I was greeted with a lot of stares and whispering as soon as I entered the school grounds. They were mostly from girls, but I noted a couple of guys following me with curious gazes as well. It took me a moment to understand that this was probably due to what transpired in the cafeteria two days ago.

“Don’t mind them, Paran.” Chanshik tried to comfort me as we walked to my classroom. He decided to accompany me inside the campus since he now had no reason not to. Apparently, he only kept away from my school because it risked him being found out by me, especially with his brother around.

“Paran! What’s up?” Jae-eun smiled at me as I took my seat right behind her. I returned her greeting and smiled nervously at Yaehee who was already sitting beside her. She wasn’t wearing glasses anymore. Maybe she wore contacts at school? I thought, trying to distract myself from worrying that Yaehee might point out Chanshik’s out-of-place appearance any second now. It was partly the reason why I let Chanshik come with me to the classroom, to verify if Yaehee could really see him.

“Did you finish the homework?” Yaehee asked after I set my things on the table and I felt my body relax in relief.

“See? I told you she couldn’t see me.” Chanshik chimed in before I could respond and I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes at him.

“Yep.” I nodded at Yaehee. “Seriously, thanks for bringing my stuff yesterday and everything else.” I shoot both of them a grateful look.”

“Hey, no worries. That’s what friends are for, right?” Jae-eun smiled at me gently. “But you know what else friends do?”

I knew from the mischievous look in her face what was coming next.

“They share secrets. Now, spill!” She half-shrieked half-whispered, looking absolutely excited. I could only shake my head and chuckle at how much Jae-eun loves to gossip. Thankfully, I had the whole of yesterday to prepare a cover story for the other day’s incident.

“Alright. So remember when I told you guys the other day about Park Chanyeol having a brother, and him getting furious at me after I just mentioned it to him?” I leaned in, looking left and right to create an illusion of authenticity. Both of them nodded and I continued, “Apparently, he and his brother got into this huge fight recently. It’s so bad they don’t even talk to each other even at home and their parents can’t do anything about it.”

“But,” I raise a finger as if to make an important point, “I guess this is what I haven’t told you about, but his brother asked me to talk to him. To reconcile, I guess, but maybe Chanyeol was still really angry the first time he heard me talk about his brother that’s why he reacted that way. The other day, however, when he dragged me out of the school building. He told me that he was willing to listen and was thinking of making up with his brother. So I decided to help them.” I smiled in relief as the two of them nodded in convincement.

They asked me a few questions after that, including one about the reason for my sudden disappearance when Chanyeol came back by himself. Fortunately, I had the foresight to make an excuse for that as well and I explain to them in great detail how I actually had a sensitive stomach, and how I had started throwing up earlier that morning, and how I had another episode right after Chanyeol left to go back to the cafeteria by himself, and how I decided to go home straight away, and how I luckily had some change left in my pocket so I could ride the bus home anyway, which was ultimately why my mother called the homeroom teacher the next day asking for me to be excused from school.

Both of them seemed to believe my story. I actually felt a little guilty at the sight of it, but I knew that I needed to keep this a secret. At least until I’m able to finally have a serious talk with Park Chanyeol.

Soon our teacher finally arrived and I could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Chanshik called my attention again, telling me he was going to look around the school until lunch time. I discreetly gave him a nod, not forgetting about our plans for the day. I was supposed to talk to his brother at lunch time.

This time, I needed to really give Chanyeol the message Chanshik’s been asking me to deliver. At the same time, I needed to make him believe that I had been talking to his dead brother. Chanshik had been trying to reassure me that I could do it, but I still can’t get rid of the nagging feeling at the back of my head telling me this was all a bad idea.

A/N: Just like I said, here's the next part! :D Because there's not much dialogue in this one, I'm super tempted to post the third part because I just finished itttttt~~~~~ Should I? Or should I not? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ