My alarm went off for like the millionth time, and this time, instead of pressing the snooze button, I actually got up. Good thing too, because the first thing I saw was Sunho entering my room, carrying a bucket of water.

"I thought you'd never wake up," he said, "Go get ready for school."

I rubbed my eyes, and drowsily got into the bath. The water was freezing, but at least it awakened my senses. After taking a bath, I put on my uniform and headed downstairs for breakfast. Sunho was on the table watching the morning news as usual. I started eating my breakfast (which was cereal), while listening to whatever the news anchor was saying.

Today, a patient from Seoul Asylum who is known for having taken numerous lives, has been deemed mentally stable and has been discharged from the said asylum. The patient is none other than Lee Byunghun.

I literally choked on my food when I heard that. L.Joe was back. After a year, he was back. Sunho gave me a worried look. He knew what I went through after my last visit to the asylum.

For months, I seemed like I had lost my will to do anything, just like when L.Joe was taken away, only this time I wouldn't just lay down in bed. I went to school like always, but I was never really there. I couldn't listen well to what my teachers were saying, Ricky and Changjo tried to be as supportive as much as they could, but I never really responded to anything. It wasn't until about two months ago, when I let everything out to Ricky and Changjo that I felt better. Of course I did still feel like crap whenever L.Joe was brought up.

"I'm fine," I told Sunho, "Really." I didn't know how I felt about it though. I mean, L.Joe was out. Wasn't I supposed to be happy? I mean, isn't that what we both wanted? To have him out of the asylum without risk of losing him again. My head started to hurt from all those questions so I just decided to keep eating my breakfast and deal with them later.

"So did you hear the news?" asked Ricky, when I got to class that day. I pursed my lips and nodded.

"How're you taking it?" asked Changjo.

"I don't really know. Look, can we not talk about this just yet? Please," I said. Changjo and Ricky both apologized and dropped the subject. Our teacher came in at that very moment, bearing news.

"So today, you will have a new- well not exactly. He's back after some time. We assure you that he is quite safe, and I expect that you will all treat him the same way you treated him when he first came here. Please come in," he said as he motioned for someone outside to come in.

I had a feeling who that person might be, but I didn't really want to believe it. It wasn't until I saw the same handsome features, the same body build, and the same eyes, that I knew it was L.Joe. 

It was one thing knowing that he was released from the asylum, and another seeing him out of it. Just seeing him stand there made my heart beat faster. I wanted to just run up to him, give him a big hug and kiss him in front of everyone. Because I knew that even after a year of wallowing in sorrow, I still loved him. After he intentionally pushed me out of his life, I still loved him. After all the pain, I still loved him. My eyes started welling up with tears. 

"Good morning! My name is Lee Byunghun, but you may call me L.Joe. I hope we'll all become good friends. Please take care of me," he said as he bowed.

"Please take your seat. You may sit beside Mr. Lee Chanhee right there," he said as he pointed towards L.Joe's past seat. Thanks a lot sir. Darn it! I wasn't ready for this. Sure I'd been dying to see him, but now that he was here, I didn't know what to do. The last time we saw each other, we fought, and now I'm not so sure I knew what we were anymore.

L.Joe stood beside me for a second, and we just looked at each other. "Hey," he said.

"Hey," I replied. L.Joe took his seat beside me. Our teacher soon started discussing some new topic, but I couldn't really listen; I was too busy staring at the person beside me.

"Chanhee-ah!" said Ricky.

"Huh, what?" I asked.

"Is everything alright? You seem really spaced out," said Ricky.

"Oh, yeah. Everything's fine," I knew they didn't really believe me, but at least they were nice enough to not push me.

"Hey guys," said L.Joe as he stood in front of our table. "Do you mind if I sit with you?" he asked.

Ricky and Changjo looked at me worriedly. I gave them a questioning look and just shrugged. "Sure," said Changjo. L.Joe took his usual seat beside me and started eating. The universe just loved making things harder for me, didn't it? Even though I was calmly eating my lunch, I was actually an emotional mess inside. I still couldn't tell how I felt about L.Joe, and that was absolutely frustrating.

The final bell rang and I started walking for home, when I felt someone's hand on my shoulder. I turned around and found L.Joe there. No surprise.

"We need to talk," he said.

"Go ahead," I said.

"Chanhee... what exactly are we?" asked L.Joe. 

"I don't know. Believe me I've been wondering about that ever since I last saw you," I replied. My voice almost cracked and I felt my tears rising, but I ignored both. "The truth is, I don't even know how I feel for you anymore. I know deep inside that I still love you. But after what you did; after you pushed me away-" I said.

"I only did that for the both of us!" he said.

"And you chose to lie instead of just telling me the truth?! You chose to make me believe that you were gone, and that no one loved me anymore?!" I shouted. My tears were falling down but I didn't really care at that point. "Do you have any idea how much pain I went through in the past year? Not seeing you, not talking to you was painful enough, but the fact that it was because you pushed me away made it hurt even more! And all because you didn't want to get hurt again if we got separated?"

"So you're basically saying I was being selfish?" he scoffed. I could see tears in his eyes as well. "Fine! I get it! I'm at fault because I was selfish! I was selfish because I didn't want to get hurt! I was selfish because I worked hard to overcome my illness so I could get out to see you again!" he screamed.

There was a tense silence that followed. Tears kept flowing down on our faces. "I guess this is goodbye then," he said.

"Goodbye L.Joe," I said. 

L.Joe cupped my face in his hands and kissed me. "I love you Chanhee," he said before he walked away, leaving me.

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey c: So chapter 16 is up. I hope you liked this chapter. Please tell me what you thought in the comments, and please upvote :> I LOVE YOU GUYS <3 <3 <3 Thank you OuO Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee -u-