On the day we came back from our break I sat in my usual seat waiting for class to begin.

“Where’d you get that picture?” Meekyoung leaned over her desk to inspect the handmade polaroid I made with the picture of me and Soonyoung in front of the Christmas tree we had taken before break in the front cover of my one inch three ring binder.

“We took it on the day before break and I made the frame myself,” I replied.

“Look! Look! They’re holding hands!” Micha was hitting Meekyoung’s arm to get her attention.

“I see that.”

“Have either of you seen Soonyoung today?” I asked.

They both shook their heads.

I sighed silently to myself as my shoulders deflated a bit.

“Why? Missing him already?” Meekyoung teased.

I shook my head not amused, “I know he comes late but he’s never been this late in the morning.”

“Maybe he missed the bus today,” Micha suggested.

“I guess.”

For the rest of the day Soonyoung still hadn’t shown up. I asked Seokmin if he’d seen Soonyoung.

“Maybe he’s sick,” Seokmin shrugged.

The next few days passed and Soonyoung still hadn’t shown up to school. A week passed and eventually our teachers stopped calling his name  when we were checking roll. His seat was soon occupied by Seokmin.

I walked to the classroom early in the morning for the morning cleaning duties.

I wonder who else’s turn it is.

Just then the door slid open and came in a tall figure. I looked up from erasing the chalkboard to meet eyes with Wonwoo. I turned back around and continued erasing the chalkboard. The scraping and banging of chairs being set down was the only sound that went through the silence. Once I finished erasing the chalkboard I started wiping the desks that had their chairs down. Wonwoo had finished putting the chairs down and started to wipe the desks on the opposite side of the room. As I got to the center of the room I looked up to the clock to see that we still had plenty of time before school started. We both cleaned the desks until there were no more to clean. Wonwoo was leaning over one of the desks hand still on the cleaning wipe, he cleared his throat into elbow.

“Are we done?” I asked.

“Yea,” his voice faltered a bit, he stood up straight and soundlessly walked to the trash can and threw away the cleaning wipe before leaving the classroom. I followed just a bit after he left and headed to the bathroom. I washed my hands and checked my appearance in the mirror fixing my hair a bit before walking around the hallways to kill time.

“Yuna! Yuna!” I heard Micha call my name from behind, “Guess what?” she tried evening her breathing as she spoke.

“What?” I was looking at the walls as we were walking.

“Some,” was all I heard her say, “did you hear what I said?”

“No sorry I wasn’t listening,” I her so that all my attention was on her.

“Someone likes you,” she smiled.

“Who?”

“I can’t say, they said they would kill me if I told you.”

“How’d you even find out?” I asked.

“So I was in the library after school yesterday for extra lessons and he was there too and he wrote three tiny words on a sheet of paper then he threw away the paper,” she explained, “it was a waste of paper though.”

“Is it,” I lowered my voice becoming hopeful, “Wonwoo?” I said barely above a whisper.

She started laughing.

“What?” I hit her arm, “a girl can dream can’t they?” I pouted, “plus he writes small.”

“True, but it’s not him,” she shook her head.

“Then who?”

“Can’t say.”

“Fine, come on might as well be early than late,” I headed to the classroom.

“No I want water,” Micha took a turn to a different hallway.

I rolled my eyes, typical Micha.

I walked in the classroom the next morning with a book of boxes from the staff room.

What’s taking Wonwoo so long to get here? He’s supposed to be doing morning duties with me and I’ve been the one to put the chairs down, wipe all the desks and clear off the chalkboard.

I placed the box next to the podium at the front of the class and went back to the staff room to carry another box back. On my way there the box was lifted from my hands and was carried by another, my head snapped up to the person.

So he finally comes.

I turned back around to the staff room and took the last box. I came into the classroom and set the box down neatly. Wonwoo was leaning against the wall near the door attentively looking at his phone.

I carefully approached him, “You’re supposed to be cleaning.”

He ignored me his eyes never leaving his phone.

“Wonwoo,” I called him, but he still didn’t look up, I snatched his phone away from him finally gaining his attention.

“Give it back,” he stood up straight holding his hand out.

I looked down at his phone closely to see he was watching some blurry video, looking closer i inspected the tiny orange pixels in the top corner, "this is a surveillance tape," I looked up at him still holding onto his phone.

"Give it to me now," Wonwoo took a step forward.

I took a step back as I fiddled with his phone, "you won't be able to see anything well if you don't fix the quality."

"I don't care just give it back," he took another step towards me.

I took another step back, hitting the desk behind me, I freed one of my hands from the phone to balance myself before continuing.

"I'm serious," Wonwoo leaned in close to me, as he was leaning even closer I was forced to practically sit on the desk and lean away from him as far as possible.

"Done," I breathed out before sitting straight up, remembering about Wonwoo's proximity from me I looked away as he backed up giving me some space. "Here, I fixed the quality so you can watch the video clear even if you zoom in," I held out his phone to him as he took it and continued to watch the video. I stood next to him watching the video with him as he zoomed into a particular spot or person, recognition came over me as he zoomed in, "that-that's," my thoughts became jumbled up as I tried to make sense of everything, I looked over to Wonwoo to find him focused on his phone. "Where'd you get this video?" I asked.

He spared me a single glance before continuing, "my friend."

"Let me see it again," I took his phone from him and turned my back to him. He sighed before leaning close to me, his even breath just at my neck, I stiffened a bit suddenly becoming self conscious of everything I did. “This is Soonyoung isn’t it?” I pointed out to the familiar figure on the tiny screen.

“It seems so,” Wonwoo’s eyes narrowed.

“Then why hasn’t he been coming to school? Why hasn’t anyone seen him?” I asked.

Wonwoo forced me to turn around and face him as one hand was on top of mine on the desk while the other was wrapped around my other hand that held his phone. His cold fingers making me quiver at first. “You’re smart enough to figure things out Yuna,” his voice bitter as he said my name. “Do I have to explain everything?” he leaned in closer, “Haven’t you noticed how the teachers stopped calling his name?”

“That’s only because they haven’t seen him at school.”

“Have you looked closer? You know where his locker is haven’t you checked to see if there’s anything in there?”

“Soonyoung never gave me his locker combination.”

“Think for a bit Yuna, Soonyoung hasn’t shown up to school since break and the teachers stopped calling his name.”

“He probably went out the country for break and still hasn’t returned.”

“How oblivious can you get? He’s disappeared for over a week since break and he's even out of the school's system. What more evidence do you need?" His hands tightened around mine.

I winced a bit, "the school would've told us by now."

Wonwoo leaned into my ear, "The school isn't going to risk their reputation if you haven't noticed," his voice got angrier while being in a low whisper, "there's no way this school would allow their reputation to be ruined while being in the top twenty high schools in Korea. All they had to do was erase his name from the system and move along like he was never here in the first place."

"What does this have to do with me?" I snapped.

"What does it have to do with you?" He repeated my question, "you're Soonyoung's best friend if he disappeared he'd tell you before he'd leave."

"I'm not his best friend," my voice was shaking and I could feel the burning sensation in my eyes, "I'm just another girl that he talks to, with your logic you're saying that he would've told Micha or even Meekyoung where he went," I in my breath, "we're probably not even best friends just friends that talk to each other I’m not that important to him." My voice quivered and Wonwoo finally let go of both my hands taking his phone back with him before he turned and left the classroom. I sanked down onto my knees and ended up crying on the desk.

Why did it sound so much like a reminder to myself rather than just a statement?