The flowers stayed fresh for a week before losing their life. Jimin tied them together with a hair ribbon and hung them in her closet.

“I hate this! Why do we have to get up so early,” whined Eunjin on the way to brushing her teeth.

“God, you’re even worse than Jimin,” said Irene irritably. “I feel like a single mother of three taking care of all of you!”

“Then don’t boss me around! I feel sorry for Mino. He’s going to have a miserable life with you.”

“I feel bad for Bobby and Jinhwan. At least I make it clear when I don’t like someone.”

“Shut up!” Jimin screamed after getting dressed. “It’s way too early in the morning for this––AAAHH!” she tripped and hit her face on the floorboards. She was sick and tired of waking up each morning to her friends arguing and being chased by the now familiar sound, until it followed her into her dreams, ready to attack her again the next day. They say that when many girls live together, they are bound to fight. And Jimin has never felt this truth so clearly until now.

“Are you okay?” Irene rushed to her side and helped her up. “Let’s go.” Shooting Eunjin one last glare, she said, “Close the door when you’re finished drawing on your face.”

*****

Jimin pulled out her phone to check for messages that day in math class. It’s been a week since Sehun started texting her. Every morning, he wishes her good morning. He asks if she’s had breakfast. He tells that that math will get easier. He comments on the quality of the pork chops at lunch. He checks that she’s been eating dinner. He offers his help on writing in English. He sends her sweet dreams.

She never once texted him back, instead keeping all her responses to herself. Yes, I’ve been eating well. Yes, math is getting better. Yes, I’m going to sleep early.

Jimin had so inadvertently made his texts part of her daily routine that when he finally stopped, she suddenly felt lonely. It’s comforting to know that someone was always watching out for her when her real family was so far away. Every at school was busy with their own lives, and even Irene and Joy weren’t the same as having her parents around.

I wonder if he gave up, she sneered to herself. How easy it was for him to forget about her. She tried to ignore the twinge of regret tugging at the back of her mind. Maybe, if she had responded, she would be able to find out how he really felt. What would she gain from holding on to this grudge anyway? Maybe it will all be less painful if she forgot about it.

*****

Hanbin watched Jimin as she silently worked on her math problems. She had been acting like everything was all right the past week. But he knew that she was still thinking about Sehun.

She’d spent the week struggling to keep peace between Eunjin and the others, and Irene and Mino. Hanbin chuckled at the memory of Jimin berating Mino the other day after the Snoopy fiasco. He didn’t understand how she could unleash so much fury upon one boy, while doing nothing about another who had done something much much worse. What was it about Sehun that made it so hard for her to hate him? Now that he had seen her scary side, it frustrated him even more that she was refusing to stand up to Sehun.

            Hanbin watched as Jimin checked her phone once again. It must be him again, he thought bitterly. Why are you being like this? he scolded himself. It’s none of your business what she does. Anyways, there’s nothing you can do. It’s always been like this between her and Sehun. Even when we were young….

*****

That night, they were all preparing for bed when Eunjin brought up the idea of a party.

“It’s my last weekend here. What do you guys do on the weekends anyway?” she said, stretching out on the rug.

“Nothing. We study. We eat. We sleep,” Irene responded.

“That’s so boring,” Eunjin whined. “Oh I have the perfect idea. Let’s have a party!” She jumped up excitedly.

“Party? No thanks. I have a history paper to write. Some people actually have a sense of responsibility.”

“Oh pleeeeeaaaase, unni,” Eunjin went to Irene and tugged on her arms. “Joy unni? Please?? Jimin?”

“Well, it’s actually not a bad idea if you think about it,” Joy said gently. “Everyone’s been so busy, it’s been a while since we all got to spend time together.”

"Yes! I’m so excited. Who are we inviting? I’ll take care of the alcohol!” Eunjin said animatedly. It was the most genuinely happy Jimin had ever seen her.

“Alcohol?” Joy asked worriedly. “Don’t you think–”

“Oh relax a bit! You deserve it Joy. I know you’ve been working hard to take care of me these past weeks,” persuaded Eunjin. “We’ll invite the boys over. It’ll be so much fun.” She smiled at Joy knowingly. In response, Joy turned slightly pink but stopped protesting.

“Well I have no objections if that’s what you all want to do,” said Jimin.

“Ok then. It’s decided,” clapped Eunjin excitedly, her big eyes glinting with pleasure.

It's a very short chapter but I really wanted to update today because it's my 1 year anniversary since I first got an AFF account! This was brought to my attention by waiting-for-forever (thankk you!).

Anyways I'm always thankful to have found this community here. Actually, I came upon this site accidentally when I was googling Lee Jong Suk one day. It lead me to a fanfic in which Sehun was actually the main guy that gets the girl in the end (even though jongsuk was the nice guy). Anyways, obviously I fell for Sehun in the story and ended up searching up EXO, hence my descent into crazy fangirling.

AFF lead me to kpop, and even though I spent most of my time on here reading others people's amazing stories, I eventually started my own.

Thank you to all the people here, especially the writers that inspired me to start writing. To my readers, I hope you're enjoying the story so far! Have an amazing day everyone.