“Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

Ryeowook questioned faintly, eyes darting from Sungmin to his house. Sungmin confidently nodded and assured Ryeowook that he would be fine and that Ryeowook and Donghae should get going home soon since it was getting really late.

“Why don’t you sleep over at any of our places tonight?” Ryeowook suggested once more and then froze. “Or maybe just… Donghae’s place. My house… My house’s a little…Umm… You know… My family is not done with all the unpacking and stuff ever since we got back.”

“Wookie,” Sungmin took a deep breath, “I told you, I’ll be fine.”

“Min, H just broke into your house.” Ryeowook responded.

Donghae then muttered, “It’s not breaking in when you live in it.”

Sungmin narrowed his eyes at both his friends, “I told you two. Yunho is not H!”

“He was acting suspicious.” Donghae snapped, “And he was wearing the same thing H was wearing! Sungmin, Yunho is H! You’re living with a killer!”

“Yunho can’t be H. Listen to yourself, Donghae. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Donghae sighed softly. After the encounter with Yunho, Sungmin, Ryeowook and Donghae went up to Sungmin’s room and locked the door behind them and spoke in hushed voices about how Yunho was acting so suspicious and that he had the same outfit as H did – Black hoodie, black pants. Yunho could be H. He could have been the one who killed Heechul, he could have been the one who were sending them the anonymous texts and notes. But why? Ryeowook and Donghae suspected that there was something going on but Sungmin denied it and told them that Yunho could never be H. Yunho was known to be a bad boy but he would never do such a thing. The guy was kind of dumb to begin with. Plus, Donghae suspected that Sungmin was on Yunho’s side since he was in fact his sister’s boyfriend. Donghae guessed, Yunho was practically like a family member to Sungmin and that was probably why Sungmin didn’t want to jump into conclusion that Yunho was H.I’

“We’ll talk more tomorrow, alright?” Sungmin offered tiredly.

Donghae reluctantly nodded, “Are we still going to drop by the art studio tomorrow after school?

“That’s the only way we’ll find out more about the mask,” Ryeowook answered quietly, “We can check with the owner who bought those masks or why Heechul had them made. And if it all points back to Yunho, then we might just have figured out who H is.”

Donghae and Sungmin nodded in response and Sungmin bided them goodbye and watched as they got into Donghae’s car. Donghae had offered to drive Ryeowook home since it was getting late and it would be dangerous for him to walk home on his own. Once they were out of sight, he released a sigh and massaged the back of his neck, not realizing how tensed his body felt. God, talking about Yunho, just saying his name  and sounding like nothing ever happened between the both of them, pretending that Yunho was never once his own boyfriend took more effort than he realized.

Yunho could be H. Sungmin knew that. But he choose not to believe it. The evidences were right there, in front of his face but… It just didn’t make sense. His gut feeling told him that it was just not… Yunho. But thinking back of the matching outfit between H and Yunho, how the mask was found in his home and how suspicious Yunho was acting when he saw the mask, Sungmin wondered, was it his gut feeling telling him that it couldn’t be Yunho or was it just his heart defending the man he once used to be in love with?

Now that Donghae was alone with Ryeowook, he felt uneasy and uncomfortable. He wanted to spill everything but every time he tried, the truth would get stuck right in his throat and he would close his mouth shut, as if it was his own body protesting against telling the truth to Ryeowook. At first, Donghae contemplated bringing up a topic to talk about but then decided against it realizing that Ryeowook looked really exhausted and even really… Distracted.

“Hey… You okay?” Donghae asked, honestly worried of what Ryeowook would say next.

“Hmmm?” Ryeowook snapped out of his long gaze outside the window, “Yeah… Just… Thinking about some stuff.”

Silence.

And then Donghae swallowed, “Do … Do you want to talk about it?”

Ryeowook shook his head but then released a long exhausted sigh, “Do you think… Do you think a person can be in love with someone and at the same time, be attracted to someone else?”

Donghae stiffened, “What…What do you mean?”

“I… It’s just…. Never mind. It’s just a random thought.”

“No, tell me about it. Maybe I can help you with it.”

Ryeowook seemed hesitant but then took a deep breath, “I just… It’s just… This guy… I… I don’t know. We were childhood friends and grew apart as we grew up. He… Well… I don’t know. He told me that he’d been attracted to me ever since… forever but then he also told me that he was in love with He-With his boyfriend. I mean… Ex-boyfriend. Or rather… He was in love with his ex-boyfriend. I guess he meant that he was in love with someone else but at the same time, he was attracted to me… I… I don’t know. It’s complicated.”

Ryeowook then added, “God, I can’t believe I just told you all of that. I’m so sorry, Hae. You… You don’t have to say anything. I just needed to rant.”

Donghae chuckled, sounding amused. “You know you can always tell me anything, Ryeowook. What are friends for right?”

Ryeowook laughed nervously while Donghae continued, “Sounds like the guy is completely confused about his feelings.”

“He’s not the only one confused,” Ryeowook muttered faintly. “I am too.”

The both of you are not only the ones confused either, Ryeowook. Donghae thought to himself.

“Well… Everyone gets confused,” Donghae responded honestly, “How about giving him and yourself some time to sort his feelings out?”

Because I’m planning to do just that too…

Ryeowook nodded and seemed to let this conversation die on its own and Donghae took this opportunity to clear his throat and reluctantly begun speaking, “I’m a little curious about something though.”

“Hmm, what is it?”

“You don’t have to answer if it’s too sensitive okay?” Donghae warned fairly before he continued, “I’m just curious…. How did you know that you’re… Well… Gay?”

Ryeowook shrugged, “I’ve known it ever since… All my life. I was always attracted to the boys more than the girls in preschool and then kind of figured out that I’m gay when I tried dating a girl in high school and didn’t like it.”

“How did your parents … How did your parents react to you being gay?”

“They were fine with it. They’re probably used to it since my uncle is married to a man and some of my cousins are also biual.”

 “Sounds interesting…” Donghae nodded carefully. “I’m… Just curious though… What is it like being… Gay?”

Ryeowook looked over at Donghae and raised his brows, “What do you mean?”

“You know… Like… What is the difference between being gay and being straight? Do you like… Do you really don’t feel anything when a girl gets close to you?”

“No, I really don’t.”

“So… What happens if a guy… I’m just asking… For a friend of mine.” Donghae swallowed as he lied, “What happens if a guy kind of… Starts to get attracted to another guy when he’s… straight?”

Ryeowook laughed at this, “No straight guy will get attracted to another guy. Then that’d just means that the guy’s been gay without knowing it all his life. Or he could be biual.”

Donghae gripped the steering wheel tight, his face turning pale upon hearing what Ryeowook had to say. God damn it…

He really was screwed.

***

“Hey, what is going on?”

Donghae questioned one of the cheerleaders, noticing that there was a crowd of students gathering in front of the entrance of the school. School had not even begun and already, there was a big commotion early in the morning? Had someone vandalized the building? Did something happened? Curious, Donghae pushed his way through the crowd of students and he was stunned when he found his teammates in the middle of the crowd.