On one school day, Jieun found herself walking around the hallways. She was on her way to her class from the teacher's break room until she heard a high-pitched giggle and a deep "shh" coming from a certain empty direction. She frowned, then sighed when she figured that two students were probably making out.

Time to break things up, she thought. She took a deep breath and started walking towards the direction of the sound with her head held up high. However, the moment she arrived at the scene, she dropped her jaws and stared at the two students who, indeed, were getting ready to make out.

Jungkook had cornered a girl against a wall, causing the girl to give him a flirty grin.

"Come on. It's just one date," Jungkook cooed.

"Oh, you're such a kid!" The girl giggled again and playfully slapped Jungkook's chest.

"Jungkook?" Jieun blurted, frowning. Jungkook and the girl looked at Jieun with wide eyes, shocked to see a teacher at such a vacant area. The girl bit her bottom lip then glanced at Jungkook.

"Sorry, honey-boo, but I'm leaving you here to deal with this!" the girl said with a small look. She giggled one last time before she scurried away. 

Jieun only stared at the girl until she disappeared from the scene. Then, she approached Jungkook while crossing her arms, who frowned.

"You ruined the mood," Jungkook complained. "I was so close."

"To what? Dating her?" Jieun asked, raising an eyebrow. "I didn't know that you were such a flirt."

"It was just an errand that I had to run," Jungkook muttered. "Damn, and she wasn't that bad-looking, either…"

"An errand?" Jieun repeated.

Jungkook opened his mouth, but quickly closed it. "It's nothing…"

"No, I'm listening," Jieun said. "What do you mean by 'errand'?"

"It's nothing—"

"Come on, Jungkook. You know that I won't let this slide. Should I call your uncle to school? I'm sure you'd hate that," Jieun pointed out. She smirked victoriously while Jungkook glowered at her. The boy quickly shoved his hands in his pocket and looked away in annoyance.

"Sometimes Uncle Kiha has trouble moving the plot, so he makes me go on dates with certain types of girls to help him get a better understanding of how to portray the situation more better," Jungkook revealed. His eyes rolled back to Jieun, who blinked her eyes in a dumbfounded manner. He patiently waited for Jieun's reaction while tapping his foot against the ground.

"Wait, wait, wait," Jieun finally said, shaking her head. "So you're forced to go on dates and forced to flirt with other girls just to report your uncle about the situation?"

"It helps him write." Jungkook shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not against with such a simple-minded errand."

"Jungkook, that's not right!" Jieun exclaimed. "You should be allowed to choose who you want to date and flirt with! You can't just act like a playboy for the sake of your uncle's career!"

"But this is my choice—"

"This is unacceptable!" Jieun cried out.

"But it helps my uncle and I want to help him out—"

"I need to go talk to him about this," Jieun murmured.

Jungkook widened his eyes. "What?"

"I said that I'm going to go to your uncle's place and talk to him about this."

"Oh, no way. No way. You're not doing that," Jungkook said, shooting glares at her.

"Why not?" Jieun asked.

"You can't just go and bother my uncle for something that I want to do!" Jungkook said. "I'm a good student! There should be no reason for you to actually appear in front of my uncle as a teacher!"

"Why can't I appear in front of him as a neighbor?"

"Neighbors don't tell each other face-to-face what's right or wrong."

"Then how about friend?"

"I won't acknowledge you two to be friends."

Jieun laughed and patted Jungkook's head again. 

Ba-thump.

Jungkook frowned and quickly slapped away Jieun's hand. She didn't seem to bothered about it, much to his relief.

What was that? he wondered. That feeling came back. What was it—

"Well, I'm an adult, so I get to do what I want to do," Jieun said, smiling at Jungkook.

The boy looked at her. "I hardly consider you to be an adult."

"That's kind of rude," Jieun said, frowning at him. She waved off the thought and turned around. "Anyway, get back to class. The bell is going to ring any minute."

Jungkook only nodded and watched her leave. Then, he reached over for his head and gently the place where Jieun touched. Again, he shook his head, took a deep breath, and continued to walk through the halls until he arrived at his classroom.

~ ~ ~

At ten o'clock at night, Jieun came outside of her house. She started walking up the hill, passing the streetlights with only her phone in her hand. Whether it was because she lived in such an empty area or because her house wasn't too far, she wasn't scared of the night. It was rather comforting, much to her surprise.

It's a beautiful night, she thought, smiling softly to herself. Her smile disappeared and she stopped walking for a brief moment. I wonder what Jiyong's doing.

She paused, then shook her head. She quickly slapped her cheeks and trudged up the hill. When she arrived at her neighbor's house, she reached over to knock on the door. However, she noticed that there was a small gap of light peering between the door and wall.

It's open, she thought, as usual.

She stepped inside the house, but froze when she witnessed Chanyeol in the kitchen. He was wearing an apron, washing the dishes for the household. The boy was tuning a small whistle to himself, happily scrubbing off the mess that stuck to the plates. 

As he turned to dry them off, he lifted his eyes and spotted Jieun standing near the door. He gasped and widened his eyes, backing up to the counter until he bumped into it. When his back made contact with the cold surface of the kitchen counter, he dropped the plate he was holding. The two watched it shatter before them.

Jieun flinched at the sound of the glass shattering. It started to remind her about the days when Chanyeol had drown glass at her. She could feel the history of bruises and scars on her skin again. A cold chill slipped down her spine. Right when she was about to run off, she spotted Kiha coming out of his room and to the scene.

"What's going on—" Kiha stopped and beamed at Jieun. "Oh! you're here!" He walked over to the kitchen. "Chanyeol, Jieun is here—" He stopped when he saw the broken plate. Then, he looked at Chanyeol, who seemed puzzled with Jieun's appearance. "You haven't broken a plate in such a long time. Hold up, let me get something to clean this up."

Before Kiha had the chance to get a broom, Chanyeol bent down onto the floor and closed himself in his own world. He started collected the glass pieces, ignoring whatever Kiha was telling him.

Kiha heaved a loud sigh, then turn to Jieun. "So, what brings you here?"

"H-Huh?" Jieun's skin regained its colors when she looked into Kiha's warm eyes. "I'm sorry, did you say anything…?"

"I was asking why you're here," Kiha repeated.

"Oh, um, I just needed to talk to you…" Her eyes trailed back to Chanyeol. Then, she bit her bottom lip and scooted closer to Kiha. "D-Does he come here often?"

"He's kind of like a free house-keeper," Kiha said. "So yeah, kind of." He looked at her again. "So what did you need to talk to me about? Did something happen to Jungkook?"

Jieun looked at Chanyeol for a bit longer before focusing her attention to Kiha. "Right, yes. About Jungkook. Actually, the problem also involves you."

Kiha raised an eyebrow. "It does? Then this sounds kind of serious. Do you mind if you stay in the kitchen?"

Jieun and Chanyeol looked at him in complete shock.

"Huh?" Jieun stared at Kiha. "You're kidding me, right?"

"No, I'm not. I need to finish a panel real quick. I'm almost done with it," Kiha explained. 

"I-I can come next time," Jieun said, her eyes on Chanyeol.

"Next time? I'm not going to listen next time," Kiha told her. "It's either now or never. If we wait this off, then I'll start doubting if this is really for Jungkook's sake. It would be fine if you talked to Jungkook, but he's at tutor around this time."

Jieun bit her bottom lip. She started questioning herself, wondering if the topic she wanted to talk about was so important. She would have to risk her safety and stay near Chanyeol, who would be cleaning the house.

But it's for my student, Jieun told herself. Her expression fell. Jiyong would do the same if I was in Jungkook's situation…

"Okay, fine," Jieun said, gritting her teeth. She walked over to a dining chair and sat down. She looked at Kiha, who smiled and left to go back to his room.

For the next few minutes, Jieun remained quiet while Chanyeol threw away the broken glasses. He resumed avoiding her gaze and dried to plates. She refused to talk to him, too, until she remembered what Jungkook said about how Kiha liked to fix broken relationships.

If Chanyeol gets along with Kiha and Jungkook like this, then I'll probably be seeing him more often, Jieun realized. She had a bitter expression on her face. Does this mean that the two of us have to get along now? She groaned in the inside. What would Jiyong do in this kind of situation?

"H-How is it being a teacher?" Chanyeol suddenly asked her, tripping over his words.

Jieun, surprised, stared at him before answer. "I-It's okay, I guess…"

"Good," Chanyeol said.

Silence filled the rest of their conversation. Jieun her bottom lip. She knew that she would have to try and say something to him. She wasn't sure if he was expecting her to ask her questions, but she figured that it was the right time to say something.

"W-What made you become a janitor?" Jieun asked him. "And how did you meet Kiha?"

Chanyeol stopped rubbing the towel against the plate. He looked at her for a brief moment before putting down the last of the plates and started on trying the cups. He kept quiet for a bit longer before he started answering her questions.

"I just needed a job," Chanyeol said, "and I needed some kind of education. I thought learning was stupid until I actually stopped learning. That was a stupid move." He looked up at the ceiling. "Let's see… Kiha actually found me on the streets. He was one of the nicest guys I've met on the streets. He told me that he would pay me for every story I told him, true or not."

"What kind of stories did you tell him?" Jieun asked curiously.

"Stories about my life and how I ended up here." He looked at Jieun. "Of course, I hardly talked about you. You were the least thing that I wanted to talk about."

"Well, that last part is pretty mutual," she commented.

"That's good," he said, nodding his head. "Anyway, he eventually asked me if I wanted a second chance. He said that I had eyes that didn't quite belong on the streets. I told him that I didn't graduate high school, so he naturally hooked me up to be janitor. After all, all I need to do there is clean."

"I see," Jieun whispered, nodding her head. "I can't say if it's a good thing to see you back on track or not."

"I don't want to hear anything like that from you," Chanyeol said. "I've done enough terrible things to do. I don't deserve your thoughts about me." He paused, then looked at her. "Speaking of terrible things, how is Jiyong doing?"

She pressed her lips together. It was a topic that she was completely not expecting. What made him think about Jiyong all of the sudden? 

Chanyeol frowned. "Jieun, I'm asking you how Jiyong is doing."

I don't really know, she thought. "Haven't you seen the news… He pops up time to time…"

"Well, I saw a few articles about him, but I want to know how he's doing personally," Chanyeol said. He furrowed his eyebrows when he saw Jieun seal her lips. "So is it just you asking questions and me answering them? I don't get to ask you questions?"

I don't want to talk about this, Jieun wanted to say. She slowly looked up, noticing that Chanyeol was slowly getting mad at her for keeping quiet. 

However, he wasn't mad for too long. He looked up and saw Kiha coming in with a folder filled with paper. Kiha smiled proudly at the finished manuscript and gave it to Chanyeol.

"This contains the latest chapters for my novel, and it also contains the webtoon's next three chapters," Kiha told him. "Oh, and make sure to mention to the editor that I placed a small sample of what the third volume for the webtoon might look, okay?"

"Got it," Chanyeol said, nodding his head. He bowed at Kiha, then looked at Jieun. 

Jieun looked away, but gave him a small nod to show that she was bidding him a "goodbye." He nodded back and took off into the dark.

Kiha stretched his arms in the air, groaned, then walked over to the table. "Sorry for the long wait. I had to get it done and the deadline is tomorrow."

"That's fine," she said. "Anyway, I wanted to talk about Jungkook."

"Yes, yes. What about it?" Kiha asked, clasping his hands together while anticipating her complaint.

"I found out what Jungkook is doing for you, and I don't think that's a healthy activity," Jieun told him.

"Flirting? Guys at his age flirt," said Kiha.

"Well, yes, but they don't flirt to help their uncle write a better plot," Jieun pointed out.

"But he doesn't mind it."

"But what if he wants to date someone for real? What if he falls in love with someone?"

"Then I'll write a store about him and his future wife," Kiha stated simply.

Jieun frowned. "I don't think you understand what I'm trying to say—"

"If Jungkook doesn't mind, then I think it's okay," Kiha said. "Besides, I change the names and add my own personal twist to them. I don't see the problem."

"But what if it ruins his image?"

"He has perfect grades and he excels at school. I won't worry about his image if he does well academically," Kiha said, waving his hand as if this was no big deal.

Jieun frowned. My words aren't getting through to him. He's dismissing all my worries.

She glanced at the time, noticing that it was getting late. She took a deep breath and sighed.

"Should I just talk to you next time about this? You look tired," Jieun said.

"That would be better for me," Kiha agreed. "I honestly thought you were going to talk about something more important."

Jieun frowned. "But it is important—"

"Now, now," Kiha said, following Jieun out the door. "Why don't I take you home?"

"Oh, there's no need for that. My house is just down the hill."

"But it's dark."

"No one lives around here."

"That's not the problem," Kiha said, closing the door behind him. "It's dark and you shouldn't be out here. You don't know what kind of people are out here. Let me just take you home."

Jieun stared at him. "I'm not a child."

Kiha snorted. "Let's admit this: we're all children. Even adults are children, am I right?"