For the next couple days, I've been with Sunggyu and Jia eating in the cafeteria. He didn't bother me as much as before although I was still uneasy with him around because of the fact I knew he liked her. At that point I didn't know if Jia knew about his crush. Well, I knew but I didn't know if she acknowledged it or if she had confronted him about it. I didn't want to ask her because I thought it would be invading her privacy. She would have told me by then anyways.

Other than that, I've learned a little about Sunggyu. Well, more than what the rest of the school already knew. He wasn't sent to the orphanage right at birth but he was sent at a young age. He wasn't adopted because not a lot of people knew about the location and by the time it got more popular, he was already at an older age. He was depressed because he thought he would have to stay at the orphanage until he got kicked out so he skipped a year of school and failed the first year.

I asked him if his personality was originally this bad. He didn't take it personally and replied rather calmly, to my surprise. He said it was this year that he started to be like that and it was obvious as to why he changed even though he didn’t explain the reason.

Jia and I made plans this weekend. We were supposed to hang out at her place first and then head out to the new arcade. That plan was ruined by Sunggyu. She told me their project wasn't completed and she needed Sunggyu to come over and finish it up. It was pretty darn obvious I wouldn't let them be alone, although her parents were on the same floor.

I lied on her bed while reading an old novel she had. I don't remember what it was about and I doubt I did at the time either. The only thing I was concentrated on was their project. Although it wasn't my project, I sure had quite an interest in it. Well, I had an interest on the two people who were working on it to be honest. They were on the floor, gluing pictures and texts on the poster board. The board wasn't even that big and they decided to paste the papers at the same time. Their heads were practically beside each other and I held myself down from flinging Sunggyu to the other side of the room. I bet he enjoyed it though. I could feel the radiating happiness exploding from his body.

Finally, they were finished. It was almost dinner time and Jia's mom called her down to set up the table leaving me and Sunggyu alone. "How long have you known Jia?" he asked once Jia left the room.

"I've known her for two years," I replied

"It hasn't been that long. It's surprising how you guys can be best friends."

"Best friends?" I questioned.

He nodded. "Yeah. She told me you're her best friend. You sound surprised. She told me when she friend zoned me." Okay, so I was surprised she called me her best friend. I've only called her my close friend at the time because I thought two years wasn't enough for us to be best friends. Yes, I know I can be a girl at times; I've been told that. What really surprised me though was that she friend zoned him. I asked him when they talked and this time he was the one who was surprised to hear she never told anything to me yet. He said he confessed properly the day before because she never brought up the topic.

I wasn't mad about that it because he said it was only one day since it happened and she hadn't had the opportunity to tell me yet. I was happy that he got friend zoned. I don't know why I was happy. Jia deserved someone great and at first I thought Sunggyu didn't fit in that category but after I became acquaintances with him, he didn't seem that bad. The way he spoke was gentle and the way he worked on the project so diligently wasn't someone who constantly bullies others, smoke or cause trouble outside of school or so I've heard. He was actually pretty smart, too. I got to notice it when he was working on the project. He had a lot of ideas and information. It's hard to believe he failed a grade. He would have been in a grade higher than us if his depression didn't get in the way.

"Are you going to leave it the way it is?" I asked. I didn't want to encourage him. I was just curious.

He nodded. "For now. Obviously I can't stop liking her right away. Maybe I'll get to be her best friend like you. Once that happens, maybe I'll stop liking her.” That got me thinking for a moment. Can best friends like each other?

Once dinner was over and once Sunggyu left, Jia called me to her room. I thought she wanted to hang out a bit more so I agreed to. She closed the door behind her once we got in and motioned me to sit on her bed. She sat right across from me, cross legged. "I have something to say," she said.

"What is it?"

She took a second to answer. "Sunggyu told me he liked me yesterday."

I pretended to be surprised. "What did you say? What did he say?"

"He told me out of the blue. We were just working on the project when he suddenly told me he liked me. I've been avoiding that topic since I knew. I never knew he thought of me that way.”

I held in the urge to roll my eyes. Unlike him who was deemed observant, this girl was pretty dense. Anyone who watches them for a mere five minutes would automatically know he had a thing for her. "Don’t pretend you didn’t know. He practically confessed that day he punched me in the face.” She rolled her eyes and I chuckled, asking her how she responded.

"Well, I couldn't say anything for a minute because it was such a sudden change of topic. One minute we're talking about the Joseon era and the next he shoots out the 'I like you' card."

I laughed," You were silent for a full minute?"

"It was probably more than that! Oh my gosh, now that I think about it, it sounds so embarrassing!" She covered her face with her hands and squealed. I laughed and lightly hit her shoulder, telling her to keep going.

"Then, I told him I was thankful for his feelings but I only thought of him as a friend. Woohyun, do you know how much my heart was beating at the time? I honestly thought it was burst! It felt so weird, too! It's the first time anyone confessed to me. It made me excited but I had to reject him, which made me feel so bad! Oh, Woohyun, you should have seen his face! I wanted to apologize over and over again for hurting him!"

I watched her ramble on with an amused face. It was obvious it was a nerve wrecking thing for her. She called my name out twice in a whole sitting. Usually, I'd never hear my name get called so many times. I thought it was cute she was freaking out because someone liked her. It wasn't like she just found out but still, it was amusing to watch.

"Do you think I did the right thing?" she asked after calming down.

"What do you mean? He's a bad person, of course you did the right thing."

"He's not a bad person and you know it. Do you know what he told me? He said he changed himself for me. He became a bad boy to catch my attention but you know what? I liked his nice personality better and he's been showing some of that lately."

"Then, why didn't you agree to be his girlfriend?" It wasn't like I encouraged it. I was just curious.

She looked away from me and I swear I could see a little bit of pink on her cheeks. I guessed she was embarrassed. Girls don't really talk to boys about this, so I understood why she must've felt embarrassed talking about this to me. "I wanted to wait and see."

"Wait and see what?" I asked.

"If friends always remain friends."

She wouldn't tell me what that meant. For days I kept pestering her about it but she never answered when I asked. Eventually I stopped because I was tired – we were both tired and annoyed. To this day, I still have no idea what that meant.

All of that was forgotten when I left to school one day. I just stepped off the property when I totally forgot my lunch. I went back to the apartment and opened the door. My parents didn't hear me because they were still talking and I walked in at a bad time.

"Why can't keep living like this!" I heard my dad say.

"Yes, we can. Woohyun is our only child. He's a good kid and he's in his first year of high school. I don't want him to lose the chance of exceeding in his grades."

"He's smart, Yoon." That was my mother's first name. "He's also smart enough to figure out that we're lying to him!"

"He won't know. We've been acting for three months now. He won't know that we're divorced."

"What if he does? What if he figures it out? What do we do then?"

"There are no 'if's. There will never be an ‘if’ because we won't let him find out."

In that instant, I felt my world crashing down. My parents were divorced and they kept it a secret from me. I noticed my mother always coming home late and my father coming home more exhausted than usual. I always wondered why it began to happen lately. I realized it was because they both didn't want to come home. My mom would spend her time with her friends after work and my dad would exert himself during work to forget about the divorce. They had me fooled. They were all smiles around me, pretending to be a happy family, always praising and laughing around. They probably detested each other but kept that smile for my sake.

I didn’t know how to react at that time. It didn’t sink in yet because all I was thinking about were these hundreds of questions that no one could answer. Why this, why that? What if? How come? When? I didn't get my lunch and I spaced out the entire day. I didn't listen to any of the lessons and was scolded a couple times because the teacher caught me spacing out. Who would even pay attention after something shocking just happened? If I wasn't so confused and dazed, I would have just snapped at everyone who talked to me.

"What's wrong?" I looked up to see Jia with Sunggyu, taking their place around my desk. "We were waiting in the classroom but you didn't come." After the couples of days we sat in the cafeteria, we decided to move locations because the room was way too loud. We couldn’t hear each other speak and we all knew it was the bad boy to blame for all the gossip going around.

"Woohyun? Say something." I could hear the worried tone in her voice.

"Nothing," I sighed.

"Well, you can't say 'nothing' with a sigh if anything wasn't wrong," Sunggyu pointed out. "Just tell us. Actually, I need to go to the washroom, so you talk it out with her." He got up and left the classroom. Sometimes, I hated him for being able to read a situation. He's supposed to be the most feared boy in the school but day after day, I was finding him more likable.

"Woohyun, what's wrong? You can tell me. I won't say anything to Sunggyu or anyone else. You can trust me."

I sighed, staring at this dot on the desk. "My parents are divorced."

"What?" she stuttered out. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"I found out today."

"But they always look so happy. What happened?"

"They lied. They lied to me, to you. They didn't tell me, I found out by accident that they got divorced three months ago and hid it from me." My hands tightened into fists. "What do I do? How am I supposed to react to this? They kept it a secret for so long and they didn't tell me a single thing. They were going to keep hiding it from me. What will happen to us?"

I shut my eyes tightly and felt tears running down my cheeks. This is the first time I've cried in a long time. I don't remember the last time I cried before that. I was really scared. I was scared that they would act differently as time goes by and I was scared they were going to abandon me.

Jia placed her hand on mine. "Woohyun, don't cry." She was crying too. "Your parents still love you. That's why they kept it a secret. They didn't want to hurt you."

"They could've just told me the truth right away! I don't like secrets, especially something as big as a divorce that can ruin my relationship with them!"

"You need to calm down."

"Calm down?!" I stared at her tear stained face. "How can I possibly calm down? This is a divorce I'm talking about. A divorce that means I can have half brothers and sisters. My parents don't love each other anymore and they sure damn well kept a very good secret about it. You don't know how I feel right now so don't tell me to calm down because I won't calm the down!" I stood up and stormed out the room. I didn't need any comforting from her because she didn't know how I felt.

I kept spacing out the entire day. I was hungry, mad and unfocused. At least I didn't get in trouble after the break.

The school bell rang and the students packed their bags and piled out. I stayed back. I didn't want to go home. How was I supposed to face my parents? Was I supposed to pretend I didn't hear anything? I rested my head on my desk and unknowingly, I fell asleep.

When I woke up, it was already 6 in the evening. School ended at 4. They weren't even home yet. I sighed and decided to get up. I didn't want to stay in that uncomfortable position. It was summer, so the sun was still out. It hadn't even begun to set yet.

I dragged my feet across the field, towards the gate when I noticed two people sitting against the tree at the entrance. As I got closer, I realized it was Jia and Sunggyu. They were both sitting on the dirty ground, eyes closed. Jia sat on Sunggyu's white blazer, with her head on his shoulder while Sunggyu had his arms crossed against his chest, his head hanging down.

I rolled my eyes. For some reason I got madder seeing them like this. I kicked Sunggyu's foot. "Hey, get up." Jia was the first one to stir first. She lifted her head and squinted. She shook Sunggyu awake before she stretched her arms and legs. He did the same when he opened his small eyes.

Jia got up and dusted off Sunggyu's blazer. "What were you doing in there? We were waiting for you."

"You idiot, you were supposed to go home. I could have left before you."

She smiled. "No you wouldn't. You wouldn't leave without us."

I rolled my eyes and walked away. "Hey, wait!" Jia called. Her and Sunggyu ran to catch up to me. "Seriously, what were you doing in there? We were waiting for you," Sunggyu said. "The sun felt nice and then we dozed off."

Suddenly, I stopped and turned around. "Why do you guys have to wait for me? Is there some rule that says we all have to wait for each other to go home? Is there a rule that says we have to eat with each other during lunch? What is wrong with you both? You're suffocating me!"

"We're your friends!" Jia said. "Friends do that."

"Well, maybe you two shouldn't be friends with me because I'm sick of it. Stop following me around all the time! I need my space too!" I spun around and walked home without hearing any footsteps behind me.