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| October 13th, Tuesday, 2020 |

  It felt like someone had closed all the entrances to her lungs.

  It was a summer night, but she suddenly felt chills.

  Were they finally going to talk about it?

  Would she even be able to explain everything?

  Explain how she's a coward that couldn't protect her friend and decided to hate the guy that hurt her instead?

"I know it's because of Sumin, but I just don't understand. Why?"

"Because she was my friend."

  Annie spoke looking down at the grass.

"And you hurt her. A lot. She gave up on her dream because of you."

  Lee Know turned to her, both confused and surprised.

"Because of me?"

"Yeah? Don't you remember what you did to her?"

  He scratched his head.

"I rejected her. Countless times."

  This time, it was Annie's turn to be confused.

"What? Didn't you offend her? Curse her out? Humiliate her and even pushed her once?"

  Lee Know squinted his eyes, slightly tilting his head.

  What kind of drama was this?

"Okay. Alright. I think we have a misunderstanding."

  She signed with her eyes for him to continue.

"I may have rejected Sumin a lot, but I don't think I was ever aggressive about it. I mean, she was annoying as fuck and I admit I probably hurt her with my words, but I would never hurt someone physically."

  Annie payed attention to every detail, trying to put the puzzles together.

  But they didn't fit.

"Someone is lying."

  She whispered but, because of their small distance, it wasn't hard for Lee Know to hear.

"What?"

"Sumin always told me you bullied her. You'd tell her she couldn't dance, let alone be an idol. You told her she was a failure and if she ever, for some reason, became a successful idol, you'd ruin it. After you debuted it wasn't as bad, but you'd still send her offensive texts every once in a while, complaining about the smallest things. She liked you, but you humiliated and offended her so bad she left. Without notice, she left. Never answered my texts again and I haven't seen her ever since. That's the story I know."

  With lips slightly apart, Lee Know kept on blinking.

"What the hell..."

  Why is he acting this way?

  It doesn't seem like he's faking it...

  But why would Sumin lie?

  What would she gain from that?

"And you believed her?"

  "She was my friend, why wouldn't I?"

"You never asked to see the texts?"

"I did. But she'd always tell me she had deleted them, so she wouldn't feel bad every time she opened the messaging app."

  Thinking about it now, I always found that very weird.

  Why would she delete the proof?

"Woah, you can be pretty naive, huh? Or maybe just dumb."

  She glared at him.

"Explain why she did that, then."

  Lee Know's subtle grin slowly faded away as he let out a deep breath.

"It started in the beginning of 2017. At first, I thought she was just another girl with a crush on me-"

  He was interrupted by Annie's scoff.

"But then! She somehow got my number and would text me every day. I kept pushing her, but it didn't seem to work. I tried not to be rude, I really did, but one day...we were recording the SKZ reality at the time, it wasn't the best day, so I answered her rudely, I admit that."

  No way...

  When he was eliminated?

  Hannie told me about it, he was so upset...

"That's when it got worse. She started threatening me."

  Annie's eyes widened.

"She said if I ever ignored her texts or treated her badly again, she'd spread rumors about me. I wanted to debut and I knew that'd damage my image, so I behaved. I acted as nice as I could so she wouldn't spread rumors...although apparently she did anyway."

  He chuckled lightly, while the girl felt guilty.

"But because of that, my manager and even Chan started to scold me, saying I shouldn't be so close to a girl as we were debuting in a few months."

  So that's why she was in such a bad mood before their debut...

"I guess she understood she couldn't really do anything anymore as I had people protecting me now, so she gave up? Those words that she said I told her...they came from herself."

  W-what...

  Why?

  Why did she do it?

  Why didn't I notice?

  I spent two years hating this- wait.

"But she left. Why didn't you say anything after she left?"

"You mean to you? I didn't see a reason to. I just figured you hated me too and I had no intention of making you like me, so..."

  Does he want me to like him now, then?

"I see..."

  Annie then turned her full body towards the boy, who backed away a bit.

  She looked straight into his dark eyes and kneeled down, both hands on her legs.

"I'm sorry. I'm really so, so, sorry."

  After a deep breath, she kept on going.

"I know words won't fix anything, well, nothing will. But I really regret treating you the way I did and not noticing...I'm so sorry for not realizing what you were going through and only caring about her. You don't deserve any of this and I'm so sorry you had to go through it."

  Lee Know was taken aback.

  This wasn't what he expected when he asked that question.

  He had never seen Ahn Haerim this fragile.

"I won't say 'it's okay' because it's not, but I forgive you. It's just natural you took your friend's side and well...you never got an explanation even when you asked me about it so...it's not your fault."

He helped her get up and sit down again.

"...that's true."

  Annie wiped the few tears that fell in realization.

"Oh wow you changed your game really fast."

  Lee Know smiled.

"But really, I'm truly sorry for being a bitch to you, I'll try to treat you normally now."

  She spoke seriously.

"Thank you."

  As silence was about to take place, Lee Know spoke again.

"By the way..."

  Annie raised her eyebrows, curious.

"You're pretty stupid for getting hurt a week before your comeback."

  He laughed, receiving a glare as response.

  It wasn't like the usual glares they'd give each other though, this one was playful, like the one you'd give to a friend.

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