19

LET'S SETTLE THIS, MAYBE?

The rest of the trip was fairly calm. Jinyoung had apparently ended up driving an extra hour the night before to find a better and more desolated location where they could enjoy their time without worries—but their mother's scolding of course. Apparently, she did not like the idea of them missing out on a school day, something Gongchan highly suspected of. But everything went well, since Jinyoung is quite the charmer, and well his mother didn't really mind what they did as long as Jinyoung took full responsibility.

They spent their rest of their day walking along the seashore, sometimes holding hands a bit every now and then since Gongchan always seemed to let go and run away from Jinyoung. Things finally seemed to be falling into place, without any hidden secrets—or at least that's what they thought.

—

Gongchan arrived at Baro's place in the afternoon with hopes of getting all the notes he needed from the previous two school days, since he had accidentally overslept the next day after they arrived.

With a sigh, he quickly fixed his hair before knocking on the door, only to realize that there was a doorbell right beside the door, but oh well. A couple of knocks later the door opens, and Baro's blond hair pops up from behind. He's dressed in pajamas, with an ice cream cone in his hand, and messy hair.

"You scared me," he says, clutching his heart with his free hand. Gongchan frowns.

"I should be the one saying that," he mumbles, stepping inside and taking off his shoes.

"No like, I wasn't expecting you to be here so soon."

"I texted before coming here, though," Gongchan deadpans, and Baro smiles sheepishly.

"My phone battery kind of... died," he says, eating his ice cream as he walks upstairs towards his bedroom. "I'll be back in a sec."

And Gongchan just stands there, awkwardly, because he was neither offered a seat or told what to do. But it's his friends house so he supposes he can have a seat. He walks to wards the living room, which is for some reason closed off in another room, and plops himself onto a couch. It's the same room they were in last time when they were watching a movie. The same day Shinwoo said—

"So I know I don't take the best notes, but here," Baro says, eating yet another ice cream (this time it's chocolate, not vanilla). He passes his notebook to him, then takes a seat one the other side of the couch. "I hope you can read my handwriting."

"Thanks. And Jinyoung's good at decoding, so—ow!" Baro throws another notebook at him.

"Those are Sandeul's," he says. "He actually takes good notes," he adds on, getting up to throw the wrapper away.

"Can I take these home or.."

"You have a phone, don't you?" Baro yells from the kitchen. Gongchan sighs, this is gonna take a while, considering that is hands is shaky as heck.

—

"Hey, Chan," Baro says, once they're standing on the porch outside his house.

"Yeah?" It's rather late, and he should better get going, but he believes that a few minutes extra couldn't hurt.

"What happened that night?" A cool breeze passes by, and Gongchan finds himself hugging his arms. He's about to ask what night he's referring to, but then he realizes that there's only one night that can interest the other.

"Nothing. Shinwoo just went after me to give me my phone—"

"I know what happened," Baro says, and Gongchan sighs. "He's been texting me the past two days, non-stop, asking me where you went. Heck, he even came over yesterday in hopes of finding you here."

Gongchan laughs dryly, before looking at his muddy shoes.

"Have you given him an answer yet?" Baro asks, eyeing him curiously, and Gongchan shakes his head.

"No," he replies. I thought it was pretty clear that I'm not interested.

"When are you going to tell him then?" And Gongchan just let's out a sigh. Oh how he wishes