On the way home to school, Minho just realized something. He felt stupid and idiotic for not noticing this before, but at the same time, he wasn't surprised to know what he had just realized. Krystal lived only three houses away from Minho, and that wasn't far at all. In fact, he had hardly recognized where Krystal lived until today. Heck, he never even cared!

Minho walked to Krystal, who was at her front door, staring at it. "Hey Krystal." The fellow girl jumped in shocked and widened her eyes; yet she remained quiet. "So this is where you live? Huh, I never knew that. I hardly seen you come around or hang around in this part of the neighborhood."

Krystal bit her bottom lips. She was kind of hurt to hear how someone who only lived three houses away from her never even knew her existence. She started to feel that she was becoming more and more invisible as the time passed by. Minho, realizing that he might've hurt Krystal's feelings, quickly rephrased his sentence.

"I-I mean, it's not that you're invisible! I-It's just that…Well…whenever I go out, I don't see you coming out from the house." Minho silently groaned to himself, knowing that he had messed up.

"I-I-It's okay," Krystal whispered, barely audible. Minho almost needed the birds to stop tweeting to hear Krystal speak. Krystal shyly stared down at her shoes and awkwardly put her hands in the pocket of her jacket. "N-No one really cares. I hardly come outside, anyways."

Minho widened his eyes. Did he just hear Krystal speak? Nevertheless, he chose to wave it away and smiled at Krystal.

"So since we're partners for the lab, I thought we could maybe do it at your house? You know, since we never went to your house. Taemin always came to mine, and I always came to his, and so it'll get–"

"I-I'm sorry!" Krystal interrupted. For a moment, Minho caught fear in Krystal's eyes. "Er, I-I can't let you come inside my house! I-I have guests and…and…"

Krystal couldn't come up with anymore excuse. Minho stared at Krystal for a moment, surprised that Krystal had interrupted him. Then, he smiled at the fragile girl softly and nodded his head.

"All right. See you later?" Minho asked. Krystal should nodded her head. Minho gave Krystal a faint smile again, but this time he looked sad. "You've changed a lot, Krystal."

Krystal raised an eyebrow, not understanding what Minho was saying. Minho bid a goodbye and walked away cooly to his house. After passing the second house, he glanced back, wondering if Krystal went in her house. She was gone. He sighed, and then shoved his hands in his pocket and opened the door to his house. In the past, Minho was usually scared of Krystal.

Now, Krystal was scared of him.

L was hiding behind a nearby tree the whole time during Minho's and Krystal's conversation. He was just going to check up on his friend, wondering if Krystal was okay. He couldn't help but grin and glanced at Krystal's house.

The house. It never changed, L thought. He glanced at the mown, and slightly widened his eyes. On the front lawn, there were two messily-painted gnomes guarding the flowers, which were neatly lined up against the house. He cracked into a smile, and smoothly walked to the lawn. He bent his knees and examined the old gnomes.

These gnomes were special. During his childhood, Krystal's father had gave him and Krystal unpainted gnomes. They were given a paint kit and started splashing colors on the gnomes. He had to admit, it was a lot of fun.

But now? He glanced at the house, and then bitterly glanced down at the two gnomes. Now was different. 

If you want to survive high school, you just have to change. Even if that meant hurting your old, close friend.