Together As One

Time for an upgrade?

[Wheein's POV]

For the next few hours, I stayed by Hyejin' side, sitting on her bed cross-legged gently stroking her hair. The poor girl must have over-exhausted herself when she broke down. I was glad she didn't injure herself with anything except her own nails. It must have been really hard on her to control her emotions to hold back.

Who were those dumb people that tried to follow her and stalk her home... Didn't they know the meaning of privacy? I hated those kind of people who knew nothing about respecting someone's privacy, it irritated me to the core. After some time, Hyejin stirred awake from her sleep.

"Wheein? What are you doing here? Didn't you say you were going out with one of your friends?" She softly asks, confused and seemingly to have forgotten about her breakdown earlier. I was used to this though. It was common for her to not remember her emotional collapse until a while later when it hit her and she would start to feel really bad and apologetic.

"Ah, I had to ditch her today... wanted to spend time with you my dear friend! How are you feeling?" I smile and poke her hollow cheek to tease her.

"I feel like I just sailed through a storm that nearly threw me overboard. Did... Did I do something? That's why you're here?"

I internally sigh. I didn't want to lie to her, but I didn't want to let her feel like it was her fault that I cancelled my plans for the day.

"Something happened, but let's talk about that later okay? For now, I'm really hungry and I hope your stomach feels well today because the 2 unnies say they want to cook food today, which... well, I'm not sure would turn out okay at all." I try to change the topic to distract her.

"I must have done something. I'm sorry."

"No it's okay Hyejin, trust me okay... you're fine." I tried to reassure her, my voice going higher.

"No! I'm not fine Wheein ah. I'm not. I'm still the same useless scumbag, worthless and undeserving of anything good. Go away Wheein. I don't want to hurt you too..." Hyejin tries to push me away, but it was a weak attempt.

"No, Hyejin.. please don't do this." I try to get closer to her to give her a hug.

She stands and moves to the corner of her room with her blanket.

"No, please Wheein, leave me along for a bit. Please, I don't want to hurt you too. All I do is hurt people because I'm hurting." She starts to cry and she squeezes herself in the corner, hiding herself under the blanket.

I sigh silently and stand up.

"Okay.. I'll give you some space yeah, but I love you and the unnies do too... leave the door open okay? Don't hurt yourself please... tell me if you need anything.. you still need to eat something later okay..." I say softly, pressing a kiss on her forehead.

"She still inside?" Byulie unnie asks when I walk out of the room.

I nod my head simply and sit down at the dining table.

"Stupid saesang fans! They ruined her! She was getting well so smoothly and then they just scared her. Stupid they aren't even fans!" I angrily said, slamming a pair of chopsticks on the table.

"Hey hey, Wheein calm down... actually Byul and I were discussing earlier, Manager unnie mentioned she's going to bring up this matter to CEO Kim, we were thinking of all shifting to somewhere with higher security. I mean afterall we chose this place last time because it was all we could afford, now we've earned abit more money, I think we could invest it in security? Higher level of security at least, that way Hyejinnie can feel safer and we're all more protected. What do you think?" Yongsun unnie smiles as she shares their suggestion.

"Hmm... I'm fine with anything, as long as Hyejin is okay with it."

"Okay, then I'll message Manager unnie to share with her our idea after we check with Hyejinnie. Should we go and check on her?" Yongsun unnie asks again.

I shrug my shoulders, not quite sure whether it was better to leave her as of now or check on her.

The unnies stood up and I follow suit.

Yong San unnie places a warm hand on Hyejin's blanket-covered head.

"Hyejinnie? My precious Hyegi? You okay? Wanna eat with us now?"

Slowly, Hyejin pulls down the blanket covering her face. She sniffles before nodding slightly. Yong San extends her hand and helps to get her to stand up. I smile at her softly, reminding myself that she was so amazingly strong.