The Christmas holiday ended on a bittersweet note. After the brunch at the Park home, it was about time Chanyeol had to head back for his idol duties. At that moment, a split-second thought, Dalnim nearly jumped into that car with him to get that last hour of the car ride to be together. But, she refrained from doing so, since she had promised to stay with her family for the rest of Christmas.

With kiss on the cheek and the reassurance that he will call her the moment he reaches his destination, Dalnim had said her goodbyes to him, along with her family and his. Once the car had disappeared around the corner of the street, Ha Neul and Yoora didn't let Dalnim rest with the sickeningly sweet gestures she had shared with the idol only moments. But, honestly, she didn't mind one bit of the jabs, because this only further made things more real to her, that her relationship with Park Chaneyol was official, or will be official once his company allows him and the boys to finally date by the New Year.

Nonetheless, the rest of her Christmas was still enjoyable and she was able to catch up with everyone about anything she missed since the last time she's seen them, along with the accompaniment of delicious desserts and hot chocolate. A warm and cozy day, and Dalnim couldn't be more thankful that she was able to share it with people she treasures the most.

The next day, she took a cab ride back to her apartment.

And instantly, her life went back to the norm.

Volleyball practices came back with full force, and since Dalnim had been eating as much as she could for the holidays (Thanks a lot mom and dad), getting back into her training regimen was a little harder than usual. Dalnim trudged on, her determination to get back on the roll of things. It didn't take Dalnim too long until she's back into running eight mile runs in the morning, her fifty crunches and push-ups, and other alternating exercises.

She had tried to call and message Young Gi for the past couple days. Her friend replied that the hospital had called him in from early to late, even on his free days, so he hadn't had the time to talk to her.

And it wasn't like she could visit him anyway, if he so claims he would be too busy for visits. Plus, her children were still out with their families for the holidays, so there wasn't a fair reason to go to Gold Hospital either which way.

That was fine, Dalnim completely understood. She told him to call her anytime and maybe once he has a minute or two, they can at least get some coffee. He said he would do that, but Dalnim could tell there must be something else going on with him. But all in due time, she knew that he would tell her whatever was bothering him.

Then came one day after volleyball practice, the day before the New Year.

Most of Dalnim's teammates had already showered and left the locker room for the day, as if to leave in a hurry. Dalnim didn't understand why, but she took her sweet time under the shower head, letting the heat of the water relax her stiff muscles.

She then overheard by the sinks not far off from the showers two girls, who she recognized were her dongsaengs, Tae Ri and Hye Rin, talking in excitement.

"Unnie, have you ever kissed someone on the New Year? Isn't that a tradition to do?" Hye Rin asked.

"Well, it's mostly an American custom, but I know some people who have done that before."

"I think it's romantic! I hope someone kisses me right on midnight."

"Wow, that's cheesy. Don't even count on it."

"Why? Don't you think Hana-unnie would invite some cute guys to her party?"

"I don't know. Do you think unnie would be the type to have attractive guy friends?"

"Sure! Why wouldn't she?"

"Are you expecting your life also to end up in a musical number too? You've been watching too much High School Musical if you think you're going to meet your soulmate at that party."

"A girl could dream!"

Dalnim finished off her shower and dried her body. Wrapping herself up in a towel, she passed the maknae duo to her locker, an amused smile on her face. "So what's this talk about kissing boys, hmm?" she asked in a teasing tone to the two, as she began dressing into her casual clothes.

"Hye Rin got her head up in the clouds," Tae Ri scoffed, arms crossed as she sat down on the bench just behind the wing spiker. "She thinks she's going to find a guy at Hana's party, fall in love, and get married to him within a year."

"That's a bit of a stretch, unnie," Hye Rin snapped at her with a pout, her cheeks tinted pink.

Dalnim blinked at the statement, not even minding about the ridiculous claim. "Hana-yah is having a party tonight?"

The two youngest teammates stared at the older girl, appalled that this was the first time she had heard about Hana's New Year's party. "Huh? Did you not get the e-mail invite, unnie?" Tae Ri pressed on, her head tilted in confusion. The short-haired girl slipped out her phone and scrolled through all of her e-mails. Once finding the correct one, she showed it to the spiker. The invitation definitely was sent by Hana herself, Dalnim remembered it. The invitation had all the information needed for arrive at the right place and time; 8:30 p.m., December 31, at her summer house a bit out of Seoul. From what the e-mail said, the invitation was sent just a couple days ago.

"I haven't gotten this e-mail," Dalnim frowned. She took out her own phone to check for herself, in case she may have scrolled past it the other day. But she saw none. "I guess Hana didn't invite me..."

"That's nonsense, unnie!" Hye Rin chimed in. "She probably missed adding your name to the list! She invited the whole team. It'd be weird if she didn't invite you."

Dalnim can name a couple things why Hana wouldn't invite her; they haven't particularly been on the best of terms lately. And just to think that when she was a new member to the team two years ago, Hana had welcomed her with open arms. Where did that Hana go?

"Well, that's fine... I was planning for a comfy night in, anyway—"

"UNNIE, THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE!" Tae Ri burst out, nearly frightening Dalnim so much that she nearly dropped her button-up shirt. The short haired girl pointed a finger at Dalnim, then sent her a thumbs up. "You need to be out having fun for the New Year. You should be with the rest of us at the party!"

"I agree!" Hye Rin quipped, her head bobbing up and down in agreement. "We'll drag you over there ourselves! Yeon Kyun-unnie will be driving us over there. Once she hears about this, she's gonna force you to come with us too."

"But, I wasn't invited," Dalnim murmured, shifting her weight from one leg to the other.

"Don't worry about it! I'm sure Hana meant to," the youngest reassured. It didn't take much longer of her friends' insisting to convince Dalnim that she might as well join in on the fun.

It's New Years, after all. She should be spending the night with lots of people.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

And so, a few hours later, Yoon Dalnim was all prepped up for the New Year's party, on her way there with Yeon Kyun, Tae Ri, and Hye Rin. Talks of excitement and discussions of their desired resolutions for 2016 filled the thirty minute drive to god knows where. The four girls were animated when talking about the upcoming national volleyball competition, it won't be long until it stares them right in the face. They were all too hyped.

The address that was included in the invitation brought them far off out of Seoul, to a more open area. Honestly, they all thought they must've made a wrong turn somewhere behind them until they reached a house.

Correction, mansion.

"Sometimes I forget that Hana-unnie has a wealthy background," Hye Rin mumbled in awe of the humongous, two-story home. All three turned towards her with curiosity.

"She told you she was rich?" Yeon Kyun asked the youngest with a stern glance before finding a vacant spot to park. It was somewhat hard with the amount of cars already parked, but there were plenty of space. God bless all this open space, Dalnim wondered to herself. "I never knew of this."

"Well, granted, it's not like unnie comes to practice dressed in designer clothes," Tae Ri grumbled, eyes drifting back on the grand house. "I don't think she ever told any of us that she was rich, right?"

Dalnim tilted her head as she gazed at the house as well. She remembered something out of the blue from one of the conversations she had with the fellow spiker a long time ago. "I think she did say something about having a summer home before," she replied absentmindedly. Before anyone could question her, she gave a grin to the three girls before motioning that they all get going inside. "Come on, looks like the party is already in full swing."

The four filed out of Yeon Kyun's car and hurried over to the house to hide from the cold. The door was already unlocked for the guests to readily welcome themselves in. Entering, they saw the inside was just as impressive as the outside. The inside were filled with an amount of people that exceeded any of the four's expectations. Once finding a few more of their teammates, they hurried over to them. They all shared warm greetings with one another, some noting how pretty others had dressed up.

"Oh! Dalnim-ah, you did come," one grinned from ear to ear at the sight of her.

"Good to see you here, unnie!" another greeted her.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Dalnim asked.

"Well, I heard that Hana-yah didn't invite you," the one to her right replied before taking a drink from her plastic cup.

Dalnim stood there, letting the awkwardness of the situation sink in. So, it was possible that Hana didn't invite her on purpose... and now she's here, as if she crashed the party without her knowledge. Hye Rin interjected, seeing how uncomfortable Dalnim must be feeling. "Of course Hana-unnie meant to invite Dalnim-unnie!"

"Yeah... c'mon, it's either all of us or none of us here, right?" Yeon Kyun added, wrapping an arm around Dalnim's shoulders. "C'mon, let's get some drinks and party hardy, girls... Except you, Hye Rin, you're not old enough."

"What?! I can't have any alcohol?"

"Absolutely not!" Most of the volleyball team roared at the maknae.

. . .

A couple hours passed and Dalnim finally let the atmosphere of the party get to her. She was having fun with her friends, dancing to the blasting pop music and laughing with no care in the world. Oddly enough, she hasn't seen the host of the grand party the whole time, but that's probably best. Most likely, Dalnim would be kicked out to the cold... sounds harsh, but she wouldn't expect less from Hana.

Having fun in this party brought a heavy heart, because for some reason, she remembered Chanyeol. In only so little time left of 2015, the two of them can be together, officially and publicly together. If anything, she wants to spend the remaining of this year with him, but she knew well. Chanyeol was far too busy with events and shows, as much as she wants to be with him right now, it's near to impossible.

What she wouldn't do for her precious giant.

"Ooh, is that Young Gi-oppa?" Dalnim barely heard Tae Ri ask her through the thunderous beats of the music. The ravenette averted her gaze over to the entrance and, just as the younger girl pointed out, her best friend entered.

Dalnim excused herself from her group as she rushed up to Young Gi excitedly. She lunged herself onto the male, catching him off guard as he had his back turned to her. "What th—Dalnim?!" he croaked out, finally free from her attack. Dalnim pinpointed his shock instantly before it was wiped away with a sheepish grin. "Hana-yah ended up inviting you?" The girl pursed her lips at this, and Young Gi could tell right away. "Sooo, you're crashing? That's not your usual style, Yoon Dalnim."

"My teammates convinced me to come," she answered, throwing a glance back at her girls, who still looked to be having a blast dancing. "But, oh my god, why didn't you tell me you were coming?"

"Must've slipped my mind."

"I'm the one that usually forget things," Dalnim scoffed at his lame excuse, arms crossed. She continued to stare him down. There was a definite oddity here, something off about the male before her. "Is there something wrong? Did I do something wrong?"

Something shifted. "Well, since we're here, we gotta talk," Young Gi muttered, reaching out to take her hand. Dalnim barely let out a word as she was dragged behind her friend, squeezing their way through the crowd.

"Dalnim-ah, where are you going? We're about to go out to the back patio to see the fireworks!" Yeon Kyun called after her, halting from her intense dance session. "It's almost midnight."

Dalnim bared a smile at her friends. "Don't worry about it. I'll be back out in time for the fireworks!"

She continued to follow after Young Gi, going up the marble steps to the second floor. The male glimpsed around at the area before deciding to go into the room before them, nudging her to the unlocked door. Inside looked to just be an unused guest room, pretty extravagant in size by Dalnim's standards. The wide window at the back let in moonlight, it having a good view of the spacious backyard along with its swimming pool. "Wow, what I would do to get a place like this," Dalnim gaped as she glanced outside.

"Dalnim, have you heard or read anything from the celebrity news lately?" Young Gi suddenly asked her a minute later, snapping her stare away from the scene below her and back to him. She almost forgot that they were supposed to have a talk, too immersed to the beautiful outline of Seoul's buildings in the far distance.

She shook her head in response, a confused look gracing her face. "You know that I don't pay attention to that stuff." She then pursed her lips, the immediate image of a particular idol crossing her mind. "Well, I've been reading more of it lately for Chanyeol." The look on Young Gi's face instantly darkened at the name, that Dalnim swore had run a chill down her spine. She sheepishly looked at him. It's a good time if any to tell him her own news. "I know that you don't like him. Reasons I don't know, but I do need the two of you to be on okay terms."

"And why should we?"

Dalnim tried to hide her smile, but failed. "Because he confessed to me... And we're going to be dating once his company allows him to." Young Gi stood there, frozen and stiff from shock. Dalnim frowned at this, realizing that she never really did mention about her love for Chanyeol to him or anyone in particular, so it's only fair to be flabbergasted by the news. "I'm sorry I haven't talked to you about my feelings for him before. It's such a weird topic since I wasn't sure if I still liked him or not."

"You liked him before?" Young Gi asked, gaze glazed over.

"Yeah, my first love, I guess I could say," the athlete murmured, her cheeks flaring for admitting it out loud. A small giggle left her glossed lips the more she thought about it. "I still can't believe that he returns the feelings. I feel like soaring through the clouds right now."

"So it actually happened?" Dalnim could hear the crack in her best friend's voice. Something about it sounded so heartbreaking and Dalnim wasn't sure of what. The longer she stood in that guest room with him, made her feel more and more uncomfortable. "I knew... I knew something must have happened when you didn't answer my call that night."

"I'm sorry, I left my phone at home when I went to the playground," Dalnim uttered. "But I called you later that day."

"Did you even open my present for you?"

Dalnim did. She just didn't see it until she was back in her apartment after Christmas. But she did open it, and saw that Young Gi had given her a silver necklace. It was a gorgeous piece of jewelry but the athlete couldn't bring herself to wear it. The necklace seemed far too fancy to wear with her casual clothing but promised to wear it on special occasions.

Now that she thought back on it, she could've worn it right now as she was somewhat dressed up in her knitted sweater, leggings, and knee-length boots. It would have worked.

"I did," she replied. "Sorry I haven't worn it yet though. I just thought it was a little too expensive to wear with my outfits, ya know?"

He nodded at her as if to finally remember this. How could he have forgotten in the spur of the moment. Idiotic. "Oh, right, you're not all into the whole shiny jewelry thing..." He walked over past her and sat on the windowsill. He patted to the empty spot next to him for Dalnim to sit, in whack she complied. "Dalnim... You really do need to be more careful on what you do. You're getting too well-known, people are always watching you."

"Okay, Young Gi, what the hell are you going on about?"

The male slipped out his phone and opened up an article from the internet. The small screen was lit up to a large title in red letters, in which Dalnim saw had her name on.

"The Unseen Side of Yoon Dalnim, Flirting Around with EXO's Park Chanyeol While Already in Relationship"

The athlete's heart sank to the pit of her stomach as she went on to read the audacious, sleazy article. Scrolling down and skimming through the words, her guts twisted more and more. The article was stating that she was, in fact, flirting with Chanyeol while she's already dating someone else. There were pictures to go along with it as well, some blurry and some clear enough to see that it was her face and Chanyeol's. Seeing that people did in fact follow them around like flies in some of their outings sickened her. Their meeting at the ADIDAS photoshoot, them walking into Gold Hospital together for the Christmas show, and the most disturbing one, the two of them in their neighborhood playground hugging. Dalnim felt like screaming, nearly bursting out in tears from all the blatant lies.

Another thing bothered her, however.

She glanced up at Young Gi. "Th-They think I'm dating you?" She muttered out, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Keep reading," he pressed on.

She reluctantly obeyed and continued. Further down the article talks about her nonexistent relationship with Young Gi. And apparently, the reporters have gotten information about him as well. They've gotten his age and his occupation, but they haven't announced his very name, much to Dalnim's relief. But whoever knows Young Gi would tell right away this was him in the article.

She went on reading, then paused, grimaced, and looked back at her supposed best friend. "It... Says here that you confirmed that we're dating." Young Gi hung his head to avoid the girl's intense glare. A small gasp left her lips at the lack of response, because it could only mean he did do so. "Seon Young Gi, why did you tell them that?! We're not dating!!"

Eyes darting back on the article, she also read that the elderly woman in that watch shop in the mall, the very one that gave her a discount on Chanyeol's watch, claimed the relationship as true. It was then followed with creep shots of her and Young Gi at the mall that very day. Dalnim ran her fingers through her dark locks, finally feeling how grave this predicament turned out to be.

The comments were ruthless. People who didn't know her personally spat how much of a two-timing bitch she was. A goddamn slut. Vengeful comments that she should back off their Chanyeol-oppa were in control of the article. Once she exited out the article, she found similar articles on the page. She became one of the top ten most talked about topic on the Internet.

With a swing of her fist, she punched Young Gi's arm out of her frustration and rage. The boy winced but didn't say anything of it. "Tell me why you told them we're dating!" She yelled at him, the tears threatening to spill out. The last thing she wanted from out of this was to have Chanyeol involved in a scandal that wasn't true. Oh god, has he seen this yet? Does he know? Dalnim's heart ached at the thought of Chanyeol believing the words. He wouldn't right?

In a meek voice, he told her, "I didn't want all of this to happen."

"What do you mean you didn't want this to happen?! Young Gi you lied to the press for some idiotic reason and now I'm stuck in this bullshit!" She wanted to pull out her hair, she wanted to be home, she didn't want to show her face in public. Just why did it have to come to this?

"I only told them about us. Some other insider must've told them about you and Chanyeol... And they must've mixed it up together and--"

"Young Gi!" Dalnim interjected with a shout. She was actually trembling with rage. This has got to be the first time she ever been this furious with Young Gi, but she wanted to strangle him right at this moment. "Why?!"

Young Gi, his own look of frustration crossing his face, stared back at her. "Don't give me that, Dalnim. Just when are you going to notice me? I was desperate!" He suddenly grabbed onto her shoulders, grip strong that it was hurting, jolting her in surprise. "Dalnim, I love you and you couldn't give me the time of day ever since he came into the picture!"

Love...

"What?" She croaked out. "I-I... When?"

"For sometime Dalnim! I've liked you since our second year in college." Young Gi's voice shook as he admitted everything. "I've liked you for so long but I decided to keep it in. I knew you were busy, I knew you wouldn't bother to be in a relationship. I knew because I'm your best friend. I wanted to wait for the right moment, this year, I swore that I would confess to you. You have no idea how many times I wanted to... But then Chanyeol came back into your life..."

"Young Gi..."

"But I realize what I did was a mistake, I get it. Being a part of this shitstorm was not what I intended." The guilt swam in his almond-shaped eyes. He was reaching for an apology from the girl but he could see that wouldn't happen for a while. "But can't this make you see how bad it would be?" He pointed frantically at his phone screen. "You think anyone is going to accept a relationship with him?"

"They could've!" Dalnim burst out, standing up. "They could've accepted our relationship if it weren't for this... I can't believe you did this."

Young Gi stood up as well. "I know this is bad! But can't you please just forget about it for right now?"

"How can I?" She snapped at him. "What do you think is going to happen? Young Gi, what about the team? Don't you think this scandal is going to affect my team? What about the photoshoot? They were supposed to publish those pictures soon!"

All at once, a crackling boom caught both their attentions. The room flashed with rays of red, green, and purple from the fireworks from outside. It must be midnight now. It's January first.

The first day of the year and Dalnim already has a problem waiting for her to take care of.

Her phone began to buzz frantically in her hand. Taking a glance at the screen through her misty eyes, she saw it was Chanyeol. A feeling of discomfort settled on her shoulders at the name. Her Ray of Sunshine. This is it, this is him calling about the scandal.

Her hand trembled, fighting back and forth with herself whether to answer the call or not. For once in her life, Dalnim was so unsure of what her life would be and the utter thought that everything that happened between her and Chanyeol could change in an instant struck fear within her.

Good things were happening but changed all so sudden.

What did Yoon Dalnim do to deserve this?

A/n: Unedited because I ain't got time for that