3rd Person POV~

The next morning at school, the only thing Daehyun could pay attention to was the necklace Hanbyul was wearing; the necklace she recieved from Luhan. She seemed to have noticed him looking and lightly stepped on his foot to stop, but he didn't.

"What are you looking at?!" she asked with a hard whisper. Daehyun sighed and reached towards her necklace when she grabbed his hand and set it down. "What are you doing?!"

"That necklace is bothering me," he whispered back. "I want to take it off."

"Why? This was a gift from Luhan," she muttered and let go of his hand. "Pay attention too."

"I am," he smiled, staring directly at her eyes then to her lips. She turned her head and stomped harder on his foot, making him groan in pain.

"Hanbyul, Daehyun, what's going on back there?" Mr. Chae asked, stopping his lesson. Daehyun pulled myself together and answered in his normal cold voice, "Mind your own business and continue with the lesson."

"I'd like to, but the two of you-"

"Hanbyul's not at fault here," Daehyun defended her. "You can punish me later, but continue on with your lesson and don't mind me."

Mr. Chae glared at him and turned around as Daehyun glanced at Hanbyul, kicking her leg back as she jumped, startled.

"How annoying," he whispered. "Always causing trouble."

"I wasn't at fault anyways, you reached for my chest," she grumbled back. He snickered and looked at her.

"You were the one who kicked me therefore it is your fault and I reached for that necklace of yours," Daehyun clarified and faced forward. She scoffed and crossed her arms; she was irritated with him.

Class ended and Daehyun was heading out of the school when Youngjae stood in his way, his face sunken.

"What is it?" Daehyun asked without any affection in his voice.

"Yesterday, why did you leave so early?" he softly asked, not looking up to meet Daehyun's eyes. "Did you go to Hanbyul's party?"

"I did," he admitted. "But it was a waste."

"Then why didn't you come back to see me?" he asked, slightly looking up at Daehyun.

"I was close to home so I went home instead. I'm not going to ride a bus and go the opposite way to just see you do your math thing," he coldly answered. "Even if I went back to see you, it'd be over anyways so I didn't want to waste my time on going back."

"But I waited for you," he said, his tone softer. "I wanted to show you our second place trophy."

"It's only a plastic trophy," Daehyun scoffed. "If and when you get first place, maybe then you could show me."

He ruffled Youngjae's hair and walked away when he said, "It's because of you that we didn't get first place."

Daehyun stopped walking and turned around, giving him the what-did-you-say face. Youngjae stepped back a bit and became more nervous.

"Wh-when you left, I couldn't concentrate on the problems," he said, rubbing his hands together like a child. "Therefore we lost because my focus dropped when you left."

Daehyun scoffed in disbelief and replied, "And what does my presence have to do with your concentrating skills?"

"It gives me strength and energy," he said, biting his bottom lip while pushing his glasses up. "When I see you, I feel like I can do well and make you proud, but when you chose Hanbyul over me, those feelings were gone."

Daehyun stared at him and let out a long sigh. "Youngjae-ah, do you have something against Hanbyul?"

"Excuse me?" he asked with round eyes, almost as if those eyes of his were panicking.

"Whenever we talk, you always bring Hanbyul up and whenever you bring her up, you either compare yourself to her or look down on her," he said as Youngjae rubbed his hands together, harder.  "Are you jealous of her? Or do you hate her because I hang out with her and not you?"

He didn't say anything and looked away from Daehyun; he was hurt.

"My relationship with Hanbyul is different than with you, so don't hate her for it," Daehyun said, almost like he was warning Youngjae. "Once you fall in love, you'll understand what I mean."

And with that, he walked away leaving Youngjae in his place.

"I understand exactly what you mean," Youngjae whispered, holding back his tears.

"Oh, Daehyun-ah~!" Hanbyul called out as soon as she walked out of the school. Youngjae heard her and glanced back, seeing her run towards his direction to Daehyun. Daehyun had stopped walking too and turned around to look at Hanbyul. Once she was close enough, Youngjae stuck his foot out and she tripped over it; Daehyun widened his eyes and ran to her.

"Hanbyul!" he shouted and kneeled down, helping her up. Her knees weren't scraped, but it was was full of dirt. Daehyun pulled her up to her feet and checked her body. "You're not hurt, right?"

"I'm fine Daehyun, I just fell over," she said with a soft smile as he glared at Youngjae.

"You-"

"It's not my fault. She wasn't watching where she was going," Youngjae coldly said and walked away with a smirk on his face.

"Why that bas-"

"It's fine," Hanbyul said, grabbing Daehyun's hand as he was gonna go after Youngjae. "Youngjae's right, I wasn't watching where I was going."

"He purposely did it," Daehyun said, but she shook her head telling him to let it go. He sighed and knelt down to brush off the dirt on her knees. "You're not hurt though, right?"

"I'm not hurt at all," she reassured and he stood up.

"Let's go home," Daehyun said and wrapped his arm around her neck, walking home together.

Luhan, who saw everything, clenched his fists and deeply sighed. Don't tell me you like Hanbyul too, Daehyun. What am I going to do, continue to win our friendship or go against you and take Hanbyul from your hands?

Luhan sighed again and walked out of the school gates, heading home. Once he got home, he wasn't greeted by any of the maids of butlers; he didn't see any of them at all.

"Miss Park? Butler Jang?" he called out, walking around the house. "Yejin noona? Taehyun hyung? Is anyone home?"

He heard music playing from his father's room and walked towards the door as the music got louder and louder. He creaked the door in and saw his father drinking and smoking at his desk.

"Abeoji," Luhan said stepping in his father's room. "Where are the maids and butlers? Did you give them a day off?"

"Nope," his father replied, swirling the liquor in his glass cup. "I fired them all."

"Eh?! Why?!" Luhan asked, shocked. "Did they do something that you were against?"

"Nope," his father answered, sipping his drink, then set his glass cup down. "Let me tell you something son. This wealthy life you and I were enjoying may come to end."

Luhan furrowed his eyebrows and waited for his drunk father to continue.

"Your drunken father has been illegally gambling all our money," his father continued. "And with majority of our money gone, I can't pay the maids and butlers anymore so I let them go for their sake. The richest man in Seoul will soon become the poorest, Luhan."

Luhan couldn't believe what he was hearing and clenched his teeth, saying, "And your business?"

"I sold it so we could have some more money to survive for the year," his father said, puffing out smoke.

"I don't know if we'll even last a year," Luhan said, glaring at his father.

"As long as the media doesn't know then we'll last long," he said to Luhan and took another sip of his liquor. Luhan sighed in disappointment and turned around to walk away.

"I'll start looking for a job abeoji, in the mean time, don't ever go back to that gambling hall and use all our money," Luhan firmly said and headed straight to his room as he heard the music in his father's room get louder. Luhan went straight to his bed and sat at the edge of his bed when he saw a family photo on his nightstand. He grabbed it and brushed his fingers over his mother who was smiling in the photo.

"You told me everything was going to be alright when you and abeoji divorced. Why did you lie to me?" he whispered, holding back his tears. "Because of you, I changed and lost my best friend; not only that but abeoji started to drink and smoke. He lost almost everything in his life; you, money and soon me. Are you still going to tell me everything's going to be alright?"

Luhan felt a tear drop on his hand as he clenched onto the photo. He rubbed his eyes to dry, but it kept pouring out tears.

Daehyun had brought Hanbyul to his house since she wanted to take a look of it. He gave her a tour around the house, but he refused to let her into his room.

"Daehyun, why can't I see it?" she whined with a pout as he poked her head back.

"Because girls are prohibited," he simply answered and walked away with her following behind.

"But you saw my room-"

"It's not really your room, but halmeoni's," he said. "And just because I saw your room doesn't mean you get to see mine."

"That's not fair then," she pouted as he pinched her cheeks.

"It's completely fair," he said and sat on the couch when he remembered about what had happened earlier with Youngjae. "About earlier, I'm sorry for Youngjae's actions."

"Why are you bringing that up again?" she asked, sitting next to him. "He didn't do anything wrong."

Daehyun looked at her and smiled, "You're denying it again? You're too nice."

She smiled back and said, "I don't want to make it a big deal that's why I deny it, so let's not make a big deal about it."

Daehyun sighed and nodded. They sat still for a bit when Daehyun got up to use the bathroom, which was the perfect chance for Hanbyul to take a quick peek at his room, just a quick peek. She got up and tip-toed up the stairs to his room and quietly opened it to see it completely empty and clean.

"I thought it'd be a bit more messy," she said, shocked. She ran her finger over his desk and looked at it. "Not even a single dust in this room. Is he a clean freak?"

She walked around the room to see nothing, but plain white walls everywhere she went when she came across something familiar on his nightstand. It was the exact same necklace she was wearing; Daehyun's gift he was going to give Hanbyul.

"This looks just like Luhan's necklace he gave me," she said and picked it up, seeing something carved inside the ring.

<---[Just in case you forgot how it looked like.]

Happy Birthday, Hanbyul.

She rounded her eyes and replayed everything from yesterday's party.

"That necklace...."

"This? It was Luhan oppa's present for me...It's pretty, isn't it?"

.

.

.

"Sorry I didn't get you a present."

That's why he was acting like that yesterday because he had bought the same necklace as Luhan.

She felt her heart squeeze as she tightened her grip on the necklace.

"Yah, Hanbyul-ah! Where are you?!" Daehyun shouted in the house and walked up the stairs, seeing his door slightly opened. "Don't tell me."

He walked into his room and saw Hanbyul sitting on the edge of his bed, holding the necklace in her hands. He widened his eyes and felt his heart pound against his chest.

"Hanbyul-"

"Why didn't you give this to me?" she asked, looking down at it. "Were you embarrassed because it was the same necklace?"

He didn't say anything, so she looked up to him.

"I would have worn this one instead of Luhan's," she confessed.

"Why?" he asked, furrowing his eyebrows confused. Both their hearts were now rapidly beating against their chest.

"Daehyun, I-"

"Buddy! You home?!" they both heard a man's voice. Daehyun rounded his eyes and slammed the door shut, running towards Hanbyul.

"Get under the blanket," he demanded as she stared at him, confused. "Hurry!"

She did as she was told to and got under the blanket, laying on the bed as he too got in bed next to her.

"Daehyun, what are y-"

"Shhh! My dad's home," he said and pulled her into his arms, both under the blankets. "We just need to stay like this for a little bit. When you hear the door open, don't move or make a sound, once he sees that I'm 'sleeping', he'll leave."

She nodded and covered , hearing his door open and footsteps walk towards them.

"Buddy, are you asleep?" his father asked, looking at what seemed to be one body under the covers. Hanbyul looked up at Daehyun as he pulled her closer to his body. "You must've had a long day at school, so I'll let you sleep. I don't know if you really are or not, but if you aren't then listen to me."

They suddenly felt the bed sink in, his father was sitting on the edge of the bed, making them panic.

"Buddy, I'm leaving Korea tonight to France. They want me to hold a speech at this one university about my work so I accepted the offer," his father said as Hanbyul noticed a difference in Daehyun's expression. "Your mother will still be here though, but I don't know if she'll ever have the time for you."

The room went silent and his father stood up with a sigh.

"I promised you we'd go play some ball, but that'd have to wait until I come back. I'll be gone for 3 months, just in time to spend Christmas and New Years with both you and your mother," his father said. "Buddy I'm sorry that I wasn't around for you, but please do me this favor; take care of your mother for me and work hard in school, stay healthy and strong buddy. Appa will continue to send you your daily allowance too so that you won't starve yourself...well, I'm going now. I'll see you in 3 months...I'll miss you buddy."

His father rubbed his eyes from keeping the tears to come out and left Daehyun's room. Hanbyul uncovered and looked up to Daehyun to see his eyes filled in tears.

"Daehyun, your eyes-"

"I know," he softly said and sniffed. Hanbyul swallowed hard and wrapped her arms around his waist, cuddling closer to him.

"Everything's going to be alright, Daehyun," she said in a hushed voice.

Alright? Everything's going to be alright? That's a lie I want to believe....

Because nothing was ever alright in the beginning.