“Do you mind taking the pain killers from me?” I hand over my small pill bottle to Sanghee, who returns a confused look.

“Why am I keeping this for you?” She questioned but ended up taking it from me anyway.

“I’m too lazy to go back to my locker.” Sanghee had no idea how hard it is to do everything with just one hand. “Please remember to give it back to me before I leave today.” I requested.

Sanghee nods before switching the subject. “Hanbin is certainly taking care of you.” She commented while I leaned against the lockers before homeroom. I’m guessing she saw Hanbin by my locker earlier. “By the way, are you going to finally tell me how that happened?” She nodded at my arm while grabbing things from her own locker.

“I told you, I caught Jiyoon’s stalker and this was the result of my heroic actions.” I gave her a pressed smile.

She shot me a look. “I thought you were joking.” I can see her ‘nagging’ urge begin to kick in. “Are you serious?”

“Why?” I retorted.

“First, that is so unlike you to do that. You don’t confront – you run.” She responds. “Second, are you out of your mind? How could you just look for a stalker? He could have hurt you.”

“Well, he did.” I motioned at my arm resting in the sling.

“Thanks for proving my point and you could have gotten out a lot worse.” She shot back before looking back into her locker. A groan leaves her lips before reaching in to grab some folded up sheets of paper before showing them to me.

“The cheeseball still leaving notes?” I knowingly asked. 

“He’s still going.” I’m pretty sure Sanghee figured Junhoe would stop by now but there is no sign of him letting up.

“Did you read them?” I nodded towards the notes.

“Should I even waste my time?” True, I can already guess the contents of it. At Sanghee’s rhetorical question, Donghyuk appears beside me.

“What are those?” He asked curiously.

Taking the chance to , I didn’t hold back and answer. “Sanghee’s lovely secret admirer.” I watched as his facial expression start to darken.

“Can you throw them out for me, Donghyuk?” Sanghee reaches out to hand it to him, not noticing the change in his expression.

Without a moment of hesitation, Donghyuk took them from her. “Gladly.” I watched as he turned back to head towards a trashcan but it wasn’t that simple, I watched on with amusement as he ripped the notes into little shreds to display his inner turmoil. I let out a small laugh and Sanghee gave me her attention.

“What happened?” Not knowing what Donghyuk had done, Sanghee was clueless while waiting for my answer.

“Love is just so hilarious.” I commented vaguely. 

She noticed my words and snorted. “Well, you calling love ‘hilarious’ is a step forward from ‘stupid’.”

“This doesn’t change anything.” I quickly reminded her. Seeing that she was done grabbing her things, I was the first to start down the hallway. There was still a bit of time left before homeroom. 

She hurried and caught up to me. “How is that even possible? You’re dating.” 

I shrugged at her comment. Sure, but it was still entirely fake. I didn’t have feelings for Hanbin so I haven’t actually contradicted myself.

And, I can’t see the contradiction ever happening.

Not like Sanghee knew but this is how it was. 

***

“These secret meetings are becoming a bit frequent.” Too frequent to my liking if I had to be honest and now they were taking up my lunchtime. Using my free hand, I brushed away the strands of hair that the wind sent flying all over my face. “And if these are going to continue, can we find a warmer place?” The seasons are changing and that meant it was getting a bit colder. 

“What are you going to do now?” Bobby stood leaning back against the rooftop railing, a familiar sight I always found him in.

“As in what?” 

“How are you going to fix Hanbin’s problems if you’re in that shape?” He shot my bad arm a look. 

Wait a minute. “I thought I was exempt from that job for the current time.” They still want me to ‘fix’? “I am clearly handicapped.” I reminded him.

Why was I so happy for if this is how it would end up? What a disappointment.

“Exactly. So, how are you going to handle the problems?” Bobby asked once more. 

I closed my eyes and dropped my head into my free hand. “Here’s a better idea. Why don’t you get Hanbin to take a break from causing trouble while I heal? It’s only three weeks, he could do it, right?” 

Instead of responding, Bobby walked toward me and patted my fine shoulder as he passed. “You talk to him.”

***

“Hanbin.” I called for the boy sitting in front of me as he ate his lunch. While on my way here, I have been thinking about ways to persuade Hanbin and I have been preoccupied with my thoughts as they visited various ideas.

“What is it?” He continued on with his lunch.

Jinhwan and Bobby seemed to be minding their own business as I tried to gather Hanbin’s attention. “For the next three weeks, let’s try to stay out of trouble.” Despite wanting to start off slow, I ended up being straight to the point. There was no point beating around the bush when it came to Hanbin. 

He finally met my eyes as he finished chewing. “Do you know how impossible that is?”

“Hanbin.” He was killing me. “All you have to do is avoid human contact.” That should be possible. He doesn’t bother responding before he went back to his food. Fine. “Why can’t you just play nice?” How does one always manage to cause problems? It was almost like an addiction.

“It’s not me.” Hanbin denies. “It’s them. How are you going to stop them from coming after me?”

The direction this conversation is heading in is tiring me out. I reach my hand up and rub my face in defeat. This is completely useless. No wonder Bobby didn’t even bother with it.  I sat there quietly before eyeing my lunch – more specifically, my sweet bread that was still inside its plastic wrapping. I picked it up and tried to work my way around opening it. I ended up biting down on one of the corners as my free hand attempted to rip it.

Hearing the rustling of the plastic wrapping, Hanbin would take glimpses of me from time to time as he chew on his rice. Noticing how long I was taking, without a word, Hanbin took it from me, and effortlessly opened it. And without a word, he handed it back to me and focused once more on his food again like he hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary.

While watching him, I bit into my sweet bread. I wonder how much guilt he was feeling. I feel like he was exaggerating. Yes, he was the cause of the earlier pain, but it wasn’t him that actually put my arm in the sling but, you know what? I would be stupid to tell him that.

I was going to take advantage of this.

I don’t know how yet but I was going to use this to my benefit one way or another. 

As I enjoyed my sweet bread, a concern stole my attention. “Hey.” I smacked the table lightly to grab his attention. “Is there going to be trouble today?” 

With a simple shrug of his shoulders, he answered. “Maybe.”

***

“How bad is the trouble?” My leg impatiently shook while waiting for Hanbin at his locker. Refusing to let me ditch now that school has ended, Hanbin had made sure to grab me and place me at his locker so he could watch me. 

“Why are you freaking out?” Despite how panicked I was, he was being too casual about this.

Was he being serious?

“Hanbin, look at my arm.” The answer to that question was obvious. “I really wanted to at least ha