" Is that Lee Sandeul? Oh my god!"

Sandeul turned around to look at the group of girls that were staring back at him. He politely bowed and flashed a wide smile, after all, it was rude to ignore them, they would think that he was a snob. After about four months, he was finally back in school, it was a little bit awkward to receive a lot of attention, but the makeover that he had received from the company had helped him a lot. Not only had he gained a lot of admirers, his self-confidence was also boosted. He knew that Ah-ra might regret choosing Jinyoung over him.

" Nice to see you again." Sandeul beamed as he politely greeted his seniors.

The walk back to the familiar place made his heart pound, he knew that Gongchan was extremely mad with him. 

" Go on! Hea-jung! Go for him!"

Sandeul raised his eyebrows as he heard the familiar name, she was his group partner for their first project. He was about to turn around to greet her when he suddenly felt a huge impact on his back, someone was hugging him. The girl's burst out into giggles and teasing, that was when he realized that Hea-Jung had her hands around his waist. She wasn't enjoying it, instead she was about to burst into tears. Sandeul knew that she had a huge crush on him and that the others were just teasing her. He felt bad for her and decided to make the other girls jealous, he gently wrapped his arms around Hea-Jung's shoulder and the both of them made their way back into the class.

" Sorry about that. Are you alright? By the way, Hea-Jung. Where is Gongchan?" he softly whispered those words into her ears, close enough for him to smell her perfume.

Hea-Jung lowered her head and her voice trembled as she tried to answer him. 

" C-class." she stuttered and avoided eye contact.

" Thanks. Nice to see you again. Talk to you later. Bye." he removed his arm around her and ran into the classroom.

He tightened the strap around his bag as he observed Gongchan. The seat that belonged to Ah-ra was occupied by Yoona and his seat was occupied by Jinyoung. He shook his head for being foolish to think that his best friend even missed him, of course Gongchan would just move on and lead a happy life with new friends. Sandeul droop his shoulders and walked towards an empty seat, he was waiting to hear Gongchan screaming out for his name, but all that he heard was the laughters.

" Hey! Sandeul! Welcome back!" Kwang-ho lightly hit his back and gave him a welcoming look.

Gongchan and Jinyoung immediately changed their attention to Kwang-ho, not because of his loud voice, but it was because of the name 'Sandeul'.

" Haha. Yeah." Sandeul awkwardly placed his hands behind his head as he stood up to greet his senior.

Gongchan widened his eyes as he heard the familiar voice of Sandeul's. Without hesitating, he made his way to the unfamiliar backview of the person named 'Sandeul'. Gongchan couldn't believe it, it was really him. The boy with the chestnut brown hair now had a slightly lighter hair, he no longer had chubby cheeks, he had a flattened tummy and muscles.

" You fool! Where were you?! I've been missing you!" Gongchan gifted him with a punch on the shoulder.

" Yah! You don't have to punch me! I was expecting a hug!" Sandeul retaliated and pulled Gongchan into a tight embrace.

Gongchan struggled and tried to pull himself away from Sandeul, people might misunderstand them if they were too 'close' with each other. Jinyoung approached the two boys and folded his arms, he shook his head as he watched Sandeul. He was contemplating on whether he should make Sandeul go on his knees or...

" Hyung! Ah! Not my cheeks! Stop!" Sandeul held onto Jinyoung's hands and tried to make him stop.

" You owe me an explanation after class." Jinyoung slowly released his hands from Sandeul's cheeks and walked back towards his seat.

Sandeul was just about to retaliate when the bell rang.

" Saved by the bell." he sighed and rubbed his red cheeks.

Class went on as per usual, nothing new and nothing special. Just reviews and lessons on applied music, since it was going to be the end of the year, there were more individual projects than group projects and the graduating batch were busily preparing for their final year evaluation. Jinyoung was one of the few seniors who were graduating with honors. He had contributed a lot to the school, and many music industries companies were flocking to get him to collaborate with them. 

" Sandeul-ah." Gongchan lowered his voice and covered the side of his face with a book.

" Eung?" he leaned closer towards Gongchan to hear better.

" Did you do something with your face?" Gongchan added on and studied his best friend's facial features.

Sandeul widened his eyes and tried to explain himself but the lecture room itself was so quiet that he couldn't find the words to say to Gongchan. He wanted to redeem himself by saying that he had been dieting for the past 4 months and the vigorous training had helped him a lot with losing weight. Not only that, he had been consistently taking care of his face, making sure that his skin was smooth and supple. If he could, he would have wanted to share with Gongchan the secrets to having a clear and flawless skin.

" It's ok. I understand. Don't worry about it." before Sandeul could even open his mouth to answer, Gongchan had turned around to face the front.

Sandeul pouted and carefully looked around the classroom, there was no sight of Ah-ra. She wasn't next to Jinyoung nor was she seating next to Hea-Jung, the only girl she would talk to in class. His curiousity was killing him so he leaned in closer to Gongchan and popped the random question.

" Where is Ah-ra?" he softly uttered those words and widened his eyes.

Gongchan never answered to that question, even after class, Sandeul had to literally chase after him to get the answer but to no avail. He wondered why Gongchan was being apprehensive about the question, it worried him a lot because he hadn't been in contact with her. The last time he heard about her was about her parent's divorce.

" So, Ah-ra is still not back in school. Maybe it's not true after all?"

" Did they break up or something? He's not wearing that stupid hello kitty ring."

Sandeul raised his eyebrows and stared at the two girls who were gossiping about Ah-ra. He slowly strutted himself towards them and swallowed his anger down his throat. 

" The both of you really love to gossip, don't you?" before he could even grab one of the girls by the shoulder, Gongchan had stepped in to prevent that from happening.

" Just leave them. I've been enduring it for 4 months now. Let's go." Gongchan attempted to pull Sandeul away, but he failed miserably.

Sandeul cornered the two girls at the corner and curled his lips up. He could endure being gossiped about, but if it involves Ah-ra, he would do anything to protect her name and dignity because he knew exactly what the two girls were pointing to, since Ah-ra hadn't been attending school and he had disappeared for the past four months, a lot of them would have misunderstood about the situation.

" So...what did you hear?" he placed his hands around his waist and questioned the both of them.

" N-nothing." one of them answered him and avoided eye contact.

Gongchan who couldn't watch it any longer decided to intervent and end the tension.

" They think that Ah-ra is pregnant with your child. Another popular story was about Lee Sandeul jumping off from a cliff. Not going to elaborate on that." he voiced out and rolled his eyes.

Sandeul smirked and nodded his head, he now understood how vicious society was. He carefully approached the girl with the long hair and placed his index finger on her lips.

" You better watch that mouth...or else..." after giving her a warning, he cringed at the lip gloss that got stained by her lip gloss. He ended the confrontation by wiping the stain on her blouse.

--------------------------------

Jinyoung ran towards the entrance of the campus gate to catch up with Sandeul and Gongchan. 

" Didn't I tell you that you owed me an explanation?" he cried out and held onto his knees to catch his breath.

" I really don't have anything to say." Sandeul commented and continued to walk off.

Jinyoung nodded his head and respected Sandeul's decision to not reveal his reason for disappearing but he sure looked a lot better than the last time he saw him. 

" Sandeul-ah, you should probably go visit Baro. He's worried about you." he added on.

Sandeul's heart softened as soon as he heard the name 'Baro'. After saying his goodbyes to Gongchan, he turned around to look at Jinyoung who was busy talking on the phone. It was probably Ah-ra because he was always giggling and whispering, Sandeul sighed and cupped his chin while they waited for the bus. The bus ride to the hospital with Jinyoung was probably going to be an awkward one but there was nothing he could do about it since his senior wanted to tag along.

" The bus is here." 

The both of them took separate seats in the bus and Sandeul made sure that he occupied both of the seats by placing his bag next to him. Jinyoung made sure that he was close enough to at least make a conversation with Sandeul, without Ah-ra and Gongchan, things seemed to be a little bit awkward. Like he always did, Sandeul reached out for his notebook to take note of his next schedule for the next day.

" Sandeul-ah..." Jinyoung held his hands to the side of his cheeks as he tried to call out to Sandeul.

" What?" Sandeul answered him but still had his eyes on the notebook.

" Are you still upset with me? Is that the reason why you disappeared without news?" he added on and scooted to the seat next to Sandeul.

Sandeul leaned closer to the window of the bus and flinched, he felt uncomfortable being that close with Jinyoung. After all, this was the person that had 'ruined' everything. Not only that, Jinyoung knew everything about him; his past, his identity. There was no doubt that Sandeul felt ashamed to face him, what was he supposed to say? That he was related to Dal-rae and that he was sorry for trying to make use of Ah-ra and had even thoughts to kill her because of the hatred he held towards the Shin's? 

Jinyoung sighed and wrapped his arms around Sandeul's shoulder. His heart ache as he watched the frail boy, he knew that no matter how much he tried to understand Sandeul's plight, the pain that was in Sandeul's heart was something he could never understand and feel. Because Sandeul was a hurt person before and after meeting Ah-ra, he wanted to ease the hurt by letting him know that regardless of the past or present, there will be a person that Sandeul could depend on. 

" You know what Sandeul? You're lucky that I'm a type A. I'm sensitive to the needs of others and will lend you a listening ear when you need it." he revealed and ruffled Sandeul's silky hair.

Sandeul blinked his eyes repeatedly, he was also a Blood type A.

" Hyung, you don't hate me? Even after-"

" Nope. I believe everything occurs for a reason. Fate brought all of us together like this. It wasn't your fault." he reassured Sandeul.

Sandeul tried to hide his tears by biting his cheeks, Jinyoung strongly reminded him of his late grandfather, because as a young child he had always been mischievous and would end being punished but his grandpa would always end with the sentence, 'It wasn't your fault.' or ' Everything happens for a reason.'

The bus door closed behind the both of them, but Jinyoung still had his arms around Sandeul's shoulder. He wanted to be like a great big tree that would make Sandeul comfortable and also protect him just like he would do if he had a little brother. 

" Let's go. Baro is waiting for you." he uttered those words and cooly walked ahead of Sandeul.

" Hyung! Wait for me!" Sandeul tightened the strap on his bag and chased after Jinyoung.

--------------------------

" Sandeul-ah!" Baro excitely exclaimed and tried to get out of bed.

Sandeul chuckled and greeted him with a bear hug, he felt so relieved that his best friend was recovering well. Hours passed as the both of them updated each other about their lives and Sandeul really had a lot to talk about. Like a child, he would describe everything that he had learnt from his training lessons in detail and also explain how much he had changed within the the past four months. Being a trainee was like a dream come true from him, although it was tough and vigorous, his efforts paid off.

" Look at me! I lost my baby fats!" he brought Baro's hands to his cheeks and pinched them.

" You look better than ever. Tell me if any of those trainees bully you. I'll beat them up for you." Baro held his fists up high and laughed.

" Eh... the company treats me really well. Don't worry about it." Sandeul grinned and cupped his chin.

Jinyoung ruffled Sandeul's hair from the back and pinched his cheeks once again. Sandeul flinched but this time he didn't say anything because from then onwards he was going to learn to respect Jinyoung and look at him like an elder brother. He knew that Jinyoung would always be there for him if he needed a pillar of support or if he ever needed any advice. 

Their visit was cut short as they had exceeded the visiting hours, Sandeul reluctantly left Baro in the room and walked down the corridor with a heavy heart. 

" Hyung, I'll be going off first then. Take care." he was about to go when Jinyoung held him back.

" Here. Take this." Jinyoung pushed a can of drink into Sandeul's hand and showed his gums.

While Sandeul and Baro chatted earlier on, he had taken the time to get Sandeul a drink. As a hyung, he wanted to buy something nice for Sandeul but all he could find was the vending machine, at least it was better than nothing. 

" Thank you. Hyung is the best! I'll drink it well! Bye!" 

Jinyoung nodded his head and watched Sandeul disappear into the crowd. He was finally able to place his worries aside, seeing that it was a beautiful night. He headed towards the bus stop and pulled out Ah-ra's diary from his bag. He kept on staring into space and with the pen in his hands, he would tap it to the rhythm. He was planning on refining the song 'Crush' for Sandeul and gifting it to him as a form of their friendship.