Mirae was having a fabulous weekend.

First, her dad took her to see a movie for some bonding time. They ended up being the only ones in the theater, and were therefore able to chuck popcorn at the screen and boo at cheesy scenes whenever they wanted to.

Then, Yura and some of her other friends invited her to go to an amusement park for the day. She spent 4 hours nearly puking on 23 different roller coasters (and they bought churros to top it off!)

Admittedly, however, there was something niggling at the back of her mind; something involving a certain tall rich boy who Mirae might have been slightly concerned about.

Mirae wants to talk to Jongin. She wants to talk to him, ask him why he’s so uncomfortable around his father and tell him there’s no need for him to wear that old, weary expression.

“Hey, are you okay?” Yura asks her, pulling her aside. “You seem a little off today. Quieter than usual.”

“I...,” Mirae bites her lip. “Okay, you know that guy who was at the garden party? Jaesun’s son?”

Yura’s expression changes to one of amused mischief. “Ooh, the hot one? What about him?”

“The truth is, I met him before that day.”

Yura’s eyebrows pop up. “You know, I kind of had a hunch about that. You two seemed really surprised to see each other. So where do you know him from?”

Mirae explains the entire story to Yura. The rivalry between their tutoring groups, his help during his breakdown, Jongin’s horrible personality.

“So you’re saying that he’s actually a big ?” Yura whistles. “Funny, he seemed so nice back at the party.”

“Exactly! He was acting really strange. We’re not friends or anything, so it would be weird if I approached him. But I really, really want to talk to him...,”

Yura tilts her head. “Mirae, why do you care so much about him?”

Mirae fiddles with the hem of her shirt. Finally, she whispers, “Because he reminds me of Suyeon. Suyeon in the worst case scenario, I mean- completely scared of me, just because of my disorder. I feel like if I was in Jaesun’s position... I would be miserable. I can only imagine how terrible it must be for someone you love to be afraid of you because of that...,”

“You must really like Suyeon,” Yura smiles gently. Mirae chuckles.

“She’s my best friend- no, like a sister. I love Suyeon. She’s the #1 person I depend on and trust, aside from my parents.”

“Well, if you really want to talk to Jongin, then I have an idea.”

“Yo, Jongin. We have 9 customers today, and one of them has specially requested a private session with you,” Sehun informs his friend, examining his iPad.

Jongin snickers. “Wow, she must really love me. Private session, huh? Is she hoping to seduce me or something?”

“Maybe she’s hot,” Sehun leers.

“What’s her personal info?”

Sehun peers at the Google spreadsheet in front of him. “Let’s see, she’s a high school student whose name is “Mimi”. Ooh, Mimi. Wasn’t that the name of that bartender in Belize?”

“You still remember her?” Jongin snorts. “Well, maybe I’ll get some today. Hmm, what if this Mimi girl is into roleplay? How about a student-teacher relationship?”

“Please,” Sehun sneers.

Jongin s the top 2 buttons of his oxford shirt and heads to the library. Honestly, he just needs a few more hours of tutoring until he can be done with this community service bull. There are so many other things he could be doing with his time.

“Looks like I’m in room 2B,” he murmurs, double-checking the spreadsheet on his iPad. After locating the room, Jongin takes a deep breath and opens the door. Let’s hope Mimi’s hot, he wishes, smirking.

“Good afternoon, my beautiful rose-,” Jongin begins- and freezes.

Hwang Mirae is sitting in a beanbag, a petulant look on her face. The girl’s fists are balled by her side.

“Hi,” she says softly.

“What the are you doing here?” Jongin utters in a dangerously low tone. He has not seen Mirae since his father’s garden party.

And now she’s deliberately trying to confront him?

“I... wanted to talk,” Mirae murmurs.

Jongin lets out a derisive ha! and moves to the door. “Wait! Don’t go!” Mirae exclaims, hurrying to stop him. She grabs on to his arm, and Jongin viciously rips it away from her.

“What do you think you’re doing? Why do you want to talk to me? I don’t want to see you!” he roars. Mirae shrinks back, wide-eyed.

“Give me 5 minutes,” she pleads. “Please.”

Jongin stares at her. Several heavy moments pass.

And then he growls, “5 minutes and no longer.”

“Sit down,” Mirae says softly. Jongin remains standing, his eyes steely. “Okay, never mind. Okay, Jongin, I just wanted to... talk to you. About, well...,”

“Get to the point.”

“Why do you... well, at the party, you looked, kind of... awkward?”

“Awkward?” He grits his teeth. “You called me all the way here just to talk about how I was awkward?”

“No!” Mirae shakes his head; this is going all wrong. “I mean, it’s just that you seemed kind of tense and really uncomfortable around us- by us, I mean the patients and Dr. Yoon and your father-,”

“I’m leaving,” Jongin snarls, and is 2 steps away from walking out when he hears a faint voice murmur, “I’m scared.”

Jongin freezes.

“I’m scared that one day, when I tell Suyeon about my disorder, she’ll react the way that you are right now. I don’t want that. I want to know what your perspective is.”

Mirae’s voice has gradually strengthened as she continues speaking. “Help me. I know we dislike each other. But please.”

Silence hangs still in the air. Mirae knows that Jongin is going to leave. She can feel it.

But then he pulls up a chair and sits across from her.

She blinks in surprise.

“What do you want to know?” Jongin asks tersely.

“When I tell Suyeon the truth, how do I make her not hate me?”

Jongin emits a bark of laughter. “Simple. Don’t up. Don’t hurt her and permanently scare her. Control yourself.”

“But what if she never looks at me the same after I tell her?” Mirae questions.

“You can’t do anything about that, can you?” A corner of Jongin’s lips tug up in a knowing smirk. “But you can’t hide it forever. You’ll give yourself away eventually. What if it had been her that had picked up your OCD medicine on the floor?”

Mirae blanches. Her fingers nervously dance up to her scalp, before she catches herself and stuffs her hands in her lap. Jongin notes this with an unreadable expression.

“Is my father kind to you?” he asks suddenly. Mirae’s eyes widen.

“Yeah, he’s really nice,” she responds slowly. “He’s happy and cheerful all the time. I think everyone likes him.”

Jongin is silent.

Then he says, “Therapy works, then.”

Jongin picks up his bag and strides out of the room.

Suyeon quirks an eyebrow as she stares at herself in the salon mirror.

“You look amazing,” the hairdresser squeals, clapping her hands together. “Whoa, what a transformation! Kyung, come look at this!”

“Well, hello there!” Another hairstylist walks over to Suyeon. “Jinah, is this the same girl that walked in a few hours ago?”

Yet another stylist walks over to Suyeon, shaking her head incredulously. “Jinah, you are a genius. She looks amazing.” He turns to Suyeon. “Honey, you were cute when you walked in, but now you’re on fire.”

“Thanks,” Suyeon smiles coolly. She tilts her head, letting her styled, newly colored light auburn hair cascade down her shoulders. Really, she understands the saying “No pain, no gain” now. Jihae and the cheerleaders gave her a small makeover during the bet, but Suyeon chose to go the whole 9-yards and get everything done.

Although she admits that getting her eyebrows threaded felt like hell.

But still. It is worth it. She looks good. Really good.

“You should model,” the girl at the cashier says, shaking her head incredulously. “You are so pretty.”

“You have the figure, too,” Jinah remarks, eyeing Suyeon. “Really, you should’ve done this all earlier. You have so much potential.”

Suyeon laughs. “Thanks, you all. I appreciate it, really.”

“So what’s the occasion?” Kyung asks. “A new crush? Going off to college?”

“Nah. I just wanted a change.” Suyeon her lips, tipping her head back. Out of the window of the salon, she can see a gaggle of boys gawking at her. She throws them a flirtatious wink and smirks when they nearly trip over each other trying to wave back at her. Huh.

She had always dismissed pretty girls as vapid, mindless things who were only absorbed with lip gloss and .

But she didn’t realize they had so much power.

Interesting.

A/N: yeahhh. poor mirae lol, she cares so much about jongin and suyeon. 

and suyeon, well... 

SUYEON'S QUEEN STATUS HAS INTENSIFIED IN MY EYES LOL