A/N: Thanks so much again for all the reviews and to all my readers... You all keep me going :)

In true F4 fashion, an entire ski lodge had been rented out for their stay in the mountains. Ga Eul and Jan Di arrived first with Ji Hoo, and the trio was quickly joined by Woo Bin and Jun Pyo's sister, Jun Hee, who had decided to join them in Jun Pyo's place. Yi Jeong didn't make it until the second evening of their stay, and by then Ga Eul was even more a bundle of nerves as she still didn't know quite how to explain what had happened that night with Gong Yoo to him. After the panic over her photography project had passed—she did manage to turn it in on time, miraculously—a new panic set in as she worried about her upcoming finals. For the next week or so she had a legitimate reason to limit her contact with Yi Jeong to two phone conversations, a few minutes a piece, because, realistically, she did need time to study. However, these brief conversations between them did nothing to ease her mind about how Yi Jeong must view her. She knew he probably knew her well enough not to think she actually did anything wrong, but she hated him thinking her stupid and naïve because it made her feel that much more immature compared to him. Then Christmas came and went all too quickly, and right before New Year's she found herself in his physical presence once again, feeling like the bumbling schoolgirl she'd been a few short months ago before he left for Sweden.

Yi Jeong, for his part, wished Ga Eul would open her mouth and say what she was thinking like she normally did. Except for greeting and hugging him when he arrived and giving short, vague answers to his questions about her final exams, she'd been as closed off as a clam.

Then there was that Gong Yoo character. He'd had Woo Bin look into him, discreetly of course, and the mafia heir had come up with…well…nothing. It seemed Kim Gong Yoo had attended the same high school as Ga Eul and her brother but never graduated, and, shortly after Ga Eul's brother passed away, he completely vanished off the grid for six years until one day he resurfaced in Seoul—the day he'd gone to visit Ga Eul and she had been in Sweden.

She'd said he'd been in the army, which Woo Bin could find no record of. She'd said he'd only come by to give her an old hoodie of her brother's that he found while packing.

Okay, fine. He'd left it with her grandmother. Why did he have to show up in front of her again? He must have known exactly where she'd be on that day at that time. He must have been watching her, stalking her even. Yi Jeong didn't know what to make of the whole situation, but he knew he didn't like it. Something didn't feel right. He'd deliberated over the wisdom of telling her what he'd learned, though, and had finally decided not to say anything just yet, at least not until he could find out more information. She'd probably be furious with him for digging into it, anyway, instead of trusting this Gong Yoo person and, by extension, herself.

At the moment, she sat next to him in the circle the six friends had formed on the floor of the lodge's cozy sitting room. On the other side of her sat Jan Di, then Jun Hee, followed by Ji Hoo and Woo Bin. Earlier, Woo Bin had jokingly suggested they play Truth or Dare again, and somehow that had turned into Ten Fingers, which Jun Hee said ought to be entertaining since she hadn't played it since her own college days.

"I'll make sure these guys spill all their secrets." She winked at Jan Di and Ga Eul, prompting some nervous laughter from the two girls.

"That's not fair," Woo Bin protested as he made his way over to the minibar. "You know all the really embarrassing stuff from our childhood."

"Woo Bin, we're all friends here. What is it exactly that you're trying to hide?" She laughed and gave the girls another playful smile.

"If we're all friends here, you don't mind if we play this the right way then, right?" Woo Bin pulled out a bottle of soju and set it down in the middle of the group, along with a few shot glasses. "This a drinking game, you know." He sat back down in his spot and ribbed Ji Hoo, who looked as unaffected by this exchange of words as ever but looked over at Jan Di as if to gauge her reaction.

Yi Jeong glanced over at Jan Di, who sputtered a protest on Ga Eul's behalf, and then back at Ga Eul, who interrupted her.

"Jan Di, it's okay. Woo Bin Sunbae's right. We should play the correct way."

Jan Di looked at Ga Eul, and the surprised expression on her face mirrored Yi Jeong's own.

"Besides," Ga Eul continued, pulling one of the shot glasses towards her, "I've drunk alcohol before with plenty of people. You don't know because we haven't gone to school together for so long. It doesn't mean anything."

"That's the spirit!" Woo Bin exclaimed and, leaning over, pushed the remaining shot glasses towards everyone else, including Jan Di.

Jan Di grudgingly accepted the glass, and the game began.

"I'll go first," Woo Bin said, looking pointedly at Jan Di. "Never have I ever worn a dress."

"That was a cheap shot," Jan Di complained, reaching for the bottle.

"It was," Jun Hee said, putting down one of her fingers. "But Woo Bin, aren't you going to regret that?"

"What do you mean?"

"Aren't you going to drink too? You probably don't remember this, but when you were five you had a huge crush on me. You used to follow me everywhere, and one day—I think Jun Pyo was sick or something—you let me talk you into dressing up in my mom's clothes."

"What?" Yi Jeong could help but burst out. "You wore the Witch's clothes? You were in her bedroom?"

Jun Hee started laughing.

"It was some sort of dare or something."

"I don't remember any of that," Woo Bin protested, though his usual self-assured expression had faltered a bit. "But I'll take a drink anyway since you want me to so much. Yi Jeong, it's your turn."

"I don't know how I'm supposed to recover from the shock of that information," Yi Jeong replied.

He also didn't know what Ga Eul was trying to prove. She'd taken her drink with all the fervor of a field mouse entering a cat fight. Seasoned drinker, his foot.

"Never have I ever…cheated on an exam." He poured himself a glass and drank it along with Woo Bin.

"Ya, we always cheated off each other," Woo Bin said. "Why would you say that?"

"I think the two of you just want to lose," Jun Hee said, downing her own glass.

"Noona, you cheated on an exam?" Woo Bin asked.

"Once." She put down another finger. "Ga Eul, you're next."

"Oh, um, hmm…" Ga Eul fiddled with the hem on her skirt. "Never have I ever…shoplifted something."

"Wrong crowd," Woo Bin chided. "None of us would need to…Hey! Why are you drinking?"

Ji Hoo set down his glass and smiled at Woo Bin. When he didn't say anything, Jan Di blurted out, "How can I not know such things about my Sunbae?"

Ji Hoo turned his attention to Jan Di.

"When I was four, I remember wanting some candy at a store, and my parents wouldn't get it for me, but it was sitting low enough for me to reach, so when they weren't looking, I grabbed it and put it in my pocket."

"Wow," Jan Di murmured. "Now we're learning who everyone really is. All right then. Never have I ever been arrested."

Woo Bin took a shot.

"Drunk driving." He grinned sheepishly. "It didn't last long. Whoever took me in had no idea who he was dealing with."

"Never have I ever been trapped in an elevator," Jun Hee said. Jan Di drank on that one, though she mumbled something about it not technically being an elevator.

Then Ji Hoo cleared his throat and said, in the calmest voice imaginable, "Never have I ever been bribed into chaperoning the best friend of my best friend's girlfriend."

Yi Jeong scowled at him and took a shot.

"That was very specific," Yi Jeong replied.

Ji Hoo just smiled.

"Hey," Woo Bin chimed in, "Aren't you two going to tell us the story?"

"What story?" Yi Jeong and Ga Eul answered at the same time. They made eye contact for a moment. Ga Eul looked away first, and an awkward silence settled in.

"Don't embarrass them," Jun Hee said after a moment. "Come on, on with the game. Woo Bin, you're next."

The game resumed, and they continued like that for a while. It seemed that the cards were stacked against everyone, though. Anything the girls—especially Ga Eul and Jan Di—weren't likely to have done, the guys had, and vice versa. Soon everyone had gotten a bit tipsy, and Ga Eul—though she'd hardly drank anything compared to the rest of them—had gotten herself quite drunk. Woo Bin found this hilarious, as she laughed at everything anyone said and clung first onto Jan Di, then later onto Yi Jeong, like a long lost puppy who had found its master.

Finally, Yi Jeong announced that he thought Ga Eul had had enough and that he was going to take her back to her room. Jan Di started to argue, but Ji Hoo and Jun Hee pulled her back, and Ga Eul followed Yi Jeong willingly, still grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"Oppa!" She latched onto his arm as they headed out into the hallway, and Yi Jeong let her hold onto him when he realized she was walking so crookedly she would probably fall over otherwise. "Oppa, I know…where we're going," she announced, her words slurring together.

"We're going to your room," he answered, his voice without emotion.

"Aniyo!" she exclaimed, leaning into him. "We're going to your room." Ga Eul giggled. "Isn't that where all the pretty girls go…to your room?"

Yi Jeong halted suddenly, causing Ga Eul to stumble and nearly fall over except that he tightened his hold on her arm and pulled her back up. Then he started walking again, quickening his pace and practically jerking her around the corner.

"Oppa, why are we walking so fast? There's so many halls. I don't think I've ever seen so…so many halls…so many…mistletoe! Look, it's mistletoe!" Ga Eul pointed excitedly to a sprig hanging from the entrance to the kitchen as they passed it.

Soon enough, they arrived at Ga Eul's room. Yi Jeong extricated his arm from hers and pushed her towards the door, but she spun around and tugged on his shirt, pulling her to him and stepping backwards until she backed herself into the door.

"Aren't you going to kiss me?" she pleaded. "There's mistletoe. You're supposed to kiss your girlfriend when there's mistletoe. Don't you like kissing me? I like kissing you."

Yi Jeong gave her a small smile.

"That's nice, Ga Eul-yang."

"I know what you think. You think I don't know anything about the world." She reached up and fumbled with the knot of his tie, slowly undoing it. "Oppa, I know a lot."

She looked so cute as she frowned in concentration that Yi Jeong almost gave in and kissed her like she wanted.

Almost.

But he didn't because there was no telling where that would lead.

"Yes. I know you do, but we can talk about that tomorrow." Yi Jeong grabbed her wrists and gently pushed them back down.

"Or we could talk about it tonight." Reaching back up, she pulled his tie free, slid it from around his neck, and slipped it around her own neck. Grasping her ponytail holder, she pulled her long, silky hair loose.

"Oppa," she continued, "I have pretty underwear too. I have all the pretty…the prettiest ones." She counted on her fingers. "I have red and pink and green and purple and…" She leaned in conspiratorially. "…black." She giggled a bit more, then grinned and leaned her head into the door.

"Ga Eul-yang, get your room key out."

"See? I knew you'd want to come in." She arched her neck in a seductive way that Yi Jeong figured she'd probably seen in a movie.

"Ga Eul-yang, you need to get some sleep. Now get your key out and open the door." Yi Jeong pinched his forehead and ran his fingers through his hair.

Slowly, the carefree grin on her face devolved into a frown.

"You're mad at me."

"Aniyo."

"You don't like me then. You really don't like me. You think I'm silly." She looked around the hallway rather forlornly, tears suddenly starting to spill down her cheeks.

"What I'd like is for you to go to your room and get some sleep."

"You don't like me. You don't like me," she mumbled, whimpering. "You think I did something with that other guy. You think I'm a bad person." Ga Eul started sobbing. "A-a-and now," she blubbered. "You're going to leave me."

Yi Jeong sighed in frustration.

"Ga Eul-yang, will you stop saying that? Now where's your room key?"

Ga Eul didn't answer but burst into more tears.

"Why…don't you like me?" she asked, surrendering her purse to him when he took it off her shoulder. "Why don't you like me, Oppa?"

Cursing softly, he hastily searched her purse and then her sweater pockets and then her purse again.

"Why, Oppa? Why are you leaving me?" Ga Eul collapsed onto the floor and started tugging on Yi Jeong's tie like it would tell her the answer. "Why? Why am I good not enough for you? Why do you always have to leave?" Her voice rose louder and louder until he feared the others would hear it on the other side of the lodge. Thankfully, at that moment, he found her room key buried inside her purse underneath a pack of Kleenex.

"Why don't you want me Oppa?" she cried out again. "Why won't you stay with me? Why are you always leaving me?"

"Ga Eul-yang, will you shut that damn mouth of yours and quit saying nonsense?! I'm right here, right here in front of you!"

Yi Jeong glared at her, and she shut up then, a stunned look on her face. Letting out a few barely audible whimpers, she allowed Yi Jeong to roughly pull her up to a standing position and wipe off a few more tears that trickled down her face before he slid her room key in the lock and opened the door. She stumbled backwards into the room and headed towards the bed, where she collapsed into a sitting position and stared up at him still standing in the doorway.

"Get some sleep," he whispered, gazing at the floor instead of her, and closed the door. He hadn't meant to yell at her, and he could blame it on the alcohol, but the truth was that she'd just sounded so much like his mother when she got upset over his father leaving the house. He'd never wanted to hear words like that come out of Ga Eul's mouth, and now he wanted to punch Woo Bin or whoever had suggested that stupid game. Or go back into the sitting room and get roaring drunk himself. Instead, he turned and walked to his own room, where he, too, collapsed onto the bed, too rattled by the night's events to either sleep or do anything else. He lay there, fully dressed, for a long time with the lights on, listening to the distant peal of laughter as it drifted to him from the hallway when the others made it back to their bedrooms. Then the rest of the world fell asleep, and he only heard her voice ringing in his ears, blending with a faint memory of his mother: "Why am I not good enough for you? Why do you always have to leave?"