“Are you okay?”

When Jaye and Mark were together, Billie got the sense of what was going on from where she was sitting in the car through their facial expressions. It didn’t look like a good conversation, especially on Mark’s part. When Jaye got into the car though, Billie could tell her friend didn’t feel like talking, which was a first, so she just drove without saying anything, the radio playing softly in the background with the accompaniment of whooshing cars.

They were heading back to Billie’s house since Jaye had the next day off and she figured some girl time was necessary after everything that happened. About halfway to their destination however, Billie figured she should say something before her parents got a hold of her.

Billie glanced over to the passenger seat, only to see Jaye staring out the window with her lips pressed together in a line.

“You don’t have to say if you don’t want to,” Billie said quietly, turning her eyes to the road once again.

“I do though,” Jaye sighed after a short pause.

Billie waited.

“I really liked him,” Jaye whispered, “We weren’t amazing friends but we knew each other for a long time. We didn’t go to school together until high school, and there was a bunch of us that would always hang out together…I just didn’t have the guts to say anything.

“Then he disappeared, without a word to any of us, and I didn’t know what to do,” she continued while Billie just listened, “Everyone seemed so calm, as if him being gone was normal, so I was composed on the outside while I was freaking out on the inside. After school, I went over to Mark’s house with a few other friends and almost cried when his mom answered the door, I thought maybe he got sick all of a sudden since his family was still home. When she told us he went to Korea to be a singer, my mind blanked and I didn’t know what to do or say. She ended up inviting us inside and while I was getting over my shock, one of his sisters, Grace, came home and ended up keeping me company, explaining certain things for me.

“I didn’t even know he wanted to be a singer! What kind o