“Aren’t you Kim Haesoo, the transfer student? What in the world are you doing here?” a voice on my right asked.

I honestly never expected anyone to abide to the rule of no talking anyway so I nodded at him.

“I’m here because I skipped classes.”

“I didn’t expect you to be that kind of student but I guess somehow or other, we all end up mixing with the wrong crowd,” he chuckled.

I raised an eyebrow, “What does that mean?”

I was genuinely curious yet there was an edge to my tone.

“Suga, your new friend?” he said it like it was an obvious thing.

“He’s nothing like a wrong crowd,” I defended, my tone rising.

“Don’t have to get your in a wad, girl. I was just saying. Both of us know he isn’t very known for the good here in this school,” the male raised both his hands in defense.

“Well nobody in this school knows anything about him so they all shouldn’t start talking like they do,” I glared at him before having to turn back to the front when the door to the classroom slammed open.

The three girls at the back who were playing poker with the cards they brought out the second my homeroom teacher left quickly dumped the cards in their bags and pretended to have been doing nothing the whole time. The other two boys did the same.

My homeroom teacher earlier walked in with an irritated expression.

“Really? You’re giving me detention?” a rather familiar voice was faintly heard from the outside of the class.

My eyebrows furrowed, wondering if it really was who I thought it was.

“Min Yoongi haksaeng, get in before you irritate me further,” my homeroom teacher said with a tired tone.

“Ooo, so scary,” the voice mocked silently before he stepped into the class and met his eyes with mine.

My eyebrows raised as a smile threatened to place itself on my face. I held back the heavy laughter that was about to leave my pursed lips with my fist placed against it.

He flashed me a proud smile before placing himself on the seat on my left.

I avoided his gaze and focused my eyes on my table, not wanting to burst out in laughter when the teacher was still in the class.

“Well then, I’ll leave you like this,” she said and left.

I slowly turned to Yoongi and waited for his explanation, how he was in detention with me. He seemed to have understood the look in my eyes as he answered accordingly.

“I invited the birds over to the entrance when I threw bird seed everywhere. You should’ve seen all the poop that was left on the floor!” Yoongi giggled and hugged the table, exhaling a sigh of relief and warmth.

“I did it to join you in detention, in case you were wondering,” he softly said, playing with my fingers dangling on the edge of my table.

He was right. I was wondering. And hearing his warm and sincere words, I was touched.

“Of course you did,” I said like it was nothing.

Yet, it actually meant a huge lot to me.

“Of course I did,” he played along, smiling his eyesmile.

“Your brother was the one who told me, the brother in your class,” he said, staring blankly on the floor, no longer facing me.

I was taken aback. “Taehyung told you?”

I faintly remember seeing him in the hallway when I was following my homeroom teacher to detention. But it didn’t occur to me that he would tell Yoongi about me not being able to make it to meet Yoongi at the gate, as if he knew.

“Weird kid, huh? I wonder what he wants,” Yoongi shrugged.

“Indeed. I'm sure there's something up his sleeves. He couldn't have been trying to be nice, right?” I wondered out loud.

“Well he did so I guess that still makes him human?” Yoongi tried to joke.

It worked and I smiled down at the floor.

“It’s such a waste. I was really looking forward to hanging out today.”

“I’m sorry,” guilt evident in my voice.

“Don’t worry about it. We have other days,” he assured me.

I nodded, but I wasn’t so sure about that.

***

Many days passed. Some days I saw Yoongi and some days I didn’t. He would greet me in the morning sometimes, but other times, I was left walking alone in the hallway. I didn’t have my phone but even if I did, I doubted he was going to tell me where he was. It almost made me feel lonely and unwanted when he, the only one who accepted me in that city, didn’t bother to tell me where he was disappearing off to.

It wasn’t like he had to. It wasn’t like he was expected to.

I didn’t know what kind of relationship we had.

But I guess I just thought we were close enough for him to at least tell me when he had to disappear.

Anyway, it was the weekend soon enough. It had been two days since I last saw Yoongi but I’d learnt to deal with the empty feeling. Every day, I got up and had breakfast in the porch before heading to school. I went through the whole day, keeping it short and simple, and went home right after. I took a shower, ate and stayed in my room after that until the next morning. And the cycle repeated from there.

It wasn’t that bad but it was impossible to shake the feeling of loneliness from within. I had just been too silent since I last saw Yoongi, as if I didn't have a voice of my own. Even for an introvert like me, I had my moments where I would just miss my own voice.

After putting on my clothes for the day, I went out of my room to have breakfast. Surprisingly, I wasn’t home alone that Saturday morning.

Around the table sat the rest of the family, eating their toast.

“Take a seat, Haesoo,” my father said.

His voice carried a welcoming and warm tone but I only felt cold listening to it. Yet I listened.

I sat at my usual seat and took my share of the toast. I bit slowly with my eyes never looking up. I didn’t want to look at this so-called family.

My father cleared his throat.