October had come in the week that followed Jeno's confession. Bad days were slowly passing, and everyone had managed to piece together what had happened during the school trip. Jeno thought that nothing could be more embarrassing than his friend's looks of sympathy- but he'd be proven wrong on Monday morning. He had no idea what the word embarrassing truly conveyed before this very moment.

"I wanted to let you know I overheard your confession to Doyeon." 

Jeno looked up at the girl in front of him, horror written all over his face. Luckily, everyone else in the classroom had already left for lunch. He was going to spend his lunch break alone; it just felt like one of those days. But here he was looking up at Kim Soeun, with his jaw completely dropped. 

She rolled her eyes, "I didn't mean to eavesdrop, I just happened to be inside the tree house when you both had a private conversation. So It was your fault for not checking." And just like that, she turned and left the room. Jeno sat there, his face slowly growing red. 

"Ahhh!" He yelled, tangling his hands into his hair. Not only was he still dealing with the leftover feelings of rejection, he was also dealing with knowing someone was there to witness it! Jeno pushed his food away, he didn't feel too hungry anymore. Going back to normal was supposed to be easy, he wanted it to be easy- but here he was at eighteen, learning once again, that life has ups and downs. In his mind he'd pictured the day after Doyeon had rejected him, as him falling down a hill. And on that day where he'd gone to her house and talked it all out, he pictured himself finally standing back up. As sad as it might be, he was stuck standing at the bottom of the hill. He knew as time passed, he'd slowly start climbing back up, no matter how intimidating it may seem.

Jeno stood up, leaving his food on his desk, but heading in the direction of the cafeteria. 

What better time to take that first step than the present? 

~

The cafeteria line was backed up all the way to the door, making it to where Jeno had to maneuver around people to actually get it. He made a B-line for his table, sighing in relief as he finally plopped down beside Mark. "What are you guys talking about?" Everyone looked at him, a bit taken aback by his sudden appearance. Doyeon was the only one who either wasn't shocked, or just didn't show it. 

"Some fall festival is being held in town." She informed him. 

"Are we trying to go?" He asked, looking around the table. 

Renjun nodded, "My dad bought tickets for my family, and grandparents who were planning on visiting, but they canceled." He looked around the table, mentally counting how many of them he already had tickets for, "We're only one ticket short." 

"I can't make it anyway," Jaemin suddenly said, "my parents work is having some kind of 'bring your kids to work' party." Usually he'd be extremely against it, but for one he knew he wasn't going to be able to get out of it. And plus, a part of him was actually looking forward to it. His relationship with his parents had improved over the last couple of years-maybe to others it wouldn't seem like it, but he knew it had. Maybe it was because they'd all finally fallen into a sort of rhythm. It probably had something to do with them becoming busier, and thus having even less time to control everyone of his movements. They still didn't all gather around the living room and watch a movie, or talk, but it was becoming less of a hassle on the rare occasions when they were all home for a meal. It  finally felt like his life was becoming peaceful. 

"Buzz kill," Chenle huffed. 

"It's fine, we'll just go without him." Mark said. Jaemin almost scoffed as they all started talking about what time they'd be meeting up on Friday. If he was lucky, maybe the business party would end early.

Renjun clapped, "Alright it's settled, we're meeting at Doyeon's house at five-thirty Friday evening." 

~~~

The sound of her phone beeping took Doyeon's attention. She was currently in her kitchen, slicing an apple for a late night snack, the second she read the message, the apple was forgotten, and a small smile graced her lips. 

From: Weird Neighbor

Guitar lesson? Let's play the new song I was teaching you. 

Doyeon almost walked out of the kitchen without her apple, but ended up remembering it just before she was fully out of the room. With a quick glance at the clock--which read just barely ten p.m--she hurried up to her room. 

Jaemin was already sitting down on one of the chairs when Doyeon walked out. "Way to invite yourself over." She said, rolling her eyes, as she dragged the other chair so that it was across from the one Jaemin was sitting in. 

Jaemin gave her a dramatic look, "Should I leave? I mean I just climbed over- do you know how difficult it is to climb back to my window?" 

"Shut up." Doyeon said, her eyes looking tired. 

He laughed, "Fine, I'll forgive you for being mean to me." Jaemin held his acoustic guitar out for her to grab.

"You're so gracious," Doyeon said sarcastically as she grabbed the instrument. Jaemin had started teaching her 'creep' by Radiohead the other night, she only really knew the first verse though. "Are you excited for the party at your parents' work?" She asked absentmindedly as she began strumming. 

Jaemin scrunched his face up briefly, "I'm trying to be positive about it, though I obviously would prefer to be going with you guys to the festival." He admitted, "But since it's for their work, for once I hope we all just focus on that." He admitted. 

Doyeon hummed, pausing from her strumming so she could look up at him. "I can't tell if you've just grown more mature, or tired." Jaemin didn't answer, he was too busy contemplating what she'd said. Had he and his parents all matured? Or are they just growing tired of all the arguing, and that's why they've gotten along better recently?

"I think I've matured." Jaemin said, as for his parents...he had no idea.

"I think so too." Doyeon agreed, starting to play again. "Ouch!" She hissed.

Jaemin jumped up, grabbing the hand Doyeon was flinging in the air. "What happened?" He asked. 

Doyeon blinked, suddenly not caring about the prick of pain on her finger. All she could focus on was how close Jaemin was. "Uh..." He looked up at her, "I think a piece of the wood from the rim of the sound hole went into my finger." She forced out. 

Jaemin examined her finger, "I don't see anything..." he looked closer before the fact that he was holding her hand set it. Jaemin dropped her hand, sitting back down onto his chair. "Sorry," he mumbled.

Doyeon scrunched her nose, "It's fine...what chord comes after the second C chord?" Doyeon asked, trying to change the subject; luckily it worked. 

"A C minor, just move that finger there." He explained, trying to distract himself too.

Doyeon's face felt flushed, 

Am I getting sick again?

~~~

Friday night rolled around quickly, and with it the hassle of rushing home from school, just to get ready to leave again. It was already nearing four-thirty in the afternoon by the time Doyeon had finished eating a pear, and her friends were set to arrive around five-thirty. After rummaging through her cluttered closet, Doyeon ended up with a pair of green, cream, and black colored plaid pants. She paired it with a plain white cropped shirt, and a random pair of white tennis shoes. By the time she was done touching up her eyeliner, and fixing the curls in her hair--which felt as if it took a half hour in and of itself--it was already well past five o'clock. She skipped downstairs, not surprised to see Chenle just sitting on her couch. 

"What's with you guys and inviting yourselves in?" She asked, grabbing her tote bag off of the floor by the couch. 

Chenle directed his raised eyebrow at her, "Who else invites themselves?" He asked. 

Doyeon ignored his question, not just because she was trying to forget the memory of Monday night, and the weird feeling she'd felt, but also because something else had piqued her interest. "