I can't be the only one upset about Labarina, am I?

Aminu Saira ya qure min hadda Sha. I've been hissing since.

Amina slipped back into their dorm room alone, making her way towards her bed, underneath Lana's bunk. Reaching out her hand, she untied the veil she'd wrapped into a veil before she was dragged out for the surprise as her friends claimed. She discarded it somewhere on the bed, before crashing on it as well, resting on her back.

A few seconds passed of her lying motionless before she lifted her left hand, to stare at her ring finger with her head tilted to the side slightly. Her heart felt heavy, too heavy for it to be contained in her ribcage. She wasn't sure what she was feeling exactly, she was feeling a range of various emotions, it felt impossible to simply pick one out and stick to it.

Upon getting tired of simply staring at her hand, she dropped it to the side, her eyes flicking close as she took in a deep breath, practicing her breathing exercises. She's read somewhere on the internet that doing that helps for when one feels as though there's a lot going on in his mind. She didn't believe it then, but having being rendered no choice, she had to try.

She continued the action for a short while, till her heart rate slowed down to normal. Her mind went back to what happened earlier, and she was suddenly hit by a wave of nostalgia, a strong one. She felt as though her throat was clogged, so, she cleared it a few times.

She wasn't sure how long she sat there motionless, her mind playing the activities of the past month as a whole like a broken playlist, but at one point, the sound of someone else clearing their throat snapped her out of that trance.

She blinked, zoning back to the present. Her eyes glanced in the direction the sound came from, where she found Yu Ri standing there, leaning against the bunk with her arms crossed over her torso. Her expression was hard to read, not with her lips set into a tight line like that.

Regardless, Amina pushed aside the feeling of unease, offering the woman a small smile as she pushed herself up to sit down. "Hey, Yu Ri." Her voice was soft, and light—a testament of how she was truly feeling at the moment.

Yu Ri's frown deepened if possible. She held her silence for a short while, before her voice came, lowly. "Speak to me." She muttered softly, but it resonated loud as they were alone, and the room was silent, a pin drop could be heard. Moving from where she stood, she settled down on the bed beside Amina, turning around to give her undivided attention. "Talk to me, what's going on in that head of yours?"

Amina's smile widened slightly, though it was pretty much fake. She shook her head, feigning ignorance. "What are you talking about?" She muttered. "There's nothing bothering me. I'm good."

Ahn Yu Ri hummed, quirking a brow in a way that showed she doesn't believe her in the slightest. "You've been out of it for a while, you know. I'm not blind. The others may not see it, but I do." She can tell when someone's bothered by something, and she can confidently say in this case that something is bothering Amina. "It's been going on for weeks. The spacing out, the fake smiles, the sudden silence...something's going on with you. Tell me, what is it exactly?"

Amina was about to shake her head, firmly standing with the idea of denying that notion when Yu Ri threw her a slight glare that dared her to claim otherwise.

So, she sighed, looking away for a second. "I'm...good, really." She swallowed thickly, lying straight through her teeth. Meeting Yu Ri's gaze again, she tried to offer her a genuine smile this time around. "I know you're only worried about me, Yu Ri, and I appreciate it honestly but you don't need to. I'm okay. Hmm?"

Yu Ri held her gaze, her hawk like eyes staring at Amina in a way that felt as though they were unraveling the layers of her secrets, getting to the deepest and darkest of it.

Amina felt exposed, as if her secrets were out in the open.

"Is that why you rejected Hamoud?" She suddenly inquired, after a few seconds of silence. Her eyes remained on Amina's, immobile. "What's on your mind I mean, or who? Is that person the reason why you rejected his heartfelt proposal like that?"

If Amina felt before, she felt as though she was being punched in the gut at that very moment. She's well aware of what she did, her ring finger, bare of any band there spoke volumes and reminded her of it.

She looked away.

"—I thought you like him. Perhaps, not love but you like him, don't you? And he likes you too, he even put a hell lot of effort into proposing to you only to get rejected like that coldly. I thought you two were getting along just well, we can all testify to it so why, did you turn him down like that."

Amina felt her eyes begin to cloud over with unshed tears, but she was quick to blink it back, sniffing. Once certain she's got her emotions in check, she met Yu Ri's gaze again. "I can't continue to be with him, Yu Ri-ah. If I do, and if I had accepted the proposal I'd only be leading him on--"

"Isn't that what you've been doing all this while?" Yu Ri wasn't trying to make her feel bad, she just wants her to realize her mistake. She's been leading him on, no doubt there. She played with his feelings for her own selfish sakes, there's no changing that.

"—I can't do that anymore." Amina's exasperated voice came, unable to keep it all bottled up anymore. She blinked yet again, desperately trying to keep the tears at bay. "I like him." She confessed. "I really do, but there's no love there. I thought I could make it work but marriage..." She shook her head, her voice dropping. "...I can't give him the wrong impression with that. I've hurt him enough; he deserves none of this. I couldn't lie to him like that. At least, not anymore." She hung her head low.

She hated herself for what she's done to him even though it wasn't her intention, but she already did.

What is his crime? For loving her enough to want to marry her? For giving her all the love he can with no questions and red flags raised? Or is it for falling in love with a woman whose heart belongs to another which he has no knowledge of?

What exactly is his fault in this? There's none.

Yu Ri wasn't entirely on par with Amina's idea, nor is she in support of it in the slightest. Even if she's closer to Amina, Hamoud is a friend of hers as well. He's been nothing but kind to her, to them all.

It wouldn't be fair if they turn a blind eye to what has been done to him. Not after all he'd done for them. He was too pure for all of this.

Silence lingered on for a while, with Amina trying to calm herself while Yu Ri simply stared at her, still very much upset for so many reasons. At one point, when she couldn't hold it back, she found herself voicing out what's been on her mind for weeks.

"Is it because of AT04? Is he the reason why you've been like this? The reason why you did that to Hamoud?"

Amina whipped her head up so fast, she could've had a whiplash. Her eyes were wide, lips parted like a deer caught in the headlights. "I...Uhm...How did you..." She cleared her throat. "How do you know that?" As far as she's concerned, she's never spoken of him to any of them.

In fact, when Ella brings him up, Amina acts as the clueless about football, feigning ignorance of knowing any of them. So, how did Yu Ri know?

Yu Ri narrowed her eyes at her, not planning on getting rid of her anger any time soon. "He's been lurking around you for weeks now, and since turned up you've been like that. You two aren't as discreet as you think you are." She's seen him around them for a while, even though for a while, she thought he was a stalker. "I saw you two talking on more occasions than one as well."

"Do..." Amina swallowed thickly, her heart beating wildly against her ribcage. "...the others. Do they know?"

Yu Ri shook her head. "They're clueless." She admitted. "I'm the only one aware for now."

Amina released a sigh of relief, her shoulders slumping in the process. Since it's only Yu Ri that knows, she thought she can handle it. At least, it's just one person that knows. Now, she needs to make sure it stays that way. "Can you keep it to yourself, please?" She inquired with pleading eyes. "I don't want the others to find out."

Yu Ri stared at her like she's gone crazy, before she scoffed, unable to help herself. "After what you'd done, you still plan to keep it a secret?" Yu Ri couldn't help but ask incredulously. "If you'd done that to Hamoud, you plan to do it to him as well? Just how selfish can you be?"

"It's not like that." Amina was quick to shake her head. "You don't know any of what happened. You can't say that to me." Her voice dropped. "It's complicated."

"Complicated my ass." Yu Ri muttered, glaring daggers at her friend in need of some sense being knocked into her. "I kid you not, Amina. You better not let go of both men. Yes, I don't know what happened between you two but you don't know the look on his face earlier either, do you?"

Amina's brows drew in, lips tugged into a frown. "Whose face?"

"Who else? Tafida, of course." Yu Ri could still remember the broken look on his face vividly. He didn't see her, but she saw him. Hamoud had it bad, but the look Aahil sported was ten times more than his. How could she not feel bad for him? And how can she not knock some sense into Amina? "He was there earlier; he saw Hamoud propose to you but left before he could hear your answer."

Amina couldn't wrap her head around that fact. He was there, earlier? No, it can't be.

She wanted to remain in denial, because she's almost a hundred percent certain she know what's going on in his mind at that very moment. If he left without getting her answer, then he must believe she's decided to marry Hamoud.

As tempting as that sounds, she couldn't digest that idea then. Not in the slightest.

By rejecting Hamoud, she wanted to clear her mind before deciding on whether to go back to Aahil or not. She knows it's stupid to still have that thought, but she's yet to wrap her head around that idea still.

"--I don't know what's going on in that mind of yours, but if you have even the slightest want of getting back with him, then you better seek him out now. For if you give up this chance, you might as well forget about him because I doubt by the look on his face that he'll seek you again. Take it or leave it, it's up to you." Yu Ri pushed herself off the bed, not sparing Amina another glance before she stepped out of the room, leaving her alone.

With her gone, Amina felt a splitting headache. It was one of those moments where you try so hard to think something through, and you end up hitting a dead end. At one point, she thought of contacting him. She wasn't sure what to do exactly, but she wanted to contact him, at least, to hear his voice.

She got off the bed, looking around in search of her phone. She forgot it in the room earlier when she was dragged out by the girls. She found it on the nearby coffee table, which she hastily picked up.

Her eyes dilated slightly upon seeing his missed calls. She specifically saved after he'd called her the first time so she wouldn't answer it again. Funny, right? Now, she's the one trying to get through to him.

It was switched off. Doesn't matter how many times she's tried to call him, it wouldn't get through.

So, she thought of another way to contact him, or at least, know what he's up to. She doesn't have any of his socials, or at least, that's what she thought until she was remembered of his Instagram.

Without so much as a second thought, she logged into her Instagram account, searching up his. It came up instantly, and for the first time since she came across it, she actually tapped it, stepping into the world that's his socials.

The first thing that her eyes fell on was his followers count. A whopping 78million. And funny enough, he was only following nine accounts. Unable to help herself, she tapped the following list, recognizing everyone there since she's following them as well.

Dean, Chris, Hunter, Bae Hyun, Ae Ra, Kimura, Benazir, their football team's official page and...her.

He is following only the Jeju squad, her included of the millions following him.

With a heavy heart, she went back to his feed, checking it. There were only professional pictures of him, and the ones that aren't are of his cat—oh, how she'd both forgotten and missed that fuzzy little demon.

She tapped a picture of it, her eyes going to the caption. 'I miss you, Shortcake.' It dated back to February that same year, meaning it's been three months since the post.

She wasn't sure how long she's stared at the caption, because for some reason, it felt as though she could decode the message in it.

She scrolled through every picture she'd found of the cat on his page, there were a total of five, plus the one she'd viewed at first and he began posting it after she last saw him. Each held a letter, and an emoji.

I.W. B. Y.

She wasn't sure why, but when she put it together, it sounded oddly familiar, though she couldn't remember where or when she saw it before. Just when she thought she'd seen it enough, she spotted a highlight of his, with that exact caption. 'Iwby' with a red heart.

She felt compelled to check it, and so, she did. The very first picture in the highlight, is a scene she remembers pretty well for she could remember when it was snapped. It is a picture he took on the day they had that Ramen together. She could remember him taking a picture of the food he'd made as 'evidence', or so he claimed.

Turns out, he needed a picture for the gram. It was in the video he'd left for her as well, and there it was, on Instagram as well only with a different caption. She was visible in the picture as well, but he hid her face with a caption.

'My favorite beanie found a new owner. It's hers now.' He captioned it.

Amina hadn't realized it before, but his initials are on it, the beanie that is. Anyone who knows him would know what it means to have that. It was staking a claim, or something similar.

With fingers that felt stiff, she tapped the screen, moving to the next picture. This time around, it was a picture taken from a plane. However, instead of people being in it, he took a picture of the clouds and added the song, 'Cinnamon Girl' to it, with the caption; 'Found me a new favorite song. Suddenly a @lanadelray fan'.

She moved on to the next, this time around, it's a picture of the Han River. He didn't add a caption to it, but the sight alone jogged memories for her. The one after is a picture of the palace they had their photoshoot—which was a success by the way, followed by one of the Namsan Tower—the last one there. There was a caption to that one though it was small, anyone who looks in closely could see it.

It was by the corner, and though others may not see it or realize the significance, but she does. She stood beside him, on that exact spot that day. And that was the place he put the caption.

'Will you marry me?'

Amina could swear she ceased to breathe for a second, the phone nearly fell out of her hand. Judging from the date of the picture, it was a year ago. Meaning, the question had been there for her, although not directly, but it's been there and everyone knows of it except her. For a whole year. He's popped the question, and she's been oblivious of it.

She wasn't sure how long she stood there, frozen, staring at the message repeatedly. But, a message that suddenly popped up from her phone jolted her back to reality. It is from Dean.

-His flight leaves in twenty-five minutes.