Joshua and you spent a while just talking in the coffee shop.  You both lounged and enjoyed the casual conversation. After you talked about what happened with Woozi, Woozi didn’t come up as a topic of conversation again. Which you were glad of.

            Joshua talked about his work in the Music store. Apparently, they had a musical instruments section in back, you knew they had one, but you never have had an interest to go back there.

            Joshua explained that he originally got hired there because of his extensive guitar knowledge.

            “There used to be two people working in the CD section, one person working in records and two working in instruments. But there were cutbacks, and now there are only two people on the entire whole floor at time.”

            Joshua explained the entire set up of the store, with a kind of admiration.

            “So, do you want to work there…. Like, forever?” You asked, taking a sip of your fourth cup of tea. You and Joshua had been there a while.

            He smiled. “I guess. I don’t know. It would be nice to be the manager. But I don’t think I’ll get it.” He took a sip of his tea. Six empty tea cups with his name on them sat abandoned on the table next to them.

            “Why not?”

            “Jeonghan will probably get it. He works in records. But he deserves it more, he worked there two years before me. He’s actually the one who put in a good word for me with the owners and got me an interview.” He had a familiar glint in his eyes that you recognized immediately.

            “Let me guess, you went to High School with him also.”

            “How did you know?” He asked warily.

            “I’m not stalking you or anything, don’t worry. Its just that Hoshi and DK get the same look when they talk about their friends in High School. Which seems to be a lot, you guys must’ve been popular.”

            “I guess. I personally thought thirteen was a crowd. But at the same time, if a couple people were missing it felt empty.”

            “Wait, thirteen people? Man, I had like three friends in high school.“

            “We were originally three different clichés,” He paused for a minute after he said that, a look of disgust on his face, “urg, I hate that word. Anyway, everyone was kind of friends with someone in the group. Then everyone became friends with everyone. Does that make any sense?”

            You swung your legs over the armrest, so that your knees rested on top of them. “Sort of... no actually. That makes no sense. Give me an example or something”
            “Originally, Woozi, DK and I were friends. The guy named Seungkwan was also friends with us. Seungkwan was goods friends with Hoshi. Seungkwan introduced DK to Hoshi. It just kept slowly growing like that.”

            “I feel like if I was around thirteen people I would go nuts.”

            “You do,” Joshua smiled softly. “It was a little family of sorts. And just like a family, they did tend to drive you nuts.”

            Joshua looked out the window, grinning, and you could tell he was thinking of something. He looked to happy.

            What you would give to have a handful of friends. Let alone thirteen. Your pretty sure that you less than thirteen friends your entire school career. You imagine what it would be like to have thirteen at the same time. And best friends at that. 

            Joshua was jolted out of daydreaming gaze with a yelp. You were going to ask what was wrong but he held up his hand and mouthed ‘excuse me’. He pulled out his cellphone that had been vibrating in his pocket.

            “Sup?” He greeted the person on the phone.

            He listened to the muffled voice for a minute. His gaze snapped towards you with this eyebrows meeting in the middle of his forehead. “Yea, I’m with her now, Why?.” He asked skeptically.

            You perked up immediately, trying to listen to hear who it was.

            “She did say that….Wait, but your saying-“ Joshua’s eyes widened and he immediately perked up. He previously had been sitting in the back of huge chair with his long legs slung over the side of the armrest, his back resting on the other armrest. But when he heard this he scrammed to sit upright.

            He looked at you worriedly.

            You started to panic, at the look he was giving you, “What? What about me?” You half whispered. But he didn’t answer, he kept listening to the person on the phone.

            “Okay, well then, we’ll be on our way. Be there in ten.” Joshua hung up.

            “Who was that?” You asked before Joshua even had time to put his phone in his pocket.

            “DK.” Joshua said, and immediately he stood up, gathered the  empty tea cups with his name on them and threw them away.

            “Come on, lets go.” He didn’t have a smile on his face.

            “Wait, what just happened?” You asked, very confused with the whole situation.

            “We have to go. He is…well….I don’t know exactly how to…. Well, After you…. You see that-” He was tugging at the end of his beanie anxiously and kept restarting his sentence.

            “Spit it out.” You said kindly.

            “Woozi…. Your drawing.” Was all he could say

            You entered the apartment by slamming the door open with such a force, that the metal door handle gave off a sound that sounded like a gunshot.  You didn’t have time to talk to DK, who was in the kitchen and who looked up when you entered. You didn’t even hear Joshua tell you to ‘slow down and wait a second.’

            You ran straight to your room.

            The first thing you saw was Woozi sitting at this desk with his headphones on and the music software up on his computer. He seemed oblivious to your rage.

            You ripped the headphones off of him.

            “WHERE is it?” You yelled. Woozi turned to you calmly. “Don’t act like you don’t know, Where. Is. It.” You got closer to him.

            He didn’t answer, but he snatched his head phones from your hands.  He tried to put them back on but grabbed them away again.

            “DUDE, WHAT THE HELL.”

            “Living room..” He snapped.

            You didn’t waste anymore time. You shuffled to the living room to see Joshua and DK leaning over the table. You looked down and recognized it immediately

            Your midterm drawing, that you had started weeks in advance was lying on the table. The drawing was a self portrait. You had spent hours upon hours looking in the mirror at yourself to get even this far.

            The drawing was exactly how you left it last…except for the tear. A tear started in one of the corners of your drawing and crawled all the way to your nose.

            A rage of a kind that you had never experienced before swept over you. It was a mind-numbing, thoughtless and (in a sense) an emotionless rage. Much worse than before.

            “Don’t-“ Joshua started but you had already ran back to your room.

            Without thinking, you grabbed Woozi by the back collar of his T-shirt and flung him backwards. You pulled him with such a force that he fell back on the ground, taking his chair he was sitting on, with him. His headphones were ripped from his ears when he fell back. He groaned a bit and grasped at his back.

            DK and Joshua peaked their heads in through the doorway, shocked at the sudden loud noise.

            Woozi got to his feet

            “What was that for?” he said, with a look of disinterest.

            “MY DRAWING. WHAT DID YOU DO TO IT.” You got very close to him. Your blood was boiling. You felt so hot, it could’ve been summer.

            He just laughed. “Nothing unexpected.”

            You grabbed him by his forearm and he immediately pushed you away. “Don’t touch me.”

            “THAT WAS MY MIDTERM.” You yelled.

            “You have time to start a new one.” He shrugged.

            “WHY?” You yelled at him, giving him a shove.

            “I only said wouldn’t hit you. There are a lot more things worse than a punch.”

            “This is payback?” You said, frustration. “This is PAYBACK? Just because I punched you?”
            “Eye for an eye. A drawing for a bruise.” He pointed at his cheek. You had been too angry to even notice that the left side of his face was beginning to turn a sickly shade of purple.

            “Stop it.” This voice wasn’t yours. You turned to see Joshua stepping in the room. “Calm down the both of you.”

            “I’m fine.” Woozi said, and he was. He had the same bored expression on. While you were having a hard time seeing straight.

            “IF THIS IS PAYBACK-”You ignored Joshua completely, “THEN WHAT ABOUT MY HAND?” You held up your bandaged hand to Woozi’s face.

            He smirked a bit, “Good thing you don’t go by my rules.”

            “Woozi stop it.” DK said.

            You grabbed him by his front collar again and pushed him back.

            “You better fix it-” You hissed. You felt Joshua’s hand on your shoulder gently trying to pry you away. He was saying something that you weren’t listening to.

            “What are you saying? The tear is an improvement.”

            You grip tightened on his shirt. “Say one more word and I swear I will-“

            “How did you get accepted into the art program in the first place? Your drawing was so to begin with, that a tear actually made it look better? Wow, now that’s just sad.” His dull, monotone voice was beginning to sound like nails on a chalkboard.

            DK pulled you away from him before you could to do anything, and you let him. He was saying things what were not registering.

For all you knew, you could’ve been drowning. No matter how deep, or fast you were breathing you felt you weren’t getting any oxygen in.

            “Calm down.” DK said, “Lets get you out of here.” You let DK lead you out of the room. “Joshua, you take care of him.” DK said.

            You were barely out of the doorway before you heard Woozi snicker to Joshua

            “.”

            You pushed DK away, shoved past Joshua as he attempted to block you, and ran straight into Woozi.

            And hit him.

            You heard the Joshua and DK yell and soon as the sound echoed the room. The satisfaction of actually punching him only lasted a millisecond.

            Because when he turned his face back to you, he had a winning smile on his face.

            So you punched him again. And again. Joshua had managed to pry you off of him as you threw your third punch. When Joshua pulled you away, your fist missed Woozi’s nose by an inch.

            “CALM DOWN!” Joshua yelled, physically restraining you.

            You had no thoughts, nothing except rage. You thrashed around in Joshua’s grip, Woozi’s smiling face flaming the fire in your chest.

            Woozi had a look of triumph on his face, like there was some secret joke that only he was in on. He brought his hand up to his mouth and pulled it away to look at it. There was a tiny splotch of blood in the corner of his mouth. Seeing this, somehow, did not give you any delight.

            Woozi smiled. “Well now that that is over with.” Woozi walked over to his bed and pulled out a long sheet of of paper.

            You felt as if someone had dunked your head in ice when Woozi pulled out your drawing.

            “B-but you t-tore-“ You stuttered, pointed to the living room.

            “That’s just a photocopy. I didn’t actually tear it.” Woozi threw the drawing at your feet.

             Joshua let you go, and when you picked it up you realized that it was your drawing. Woozi wasn’t lying.

             “But why did you-”

            “I just wanted to see what it would look like to see if you were really mad.” He stated casually, picking at his thumb with his index finger.

             Your confusion turned to anger when you realized that he had played you, tricked you. He made you get angry, for what? His sick enjoyment?

“What is wrong with you? Like seriously-” You half yelled, you could feel the sickening anger in your stomach.

            Woozi got so close to you, that the sentence died in your throat, “Don’t like people tricking you and playing with your emotions?” It was an actual question.

            “Clearly.” You breathed, and shoved him back.

            “Funny. Because neither do I.” His expression darkened. He gave you a look that you couldn’t quite decipher.

            Then you gasped.

            He knew.

            He knew that you had played with him, earlier. He knew that you had planned to punch him, and he knew that had specifically triggered him to get him angry.

            He had played with your emotions to get you angry and judge your reaction.

            Just like you did.

            “Doesn’t feel nice, does it? Taste your own ing medicine.”

            You didn’t know what to say. It didn’t even occur to you that he would realize what you were up to.

            “But…..How?” You asked, your anger subsiding instantly.

            “Obviously, you underestimated me.” He said, a little bit too arrantly.

            “Obviously.” You agreed.

            There was an awkward silence. Where no one said anything. Woozi silently, picked up his headphones, and returned his chair upright. He adjusted the collar of his shirt, calmly.

            “But consider your wish granted,” He leaned in, uncomfortably close. “Because next time you hit me, I won’t hesitate to hit back.” He spat.

            You got what you wished for. So you should be happy, right?

            Why aren’t you happy?

You guys got what my hint meant now? 

Its almost finals week at my school but I managed to scrape out a chapter for you :) Writing for this story has become a stress reliever.

I read every comment so leave one :) They make me day... like seriously i smile when i read them.

Hope you guys have a good day. Expect a chapter within the next five days