I stood up and ran to the bathroom to get the medical kit. When I walked back into the livingroom, L.Joe had stopped cleaning the glass. My heart ached to see him like that. I crouched down to the floor, right in front of him and took his hand. I held onto his hand, twisting it around a bit to search for the cuts. His head was down the whole time--his hair covering his face. I cleaned the blood and applied cream to the cuts. I took the bandage from the kit, swirling it around to cover his hand.

"There." I smiled to him, but his head was still faced down. I was worried for him...for both of them. I wished I could do something, but I didn't really know what to do. I held onto his bandaged hands and he finally looked up. His tears shimmered from the light in the livingroom. He smiled weakly at me and pulled me to a hug. He laid his head on my shoulder. I felt his warm tears drop onto my shirt. I returned the hug and sighed, slowly patting his back. My heart was tearing little by little as I felt each tear drop. We stayed that way for awhile. None of us said a word. His quiet sobbing died down, so I turned my head to face him. He fell asleep on my shoulder. I smiled. He looked more at peace, resting. *Ow!* I turned my left leg and found a small shard of glass slightly piercing through my skin. I carefully lifted my arm away from L.Joe and pulled the glass out. I bit on my lip so I wouldn't make any noise. It did hurt though.

Eunji came out of her room and found me with L.Joe. She crossed her arms and walked closer. I heard her footsteps and turned to face her. "He should be sleeping in his bed." I nodded without a word. I didn't really want to talk to her because of what she did. I pulled L.Joe off carefully. His eyebrows twitched and he woke up. He found Eunji staring down at him. I took the dust pan and continued to clean the leftover glass. L.Joe tried to stop me, but I insisted in cleaning it. "It's fine...Go get some rest." Eunji noticed the bandages on L.Joe's hands and looked away. She went in the kitchen, got a snack, and retreated to her bedroom again. I stood up from the floor with the dustpan and broom in hand. L.Joe followed after me. I threw the glass away and placed the dustpan and broom back in the cabinet. "Thank you," he said in a low voice. I gave him a faint smile. "Go get some rest." When he left, I slid down to the floor and closed my eyes. My head began to pound. I covered the small cut on my leg with a bandaid. Luckily, it didn’t cut too deep.

The next morning, I found myself on the bed. I got dressed for school and headed to the kitchen to grab breakfast. Taemin had texted me early in the morning.

Taeman: Morning! Are you riding the bus today?

You:... Morning Taeman~ Most probably.

Taeman: I'll save you a seat! You better come!!

I laughed to myself, shaking my head. "Morning." I looked up from my phone and L.Joe was smiling at me. I smiled back and my eyes directed themselves to his hands. They were still bandaged. I pointed at his hand and he waved it. "You can't drive with that. Come take the bus with me!" His eyes sparkled. "Yeah. Why not." I stared at the screen of my phone, suddenly remembering something. "I’ll have Mr.Moon dive Eunji to school." His smile faded a bit, hearing me mention her name. I guess they were still not talking to each other...

I walked to the bus stop with L.Joe. He seemed rather happy, but I wanted him to be anyway. "It's my first time taking the bus," he admitted shyly. My eyebrows raised and my mouth opened. "No way!" He chuckled and nodded his head. The bus arrived a couple of minutes later. "Just show the bus driver your ID." The door opened and we hopped on. I showed my ID to the bus driver and he swayed his head. Taemin jumped off his seat and waved. L.Joe came in after me and copied exactly what I did. Taemin stopped waving when he saw L.Joe. His presence always made Taemin less hyper and more tensed. I made my way to him, but there was only a seat for one more person. I looked back at L.Joe, who was standing right behind me. He smiled. "Sit." I sat down next to Taemin and L.Joe stood beside me. He looked for a handle to hold, and I looked around with him. I couldn't find anything, so I raised my hand at him. He noticed my hand and held onto it--his cheeks turning a rosy pink.

Taemin played with his phone, pretending not to pay any attention to us. I pushed him a little and he smiled, showing me a photo he took of me eating. “Hey! Taeman! You could've just told me you were going to take a picture. I look so...eww." I frowned. L.Joe stared at the photo and laughed. Taemin looked up at him and slid his finger to the screen, directing to the next picture. I tightened my grip on L.Joe’s hand when the bus suddenly stopped. He was able to keep his balance. The bus door opened and Sooyoung came in. "Hey Sooyoung!" I called her over. After showing the bus driver her ID, she made her way to us, in the middle of the bus. "Hey!" "Hi," L.Joe greeted her. Taemin smiled and waved to her. I noticed her looking around for a seat. "Here." I stood up and gave her my seat. "Thanks Yerimie." L.Joe’s eyes wandered around to find a seat for me. "It's okay," I assured him. Taemin was about to give up his seat to me, but the bus began to move. I tried balancing at first, but almost fell. Luckily, L.Joe caught me before I flopped down the walkway.  

On the next stop, Taemin stood up and gave me his seat. The two boys were standing now. I took a picture of them without them knowing, and showed Sooyoung. I tried to read Sooyoung's face, since Taemin was here. There was no luck. I couldn't read through her. We finally arrived in school. Everything was all the same of course. There wasn't much going on in the school, but there was something that kept bothering me. I always had this feeling of emptiness. Just when I thought I was getting over him, I always found myself looking for Lay. It was like he didn't even go to the school anymore and left without a word. I hadn't seen him all day...not even in gym class. He always seemed to be missing. Was he hiding from me? Or did he just not come to school today? I thought having him away from me would make things easier, but that wasn’t the case.

"Have you seen Lay?" I began asking other students around campus, if they'd seen him. No one knew where he was. Suddenly, I heard someone calling out to me. "Hey! You! I know where he is!" I found a random guy speed-walking over to me. He was tall and scrawny, his hair a jetblack--perfectly combed back. To think he’d be a very distinctable guy, I’d never actually seen this guy before. "Oh? Where?" He motioned me to come closer. "He's back to the old days. The Dark Ages of...Yixing..." I backed off a bit with a confused expression. "What are you talking about?" His lips parted, ready to speak, but ran away instead. Well...that was odd. *What's he really talking about anyway?*

*Dark ages of Yixing?*

"We've had this strange intertwining relationship without really knowing each other."

-Lynn Redgrave