Trust | Lee Mark

Chapter 17

<March 2022>

I tried to go through the day without thinking much about what Yuta said. Mark promised me that he'll wait until the day he could stand beside me and call himself my boyfriend.

But I just realized that I was the one behind him, I'm the one who's still not worthy to stand beside him.

How can I believe in such a foolish thought that we're deeply in love? We've only spent time with each other during midnight practices, we've never gone on a date or did anything specific to know each other better.

Suddenly, Mark felt like a stranger.

I wonder who this Herin is. But if it made him date girls left and right, shouldn't she be someone special to him? 

Someone who's more special to him than me.

After the second day of the SM Training Camp ended, I walked back to my room with the other SecGar members. I smiled and acted like nothing was bothering me, and I was always a good actress. 

As I waited for Jieun to sleep so I could go to Mark's room, my phone suddenly vibrated repeatedly. I looked over to my phone to see who's calling, my breath hitching when I saw the contact name.

"Mother.. Hello.." I whispered to the other person in line.

"My daughter, how have you been?"

I smiled sadly, "I've been good, I know you follow the news of my group when you have time." 

"I'm so proud of you, I know you only started receiving your salary last month. I'm sorry but can I ask for a favor?"

I looked towards the ceiling while taking a deep breath. Here's the moment, the reality is finally kicking in. I let out a chuckle, "I know what you want to ask, how much do you guys need this month?"

My mother let out a guilty sigh, "Can you transfer 1,000,000 won this month?" 

My heart ached at the amount of money she's requesting, that is worth 5 months of salary that is left after paying for my life expenses.

That means I have to be more sacrifice some of my expenses..

"Sure mother, I'll send it to you right now after this call." I forced out a soft happy voice. 

"Eunhye, I'm sorry. How much is your salary? Can you really afford it?" she asked me in worry. 

I laughed, "You don't need to think about that, mother. Just focus on taking care of the whole family. Tell father not to overwork himself." I assured her.

"Thankyou, Eunhye. I'm really proud of you... I'll close the call now, please rest a lot." she told me before closing the phone call.

Something I would never like to admit to myself, I became a trainee not only because I wanted to prove myself to my ex, also not only because of my passion for dancing.

My family is in huge debt, not exactly mine but my mother's family. They don't have a stable income but they're still desperate to act like rich people, and so they kept borrowing money from my father. I can still remember those nights where they fought because of my mother's family, how much pressure was given to their first daughter to become rich.

I became a trainee also so that my father doesn't need to pay for my expenses.

Don't get me wrong, my parents are wonderful parents. But the whole family issue was the one that made me want to run away. The fact that my parents let me live 3 years without mentioning this issue, made me run away from the reality that I am the one who would be responsible to pay for the debts.