The next day, DaeHyun went to school with an annoying look stamped on his face. While he was walking, he kept watching out for SungMi’s skateboard and made sure to be more alert. Just in case she happened to appear out of nowhere all of a sudden. In his mind he was already thinking of what to do with SungMi if ever they ran into each other again. In an unpleasant way, of course.

DaeHyun sighed in relief as he made it safely inside the school compound and went directly towards his friends’ hangout. Even though he felt easy that there was no accident yet, he still couldn’t hide his annoyance once he caught the sight of SungMi trying to look for a place to hide her skateboard. She was holding it in her arms as she quietly walked towards the janitor, each step was taken very carefully.

It was still quite early hence there were not many students yet. So she had to be extra careful so that she won’t blow her cover away. One suspicious sound can get her caught. She was too busy trying to stow away her skateboard that she hadn’t realized that DaeHyun had walked past her. The boy, on the other hand, ignored her the best he could even though his mouth was itching so badly to nag at her.

However, seeing how serious SungMi was in trying to keep her skateboard out of sight, DaeHyun decided to let her be. Somehow or rather, they did complete their deal even though it turned out to be not the way DaeHyun had wanted. Since there was no reason for him to keep bugging her anymore, DaeHyun decided to get back to the way they were. Him avoiding and ignoring her while she tried to do the same.

He then arrived at a gazebo where his other friends were chilling out. There were a number of gazebos there and they were situated just beside the assembly hall. Specially placed for the students who wanted to do their study group there if they wanted to, if not at the library since they got to breath fresh air as well. The six of them liked to spend their time there besides their class as most of the students preferred to be at the cafeteria instead.

DaeHyun arrived still with a pestered look on his face and that caused YoungJae to laugh, as he was the first one noticing his arrival. “Yah. Why do you look so moody early in the morning ? Can’t you ever come to school with a smile or something ?” He asked as he shook his head at DaeHyun.

“Must have gotten up at the wrong side of the bed, maybe.” YongGuk added while smirking at DaeHyun who sat in the middle of JongUp and Zelo, the younger ones. He rested his head on Zelo’s shoulder and ignored his friends’ comments upon his facial expression. All he wanted that moment was probably an extra few minutes of sleep.

Zelo looked down at his hyung and patted his head playfully as if DaeHyun was a small child. DaeHyun swatted his hand away and immediately sat up to glare at Zelo, which soon caused the whole group to laugh.

Remembering the scratch that DaeHyun had on his elbow from the day before, Zelo quickly asked, “How’s your elbow, hyung ? Is the scratch still painful ? Is it still bleeding ?” He tried to take a look at DaeHyun’s elbow to see the injury and DaeHyun carefully folded his sleeve as he too wanted to see whether it was healed by the time.

It turned out that the scratch was half way healing and that it didn’t appear as red anymore. It took a longer time to fully recover as the scratch was quite long from the impact of DaeHyun’s fall. Even so, it wasn’t that painful anymore and DaeHyun could finally write normally.

The other members leaned closer as they were too looking at the scratch with widened eyes. Besides Zelo, the others didn’t seem to know anything about it and DaeHyun himself was totally not in the mood to explain to them yesterday. He was too busy getting mad at SungMi that he couldn’t say a word about it to his friends, except Zelo who had known first.

“How did you get the scratch, DaeHyun ? It’s pretty long, though. Must have hurt so bad.” HimChan said as he tried to touch the wound had it not be for DaeHyun who slapped his hand away. “I didn’t know that you could be this careless, you know. Out of all six of us, you were always the cool and alert one.” YongGuk added.

DaeHyun scoffed at that and said, “For your info, guys, it wasn’t even my fault. It was someone else’s carelessness that I got this scratch. You should know by now who am I referring to. I’m still mad at that person that I don’t feel like saying that person’s name now.”

HimChan raised an eyebrow and said in amusement, “Enough said. I think all of us already have a pretty good idea on who it was now.” However, JongUp frowned and asked in confusion as he didn’t have a clue of what they were talking about. “I don’t. Who was it ? Who caused DaeHyun hyung to get this scratch ?” He looked at his hyungs curiously and pleaded them to answer. The elders shook their heads a little at the young one with a sigh.

Seeing the elders who will most probably not answer JongUp’s question,YoungJae decided to be the one who put JongUp’s mind at rest instead, “Who else, JongUp, if it weren’t Lee SungMi ? There is only one person in this school who is able to create this kind of masterpiece on someone’s elbow and that will be her.”

Zelo’s eyebrows creased a little before he nodded in agreement. “YoungJae hyung is right. It isn’t like we’re accusing her or something but only her carelessness can create this 10cm long scratch on someone’s elbow.” He said as he measured DaeHyun’s scratch using a ruler, which soon got snatched by DaeHyun who then threw it away.

HimChan laughed a little and shook his head, “What ever is going to happen to that girl, I wonder. Her family must have got their hands full in looking after her.”

DaeHyun snorted and said as he rolled down his sleeve, “I bet they will marry her of to a zoo keeper one day. That way she can lose control all she wants and there’ll be someone to calm her wild ways down.”

The younger ones’ eyes widened at DaeHyun’s words which he said so casually and YoungJae gasped in shock. “Hyung ! How can you say that ? Marrying a zoo keeper ?! It was not very nice of you at all !” Zelo scolded as he had his hands on his hips.

DaeHyun frowned and shot back to his younger brother, “Well it’s true ! It’s better if she marries a zoo keeper since she couldn’t even control herself. Don’t you see where she always sits everyday during lunch ? And what animal does that remind you of ? Not to mention her behaviours too sometimes. Shouting out loud all of a sudden, doing dangerous stunts that could most probably hurt people, and simply cared nothing about other people’s feelings. It takes an expert to calm her down and stop her from being to impulsive.”

“But that doesn’t mean you can say it that way, hyung ! The way you said it was like as if she’s a freaking animal ! If you only said that she should marry a zoo keeper, then fine, I can interprete it the other way. But you were saying that she should marry a zoo keeper because she’s behaving like an animal. And I can’t accept that, hyung. I think you were being too harsh.” Zelo replied and the atmosphere was starting to get heated up by the second.

Noticing that the bicker wasn’t going to stop, the leader tried to step in and calm them down, “Guys, simmer down. We can talk about this calmly, can we ? Besides, why are we fighting because of-”

“WHY ARE YOU SO WORKED UP ABOUT THIS ANYWAY ?!” DaeHyun snapped at Zelo and YongGuk sighed in defeat. Seemed like his effort was to no avail. If he couldn’t get them to talk to each other properly, then the rest of the members didn’t even have to try.

“Because she’s my classmate, hyung ! I know the both of us were never close but since DanBi came around I began to feel like the three of us can actually be friends. We can actually be friends with SungMi and try to understand her instead of making morbid speculations about her. DanBi and I have been trying to get to know her better and not rejecting her straight away like you do. And I know now that she is nothing like what you think she is.” Zelo stood up and grabbed his bag.

And before he left, he said, “You told us before and all of us thought before that she always speaks her mind without even thinking first. Well, hate to break the truth to you but you are like that too, hyung. Just imagine if she heard everything you said and found out that you’ve been thinking that she’s behaving like an animal all these while. She might only show that she’s not bothered about it but she has feelings too, hyung.”

With that, Zelo went away leaving DaeHyun and his friends in complete silence. He knew that he shouldn’t talk like that to DaeHyun since he was older but he thought that he had enough. He would definitely react the same way if the same thing was said about DanBi. And seeing how his other hyungs only kept quiet, he knew that they either didn’t want to get involved or maybe thinking the same as DaeHyun.

Both of them were his friends now, besides BAP. And as much as he didn’t want anyone to say anything bad about his hyungs, he didn’t want anything bad to be said about his classmates either. Especially the ones that he had gotten close with now.

That day during break time, Zelo didn’t go to his hyungs’ class as he was still a little angry at DaeHyun. So he spent his recess time with DanBi and SungMi instead, who were both clearly very shocked to see him wanting to eat with them all of a sudden. SungMi, especially, was the most excited one when Zelo joined in their litte circle under the tree by the field.

“Ciao, JunHong ! It’s awesome to see you here !” SungMi said while clapping her hands happily. DanBi laughed at her excitement while Zelo smiled sheepishly. “Well, I hope you girls don’t mind me joining you. And I hope you don’t mind me asking but what does ciao mean, SungMi ? It sounds interesting to me.”

SungMi grinned and answered while taking a bite of her apple, “It means hello in Italy.”

Zelo and DanBi nodded with their mouths formed an ‘O’ shape. Clearly they had learned something that day. The three of them ate quietly (suprisingly) with DanBi making conversations once in a while. It amazed her too that SungMi will be quiet and peaceful during each break time. She didn’t talk a lot during recess compared to during she was in class or any other times.

Finishing her apple, SungMi then asked in curiosity, “So, why aren’t you hanging out with your buddies today, JunHong ? Usually you will be with them during break time right ? Got bored of them already ?” That was the first time ever that Zelo was eating lunch with her after all those years sort of knowing each other’s presence. So she can’t help but to get inquisitive on why he was there with them that day.

Zelo scratched his nose and rolled his eyes as he recalled the arguement he had with DaeHyun earlier. “I uh ... fought with them this morning and I’m still angry with them. But don’t take it the wrong way though. Even if I wasn’t fighting with them I still chose to eat with the two of you today. And please, just call me Zelo.”

He didn’t think it was wise to tell them what he was arguing about with DaeHyun so he kept that small information to himself. Even if he did tell, he doubted a little that SungMi will react much about it but DanBi for sure will go berserk.

Lucky for him, the two of them didn’t ask further and just nodded their heads in understanding. Zelo would tell them if he felt like it and since he didn’t w