Kiha woke up one morning feeling strangely impatient. He jumped off his bed and grabbed ahold of his pen, but nothing came into mind. He went over to his laptop and pulled up a new word document, but again, he couldn't think of anything. Then he grabbed his stylus and waited to draw something. However, whatever was troubling him wasn't coming up in words or sketch.

This isn't good, Kiha thought. He heaved a sigh and leaned back in his chair. Hm… Let's see. I'm feeling troubled, nothing is coming to me, there's a dull feeling inside, and my mind is going blank—

Kiha stopped. He widened his eyes and quickly got up from his seat. He opened the door and started to run towards Jungkook's room. He knocked on his nephew's door, ignoring the fact that it was early in the morning.

"Jungkook! Jungkook!" Kiha shouted.

"Wha—at?" Jungkook moaned tiredly.

"Jungkook, we got to go!" Kiha shouted.

"Where?" Jungkook murmured.

"I'm going to get ready, okay? Get ready, too."

Kiha turned around and was about to leave until Jungkook finally opened his door. The sleepy boy rubbed his eyes and looked at his uncle with irritation.

"Like I said, where are we going?" he asked.

"I got a writer's block and I need to go out right now," Kiha said. "This isn't good, especially with the fact that the next few chapters will determine if I become successful or not."

"Why can't we go later?" Jungkook asked tiredly. He glanced at the clock. "It's a Sunday. I should be studying and staying home."

"Oh, right. I forgot that you were a student, too," Kiha murmured. He scratched his head, troubled. "I don't want to go alone…" His eyes rolled over to the door, then he snapped his hands. "Oh! I can go invite Jieun!"

This time, Jungkook was wide awake. "Jieun? Why would you invite her?"

"Why not? She's been a great company," Kiha said.

"Wait, wait," Jungkook said, turning around. "I'm going, too."

"But you said that you didn't want to go—"

"I never said such a thing. I just said that I should be studying," he said. 

"All right! Get ready, and then we'll go to Jieun's house—"

"Wait, are we still inviting her?" Jungkook asked, slightly surprised.

"Of course. She's the main character, after all," Kiha said. 

Jungkook was about to ask for some clarification, but Kiha sped away to get ready. The younger boy pressed his lips, then scratched his head.

Jieun? Main character? What does that mean? he wondered.

~ ~ ~

Like Kiha had planned, once the two boys got ready, they went over to Jieun's house, inviting her to his strange little journey for inspiration. At first, Jieun was confused, unsure of what was going on. Nevertheless, she subconsciously got ready and joined the two on their adventure. 

At five in the morning, the group found their way at Jungkook's high school. Jungkook stared at the building, then looked back at Kiha, who stared at it with pride.

"Are you serious, Uncle Kiha?" he asked. "I'm going to school tomorrow, if you forgot."

"The setting takes place at a high school, so I wanted to go somewhere where like this place," Kiha said. 

"Okay, but you can't go in there," Jieun said. "Even teachers aren't allowed to go inside. We don't have the keys or anything."

Kiha smirked. "You think you're the only one with authority at this school?"

Jieun stared at him in confusion until she noticed a figure approaching the group. She squinted her eyes in the dark, only to realize that it was Chanyeol tuning a small whistle and playing with the gate keys. The man stopped a brief moment, shocked to see all three at school.

"Today is Sunday, right?" Chanyeol asked quietly.

"Indeed, it is!" Kiha exclaimed. "It's a beautiful, sunny Sunday—"

'It's still dark," Jungkook corrected.

"—and we're ready to spend our day off from school at the school building itself," Kiha finished.

"W-Wait. Won't Chanyeol get in trouble?" asked Jieun.

"Trouble? For what?" Kiha asked. "For bringing a student who wants to learn more and bringing a teacher who works at this school? How would Chanyeol get in trouble?"

"I'm fine with it," Chanyeol said, opening the gates. "If I get in trouble and get fired, I can always find another job."

"You shouldn't say such a thing so easily," Jieun scolded. 

He ignored her and unlocked the gates. He pushed it open and stepped aside for the three to go inside first. Kiha was the first to go inside, followed by Jungkook then Jieun. Chanyeol went inside last and turned around to lock the gates behind them. Kiha took a deep breath and grinned.

"Do you smell that?" he asked Jieun. "That's the smell of youth."

"Is that so?" Jieun asked, unsure of what she was supposed to smell.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Kiha asked. He walked deeper into the campus, leading the three into the building, which Chanyeol also unlocked for the group. 

As Kiha started to ramble on and Jungkook listened to him patiently, Jieun glanced over her shoulder and noticed that Chanyeol was keeping an odd distance from her. She stopped, startling him for a minute.

"So what brings you here today?" Jieun asked him.

"Cleaning," Chanyeol replied. "You?"

"I was invited to solve Kiha's writer's block," she explained.

"Oh, those are fun," Chanyeol said with a small smile to himself. "I remember the first time he took me onto one of those. It was midnight and he wanted to visit the bank. Gosh, the police officers were giving us all these strange looks. They looked like we were criminals."

"The bank?" Jieun asked, surprised.

"Yep. He wanted to see what it felt like to be a robber in the middle of a night," Chanyeol told her. "Back then, he was writing a story of an abusive husband who did night jobs like robbing or killing for a living. The book was a total failure, though."

"That sounds so dark," she murmured.

"The character was based off of me," Chanyeol revealed, surprising her. He let out a weak chuckle. "He said that I looked like the type who would do such a thing. He said that he took bits of my personality and made it into a character."

"Well, I'm not sure what to say about that."

"He said that I looked like the type who had actually hit a girl before," Chanyeol said. Jieun stopped walking when he stopped his trail of thoughts. He looked at Kiha's back in a dazed manner. "He said all of that just by glancing at me." He glanced at her. "He's a bit scary, isn't he?"

"Kiha?"

"Yeah. He scares you a bit, doesn't he?"

Jieun frowned. "I don't think I was actually afraid of him…"

"Really?" Chanyeol paused and watched Kiha and Jungkook disappear at the corner of a hall. "There's only two people who I'm terrified of: Jiyong and Kiha."

"Is there a reason for you to be so scared of Kiha?" she asked him. "I understand why you might be afraid of Jiyong, but…"

"Don't you find it scary how that man can figure things out just by having a small talk or just by looking at you? Have you ever encountered a situation when you're talking about a totally different subject, but he ends up somehow starting a conversation that he wants to hear, but you don't want to talk about? Isn't that freaky?" Chanyeol asked her. 

Jieun wasn't able to say anything else. He had a point. She remembered the day when Kiha somehow managed to make her talk about Jiyong. Talking about Jiyong was something that she wasn't very open to talking about. However, when she talked to Kiha, everything seemed to slip out so easily.

"Chances are, he knows about our relationship," Chanyeol said. "He's just playing dumb." He turned to Jieun. "Well, don't make this look like he's a bad guy. I know that deep down, he's a good guy. He's just too observant for my liking."

"Is Jungkook aware of this?"

"Of course. That's one of the reason why Jungkook admires him so much. To be able to read people by just a glance is an amazing gift."

"I'm surprised that he's not popular with the ladies."

"Well, he's always stuck inside and is quite lazy. Dating would probably be a hassle, but he loves feeding off romance," Chanyeol said. 

Jieun paused before continuing. "Did you find anyone?"

Chanyeol stared at her. "Huh?"

"Did you find anyone you're interested in?" she asked again.

Chanyeol kept quiet, then shook his head. "No. With work, I don't have time to date. I don't think I deserve dating…"

He let out a fake laugh, but his hands were starting to tremble. He nervously his lips and painfully looked away. Jieun noticed his pale complexion.

"Are you…still thinking about what happened to us?" she asked him carefully. His eyebrows lifted, startled at her comment, but they fell down back to their original position.

"Of course. How could I forget?" He continued to keep his distance from her. "Besides, I don't think dating is a good idea for me anymore."

"Chanyeol—"

"I'll be much happier if you could find someone for yourself," he said. "It'd keep me at ease. You know, knowing that there might be some guy who's going to treat you a lot better than what I did."

"Chan—"

"Oh, but don't ask me to set you up on a blind date. I don't have a lot of friends," he said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. "Come on. Let's go catch up with the two—"

"Chanyeol," Jieun said, calling his name. Chanyeol looked up and stared at her with a questioning smile. She bit her bottom lip with shaky hands. "U-Um… Chanyeol, why did you…h-hit…me…?"

The smile disappeared from his face. He looked at her with horror, terrified of coming up with an answer. The thought alone made his whole body tremble with fear.

"C-Chanyeol?" she stuttered.

She tried to reach for him, but the boy took a step back. He let out a shaky laugh again. He rubbed his hands together, trying to calm himself. He looked up with slightly teary eyes.

"…Will you wait for my reply until I'm ready?" he asked. "The answer is so pathetic, I'm embarrassed to tell you right now."

Jieun kept quiet. Then, she slowly nodded her head. Chanyeol let out a quivering sigh of relief. Then, he looked up at her, smiling once again.

"I'm going to head a different direction. I need to clean as soon as possible. Why don't you go ahead and find Kiha and Jungkook?" he suggested. She nodded and watched him leave.

After a few minutes of standing alone at the hall, she turned and started walking in the direction where she last saw Kiha and Jungkook go. She continued to walk while thinking about what chanyeol had told her.

Why is he like that now? she wondered. Why is it him who's so scared and not me? It should definitely be me who's more afraid of him, but why is the situation switched? It makes it seem like I'm the one who tortured him or something.

She frowned, but stopped when she heard a few chatter from a room—specifically, Jungkook's class. She opened the door, only to see Kiha scribbling on the chalkboard while Jungkook sat at his seat, watching his uncle with an amused expression.

Kiha finally looked up and noticed Jieun at the door. She stared at him in a dumbfounded manner, to which he only returned with a simple-minded smile.

"Jieun! Come in, come in!" he exclaimed.

"What are you doing?" Jieun asked, frowning at him.

"We're playing 'Teacher,'" Kiha said. "I'm the teacher. Jungkook is the student."

"I'm a teacher," Jieun commented.

"Not today," Kiha said. He pointed to her desk, then cleared his throat. "Delinquent Jieun! You're tardy today!"

Jieun widened her eyes. "Me? A delinquent? I wasn't close to being a delinquent when I was in high school—"

"Surely you have some kind of experience with delinquents," Kiha said.

Jungkook snorted. "Uncle Kiha, you're being ridiculous."

"Okay, but what about trouble makers?" Kiha asked.

The first person that came into her mind was Jiho.

"I do know a little bit," she muttered.

Jungkook stared at her. "You were a bad student?"

"N-No! I was just close friends with someone who made a lot of trouble as a high school student," she said, laughing sheepishly. "Don't judge him now. He's a good person. He's actually the manager of a popular girl group."

"Enough with that, sit down next to Jungkook," Kiha ordered. 

Jungkook widened his eyes and looked at her with slightly hopeful orbs. However, Jieun continued to stare at Kiha. Nevertheless, she obeyed his orders and took a seat next to Jungkook. When she finally noticed that he had been looking at her, she forced a smile.

"This is kind of weird, isn't it?" Jieun asked him, laughing awkwardly. "It's weird for a teacher to play the student with her own student."

Jungkook felt his heart drop. "Um, yeah. It's, uh, weird."

"Forget about what you are right now!" Kiha ordered, making Jieun slightly jump at her seat. "You must drown yourself into the world of acting and imagination."

"What?" Jieun asked, confused.

"Just do as he says," Jungkook murmured. "The faster we comply, the faster he'll get inspiration and let us go home."

"O-Oh, okay," she murmured, still puzzled.

"Let's see… According to the latest chapter…" Kiha pointed at Jieun. "You play the role of a sweet honors student, and Jungkook plays the delinquent. So…" He snapped his fingers. "Hey, start passing notes when I'm turning my back against you guys." Kiha turned his body, but quickly turned back. "Oh, and don't get caught."

"Huh?" Jieun stared at Jungkook.

"I got paper and pen," Jungkook said, taking out a small sheet of paper and a pen.

"Good job. Now, pretend that you're exchanging notes," Kiha demanded. He stopped when he saw Jungkook lift his pen. "Wait. No. No, that's not right." Kiha looked at Jieun. "Jieun, you write first."

"Me?" She pointed at herself. Before she could say anything else, Jungkook handed her the pen. "What should I write?"

"What would a high school girl write?" Kiha asked her. "Surely you've passed notes before."

Jieun paused. The only time she actually passed notes was when she shared textbooks with Jiho. Even then, there wasn't anything interesting in their secret conversation.

A lot of the things I did in high school was with Jiho, huh? she realized. She paused and stared at her the paper and the pen. Why didn't I fall in love with Jiho?

"I'm turning around now," Kiha said. "Blah, blah, blah…"

Jieun stared at Kiha's back. She watched him trace the chalk against the black board. He was doodling on the board, but pretended as if he was writing a whole lecture.

Jungkook cleared his throat, catching Jieun's attention. He irritatedly glared at Jieun, gesturing her to do something. She stared down at her paper, and scribbled a lame note:

How are you, Jungkook?

Jungkook stared at the note, then gave her a dumbfounded look. Nevertheless, he wrote a small reply:

None of your business.

She was slightly surprised to see that he was being serious with the whole situation.

But I’m not like Jungkook, she thought. I don’t follow Kiha’s ways…

Hey, Jungkook. Time out. How long are we going to do this for?

Jungkook looked at the note. He glanced at Kiha, noticing that his uncle still didn’t turn his back. The younger boy started to scribble an answer:

Not sure. Until Uncle Kiha catches one of us. Why?

Jieun bit her bottom lip and wrote:

I was hoping that I could talk to him a bit. 

He eyed her:

About what?

She gave him a simple response:

About you.

Jungkook’s heart skipped a beat. He nervously glanced at her, but her eyes were on Kiha’s back. He could hardly hear whatever his uncle was saying. Rather, he could only feel heat rushing to his cheeks and his heart race against his chest.

What about me?

Jungkook finished writing his message, then passed it.

About the fact that your uncle uses you for his own entertainment. I don’t want to just play with girls all day. It’ll hurt your reputation.

Jungkook stared at the message, then responded:

I don’t love the girls. It doesn’t matter. 

Jieun frowned, obviously frustrated over his simple-minded response. She quickly wrote her reply and handed the paper back to Jungkook. Jungkook unfolded the paper and read it carefully.

It doesn’t matter? Of course it matters, Jungkook. Think about it, don’t you have someone you like and want to impress? Someone who’s different from the other girls?

You, Jungkook wanted to write. He looked over the paper once more and was about to write his reply until someone swiped away the paper. Jungkook slowly looked up, only to see his uncle holding the paper between his index and middle. His uncle gave his nephew a small smile—a smile that Jungkook couldn’t understand.

“It’s not good to pass notes, student Jungkook,” Kiha said. Jungkook gulped, and wasn’t sure why. Kiha opened the paper, then scowled at the messages. “Wow, you guys at passing notes. This is nothing what I wanted.”

“Well, I wasn’t sure what you wanted,” Jieun replied.

Kiha sighed. “Fair enough. Maybe you never passed notes in class.” He went over to her and patted her head. “I’ll thank you for attempting to help me out. Thank you.”

Jungkook eyed at Jieun, and slightly widened his eyes when he saw her blush a bit at the contact. Something tugged his heart when he saw Jieun’s bright pink cheeks.

So she can blush like that, too, he thought.

“Well then! I’m going to go around,” Kiha said.

“What are you going to do?” Jieun asked him.

“I’m going to dig around some trash. Hopefully I’ll find better notes than this.”

“D-Dig trash?” Jieun repeated, blinking her eyes. Before she had the chance to say anything else, Kiha left the room. She quickly followed after him, trying to catch up with his trail of thought.

Jungkook got up from his seat and ran to catch up with his uncle and teacher, but stopped when he noticed Chanyeol standing near the doorway. The boy stopped and looked at Chanyeol, who gave him a small frown.

“What are you doing there?” Jungkook asked him.

“I was watching. I didn’t want to go in and disturb Kiha’s process,” Chanyeol said.

“Oh,” Jungkook murmured. “Well, the two went that way. Let’s—“

“I know,” Chanyeol interrupted. “I know which way they went. I stood back specifically for you.”

“Oh, um, thanks. Let’s—“

“Do you like Jieun?” Chanyeol inquired.

Jungkook blinked his eyes. “What?”

“Do you like Jieun? Your teacher,” Chanyeol repeated.

Jungkook awkwardly shrugged his shoulders. “W-Well, she’s a cool teacher, I guess. I don’t like how she’s so attached to Uncle Kiha, but if Uncle Kiha thinks that she’s a good person, then I’ll think lightly of her, too—“

“Jungkook, I’m serious,” Chanyeol said. “Do you like Jieun? You know what kind of ‘like’ I meant.”

The boy paused and pressed his lips. Then, looking away, he scoffed and let out a fake laugh.

“Me? Like my teacher in that way? Ew, you’re gross, Chanyeol. That’s disgusting,” Jungkook spat out, laughing in between his words. He glanced at Chanyeol and tried to smile, but his grin faded when he saw Chanyeol’s grave expression. “W-What…?”

“Dishonest men won’t make Jieun happy,” Chanyeol informed him. He walked up to Jungkook and patted his shoulder. “Just a thought that I decided to leave you with.”

Chanyeol left the boy alone in the hall to catch up with Jieun. Jungkook stood still, dumbfounded by Chanyeol’s words, but kept them in mind as he caught up to the adults.