! ! !

What the heck I was saying? Jiyong mentally whacked his head.

He was doomed.

Big time.

Seeing Dara’s eyes widen and her shocked face automatically brought him back to Earth. And in all of a sudden, his brain replayed his own voice saying those… My God, he didn’t even want to imagine it anymore. There was only a tiny ounce of his logical sense he could hold onto so, he struggled to keep himself sane. Fxxk that, how could he even say that out loud?! Okay, he didn’t regret thinking of kissing her. Any sane man would have the same thought going around their head too, he believed. But, stupid him, did he really need to say it out loud?! In front of herself?!

Kwon, you are a certified fool. Period.

“I beg your pardon?” A shocked Dara still managed to ask politely.

Hearing her, Jiyong couldn’t feel more embarrassed and guilty in front of her. She must be scared of him. Racking his hair with his hand and looking so much troubled, Jiyong apologized, “I- I’m so- I’m so sorry. I didn’t intend to say that, I- I apologize. I hope you aren’t offended or anything, just- just forget what I said.”

Though still confused—and had her heart pounding for reason she had no idea—Dara still managed to smile and nod in understanding. “It’s okay, I understand.”

“You do?” Snapping his head to look at her squarely, his brows were lifted high ‘till they could touch the root of his hair.

Frowning, Dara didn’t get what he was saying.

Shaking his head once again, Jiyong said, “I’m sorry, I- I didn’t know what has gotten into me. I remembered I didn’t eat anything weird this morning so, I think I didn’t put anything awful into my stomach that would lead my brain to think oddly. Therefore, I wonder what happened to me. And I-

Dara smiled brightly.

Regaining his consciousness back, he looked up and found Dara smiling. He shut his mouth from blabbering more. He mentally cursed himself for God knew how much already. Just what the hell happened to Jiyong? This was unlikely of him.

“Dara, I-

“Apologize?” Dara cut him off, still smiling.

Jiyong scratched his head, embarrassed beyond logic. Seeing him all embarrassed, Dara couldn’t stop her mind to think that he was cute. Especially when he started blabbering non-stop as if he forgot she was with him and could clearly heard what he said, since he said them out loud, of course. She wondered if this was how he interacted with others. This side of him showed that he was far from the common result of people’s quick judge, that he was cold, distant and unapproachable. Or maybe he just showed this kind of attitude whenever he was with his close friends. She had no information in her pocket about whom he hung out with. So except from that Seungri guy, she didn’t know much about his friends. But that could be managed later. With the school’s upcoming event—and Chaeyoung’s reminder, she must be working with him. Along that way, they could be friends.

Right?

***

“Man, you gotta stop it now.”

“Shut up, Mithra.”

The young man with beard, Mithra, could only shake his head. He didn’t know what has gotten into his friend these past weeks. Sometimes, he would go out alone, wandering along the street under the dime of street lamps—doing nothing at all. Just sitting on the bench, sometimes sitting on the ground, looking at nothing particular. It was like he was out of this world but his body still stuck on the ground. He didn’t talk or mumble anything to himself or even start breaking things like a lunatic. He just sat there in silence until the night slipped out and the sun went up. That state of his was already worrying.

He was just out of it.

That was one. But some other time, he would go to clubs, go straight to the bar and drink himself to death. And he kept his mouth shut, not saying things or sh-t he went through. He just kept it all in himself, not letting anyone break through that stupid wall he’d built around himself. Even if he spoke, he would only emit one or two words, like "Shut up", "Fxxk off" or "Leave" and in two ways, either nonchalantly or grouchy.

“Jeongsik and I have been nothing but patient with you all these weeks since you’ve changed,” Mithra began. Sunwoong showed no interest as he just glanced at him then looked away, gulping down his liquor. Mithra sighed. “We’ve been tolerating you having your way with these—,“ he waved his hand to his pitiful friend’s bottles and glasses, “—and we kept our mouth shut about this too. But we can no longer tolerate this, Sunwoong. Your silence.

“How could we try to cover this mess if you said nothing about it? Not even mentioning what this was all about. How could we try to explain every damn time sajangnim asked about you? About your absence? About your disappearance? We can