He ran past you heading to school first, you sighed to yourself as his back disappeared before your eyes. He had always left you behind now, you had been neighbors with Jinyoung your whole life, but when he turned 13, he grew distant.

He couldn't be alone with you for more than 10 minutes and he avoided you like the plague at school if he could. You couldn't figure out why, nothing had happened between the two of you, and you hadn't been in a fight since he stole your toy when you were 6. 

You walked on alone to school, kicking up rocks and chasing them as you went. When you reached the gates, you saw Yugyeom and Youngjae waiting for you. They were all smiles as you approached, but you could tell something was off.

"Hey guys." You said, looking at them suspiciously. "What's wrong?"

The both of them looked at each other nervously, but Yugyeom shrugged his shoulders. "Might as well tell her." He said to Youngjae.

Youngjae frowned, knowing your response wouldn't be good. He sighed and nodded, "Today, group project partners got announced. You know the graduation project that's worth half our grades for every class?" He said to you.

"Yeah..." You said, you already had a feeling where this was going, but it's not like you could do anything about it. Teachers assigned partners and that was that.

"You're Jinyoung's partner." Yugyeom stated. 

"I don't have a problem with it." You said nonchalantly, walking ahead into your classroom. Jinyoung was already sitting in his seat in the front and you moved to yours in the back of the room. 

He was bound to have heard about you being assigned his partner, but he didn't seem to be bothered by it. You sighed to yourself, there was no way he was going to fail the project just because he didn't like you. 

Class started and you tried to pay attention without thinking about how your friendship with Jinyoung had seemingly died. This was the first time, you'd be speaking to each other in about 4 years and you weren't sure what was going to happen. 

When the lunch bell rang, you gathered your things quietly and saw him approach your desk lithely. You almost jumped when you saw him standing right in front of you, "Hi." You said quietly.

"Let's work on the project today, I'll walk you home." Jinyoung said emotionlessly. You frowned to yourself, he didn't sound excited to be working with you at all. You should have expected as much, but you used to be friends, why wouldn't he be okay to work with you?

"Okay, do you know what you want to do?" You asked him, keeping it all business, not letting your disappointment show. 

"Yeah, I have some ideas. I'll tell you later. See you after school." He said, walking out of the classroom, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

You sighed again for what had to be the fifth time today, you headed out to lunch, taking your usual seat between Youngjae and Yugyeom. "Hey." You greeted them.

"How are you?" Youngjae asked you, showing concern and looking around the cafeteria. He frowned and you narrowed your eyes at him. He knew something yet again but wasn't keen on sharing.

"What's wrong?" You asked back, done with this wanting to protect your feelings thing. They had been your friends when Jinyoung fell out with you but they knew how you were and what you knew of your friendship. 

Yugyeom threw Youngjae a cheeky look, "Told you so." He said, making Youngjae roll his eyes. "People are saying Jinyoung asked the teacher to be your partner, because he doesn't want you to be anyone else's. And other people are saying how you'll fail because he picked you but won't talk to you." Yugyeom explained to you. 

"What. How do people even know that he asked the teacher? I thought it's just random." You