"Hey! Tao!" a girl's voice called out.

I turned to see who the voice belonged to and noticed it was the girl whom I had seen the first time I sat at this table, Suho's girlfriend. Or ex. No one really knew what was going on with them, although it seemed like they had broken up. Her name was Hye Rim, which I was able to remember because I noticed her around a bit, though I don't believe I've ever properly met her. Plus she comes up to our table from time to time to have Tao pass something along to Lay for student council when she couldn't find him, which was a disturbingly large amount of the time. 

"I heard from Lay that you're going back to China," she said as she reached the table, upset. 

"Yeah, I am," Tao responded to her.

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe it! I'm really going to miss you," she said.

"You mean miss having him around to help you avoid me," came a suprisingly bitter voice.

Suho had walked up to the table as well, but made a visible show of cirumventing her and standing at almost the other end of the table. I wondered at first why he bothered, but based on the thinly veiled anger and dislike that radiated off of him when he looked at her, I guess their relatioship was still pretty bad. I don't know why it suprised me since neither of them really liked to talk about what was going on with them. I should have realized it had to do with them not being on good terms.

Of course, he wasn't the only one with a hostile demeanor. Hye Rim's bearings grew rigid and her face turned hard when she saw Suho.

"I'm sorry to hear you're leaving, Tao," Suho said to him, his face softening when he looked at Tao, then returned to it's original form when he looked at Hye Rim again.

"This isn't the time for that kind of talk," she told him warningly, keeping her voice level.

"There's never been a time," he shot back, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"We already have talked, Suho. It's not my fault if you didn't listen," she replied, poison in her tone.

"Oh my gosh," Kyungsoo interjected, standing up suddenly. "I can't take it anymore."

With that, he grabbed his food, walked over to the trash cans, dumped it, and walked out of the cafeteria without a glance back over his shoulder. Everyone remained in stuned silence for a moment before Suho and Hye Rim both mumbled "good bye" and walked off in different directions.

~

"Oh no!" I said to myself as Jong In and I were standing outside the school that day talking to Tao and Sehun.

"What's wrong?" Jong In asked, hearing me.

"I forgot my phone in class," I explained as I checked for the fifth time to make sure my phone wasn't in my bag. "Hold on, I'll be right back."

I headed back into the school by myself, leaving him with the other boys, as I made my way to the classroom. I knew it had to be in there because I had checked my phone for messages right before class started. I hadn't heard much from Ga In since Friday night, which was something unusual for her after a break up. Typically, she'd text me non-stop overbearingly happy messages in an effort to prove she was alright and I didn't need to worry. I wasn't sure if her silence meant she actually was alright or if she was so upset she couldn't even pretend. She hadn't seemed that bad off on Friday, but I wouldn't put it past myself to have missed something obvious indicating how she was.

I turned a corner and saw Suho was making his way down the halls by himself as well. He noticed me just when I noticed him and smiled.

"Soo Young!" he said, walking up to me. "Haven't left yet?"

"I forgot my phone," I explained, vaguely indicating the direction of the classroom, too suprised by bumping into him to think that he probably wouldn't care.

"Oh well, I'll walk with you," he said, stepping aside and raising his arm as if to say "Ladies first". "I actually had wanted to talk to you."

"You did?" I asked, suprised as I headed towards the classroom again. Suho and I had never really talked before, I couldn't imagine what this might be about.

"Yeah," he began, smiling down at the ground sheepishly. "I wanted to appologize. For what happened earlier. Hye Rim and I aren't on the best of terms right now and I just..." he trailed off, struggling to find the right words. "That whole situation just makes me act crazy. And I'm sorry I did that. Especially since I know Tao's leaving and you guys are probably going to want making good memories, not listen to me and Hye Rim fight."

"You don't have to appologize," I said, not wanting Suho to feel any worse than he apparently already did.

"Thanks, but I do," he said. After a beat he asked; "So how are things with you and Kai?"

"Oh, we're doing good," I answered, not sure what the proper response to that question actually was since I hadn't ever really been asked it before. I thought about saying more, but held my tongue, worrying if I talked too much about it then that would make Suho think too much about him and Hye Rim, which would make him feel bad, which was something I definitely didn't want.

"That's good," he said as we turned into the classroom, then continued saying, his tone bitter, "you guys should enjoy it now. While it lasts."

"'While it lasts'?" I asked

"Sorry," he said again. He didn't explain himself for a second, but then didn't seem to be able to hold it in anymore. "It's just-" he pauses, gathering his wits, and then exploded "-what do you girls want form us? I thought girls were always dreaming about the future and fatasizing about weddings and families and all that while guys were the ones with the commitment issues. But I bring up the idea of us getting married one time after we've been dating for two years, not proposing, but bringing up something hypothetical, and I'm suddenly 'moving too fast' and 'way too invested in the relationship'." He's pacing now, waving his arms around while he talks having worked himself up at this point. "It's not like I was saying I wanted to get married right now! We're in high school! And it's not like I don't know we're starting college next year and a lot of things will change! I know all of that! I'm looking forward to it! I don't want to set anything in stone right now. But some day in the furture I do plan on getting married and I had hoped it would be with Hye Rim! I had thought after two years she was as serious about us as I was, and would want to discuss those kinds of things too to try and figure out if we agreed on all of it, but I guess to her we was just some fling or whatever you'd call it. And now she won't even talk to me. Won't even listen. She treats me like the plague." He stoped walking then before leaning against the teachers desk, rubbing his face with his hands before sliding them back, running his fingers through his hair. He looked up at me, seeming to remember where he was and who he was talking to. He looked so tired and hopeless.

"I'm sorry I just put all of that on you," he said earnestly, seeming angry with himself. "Really, I just-"

"No, it's okay," I said, unsure of what else to say to make it better, to make anything better, but hoping he'd at least believe that I didn't mind him venting to me. I wanted to help him, but I had no idea how. Jong In and I haven't really had many problems, and none of them had been a refusal to communicate. Not like that. I was just so lost on what I should do or say.

"Hey!" Jong In called cheerily from the door.

Both Suho and I whipped our heads around to look at him, completely startled by the interuption. Jong In seemed oblivious to the mood of the room before he entered, and just continued on.

"Hey Suho," he greeted before turning back to me. "You were taking a while to get your phone so I came to see what was taking so long."

I stared at him blankly for a second before what he was talking about clicked and I remembered the whole reason I was in here with Suho; my phone.

"Oh! Yeah, sorry," I blustered out as I walked back to my seat and grabbed it.

"I just remembered I have a meeting for Student Council that's supposed to start soon. I'll see you guys later," Suho said after glancing at his phone. He seemed to have shed most of his bitterness from earlier and was realitively okay now, but I doubted that was true.

"Alright. See you later," Jong In said before I mumbled a "Bye."

We all left the classroom, Suho heading off in one direction while Jong In and I headed in another. Neither of us said anything at first, I was thinking too much about what Suho had just said, but I'm not sure what was running through his mind. By the time we walked outside again a lot of the students had all cleared off and gone home or to hang out with their friends already, and that was when Jong In spoke up.

"Are you okay?" he asked as we exited the grounds as well.

"Yeah," I answered, caught off guard by the question. "I'm fine."

"I overheard the last part of what happened in their," he clarified, looking a little sheepish. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop, it just didn't seem like a good idea to interupt."

I nodded, not really upset over it. Then again, it wasn't my problems he had overheard.

"As far as I know, Suho hasn't really talked about what's been going on to anyone. At least not to any of us. It was like he was just keeping it all bottled up inside. It's good for him to get it out, he probably just should have picked someone else to unload it all on," he said smiling sheepishly at me as he reached to take my hand.

I hadn't realized until he grabbed it that I had been waiting for him to take it.

"I don't really mind," I explained, hoping he didn't think I had been annoyed by it at all. "Although it probably would have been better for him to say all that to a friend who could be more helpful to him. I feel really bad because I had no idea what to do."

"I know," he said, squeezing my hand again. "That's why I jumped in. I don't think Suho really expected you to help, but I figured you'd want to try anyway but wouldn't know how."

I was somewhere between thankful that he had jumped in and annoyed that he thought I couldn't handle the situation. Or knew, I guess I should say, though I didn't want to. I didn't like that I was so incompetent when it came to helping people, and him being perfectly aware of that short coming only exascerbated my irritation over it. I wanted to get better, and I knew the only way that would happen would be to practice. Maybe Suho's situation wouldn't be the best for me to practice on, but I didn't want Jong In thinking he needed to jump in to help me any time someone expected some humanity from me, or I felt like I should display it.

I was determined to handle these situations better in the future. I wasn't going to just be someone for people to confide in, but someone people would come to for help. I was deterined to be better with people.