Her phone suddenly buzzed for the nth time that day. She blinked a couple of times to focus her vision. She was doing it again, reminiscing old memories. Her aunt had told her to prevent herself from doing that. She told her it would do her no good in fact would only push her deeper into the darkness. She didn’t know how long she had stared at the same shrub for; probably long enough for them to think I’m a freak. They think that anyways. She bitterly thought as she stole a quick glance at the boy sitting in the next seat across hers. He was busy fumbling with something in his hands. She pulled out her phone from her pocket, ready to read another instruction filled message from her aunt. However, reading a

 ‘Hello, what are you staring at? :D -Lay’ was the last thing she expected. She looked back at the boy, pinching her eyebrows together. He only gave her an innocent smile and blinked. Unsure what to do she held tightly onto her phone. He sure is persistent. It wouldn’t really hurt……..

‘Outside, I was looking outside.’

The second his phone blinked with the notification he almost let out a cheer but luckily gained composure before doing something utterly embarrassing. He felt a wave of accomplishment run through him. She responded! Finally. He held onto his phone, feeling giddy and punched in another message.

‘But there is nothing outside. Oh! And save my number, I don’t want to be typing in my name every time :P –Lay’

She stared at her screen before giving the boy an incredulous look yet he still had the smile plastered on his face.

‘Who gave you my number?’

‘Principal Kim. She said we should have it just in case we wanted to discuss some plans with you. All 3 of us have it.’

Hana huffed in annoyance. How could she just go ahead and give my number to people without my permission?! .

“Hey! Baekhyun! Wake up; we still have to discuss the song!” Kyungsoo smacked the back of his head with his free hand while the other hand was carrying a translucent plastic bag filled with drinks. Scratching his head in confusion Baekhyun still half unconscious stretched before rubbing the remaining sleep out of his eyes.

“What took you so long anyways?” he asked his voice groggy, and yawned. Kyungsoo quickly covered the boy’s mouth with his hand and muttered something about lack of table manners and plopped down into his own seat before handing out the drinks. “The line was huge. It was like they were distributing free food or something.” Kyungsoo replied, every word dipped in annoyance.

“There was free food?” Baekhyun asked in awe whereas Kyungsoo sighed and mumbled a ‘never mind’ before peeking at his seat mate.

“Here’s your drink. And what are you two doing?” Kyungsoo asked with a raised brow, looking between Lay and Hana who were both too involved in their cell phones to notice. Lay shrugged it off with a ‘nothing’ whereas Hana dismissed his question with a shake of her head and slipped her phone back into her pocket.

“Here, this is for you.”

In front of her was placed a bright green bottle with a white cap and beyond it was an apologetic boy. Hana gave him a questioning look and found it amusing how the boy squirmed in his seat.

“It’s an apology, for earlier. I shouldn’t have said that. It was very rude of me.” He ended with an awkward cough and she couldn’t help but feel a bit warm inside. This was the first time anyone had apologized to her. Normally they’d blame her for their attitude towards her but the thought that he actually took the initiative to make an apology gave her a sense of happiness that she hadn’t felt in a long while. His friends both gave him knowing looks and Lay made an addition of patting his friend on the back. Kyungsoo gave her an awkward smile, “So, are we cool?”

Nodding in response she accepted his token and gulped down the contents. Looking back she saw the three of them casually talking and fooling around and thought that maybe, they aren’t as bad as they seem.

‘You didn’t show up for your appointment, again. I thought I told you not to miss it.’

Sighing at the screen of her Samsung that flashed her aunt’s text she knew she was in trouble once the lady got back from her trip. She was about to ask her how she found out but soon figured that her doctor probably called her. Instead she replied with an apology she didn’t mean. Just as she was about to slip her phone back into her backpack, another notification popped onto the screen, indicating yet another message.

‘Why are you sighing at your phone?’

Her eyebrow rose and she whipped her head left and right in search for the sender. She was still scanning her surroundings when she heard another ‘ding’.

‘Behind you  :D ’

She searched the back, trailing her eyes from the tables on the ground floor to the connecting bridge on the second floor and caught glimpse of a figure flailing their arms catching more attention than necessary. Although it was after school, there were still some students lurking here and there due to club meetings or just for a study session in the library. She diverted her attention back to her phone,

‘If you keep doing that, your arms will start hurting.’ Just as she pressed ‘sent’, she could hear quick heavy footsteps approaching her way and by the time she looked up there was already a huffing figure standing before her with a goofy grin.

“So he was right.” The boy said still wearing the smile. Hana on the other hand, had no idea what the brunette was talking about. He noticed her confused expression and chuckled because it was the first time the girl had shown any expression than her usual stoic one.

“Lay said you’d reply better to a text than verbally so I was just trying it out.” Baekhyun cleared and the crease that formed on the girl’s forehead disappeared. She nodded once and looked away from him and towards the soon to be empty school garden. She could hear distant giggling coming from her left. Shifting her gaze to that direction she immediately regretted her decision. There were three girls, she had no clue about two of them but she knew the third face. She knew it very well actually since it was the same face she grew up with for 14 years of her life.

She still had the same hairstyle, long brown locks with side bangs. She also noticed a new addition, a hint of blonde highlights. Hana remembered her saying that once she was old enough, she would get her hair tinted like that singer she saw on TV. They had promised to get it done together, she’d get blue on hers and she would have hers done blonde. It was a crazy idea but with her she was more than willing to do it. But that was all in the past, that was before Hana became the way she is and what pained her most was that her friend had made no advancements to reconcile things with her. She wanted it to be that way, for it was her own doing, but the response from the other party was strangely disappointing.

Yuri stared at her ex-best friend while her friends gushed over the boy that stood less than 10 feet away from them, completely ignoring the female figure that stood right beside him. To say that she hadn’t missed her would be a lie, since she had missed her company every single day. The first thought that crossed her mind was to cover the tiny gap between them and give her the most bone crushing her she had ever given, but when she looked at Hana’s eyes, the big brown orbs that used to shine every time she laughed, she felt a wave of emotions. The first being anger that burned her veins as she recalled how Hana didn’t respond to her or even retaliate to her implications, the second being betrayal as she remembered exactly what had happened that their friendship had turned out this way, and the third and the most overwhelming of them all was sorrow. She didn’t like how things had ended between them and the thought that the latter didn’t make any effort to make amends had hurt her deeply.

Hana saw her pained expression and the sadness evident in her eyes. She knew exactly what was going through her mind. However, the sorrow she saw in her friend’s eyes was gone in a flash, replaced by burning anger and Hana had to bite her on her lip to keep herself from breaking into tears. How she wished she could fix the mess that had caused their friendship to break apart. Hana’s phone rang, causing her to break her stare from the girl ahead of her. The phone stopped ringing before she could even see the caller ID; instead she saw that she had received 5 messages in the past 2 minutes, all from the same person.

‘Are you even listening to me? >_< ’

‘Am I bothering you? Should I stop talking? D:  ’

‘Why are you not acknowledging me? ._. ‘

‘Why are you staring at that girl? =_= Is staring at her more interesting than listening to me? :O’

‘Hellooo! Earth to Hana! Do you copy??’

She looked back at Baekhyun, amused by what she had read and found him looking at her with an exaggerated pout that made him look no more than a 5 year old and defiantly looking away.

‘I’m sorry. I just got distracted. I apologize for not paying attention.’

His phone blinked and within a second his face lit up with a smile.

“Nah, it’s alright. What were you staring at anyways?” he asked looking towards the spot she had her gaze fixed on. She hesitated but looked back nonetheless. The two girls were still there but Yuri was nowhere to be seen. She didn’t know whether to be relieved because she was out of her accusatory gaze, or disappointed for seeing her best friend after 2 years and still clearing the air. But things were better this way, she preferred it like this. At least that’s what she kept telling herself.

Shrugging as response she checked the time on her phone. It was only a matter of hours before her aunt got back from her trip and Hana was not anticipating the events that awaited her back home. Soon, an unknown beat started flowing through the air and Baekhyun hastily swiped his phone and slapped it to his ear. She saw his hair bounce as he nodded and when she got caught looking, he flashed a friendly smile.

“Okay, so that was Kyungsoo, I told him I was with you and he said he wants us to meet him at the library. Lay’s supposed to be with him.”

She nodded, mentally pushing the imminent argument with her aunt aside and walked towards the library beside Baekhyun who had started telling her of an incident that occurred earlier accompanied by the animated movements of his hands.