"Midterms are done!" Jaemin cheers as him and Jieun exits the campus building. The two of them now on their way to the parking lot.
"I'm so glad that we're finally done with that. I don't think that I could spend another all nighters." Jieun let out the longest yawn. She hasn't gotten proper sleep for the last week. It was due to revision and the paranoia that someone was out there to attack Jaemin when everyone's guards were down. Thankfully no one has tried to attempt to attack him, yet.

"Gosh have you not even gotten at least a few hours of sleep? Your eyebags are so dark and you look like a zombie." He questions as she smiles faintly.
"Wow thanks Jaemin for calling a women out on how bad she looks. And to answer your question, I've only had like two or three hours of sleep, I think?" She answers, making him frown.
"Just so you know, I didn't say that just to clarify your speculation that I'm a so-called 'women hater'. I only said that because I'm concerned with your lack of sleep." He clarifies.

Jieun stretches her arms out as she let's out a groan.
"Don't worry about me. Two hours of sleep is nothing to me (no im actually dead and am so sleep deprived that I'm slowly going insane.). I have to sacrifice my sleep for my education. I mean your parents are paying for my college fees and I gotta do well in school."
"Jieun, you're academically smart. You don't even need to try as hard as I do in your studies. So please, get some sleep. If you don't want me to stand in your doorway and stay there to see if you're asleep." He says as she scoffs and pushes him softly.
"You creep. But alright, I'll try to get a good night's rest today." She promises him as he stuck his pinky out for her. Oh this was serious business. Jieun rolling her eyes as a light chuckle escapes her lips before she intertwined her pinky with his.
"Break the promise and I'll cut it off."
"Yes sir."

"Oh right, since we've just finished our midterms. How about we celebrate? I need a break from all that stress and studying." She suggested as he immediately nodded his head a yes.
"There's this cool restaurant that's just opened that has an arcade in it. Hyuck recommended it to us once, but I never had the time to come and visit." Said Jaemin, this sparkling Jieun's interest.
"An arcade? Say no more. I'm so ready to beat your ass." She replies, getting really competitive. Almost forgetting that she was tired just a second ago.
"Oh Eunnie, just so you know. I'm a pro when it comes to any types of games in general."

---ৎ୭

"I won again." Jaemin cheers as the girl besides him had her hands in her hair as she pulls on it.
"HOW?? You're not even putting any effort into it but how are you still winning?!" She exclaims in distress. Messing up her short hair as it now looked like a birds nest.
"I told you that I'm just a pro. You just have skill issues." He shrugs as he had one of his elbows leaned down on the arcade game.
"I do not have skill issues!! Years of playing games with my younger brother made me think that I was a master at it. Now i realise that the problem was my brother and how much he sucks at it!" She fumes as he couldn't help but laugh at her.
"Gosh its so cute seeing you get all worked up over losing. I guess I found something that I'm finally better at than you." He giggles as he tries to fix her hair.

"Shut up Jaemin. Don't make me get that toy hammer and hit you in the face with it." She threatens him as he laughs even harder.

"Noona?" The sound shattering Jaemin and Jieun's little moment as they looked back to see who the person that was speaking. As they looked behind, both their eyes widens.

"Ji, Chenle! Fancy seeing you two here." Jieun exclaims in delight as she went over to them. The lad staring at them in sinister. Wondering what relationship his younger friends had with Jieun.

"Jieun noona I haven't seen you for three months!! I've missed you." Chenle whines as he pulls the girl into a tight hug.
"Hi chenle. Its nice seeing you again, I've missed you too. Its getting hard for me to pat your head because you keep growing taller." She tells him as Chenle looks over at Jisung and flashes him a cheeky grin.
"See i told you that I'm growing taller." He said with so much pride.
"That's because my noona is short." Jisung retorted as he earned a kick from the girl. "*ouch, that hurts!!"

"Wow I've missed you too Ji." She said sarcastically as the younger boy let out a guilty and nervous chuckle.
"How come you're never visiting home. The house is so dead, I can't annoy you anymore." Jisung frowns.
"Ji you know that I can't go back home. The situation with him has gotten a lot more dangerous and complicated." She answers whilst motioning her hands towards Jaemin who was a few distance away from them.
The two youngsters following her hands to look at Jaemin before looking back at Jieun with a saddened look.

"Promise us that you'd stay safe." Chenle spoke as the girl nodded her head.
"How are things back home. You haven't burnt the kitchen down have you?"
Jisung groans. "Ugh, that was like a one time thing."
"And dad banned you from the kitchen ever since."
"OK BUT IT WAS A ONE TIME THING?! oh by the way things at home are going fine. The housekeeper is nice and she makes food that's sooo much better than yours." Jisung teasing Jieun at the end.
"Yeah the housekeepers food is so good that me and some of our other friends would regularly come over just to eat the food that she makes!!" Chenle began to brag as it only infuriates the girls even more.

Jieun pulling both of their ears as they screeched in pain.
"If you two little brats don't stop making fun of my cooking then I'm afraid that I'll end up hitting you guys with my shoes instead." She warns them as they quickly nodded in fear before releasing them.
Safe to say that the two younger boys had really red ears. Jieun's strength was no joke.

For the last five minutes Jaemin had just stood in the same position as he shoots daggers towards Jisung and Chenle's direction. Wanting to so badly find out what relationship they had with Jieun since they seemed so close.
He didn't realise that he'd been glaring at them for the last minute or so until he heard both Jisung and Chenle waving goodbye to him and saw that Jieun was walking back to him.
"Bye jaemin hyung!"

Jaemin hastily waving back at them before he placed his attention on Jieun.
"You guys seem close." He said. A bit of jealousy lingering in his tone.
"Yeah that's cause they're my brothers. I mean Jisung is but Chenle's been around ever since Jisung was born and they're always together, I sort of gained another annoying little brother. Still love them though." She explains to him as the two of them started walking towards the restaurant.

Wait- JIEUN AND JISUNG ARE RELATED??!? HOW COME HE'S NEVER REALISED. HE WAS GETTING A TAD BIT JEALOUS OVER HER OWN BROTHER.
Jaemin was internally gagging at his own stupidity.
Now everything made sense. Why Jisung would never talk about his mother when they used to hang out when he was still in high school. Whenever others were talking about their mom, Jisung would always have a frown on his face. Or the time where he used to take fencing lessons when he was still in middle school, a girl would always drop and pick him up from his lessons.

"Why'd they leave so fast?" Jaemin cleared his throat as he tried to hide his previous jealousy. He provably already sensed that Jieun had picked up on his weird tone but chose to stay quiet about it.
"They already ate here before us, and they have to attend their tuition now. I didn't want to interrupt anymore of their little bromance. " she answers.
"You know they hate it right when people tell them that they have a sort of bromance relationship?" Jaemin chuckles as she hums happily whilst nodding her head.
"It's cute though. I mean could they blame us? Those two are stuck together from the hip. They're always around each other." She reasons.

The two of them now sitting down by an empty table as they looked through the menu.
"What do you want to get?" Jaemin asks her as he flips through the pages of the menu.
"Hmm, I'll probably have something small. I'm not really in the mood to eat." She answers him before closing the menu and laying it down on the table. Her now being able to see the small glare that Jaemin was sending her way.

"I'm on a diet. You know girls go on diet and stuff." She tried to make up an excuse.
He raises a brow up.
"My sister always does that. She always says that she's gaining weight or something. I don't understand girls." He sighs before closing his menu.
"There's a lot of things about us girls that you won't be able to understand Jaem." Jieun said with a small grin on her face.
"Then help me understand them Eun." He says as she couldn't help smile.

--- ♡

"So how did Jisung find out that.. you know your mother passed away?" Jaemin asks. After they were done ordering, the two of them decided to play a game where they'd ask questions to each other. They're always seen together but weren't that close nor did they know allot of things about one another.

Jaemin was hesitant to ask Jieun questions regarding to her mother as it might be a heavy topic to talk about, but he'd ran out of question. He didn't want it to result in him asking her what her ideal type was and if she had any past crushes. Oh hell no.

"We didn't tell him about it until he was like about ten years old? We always told him that she was out of town. I mean he believed us since mom was a college professor and she was rarely home. He lost her when he was still five, so it was only reasonable that he'd take our words..."
Jieun started to explain.
"When he was ten, he came home from school and went to our dad's office. He stood there in front of us with tears in his eyes as he quote on quote said 'mom isn't with us anymore right? She's dead, that's why she's never coming home.'"

Jaemin covers his mouth with one of his hands, lost for words as his other hand held onto Jieun's one.

"I don't even want to imagine how little Jisung felt when he found out." He said as a bitter chuckle left her mouth.
"He told us that one of his mother's friends was giving him pitying look when no one was picking him up from school. She told him that she was 'sorry for his lost'. He was confused at first until he finally realises that she was talking about our mom. Safe to say that he locked himself inside his room for the whole afternoon and cried. He didn't want to open the door to either me or my dad, until I called Chenle to come over and he finally unlocked his door and cried onto the boys shoulder." She ends the story there.
"Of course Chenle was the one who got him to listen." The lad shook his head in disbelief as he smiles softly.

"It took a long time for him to accept my apology. But I got him a pet hamster though and he immediately accepted my apologies. Of course it was those robot hamster, he's far too irresponsible to take care of an actual pet." She added as it made Jaemin burst into laughters.

"Oh look the foods here!" He said in enthusiasm as they both watched as the waiters came and laid their orders on the table.
Jieun out of habit watching each waiter carefully as they placed everything down.

Her eyes were sharp because she noticed one of them quickly pouring something from a small packet into Jaemin's drink. The motion was so fast that when she blinked, the drink was already placed in front of Jaemin.

"Thanks for the food." He said and was about to grab his drink when Jieun quickly took it away from him.
"On seconds thoughts Jaem, your drink looks far more appetising than mines. You wouldn't mind switching right?" She says nervously. He looks at her weirdly.
"But I thought you didn't-"
She cut him off when she took a sip of his drink.
"I changed my mind. I like this now."
"Alright then. You should've told me so I would've ordered the same thing for you." He said before taking her drink instead.

"Eun I'm going to go pay for the meal, you wouldn't mind waiting here right?" He tells her as she stood up abruptly whilst clutching her stomach.
"I need to go to the restroom for a bit." She said out of breathe. Her strange behaviour alarming the lad.
"You look pale. Are you alright?" He asked in concern, about to go over to her when she put her hands out and stopped him from walking any further.
"I'm fine. I just need time alone." She replied before walking away from him.

"hydrocodone. That's what they put in his drink." Jieun mumbled to herself as she had problems trying to walk to the restroom. Her vision slowly turning white.
"*Fuck--" She quickly covers her mouth as she felt bile rise up to her throat and ran towards the toilet.

--

"Why hasn't she come back yet from the toilet, it's been five minutes." Jaemin questions as he stares at his watch and tapped his foot on the group impatiently. He knew that girls take long in the restroom, but not this long!?

"You know what, fuck it." He decides to go to the restroom himself and see if she was still inside there.
He knocks on the door whilst calling her name out.
"Jieun. Jieun are you still in there?" But still no reply.
"Jieun!" He called out again. He was sure that she was still inside the restroom. If she wasn't then she would've informed him that she was already outside.

Worry and anxiety rose, as he decides to go inside the female restroom. If there were other people inside, they could scream at him for all he cares as long as he finds Jieun.

"Jieun are you still in here? JIEUN-" Jaemin exclaims once he sees the girl passed out on the ground.
"Ya Jieun, are you alright." He starts to panic as he touches her pulse. Her breathing was slow, and her face was even paler then when he saw her before she left him.

Jaemin quickly carries her in his arms before he exits the girls restroom and immediately headed towards the exit of the restaurant.