Star University

“Well see about that.” Those words ran through my head all night.

I ate with them, but I didn’t say much, in fact I didn’t say anything at all. It was awkward all the way throughout the time I was with them it got worse when JongHyun asked “Are you two dating?”

“Yeah.” MinHo says and I say nothing just eat more rice and drink a lot of water. I don’t make eye contact throughout the whole situation. They discuss the situation and try to involve me numerous amounts of times but I do not take part, why should I? Maybe if he didn’t force it on me, I might have liked him in the end.

Once I look up I immediately regret it Taemin is giving me a sharp stare, no not a stare, he is glaring at me, his eyes narrow and I could have probably died if looks could kill.

“I better leave,” I say and stand up. “Annyeong,” I say as I walk out. I feel a hand grab me as I enter the corridor.

“JiEun, aren’t you forgetting something.” He says.

“Annyeong MinHo oppa.” I say and pull my hand away from his.

Back at the house Suzy and IU had left and gone to sleep I was all alone in my room for once. I sighed and fell backwards onto my bed.

I can feel my breathing slow down, and those words just grow legs and run through my mind ‘we’ll see about that.’ There was no way I’d change my mind. YoungBae had been there for me since I was two, he has been best friends with my brother since they were like four years old. He’s looked after me and been next to me for almost seventeen years. I couldn’t think of anyone else I had ever had a crush on,- well that I thought could actually work out, Siwon oppa doesn’t count.

A few minutes later I heard a knock on the door to me bedroom. “Come in.” I say without looking at the door just staring at the ceiling in the dark. I wasn’t even in night clothes, I hadn’t had a shower or anything I was too confused. The door creaked open and shut again and I felt a presence move into the room. The next thing I know, YoungBae was lying next to me on my bed.

“JiEun-ah,” he begins.

“Oppa,” I interrupt “Watch a movie with me?” I ask.

“Okay,” he says and I get up and put Millionaires first love on and position myself on the sofa and YoungBae sits next to me. I edge myself closer to him and rest my head on his shoulder.

“Stay like this for a while with me?” I say “Please.” I begged.

He nods and puts his arms around me and we get comfortable and watch the movie. Half way through I pluck up the courage to ask him “Oppa, why did you agree to let me date MinHo? I don’t want to, but it is part of the contract.”

“I only did it for that reason, and plus if you can make it through to Christmas without falling for him, which is pretty hard, It’s not even 100 days, I believe you can do it, why don’t you want to go out with him, d-do you like someone else?” YoungBae asks.

“What if I did, you’d probably know, you know me better than anyone else, plus Dong YoungBae why did you agree to let me and Minho date, and not me and BaekHyun as friends?”

“Do you trust me or not?” He asks.

“Of course I trust you, who else, apart from JiYong has been there for me other than you?”

“That’s true,” he begins “but you like BaekHyun, so I couldn’t let you date him, at all ever. You don’t like MinHo, so there is less chance of you falling for him.” All I could think in my head was *such a fool.*

“Wait, you think I like BaekHyun, babo. I only like him as a friend nothing else. I have had my eye on someone else, for a long time,” I said thinking *ten years is a long time, isn’t it*

“Who,” he asks.

“As if you don’t know,” I teased. Everyone in this house knew our feelings for each other, except YoungBae.

“Who?” He commanded.

“Everyone else knows, so why don’t you?” I kept teasing, I knew he would get angry but he wouldn’t do anything to hurt me.

“Araseyo if you won’t tell me, JiYong will.” He says stubbornly “I’ll just ask him.”

“I’ll tell you soon, not now, sshh, I like this movie!” I put my head back on his shoulder and somehow my hand reaches across his body. My other hand is left at my side in between our bodies but all of a sudden his hand intertwines with mine and he grabs the hand which reaches over his body.

I feel myself turning bright red, I stop myself, but just then, the movie becomes sad and I begin to shed tears. I move away from his shoulder, I didn’t want his shirt to get wet but he immediately pulls me down, he is crying too, I sense the quiet tears roll down his face I look up to him. His face is starring right back at mine, his eyes filled with tears. I wipe them away.

“Oppa, don’t cry.” I laughed.

“Says you, you’re the one crying a river and making my shirt wet.” He pouts. “JiEun-ah, do you think we will be friends forever?” He asks.

I think this through in my head “No, we won’t be friends forever.”

With that I wipe away the last of my tears as the credits begin to role. Then I disappear into the bathroom to get changed leaving YoungBae alone. When I return he has turned all the lights off and I can’t really see anything. As I reach for the lights I hear him around my bed and I turn the lights his abs are on full display I quickly turn the lights back off and hear him laugh.

“Why are you laughing?” I ask him.

“Because you blushed bright red when you saw me, don’t worry I’m just changing my top because you got it wet” he replies in a whisper.

“Ah okay,” I turn the light back on, as I cannot see anything at all and nor can he I suspect. As the lights flicker on, he hasn’t changed at all and he has gotten really close to me his face right next to mine. “Yaa! Are you crazy?”

“No, just testing if you have learnt anything from our acting classes for our M/V shoot, tomorrow, remember?”

“Ahh yeah, I better get some sleep,” I glance at the time, it has just gone past 12 o clock.

“Okay,” He pulls me into a hug and I feel his warm body up against mine it is so nice. “Good night JiEun.” With that he leaves the room and I’m alone again.

I fall straight to sleep and wake up early, have a shower. I still can’t forget how I felt last night, I woke up with an unusually big smile and being happy almost for the first time in ever. I can’t believe he doesn’t realise how much I like him. It is weird everyone can see it apart from me. But, come to think about it I didn’t know he liked me until I had to ask JiYong, maybe he would ask JiYong, and everything would become weird between us.

I got ready for the M/V shoot I didn’t know what was going to happen other than going to the couple store again, my dad had booked the day off school and work for me to shoot this and record the track ready for two days’ time when I make my first stage debut with BigBang. I went down stairs and filled myself with breakfast, that was when EunJi and MinJi came down ready for school, I put them into the chauffeurs car and waved goodbye, BigBang and IU and Suzy appeared from nowhere and ate breakfast, I fetched some water for them and then it was time for IU and Suzy to go to school I waved goodbye to them too as they left.

It was a relatively nice day for autumn anyway we piled into the cars and drove to the location where Teddy, ShinYoung and appa was waiting for us.

The first shooting was me and SeungHyun and JiYong in a car with SeungHyun driving and raping. The next scene was at the basketball court with BigBang playing basketball and I stood watching them. Then there was the couple store scene and a few other small scenes of them in a dance studio and me once again watching and singing the right parts where I should.

After four hours of travelling and filming we managed to get back to the recording studio back home and began to record the song, it only took a few attempts before it was perfect. I thought that was the end of it but I was wrong. They wanted to practice our showcase performance for the JM Countdown. *Aish Teddy, ShinYoung noona why are you doing this to me?*

The dance practice went well, I had to dance with each member, I felt fine with Daesung, Seungri, SeungHyun but it was awkward with my brother and YoungBae, so they decided to make mine and JiYong’s dance more of a brotherly-sisterly dance style but they kept mine and YoungBaes the same.

We practiced for a good two and a half hours I thought that was it.

But once again I was wrong. Interview practice. I guess I needed it I had never been interviewed, that went on again for a couple of hours, I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. So when the questions ended I went inside to eat, I didn’t realise what time it was, EunJi and MinJi had already been home and had dinner and went to sleep.

I stayed up, tomorrow was the last day of practice before my debut stage on Friday, and boy was I nervous.

I lay on my bed when I heard a knock on the door, Youngbae I thought “Come in,” I say again not moving from my bed. I feel the presence around me, so I sit up. “M-M-MinHo?”

“Yeah, who else were you expecting?” He asks seriously.

“Oh, urm nobody why?” I say not daring to mention the fact that YoungBae checks up on me almost every night.

“Well, that’s good then, we can watch a movie together.” He says or rather commands but I immediately decline.

“I can’t, I am way too tired, I have been practicing for my debut on Friday with BigBang and I don’t know what tomorrow is going to be like, so I better be prepared.”

“Oh, okay,” he pouts and I can’t help but feel sorry for him.

“Mianhae, I’m just really busy, and I probably won’t have time to spend with you,” I pause “I don’t think my feelings towards YoungBae will change. Mian.”

“Mine too, my feelings won’t change for you. I will still protect you no matter what happens.” He says and puts the book that he was reading back down on the shelf. “Tell me, why do you like YoungBae so much?”

*ah, what do I say?* “He has been around me for 16 years at least, he was my first love he protected me from bullies at elementary school, he carried me home after I hurt myself, he used to stay around the house a lot so I’m comfortable around him he makes me laugh and I can talk to him about anything.” That was all I could think of at the moment, but I felt as if I made my point clear.

“Can you never love me like that, or even a little bit, that would be enough, if I could make you smile just once, I think I could be happy, knowing you are happy.” I felt a pang of sadness hit me as the words flow out of his mouth, I didn’t realise he actually cared for me so much.

“I tell you what, we should spend time together as friends, if anything changes, my feelings, your feelings or YoungBae’s feelings, I’ll let you know.” I decided I’d walk with him towards the dorms as I needed some air to clear my thoughts even if it was raining. He didn’t decline and I took out my umbrella and walked with him.

We got half way down the back garden and it began to rain I told him he should hurry in the rain got worse. I say goodbye and turn around only to be caught by YoungBae’s hand.

He pulls me forward I drop my umbrella on the grass. Everything goes slow motion the rain is falling on our faces as he leans in with his eyes closed, with that my world spins in many directions. After what seemed like an eternity his lips meet mine and fireworks go off all around me and the world continues to spin. Even if the rain is pouring down I can’t feel it, the warmth rises through my body. Leaving me breathless he pulls away and softly says “You were on about me, weren’t you?” I nod knowing full well that he was on about last night when he asked who I liked.

“Yeah, I like you, I thought you knew,” I say his smile makes me go weak again and he straightens me up.

“How long have you liked me for?” he asks pulling me into the house before we got even more wet as it was still raining. Although it didn’t make much difference because we were already soaked from the rain.

“Urm, maybe, over, like ten years, around, give or take a few.” Once again the words I was saying made no sense what so ever.

“Why didn’t you tell me before? Why can’t we date if you like me, I denied it because I thought you still wanted to be friends, I thought you liked someone else. I too, have liked you since that day I carried you home and took care of you when you were ill because JiYong and your appa were asleep. That’s the day I started checking up on you every night I could, and I missed you every day you were in England.” I smiled, I knew he liked me but I didn’t know that it was that long. I went upstairs and he followed.

“JiEun, what are we going to do now?” He asks.

“Well, MinHo told me to hang out with him as friends and if my feelings change I have to let him know.” I say, telling him the truth.

“Really?” he asks “Does that mean, well, urm, does that mean you don’t have to date him,” I nod and I see YoungBae’s eyes light up and his smile is bigger than I’ve seen it before.

“I’m not sure,” I say informally and then I tut and pout. “It’s complicated I guess.” His smile fades. I realise we are so wet from the rain I tell him to go dry off and meet in my room in one hour.

I enter my room and take a step into the warm shower. I could feel the heat radiate into my skin and this made me think about everything that was occurring in my life. Was all this a set up?

Why hasn’t my life been bad I keep thinking to all the K-Dramas and movies I’ve watched, there is always a plot twist or some sort of problem a person has to overcome, so where is mine?

I get out the shower and put on a simple night dress and some pretty fluffy slippers, I ask one of the maids to bring up two cups of hot chocolate for me and YoungBae and I sit waiting for him, I decided this was a perfectly good time to put on some of my records I find my collection of an 80’s English band called ‘The Cure’ they have some really good songs and it’s nice and calming to listen to.

The maid walks in with the tray of drinks, an extra glass of water for the night. “Keep hydrated it’s going to be a hot night despite the rain,” she says politely handing me the drink.

“Gamsahamnida unnie,” I reply and bow, I always show my respect to BaekHee, she’s not much older than me and she is a very nice person. After she leaves YoungBae opens the door and they exchange places. I hand YoungBae the drink and we sit down on the floor listening to some old English music.

I saw YoungBae smile as I sang the chorus to ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ That’s all we did, drink hot chocolate and listen to music for about half an hour, it was soon going to be reaching midnight and that’s when we actually spoke.

“JiEun, what do we do now?” He asked, I shrug my shoulders and look out my window.

“Well, if we deny the rumours like we have, until after Christmas, we can still be friends and I can still debut and you can have your comeback and everything will be fine. After Christmas I might have a plan, I haven’t fully worked it out yet, but I’ll see and let you know after” I say and take a sip of my drink. YoungBae laughs at me, “What are you laughing at?” I ask him.

“You’ve got something there” he points to my mouth, I wipe it, but evidentially I miss it. He reaches over and places his hand on my face and uses his thumb to gently wipe it off my face. Things get awkward for a minute, “I better get to sleep we have a lot of practice tomorrow.” He gets up and goes to walk out.

I stand up and as he opens the door I quickly hug him from the back. “Oppa,” I begin.

“JiEun, what’s wrong.” He asks.

“Nothing, I’m fine, just can you do something for me?” I ask.

“Yeah sure,” He replies.

“Kiss me again?” I ask shyly. He smiles and puts his hand on my head and he leans in and kisses me, yet again the fireworks go off and I smile and kiss him back. After a minute he breaks off the kiss, “Stay with me for the night?” I ask again. He nods and he goes to sleep on the sofa, and I sleep in my bed. I can’t help but smile.

Notes

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I am so so sorry for the late updates- lack of updates- I have been so busy at work and college and stuff it got really time consuming and the weekend was crazy, like seriously crazy.

I have a few weeks off now, so I will relax and continue to write, I will hopefully be putting up a few chapters in the next week or so.

Please keep reading!!

So what do you think? Do you like it?? Let me know!