—MINJU—

It's been almost a month since she last saw Namjoon at that place. Things has been better between her and Namjoon, but not so much with Yuna. She's no longer hold grudges, but for some reason she feels everything she has with her got thrown off the course. The ARK promotion period is now over. They have more time practicing at the company than anywhere else, Minju has been talking to Namjoon a lot more but still hasn't got the chance to meet each other again with their busy schedule. Namjoon admits that he has been talking less with Yuna now that he's "together" with Minju. At first Minju did not think much about it, maybe Yuna is just trying to stay under the radar after the whole rumors and misunderstand thing. But recently, Minju realise Yuna isn't just being quiet, but she's also been avoiding Minju. She notice that Yuna only talks to her when its necessary, they never have any chit-chats they used to have. 

It's almost midnight, Minju, Yuna and Halla is still in the studio practicing the dance move for their new song. The song it's not done yet, but they're trying to make the dance move as well bit by bit with what they have right now. Minju takes a five minute break and takes out her phone. One unread message. 

남준이~: No message at all today from you... you must be working hard. Are you still at the studio? 

전민주: Yes I am and I am working hard. Are you working hard too? 

남준이~: 당연하지~! 밥 먹었어? (Of course! Did you eat?) 

전민주: 음... not yet. 넌? (how about you?)

남준이~: Haah, I knew it. If you want to be a good leader you have to take care of yourself too. 

전민주: ㅋㅋㅋ 걱정하지마세요~ (kekeke... don't worry) 

남준이~: You're too busy taking care of other no body took care of you. 

전민주: ㅋㅋㅋ 궨찮아요~~~~~ 

남준이~: Yeah, that's why I'm here. I'll take care of you. I'll always remind you to eat and sleep well. 

Minju smiled reading what Namjoon wrote to her. She screeshot that message so she can keep this kind of memories so when she's unable to talk to him, she'll read these old messages to compasate. She runs her finger on her smartphone, taps the screen a few times and wrote "Hahaha, and I'll do the same too~" and send a sticker along with that message. she stares at the screen for a few minute with a big smile that wont fade. But as she's feeling happy with that small message, she can see from the corner of her eyes, Yuna who's practicing in front her with great strength.

남준이~: You know, it's been weeks now, but Yuna is still acting cold for some reasons. Are you guys okay?

전민주: To be honest, I dunno. She's avoiding me too.

남준이~: You were too hard on her maybe. 

전민주: Maybe. But, I mean... We've past through that. I'm no longer mad. 

남준이~: It's possible what happened to her traumatize her in some way. So she doesn't want to do the same thing again.

... 

남준이~: Talk to her... 

Minju takes a deep breath and sigh heavily. She needs to get things straight between her and Yuna. She puts down her phone and gets up. She walks toward Yuna and start dancing to the beat along side Yuna. Yuna seems to intentionally ignores Minju's present right next to her even though Minju is a just a few centimeters away from her.

They've spent an hour and now it's past midnight. The company's building start to lose it's light as most of the staff had already gone home and it's only The ARK who's left. Halla already went home 20 minutes ago and now it's only Yuna and Minju who's trying to figure out the dance move for their new song. Minju is just glad, that even though things are a bit awkward, they can still work together well. Yuna wipes away her sweat on her forehead and drink from her bottle. She takes the towel that is one the floor and swipe the sweat off her neck. Just when they're about to start practicing again, their dance teacher walk in to the room. 

"Guys, just go home. We still have tomorrow to figure out the dance move," says the teacher who's standing right by the door. 

"Oh really? Hmmm... okay well. We'll finish off soon and go home," says Yuna who's closer to him than Minju. 

"Have a safe trip back. Thank you for your hard work," Minju adds as she bow down to the teacher before he left. When the teacher footstep can no longer be heard, Minju looks at Yuna. "Let's call it a day for now..." 

Yuna turns her head to face Minju and nods slowly. Yuna isn't saying anything else and packs her stuff and shove it to her dovel bag. Minju is doing the same things and walks toward the computer to turn it off. Just when the computer's off, she can see Yuna who's already walking towards the door, ready to leave the room. 

"Is everything okay?" says Minju loudly, just before Yuna step outside the room. Yuna stopped and turn her body to face Minju. 

"Yeah. What do you mean? Everything is fine," says Yuna plainly. 

"Well, you seems kind of distance yourself from me after... Namjoon and I... you know?" Minju walks slowly towards Yuna.

Yuna did not answer or say anything directly. She seems to be taking her time, thinking what to say. She look up, as if like she's trying to think of something. "I'm just glad everything works out," she finally answers but somehow it doesn't feel sincere. 

Minju nods and cross her arms in front of her chest. She squint her eyes trying to figure out what Yuna meant by that. "What's going on? Really?" 

Yuna is as confuse as Minju. "What are you talking about?" 

"Namjoon said that you barely respond to him anymore." Silence. Minju did not say anything as well as Yuna. "Are you... mad at me? Or him? Because if you are, you need to tell us so we would understand." 

Yuna stares at Minju with a blank expression. "I'm not mad. Nothing is going on. Let's drop it, okay?" she did not wait for Minju's respond and storm off. Minju is left dumbfounded, she's speechless. That was a rather odd reaction IF what she said is true—that nothing is going on and that she's not mad. Minju quickly grabs her things and run to catch up with Yuna. 

As she gets off the elavator, she sees Yuna who's about to leave the building. Minju speed up so she wont lose Yuna. Yuna is walking quite fast as if she's trying to lose Minju. But Minju is faster, knowing that Yuna is actually trying to get away, Minju speed up even more. As the gap between them is shorten, Minju reach out for Yuna's shoulder and turns her body to face her. 

"Yuna! What's going on? Something is clearly bothering you. You have to tell me," says Minju. 

"I told you... nothing—"

"If it's nothing then why are you tearing up?" even though it's night, but the light from the lightpole give Minju enough lighting to see Yuna's teary eyes. "Tell me the truth. Without the trust we have nothing left..." 

Yuna sigh heavily. She looks away, in hoping her tears wont fall. Yuna hugs herself before she could answer. She looks down to her feet. "You want the truth?" she lift her head as she said that. 

Minju nods, absolute. "Tell me..." 

Yuna looks straight deep into Minju's eyes. She takes a deep breath... "I like him." 

Minju froze. She tries to process what Yuna just said. "'Him'? As in who?"

"Namjoon." 

Then it hits her. Like a splash of cold water to her face in the morning. A punch to the stomach. A smack to the head. Namjoon. This whole time. She tries to help Namjoon to get closer to Minju, it was not out of friendship, but out of love. This whole time pretending not interested in him. These past few years where she could just easily said something to him, but didn't. Minju is speechless, her head is spinning, and no words is coming out of the way she wants. 

"Namjoon? What?" 

"Happy now? You get it right?" Yuna continues curtly. 

"Are saying, you're into him?" Minju tries to make sure that there's no misunderstanding with what she meant by 'like'. 

She scoffs and rolls her eyes. "Don't worry. I'm not going to start stealing him from you." 

Right after Yuna said that she turns away from Minju and takes a few steps away from her. Minju is still frozen, unable to say anything else. She watches Yuna walks away from her, when she suddenly stop. Minju still fixed her eyes on her, Yuna isn't moving a muscle. Then slowly, Yuna turns to Minju with even more teary eyes while bitting her lips. She turns back to face forward and Minju turns to see what made Yuna stopped. There... not too far from where they are. A man standing in his black coat on and a hat. Standing there, as frozen as Minju. Minju's pupil dilated, Kim Namjoon is standing there out of no where. Minju turn to Yuna again and without saying anything else, Yuna runs away pass through Namjoon. 

"Wait... Yuna!" Namjoon tried to stop her but it was no use. Yuna runs away without stopping, covering , try to hold back tears. 

Namjoon quickly runs to Minju. "What the hell just happen?" 

"You are as shock as I am, trust me. I have no idea." 

"Did she just say what I think she said," Namjoon tries to confirm it once again with Minju. 

"Run. Go after her. Now!" says Minju, firmly. 

Without wasting anymore time, Namjoon quickly turns his body and run tries to catch up with Yuna. Minju is left there alone, confuse with what just happen. She tries to process it again one more time and her memory of Yuna teary eyes pop up in her head. She sigh in distrust, can't believe that she's so oblivious this whole time. But all she knows from what happened tonight, Yuna has been keeping her own pain too and worse, it's 10 times more painful compare to what Minju felt before. 

❉ ❉ ❉

—NAMJOON—

"YUNA! Wait... stop running!" Namjoon is running as fast as he can so he can catch up to Yuna. When he close enough to Yuna she grabs her shoulder and stop her and turn her body to face him. He grabs Yuna's shoulder with both of his hand when she face towards him. He lowers his head so his eyes is the same level as Yunas'. Its clear to him, she's tearing up but she quickly wipe her eyes before the tears would fall. 

"What do you want? Let me go," Yuna tries to break free out of Namjoon's grasp, she tries to push his hand with her arm but Namjoon holds her shoulder tightly. 

"Tell me, one more time while looking straight to my eyes... that you are not lying." 

Yuna smile sarcastically while exhaling. She looks deep into his eyes. "I am not lying." 

He loosen his grasp and let go of Yuna's shoulder. He straighten his back and takes a deep breath. He rubs his eyes with his right hand fingers while he hides the other one into his coat pocket. "Why... didn't you say anything?" 

Yuna sigh once again. "And say what? Say 'I'm in love with you this whole time and you should be with me and not her'?" says Yuna sarcastically. "What, huh? Tell me?" 

Namjoon makes a fist and cover half of his face with the back of his hand. He's not sure what to say next, he's trying not to say the wrong thing. "If... I'd have known—" 

"If you've known, what?" Yuna cuts Namjoon before finishing his sentence. "You would not date her? You would like me? You would date me? You would stop looking for her?" her jaws harden. 

Namjoon is even more frozen now. He stays quiet.

"Thought so," Yuna relaxes her face and her body. He can see her shoulder loosen and her face is not as tough as before. "Can we just drop this?" as soon as she says that, she takes a few step away from Namjoon but then stopped by Namjoon again. 

"Okay stop!" Namjoon grabs her shoulder to stop her and let go. "Okay, fine, I would not NOT date Minju, but if I have known I would have done something differently. I would find another way and not be such a jerk about it..." 

"How could you have known?" Yuna asks another rhetorical question. Namjoon, once again, speechless—unable to answer to her question. He cover his face with both of face now, knowing that whatever he says will come out wrong. 

"Ugh...!" Namjoon throws both of his hand to show that he's in distress. "I don't know. I mean, at least I would have done something better. Be a better... friend." 

Yuna raise both of her hand showing him to stop talking. She sigh again. "Forget it okay. What's done it's done. It was by my own choice." 

Namjoon stares at her blankly for a few second. He still can't believe that he's best friend would felt that way this whole time. "How long... have you been...?" 

Yuna smirks. "Since forever." 

Namjoon exhale heavily and bow his head. He stares at Yuna's hand and reach for it slowly. He holds her hand softly and squeeze it. "Tell me... how can I... ease the pain?" 

Yuna stares at their intertwine fingers and smirk once again. She pulls her hand away from him and looks at Namjoon's eyes. "Don't do anything. Just forget it. Help me, forget you." 

Namjoon eyes dilated, shocked to hear what she just said. Forget me? 

"That's the only way," says Yuna with great confidence. But even so, Namjoon can see the pain that she's hiding through her eyes. "Let it go. Let me go... and... hold on to her." 

Yuna's tears finally fall but she, once again, quickly wipe it away with the back of her hand. Namjoon knew, from that moment, nothing will ever be the same again. He knews nothing that he can say or do would make things any better. He stares at his best friend who is, even though she looks strong, there's a painful feeling that she's hiding and doesn't want to admit. They stare at each other intensely, until Yuna close her eyes. Then... she slowly walks away from Namjoon with her broken heart. Namjoon tries to hold her again by grabbing to her arms but Yuna quickly avoids. Namjoon is left alone, knowing that he had broken Yuna's heart into pieces. And the worse thing is, it was not like when you accidentally drop a mirror that it break immediately, but he has been giving Yuna pain constantly, breaks her heart bit by bit. Like a cancer that's slowly eating you up from the inside inch by inch... 

the worst kind of pain, is when you have to feel it everyday, and let it breaks you bit by bit, letting you feel the pain for each strike. 

❉ ❉ ❉

note: we're closing in to the end... I hope you guys are still with me on this fanfics ><