Daehyun's POV~ 

The next morning, I woke up to the smell of fried eggs. I stretched and rubbed my eyes. I turned my head to see that Hanbyul was gone. 

"Is she cooking?" I asked with a raspy voice and sat up, scratching my head. I did one last stretch before getting up and walked out of my room. I walked down the hallway to the top of the stairs when I saw Hanbyul come out of the bathroom. I looked at her and her hair was wet, she must have just taken a shower. 

"Did you just get out of the shower?" I asked the obvious. She nodded. "I thought you woke up to cook?"

"Cook?" she asked. "I thought you were cooking while I was in the shower?"

"I just woke up," I said, confused. We both heard pots clattering and so we turned our attention down the stairs. "If it isn't you, then who the hell is in my kitchen?"

"Dae? Is that you?" I heard my mother's voice. Hanbyul and I gasped and looked at each other with wide eyes. "Daehyun?"

"U-uh, yeah! It's me!" I replied, not knowing what to do. I actually started to panic. 

"Why don't you wash up and come down for breakfast?" she said from the kitchen. 

"Yeah! I'll come down," I said and gestured Hanbyul to go to my room quietly. 

"Oh~! And tell your friend to come join us!" my mother said. I knew she was smiling, teasing me. "I saw her shoes and backpack at the front door~"

I looked at Hanbyul, who gave me an apologetic expression. 

"Uh, we'll be down in a sec!" I shouted down the stairs and pushed Hanbyul into my room, shutting the door. 

"I'm sorry! I didn't know she was going to be home," she apologized in a loud whisper. 

"As if I knew too!" I whispered back. "She knows you're here so there's no point of hiding you."

"Is it really okay to show myself? What if she gets the wrong idea? I mean, we're not even together and yet we're already sleeping under the same roof!" she whispered in panic mode. 

"My mom isn't that dumb!" I whispered, also in panic mode. "Remember, she's a top lawyer in Korea-"

"Which scared me even more!" she cut me off. I deeply inhaled and exhaled. 

"Look, we need to calm down," I said and sighed. "Lets just go down to the kitchen, have breakfast with my mom and go to school. It's not that hard."

She bit her bottom lip and frowned. I reassured her that everything was going to be fine, so I grabbed her hand and led her out of my room and down the stairs to the kitchen. We stood at the entrance to be greeted by my mom, who was setting up the table. 

"Good morning. Did you two sleep well last night?" she asked with a grin. 

"We slept very well," I answered. I felt a tight squeeze at my hand. My mom walked towards me and rubbed my head. 

"Didn't I tell you to wash up before coming down?" she sighed wiping the eye boogers at the inner corners of my eyes. I moved her hands away and cleared my throat. "Go wash up now, Daehyun."

"But-"

"Your friend will be fine," she said and shooed my away. I looked down at Hanbyul, who froze in her place. 

I leaned down to her ears and whispered, "You'll be fine. She's not as bad as she looks. I won't take long."

I don't know if she even heard me, but I let go of her hand and walked to the bathroom, worried. 

Hanbyul's POV~

Daehyun's gone. He's really gone. He really left me all alone with his mother. What am I supposed to do?!

"Would you help me pour 3 glasses of orange juice?" Daehyun's mother asked me with a smile. 

"Y-yes!" I said a bit louder than I intended to. She just giggled and continued to set the table. I took a glance at her and she was extremely beautiful. She had light fair skin, silky black hair that had a tint of light brown in the light and a slim body. She's quite tall too. 

"Whats your name?" she asked with her back still faced towards me. 

"It's Hanbyul. Cha Hanbyul," I answered while pouring a glass of orange juice. My palms were sweating like crazy. 

"Cha Hanbyul, huh?" she repeated my name. "You're quite a fine lady."

"Ah, thank you," I said pouring another glass of juice. 

"You and Daehyun-"

"It's not what it looks like," I clarified realizing that I had rudely cut her off. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

"It's fine," she smiled and helped my take the 2 glasses of juice I've poured to the table. "I was just going to ask if you and Daehyun are close."

"You can say we are," I said pouring the last glass and putting it on the table. 

"That's a relief," she said with a soft smile. "Honestly, I thought he was the type to bring girls over to sleep with while his father and I were gone. To fill in the loneliness."

"I can you tell you this for sure, he's not that type of guy," I smiled. "And our relationship isn't like that either, just in case you had that thought."

"I know," she said. "From just looking at you and the way he looked at you this morning, I can tell your relationship isn't like that."

I couldn't dare bring up the fact that he and I weren't even in a relationship, so I played along and just smiled. 

Daehyun had come back and walked up to me. 

"Did anything weird happen?" he whispered. I smiled and shook my head.

"What are you whispering about?" Mrs. Jung wondered and gestured us to sit down. "Eat before you guys head out to school."

We took a seat and it was a silent breakfast. 

"Why are you here?" Daehyun asked out of the blue. 

"Can I not come in my own house? Do you not want me here?" Mrs. Jung asked. The atmosphere suddenly changed; it wasn't tense but it wasn't happy either. 

"I guess you're right," he said and drank his juice. "Its not so bad to have you here either."

She smiled and continued to eat as we did too. We finished the meal and helped do the dishes. 

"Hanbyul-ah, leave those there. I can do them," Mrs. Jung said, cleaning the table. 

"Ah, but this is the least I can do for you since you prepared a delicious meal," I said washing the plates. She snickered and grabbed my wrist. 

"Don't worry about this," she said and took off the rubber gloves from my hands. "You'll be late for school, so go get ready."

I nodded and headed up to Daehyun's room to get my uniform as I did wear his clothes to sleep in. I walked into his room as he was fixing his tie and pointed to my uniform. 

"I've laid them out. Quickly get dressed or we'll be late," he said and grabbed his backpack. "I'll wait for you downstairs."

I nodded and grabbed my uniform as he shut the door behind him. I quickly changed and walked down the stairs, stopping halfway to see his mother help fix his tie. 

"It's been awhile since I've touched a tie," she said. 

"Are you done?" he asked, not necessarily annoyed, but his tone gave off that vibe. 

"Umma's sorry, Daehyun-ah," she softly said. 

"Forget it," he said. "You don't have to tell me you're sorry."

She sighed. "You really have grown up."

He didn't say anything and turned his head in my direction. 

"You ready?" he asked as I nodded. "Lets go."

He walked out without another word and I walked down to put on my shoes. I grabbed my backpack and walked towards the door when Mrs. Jung grabbed my arm. 

"Thank you," she said. I blinked my eyes and looked at her confused. "Thank you for staying with him when he was all alone. He lost his parents and a very close childhood friend. He's been living his life in the dark, but thanks to you...you've brought back the light. Thank you."

I smiled. "I guess you can say, I just couldn't give up on him."

"I hope to get to know you better, Hanbyul," she smiled. 

"Yah! Hurry up!" Daehyun yelled. He was angry. 

"Go," she said and so I bowed and ran out of the house to him.

Luhan's POV~

I entered the classroom as some students started throwing paper balls at me. 

"Loser," they laughed. I swallowed hard and took my seat, taking out my materials. I heard Hanbyul's laughter coming closer and looked up from my books to see her and Daehyun walk in. He kept pushing her away but she didn't budge and . Later, Krystal, Sulli and Youngjae joined them. They were laughing together. I stared at them when I met Daehyun's eyes. I immediately turned away and pretended that I was studying. 

"Why do I feel so lonely?" I wondered and took another glance at them; they were all smiling. I felt a lump in my throat and stood up, walking out of the classroom and down the hallway. 

"Oh, Luhan," Mr. Chae called my name, but I ignored him and walked passed him. "Yah, Luhan!"

I had gone to the gymnasium, since I knew it was going to be empty. I grabbed a basketball out of the rack and began shooting some hoops. 

"At least in here I have you," I said to the basketball as it bounced back to me. I picked it up and threw the ball again. This went on for a good 15 minutes and I started to get exhausted. I ed my uniform and laid on the cool gym floor, panting. For some reason, my eyes were burning up. 

"I'm such an idiot," I scoffed with a smile. I placed an arm over my eyes as a tear slipped out. "This ."

I heard the gym door open and slow footsteps. They got closer and closer soon stopping right besides me. 

"What do you want?" I asked without caring to see or know who it was. 

"Why are you crying?" the person asked.

"I'm not crying," I laughed it off. "Why are you even here, Hanbyul?"

"I was worried," she replied. "You never returned to the classroom, so I snuck out to find you."

I scoffed and sat up, still covering my face. I wiped off my tears and looked at her. 

"I'm a mess, aren't I?" I asked as she nodded. 

"A real mess," she answered and sat next to me. "Oppa...what've you been thinking about lately?"

"Nothing," I lied.

"You haven't been yourself," she said with a concerned frown. "You've become...distant."

"Does it look like that?" I asked as she nodded. I deeply sighed. "Well, I can assure you that I'm completely fine. You don't have to worry about me, okay?"

She didn't say anything and stared at me. My heart ached to see her like this, but I didn't want to worry her. I smiled and placed my hand on her head. 

"Don't give me that look," I softly said. "I don't like it."

"Then do something about it. Help me change it," she said. There was a sharp pain in my chest when she said that. 

"I'm sorry," I said and stood up. "Go back to the classroom, Hanbyul."

"What about you-"

"I want to be alone," I said and picked up the basketball once again. Without a word, she started walking away and was gone. I swallowed hard and threw the ball at the wall as hard as I could. 

"What are you doing, Luhan?" I whispered feeling the tears fight to come out again. "Get a hold of yourself, idiot!"

Daehyun's POV~

I looked Hanbyul's empty seat and got irritated. 

"This idiot. I told her she could leave for 5 minutes only," I thought to myself, then looked at Luhan's seat. "Just what the hell is going through your head right now?"

First period had ended and Hanbyul walked in. She looked gloomy and took her seat. 

"Where is he?" I asked her. She shook her head. 

"He doesn't want to see anyone right now," she quietly said, then turned to me. "Will he be okay?"

There was only one answer to that. "No."

The day continued to grow longer when actually it was getting shorter. Once school was done for the day, everyone started packing their bags. I looked at Luhan's seat with his textbooks still out on his desk. I walked over to it and put his stuff back in his backpack. 

"Are you ready to go?" Hanbyul asked with the others with her. 

"Go ahead. I'll meet you guys at my house," I said while holding onto Luhan's bag. 

"Don't take too long. Remember that this group study is for you," Krystal said and walked out with Youngjae and Sulli while Hanbyul stayed behind. 

"Are you going to talk to him?" she asked. 

"Not really," I replied and gestured her to follow them. "I'll see you in a bit."

She nodded and walked out of the classroom. There was no one left in the classroom except myself, so I waited for Luhan to come back to get his belongings.

"Luhan!" I heard Mr. Chae's voice outside the classroom. "I need to talk to you."

"I do too," Luhan said and I heard their footsteps descend. I opened the door and peeped my head out to see them turn the corner, so I decided to follow them. 

They headed into the teachers' office and so I hid behind the door. I peeped inside and Mr. Chae took a seat by his desk while Luhan stood in front of him. 

"Luhan, I'm a bit worried about you," he started out just like when he had that discussion with me. "With your absences and test scores, it looks like you'll fall behind. Exams are coming up and you haven't been doing well. I'm worried you won't graduate on time."

Luhan just stood there. I couldn't see his face because his back was facing towards me. 

"I understand that you're going through a difficult time right now, but please don't let it effect your school work," Mr. Chae continued. "Are you listening to me?"

"Yeah," Luhan replied. 

"Good. Now what is it that you wanted to tell me?" Mr. Chae asked. It became silent for a while. 

"I want to drop out...no, I'm going to drop out," Luhan bluntly said. His tone of voice was the type that had no emotions in it; it was dead. 

"Y-you're going to d-drop out?!" Mr. Chae shouted, shocked. 

"Drop out?" I whispered. "Is he stupid?"