“You don’t have any other friends?” I asked. “Are you sure?”

Jongin shrugged. “Some.”

“At school?”

“No.”

“Why don’t you make other friends at school?”

“I made one friend, and it was a mistake.”

That took a couple of moments to connect before I scowled at Jongin. “Yeah, same mistake,” I snapped. “I’m only friends with you because I took pity on you and the fact that you always sit alone and are extremely lonely all the time.”

“Are you describing yourself?”

“Get out.”

Chapter 41

By the time training was finished, I was so tired that I didn’t want to walk home. No one owned a car, though (apparently someone from Jin’s safehouse did, but I wasn’t about to call them to drive me back five blocks. Besides, with my luck, it would probably end up being Jimin could drive), so I trudged back miserably with Kai, trying to stretch out my legs and failing miserably.

“Remember to call Jaeyeon,” he reminded me as we walked. “Get her address just in case.”

Her number was saved on my phone, and I felt as guilty as ever. Still, there was nothing I could do about it, and I supposed asking if Jaeyeon could stay over at the safehouse was my best bet at being honest with Jinyoung.

Kai left soon after I got to the apartment. For a while, I stared at the building, a little hesitant to enter. It had technically been a couple of hours from Jinyoung’s perspective, and even for me, not more than two days, but for some reason, the time in Ignis seemed to drag out strangely, in a way that made me feel like much more time had passed and it had been ages since I was last here.

After a while, swallowing the guilt, I headed inside.

Jinyoung was working when I unlocked the apartment door and stepped inside, typing away on his laptop and checking sheets of paper. He glanced back when I moved in, then pushed his glasses a bit up his nose, then sighed. “I guess you have no time for me now that you have a boyfriend.”

I made a face. “You’re the one who has no time for me.”

“With work,” he lamented. “Anyway, have you asked your friend yet?”

Saying no would just worry him,” I reasoned with myself, so I nodded. “Yeah. Jaeyeon said it’s fine.”

Maybe Jinyoung was a bit too preoccupied to ask for more, because he gave an absent minded nod. “I don’t think I can cook tonight,” he told me. “Why don’t you figure out what you want for dinner today and we’ll order takeout? I’m kind of craving Italian.”

The fact that he still treated all of this so casually made me even more guilty, but despite myself, I just nodded. “Sure.”

“Garlic bread too,” he said decidedly.

“Are you sure you’re too busy to cook or can’t cook?”

Jinyoung rolled his eyes at me. “Obviously too busy,” he said. “Do you want dessert?”

***

The night was normal, which was the strangest thing. We ate, talked about school, and he went to bed early because the train left at six thirty in the morning, so he packed and disappeared into his room before it was even ten.

I wasn’t tired, surprisingly. Even after training and the weird time at Ignis, I lay wide awake for a good hour or so after twelve.

I had wanted to get up before my brother left to at least say goodbye, because through all the lies and deceit, it felt like something I owed him. Still, exhaustion must have crept up because my alarm read seven when I actually dragged myself awake, and by then, he was long gone.

Instead, it was Kai that was waiting downstairs when I hauled on my backpack and stuffed what I hoped was the books I needed into it. He raised an eyebrow at me. “You look even more tired than usual.”

“Is that a nice way to say that I look ugly right now?”

“Tired,” he corrected with his roll of his eyes. “Your brother’s gone?”

“Yup. He was too early for me to say goodbye.”

“Contacted Jaeyeon?”

I managed to bite back a swear, though he gave me an amused look, apparently having heard the beginnings of it. “That’s a no.”

“I forgot.”

“Just tell her at school, then.” He shrugged. “Easy. Now hurry, or we’ll actually be late.”

***

It wasn’t Jaeyeon that I found but Jimin, which wasn’t exactly a pleasant surprise.

He frowned at me. “What are you doing here?”

I gaped at him. “What are you doing here?”

Another frown. “My locker’s right here.”

“Jaeyeon’s locker—oh.”

He pointed at the one next to him, then closed his own. For a very long moment, we stood in silence—extremely awkward silence that made me want to melt—and I couldn’t help but think that at least it wasn’t this bad when Jimin was adamant in making my life a living hell. At least I could say something. Reciprocate the hate. That was easy. This? Not exactly enemies but too much bad blood to even be acquaintances—it was downright awful. I could remember Jimin’s words from Ignis—you’re not as bad as I thought—and it’s both a compliment coming from him and something I’d very much rather not have. I couldn’t even hate him properly.

“I got my locker moved here,” he told me, ruffling his hair as he shouldered his backpack. “After we reported the Jaeyeon situation, Jin wanted to make sure she was accounted for too, so they convinced somehow to move my locker here.” He shrugged. “I don’t see her often. I don’t suppose you came here to visit me?”

I wrinkled my nose at that before remembering Jimin and I were on talkable terms, not insult each other every sentence terms, and instead shook my head, feeling very much uncomfortable. “I need to talk to Jaeyeon,” I said, trying to sound apologetic, before remembering there was absolutely no reason. “Do you know what class she has right now?”

“She’ll be here soon,” he replied, then tilted his head. “Why?”

Civil conversations have never been worse, I thought, but said, “My brother’s on a business trip and he wants me to stay at a friend’s house.”

“Can’t you stay in the safehouse?”

“Jinyoung said something about the lines of not wanting me to ‘stay at my boyfriend’s house’ and he has absolutely no idea of what the safehouse is, so I talked to Kai and we figured that if Jaeyeon agreed to come to the safehouse, that technically works out. I just… need to talk to her.”

Jimin frowned. I was beginning to wonder just how much sense I made when he asked, “Boyfriend?”

Oh, God. He doesn’t know. He’s not supposed to know. Only our safehouse knows. I’m dumb. I’m actually dumb. I had half the mind to laugh it off (“Did I say boyfriend? I meant friend, haha”), but while Jimin was quite a lot of things, he wasn’t stupid.

“Yeah,” I mumbled.

He raised an eyebrow, a hint of the boy I was so familiar with. I found myself getting defensive just from that expression.

I was expecting some sort of joke or a mocking tone, but finally, Jimin just shook his head. “You guys are dating now?”

I was pretty sure my face was beetroot, but I managed in a voice approximately an octave too high. “Apparently.”

He whistled. “It really took Kai literally a trip from death and back to ask you out.”

Too embarrassed to think of anything else, I just shook my head. “It’s not that—” I began, though Jimin was grinning in a way that… well, didn’t seem too hostile and if I weren’t so embarrassed I might’ve commented on. Before either of us could say anything else, a familiar figure stepped to the locker next to Jimin’s.

He raised an eyebrow. “Looks like my time here is up,” he said easily. “Have fun.”

I had an inkling that he meant more than one thing, but Jimin was off before I could say anything else, his now-brown hair disappearing in a crowd of students. Jaeyeon peered at me.

“Is something wrong?” she asked with a hint of worry. “Did anything happen?”

Probably easier news to break. “Not exactly,” I started. “Uh, so, this is kind of stupid. But my brother is on a business trip right now, and he wants me to stay at a friends house—”

“That’s fine with me.”

I winced. “The problem is,” I continued, “After what’s happened recently, Kai doesn’t really think it’s safest if I’m not at home or the safehouse. So I was thinking…” An idea suddenly sprung. “If you could come stay at home with me. I have an inflatable mattress and you can stay in the living room or something.”

She blinked. “At your apartment?”

“Well, if Kai agrees.”

Jaeyeon had a contemplative expression on her face for a couple of seconds as I waited for an answer. There were many possible ways of this going wrong: firstly, she didn’t even know me that well