Ellin quickly blew out the candles once everyone stopped singing. "Did you even make a wish!?" Soyul asked, "Huh- Y-yeah I made a wish" Ellin replied, distracted.  "I- I have to go to the bathroom," Ellin suddenly uttered.

Before Ellin could even take a step, Minsun grabbed her arm "you have to cut the first slice before I can cut slices for everyone!" 

"Oh my god Minsun, you need to chill just a bit with these cake formalities," Gummi groaned. "Okay, who bought the cake? Oh right, that would be ME! So the rest of you losers will have to obey MY rules" Minsun scolded. 

"Good luck" Baro nudged Gongchan, "You managed to date the craziest one out of all of them" he added. "That's why I like her" Gongchan shamelessly smiled. 

Ellin sighed, "Alright hurry and hand me the knife," she said, frightening everyone, "Okay, but remember it's to cut the cake" Choa said, cautiously giving her the knife. Ellin quickly cut the cake and smiled at Minsun before she firmly placed it on the table and ran outside. Ellin didn't know what was going through her mind, she knew she was only acting on impulse, but she didn't really care anymore. She had enough calculating and over-thinking, she needed to see Jinyoung. She didn't know what she was even going to say to him.

Ellin sensed Jinyoung had gone outside so she quickly ran down the stairs of the residence, not even patient enough to use the elevator. She began to slow her pace to a fast walk as to not look so desperate as she was looking around. She didn't expect to find Jinyoung, she even hoped she wouldn't since she had no clue what she was going to say to him. As she turned a corner her steps suddenly came to a halt; there he was, sitting on a bench, his head cradled in his hands. 

Ellin slowly began to walk up to him without thinking, she was now standing above him and the next words uncontrollably fell out of "A-are you crying?" Ellin asked, quickly biting her lip afterwards. Idiot. 

Jinyoung's head cocked upwards in shock "Ellin?" an extremely confused expression appearing on his face "what- why are you- why are you here?" he got himself to say. 

"I don't know Jinyoung, why am I here? Why are we both here? What awful things happened for us to come all the way here. Doesn't it all seem so extra?" Ellin replied fiercely, she was no longer nervous. She knew exactly what she wanted to say to him now. She was going to let everything out. 

Jinyoung shook his head in confusion "What are you talking about Ellin?" 

""I want to feel what others feel when they go home. I want it to feel like a home... not hell."" Ellin's lips quoted. Her eyes were staring deeply into Jinyoug's eyes that were shifting from side to side, until they suddenly clicked onto her gaze. He realized where Ellin's familiar words came from "You- you read my"

"I read every single word of your journal" Ellin finished.

Jinyoung finally stood up, "Gummi.... aish Gummi gave it to you, didn't she?!" Jinyoung suddenly fumed. "Yeah, are you really that surprised, Jinyoung?" Ellin asked, a little taken aback by his sudden anger.

Jinyoung let out a breath "Yeah, I am. I'm shocked that she waited this long to give it to you. This whole time I thought you had already read it but didn't really care. But then your shocked reaction when I told you what happened in the library didn't match up to that" Jinyoung explained.

"Jinyoung.... Gummi gave me your journal last year, I just decided not to read it... until now" Ellin revealed.

Jinyoung was even more confused now "...but... why? Why would you choose to read it now?" Jinyoung asked. "Because..." Ellin looked down for a second before she let out the next few words out "I started to care... not just about what really happened, but about you" Ellin didn't know why she was being so honest to him, she didn't know why she was showing her whole heart to him, but it made her feel like a big weight lifted off of her. 

"Are you playing with me Ellin? Are you taking revenge on me? Because if you are, please stop. I'm really on the brink of losing it when it comes to you" Jinyoung let out.

"it's not a joke Jinyoung. You know it's not a joke, after all you've been suspicious about how I’ve been acting for the past few weeks. I know you knew deep down inside that my feelings towards you were beginning to change. I honestly hated your guts before, I hated you so much that I would never let myself break for the piece of I thought you were. But it turns out you're exactly the person I thought you were. I mean, you're still an enormous and an utter idiot for senior year but other than that, nothing's really your fault" Ellin ranted, her heart racing fast as she confessed her heart to him.

Jinyoung eyes looked like they were beginning to tear, and Ellin was beginning to repeat what she just said in her head to see why his face looked the way it did. He didn't seem sad, or angry, he just seemed like he was in a daze.

"Say that last part one more time" Jinyoung finally spoke in a quiet but steady tone. "What?" Ellin had been analyzing Jinyoung's face so intently that she was completely confused at Jinyoung's request. 

"Nothings your fault... say that again" Jinyoung repeated. Ellin looked down at her feet once she understood what he was saying. "Aish, I shouldn't have said that, it was too nice" Ellin worried. 

"Ellin, do you mean that? Say it again, please say it again" Jinyoung asked, he sounded desperate now, as if his whole life depended on Ellin filling in his request. He suddenly put both of his hands on Ellin shoulder, causing her head to pop up in surprise. 

Ellin looked at Jinyoung seriously for a moment before she slowly said it again "nothing's your fault Jinyoung... nothing's your-"

Before Ellin could finish her sentence, Jinyoung wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into his embrace.

Ellin gasped and her hands dropped in shock. Her mind was completely blank.

"J-Jinyoung?" Ellin muttered, nothing else being able to leave . Ellin couldn't believe she was actually in Jinyoung's arms, it felt so strange, but so familiar at the same time. It's been long since I felt something like this Ellin thought. The scent only he carried, his hands tightly clinging on to her, it reminded her that they were once in love. Well, as in love as two 8th graders could be.

"You don't know how long I’ve waited to hear those words coming from you. No, actually, they're words I only ever dreamed of escaping your lips" Jinyoung breathed, still choked up in the moment. 

Ellin slowly pulled away from Jinyoung. She looked at him carefully, "Yeah well... they're words I never thought I’d say either..." Then Jinyoung did something Ellin couldn't have predicted. He began to lean towards her face.

"No.” Ellin immediately replied before anything else could happen. It seemed like Jinyoung was way too caught up in the moment, he looked like he was in a daze, but Ellin's reply surely woke him up. "J-Jinyoung, you know we're not back together... right?" Ellin asked, unsure of his answer.

"I know that, but... can't we be?" Jinyoung asked. Ellin shook her head "Jinyoung, I forgive you and all but... I read your journal, I know well enough that we can never be together... it will never work!" Ellin rationalized.

Jinyoung looked up at Ellin seriously, giving her a little chill "do you still have feeling’s for me, Ellin? Isn't that why you became curious about my journal? Because you might still love me?" 

Ellin panicked, she didn't expect for Jinyoung to ask her such a question. "I- I don't know, OK!?" she hastily replied. 

"No, you do know" Jinyoung said, taking a step towards her. Ellin didn't know what to say, she just continued to stare at him, trying to keep a steady gaze. "W-whatever Jinyoung, I have to go, everyone is waiting for me" Ellin quickly uttered, turning around.

Jinyoung grabbed her hand and pulled her back in front of him "Why can't you answer me? Do you want this to go on forever Ellin?" Jinyoung asked, raising his voice a little.

"No, I want this to end, because if it doesn't end, it never will! Tell me jinyoung, if we get back together, what's your plan? How are you going to change the fate we had last time? Even if I love you Jinyoung, I don't love you enough to be humiliated like that again. I can't love you while being afraid of what your family might do to my friends and I, and I know you can't either. You really want to go back to that helpless feeling again? Do you want me to give you back your damn journal so you remember what hell you went through!?" Ellin screamed, the more she spoke, the more frustrated she got. She was just so angry.

"W-when you come up with a plan, tell me... if not... let's just be campus friends. No relation outside... campus friends" Ellin said before she turned around to leave.

Jinyoung stayed frozen as he watched Ellin leave. Truthfully, he knew he had no plan, so he decided not to derail from the situation and just say nothing. He realized there was nothing he could do, but he wanted to desperately find an answer. The last thing he wanted to do was let Ellin go, especially not after her finally forgiving him. He knew he was being selfish, he knew he should be content now, but he wasn't. At the end of the day, the people who worked to tear his happiness apart, were still there.

The next day, as Ellin expected, the crew bombarded her with questions about where she ran off to during her birthday party. She refused to answer any question last night with the excuse that she was tired, she couldn't use that excuse anymore.

"What? When? I don't remember running off? Did I do that?" Ellin pretended. "Really Ellin?" Choa said, crossing her arms. "What? I'm being serious. I think I drank too much yesterday" Ellin made up. "What the hell are you even saying! i've never seen you drink since meeting you, and you surely didn't drink yesterday" Soyul said, shaking her head. 

"Okay, okay you freaks! I will tell you so that we don't have another fight like we had back in senior year" Ellin sighed. 

"You ran off to see Jinyoung?!" Minsun exclaimed. 

"Damn, how the hell do you catch on so quickly when it took you about 50 years to realize Gongchan liked you" Ellin asked, stunned. Minsun shrugged "I mean, senior year was all about you and Jinyoung's exhausting bull so..." all the girl's nodded in agreement. 

"I won't deny that since it's a fact everyone in Chrome high would agree with" Ellin grumbled. "So, why the hell did you go meet Jinyoung and what happened- wait, you don't have to answer the first question, we all already know the answer" Choa said.

"How the hell would you know why-"

"Everyone knows you and Jinyoung are in love with each other, now dish what happened" Minsun ordered. Gummi started laughing hysterically, Ellin gave her an annoyed glare. Gummi shook her head "I didn't tell them anything!" Gummi swore. 

"Yeah, you didn't have to, anyone with eyes knows" Minsun continued. 

"Hey! Firstly, I am not in love with him. Do I hate him? No, but love him? No way have I gotten over the pain he caused me that easily. His journal was touching but not to that degree" Ellin defended.

"Journal?" Soyul questioned. "Long story short..." Ellin then proceeded to update all the girls on everything that happened. Gummi stealing his journal,vgiving it to Ellin and lying to her about not reading it, finally reading the journal a year later and being crazy enough to confront Jinyoung about it a few days later. She also told them about the stunt Jinyoung tried to pull yesterday and how delusional he was acting.

"I can't believe Jinyoung isn't an after all. It's like I just traveled to a new planet... " Minsun let out, making the girl's laugh. 

"So now what? What do you want us to do?" Gummi asked Ellin, giving her full support. "Well... I think we have the responsibility of reconciling his relationship with the boys... I mean... we are partly at fault for taking away the only friends he has..." Ellin mentioned.

"Yeah, I guess we are partly responsible... OK I will talk to Shinwoo and Minsun will talk to Gongchan" Choa proposed, "Gummi, you'll talk to your new best friend Baro, right?" Choa joked.

"Hey! we are NOT best friends... just friends... coffee buddies if you will" Gummi defended, the girls chuckling in response. "Whatever, we have to at least mend their relationship since Jinyoung and Ellin cannot be" Minsun said.

The girls were all strangely excited to think about the possibility of all 10 of them being on good terms. It was something they would never think could happen in a million years. One thing was for sure; their freshmen year was going the opposite of how they all expected it to be. Could the events that occurred in senior year really all be mended and forgotten?