"How was your day, Daehyun?" His mother asks. 

Daehyun pushes the food on his plate around with his fork, not really having an appetite. "It was okay, I guess."

"Did anything happen to make you upset? You love mash potatoes." His mother says with concern for her eldest son. 

"Nothing happened.." Just my heart is broken, that's all mom. But don't worry though, it's over a guy. 

"Hyung looks sick." Taemin said as he adds carrots as a roof on his mash potato house. 

"You can tell me anything, baby. If you're upset I can help you. Is it school?" Daehyun looks up at his mother. Her hair is short and brown, and her red lipstick has faded into a light pink. His mother is a natural beauty, so the teen doesn't really understand why she wears makeup. Can I really tell her anything? Daehyun then looks past her face and to the crucifix that was perched up against the wall on the highest shelf. No I can't. It'll break her heart, he concludes. 

"Ah..nothing's wrong. I'm just tired."

"Hyung's lying." Taemin smashes his mash potato house. 

"What--"

"Don't accuse your brother of such things, Taemin. It's impolite." Taemin ignores his mother and continues to smash his food with his hands.

His mother turns to the oldest son, caressing his hand. "I know some kids are currently having trouble with the amount of school work they have. Are you having trouble with your grades?"

Daehyun shakes his head, "They're fine."

"Did you have a fight with one of your friends? Yongguk or Himchan?"

The teen rolls his eyes, shaking his head. 

"Is it...a girl?"

Daehyun retracts his hand from his mother, "Nothing's wrong, I'm just tired." He leaves the room. Once in the privacy of his bedroom, he sends a text asking Youngjae when he wants to meet up to finish their assignment. He falls asleep waiting for a reply. 

--

Daehyun enters his classroom a few moments before the bell rings. 

Youngjae, Kris and Jongup are already in the room when he enters. They're sitting at Jongups desk, their book bags and name tags were moved there as well. 

Daehyun furrows his eyebrows as he walks to his desk. He looks at Youngjae's old seat, which now has the name tag 'sooyoung'. 

He moved seats?

Daehyun bites his lip, almost drawing blood as he takes his seat, crossing his arms and hiding his head. He takes deep breaths, trying his hardest not to cry because he doesn't want them to know how much Youngjae moving to another seat has an effect on the teen. He can slowly start to feel his walls break down. 

Daehyun hears the chairs and chatter of his classmates as the bell rings. His teacher starts the lesson but he doesn't put his head up. He feels like dying. A familiar feeling of wetness prickles the side of his eyes as the teacher instructs the class that they'll be moving to the computer lab across the hall. As the chairs began to move again, the students began packing up their belongings, Kris stands by Daehyun's desk. The older waits for them to be alone before he talks. 

"I have no interest in arguing with you, so I'll make this quick. Youngjae's going to finish the report by himself. He doesn't want any contact from you, through messages or you talking to him. I just wanted to...Daehyun?"

Kris stops his speech when Daehyun doesn't lift his head. Kris extends his arm, lightly shaking the other boy, "you should really look at the person who's delivering a message to you--" a gasp falls out of Kris when Daehyun finally looks up. 

Daehyun's face is wet with tears; nose red from rubbing it, his eyeliner that was nearly put on this morning is now smudged. 

"Are you...crying Daehyun?" It's then Daehyun lets out a horse cry. He falls out of his chair; hands too busy clutching to his chest to catch himself. 

This can't be happening

Kris, on pure instinct because he's a soft-hearted guy, rushes to Daehyun's side. He pulls the younger onto his lap. "Oh my god, what happened?! Are you hurt?!" 

Daehyun nods, unable to stop crying. 

Youngjae doesn't want to see me anymore?

He's finally broken. The younger requesting that they have no further contact breaks him. Kris drags him out of the classroom and to the bathroom that's a few doors down. He doesn't want the teen to get in trouble for crying. 

Youngjae and Jongup are looking out in the hallway from the computer lab at the scene. As the two other boys disappear into the bathroom, Jongup turns to his best friend. "You made him cry." Shock is present on his face. "You actually made him cry." 

"I did?" Youngjae replies, an unfamiliar feeling of guilt hits his heart. He can't be crying because I don't want to talk to him anymore?

Daehyun rushes to the toilet. He hunches over the seat, wanting to throw up. Forcing himself to gag, he just wants the feeling out of his chest.   The feeling of regret, disgust with himself because of can he be so ing stupid for treating the other like that? Why did he think Youngjae would like him while he's bullying the other? The physical pain is too much for the teen. He gives up, falling onto the dirty bathroom floor. He doesn't care anymore. Gripping his hair, so tightly that he's pulling single strands out, he presses his knees against his chest. 

"Do you want me to get the nurse?" Kris asks, handing the stressed teen a wet paper towel. 

"Get me Youngjae." Daehyun manages to say through his hyperventilating. 

"But, he doesn't want to see you..."

Tears well up again as he hears those words, "I-I know," he covers his face with the wet towel, the cold water feels nice against his hot face. 

"You don't...like him, do you?"

He has nothing to lose. Daehyun already lost Youngjae, and he was his everything.  He decides that he doesn't care who finds out. His parents, friends, Youngjae. He doesn't care anymore. 

Daehyun nods, dragging Kris down by the collar, barring his face in the crook of Kris's neck. The older boy smells like warm vanilla, it's a comforting scent so it makes Daehyun calm down. His cries turn into muffled sobs, a hand runs down his back in an attempt to comfort him, and Kris seems to think its working. 

"You like Youngjae?" Kris asks when he believes it's an appropriate time. Daehyun isn't crying anymore, and it's been at least 15 minutes since they got here. 

"Yeah..." Daehyun feels helpless. He finds it strange how he's so comfortable with Kris, being able to confess about his crush on Youngjae the moment the older asks, but he's unable to to Youngjae or his friends or his parents. And just yesterday Daehyun was willing to punch him.  It's a vibe Kris gives off, Daehyun concludes. A vibe that Daehyun somehow overlooked yesterday.

"Then why do you bully him? If you like him, you should've just told him."

"I-I was going to, but when we first met, he always ignored me. S-so I thought he didn't like m-me."

"Did you want me to tell him? Tell him about your crush?"

Daehyun doesn't get a chance to reply because their teacher is walking through the bathroom door. He stands with his hands on his hips, “Why aren’t you two in class? I’ve spent the past few minutes looking all over for you.” He looks down at Daehyun who clearly still has tear stains on his flushed cheeks. “Anything happened?” he asks Kris, due to what happened yesterday in the café.


“Daehyun-ssi’s not feeling well, I was about to bring him to the nurse’s office actually.”

Their teacher nods, still suspicious about their intentions, but nevertheless lets Kris carry out the younger boy.

“I’ll call his parents to let them know about his current situation.”  As he leaves, Kris throws Daehyun’s arm over his shoulder for support. The nurse’s office is down stairs, so it’ll be a hardship.

“Kris-hyung…”

The elder of the two looks at Daehyun, “Yeah?”

A tear rolls down Daehyun’s face, “I’m sorry.”


“I know.”