Please ignore any errors… Once the semester is over, I should be able to go back and fix any errors in my stories XD so be patient!

“I almost thought you weren’t coming back!” Ji Min joked as Leo opened the trunk of his car.

It was late evening by now. Everyone from earlier had reluctantly took their leave for the night but made plans to meet up again soon. But not everyone left… Won Woo was still there, helping unload Ji Min’s bags.

“I wouldn’t forget, don’t worry.” Leo chuckled, shutting the trunk before carrying her bigger bags inside as Won Woo carried the smaller ones close behind.

They headed inside and left her thing up in her room for her to unpack later. Hakyeon was over and currently preparing a snack for everyone in the house. Ravi had come by since he head Won Woo brought Ji Min back with him.

"Wow, I didn't think you two would be so..." Ravi said with an amused chuckle. "I'm surprised. I didn't think you'd kidnap her!"

"I didn't kidnap her!" Won Woo pouted.

"It's not kidnapping unless I'm being taken against my will!" Ji Min added on.

"I was just playing!"

"You play too much." Hongbin nudged him in his seat before facing his sister. "So... what's the plan?"

"Uh..." she frowned at the sudden question, "I haven't even thought of anything yet."

"Well one thing is for certain. She's not going back." Won Woo spoke up in a slight serious tone. "She's not happy there and even if she went back, it wouldn't be for long since they plan to ship her off to the states."

"I really don't agree with my parents forcing decisions on her like this." Jaehwan gave an irritated sigh. "I'm not sure what went wrong? Hongbin and I... never had to go through this. Why are they doing this with her?"

The room grew silent. Everyone was wondering the same thing.

"Jaehwan and I had our fair share of mistakes and girlfriends, but... in the end we have successful jobs and are doing just fine. They never had a problem with us dating, so why do they have it now? Is it that stupid cliche, 'don't want her getting pregnant, too young to raise a baby... it'll interfere'." The corner of his mouths fell down into a scowl. "What if Jaehwan and I got a girl pregnant? We aren't the type of men who would run away from it, we'd stay and help raise the baby too. That situation applies to everyone, not just a girl. I just really don't understand our parents right now." He ended with a frustrated sigh, running a hand through his hair.

"Whatever the reason is, they need to stop and think for a second about how Ji Min feels. They shouldn't be making decisions for her without talking to her, they need to sit down and talk to her." Hakyeon threw in his two cents.

"But they're always too 'busy'." Ravi pointed out. "Like they're going to have time to talk and listen to their daughter." He rolled his eyes. Ji Min for a second felt really bad about how they were all talking about her parents, but she knew she shouldn't try to protect bad behavior.

When was the last time I got to properly eat a meal with my parents?

When was the last time my mother or father hugged me?

When was the last time I really saw them when they weren't in a hurry to get to work?

I never see them...

I'm always alone in that big empty house suffering and they could care less about how that makes me feel.

As Ji Min was thinking, she stole a glance of Won Woo who was talking to the others, looking serious about his words and the situation.

I think... it was in my best interest to leave with Won Woo.

I may feel guilty for just up and leaving my parents, but it had to be done, right?

I can't let them keep controlling my life... otherwise, when will I ever get to be happy?

Just then, Won Woo turned to look at her when he noticed her staring at him in the corner of his eye. "What is it?" He asked, a look of concern flashing across his face. She shook her head in reply and smiled softly, taking his hand into hers, giving it a small squeeze. It brought a smile back to his face when she leaned on his shoulder next to him. He rested his cheek at the top of her head, closing his eyes for a second. He was happy to have her back with him.

"Whatever might happen, we'll be here, supporting you two." Jaehwan said with a sad yet warm smile. He had a feeling of what will happen, but had to tell himself... As long as she's happy.

...

“Would it be okay if I could stay the night?” Won Woo asked Jaehwan.

“I should say no, but I’m going to say yes.” He grinned, just knowing Won Woo didn’t want to leave Ji Min’s side for a second. They spent too much time apart…

"Are you sure-" Hongbin was saying in a protective tone before getting elbowed in the side to shut up. He glared at his brother in reply.

...

“I’m surprised they’re letting you sleep in my room.” Ji Min said, settling down on her side of the bed, close to the wall. Won Woo was lying to her left, staring up at the ceiling, still trying to process what happened over the weekend!

“I was ready to sleep on the couch, but I have no complaints, really.”

“Of course!” She giggled as he his side to pull her close to his chest. "I just... still can't believe I'm back." She mumbled, drawing circles near his collarbone.

"I get sad sometimes... what if I wake up and it was a dream?" Won Woo admitted with a sad chuckle.

"If it's a dream, I don't want to wake up." She cuddled closer to him.

"Me either." He held her tighter, kissing the top of her head. It didn't take them too long to fall asleep.

He remembered the first time they stayed the night together when they first started dating…

A year ago, second week of December…

It was really cold tonight as Won Woo lied in his bed, staring up at the ceiling. His aunt and uncle were gone for the weekend so it was just him in the big empty lonely house. It made him look back on how screwed up his life had become since his parents died. He got up from his bed and headed over to grab his photo album to find the only picture he had of his mother and father together… before the car accident nearly 10 years ago. He was also in the photo, smiling brightly. It pained him when he looked up on the mirror hanging on his wall.

“Where did this happy kid disappear off to?” He thought out loud. “Did he really grow up to be this pathetic miserable loser?” He looked at himself once more before looking back at the photo. His father died in a blink of an eye from a car accident, he had been in the midst of a car pile up and died later in the hospital. Years later, his mother fell ill and died. They both died and he was the only one left now, stuck in this miserable environment with his aunt.

For a split second, he got angry and blamed it on them but quickly, that anger subsided into complete utter sadness. “I’m sorry.” He said aloud in his room. “I don’t blame you two… I really don’t blame you… I’m sorry!”

He put the photo back, feeling so ashamed of thinking such a thing about his parents. He was certain that they were looking after them from above, and even if things seem bad now, they’d be great later on. And Ji Min was already a sure sign of it.

Thinking about his girlfriend now, a smile soon spread across his face. Just the thought of her was enough to put him in good moods again. He returned to his bed and pulled out his phone to look at the couple selca on his lock screen. As he admired, the girl in the photo’s name displayed and his phone started to buzz in his hand. Ji Min was calling him.

“Yeoboseyo.” He greeted.

“Yeobose… yoooooooo~!” She said excitedly on the other line. “Yo, yo, yo! What up man!”

“Yah, were you hanging out with Hansol again?” He pouted.

“Maybe! And even if I did, it was only for a few minutes! Bumped into him at the store.”

“I see…” He replied, trying to hide the dejected tone in his voice. He didn’t want to give away that he was lonely right now, though… Ji Min caught on.

“What’s up, what are you doing?”

“Nothing. Just lying down in bed.”

“What?! It’s not even 9pm yet! You okay, halbeoji(grandpa)?” She asked, sounding slightly worried despite her joking. It was only 7pm right now on a Saturday night.

“I’m okay.” He tried to reassure her. He didn’t want her to worry over him.

“Ah… is Madusa home?”

“No.” He laughed at the nickname he gave his aunt. “She’s away with her husband for the weekend.”

“So you’re home alone?!” The tone in her voice sounded beyond worried now.

“Yeah, but I’m okay.”

“Did you call Mingyu over?”

“I don’t want to bother him… I bother him enough as is.”

“Any of the other guys?”

“No, I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”

“But I am worried!” She protested. “Hold on a second!” She put her phone down but he could still hear her shout to her brothers. “Can I go stay at Won Woo’s place tonight?!”

...

“I’m still surprised they let you come over.” Won Woo mumbled as he set a bowl of stew in front of Ji Min at the table. He had cooked them dinner. Being home alone a lot, he had to learn how to cook on his own and is happy to say he’s a pretty good cook because of it.

“Me too, but I try not to think too much about it. It obviously means they trust you.” She beamed at him. “My brother’s were always protective, obviously… so for them to let me come over, they trust you a lot!”

“Well that’s good. I’m glad they do.” Won Woo smiled, taking his own seat after serving Ji Min her food. “Their sister is in good hands.” She shot him another happy smile before facing her food before her.

“Wah, this stew is amazing!” She gasped in surprise after taking a spoonful. “How’d you learn to cook like this?!”

“Self taught.” He answered with a proud smile.

“You’re going to have to teach me.” She said with a serious face. “I mean, I can cook… but not like this!”

“I’m sure your cooking is better, right?” He asked. He figured since she had both parents, her mother taught her sometime before getting busy with work.

“Leo’s girlfriend is the only one who ever taught me how to make bulgogi and kimbap. My mother wasn’t really… a motherly figure to me.” She sighed.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s okay!” She assured him quickly with a warm smile. “I didn’t mean for it to sound so bad like that. She’s a good mother, or so I would like to believe she is. She was really nice and affectionate growing up before she decided to go back to work. That’s when things changed. And when things changed, that’s around the time a mother would teach her daughter those kind of things, like cooking. So Leo’s girlfriend stepped in and taught me since she’s also good friends with my brothers. Hakyeon taught me a few things here and there… so I do have motherly figures in my life, they’re just not my real mother.” She gave a light chuckle at the end when she noticed she included Cha Hakyeon in there. “Chamama.”

Both went into a fit of laughter at the mere nickname.

…

After dinner, Won Woo and Ji Min spent some time in the living room, watching a movie and chatting here and there about better things, avoiding topics that had to do with them right now. As time progressed, they soon headed upstairs for bed.

At this point, Won Woo began to get nervous. This would be the first time he’s spending a night with a girl. Naturally they weren’t going to be doing anything, but this was all new to him.

“I’ll sleep on the floor.” He mentioned as he got his bed ready for her.

“No! You can’t sleep on the floor, you’ll mess up your back!” She frowned. “You’ll sleep in the bed with me.”

“Uh…”

“No need to be shy! It’s like those other times we took a nap! Just, we’ll be unconscious longer!” She laughed at the face he was making, he looked so embarrassed just then. “It’ll be okay, c’mon!” She pulled him over to the bed.

They got settled fairly quick. Once she was beside him, his nerves started to fade and he was getting more comfortable by then. Moments later when he was more relaxed, he pulled her over to be closer to him.

“Goodnight, Won Woo. Pleasant dreams.” She gave him a small kiss to the cheek.

“Goodnight, Ji Min. Dream of me.” He smiled.

“I will try!” She giggled.

Present day, second week of December...

A few days had passed since Ji Min returned to Seoul. There was no word from her parents to her brothers yet and that made almost everyone mad again. They hadn't notice their daughter was missing from their home? They knew they'd hear something by the end of the week at least. For now, Ji Min was going to enjoy her time with Won Woo and her friends before the drama would stir up again.

Because she came back so suddenly, she couldn't attend school with the others yet. Hongbin said he'd have her ready to go back to Pledis High in about a week and to be patient. So that meant while Won Woo was at school, the only friends avaliable were Seungcheol, Jeonghan, Jisoo and Junhui. They started college but luckily didn't have any classes today, so they invited her to hangout with them at Jeonghan and Jisoo's apartment.

"You two are living together now?" Ji Min asked, looking pretty happy about it.

"Yeah, moved in right after graduation." Jisoo nodded, hooking his arm around Jeonghan's waist, pulling him close as Ji Min was admiring their home they built- as in decorated- together.

"Sometimes feels like a husband and wife really do live here." Seungcheol commented as he poked one of the flowers in a vase sitting on the kitchen table.

"Yah~!" Jeonghan stormed over to scold him.

"I see he still picks on your wife." Ji Min joked.

"Yeah, he does," Jisoo chuckled at the sight of Jeonghan getting so worked up about Seungcheol's teasing, "it's pretty cute, though."

"You and Won Woo are kinda strange sometimes." Junhui commented.

"You're just jealous because you have no one to be strange with." Jisoo grinned back at him. There was no reply but a pouting Junhui crossing his arms and walking away to look at something else.

"Things really haven't changed much since I left, huh?" Ji Min asked quietly, a small relieved yet... sad look on her face. She didn't really think there was such a thing as 'things haven't changed' because she believed things were always changing...

"You okay?"

"I'm fine, just kinda sad. I missed a whole year of that." She pointed to Jeonghan smacking Seungcheol up the backside of his head after the guy teased the former about how cute his apron was. It was a custom one with their ship name 'JiHan' in the middle of a heart.

"I'd be sad too!" Jisoo laughed.

...

"I know you don't really want to think about it... but what are you and Won Woo going to do from here on out?" Jeonghan asked Ji Min who was helping him clear the table. They just ate lunch and the other guys were off in the living room getting ready to watch a movie.

"I don't know." She sighed, handing him the plate. "I get worried and even scared. What if leaving like that was a bad idea... what if it just made everything a million times worse?"

"I'm worried too." He frowned, giving her a small pat on her shoulder.

"I had a dream last night that they came and took me away while I was sleeping..." she quietly explained, handing a pair of cups to him this time. "When I woke up in the dream, I was on a plane that was on its way to the states. I cried a lot on that plane and I refused to get off of it when it landed..."

"Ji Min..." Jeonghan felt so bad for her as he could see the tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

"I felt so heartbroken... because it felt so real."

"Enough, I'm sorry... I shouldn't have asked." Jeonghan sighed, pulling her over into a comforting hug.

"It's fine. Pushing it to the side isn't going to help..."

"But for today... just push it aside for today." He released her from the hug to see the tears were falling. "Oh, sweetie! Don't cry! Please!" He whined, feeling a sting in the back of his own eyes. He hugged her again, tighter.

...

After a few movies at JiHan's apartment, Ji Min noticed the time and mentioned she wanted to go see the others since school was out by then. They happily let her go, smiling and waving. She returned the same gestures, but they couldn't help but noticed this apologetic look in her eyes before she left. They were left wondering about it...

...

"Noona!" Chan exclaimed as he rushed up to her and tackled her with a hug. Seungkwan was right behind him and joined the embrace before Seokmin and Minghao joined in too. Jihoon, Soonyoung and Hansol came shortly after, smiling at their friends nearly suffocating the girl with their tight embraces. Won Woo and Mingyu hadn't come out yet due to getting detention for pulling a prank earlier.

"Such bad boys." Ji Min laughed after hearing about it.

"So you have us for now." Soonyoung grinned.

"Great!" She smiled. "Let's go to the arcade or something?"

"Yes!" Their youngest friends Seungkwan, Hansol and Chan all cheered in sync.

They hurried off to the nearest arcade and played around to their heart's content.

Ji Min had a blast with them, playing and catching up. Soon she started to get a bit tired and opted out to hang with Jihoon, Soonyoung and Seokmin for a bit since they weren't playing as much.

"You sure have a lot of energy!" Soonyoung commented, impressed.

"Thanks! I saved it all up for the boys!" She joked, taking a seat at their table.

"It's good to see you having fun." Jihoon mentioned. "After what you've been going through and all... it's nice to see that smile."

"Agreed!" Seokmin smiled his bright smile. "It's so pretty!"

"Thanks, twin." She joked.

The four chatted for a little bit, also catching up. Though, the entire time they couldn't help but feel like something was a little off. There was a look in her eyes that just wouldn't go away despite her laughing and smiling. It was that sad apologetic look. None of them wanted to point it out or say anything about it, they didn't want to ruin the mood by bring up her situation. But they were all so curious, too.

Shortly after, she got a text from Won Woo saying he was out of detention with Mingyu now. Looking up, they all told her she should go see him. She spent enough time with them already and there was always next time, right?

"I don't know... something doesn't feel right." Seungkwan blurted out after she left.

"I feel the same." Jihoon nodded.

"What do you think it is?" Hansol added.

"Even though we were having so much fun, I couldn't help but notice... she looked a bit sad and even apologetic." Chan's dejected expression became contagious as everyone had it on their faces now.

"You don't think..." Soonyoung said worriedly.

"No." Seungkwan said quickly. His eyes were focused on on the table.

"Seungkwan?" Minghao asked, resting a hand on his shoulder.

"Dude..." Hansol muttered, finally connecting the dots. His expression fell as he watched Seungkwan struggling to hold back tears.

"Noona..." Chan mumbled, feeling overwhelmingly sad as he looked at the group selca they just took on his phone before she left.

...

"Ow?!" Won Woo complained as Ji Min had smacked him up upside his head. "What was that for?!"

Mingyu was laughing at him before he too was smacked by the shorter girl. Because he was so tall, she ended up smacking him in the jaw and the reaction he made had his friends in a fit of laughter. "Yah! That wasn't funny!" He pouted, rubbing his jaw.

"You two are so bad... pulling pranks in school?" She crossed her arms, giving them a scolding look, but her laughter inside was showing.

"They told you?!" Won Woo sighed. "I told them to say we were helping a teacher!"

"Don't make your friends liars!" She chuckled, nudging him this time. "Anyway, since you two were locked up in school jail, I hung out with the others for a bit." There was a smile on her face, but the look in her eyes didn't match. Mingyu noticed the two exchange a look before she went on to speak again. What was that? He thought to himself as they were both looking happy, holding each other's hands before inviting him to join them for cake.

They arrived to the cake shop and ordered their snacks. At first they had a normal chat before naturally, Ji Min's situation surfaced.

"Still no word from my parents yet. They're probably still too busy to even notice I'm gone." She sighed, poking at her slice of chocolate cake before her. "Jaehwan said they'd probably figure it out by the end of the week. We'll hear from them by then, I suppose."

"Hopefully things will be situated at that time." Mingyu said positively.

"They will be." Won Woo smiled, but again... his eyes weren't matching. It was honestly starting to freak Mingyu out. Something was going on. He debated if he should bring it up but before he could even say anything, the two said they were leaving.

"Wait." He spoke up.

"What is it?" Ji Min asked. Something about her expression... made Mingyu shut up. It was like she was begging him not to say anything with a single look.

"Uh... nevermind." He shook his head.

"Then we'll see you next time." Won Woo gave one last wave to his best friend. He muttered a small 'I'm sorry' before leaving with Ji Min. Mingyu didn't quite catch what he said but... after watching them leave, he had a feeling what it was.

I'm sorry?

Mingyu stood there, watching them leave the cake shop. He started to feel like he was going to regret not bringing up their strange expressions, and sure enough he did.

Because that was the last time he saw Jeon Won Woo and Lee Ji Min.

Chapter eight!

Whoa...

Whoa... XD Right?! Whoa…

Sorry it took so long for me to update.

School got busy and in the small ammount of time I had, I updated Jeonghan’s story instead!

I’m sorry Won Woo, it was your turn but…

Won Woo: It’s fine…

LOL

So… I missed school today because I wasn’t feeling well, but just all of a sudden ideas started cramming into my brain so I started typing away and this is what we got XD CLIFFHANGER!

Yeah I know not everyone is going to be too happy about that, but… So I am going to try to continue writing while I’m in the mood so that I have an update ready for next week! ^^ So please be patient! XD Surprising things are coming your way~!

And a moment to thank everyone who is reading and following this story ^^ Hope you’re enjoying it! Until next time, bye for now!

Don’t worry, you will see me again, maybe!

XD LOL

PS. If you're reading on a computer and notice the quotation marks looking weird, that's because writing on a mobile device in google docs does that. You can easily tell where I wrote with my computer and where with the tablet judging by the quotation marks XD It's soooo annoying!

Examples:

With computer - “ ”

With Tablet - " "

No one problably notices, but I do~! >< FRUSTRATING

*Me knocking google docs out* JK