Hey . . . Are we ever going to talk about . . . ?

Taekwoon laid belly-down on Ravi's plush bed once again, head resting on his folded arms. Winter sunlight streamed onto the bed, warming it despite how cold it was outside. Next to him was a big empty spot where Ravi should be, but wasn't because he was in the Garbage Can (as Ken so eloquently named their art studio) at the moment, finishing something up.

To escape the never-ending loneliness of his own apartment (and maybe get some homework done while he was at it), Taekwoon came over right after school with Hyuk. Hyuk had vehemently made him promise not to tell anyone about what happened the other day.

Because of the endless stream of notes that Hyuk seemed to have, homework had been a breeze. Taekwoon wasn't going to admit how off-putting it was that Hyuk was a freaking genius, but he also wouldn't complain about the huge help.

Taekwoon had a lot of time here to think since Ravi sent him up before him. Most of his thoughts were preoccupied with the struggle of finding away to bring up the . . . New Year's Incident. By "Incident", he meant when Ravi kissed him. Kissed him.

Kissed him.

He groaned, burying his face into his arms.

The problem: Apparently Ravi wasn't keen on bringing the subject up himself. Both of them were like stopped up little sinks, refusing to run the water of their emotions. (That sounded so dumb in his head, he couldn't believe he thought a thing like that.) It would be great if someone else decided to intervene and force them. Like couple's counseling.

Couple.

He groaned again.

"Whatsamatter?"

With the sudden appearance of Ravi's voice, Taekwoon stiffened and then meekly lifted his head to glance over his shoulder. In another plain white t-shirt smudged by paint and gray harem joggers, Ravi sauntered towards the bed and then hopped onto its foot. Taekwoon barely felt the mattress give way to his weight. He dropped his head again.

"Nothing." he lied, hoping there was no blush on his face. "Just tired."

"I'm beat too." Ravi yawned, crawling forward to plop down next to him. His warmth already began to radiate and Taekwoon had to fight off the urge to move closer.

"What are you . . . working on?" he asked.

The corner of Ravi's lips pulled up. "It's a secret." he replied. "My end-of-year project that can get me a scholarship into the next year there."

A scholarship? Taekwoon needed to be reminded that even though he had it easy here—a whole apartment to himself, clothes, no worries for money whatsoever—a lot of others like Ravi had to work hard for more. He felt a little guilty.

"Do you think you'll get it? The scholarship."

Ravi shrugged, unworried. "Maybe. Ken-hyung thinks it's going pretty well and, between you and me, he's one of the top students at our school. Believe it or not, all the teachers love him. It's kinda weird."

That was pretty weird. Ken was a hard pill to swallow, so the idea that teachers liked him was flying right over Taekwoon's head.

"There's more than one scholarship being given out, so honestly I think I got a pretty good chance. I just need to work more and I'll get it."

Taekwoon listened to him and found he liked how determined Ravi sounded. "Can you show me?"

Ravi faltered a moment. "A-Ah . . . No, not you. I mean! No, no, not yet . . . I'll show you, just not yet." he waived his hands, eyes wide and surprised at the question. "Sorry, I just . . . Uh, I wanna show you—I mean I will show you, just when it's done. When it's, uh . . . done."

Once again, Taekwoon was endeared by how quickly Ravi became flustered around him. It was stupid how that made his heart hop in his chest and warmth rose to his cheeks.

They stayed like that until dinnertime, laying together and talking about nothing in particular.

Hongbin came up and offered for Taekwoon to stay, but it was getting late and he needed to get home anyway. Ravi gave him a ride on his bike and the whole time, Taekwoon didn't mention how he wanted to stay with him longer.

At the bottom of the stairs was where Ravi stopped his bike. Taekwoon got off and slung on his backpack. He turned back to Ravi shyly.

"Thanks for bringing me home."

Ravi shrugged with a shoulder and grinned. "No need to thank me."

"Yeah, but it's cold . . ." Taekwoon pulled his coat tighter around himself.

Again, Ravi shrugged. "I don't mind if it's for you."

The moment he realized those words left his mouth, Ravi's eyes widened and he slapped a hand over it. Thrown off entirely, heat flared in Taekwoon's face. They stared at each other like the other's third eye was opening.

Only the chill of the wind snapped Taekwoon out of it first. He hopped up a few steps and then looked back down. "Y-You should get home now. If you get sick, it's not my fault."

With that, Ravi fell back into his usual self. He laughed. "So cold, hyung."

Taekwoon shook his head. "Only because it's cold outside. Will . . . Text me when you get home safely?"

"It's not like it's dangerous." Ravi kicked at a pebble on the ground. He glanced back up at Taekwoon's earnest expression and grinned crookedly. "Alright, yeah. As soon as I'm inside the door." he replied cheekily.

Taekwoon rolled his eyes.

He went up one more step, eyes still trained on Ravi, and they stared at each other a moment longer.

Ravi laughed, almost nervously, and then swung leg over his bike. "You should get inside, hyung. You can't get sick either." he said, pushing forward. "See you next time, yeah?"

Without waiting for an answer, Ravi began to ride off into the night. Dazed, Taekwoon watched him leave.

"I don't mind if it's for you."

His face flushed even more and he groaned loudly, falling onto the wall now. How could Ravi just . . . just affect him like that! It wasn't fair. He was sure his hands were trembling.

Practically pouting, Taekwoon stepped up the rest of the way to his floor and when he was there, pulled the key up for Seungho's apartment since they were going to eat dinner together.

"Ah, you're home." Seungho said when he walked through the door. "Is it cold outside?"

Shuffling out of his shoes, Taekwoon nodded. "What are we . . ." He looked up and drifted off when he saw Jongdae sitting at the table, fidgeting the life out of himself. "Oh, hey." He paused when there was no rambunctious reply. Jongdae looked a little pale.

Seungho smiled tentatively at Jongdae and nudged his leg under the table. It seemed to trigger him back into himself.

"Woonie!" he greeted, hopping up.

Getting back into the swing of being friends with Jongdae was both easy as breathing and hard as diamonds. When he thought they could be their normal selves again, smothered betrayal and hurt crawled up his throat, wanting to jump on Jongdae's face.

He knew, knew Jongdae wasn't a cold person or someone who'd leave him in cold blood, but . . . What happened was disheartening. Sadly, Taekwoon's trust in him was already broken; now he was struggling to pick the piece back up and put them back together like they were before.

It wasn't only that.

Sometimes, Jongdae would . . . look at him a certain way; like there was something he wanted to say so badly but didn't have the guts to. Of course this irritated Taekwoon, but he wasn't going to force it out of him—especially in case it turned out to be something troublesome (or having to do with whatever stupid hierarchy the student body followed).

Dinner passed by normally, but the secret glances Seungho kept slipping Jongdae didn't escape Taekwoon's notice. He wondered if they were conspiring against him.

It was even later when Jongdae begged him to help with his homework and they finished it.

Taekwoon yawned. "You might as well stay the night in my apartment."

Jongdae yawned too, flourishing his arms over-dramatically. "Can I? It's super late . . . I might die if I try to go home now." he joked, flopping back. "Wouldn't that be awful, Taekwoon? How would you feel if I died on your watch?"

Taekwoon huffed out a little laugh. "Not much different."

"Hey!"

When they were finally settled down on the floor of Taekwoon's living room, a movie was playing on the television. Taekwoon was halfway between dozing off and annoyance because Jongdae obviously wanted to say something, but he didn't know if he wanted to deal with it or not because it was so late. Surely whatever it was could wait until tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that, or . . . never.

"Hey," Jongdae started slowly.

Taekwoon bit back a groan. Of course, Jongdae was Jongdae and there was no helping that. He grunted.

"So, like . . . That kid. Hyuk . . ." he continued, "you're friends with him?"

You're not going to start a fight about it now, are you? Taekwoon thought, almost bitterly. "Yeah." There was no point in lying.

"Does that mean you're . . . friends with his friends too?"

Taekwoon sighed, lolling his head to the side. "What do you think, genius?"

Jongdae narrowed his eyes. "You don't have to be so mean, grandpa." He shoved his shoulder. Taekwoon rolled to the side and whined. "But seriously . . . If you're friends with them, are they . . . I mean. Are they like the rumors?"

A moment of quiet set in. Taekwoon's eyes drifted closed and he sighed again. That was the question, wasn't it? He'd known them a long time—a longer time than he ever thought he would—and in all the time he had spent with them, they'd never . . . acted like the rumors said. Rumors were dumb, a waste of time and breath. But where did they come from? Why did they start?

What did any of them do to be treated like that?

"No." he said, more firmly than needed. "They're good people."

He peeked up at Jongdae, who turned back to the movie. The expression on his face was skeptical.

With Jongdae back at his side, Taekwoon was a little more confident about going to school and not being harassed—unless it would turn out the opposite, and Jongdae would start being harassed too. But Jongdae was a likeable person and friends with a lot of the kids at school, he'd be fine for sure.

Day in and day out, it wasn't either of them Taekwoon worried about; it was Hyuk.

No matter how he tried, that day wouldn't leave his mind. Hyuk was so beat up . . . He didn't deserve that. The worst part was, Taekwoon didn't know what to do. Hyuk's home life wasn't normal and neither was his situation. Yongguk was his legal guardian (wasn't he?), so would he come and deal with it? Hongbin, Taekwoon remembered Ravi saying, was a teacher's pet. Could he do something for Hyuk?

But then . . . Hyuk didn't want them to know, which was even worse. He didn't want to cause trouble for his family. Taekwoon pitied him.

"Why so gloomy?"

Taekwoon looked up from picking at his lunch. Daehyun was settling down next to him, smile on his expression.

Taekwoon shrugged, offering his earbud as he usually did. "It's nothing. Just tired."

"Yeah that's what I say when I don't want to talk about my problems either." Daehyun replied, taking the offering.

He knew Daehyun was trying to trick him into talking about what bothered him, but he knew better. Hakyeon used to do the same thing.

Hakyeon. He wanted to groan. That was a whole other set of problems.

"Are you coming today?" Daehyun asked when they were both almost done with lunch.

"To the cafe?"

"Yeah, it's been a while."

The corner of Taekwoon's lips pulled up. After what happened, he'd been avoiding the place, but he also had just been spending more time with Ravi . . . It wasn't a bad exchange.

"I'm not going to have to bang up someone's face again, am I?" he joked.

Daehyun paused to look at him in awe.

Heat tickled his cheeks. "I was just . . . I was just joking." He looked away self-consciously.

He startled when Daehyun slapped him on the back, laughing a little too hard to be genuine. "No, you don't have to beat up anyone again. Actually, things around you calmed down a lot, it was weird."

Too bad I still get nasty notes in my locker. It didn't matter though; as long as no one tried to pick a fight with him again, he could deal with it.

Lips pressing into a thin line, he glanced sidelong at Daehyun. If he and Yongguk were dating, wouldn't that mean Yongguk told him things about himself? It depended though. How long had they been dating? How did they start? When? And most importantly: Did Yongguk trust Daehyun enough to tell him things?

. . . If Taekwoon asked, would Daehyun share those secrets?

It wasn't right, he knew that; but he didn't know what else to do or who else to get some answers from, and Jongdae from last night had him thinking.

On impulse, he opened his mouth. He shook his head and then closed it again.

"What is it?" Daehyun asked.

He shook his head again. "It's nothing."

Daehyun nudged him in the shoulder. "It's not. Are you okay?"

Taekwoon looked to his fidgety hands in his lap. "Yeah. I was just . . . wondering."

"Wondering what?"

He wanted to groan; Daehyun didn't know how to let things go if he was curious enough. He took a deep breath.

"About . . . Yongguk." he finally said.

"And you can't ask him yourself because . . ." Daehyun accused, but he didn't sound defensive.

Taekwoon gave him a look that asked, Isn't it obvious?

Daehyun laughed. He patted Taekwoon on the shoulder. "Taekwoon, Guk isn't like us . . . He's like an old man, a real adult. If you ask him, I promise he'll tell you what you want to know."

Taekwoon sighed. He was probably right.

Taekwoon's favorite seat in the cafe had easily become the one tucked into the corner where he had a direct view of the counter. Not only did it allow him access to talking to the couple of his friends that were baristas—Minseok, Daehyun, occasionally Himchan, and even more rarely Jongin—but other people usually stayed away from him.

He still preferred his tea, but they had him just a little hooked on coffee; and Minseok insisted he practice his latte art on his drinks (he still couldn't make it properly past hearts).

Speaking of his tea though, he wanted to remember that Ravi hadn't tried it yet so he could give it to him when they saw each other again. He wondered if he would like it or not.

Off in his daydreams, Taekwoon didn't notice someone approaching him. The opposite chair scraped across the tile and startled him into looking up.

The new face sparked memories of rooftops and fireworks and he remembered—it was the girl from the party; Hyeri introduced them. What was her name? Did it start with an M? Or maybe it was an A . . .

"Is this seat taken?" she asked, eyes curving in that familiar way.

With the month he'd been having, he didn't feel too guilty about the suspicion prompted by her request. They were strangers, so why would she want to sit with him?

Despite that, he shook his head.

After taking her seat, she wore a demure smile. "Sorry, you must not remember me too well."

He pushed side his books to not be rude and shook his head.

One small, mental pep talk and a clearing of his throat later, he replied, "Fr- . . . From the party, right? You were with Hyeri."

Her laugh was awkward but her eyes still curved cutely. "Yeah, that's . . . That's me. I'm sorry again—about her. She's a little over the top sometimes."

Friends like Hyeri were familiar to him, so he nodded in understanding.

What she said to him, about Ravi, still crossed his mind sometimes; he never could figure out what she meant. Now wasn't the time to think about that though, so he pushed the thoughts away and looked back at the girl.

"Sorry, but . . ." He rubbed his thumb against the side of his index finger. "Is there a reason you're talking to me? I'm not trying to be r-rude or anything, sorry . . ."

She waved her hand, a pink tinting her cheeks. "No, you're right. This is a little weird . . . I just wanted to talk to you about . . . About Hakyeon, and also Ravi."

His eyebrows raised. Knowing Hakyeon wasn't the surprising part—who didn't know him—but why did she want to talk to him about Ravi? Was this going to hang around in his brain for months and months too?

". . . What about?" he asked slowly.

Her deep breath did little to ease his rising anxieties.

"Ah, um. I'm Hakyeon's cousin—by marriage, I mean, but we grew up together so we're close." she explained, further confusing Taekwoon. "And, well . . . He told me—more ranted over the phone, really—what happened between you two, and I just. I just wanted to say I'm sorry."

Taekwoon sat still, confusion folding on itself. "Why are you apologizing?" he asked, a little more forceful than necessary.

She pursed her lips together for a moment and then stuck up one shy finger. "For one, I spied on you and Ravi—at the party. I saw him—um . . . Kiss you."

Heat immediately flooded his face at the mention of that, and the fact that she saw it. He opened his mouth, but she pressed forward.

"And second, I accidentally blurted it . . . to Hakyeon."

She paused to gauge his reaction as the words sunk in.

The groan that twisted from his throat couldn't be repressed even if Taekwoon wanted it to be. He slumped backwards and his arms went limp at his sides. Great, just one more reason for Hakyeon to hate him.

His molars sunk into his cheek to keep in check the emotions burning at his face—and it was more than just embarrassment.

"I know, I know, I'm really sorry." she apologized in a hurry. "I—I didn't think he would flip out and spread it around, and I didn't think it'd get to you that badly, and I definitely didn't think you'd be pushed around at school just because you hung out with Wonsik, and I'm so sorry—"

The unfamiliar name opened Taekwoon's eyes to the beige ceiling.

Wonsik?

He sat up and scrutinized her. "Who?"

The girl clapped a hand over —Taekwoon remembered that gesture from somewhere . . .—like she realized she'd made a mistake.

"Oh heck," she muttered behind her palm (and if Taekwoon wasn't so anxious, it would be cute). "I wasn't supposed to s-say that. Crap." Her eyes bounced between him and the table. "Don't tell him I said that, okay? He'll get upset . . ."

At first, Taekwoon had no idea who she was talking about—but then, there was only one person they had in common that she could be talking about.

In a tired defeat, he shook his head. "I won't." he responded, trying not to sound bitter. ". . . Is Wonsik his . . . real name?"

She bit her lip and picked at her fingers. "H-He doesn't really like? Other people knowing . . . After we broke up, he made me promise not to tell anyone at school."

Taekwoon froze again.

Broke up?!

The M Girl was Ravi's ex-girlfriend?!

Before he could process through the sudden overload, he shoved himself out of the chair and stuffed all his things into his backpack.

"Sorry, I need to go." he muttered. "It was good to see you again."

Then, without saying goodbye to anyone, he rushed from the cafe.

Outside, the cool air slapped him—and her name came to him.

Minah. It was Minah.

He practically ran all the way home.