Hoseok’s POV:

Confusion was written all over me today.
Like I said, I didn’t hope nor pray for her to miraculously like me all of a sudden, as long as I can stay by her side, taking care of her and being there for her, that’s more than enough.

So what isit with her and all her sudden skinships today?
It made me confused and it got my hopes up. The way she’d shyly look at the floor when I put on my scarf for her, the way she’d blush at our close contact, how she’d burst into tears and pull me in for a hug.

Yet, when I hugged her back she’d pull away. Why?

Checking my phone, I realized Haneul and BTS have been texting me all day.
They were either checking on Jiyeon or asking me to take good care of her, which I was already doing.
Only one text stood out among the rest.

“Stay away from her. – Taehyung.”

Right. How can I forget that my bestfriend also has feelings for her? And that he should be the one taking care of her instead of me? But I was unable to tear myself away from her, somehow seeing her or just being able to take care of her filled my heart up. I ignored that text that was constantly ringing throughout my mind and proceeded to make dinner for her.

While she was drifting in and out of her sleep, I’d constantly check up on her, monitoring her temperature and making sure she was nicely tucked into her blanket. She had a weird habit of kicking away her blankets and having one leg dangling out of her bed. Cute.

Seeing the time was already close to 10pm, I decided it was time to go home before my parents nagged at me. Leaving nothing but just a yellow post it note for her, I left.

Jiyeon’s POV:

9am and I was already up and lazing around my apartment.
For no apparent reason, I was actually excited for Hoseok to come around and visit me. Being around him felt wonderful, like a candy bar meant to be savoured, filling myself up with nothing but sweetness and happiness.

Switching the channels on my TV wasn’t helping my boredom at all especially when it’s so early in the morning and the shows were either advertisements, morning news or rerun of old boring shows.

I contemplated giving Hoseok a text to see when he’d be arriving but I was afraid I’d come off as too needy or annoying. Yet, when I looked at my phone again all I could think of was Taehyung. No texts or calls from him, again.

Deep down in my mind, I could clearly hear a small voice talking.
And the fact that it spoke reason had me pushing it to the back of my head, wishing that I’d never hear it again.

Did he only find me when he needed me and abandon me when he didn’t?

While being lost in my thoughts, I heard a series of knocking coming through my door.
“Coming!” I shuffled my feet towards the door and opened it.

Hoseok was standing in front of me carrying his bright warm smile while holding up two bags. Needless to say, he definitely brought food for us to eat.

Except it wasn’t quite what I was expecting.
He did bring food, no doubt about that but he also brought different types of fruits and groceries for me.

“Hey, don’t you look at them like that. I specifically bought you the organic ones and I went grocery shopping for you because your house is so empty! Yesterday’s dinner was probably the last bit of ingredients your house had!”

A laugh escaped from my mouth while bringing my eyes up to a twinkle. I nodded and pointed to the other bag that Hoseok had settled on the table.

“What about that?”

“Those are games and magazines that I brought for you! We have Monopoly Deal, Monopoly, Snakes and Ladders, Old Maid, Snap and Reversi! And for the magazines, I brought you like Vogue and Teenage! I wasn’t very sure what magazines you like” He scratched his head as he was explaining himself to me.

How sweet of him.

That morning we played Reversi, one of my favorite games and had breakfast together. It was a simple day where Hoseok took care of almost all my needs and kept me accompanied with board games and made me food. In the afternoon, we built a comfy pillow fort together before hiding under it, watching Disney movies at my insistence. At night, Hoseok and I watched funny videos on Youtube still remaining under the pillow fort. But funny conversations soon changed into deeper ones.

I found out more about his family, how he’s the youngest child and son and that he was really loved. That his family was small but tight knit together and how Hoseok love dancing so much he actually had a dance crew and that he’d go for dance offs. Watching him speak about his passion got me wondering about myself.

Do I have any passion? Or rather, what did I wanted to do upon graduating and venturing into the adult life?

That night, I felt myself opening up to him.
Apart from Haneul, he was the first one that I told of about my sister’s death and how it became the reason why I’d push people away and cut off my emotions. I told him how I’d like to stay in that platform, timing myself out and sometimes look at stars underneath it.

And as we talked, I could feel the effects of the medicine kicking in and I was falling fast asleep.

I felt my bed vibrating once again, realizing it was the after effects of my phone. God, how long has it been since I woke up with that annoying alarm?
I looked around my surroundings and confusion was the only thing I felt.

Didn’t I fall asleep in the pillow fort last night?

I stepped out to have a look, only to find my house all cleaned up and tidy. Not a trace of mess was to be found.
I shrugged my shoulders and headed to the washroom to clean myself up and prepare for school.

A yellow post it note was stuck onto the mirror, on it wrote “Good morning beautiful!” I laughed at the cheesy phrase and the messy handwriting, leaving the note on the mirror.

It didn’t look that bad there, plus a pep talk whenever I looked into the mirror wouldn’t hurt right?

I changed into my uniform and headed towards the kitchen. Ready to prepare myself a bowl of cereal for breakfast before heading to school, and another yellow post it note was stuck on my refrigerator.

It read “An apple a day keeps the doctor away!”

I cut little cubes of the apple before mixing it with my cereal and gobbled it all up like a hungry bear before heading for school.

Being at school somewhat gave me social anxiety, one I definitely did not ask for. I wasn’t sure if it was due to the after effects of me skipping school for 3 days, or the fact that I was somewhat afraid of bumping into Taehyung and Jisoo. Since figuring out the fact that I was probably overthinking, I wasn’t sure if I should join them for lunch again, like old times.

What if the panging ache comes back? But would I be able to avoid it together?

I packed my books into the locker, taking out only the stuff I need.

You can do this, just blend into the background and catch up on work. I exhaled a breath that I didn’t even know I was holding in while cheering myself up.

The next thing I felt was being engulfed in a very warm and tight hug from Jisoo before feeling a heavy weight from my back crushing me down. Lee Haneul my troublemaker bestfriend actually jumped on my back.

“Y-yahy-ah! Y-ou” I spluttered as I pointed towards my neck “ch-choke!!!”

The two of them finally released me before I choked to death and I was gasping for air.

“Wouldn’t it be funny if the headlines wrote “Two girls missed their friend and jumped on her til she choked to death?” “ Jisoo joked around while Haneul laughed along with her.

“It’d be funnier if I actually unfriended the two of you. No?” I rolled my eyes and walked away from the two troublemakers. Although I wouldn’t deny it, seeing the two of them it took off my social anxiety and I felt a lot more at ease around school.

Maybe things weren’t as bad as it seemed.

“Heyhey! You haven’t told me about what happened between you and Hoseok! How did the two days went?!”

“YOU AND HOSEOK SPENT TWO DAYS TOGETHER?!?!”

“GUYS, HUSH. WE’RE AT SCHOOL!” I death stared the two of them, waving my hands around trying to prove my point. “Nothing happened.”

The lessons passed by in a fast blur as usual.

I took down notes from Math class, kept myself blended in the background. And then headed for Biology class with Jisoo.

Although Biology class was really a class of passing notes with Jisoo who was actually being really enthusiastic about Hoseok and me spending time together.

Her notes consisted of “Jiseok ship!” or “HoYeon ship!” basically everything she said was almost about shipping Hoseok and me, or trying to find out what we did for the past two days.

As we continued passing notes whilst pretending to actually care about what the teacher was saying, one of Jisoo’s message got my heart wrenched up.

“I have to update you about Taehyung and I too, about the past two days!”

Right. This was why he didn’t contact me for the past two days at all. Not even a text of concern, what was I hoping for again?

Lunch came and I literally got saved by the bell, I didn’t had to answer anymore questions from Jisoo and I could avoid all that happened between Taehyung and her for the past two days.

Actually, no. Cancel that.
Lunch didn’t save me, neither did the bell.
I felt more like I was actually dragged off to have my heart cut out in an execution ceremony.

During lunch, I could sense that the atmosphere changed. Everyone was tensed unlike before, except for Hoseok who’ve also missed school for the past two days because of me. But everyone, Haneul included was tensed and awkward.

And that’s when I saw it.

Jisoo clutching and latching herself onto Taehyung’s arm while he had on his infamous boxy smile, as if he didn’t had a care about anything in the world. As if he forgot about me.

The emotions in me were boiling and I could feel myself springing into tears.

You have no right to cry or feel sad. Why would you? How can you? Logically, he and you were never lovers. He was never yours to begin with. Morally, they were both your friends. Shouldn’t you be happy for them? So why did everything feel so wrong?

I questioned myself before feeling a warm hand creeping over mine, giving me both comfort and warmth. I looked towards Haneul before swallowing back the salty tears. She took my hand and led me away discreetly, letting the guys know that we were going to the washroom. I prayed that none of them would notice the real reason why we left but honestly, I couldn’t be bothered. They probably already thought of me as the poor ice princess whom they thought Taehyung liked only before realizing they were wrong.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier. I honestly didn’t know how. But if it makes you feel any better, they’re not offi