“Are you demoting me to just an acquaintance?” Howon said in disbelief as he glanced at her outstretched hand.

“What?” Eunhye blinked. “I’m promoting you from a stranger to an acquaintance; who ever said we were friends?”

Howon studied her expressions, trying to see if she was playing a joke or something. Just three nights ago, he had overheard her saying how much she despised him. He wasn’t a stalker or anything; he only wanted to check that Eunhye went home safely, but when he got there, she was walking out of the house with Jihoo. So he did what he usually did, and he followed them and listened to their conversation.

“You don’t want to?” She began lowering her hand, feeling embarrassed.

He suddenly grabbed her hand with his own. “I look forward to the day where we’re friends, then.”

“For a second there I thought you were going to be a normal person.” Eunhye remarked as they crossed the intersection.

Howon began rambling off about random things, making Eunhye look back on her decision of acknowledging him. He seemed to talk and try to interact with her more, and that was the complete opposite of what she wanted; wasn’t he bothering her because he wanted to be friends?

“We’re here!” Howon cheered as the two arrived at the school, his smile faltering as he noticed Eunhye’s anxiety. He hesitated before gingerly wrapping his arm around Eunhye’s shoulders, mentally praying that he wouldn’t get drop-kicked to the ground. “You don’t have to worry about anything; you have me.”

Eunhye shifted closer to Howon by instinct, automatically feeling less nervous. It caught Howon off-guard, but he quickly recollected his thoughts back together and entered the school gates with her.

“I despise J.Tune with a burning passion.” Eunhye grumbled as soon as she spotted the dark brown uniforms mingling with the students wearing navy uniforms.

“I don’t get it; what’s so bad about J.Tune High School?” Howon blinked. “Are they full of druggies or something?”

“Oh, Eunni!” An excited voice bellowed.

“Worse.” She scowled as she spotted Joon running towards her with an idiot’s smile on his face.

“You transferred to this school without saying bye! We all thought you went overseas, or something – no wait, why are you hiding behind this guy,” Joon squinted as he glanced at Howon’s nametag. “This Lee Howon guy?

While Joon had been blabbering, Eunhye had slowly moved to stand in a spot where she was almost completely hidden from Joon’s view. She unconsciously longed for Howon’s arm to be around her shoulder again, since he had lowered his arm when she had took a few steps away.

“We’re starting to take attendance for J.Tune high school!” A teacher called out.

Joon reluctantly left the two alone, glancing back with a pout as he wasn’t done talking yet. If anything, he talked more than Howon did by tenfold.

“You okay?” Howon turned around and chuckled at Eunhye’s guilty expression. “You’ve never shied away from anyone like that before. All you usually do is give one-word replies instead of using a person as a shield.”

“I told you I despised this school,” Eunhye breathed out as she spotted all her past ‘friends’. There were just too many people who knew her; too many people who would talk to her and make a ruckus.

The bus had been on the highway for at least three hours, and just about everyone on the bus was asleep; even the teachers were dozing off.

Eunhye was wide awake while she stared at the window, fully conscious of the fact that Joon had purposely chosen a seat in the same row. She had no idea if he was taking a nap too, but she knew for one thing that Howon was asleep. If Howon wasn’t bothering her with questions or stories, he was either focused with work or sleep.

“Hey, Eunni.” Joon whispered as he leaned across the gap between the seats. He could never pry himself away from calling people by their nicknames. “Aren’t you excited to go back to the camping place?”

She closed her eyes in frustration; Joon was conscious and prepared to annoy the life out of her. Eunhye purposely pretended as if she hadn’t heard him and prayed that Joon would accidentally wake Howon up. It would be hard not to; Howon was the one thing that was separating Eunhye and Joon from being side by side.

 “…Is Jihoo doing fine? Are your step-parents still being mean to you?” Joon suddenly asked.

Eunhye froze at the mention of Jihoo and her ‘guardians’. She went through a mental check over her body; they hadn’t bruised her at all ever since she transferred schools, which was a miracle. Maybe it was because she had been exhausted day after day of putting up with Howon, and she didn’t do anything apart from homework and sleep.

Oh yuh, Imma come running to hug you gurl and I'll put my arms around you, come gimme a kiss too, I'll cuddle with you and never let go.

I'll also lift my shirt and tease you about showing my abs.

I had to, okay.--- fine here's your chapterly Hofangs.

Since they're on a bus and everything, why not a photo of him peeking out of their van's window.
 

Edited: 130825

Author's Note: School starts in a week //sobs// I'm not ready. I've been spending all of my summer immersed in Infinite and all the new releases in Kpop... I need to review the stuff from last year OTL