“Noona!”

     “I’m in the kitchen!” And with that, I walked over to where the kitchen was at to find Yoona noona reading a magazine while chewing on a piece of apple. She immediately spotted me and smiled. I smiled back at her before opening the fridge door and seeing what I could eat.

     “How was your date?”

     Upon hearing that, I rolled my eyes before grabbing the kimchi jar and closing the fridge. “Tell me all the details! What’d you guys do, huh?” I grabbed a pair of chopsticks before setting the kimchi jar on the counter along with the chopsticks. I sat on the stool and opened the kimchi jar, smelling the goodness inside. “Youngjae-ah!” I grabbed my chopsticks and dug in the kimchi jar before grabbing a piece and putting it in my mouth. “Youngjae-ah! Answer me!” Once I fully swallowed the piece in my mouth, I looked at noona.

     “We didn’t do anything. We went to this cliff place and saw the sunset. There, happy?”

     “I bet you guys did more than that~ Come on, Youngjae-ah~” she wiggled her eyebrows before shaking her shoulders. “What else, huh? Don’t be scared to tell noona!” I picked another piece from the kimchi jar and put it in my mouth.

     “I’m serious; we didn’t do anything besides that,” I said in between chews. Noona just let out a pout before biting on her apple piece.

     “You guys are so boring,” she said. I rolled my eyes at her.

     “Noona, I’m not gay and he’s not gay. We’re only friends,” I said earnestly. At that exact moment, my mother walked in with a somewhat bewildered look on her face. I widened my eyes while Yoona noona quickly stood up and bowed at my mother. My mother ignored her and looked sternly at me before eyeing me up and down. I felt as though she was looking at me with disgust. 

     “Youngjae-ah…” I set the chopsticks down before standing up and facing my mother. God, how was I going to explain to her that I wasn’t gay? “Are…you…?” I sigh heavily before shaking my head slowly.

     “No, mother. I’m not gay. I was just telling Yoona noona about how one of my teachers told us that if someone keeps pestering us about our ual orientation, we just tell them ‘I’m not gay’ and if they think you are with someone who is the same gender then you say ‘he’s not gay. We’re just friends’”.

     I was actually proud of myself in thinking of that so quickly before my mother would begin assuming things. I took a glance at noona and saw wide open before shaking her head in disbelief. I wanted to laugh at that moment, to be honest. My mother sighed in relief before hugging me tightly.

     “Oh thank God. I thought you were becoming gay or something,” she said as she let go of the hug and looked at me with a smile. “Who knows what I would have done if I found out you were gay.” I nodded my head in understand before walking back to the counter and closing the jar with the lid. I put the kimchi jar in the fridge and placed the chopsticks in the sink. Just as I was about to leave, my mother called out my name.

     “Youngjae-ah, why were you eating only kimchi? You should have told Yoona to make you something! Ugh, now I need to scold Yoona for not making you supper!” Before my mother could yell at noona, I stepped in front of her and nonchalantly looked at my mother.

     “It was just a snack, mother. Noona had already made me supper earlier when we got home.” My mother didn’t say anything and soon left the kitchen before heading to her room.

     “Thanks, Youngjae-ah!” Noona said, somewhat silently since she didn’t want my mother to hear. I just shrugged my shoulders before leaving noona and heading straight to my room.

     As I locked my bedroom door, pajamas already on and teeth brushed, I bounced onto my bed and stared at my bare ceiling. I wasn’t really thinking about anything in particular, but what my mother had told me was somehow irking me. What if (I knew I wasn’t going to turn, but just if I coincidentally did) I do become gay? I mean, I knew I wasn’t any time soon, but what my mother told me somehow gave me shivers down my spine. Who knows what I would have done if I found out you were gay. Those words kept replaying over and over in my head until I felt my eyes slowly getting heavier to the point where all I could see was pure darkness. That night I had a nightmare that I instantly forgot about once I woke up.

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     It was another regular, boring school day and I was getting lunch alone before heading to the round table that me and Kyungsoo always went to. I didn’t know where Kyungsoo was the whole day and I thought he wasn’t here, but I thought wrong when I saw him with another guy. He was a bit taller than Kyungsoo and he looked rather feminine in my opinion. The two of them saw me and started walking over to the table. 

     “Hey, Youngae-ah!” Kyungsoo sat across from me while the guy sat next to him, waving cheerfully at me with a bright smile. I just awkwardly smiled back at him before looking at Kyungsoo with a somewhat questioning face. Kyungsoo tilted his head a little before forming his mouth into an “O” shape and snapping his fingers. “Youngjae-ah! This is Baekhyun! Byun Baekhyun! He’s in my 2nd period class and we became friends!” Kyungsoo slung his arm on the Baekhyun guy's shoulder.

     “Hi! Nice meeting you,” he said while, once again, waving at me. 

     “Hi,” I said. I didn't know if I sounded sad or something, but the fact that Kyungsoo grunted a little made me think that I had sounded too rude? I mean, I wasn’t because I always sounded like that when I met new people. What could I do? 

     “I never see you a lot!”

     “What?” Kyungsoo pouted a little before taking his arm off of Baekhyun’s shoulder. He placed his cheeks on his hands while blowing a raspberry.

     “It’s like I never see you anymore! Are you hanging out with someone else?” I noticed Baekhyun widen his eyes before looking at me. I didn’t want to say anything about Daehyun, but the fact that I was lying to Kyungsoo for the past few times, that I wasn’t hanging out with no one when I was obviously hanging out with Daehyun, made me feel bad so I just decided to let it out. I kept my hands under the table, playing with them.

     “I made a friend,” I said. Was that too plain? Did I sound as if I was betraying Kyungsoo because I obviously wasn’t doing that! Kyungsoo widened his eyes so big they looked like an owl’s eyes and slammed his hands on the table. I looked around the cafeteria to realize that some people were looking at us. 

     “What? How come you didn’t tell me? You’re so mean, Youngjae-ah! And I thought I was your best friend! Wow, how nice of you to tell your one and only best friend that you made another friend! No wonder you wouldn’t hang out with me the past days! Ugh, that person replaced me, didn’t they? Who is this so-called friend of yours, huh?”

     At that point, Kyungsoo was standing up and had his hands on his hips, looking as if he was my mother from another world. One thing about Kyungsoo was he got really jealous when someone would replace him as either a friend or something else. I had actually never done that to him since I never intended to make any more friends after him. I guess this was the first time I have actually seen him like this.

     I looked over at Baekhyun to see that he was amazed at how Kyungsoo could be such a mom. I wanted to laugh because well, Baekhyun looked somewhat frightened by Kyungsoo’s attitude.

     “TELL ME! WHO’S THE NEW FRIEND THAT REPLACED ME, HUH?” I let out a small chuckle before looking back at Kyungsoo.

     “Daehyun,” I said, which then made Kyungsoo furrow his small eyebrows at me. 

     “Dae- what?”

     “Daehyun,” I repeated to him. This got Baekhyun to gasp and begin fanning himself. I looked at him while furrowing my eyebrows before noticing Kyungsoo sitting down with his mouth wide open. I couldn’t really process what was going on with the two of them so I just waited until they could explain as to what was wrong of saying Daehyun’s name. Baekhyun soon began breathing heavily while literally looking as if he was dying or something. He reminded me of those fangirls with their boy groups. Kyungsoo soon breathed in a load of air before looking at me rather seriously.

     “You mean to tell me that you are friends with Daehyun? As in Jung Daehyun?” I nodded at Kyungsoo’s question and shrugged after. 

     “What’s wrong with that?” Kyungsoo double-widened his eyes (was that even possible?) before slamming his palm on his forehead.

     “Baekhyun…you do the talking for me,” he said in which Baekhyun nodded before looking at me. I continued furrowing my eyebrows at the two of them before looking at Baekhyun who was surprisingly having a hard time to speak; he was all red. 

     “You don’t know what Jung Daehyun is known as here, do you?” I shook my head. Baekhyun widened his eyes before continuing to talk. “He is one of the popular guys in the school along with Kim Himchan and Bang Yongguk! They are like the y trio who everyone wants to hang out with or date!” What? Daehyun being a popular guy? That sounds too funny in my opinion! If he was popular, then why didn’t no one scream or something when he came in class on the first day of school? I tilted my head a little.

     “So he’s popular in the whole school?” Baekhyun nodded his head. I couldn’t really believe that because, well, it was Daehyun. He didn’t look like a popular guy.

     All of a sudden, Kyungsoo bursted out by standing up and looking at Baekhyun.

     “ that! He’s not known for that! He’s not even popular!”

     Kyungsoo looked at me before pointing a finger.

     “Jung Daehyun isn’t a good person to be with, Youngjae-ah.”

     Upon hearing this, I furrowed my eyebrows at Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo his lips before shaking his head slowly.

     “I guess since you’re not much like those type of people who like to know what is happening in the whole school, you don’t know about this. But a few years…like 3…Daehyun was a very shy kid…he never liked talking to no one and he didn’t like people talking or approaching him. He was very antisocial.”

     This shocked me a little because the Daehyun I knew was so talkative and just plain…annoying. Kyungsoo continued speaking after hearing no response from me.

     “People were making rumors that he would cut himself and sometimes even try to kill himself because he went through hardcore depression. Like, it was so intense according to the people who had heard from others who talked to Daehyun once. And it was true! One time, he tried to commit suicide here at the school by almost jumping off the building, but this one guy saved him. I never found out his name because right after that incident, he moved schools. But after that, people began to get scared of Daehyun. He just…didn’t look like a good person to be friends with.”

     Right before he continued, Kyungsoo looked around the cafeteria before looking back at me. He leaned forward to the point where his face was right in front of mine and whispered into my ear.

     “I also heard he drinks and smokes.”

     “But he’s still hot as ,” Baekhyun blurted out while glaring at Kyungsoo. I just kept quiet while trying to process all this information about Daehyun. 

     “Shut up, Baekhyun! All you care about is getting in their pants!”

     “So! Who wouldn’t want to have with Daehyun?”

     Oh my God. I scrunched up my face before shaking my head at Baekhyun.

     “Can you please not speak like that?”

     Baekhyun looked away from Kyungsoo to look at me; he smirked.

     “What? Don’t you wonder how he would be in bed?” 

     “No,” I said with a disgusted face on. “I’m not gay.” 

     “Just stop talking about that stuff Baekhyun!” Kyungsoo glared at Baekhyun before looking back at me. “You shouldn’t continue being friends with him, Youngjae-ah.”

     To be honest, I didn’t know what to do anymore. I mean, was it bad to be friends with Daehyun now? Sure, he may have gone through depression in the past, but it looked like he had changed through the years because he didn’t sound like the old Daehyun. Ugh…

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Hello there~ So I was thinking after writing the previous chapter and I thought that Daejae were progressing too fast! So I had to change a few things for this chapter and the future chapters~ And now I am good! Lolzzz It took me like two hours to write this chapter because I was changing some parts over and over again and ugh. So yehhh Baekhyun has been introduced! Yes, he's gay (obviously) and he is in love with Daehyun (I guess). Yeah~ and Kyungsoo is just...Kyungsoo lolzzz Thank you for reading! Bye-bye! ^^