Himchan sighed deeply, taking out from his bag a few books he wouldn’t need that day, and replacing them with the important ones. Even though his door was closed, he could hear Junhong in the other room, cheerfully talking to Yongguk.

It had been a few days, almost a whole week, that the boy had been with them, and Himchan’s opinion of him hadn’t changed at all. He had completely given up on acting nice, especially when the boy was making no effort to be good to him.

He was just letting Yongguk take care of him. Junhong preferred Yongguk anyway, so who was he to in?

There was a light knock on his door, and then it opened. Yongguk didn’t come in, he just slightly showed himself through the open door.

“We’re going now. See you later tonight?”

The man announced with his heavy and deep voice, looking at Himchan with hopeful eyes.

Unfortunately, in the process of avoiding Junhong, Himchan had also distanced himself from his best friend. He knew it wasn’t fair, but soon the kid would be gone, and they could go back to normal. But he noticed in Yongguk’s gaze how much he wanted to spend some time together. It was probably tiring to him to be around a boy the entire day, Himchan suddenly realized.

“Sure. I’m getting off work early today. I can bring us back some pizzas.”

He said, giving out a smile, but not sounding at all excited. Yongguk didn’t seem to care though, just smiling back and going out.

Himchan waited, hearing as Junhong and Yongguk left the dorm, and then proceeded to finish getting ready. Every day he had been skipping breakfast, and leaving a little later, to avoid just having to walk with Junhong. After enough time passed, he left too, and while gulping down a power bar, he walked to his first class of the day.

“Hey, Himchan!”

He stopped as soon as he heard Hyosung’s voice calling, and turned back to see the woman walking towards him.

“Good morning.”

He greeted her, not making a big deal out of it. But as she made as annoyed face at him, he realized she was mad about something. Not that he cared if she was mad or not, but he usually didn’t wish to get hit.

“Just ‘good morning’? I haven’t seen you or Yongguk for 6 days, and all you have to say is good morning?”

She complained, pulling on his arm to make him start walking again, and they continued to talk as they made their way to the university buildings. Since the three were used to see each other every day, it was understandable for her to be angry.

“We’ve been busy with the kid. Yongguk taking care of him, and me avoiding him.”

Himchan replied, his face not showing a drop of shame as he admitted to be avoiding the boy.

“Wow, you’re still not getting along with him, huh?”

Hyosung smiled, starting to think of many ways she could make fun of him for that.

“Not at all, he’s still being a brat to me. I can’t take it, so I stay away.”

Himchan answered, ignoring as the woman laughed, and started ranting.

“And he’s really weird you know?! I’m pretty sure he’s sneaking out every night! I don’t know where he goes, because when I tried to follow him yesterday, he just went into an alley and disappeared.”

Hyosung stopped laughing, seeing how seriously concerned the man looked. It was no longer a funny matter, something was definitely wrong.

“Really?”

She asked, looking at him with curiosity.

“Yeah. And it , you know. What if he gets into trouble? It’s gonna end up being our fault!”

Himchan huffed, glad to finally be able to vent to someone; and so, He let all of his annoyance out.

“I want to meet this kid.”

Hyosung started.

“I wanna evaluate how bad he is with my own eyes.”

Himchan nodded as she continued, and then responded.

“You can just come over tonight. I’m taking over some pizza, and we’re going to hang out or something.”

“Okay~! I’ll see you later then!”

Hyosung cheerfully answered, and tapped his back lightly, waving bye as they had reached their parting point, since she had to go to a different building.

…

Hyosung cleared , fixing her hair and outfit, and then giving a knock on the guys’ dorm door. Yongguk opened it, and looked quite surprised at first, but then smiled.

“What are you doing here?”

He asked, moving aside so she could walk in. Junhong was sitting on the couch, playing a game on his phone, and he didn’t acknowledge her at all.

“I came to eat pizza! Himchan invited me, he didn’t tell you?”

She answered with a smile, an expression she usually had when she met Yongguk.

“No, he didn’t. We haven’t talked since this morning.”

Yongguk said as he closed the door, watching as she threw her coat and bag to the side. She was always very comfortable around there, even though Himchan kept nagging her for making a mess. But she just felt like their place was her home too, since she was there so often.

“But I’m glad you’re here. I haven’t seen you in a few days.”

Yongguk’s smile was very warm, and she couldn’t help but blush a little at his words. She quickly covered it though.

“Ho ho, you’ve missed me haven’t you? Don’t worry, I missed you too.”

She extravagantly said, giving the man a light punch on the shoulder, turning her back to him and focusing on Junhong.

“And who’s this?”

She fanned herself a bit, trying to get rid of the red cheeks Yongguk had caused. She wasn’t there to flirt, she came to check out the boy. Junhong still didn’t move; he didn’t seem at all interested in looking at her, which was something Hyosung was not quite used to, being the beautiful woman she was. But unlike Himchan, who very quickly got grumpy, she kept her bright smile directed at him.

“That’s the high school student, Junhong. Junhong, this is my friend, Hyosung.”

With the sound of Yongguk’s voice calling his name, the boy looked up with a polite smile.

“Nice to meet you miss.”

He sweetly said, putting his phone aside at last, getting up so he could bow at her.

“Nice to meet you too, Junhong. I heard you were tall, but you’re way bigger than I had expected.”

Hyosung said as she gave him a sweet laugh, a trick she often used to get guys to focus on her.

“Let me get you a soda.”

Yongguk said, tapping Hyosung’s shoulder and moving over to the mini-fridge.

As soon as the man turned his back, Junhong stopped smiling, and made a quite nasty face to the woman, who was so surprised with the sudden change that her jaw dropped. Hyosung couldn’t even say anything, she just stared, flabbergast. She observed as the boy sat back down, not even looking at her anymore, his smile returning as soon as Yongguk’s focus was back on them.

“Sit. I’m sure Himchan will be home with the pizzas anytime now.”

The clueless man said, still smiling.

Hyosung just did as she was told, quickly fixing her expression, returning the smile to her face.

She sat next to Junhong on the couch, but the boy was not giving any attention to her anymore. She could see that was going to be a long and interesting night.