Somehow, I successfully avoided my parents. During dinner, I ate as fast as I could and ran out of there. It was the same with breakfast the next morning. I would only greet them and nothing else. I'm sure they suspected something but they didn't say anything about it, which I was glad about. I did not want to talk to them.

During lunch, Jia and Sunggyu didn't come find me. I needed some time to be alone. I didn't want to think. I just wanted to be alone, in silence. The silence didn't last that long when someone entered the classroom. I had a feeling it was Jia so I didn't bother lifting my head up but then the person started walking towards me. She had this pet peeve of the sound of dragging feet. Whenever she walked, I could always hear her heel click on the ground but this person was dragging her feet. I lifted my head up to see one of my friends.

Her name was Son Eunji. She was the prettiest girl in our grade. She had thick, long black hair to her waist. She was also tall and petite. I think most students swooned over her. She had a bubbly personality and she wasn't lacking on the looks.

"Hey, Woohyun. Long time no talk," she said with a smile.

I managed to smile back. "Yeah. What are you doing here?"

"I thought I'd come and see how you're doing. You haven't been with our group lately. Is this how you spend your lunches?"

"For now," I replied.

She suddenly grew worried. "For now? What's wrong?"

I looked down at my desk, hesitating to answer. She came over and sat down in front of me. "Woohyun, you can tell me. We're friends. I won't tell anybody." The corner of my lips twitched upwards. Those were the exact words Jia told me. I don't why I told her though. She wasn't even as close to me as Jia is.

Although her words were the same, her reaction was different. "Oh no! I'm so sorry!"

I shook my head. "Don't be. It's not your fault."

"But it is! I shouldn't have asked you."

"It's fine," I assured. "I'm not angry." She suddenly held my hand. "Everything will be alright. Your parents still love you." I smiled, fascinated how she said the same thing as Jia. I thought she was the next person I could really be friends with.

The lunches after that, Eunji always came to my classroom. She was always there. She reminded me a lot of Jia. Her words were what I thought she would say but their personalities clash. Eunji had a bright, girly personality while Jia had a strong, straightforward personality. I liked Eunji. She always made me laugh and smile. It was a different feeling from the laughs I share with Jia.

One day, she popped a question out of nowhere. "Do you like me more or Jia more?" I didn't know what she was trying to imply so I answered honestly. "I like you both. You both have different charms.

She didn't like my answer. "In general, who do you like more? Do I look prettier than her or does she look prettier than me? Do I make you smile more or does she make you smile more?"

"Um..." She was asking trick questions. I didn't know how to respond. "Well, you do look prettier than her." That was the answer she wanted because she smiled and leaned over, pressing her lips against mine. I was really surprised.  My eyes bulged out in surprise. I didn't expect that from her and I sure didn't expect Jia to walk in on that. I broke the kiss and leaned back.

"Oh. Uh...sorry for interrupting." I noticed a plastic container in her hand. She had grilled fish. "Continue," she said before closing the door.

Eunji turned back to me. "Your friend approves of us."

"Us?" I squeaked out. She nodded. "We're dating now." I was very sure dating wasn't declared when two people kiss but my head wasn't screwed on tight at the time. The prettiest girl just kissed me. Who would be in the right mind after that?

The news got out that Eunji and I were dating. I was very happy. So happy I forgot about the troubles at home. So happy that I never got the chance to ever talk to my parents about their divorce before they both died. I wish I had though. If Jia were with me during those times, I would have confronted them about it but it's too late now. The day it happened can be saved for later.

After the news of Eunji and I, I decided to go check up on Jia. She must have been shocked as I was when she walked into the classroom. Actually, that was the first time I saw her after our fight. It was our longest fight. I hadn't seen her for almost a month and I wondered how she was doing. The winter break was around the corner and I always spent it with her and her family on Christmas.

The door was open to her classroom so I peeked inside. Her face was hidden by the barrier she made with her arms as she rest on the desk. On the other hand, Sunggyu was poking her annoyingly. He rest his head on her table as he poked her with his finger. "Jia. Jia. Jia," he would continuously say. He sounded absolutely tired when he repeated her name. It seemed like he had called her for a while. I wondered why she seemed upset.

Suddenly, he had this spurt of energy. He straightened up and acted happy. "Jia! Look at me!" He raised his arm above his head with an open mouth smile. It was quite an embarrassing sight and I was glad no one was around to see the school's bad act like that. "Jia! Jia!" He would poke her arm enthusiastically like it was his first time playing a piano, not knowing what the white and black keys were.

"Go away," she mumbled.

"No. I'm staying here." Then, he placed his chin on her head. He was way too close for comfort and I was about to go in and rip his head off but Jia was quicker than me. She lifted her head and he backed away.

"Go play with someone else. I don't like it when you stab your chin on my head!" I frowned. She implied that he did the same thing before.

"No, I want to play with you. Here, I'll make you laugh, okay! If I make you laugh, you'll have to give me your time during the winter break."

"I spend that time with my family. I used to spend it with Woohyun." Ouch. That hurt.

"That's great then. You'll have time for me when I make you laugh."

"Sunggyu, this isn't the best time."

He ignored her and got up. He ran and grabbed the radio behind the teacher's podium. He plugged it in and turned it on. A song from the popular boy hand came on. He stepped from side to side, getting into the beat. His beat was so off he had to stop and catch up with it. Then, he began dancing to the song. He randomly danced around when the verse was on and broke into the choreographed dance when the chorus came in.

"Hey, uncover your face, you cheater!" I looked back at Jia and was she indeed covering her face. "You're embarrassing!" She didn't cover her face because of that. I knew she was laughing.  It was game over for me. We didn't see each other that winter break.

Although we didn't see each other over the break, I still got a present from her. I felt so ashamed of myself. She still thought of me as a friend and left her present for me while I spent the day of Christmas with Eunji. I got her nothing.

I made up for it though. I should have done it earlier but I was a coward. On the day before school started, I rung her doorbell. I heard voices inside before it died down. I heard the door unlock. It pulled open to reveal Jia.

It was so long since I've seen her last. I forgot how she looked like. This person looked like a stranger to me. Her hair was cut to her ears. She had frames over her 20/20 vision eyes. Instead of being up to my shoulders, she was up to my nose now.

"Hi, Woohyun," she spoke, not hearing anything from me.

"Hi," I said. "It's been a while."

"Yeah, it has." An awkward silence followed. It had been so long since we talked. We also ended on bad terms so I guess I had it coming so I started off with an apology. I told her I was really sensitive at the time and I needed time to cool off. Then, I told her how Eunji came into the picture. I didn't like explaining things to her when she stared at me with a blank face. It felt like she didn't believe me.

"I see," she said. I know she wanted to say more. She would never end off anything with that. She always had to express her opinion but she held back. Unlike the other two times where her straight forward thoughts were unnecessary, I needed it to be reassured - reassured that she wasn't mad.

"You've got to say more than that. I'm apologizing."

"Oh, right," she said as if she forgot. "Don't worry about it. I hope you and Eunji the best, too."

That wasn't what I wanted to hear at all. Those weren't her honest words. She was sugar coating it so I can be pleased. At times I really wished she would but at times like this, I wanted her real opinion. I opened my mouth to complain about just that when Sunggyu suddenly appeared at the doorway. "I can't bear to hear another word! You guys are utterly impossible." Before I could even ask why he was there, he pulled me inside the apartment like it was his own. He pulled the two of us into the kitchen where there lay a flattened batter of dough that was ready to be cut with stencils. "Both of you cut into the dough so I can eat the cookies already. I'm going to be watching my show." He took a couple steps away before he turned around and walked to Jia. He lifted those frames off her nose and placed it on his own. "That's better." He patted her head before leaving to turn on the TV. She looked at me and smiled, passing me the star stencil. She told me to do one end and she'll do the other, since she only had two stencils anyway. She had the quarter moon. She's really interested in what is beyond our Earth's atmosphere. She says there is so much we can learn from the millions of galaxies out there. I don't believe any of that but she can believe what she wants to believe.

"You've gotten closer to Sunggyu," I said, cutting a couple stars into the dough.

"Yeah," she said. "I would have never even thought of it. We've gotten closer this past month. He's really cool." This past month; the month I haven't even spoke a word to her.

"Eunji...is she cool, too?" I laughed at her question. "She's pretty cool," I responded. "I want you to meet her one day. She's cool. She's beautiful."

Jia stopped cutting into the dough. She put her stencil down and wiped her hands on the wet rag. "I like stars. Let's make more stars. I need to go to the washroom but I'll preheat the oven first." She went over to the microwave oven and turned it on before playfully blocking the TV from Sunggyu and rushing to the washroom.

He got up from the couch and came to help me. He punched out the dough with the moon stencil. "She doesn't want any more moons," I said.

"She always wants more moons. She says she wants more stars because she's lazy." I put my stencil down. I was already at half of the dough. "You're not finished yet. There's more dough in that metal bowl wrapped in Saran Wrap take that out and knead it. We're making donuts also."

"Why are you making so many desserts?" I complained although I followed his instructions. "Tomorrow we go back to school."

He shrugged. "Jia suddenly wanted to make this. She said she wasn't able to do it during the winter break." I paused. She was supposed to do all this with me. Every Christmas, we'd bake desserts and share it with our family. Not all homes had ovens so with the grace of her microwave oven, we were able to bake. This tradition totally slipped my mind. I didn't follow tradition because I was with Eunji.

"So, Eunji, huh?" I snapped out of my thoughts when I heard my girlfriend's name. "Yeah," I replied.

"You like her?"

"Yeah. You jealous?"

He laughed. "I wish. She's pretty but I never talked to her. I don't know if her words are as pretty as her face."

"She's beautiful," I said once again.

Jia came out of the washroom. "Hey, guys, I'm taking a shower. The flour won't get out of my hair."

"That's what you get when you question my eyesight!" Sunggyu said. "And what kind of homeowner showers with male guests around?"

"You guys are my best friends. It's okay." She ran into her room to get a change of clothes.

"You better not act like this in front of others. They might run away." She came out and replied, "You guys aren't running away, so it's okay. I'll be right back!" Then, she disappeared into the washroom again.

Sunggyu smiled and shook his head. I observed him while he placed the dough onto the tray covered under parchment paper. "You still like her."

"That's why I wish I was jealous of you. I wish I can call someone else beautiful other than her. I'm trying hard not to fall in love. It's difficult, Woohyun, because you weren't there." This was the first time he said my name. He didn't yell or scream it he just...said it. It’s weird how I suddenly liked him. I liked him because he was trying his hardest to step away. He was stopping himself from falling any deeper. Those were his words, the words coming from a boy two years older than me.

"I tried to stay away," he continued, "but I couldn't because she needed me. You were gone and she had no one. Sure, there is Nicole but she doesn't know when to stop talking. I was worried Jia would be trapped in her social bubble.”

"I understand," I told him as I picked up the donut stencil and pressed on the dough. "Thank you. For being there when I wasn't."

"That doesn't mean I was doing it for you. I was doing it for her."

"That's a better answer." Sunggyu and I exchanged a smile. I don't know how but we got closer after that. We would hang out when Jia and Eunji weren't around. Although we didn't have anything much in common, we were still close. He's the second closest person I had in my life. I don't think there will be another second.