On their third year, Seulgi and Wonwoo wounded up in the same class while Soojung was completely separated from Mingyu and the other two. 

“You’re actually growing taller,” and you’re getting prettier. He was standing right beside her as she settled on her seat. 

Wonwoo liked that bumpy small eyebags filling under her eyes that'd squeeze her crescent shaped eyes whenever she smiled. It made her look so sweet and her cheeks more puffy, contrasting her skeletal body, making her seemingly float around whenever she strolled along the school's grounds.

Seulgi had to stretch her neck more to look at him now, taking a seat on her chair. “So tiring, you should stop growing already.”

“More like you should start growing,” that earned him a flick in the forehead. Her hair was cut to her chest now, no longer falling to her back gloriously. It used to almost reach the end of her hip. 

"I can't believe you cut your hair," Wonwoo uttered in astonishment and disappointment, looking at her in bewilderment, his fingers took a hold of a few strands of her hair, then swept his fingers through it, subtly caressing it. "Why did you cut it?"

"Obviously, because it's such a waste of shampoo" Seulgi jested and Wonwoo only arched his eyebrows as he let go of her hair. "No, it's too hot to have long hair like this. Besides, my hair is falling out of his roots. Might as well cut it before it gets worse. My hair is not even thick-"

"Or you will go bald-" Wonwoo guffawed out loud, Seulgi throwing more brittle smacks to every inch of his body. Wonwoo felt so much contentment with Seulgi as she made him feel like he could be himself with his not so considerate words and these flaws that he didn't ponder on anymore.

Æ

Soojung had always been beautiful. But being the quiet fellow she was, people deemed her as cold and unapproachable. Beauty was never enough to satisfy people's judgement, after all. But sometimes, she has those friends who just accepted her for the way she was when Seulgi wasn’t there. 

“Soojung, sit beside me!” It was Jinri, and how lovely it was that she was able to know her. She was one of the brightest and friendly people here, the kind who just wander from one to another without strings attached. 

Soojung dreamed, sometimes, if it'd be possible to have Jinri in the same closeness like she was with Seulgi. However, in life sometimes, you could only meet a certain kind of people once, and Seulgi was one of the rare cases, one of those special kind of people. Jinri was ephemeral, she disappeared as quick as she appeared in her life and Soojung loved Seulgi for her ability to stay for so long, after all these years. 

Æ

Mingyu was the apple of everybody’s eyes; clever, friendly, blessed with good looks and irresistibly charming. His father often joked that he was a Marty Stu if he was a character in a novel. But he was far from that. He had his own worries that some day, people would leave him when he lost all of these gifts that were given to him. Most of the time, he felt unsure if the friends he had was really sincere. 

That was why he only let Wonwoo stay beside him all the time since he may be rough around the edges (it tired him out whenever he had to pick up the pieces of his careless words that hurt people and his bad habit of picking unnecessary fights) but he was always one hundred percent honest most of the time. 

One of Wonwoo's good qualities was that he was completely and brutally honest. It could go into different directions, both good and bath. They'd gone through suffering both pros and cons of this side of him together.

When he began to know Soojung and Seulgi, he knew how difficult it would be to get to know them. They created a space between them safe enough to not delve deeper, even though that was what he wanted to know why. 

It was so transparent how genuine the two felt for each other, how deeply they cared for each other in a platonic way. Mingyu wanted to feel something like that, and he felt that Wonwoo needed something like this also in his life. His life had been far too dull for all the spaces his parents left him to fill. 

As they sat here together again on the canteen, it all felt so natural like they had always been together from the start.

“The two of you should start coming to our school’s sports tournament. It’s your last year here!” Wonwoo claimed, looking at the two girls who avoided the boys looking at them intently. 

“Your meadow won’t go anywhere if you leave it for a day. It’s not destructible like your swimming pool,” he was saying it more to Seulgi now, and he had grown strong enough to not burst out of his feelings whenever she looked at him, those scene from a few months ago repeated in great detail.

“We’re just not used to loud noises,” Soojung replied instead, a pear on her hand and Mingyu noticed how Soojung had actually been eating fruits all these times instead of proper meals. “We’ll watch if the two of you are playing.”

“Of course we will, it’s our last year here,” Mingyu nodded and took a bite of his beef burger he bought before coming to school. Taking a more rounded look, Seulgi ate lots of junk food while Wonwoo ate his big meal of rice mixed in with vegetables he bought from the canteen. 

“The two of you eat so little,” Mingyu trailed on his words, as he casually pushed his hair away from his face.

“I eat in a necessary amount,” Soojung brushed it off naturally while Seulgi kept munching on her bags of chips. 

“I prefer to eat proper meal at home unless I’m completely starving.”

“This is why I said you were not taking care of yourself properly,” Wonwoo mumbled lowly under his breath, but only Mingyu could hear it, with the loud chatterings and trays slammed to each other in the cafetaria.

Æ

Cheers erupted near the canteen, and shrieks were heard and a crowd was formed, making a space in between, in which Mingyu bursted in, face a hurricane of anger as he pulled Wonwoo who had a bludgeoned classmate of his between his knees, ready to strike a punch with a twisted and angered smile. It only resulted him to be guided to the detention room. 

“What’s wrong with you, man? It’s our third year, you can’t mess up!” Mingyu felt like pulling his hair out of his head, the boy casually walked ahead with his bag slung to his shoulder, whistling and drowning the voice of his bestfriend who was giving him another lecture for the millionth time, hued cheek and lips cut. He was whistling it in a low volume as his bestfriend for six years rambled the further consequences if he didn’t fix himself. 

“I heard him saying that we’re for hanging out with Soojung and Seulgi. There, I said it,” he stopped and turned to him, arms crossed, the hallway beyond them nearly empty as the hour showed 3 PM. His voice were deep and still hinted with anger. “What will you do if you were in my place?”

“I ignore them. They’re not worth it,” Mingyu shook his head, disagreeing his opinion then footsteps echoed towards their direction. His head turned to the sight of the two girls, laughing inside of their world like always, heading towards them. “Just think how upset they will be. You’re going to rob them off their smiles right now.”

“Where were you guys? We were looking for you-hey, what happened to your face?” Soojung began cheerfully, smiling at Mingyu who flashed his canine teeth to her with no intention to bite until her eyes landed to Wonwoo’s cut lips and hued cheek.

“Don’t tell me you got into a fight?!” Seulgi cut in and stepped closer, and he was rooted to the ground as she took a closer look. Then she pinched his arm, making him wincing out in pain, retracting away from her. 

“Holy crap, that hurts!” Wonwoo wailed and rubbed his arm when she let go and smacked him in the shoulder again.

“Not as much as that bruise though,” his eyes softened hearing this, but Seulgi continuously glared at him.

“At least I won,” he grinned boyishly, dusting his shoulders off imaginary dusts.

Soojung’s eyes fleet from Wonwoo to Seulgi then glanced to Mingyu with a knowing grin. Mingyu’s heart dropped a beat for that. 

“What’s the reason? There should be a reason,” Soojung asked in curiosity, pushing all of her black locks to her back and tucked her hair behind her ears, showing her full profile.

He side eyed Mingyu and looked back to the girls before him, one curious and one fuming, with a crack of his jaw and fists, snapping his neck joints then a cackle came out of his lips. “It’s been a while since I fight, that’s all. All for fun only.”

“Oh God, this is ridiculous-”

“You can’t be anymore senseless-”

Mingyu shook his head as they began to walk into whatever place that could feel like home for them, after meeting Wonwoo’s eyes who gave him a wink and a sign that no way in hell I’m letting them know of my reason. 

(Wonwoo didn’t regret fighting for their friendship for beside the things that could be held in his hands, their friendship was even more real than that. Having Seulgi hold his bruises and scars was heaven as she didn’t flinch and turn away from it.

He didn’t know that she had them too.)