It was one of their rare schedule-free days… and yet Jooyeon was getting ready early in the morning.  After some while, she has finally arrived at her destination: After School’s dorm.  She let herself in and was making for one of the rooms when someone covered her eyes.  She gave out a short cry of surprise and instinctively grabbed hold of the hands covering her eyes.

“Im Nana I know it’s you.  Let go of unnie now.  I have something to do.”  Jooyeon said confidently and once again, she could see.

“How do you always know it’s me, unnie?”  Nana gleefully asked as she put her hands on her unnie’s shoulders and spun her around so they could see each other.  ‘That’s cos you’re the only one who does that to me.’  Jooyeon wanted to say but she held her tongue when she saw the smile on Nana’s face.  Besides, she could not troll around too much for there was somewhere she needed to be.  “I just do.”  She replied, smiled, turned, and walked.

“Geunde, what are you doing here so early, unnie?”  Nana, who pouted when Jooyeon turned her back on her, followed the latter to find out what her unnie needed to do in their dorm half-hoping that it was a prank on someone so she could see how professionally her unnie works.  Unfortunately, it was not.  “E-young called me.  She asked me if I wanted to have breakfast with her.”

Nana stopped on her tracks.  Her face was expressionless, but her eyes were ablaze with fury.  She could not keep it in, “How come you’re going with her?  And why is it just the two of you?  Isn’t that kinda unfair for us?  What if we wanted to eat breakfast together too?  How-

At that time, Nana halted for she saw E-young come out of her room all ready.  The youngest girl’s eyes widened as her eyes met her unnie’s.  “Yah E-young ah!  How can you be so selfish!?”  Nana came closer to intimidate her dongsaeng who immediately lowered her gaze.  Before things could go ugly though, Jooyeon sensibly pulled the two inside E-young’s room.  Once they were inside, Jooyeon made sure she stood in the middle.  She then looked at E-young and saw that she still had her eyes on the floor.  She sighed and turned her attention to Nana.  The girl had her arms crossed, clearly waiting for an answer.  Seeing no other way, Jooyeon butted in.  “Okay, that’s it.  THIS needs to be settled right now.  Do you know how much tension there is between the two of you?  Everyone is worried about your relationship.  But, what can we really do?  If we intervene, you two are just gonna tell us that we’re being paranoid; that there’s nothing going on.  Well, there IS something and only the two of you can fix it.

“Nana, E-young asked me to have breakfast with her because she’s seeking my help with this situation.  And now, seeing that it’s out in the open and both parties are here, why not resolve it already?”  Jooyeon turned the doorknob and opened the door slightly, “I’ll be outside.  You two figure this out.  NO ONE is allowed to go outside unless you can prove to me that everything’s been settled, understand?”  And after giving her command, she slipped outside and headed to the kitchen to eat since her breakfast date has been cancelled.  She wondered if she should go with someone else instead, but decided against it when she remembered what she told her dongsaengs.

Meanwhile inside the room, the two ladies stood in awkward silence.  E-young’s gaze was fixated on the floor and Nana was still mad, but she felt it diminishing by the moment.  Their unnie had the right of it, and after hearing the reason for the breakfast, she felt ashamed for acting the way she did.  But due to her pride, she still blamed the younger girl for not going to her straight away to fix things.  She felt her anger rising again.  She was about to berate E-young again when she saw her pitiful figure.  Something inside her instantly felt sorry and, gathering up her strength, she decided that it was indeed time to talk.

“If- if we’re gonna talk, I think we need to make ourselves comfortable first.”  She started, unconsciously hoping for the younger girl to look at her.  But she did not.  The unconscious desire was strong though, so Nana thought of a way on how to force E-young to look up.  “Can I sit here?”  She asked, pointing at E-young’s bed.  The younger girl followed her unnie’s finger, nodded meekly, and brought her gaze back to the floor.  Nana could not help but sigh.  She had to take initiative though, since she was the older one.

“S-so~ you wanted to talk to Jooyeon unnie about what’s going on?”

*nod*

“Why Jooyeon unnie?  Couldn’t you talk to me directly?”  Surprisingly, Nana uttered her questions without a single hint of anger.  What was more surprising, she asked them with full curiosity and concern.  E-young sensed that but it still took her a while to gather up her courage and answer.  “I- I was afraid that unnie would think I’m being weird for asking if there’s anything wrong between the two of us.  I was scared that you’d get upset since I thought that, and you would think that I have something against you.  I didn’t wanna upset you, Nana unnie.  That’s why – huh~ – that’s why I wanted to talk to Jooyeon unnie and get her help since you’re very close with her.”

A good while passed before anyone of them could speak again.  “So, I guess we should, you know, stop being awkward with each other.  We should- we gotta hang out together more.”

*nod*

Another fleeting silence, but this time, it was shorter for something popped inside Nana’s mind.  “Hey, since you’re already dressed, do you wanna, um, have that breakfast with me instead?”

“I’d love to, unnie.”

***

“Hey there, I’ve been looking all over for you!”  Lizzy plopped her body on the couch.  E-young was sitting on the floor by the table writing something.  “Well, you’ve found me.”

“Uh- oh, someone’s not in a good mood.  And here I thought everything’s finally okay.  Did Jooyeon unnie get the better of me again when she said you and Nana unnie talked things out already?”  Lizzy asked with her tone full of curiosity, urging and implications.

“We did.  We talked over breakfast.  We’re making some progress.  And tomorrow we’re gonna hang out again and talk some more.”  E-young answered monotonously.

“Mmm~ so you’re finally gonna get your wish, E-young ah!  You gotta be the happiest person right now.”  Lizzy clasped E-young’s shoulders smiling toothily.  “You know, when you first told me about that, I was determined to help you.  Well, I did try my best but you two intimidate each other so much.  Did you talk about that?  Nana unnie accidentally said that but I pretended not to hear clearly.

But now, you’re gonna be best buddies!”  Lizzy announced sarcastically.  “Best buddies – how ‘bout that?  It burns, right?”  A sardonic smile crept on Lizzy’s face as she made her sarcastic remark.  “It’s like there’s something clutching your heart and no matter how much you try, its grip is just too strong.”  By then, all the sarcasm in Lizzy’s voice has disappeared and her eyes showed a bit of fury.  And by then also, E-young was tearing up; not only for herself, but also for her dearly beloved best friend, Lizzy.  It was no less true for Lizzy, although she felt worse because she could not keep her promise.  She hugged her best friend from behind and there they sat sobbing.

“I’m so sorry E-young ah.  I swore to myself that I’d do everything to spare you from this kind of pain… because I know how bad it feels.  I didn’t want you to go through this.  You had to be the bright one.  I was supposed to be the one who would lean on your shoulder.  But I failed.  I’m really, really sorry…”  And after that, there was nothing they could do but cry with each other.