*OC's name "Minhee" was changed to "Haneul".

The rest of the day went by quite quickly, the thing Seokmin heard that lunch time was already at the back of his mind, almost gone from his memory. Maybe it was just him, he thought.

By the time they finished their after school cleaning duties as punishment for their tardiness, the sun outside was already setting.

They walked outside and Seokmin looked at the sky, while his friends didn’t even stop for a second and went straight for the school gates. He smiled at it, the sky. The blue was almost gone, pretty much replaced by a pink-purple gradient. ‘Goodbye for now, Haneul,’ he said in his mind.

He liked that word... ‘Haneul’. It stood for ‘sky’, and his most treasured friend’s name. Everything about that word related to her. Haneul’s favourite colour was a light shade of blue: sky blue. She always talked about stars, and planets in the sky, which was why she liked The Little Prince a lot. And most of all, Seokmin knew Haneul loved looking at the sky, so much that she would spend a whole free day lying on the grass and staring at it. For the reason why, he never knew, but he loved that about her.

His lips curved up at the memory of little Haneul’s parents panicking because they thought she went missing, but she was only on the hills admiring the blue sky from under a tree. Seokmin was the one who found her there.

“Seok,” a voice called.

Seokmin was returned to his reality at the voice and he turned to look at the owner.

“You coming?” It was Soonyoung again.

Seokmin grinned, “Yeah, I’ll catch up soon.”

“You did not just make a pun about my name,” Soonyoung still laughed at it though.

“You created that pun,” the latter replied as he began walking towards him. Soonyoung placed an arm over his shoulders and fastened his walk so that they could catch up to the rest, most of who, by the way, have long legs compared to theirs (although they are just as tall).

When they walked passed the school gates, they saw the principal and a girl in front of a taxi. The girl had just bowed to the principal and turned around and got into the vehicle.

“A new student, it seems,” Jihoon commented.

Seokmin, though, froze on his spot. He remembered that figure from behind. The naturally long, straight and black hair that he loved on her. He didn’t see the girl’s face clearly, but he could’ve sworn she looked like her, especially with her body features.

“Haneul…?” he muttered, earning the confused expressions of his friends towards him.

“Pretty,” Minghao commented, resulting with Seokmin looking at him in shock. He only saw Minghao looking above with a slight smile on his face. “The sky,” he said, “That’s what you were saying, right? ‘Haneul’?”

Seokmin chuckled at Minghao, “You are adorable as always,” he told him, patting his back.

They began walking home again.

“I am not adorable, I am supposed to be cool!” He complained.

“If you were cool, you would’ve helped me with my cleaning,” Seungkwan commented, spinning his shoulder joints because it was aching. The boys made him do most of the cleaning, especially the hard ones.

“For your information, you got yourself into that,” the older boy replied, “As your punishment for this morning. You could’ve woken up the whole building!”

“But did I?” (#thuglyfe) Seungkwan sassed.

“At least now I can say I prefer Seungkwan’s “YOOOO LADIIIEEESSSS THIS IS YER STORRRYYYY!” than a heart attack every morning,” Jihoon added.

“Don’t do that again, Boo Seungkwan!” Seungcheol scolded, “Or my heart will literally jump out of my chest and stab you.”

“Talk about over-reacting.”

“Yah!” Seungcheol scowled in disbelief.

Once again, it was time for Seungkwan to make a run for his dear life as Seungcheol began chasing him.

The rest laughed at the two, but Seokmin kept looking back, staring at where the taxi was. It was gone now, passed them a few seconds ago.

“Seok, are you okay?” Soonyoung asked, “You’ve been acting weirdly since lunch,” his eyebrows furrowed a little, “And I mean, weird weird. Like, you know something’s up when I say this because we rarely act normal.”

“No, I’m okay,” the younger boy only replied. It was partly true though, “I’m just remembering some stuff,” he added.

Soonyoung furrowed his eyebrows a little, “Is it about that friend of yours?” He asked, resulting with his friend looking at him in surprise. Soonyoung tilted his head to the side a little, seeming confused. He hissed, “Haneul… was it?”

Seokmin let out a soft sigh, “Yeah.”

Soonyoung pointed up, “You weren’t talking about the sky up there earlier, were you?”

Seokmin only responded with the same word, “Yeah.”

“What, did you think that girl could be her?”

Seokmin grinned slightly, and then shook his head a little, “I just thought she looked like her.”

“Only one way to find out,” Soonyoung replied, leaving Seokmin completely confused.

Next thing he knew, Soonyoung called and walked passed him, back to the school, “Mrs Jung!” He yelled to the principal, having an arm up to wave at the older lady.

The principal, who was only about to enter the school gates after sending the new girl off, turned to her side and noticed Soonyoung, and Seokmin not far behind.

She stayed on her spot, allowing Soonyoung to reach her, “Is there anything you need, Mister Kwon?”

“Do we have a new student coming to our lovely educational institute, Mrs Jung?”

“Soonyoung, you don’t have to talk like that,” she commented with a smile, “And who?”

“That girl you just sent off,” Soonyoung explained. Seokmin just caught up to them, “is she a new student?”

“Oh, Miss Kim!” The principal finally understood, “Yes, she’s starting tomorrow. She’s actually in your grade, I hope you make her feel welcomed. Actually, she’s coming with another new student.”

Seokmin’s eyes grew wide, “She- She’s a Kim?” The news of a second new student was ignored; he was only interested in the current one.

Soonyoung got the hint, ‘So she’s a Kim,’ he thought, “What’s her name?”

The principal chuckled, “Wow, aren’t you excited,” she stated, “Well, you’re just going to have to find out tomorrow,” she continued, “Don’t be late,” she finished, giving them a look as if saying ‘again’.

The boys could only let out an awkward laugh, and then bid her goodbye before catching up to the rest of their friends.

Seokmin took out his phone and started typing.

‘Do you have time?’

He pressed send, and waited.

No response. Typical.

He placed his phone back into his pockets and although he tried to tune in to whatever the hell his friends were bickering about again, he couldn’t quite keep the new girl off his mind.

‘Could she be back?’

‘No, if she comes back, wouldn’t she come back to our hometown?’

The rest of the walk home was unusually quiet. The others had just finished bickering, and it was usually at this time Soonyoung and Seokmin would start goofing off to entertain them for the rest of the walk.

But Seokmin was out of it, and Soonyoung didn’t want to force him to be happy when he knew it was bothering him.

The others, however, obviously felt it. It was way too obvious considering they never saw Seokmin at least a little bit sad, except for once. He was always smiling, even when they were punished for being tardy. He was always so positive even when he had to do something he was uncomfortable in doing.

So they knew something was wrong.

Soonyoung knew all too well Seokmin was going to get confronted that night, as they always do when they sense someone was down. He was already preparing himself from talking about Seokmin’s childhood friend.

He talked about her… Seokmin, about Haneul. Everyone was so happy about that story when he told it, especially with Jeonghan clasping his hands and “aww-ing” pretty much the whole time. It was until Seokmin got to the end when the others got upset.

“So she just left? Just like that?”

Seokmin nodded, a slight pout on his face.

“Without even a word?”

Another nod from Seokmin.

“Did she ever think about how you would feel?”

“How could she just leave you like that?”

“What happened next?” Jeonghan interrupted, and everyone looked at him.

“What do you mean what happened? She left without saying goodbye, that was the end,” Seungcheol stated, a bit too upset.

“Well Seokmin said, “although she left without a goodbye”, so there must be something that contradicts that or something,” Jeonghan explained, everyone finally nodded after understanding him.

They turned to look at him.

“Well she… She did leave something,” he stuttered, “It wasn’t a goodbye though. It was something I should’ve noticed.”

“What is it?”

He stood up from their confrontation circle and walked to his room, only to come back out with a sky-blue box with pieces of cut-out clouds from pieces of white paper glued all over it, even the lid. He sat back down on his spot and opened it.

On the very top, was a piece of folded paper. The inside had a border of sky-blue, and little cloud shapes all around. In the middle, the lines of a page, and on it, were words Seokmin would never forget.

He handed the folded paper to Jeonghan, since he was the most curious, having him know what was written himself.

Jeonghan unfolded it, gasping slightly and eyes widening at the sight of the words. His eyes darted towards Seokmin, and the boys beside him looked over, only to do the same as Jeonghan.

The paper went around quickly, lastly landing onto Soonyoung’s hands.

“Seok…” He muttered.

“She had feelings for me and I didn’t even notice,” Seokmin stated, looking down at his feet.

“But it wasn’t your fault,” Joshua commented, “She must’ve tried so hard to hide. I mean, you hid yours too, so she didn’t notice either.”

“I guess…”

“But that doesn’t change the fact that she left without telling you,” Seungcheol argued.

“Let it go, Seungcheol,” Jihoon argued, “We’re talking about Seokmin’s friend, not your ex who ran off.”

“Jihoon,” Jeonghan called, implying them to cut it out.

“Sorry,” Jihoon apologised to Jeonghan, but everyone knew it was towards Seungcheol.

Seungcheol rolled his eyes a bit and sighed, “I’m sorry, too. Seokmin, she could’ve had a reason but my ex didn’t so I’m always going to be mad about this.”

Seokmin grinned, “That’s alright, hyung. It’