"Here," Max said, handing me a Crunch bar. A couple of days passed since our trip at the spa. When we returned home, Rose and I hardly spoke. I barely saw him because he spent most of his time with Eun Jin at the music club.

"Thanks," I replied, taking the Crunch bar. Max and I were taking a break after working at the Tracks hotel. We quietly ate our Crunch bars in the lounge of the hotel, which was being reconstructed to look more ‘grand,’ a plan devised by Hero’s father.

"We need to spend more time together," Max said out of the blue, "just like old times."

I looked at him and nodded. "Yeah. That is, if you ever separate from Jenny."

Max didn’t reply. Is there something wrong?

"What’s wrong?" I asked, questioning his silence. "You and Jenny having problems?"

Max kept his eyes down.

"Chang Min," I said, nudging him a little. "Answer me."

He looked up at me and tried to reply without emotion. "Jenny and I broke up last night."

My heart immediately felt sorry for him.

"I’m sorry," I said, not knowing anything else to say. Max’s lips curled and he turned away to hide his tears. I didn’t know what else to do but hug him.

"It’ll be okay," I whispered into my best friend’s ear.

I came home to find Rose standing in front of the sink, washing some dishes.

--------I washed the dishes in the sink. Min Woo and I just finished lunch at my house. He was singing to me while I had my back turned.

"Love me, love me. Say that you love me. Fool me, fool me," Min Woo sang to me. Then he placed his arms around my waist.

"Turn around so I can sing to you directly," Min Woo whispered into my ear. I smiled and turned around. Then, he placed his lips on mine. His lips were so soft! Oh, how I wish this moment were forever! I could feel my heart racing. I hope you can’t feel that, Min Woo! I’d be embarassed if you saw how weak I was when you kiss me! Ah, I love you so much, Min Woo.

"Maybe," I replied, looking away shyly.--------

"Welcome home!" Rose said, turning around after I entered. I blinked quickly, trying to return to reality. When I returned to reality, there stood a thin princess with a pink apron on.

--------"So I can come over tomorrow? Awesome!" I heard Min Woo say happily. "Okay, good night, my beautiful princess."

"Okay! I’m out. Good night!"---------

"Hi…" I managed to say. We stared at each other for a moment. Is it safe to completely chase after you now, Rose?

Rose turned his back to me and continued washing the dishes. The house smelled of chicken soup.

"Would you like something to eat?" Rose asked, wiping his hands with a towel. I hung my jacket on the coat hanger and nodded.

"That would be nice," I said. Rose smiled at me and got out a bowl and some crackers.

"I made a lot," Rose replied when I sat at the table. He poured the hot soup into the bowl. "Eun Jin’s not feeling well, so I made some chicken soup for her. I’m going to drop it off her place in a bit. Want to come?"

I have a bunch of homework to do.

But I nodded. "Sure."

Without another word, I sipped the soup and ate my crackers. This soup is delicious!

Rose watched me as I ate.

"Is it any good?" Rose asked curiously.

I nodded once more. "Delicious."

He smiled at me and rested his chin on his hands.

I finally noticed and looked up. "What?"

Rose smiled. "Nothing. Just watching you eat."

"Eun Jin! Are you awake?" Rose asked, knocking on Eun Jin’s apartment door. I stood behind him, looking at my shoes. I didn’t even know why I had agreed to follow Rose to Eun Jin’s house so he could drop off some soup.

A moment later, I heard Eun Jin come to the door. When she opened it, I could smell vapor rub. A drained Eun Jin stuck her head out the door. Her eyes were poofy, probably from being really sick. Her nose was red and she held a tissue in her right hand.

"May I come in?" Rose asked, showing her the bowl of soup he had carried from our apartment. Eun Jin forced a smile, and then broke into a cough.

She coughed for another moment, and then replied. "Thank you. You don’t have to come in. I don’t want you to get sick too."

Rose stood there, staring at her sick figure. "Eun Jin, I can take care of you. Let me in?"

---- I bit my bottom lip, trying not to cry from the pain. Ah! I was stupid for using glass cups anyway! Min Woo was just over for a snack—I didn’t need to make anything glamorous! It was just a casual meet. But stupid me, I wanted to make everything nice for Min Woo. What are my parents going to say when they find out? I’ll be using crutches for a week! They’ll get so mad!

But Eun Jin insisted that Rose stay outside her apartment.

"Thank you for the soup," Eun Jin said, accepting Rose’s chicken noodle soup. "I’ll talk to you later."

"Call or text me if you need anything," Rose said before Eun Jin closed her door.

"Ne," Eun Jin said and disappeared behind the closed door.

When Rose turned around, he noticed me staring at him.

"What? Is there something on my face?" he asked, touching his face.

I shook my head. "No, you’re fine."

And then I turned around and closed my eyes.

Stop thinking of the past, Shye. It’s doing you no good.

Like usual, I followed Rose as he led the way. Instead of taking the first bus we saw, Rose wanted to walk around the park across The Flower. I didn’t object and trailed after him.

I shook my head. Okay, I don’t want to walk behind him anymore. Too many bad memories. So I caught up with him.

When I reached his side, he turned and looked at me briefly, but didn’t say anything.

Is this what we’ve come to? Hiding how we really feel? Walking in silence?

"I think Eun Jin has the flu," Rose finally said.

Hearing Eun Jin’s name made the mood worse.

"Oh…" I said, not really wanting to hear about Eun Jin.

"I wish she would feel better so we can perform again," Rose went on.

I really don’t want to hear about Eun Jin right now, Rose. I want to hear about you.

"The song ‘Vampire’ is such a fun song to perfom. It wouldn’t feel right without Eun Jin’s vocal parts," the princess-jerk continued. "She’s a part of my band now, it seems."

Shut up already! I thought you had no feelings towards her! Why are you all of sudden acting like you are in love with her?

"Maybe I should go back and stay with her tonight?" He looked at me directly when he said this.

I gave him a glare, and crossed my arms. I didn’t speak.

"I need to stop thinking about her," Rose said. He paused for a moment, thinking of some marvelous plan. "Say, Shye. Let’s do something crazy tonight to get our minds off the bad things in life!"

My eyes opened wide in suspicion. What does he mean?

Rose laughed at my reaction. "I’m tired of worrying about other people. Let’s have fun tonight!"

Are you sure you’re talking to me? Am I a fun person?

"I…" I let out.

"C’mon! Let’s go…dye our hair or something!" He grabbed my arm and we ran out of the park towards the stores.

His skinny girly fingers grasped onto my arm. His extremely blonde hair blew in the cold autumn air. While we ran, he occasionally turned around and smiled at me, making sure I was doing all right. Excitement and adventure filled his blue eyes.

We didn’t even wait at the stop sign. We ran through traffic and surprisingly made it safely across the busy intersection. A couple of cars honked at us, but we didn’t care. We were going on an adventure.

It’s time like these that I think…there’s hope Min Woo will fully return to me…

"Are you ready?" Rose asked, coming out the shower with a towel wrapped around his skinny body. His white chest was showing. Oh. My. Gosh. Does he seriously not know that it’s SHYE LEE he’s doing this too? Why is he so…calm about everything now? Didn’t we just have a dispute several days ago? Does he not care anymore?

I nodded. "Yeah…"

"Dyeing hair isn’t that hard. I’ve done it plenty of times," Rose said, walking back into the bathroom. "C’mon, and bring the hair dye with you."

Rose leaned over the tub. He had put on an old tee of his. He flipped his hair so that his brown roots were showing.

"All you have to do is spread the hair dye evenly throughout my hair," Rose instructed. "And spread it evenly with a comb, okay?"

"I know how to dye hair," I retorted.

"Okay, fine," Rose replied. "Hurry, my stomach hurts from leaning over."

I gently massaged the hair dye into Rose’s brown roots and evenly spread it with the comb. I brushed it through his extremely blonde hair.

"OW!" Rose shouted. "You’re brushing too hard!"

I immediately stopped combing his hair. "What did I do?!" I shouted.

He stopped shouting and started laughing. "Just playing."

Jerk.

A couple of minutes passed, and I finished dyeing his hair. Then he told me to leave the bathroom so he could wash his hair. Without another word, I crept out the room and sat on the sofa in the living room.

I buried my face in my sleeves, waiting for Rose to finish. I wanted to see if I did a good job dyeing his hair. Of course I’ll do a good job. I could’ve messed up purposely if I wanted to, but I didn’t want to.

As soon as I trailed off into my thoughts, I felt something close by vibrating, like a cell phone. When I gazed up, I realized that Rose had left his jacket on the sofa. And in his pocket, his cell phone was vibrating.

Should I see who’s calling him?

I reached for his pink cell phone and slid it open.

"You have 2 new text messages."

I clicked the first message, which was sent half an hour ago.

"—ROSE—

Feelin’ a bit better. Thanx 4 the soup! Text me back.

Love,

EJ"

My eye twitched. I selected the next message, which she sent a minute ago.

"—ROSE—

Can’t wait 2 perfom again. I miss you. Text me back.

Love,

EJ"

I went to delete Eun Jin’s text messages when her words came into my head.

I almost pressed ‘delete,’ but my guilty conscious kicked in.

Don’t do it, Shye. You’re in the wrong if you do.

So I placed Rose’s cell phone back into his pocket and buried my face in my arms again.

I can harm Rose, but I can’t harm Eun Jin? I’m stupid.

Rose was taking his time in the bathroom. I heard the hair dryer turn on and off for five whole minutes. What the heck was he doing in there? Making sure every single strand of hair was dry? Imbecile.

I decided to get off the sofa and go to bed. When I got off the sofa, I noticed a small pink book laying on the floor. A pink book?

I picked up the pink book and realized that it wasn’t a book afterall. It was a journal. Rose’s journal, to be exact.

Don’t look inside!

I opened the journal. On the first page, the acronym "OVTR" was written all over the place in different styles.

OVTR? What does that mean?

Then on the second page, the words "Do you know why the rain comes?" were written in the center. A drawing of a crying girl was in the bottom right hand corner. The rain was pouring down on her, but you can still tell she was crying.

On the third page, the words "It’s because someone is praying for all your sadness to be erased to comfort you" were written in the center. Now, the girl wasn’t crying anymore. A boy held an umbrella over her head and blocked the pouring rain.

"Over the Rainbow…" was written on the fourth page. A ray of colors filled the whole page. Red, orange, green, blue, purple, pink---any and every color! And in the center, the boy and the girl looked deeply into each other’s eyes. The rain had stopped.

Rose No, what does this all mean? You even illustrated your song? Why are you so sad, Rose No?

Just then, I heard the bathroom door open. I threw the book back onto the floor and spun around. Rose stood in the doorway with a towel wrapped around his waist. His white chest was showing again.

"How does the new hair color look?" he asked, playing around with his hair.

I almost fainted from how gorgeous he looked. He looked less girly and more manly.

Stop looking at his chest, Shye!

"It’s nice," I managed to say.

"Really?" he said, turning to give himself one more look in the mirror. "Does this color match me?"

Anything that isn’t extremely blonde matches you.

I nodded. Rose played around with his hair again.

"I think I look like Miyavi," Rose said, brushing his hair. "Is black really my hair color?"

"It suits you better," I said.

Rose ran his fingers through his new black hair. Barbie was officially gone. Now, it was Miyavi.

"I’m going to get dressed," he said, closing the door behind him.

In bed, I tossed and turned. I couldn’t stop thinking about Rose’s journal. Over the Rainbow. What is up with that song? Why is it so important to Rose? I remembered the first time I had heard him singing it.

Ten minutes passed. Twenty. Thirty.

I crept out of bed and into the living room. I didn’t turn on any lights—I didn’t want Rose to know that I was lurking around at night.

Then, something hit me.

I crept over to Rose’s door and gently opened it. To my surprise, his door wasn’t locked. When I peered in, I saw that he had a night light on.

His dyed black hair was nicely in place. Such perfect hair! His eyes were closed, and I could tell he was resting peacefully.

Just then, I heard Rose’s cell phone vibrating again. It was coming from his jacket, which was still on the sofa. I closed Rose’s door and walked over to the sofa.

The phone stopped vibrating. I slid it open and saw that Eun Jin had just texted Rose.

"—ROSE—

Can’t sleep. Keep thinkin’ abt u. *sigh* Are you OK? U haven’t replied.

Oh well. Night.

Love,

EJ"

As soon as I read Eun Jin’s third text message, I immediately felt irritated. I understand that you like Rose and all, but must you be THIS obsessive? And shouldn’t people with the flu SLEEP?

At that very moment, I wanted to throw Rose’s cell phone across the room.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

Just then, Eun Jin texted Rose’s cell phone again.

"—ROSE—

Sorry 2 text again. I want 2 c u tomorrow. Please drop by.

Love,

EJ"

I didn’t know what overcame me, but I texted Eun Jin back.

"EJ:

I’m busy with Shye tomorrow. See you…whenver.

-Rose"

* * *

SORRY FOR THE WAIT, EVERYONE ^__^;;;;