3rd Person POV~

 

It's been 3 days since Luhan and Daehyun were suspended. Youngjae was also making it a daily routine to walk Hanbyul to and from school. She had no idea why he was doing it, but she didn't seem bothered by it; in fact, Youngjae was actually nice to her. A little too nice without Luhan and Daehyun around. 

 

"Hanbyul-ah," Youngjae said, walking into the classroom with the female students drooling over his new look. No one has gotten over it yet especially the girls, but they admired that new innocent face. 

 

Hanbyul looked up from her conversation with Krystal and Sulli, who also turned their heads to Youngjae. 

 

"I brought you lunch~!" Youngjae chimed, holding up two lunch boxes. Krystal and Sulli exchanged looks then stared at Youngjae. 

 

"Oh...this is the 4th day already. You don't have to bring me lunch all the time," Hanbyul said with a forced smile. "Besides, halmeoni already made me my lunch."

 

Youngjae's face dropped along with his arms. 

 

"I specially made this for you," he softly said, hanging his head low. 

 

"We'll eat it," Krystal smiled and took the pink lunchbox from him. She opened it and widened her eyes. "Uwah~ you made some crab cakes. What's the special occasion? Celebrating the 4th day of your friendship with Hanbyul?"

 

"No," he said, giving her a face of disgust. "It's just food."

 

"It looks good," Hanbyul smiled and reached in her bag for her lunchbox when she couldn't find it. "Oh...where did my lunchbox go?"

 

She set her bag on her lap and searched through it to find nothing. I swear I brought it with me. I even fought Zelo over it.

 

"You can't find it?" Sulli asked as Hanbyul nodded. 

 

"I brought it, I know. What if someone took it when I went to the Teacher's office to drop off some papers?" she asked, searching around her desk. 

 

"Should we look for it?" Youngjae asked and without a reply from them, he walked around to look for it. 

 

"What the hell? He's really searching for it?" Krystal scoffed when Youngjae made a loud noise. 

 

"I found it!!" he shouted by the doors and dug into the trash can, pulling out Hanbyul's lunchbox. Sulli, Krystal and Hanbyul gasped and stood up from their desks. Youngjae smiled at them and walked towards them. 

 

"Not even one minute has passed by yet and you find it already," Krystal said, narrowing her eyes at him suspicious. He just looked at her and set the lunchbox on Hanbyul's desk when Sulli gasped. 

 

"What's that?!" Sulli asked, pointing at the words on Hanbyul's lunchbox. They all looked at it and furrowed their eyebrows. 

 

"Who? Who would do this?" Krystal asked looking at the bold red words that covered Pororo's face. Hanbyul looked at the words, terrified. 

 

"," Youngjae read out loud. Just hearing it made it worse for Hanbyul as her heart tightly squeezed. "Get out of this school , you don't belong here."

 

Krystal clenched her fist and grabbed the lunchbox, looking at the class. 

 

"Yah! Which one of you losers did this?!" she shouted to have Hanbyul pull her down to sit, but when Krystal is mad, she's mad to the max. "I'm asking you who the hell did this!"

 

"None of us did it," Junghan, a male student, said, blinking his eyes at them. 

 

"I can care less about the guys, you girls out there. Who did this?" Krystal asked as the female students exchanged looks. 

 

"We didn't do it either," Jisook, a female student, softly said. Krystal scoffed and looked at Youngjae, noticing that he was staring directly at Hanbyul. Those eyes...Krystal knew those eyes were piercing through Hanbyul. 

 

"Youngjae," Krystal said, getting his attention. "Did you do this?"

 

"Me?" Youngjae said with wide eyes. "Why would I do such a thing?!"

 

"Yeah! Why would someone like him do something so stupid?" female students started defending him. "Get your senses together Krystal."

 

She ignored those people and glared at Youngjae, who also glared back with a smirky smile. 

 

"Unnie, it's okay. It's just a few words," Hanbyul said and grabbed the lunchbox out of Krystal's hands when she grabbed it back. 

 

"I'm going to keep this," Krystal said, not taking her eyes off of Youngjae. "Cause I'm going to show it to Daehyun. I know he'll do something about it."

 

And with that, the bell rung and class resumed. 

 

-----

 

Daehyun was still in bed, just staring up at the glow in the dark stars that weren't glowing. He looked at the clock and sighed. 30 more minutes until school is done for the day.

 

He sighed once again and closed his eyes to set off into dreamland. Flashes of Hanbyul crossed his mind, but he didn't open his eyes, he continued to dream on about her and her precious smile. He too smiled to himself and hugged a pillow close to his chest as if he was really holding her in his arms. 

 

He didn't notice that he had fallen asleep when he heard someone knocking on the front door. He slowly lifted his eyelids and looked at the clock; school was done for the day. He rubbed his eyes when the person continued to knock on the door, so he got up and walked down the stairs. He opened the door and stared at the person in front of him. 

 

"What are you doing here?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at Krystal just to make sure it was really her. 

 

"Look at this," Krystal said, shoving Hanbyul's lunchbox in his hands. He scratched the back of his head and looked at the box. 

 

"Looks like someone really hates you and you like Pororo," he said, holding the lunchbox out to her to have her cross her arms. "Am I wrong?"

 

"You idiot. That's Hanbyul's lunchbox!" she said to him. He widened his eyes and took another look at her lunchbox.

 

"T-this is Hanbyul's lunchbox?!" Daehyun asked as Krystal nodded. He looked at the bold red words on the lunchbox and clenched his jaw. "Who the hell wrote this?"

 

"I don't know," Krystal sighed. "But this person isn't going to confess, I know it."

 

Daehyun stared at the words and furrowed his eyebrows. *This handwriting. It looks familiar....*

 

"Do you know who could've done this?" Krystal asked, looking up at Daehyun. He shook his head in response. "Do you think Youngjae could have done this?"

 

"Youngjae? Out of all the students, why Youngjae?" Daehyun asked furrowing his eyebrows. Krystal deeply exhaled and looked around her to make sure she was safe. 

 

"It's just," she began to say. "Youngjae's been awfully nice to Hanbyul and we both know he isn't like this towards her. Not only that, but when she couldn't find her lunchbox, he found it right away as if he was the one who had thrown her lunch away, who was just covering up. Not only that, but when he read the words out loud, it's almost as if he was saying it directly to her...I just feel like he's the one who would do this."

 

Daehyun knew he should believe Krystal, but in his mind he didn't. He felt like Youngjae would rather get to know Hanbyul better than to hurt her. Youngjae did say himself that he was going to get closer to Hanbyul and to find the charms Daehyun saw in her; to Daehyun, that wasn't a threat or any meaning of harm towards Hanbyul. He just couldn't believe Krystal. 

 

"Youngjae wouldn't do that," Daehyun said as Krystal widened her eyes in disbelief. "Youngjae originally is nice to everyone, even to those who hate him. And how exactly does Youngjae act towards Hanbyul? I know he isn't too fond of her, but he hasn't done anything to her to show his hate. Youngjae's also helpful, he'd help others even if they don't ask for it, so he was only helping Hanbyul find her lunchbox. And when he read these words aloud, he tends to bring those words alive. Just like any poem or sentence from a textbook, he knows how to bring words to life, therefore Youngjae wouldn't do something like this. Also, what reasons would Youngjae have to call her a and to tell her to get lost? Wouldn't girls, who are jealous, do this?"

 

Krystal scoffed in disbelief and her bottom lip in frustration. 

 

"Are you even in your right mind right now?" she asked. "Are you really going to defend your selfish shadow over the girl you love?"

 

"What did you say?" he asked as she scoffed again. 

 

"I know you love her Daehyun," she said, firmly staring at him. "And let me tell you something if you're planning to fall in love with my best friend. You protect her and you defend her. You go against your friends if you have to, to do both those things and this is one of those situations where you step up and show her that she's worth fighting for; that she's worth defending for. If you can't do that, then I won't let you fall for her any longer and I will make sure that she won't fall in love with you."

 

Daehyun swallowed hard and clenched his fists. 

 

"I know Youngjae is behind this, I know it and if you won't help me stop it then I will have no choice, but to go to Luhan and ask him myself for help" she said, which made Daehyun's heart pump fast. "You decide Daehyun because right now it looks like you're choosing your useless shadow over the girl you love."

 

Krystal glared at Daehyun and snatched Hanbyul's lunchbox from him. She stomped away and turned around to face him one last time. 

 

"She would much rather have you be by her side more than anyone else," Krystal said, toning her voice down. "Not even Luhan can take your place."

 

Daehyun didn't look at Krystal in the eyes and stayed quiet. She didn't like the silence and walked away, out of his sight. He shut the door and leaned against it, sliding down to a sitting position. He curled his knees close to his chest and ran his fingers through his hair in deep thoughts. Youngjae...just what are you doing? You're not going to hurt Hanbyul, are you?