five.
The sounds of the wiggling doorknob had gotten the attention of the four impatient and frustrated girls. With the swing of the door, they filed at the entrance and waited for Kumju to reveal herself.
After a few moments of nothing, they looked at each other with confusion written on their faces. Slowly, Kumju had walked in with soda dripping from her hair and clothes onto the clean floor.
She stood amongst them with a blank face, knowing that they all had something to say to her.
"What happened to you?" Min asked, raising a finger to point at the wet and messy Kumju. Kumju threw her a look of frustration as she sighed.
"Don't even ask," she scoffed, angrily taking off her shoes. She avoided the glares that they were shooting at her way as she looked down to where her mess was.
"It's been nearly three hours since you left," Jea stated, looking over her shoulder to the clock that hung on the wall. Kumju followed her gaze as she opened her mouth to defend herself. "Don't even try to. Just go and clean yourself up while we clean up after you, again," Jea interrupted, shaking her head gently as she watched Kumju hang her head in guilt.
"This day just gets worse and worse," she muttered to herself, dragging her body out of their sight.
"Damn, somebody's got their panties in a twist," Suji muttered, crossing her hands on her chest as she continued to stare at Kumju's mess. Knowing that she was the one who cleaned that particular part of the floor moments before frustrated her more.
"Y'all have to be easy on her. Even if she's irresponsible, you have to remember what she's going through," Eunji reasoned, making them sigh in agreement.
"You're right," Jea said, hunching back her shoulders and slightly smiling at them in response.
"My ass," Suji replied, grabbing the nearest mop so that she'd start cleaning.
"Especially you, you ungrateful bi — maknae. I was going to say maknae," Min commented, joining her as she grabbed another mop. Everyone snickered as they helped clean up.
"You know, sometimes I wonder what made Suji so, uh—"
"Sarcastic and sassy?" Jea questioned, raising her eyebrows. Eunji nodded her head, tightening her grip on the mop. Jea looked down at Kumju's shoes. "She learned from the best."
"Sadly," Suji laughed. They all rolled their eyes before slapping her in the back of her head. "Kumju—"
"I'd be surprised if she didn't appear out of no where and screamed 'unnie' after Suji," Min said, smiling. Everyone else nodded their heads, letting laughs escape from their mouths as they sighed happily at the thought.
"She's really nice, to he honest. She might not seem like it in the outside but I know deep down, she's this little kind and caring person. I hate her but love her, you feel me?" Suji finished.
"You're just indirectly talking about yourself," Eunji commented.
"I'm honest!" Suji raised her hands in defense, shaking her head as all of them looked at her carefully.
"Sure," Min groaned, squeezing the mop over the bucket. Everyone watched her in disgust as the dirty water dripped from it.
They all looked away and continued to clean in silence, making sure that the floor was just as it was before Kumju had appeared. Before anyone spoke up, Kumju had appeared with a towel draped over her wet hair.
"I'm back," she told them, looking over their direction. They all turned to look at her as they finished their final touches. "You guys can continue but I just wanted to apologize for giving you guys a hard time. Today wasn't that great and I didn't want you guys to struggle because of me. It's enough that I am struggling. I wouldn't like to see you guys do so, especially if it was because of me. I'm sorry," she explained, bowing down quickly before standing back up and looking at them. She felt ashamed of her actions and knew they didn't deserve to clean up after her many times.
"You know what, you shouldn't apologize. You're going through something and we shouldn't be the ones to say the wrong things and trigger something inside of you. How about a movie marathon for all of us to feel better, yeah?" Jea suggested, smiling sweetly towards Kumju. Kumju nodded in response, stopping herself from letting a few tears escape from her eyes.
She was happy that she had them by her side. She really was.
The five girls turned back to their equipment and started dragging everything back to their places. As they did, Kumju decided to dry her hair and put it in a more comfortable hair style, enough for it to not be messy for the schedule they had the day after.
As everyone started to gather around in the living area, the door bell started to ring and interrupt the opening credits of Spirited Away.
They all looked at each other with their eyes widened, curious as to who would ring their door bell at this time. As they questioned each other, Kumju agreed to get up and open the door herself.
She put on a smile on her face as she reached out for the door knob and opened the door quickly. Her smile quickly dropped once she spotted a familiar face with a much older one.
"Baekhyun?" She asked, tightening her eyebrows in anger as she caught sight of him. Her anger suddenly disappeared once she looked up to the other person. She let a laugh slip from her mouth as she noticed the hand that was pinching at Baekhyun's ear. "Hello, manager-nim," she greeted EXO's manager, bowing down formally.
"Hi, Kumju. Me and Baekhyun here came to apologize for his careless and stupid actions against you," he said, pushing Baekhyun towards Kumju.
"Manager hyung, you're embarrassing me," he hissed quietly, intending for only him to hear. Kumju snickered at his reaction as she waited for his apology.
"Kumju, who is it?" Jea called out, footsteps of the four being followed right after. Kumju smirked as she opened the door wider for the others to see.
"Oh, what the hell is Baekhyun doing here?" Eunji asked, looking over at him. Baekhyun turned to look at the rest of the members as he attempted to hide his face in shame.
"After I heard a lot of noise coming from the hallways a while ago, I went to check to see what it was. But Baekhyun had beaten me and appeared to the dorm with a look of, how should I put this, glory. When I asked him what it was, he told me minor things until I went outside the door and saw the huge mess. So now I brought him here to apologize," he explained, shooting daggers at him.
"Great work, Baekhyun," Suji said, reaching to high five him. Min elbowed Suji and told her to stop.
"What even happened though?"
"This dickhead —"
"Language," Jea warned.
"— thought it would be funny to pull a small prank on me, which resulted in me being soaked with soda," Kumju answered, tapping her fingers on her opposite hand.
"Wrong choice to make. Kumju isn't the one to be messed with. She'll know how to get you back," Min stated, biting on her tongue.
"Look, I didn't mean to cause anything, really. All I wanted was some fun. You know, I'm someone who likes to have fun. Hehe?" He replied, raising his hand to swing it by his side in attempt to look innocent.
"Stop smiling," Kumju said, causing Baekhyun to smile more.
"I came here to apologize and I will. So, uh, I'm truly sorry for causing any problems for you and your members," he apologized, raising a finger to bop her nose.
Kumju looked taken aback at his actions, causing her to fling his finger out of her face.
"That's really cute of you," she smiled sarcastically, looking over at her friends. She tried to hide the redness that climbed up to her cheeks as she looked over at them. The only person who had noticed her face was Eunji, who winked at her before going inside the dorm.
"Now that Baekhyun has apologized, he has one more thing to say," his manager coughed, indicating for him to say it.
"Since I'm the one who caused the mess, I'll offer to, uhm, do I really have to do this?" He turned to his manager. He nodded in response as pushed him more towards the door. "I'll offer to clean up the mess I made and I'll also offer to clean up your whole dorm when I have a free schedule," he mumbled.
"Aw, that's sweet of you," Kumju clapped her hands, looking back at Eunji who was approaching them with a mop, broom, and a bucket full of clean water.
"Thought you'd need this," she claimed, handing it over to him.
"That's that, then. Say bye to them and we'll be on our way," the manager said, leaving. Once he was out of sight, Baekhyun turned to look at all of them.
"She's evil. Your fucking band member is evil, I'm warning you. But I'll be nice. For the sake of Jea noona and Junmyeon hyung. You leaders won't leave me alone if I didn't. Anyways, good night and hopefully this won't be a beginning to a hate relationship. See you," he said, winking without shame before leaving them to themselves.
"Well," Suji said, interrupting the awkward silence. Kumju closed the door and turned back to sit at the couch.
"I think I feel better now knowing that he's getting what he deserves," she happily stated, pulling them with her. They all sat staring at the movie that was paused before all bursting in laughter.
"I wonder if his band members knew about this. They'd probably tease him about this for a long, long time," Min chuckled, making them all agree.
After their small talks and their laughter died down, they decided to play the movie. One of them got up to turn off the lights, making the room dark and comfortable.
About twenty minutes in, all except for Jea and Kumju were asleep.
"I guess they're that tired, huh? I feel bad that I didn't go to today's practice," Kumju whispered.
"It's okay. You'll practice double the hours tomorrow," Jea joked, getting interrupted by another door bell. The two of them groaned, looking at each other as they silently battled in who should go and open the door.
"I opened the door before," Kumju defended, Jea shaking he head in response.
"One of you just get up and open the freaking door," Suji muttered, shuffling in her sleep as she put a pillow over her head. Kumju threw daggers at Jea before she angrily got up and dragged herself to the front door.
"What do you want, Baekhyu—" she started when she opened the door. Her words quickly silenced once she spotted who it was.
It was Kumju's ex.
author's note ;;
(i have posted a character profile page in the beginning of the story)
i sincerely apologize that i could not update so i gave you guys a long chapter in return. exams are coming up and updates will be slower so please hang on !!
i'm supposed to be doing a project that's due in a day but i decided to update instead. i love you guys, really.
today was tiring, considering that i went to the airport with my best friends and came back to update three of my stories(new record). look forward for more coming up since summer vacation is right around the corner.
i love you guys so much, don't ever forget that!! thank you so, so much for all these reads. it means the world that i'm being noticed for what i love to do most.
i'm passionate about this and i hope you guys stick by me. also, next chapter will be exciting so look forward to it (;
— nehal
p.s. please comment of you can see the new version of this chapter
re written on may 21st 2016 (sudaddy's bday in korea)