I had a long break before my last paper. I was standing in front of my locker, trying to decide if I should go to the cafetaria or proceed to the library when I felt vibrations at my back pocket. I took out my phone and saw that I had a text message.

From Jessica:

Taeyeon told me that you'll finish your first paper at 12pm while the next paper will only start at 2pm. Would you like to have lunch with me? If yes, meet me at the cafetaria by 12.15pm at our usual table. If you're not there by then, I'll leave.

I looked at my watch and saw that it was already 12.10pm. It takes about 10mins to reach the cafetaria. I quickly slammed my locker door and ran all the way there. I was out of breath when I reached the table. I was panting so hard and sweats could be seen flowing down from my forehead. I was upset when I saw no one at the table. I looked at the watch and it was 12.16pm.

"Aigooo.. why can't she wait for me for 1 more minute?" I was talking out loud to myself.

"Of course I can." I turned around to face a smiling Jessica who was shaking a bottle of water in front of my face. "Drink up. You must be very thirsty after running so fast."

I sheepishly smiled at her as I grabbed the bottle and drank it. We sat down and discuss about what to eat before I went to get the food for the both of us. We were so engrossed in our chats that I didn't realised it was almost time for me to proceed back to the exam hall. I asked Jessica to return back to the dorm to rest and thanked her for having lunch with me.

********************************

Since futsal practice will only start at 7pm, I decided to go to the gym first since it was only 5.30pm when I reached the sports hall. The girls will usually be there by 6.30pm. After changing into my training kit, I was exercising on the treadmill when two male students walked in. I recognised them as part of the mens futsal team players. Both of them then took the treadmills that was beside mine.

I didn't have any intention to eavesdrop on their conversation but when I heard them mentioning Jessica's and Taecyeon's name, my ears perked up instantly.

"So is it true that Taecyeon is dating a student from another university? But I thought he has been dating Jessica since high school."

"I heard from Taecyeon that he's with Jessica not by his own choice. He mentioned something about debt but he didn't elaborate on it."

"Really? But if that's so, why didn't he just break off with Jessica?"

"He said that his parents won't allow it and that Jessica will never ask for a break-up. The girl he's dating right now, comes from a wealthy family too. Much richer than his family."

"That Taecyeon is sure one lucky guy to have two beautiful rich girls as his girlfriends."

I wanted to listen more but the two of them got down from the treadmill and went to the weightlifting corner. I frowned thinking about what I've heard so far. Taecyeon is dating another girl? Debt? Who's in a debt and why won't Jessica ask for a break-up? I thought she said that she had no feelings for Taeyeon. I stopped my exercise, grabbed my duffel bag and went down to wait for the rest of the girls. All the while, my mind keep replaying all those questions in my head.

As we gathered in front of Ms Lee, she gave us one good news. She said that since all of us had been stressed out the whole week for the exams, she had decided to released all of us from practice 30mins earlier than normal, provided that we all worked extra hard with the difficult drills that she had came up with. Since next week is the start of the futsal competition, she expects everyone to be in top condition. So for the next one and a half hour, all of us were very focus in doing our ball drills without any complains. We even helped out the rest who have difficulties in doing some of the drills. When Ms Lee said that she was satisfied with our performances and that we can go off, all of us shouted in excitement. Sooyoung and Hyoyeon were dancing with each other while Yuri and Taeyeon were making some weird dance moves. I just shook my head and walked towards Jessica who had came to watch us again.

"Why aren't you dancing along with them, Jae?"

"There is a need to have one normal person in the group to make sure that everything is okay. So I'm the normal one here." I chuckled at my own remarks as Jessica rolled her eyes at me before she ended up giggling too.

"Tiff told me that the cheerleaders will also end early today. Only the mens team had an hour off. Most of them had already left, including Taecyeon. He came over earlier and told me that he's going back to the dorm to rest since he's very tired." Jessica said to me as I just nodded at her.

Once everyone was ready to go, Hyoyeon suggested for us to go for a late night movie again. This time round, everyone agreed to join in so we all walked to the school entrance together. When we reached the school gate, what we saw totally shocked all of us especially Jessica. Right in front of us, Taecyeon was kissing a girl who was leaning against a red sports car which obviously belongs to the girl since Taecyeon's car was yellow in color.

"Oh my god!!" Tiffany's loud voice pierced through the silent night.

Taecyeon turned his head instantly and the shocked on his face was too obvious. He quickly walked up to Jessica and tried to explain but Jessica just stood there like a statue.

"You cheating jerk. Is this the way you should treat your girlfriend? What wrong had she done to you?" Tiffany was shouting at him which I think caused Taecyeon to be agitated and embrassed in front of the girl that he had kissed.

He turned to look at Tiffany and shouted back at her. "Shut up, Tiff. This matter is between me and Jessica only."

Taeyeon who can't stand looking at her girlfriend being shouted at, stood in front of Tiffany and glared back at Taecyeon. "Jessica is our friend. Hurting her means hurting us too. If you're happily kissing away with another girl, why don't you just break off with Jessica and spare her all this pain?"

Taecyeon smirked as he stared at Taeyeon."Her friends? I don't understand why she choose to be friends with poor people like you. At least, Yuri and Sooyoung is of similar status as her. But the rest of you are just riding on their wealth, am I right?"

"Stop it, Taec. That's enough. You don't have any right to criticise my friends. Money is not everything okay." For the first time that night, Jessica voiced out.

"And they don't have the right to tell me what to do. I can have as many girlfriends as I want and you have no choice but to accept it. Because at the end of the day, you still have to marry me. Unless of course, your family can repay their debts to us." Taecyeon smirked as he walked away towards the red car that was waiting for him.

********************************

None of us were obviously in the mood to go to the movies. We all decided to head to the school's cafetaria instead. As all of us gathered at the round table, no one dared to say anything. Everyone was just stealing glances at each other.

I couldn't take it anymore and with a raised voice, I said. "How much is it?" Everyone turned to look at me including Jessica and that is when I realised that she's been crying quietly as I looked into her teary eyes. I sighed as I breathed in hard. I stood up and walked away.

Everyone was shocked to see my reaction. Jessica instantly covered her face but her shoulder's movement showed that she was sobbing. As I walked back to the table, I saw Taeyeon smiling at me. I tapped Jessica on her shoulder from the back and when she turned around, I squatted down so that we are of the same eye-level.

"Gwenchana?" I asked as I passed her a packet of tissue and a bottle of water that I went to buy at the shop. She took both items and looked at me. "Drink up. It'll stop your sobbing." I smiled sincerely at her.

As I stood up to go back to my original seat between Hyoyeon and Taeyeon, Sunny shifted and asked me to sit beside Jessica. I sat down and put one of my hands on top of Jessica's hands that were on her lap. She turned to look at me with her slightly swollen eyes.

"Mianhae. I'm sorry for my actions earlier." I said as I looked down. I didn't mean to force her to tell us about her family debts especially when she didn't want to in the first place. I released her hands and put my hands on the table.

"Since everyone is already aware of the situation, I guess there's no point for me to hide it any longer. Except for Yoona and Seohyun, I think all the rest knew about my mum who suffered from acute leukemia previously. To force my dad to leave the family, my grandfather had lied about him being able to pay for my mum's treatment. The truth was my grandfather had actually borrowed money from Taecyeon's family to settle all the medical bills. My mum only found out about it when Taecyeon's dad tried to buy over the company 2yrs ago. His dad gave us two options. The first one is for us to settle the debt with them or 2nd option is for the arranged marriage. My mum didn't agree to the 2nd option and wanted to sell of the company to pay off the debt but my grandfather begged my mum not to sell the business since he had built it from scratch. Come to think of it, even if we sell it off, it won't be enough to settle the debt."

The moment Jessica stopped talking, everyone were speechless. Yuri took the time to explain to Yoona and Seohyun about Jessica's family background, the same story that Jessica told me at the park. After hearing the full story, the two girls were then able to understand the whole scenario.

"Is there any proof that your family owes them money such as paper documents?" Seohyun asked.

"My mum said they have it. My grandfather showed her a copy of it. The original is with them." Jessica sighed.

"So how much did your grandfather borrowed from them?" Tiffany asked as all of us looked at Jessica.

"It's about half a million USD." Jessica answered.

"Mwo?!! That's almost 500 million KRW and that's a lot of money." Sunny replied in a shocked tone as everyone gasps. Well, except for me.

"I know. And that is the reason why I didn't want to tell you all about it. I didn't want you all to worry about it because there's no way that you will be able to help me. Even I myself find it impossible to raise that amount of money."

I was deep in my thoughts, staring at the table when I felt something thrown to my head. I flinched and turned to look at a fallen pen. I looked at the side and saw Taeyeon staring at me, using her eye contact to ask me to say something. I looked at my watch and saw that it was almost 10pm.

"Everyone, it's almost 10pm. Let's discuss about this again another time. We should go back and get some rest first. And Sica, thank you for telling us the truth. We might not be able to help out but don't lose hope. You'll never know what will happen in the future." I smiled at her.

********************************

I was awake much earlier than I expected that Sunday morning. I couldn't sleep well after what happened last night. I was sitting in front of my computer, staring into a blank screen when I heard knocks on my bedroom door. "Come in."

3 familiar grins appeared in my view as Sooyoung, Taeyeon and Yuri poked their heads in. After I gestured them to come in, they walked towards my bed and sat on the floor. I walked down and joined them.

"Thinking about helping Sica, Jae?"

I looked at Yuri who had asked the question and nodded my head.

"But 500 million won is not a small amount of money. How do you plan to get the money, Jae? 

Before I could reply to Sooyoung's question, Taeyeon intercepted me.

"That amount is not a big deal to Jae. I think she is more concern about helping Sica out without her knowing about it. Right, Jae?"

"You sure know me well, Taeng." I smiled at Taeyeon and showed her a thumbs up.

"But why? Won't it be better if she knows about it? You'll be her knight in shining armour, saving her damsel in distress." Sooyoung suggested.

"I don't want her to feel indebted to me. Especially when I want her to accept me for who I am." I explained to Sooyoung.

"Are you planning to ask help from your dad, Jae?" Yuri asked as I shrugged my shoulders.

"Whatever it is, don't forget that we still need to focus on our futsal competition which is starting tomorrow until Saturday. Jae, since it's your 1st time taking part in the competition, let me just run through it with you."

I nodded my head and started to listen to Taeyeon. All the competition will take place at a neutral ground which is at the National Futsal Stadium. As what Ms Lee had informed us before, we will be in Group G. Each group will have 4 teams in them. On Monday and Tuesday, each team will play 3 matches a day against the teams in their groups. The top two teams from each group will then advance to the next round. On Wednesday, the 16 teams will compete in two matches against the same designated team. With the aggregate score between the two teams, the 8 winning teams will advance to the quarterfinals. On Thursday, the 8 teams will play another two matches each to cut it down to the final four teams. On Friday, the semi-finalist will play another two more games each whereby the winning team will play in the finals on Saturday while the losing team will compete on Friday itself for the 3rd and 4th placing.

Once Taeyeon stopped explaining, all of us look at each other and smiled. Taeyeon then stretched out her hand as I put mine on hers, followed by Yuri and lastly, Sooyoung.

"Hwaiting!!!!" The 4 of us shouted before we burst into laughter.

I was strumming my guitar, lazing around with Yuri in the living room when our dorm door opened. Sooyoung and Taeyeon had came back from buying food from the school cafetaria for all of us since we were to lazy to cook. But my eyes were on the other two girls that came in after them. Sunny and Tiffany greeted us as they sat at the couch. I kept looking at the door until I heard Sunny's voice.

"Shes's not here." I turned and gave her a confused look. "You're looking for Sica right? She's in our dorm."

I sheepishly nodded my head as I rubbed the back of my neck. "How is she? I mean after last night."

Sunny sighed as she looked at Tiffany who answered my question. "After all of us went our separate ways last night, she went straight into her room and didn't come out until now. When we knocked at her door earlier, to ask her if she wants to eat and follow us to the cafetaria, she declines. Saying that she's not hungry. She has not eaten the whole day."

"We met Sooyoung and Taeyeon at the cafetaria so we decided to pack our food too and join you guys for dinner. We did buy food for Sica too, just in case if she feels like eating later." Sunny continued the story.

"Do you think it'll be okay if I go down to your dorm and look for her now?" I asked Tiffany and Sunny. They agreed and passed me their dorm key along with Jessica's food and also mine.

I smiled at them and said my thanks as I made my way to their dorm. I was shocked to find Jessica in the living room, seated at the couch and just staring at the window. I was expecting Jessica to be in her room when I came in.

"Did you buy any food for me, Tiff?" Jessica asked with her back facing me as she continued to stare out of the window.

"They did." I saw Jessica's shocked face when she turned around to find me standing near their dorm door. 

"Jae? How come you're here? Where's Tiffany and Sunny?" 

"Both of them are at my dorm, having their dinner. They bought bibimbap for you. Do you want to join them upstairs or do you just want to eat here?"

"If I eat here, then how about you? Have you ate your dinner yet, Jae?"

"I brought my dinner down. I heard that you've not eaten the whole day so I will only eat if you eat too." I smiled at Jessica as I saw her pouting.

I walked towards their dining table and put the food down. I took out our food and placed it neatly on the table as I then sat and waited for Jessica to make a move. Seeing me sitting there, smiling away made Jessica keep glancing at me and after 10mins, she gave in. She walked towards the table and sat beside me, sulking. I just giggled at her cute actions as I opened the lid of our food containers.

I ordered spaghetti for dinner from Taeyeon and when Jessica saw it, her eyes sparkled. "Do you want to eat spaghetti, Sica?" I offered my food to her which she shyly rejects saying that she already had bibimbap to eat. Before she could start eating, I took her food away and placed my spaghetti in front of her. 

"Let's exchange. I feel like eating bibimbap. Please.." I pouted and showed my puppy eyes to her, causing Jessica to giggle and slowly nodded her head. 

We were almost done with dinner when Jessica put down her fork and looked at me. 

"Jae, I just remembered something. The futsal competition is starting tomorrow right?" I nodded head. "Hyoyeon told me that the reason you were dropped from the first team was because you were not performing well during practices and that you showed exhaustion. It was during the time that I was injured. I'm sorry. I realised that I'm the reason for you being dropped from the first team."

"You don't have to apologise. Like what Ms Lee said, I didn't manage my time well. Furthermore, I don't think it's right for me to be in the first team when Hyoyeon has been working hard since last year. She deserves to be part of the first team for all the efforts that she put in."

"But Hyoyeon said that you're much better than her and will boost the team a lot."

"Hyoyeon thinks too highly of me. She's good too. She just need to make full  use of her strength to cover her weaknesses. Hopefully the extra practices that I did with her on Saturdays will help her during the competition."

Jessica nodded her head as we finished up our dinner and decided to go to my dorm to join the rest of the girls. They were watching TV when we arrived. We ended up watching TV and having small talks with each other. Jessica was upset that she won't be able to join in the cheerleading for the competition but she promised that she will be watching all our matches and cheering the team on from the stand. 

It was almost 9pm when Tiffany , Sunny and Jessica decided to go back to their dorm to rest early so that they will be ready for the competition. They bid us goodbye and left our dorm. The 4 of us then proceeded to our own rooms to rest too.

********************************

I was lying down  on my bed, still thinking about Jessica's situation. 500 million won? Even though it's not a huge amount of money to my family, will my dad allow me to withdraw it? I know that my parents have created a savings account for me since I was born and have been putting in money in it since then but I'm not allowed to use it until I'm 21yrs old which is next year. But I can't wait until next year to help Jessica. She's already suffering a lot right now. Another thing is about how do I pass the money to Sica without her knowing about it? I might need Uncle Kim's help on this but let's try to get the money first.

I sat up and grabbed my phone from the table. 

To Appa:

I'll be taking part in the futsal competition starting tomorrow. Wish me luck, okay. By the way, there's something that I need to ask for help from you.

I waited for any reply from my dad and after 10mins, my phone vibrated.

From Appa:

Good luck for the competition, Jae. Hwaiting!! What kind of help do you need, my daughter?

I paused for a while to think of what to say. Telling my dad about everything through a text message, might cause confusion to him. I need to talk to him to explain everything clearly but at the moment, I need to rest for the competition tomorrow.

To Appa:

I need to talk to you directly about the matter so that you will understand the whole story but right now, it's not convenient for me to do so. Once the competition is over, rest assured that I'll talk to you about it. Don't have to worry. It's not really a big issue. 

From Appa:

In that case, I'll wait for your call then. Please take care of yourself, Jae. Make sure you have plenty of rest and eat well too. Especially during the competition period. Once again, Hwaiting!! I love you, Jae.

I had tears in my eyes, reading my dad's message. He had always prioritise me before himself, always telling me to take care when he himself was growing old. If only mum was around, he won't be so lonely.

To Appa:

Don't worry about me Appa. You should take care too. I love you too, Appa. I'm going off to sleep. Thanks, Appa and good night.

I left my phone on the table and lay down on my bed. Next week will be another hectic week before the start of summer break. Let's work hard and then we can enjoy our break. Hwaiting, Jae!!