The soft pitter-patter of steps were barely heard, but audible. Minho let out a long sigh and shook his head. He looked down towards his shoes, kicking small pebbles that lay on the flat side-walk. His school-bag was barely hanging on his shoulder, but something else was on his mind. 

After having the rather comforting conversation with Hana, the last thing he said made him drown in a river of regret and stupidness.

"We're friends aren't we?"

He silently wanted to let out a curse, and ran his hand through his hair messily. After her bold confession, Minho had felt bad for what he did, and only a few minutes before, he was talking to her and said that they were 'friends'.

Friends.

Indicating that he just 'rejected' her. 

Hence, he practically friend-zoned her. 

Minho face-palmed himself shamefully. 

The walk back home felt longer than usual. His depression made it worse, and after just encouraging and showing Hana his manly, atheletic side, he had talked to her, and probably brought her hopes down even lower. 

Minho silently sat on the couch. His eyes and mind were travelling into space, and unknowingly, the members were sitting around him, watching him curiously.

"Hyung, what are you thinking about?" Taemin waved his hand in front of his Hyung's face. Minho didn't budge. He was in such deep thought; even when Jonghyun had firmly nudge his shoulders, Minho had leaned to the side, came back into the center, and acted like he never felt a thing. The four friends around him shook their heads, and one of them had enough. Key was impatient, and needed to talk to his friend, and so he took both of his hands, and smacked the daydreaming out of the Charismatic Frog.

"Kibum, what the heck?" Minho rubbed his jaw. A victorious smile was settled on Key's face and the others around him were snickering quietly. 

"Why are you so out of it today?" Onew patted Minho's shoulder. The only reply Onew and the boys have gotten was a slight shrug and a tired sigh. They gave worried glances at each other, and settled down comfortably in their seats to have a conversation.

"Spit it out, Froggy. What happened today?" Key blurted. Minho glared at him and shifted him his seat uncomfortably. His friends came closer and closer, wanting to get a concrete answer from the teen but he only gulped. 

"Stuff happened, why are you asking about my life?" Minho groaned. Key shrugged, he mumured something along the lines of: "Cause I want to..." and crossed his arms across his chest. He huffed tiredly and Onew decided to take initiative and ask the questions. 

"Did you see Hana today?" Onew was blunt, and percise. 

And seeing that Minho had suddenly flinched and turned into stone, he smiled and waited for the answer to come out of his mouth. 

"Y-Yeah, why?"

"Did you two kiss?" Jonghyun made faces. The heat had started to get to Minho, making him pull on the shirt of his uniform, and a slight pink tinge was seen on his cheeks, making a smile appear on his Hyung's face.

"Hyung! We wouldn't do such a thing!" Minho covered his hand by his mouth, something that he did when he was overwhelmed or nervous. 

"Then what'd you do?" Jonghyun asked in a normal voice. Minho groaned again, he didn't want his friends to meddle in his life, but if they had to know to the extent of desperation, he'd just have to say it so they would at least shut their mouths.

"We made up, and I asked her to be my friend." Minho cleared his throat. He shifted in his seat once again, and looked over to see three out of the four faces next to him with their jaws wide open. 

Clearly, the Maknae couldn't make out a clue, and tilted his head to the side.

"Minho, you're such a !" Minho's eyes widened. His body suddenly felt a strong anger, and he clenched on his fists.

"Do you realized what you've done!?" Jonghyun shook Minho violently. 

"What did I do, Hyung?" His voice was seething with childish anger. He wanted to get an answer, and he tilted his head to the side.

"You just friendzoned Hana! You're such a douchebag! Do you know how much she likes you?" Key immediately closed his mouth. Not knowing one bit about the confession Hana had made to her crush, the boys had started to over-react and flounder around.

"Is that why Hana-noona had been gone for a long time? Because she likes Minho-hyung, but he liked Gaeul-noona.." Taemin gently whispered into Jonghyun's ear. Jonghyun nodded, and cleared his throat to get everyone's attention.

"So now you know...." Onew scratched his head nervously. 

"I already knew... She confessed to me."

"Oh my god, Choi Minho, you're such an idiot. I'm not even going to.." Key rubbed his temples. He headed towards his room and shut the door with a loud slam.

It was lunchtime, and everyone was sitting in a circle, eating their lunches outdoors by a nice, small garden. A few chuckles and conversations were heard here and there, but most of the time, everyone was quiet and silent. It was the opposite of awkward, rather more onto the silent and peaceful type.

"Hey, are you free next Saturday, Hana?" Gaeul suddenly asked. Hana looked up from her food, chewed until she swallowed, and a simple nod was given back to the goofy friend. 

"Why? Do you want to go somewhere?" Hana set her eating utensils down. The girl was done with her food, and started to fiddle with the grass that gently tickled her legs.

"Yep! I was planning to go shopping at the mall close by. We can go buy that skirt you wanted!" Gaeul excitedly squealed. Hana shook her head at her friends excited look, and smiled brightly. Instead of a nod, Hana gave Gaeul an apologetic glance and shook her head.

"We can go buy that later, Gaeul. I don't really want to right now. I'm broke." Hana gave a teasing pout. Gaeul smiled back, rolled her eyes, and gently nudged Hana's shoulders.

"Then let's just hang out at the mall. We haven't gone anywhere for a long time." Gaeul fake-begged. Hana chuckled happily. She grabbed Gaeul's arm, and gently rubbed her head, messing up her hair. Gaeul let oue a playful squeak and fixed her hair the moment Hana let go of her. 

"Ooh, is it okay if we tag along? Can we, Hyungs?" Taemin jumped around looking at his elder 'brothers' for permission.

"We won't mind if you guys come. It'll add more fun if you guys would come." Hana nodded her head.

"Yeah, if you guys want to go then let's. Taemin wants to go too." Key nodded his head reasonably. The other three boys, who have not yet maken a decision, nodded their head slowly and resumed to their eating.

"Alright then, is 1:00 okay to you guys?" Gaeul added in.

"Yup, no problem, we'll meet their. It's the mall near the school right?" Jonghyun questioned. The two girls nodded their heads, and resumed to talk about other subjects.

"Why didn't you say anything during lunchtime?" Onew gently put a hand around Minho's shoulder. Minho let out a tired shrug, and fastened his walking pace. The five boys were walking home, since school had already ended, and Minho wanted to lock himself in his room so that his friends would stop nagging about what he had done to Hana. 

"I didn't want to say anything. There wasn't anything to say." Minho breathed out. 

"So are you going to the mall then?" Jonghyun ran to reach Minho's pace.

Minho grumbled a small: "I don't know." 

"Well, you should, Hyung! You could bond with the Noonas!" Taemin shouted excitedly. Minho smiled, shook his head, and put his arm around the Maknae.

"Sure, why not?"

"Good, cause if you said no, Key-hyung said that he was going to lock you up in the closet and make you listen to Dora the Explorer's theme song until you said yes." Taemin smiled innocently. Minho frowned suddenly, and turned his back to see Key glare at him strictly.

"Kibum, what's Dora the Explorer?" Minho asked.

"Oh, something I came across when I went to the States to study... Wanna hear it?" Kibum took out his phone. And Minho saw it, a hint of craziness in Key's eyes.

"N-No thanks, Kibum, I'm good.." Minho shook his hands, rather curious about what Key wanted to show him. But the sly, creepy look on Key's face said that he probably shouldn't figure out anyway. Unconsciously, MinHo gulped, pulled on the collar of his shirt and smiled back to the creepy male in the back.

"I thought so!" Kibum stuffed his phone back into his school-bag.