Next morning, Yongguk was still cursing himself for forgetting about asking. Although they were very dreary curses, as he was tired, while he dragged himself to school. As usual, he was on autopilot, until he collapsed in his chair, where he fell asleep instantly. Sometimes he could stay awake until the teacher came and then dozed off during the lesson. However, this time he was too tired.

Last night he had been tossing and turning, thinking of everything that had happened at the dinner with hoodie-guy. He had been looking for something that could clue him in, on why the other was messing up his stuff and leaving notes of apology after. However, after hours and hours, he came up with nothing and finally fell asleep.

Only to wake up at the sound of his alarm two hours later.

He cursed himself for not asking, he cursed himself for getting side tracked when thinking of what could possibly be a clue for why. Over and over again, he had gotten side tracked, because he couldn't help but smile and felt this odd feeling in his stomach, over something like hoodie-guy laughing or smiling. It was so odd, but the bunny teeth that showed themselves when hoodie-guy smiled were so...

Well he didn't know what they were, but he liked them. He liked it when hoodie-guy smiled or laughed and showed them. He had also started wondering why hoodie-guy always wore a hoodie. Maybe he liked them? Maybe there was another reason?

Someone shook his arm. Fighting his way back to the awake world from the land of dreams, he blinked drearily.

“Good morning,” hoodie-guy greeted him with a smile.

“Morning,” he mumbled. The other was sitting in front of him, looking amused.

“I'm sorry to wake you, but we need to finish our project,” hoodie-guy said.

“Yeah,” Yongguk nodded and sat up with a yawn. A quick look at the clock, and he calculated he had slept for three hours.

Hoodie-guy chuckled. “Do you need a minute?”

“Nah, I'm awake,” he replied and blinked a couple of times. “Did you bring your computer?”

“It's right in front of you,” hoodie-guy replied and Yongguk looked down to see the computer sit where his head had been a minute ago.

“Oh,” he said. When had that appeared? “Okay, let's get to it then,” he nodded. Hoodie-guy nodded and opened up the computer.

For the next hour, they wrote down the last bit of what they wanted to write. After that, they started reading through it, correcting mistakes. Yongguk really enjoyed it, as he always did with hoodie-guy. They worked efficiently, but didn't rush. By the end of the lesson, they had finished it. Leaning back in his chair, hoodie-guy smiled happily at him, so he couldn't help but smile back.

“That feels good,” hoodie-guy said.

“It does,” Yongguk nodded. They sat and smiled at each other over the table. He got lost in the hoodie-guy's smile, the way his lips stretched, showing his white teeth, and the way his eyes were folded into crescents, stars glittering in them. Hoodie-guy looked utterly relaxed and happy. It made Yongguk happy too, that the other looked like that.

The bell rang, ruining the moment. The other students chatter grew louder and they scrambled from their seats to put back their stuff and get out of class. Their teacher said something over the noise about final hand in being on Friday, and presentations next week. Hoodie-guy stood up from his seat in front of Yongguk with a smile.

“I'll leave you to sleep again,” he told him.

Yongguk nodded, but wished the other would stay a little while longer. Maybe he could even stay awake for that. However, he didn't ask the other to stay, when he was kind enough to know he needed to sleep during the day.

Sp he laid down his head on his arms and closed his eyes. With hoodie-guy's smile in his mind, he slowly drifted off to sleep.

When he awoke again, it was because someone pulled at his chair, leaving him to sit on the very edge. He quickly raised his head from his arms and looked around. The jackets had surrounded him, but hoodie-guy was there as well. Everyone wore thunderous expressions, but hoodie-guy’s was the worst. He was holding the collar of one of the jackets who stood directly behind Yongguk. What was going on?

“If you even try, I will make sure you won’t be able to walk for a week!” hoodie-guy’s threat was spat out. Yongguk got the feeling he was missing something as he looked from the jacket and hoodie-guy.

“Does Himchannie have a crush?” the jacket sneered at hoodie-guy and struggled to push his hands away from his collar. Was that hoodie-guy’s name?

“This is your last warning,” hoodie-guy threatened, when the jacket finally got the hands off his collar. Yongguk silently noted not to get on hoodie-guy’s bad side, or was it Himchan? He would have to check later, but it sounded plausible. He thought he had heard the name before.

“Like you could do anything against me,” the jacket sneered once more. Yongguk suddenly got a hold of the situation. The jackets were threatening hoodie-guy. He could feel the anger grow in his very bones. No one did that to his friend.

“I would advise you to off,” he said as he stood up and crossed his arms.

“Oh look, sleeping beauty knows how to curse,” the jacket snickered and the other jackets joined in. He then looked at hoodie-guy. “You won’t win this, you’re only one, against six,” he continued.

Yongguk felt his blood boil. Alright that was it. “You have exactly ten seconds to get the out of here, before I smash your face in,” he told the jacket as calmly as he could. No one threatened his friend and no one wrote him off like that!

The jackets laughed. “What? Yo-“

Yongguk punched him in the face.

For a moment, everything went in slow motion. The jacket stumbled back a step, while the other jackets stared at him in surprise. Hoodie-guy looked surprised too, but more amused than anything else. Then hoodie-guy grabbed his hand and pulled at him. A few moments later, they were out of the classroom, their things in hoodie-guy’s hand, walking fast down the hallway.

When they were out of the school, hoodie-guy started chuckling to himself and a moment later, he was full out laughing. Yongguk followed in a daze, wondering how someone’s laugh could be so… likeable. He noticed they were on their way to his house after a while, still in a fast tempo.

“Himchan?” he tried, hoping that really was hoodie-guy’s name.

“Yeah?” hoodie-guy replied as he visibly tried to calm himself down. So his name was Himchan.

“Slow down a bit, please,” he requested.

Hoodie-guy, no Himchan, stopped up. “Oh yeah, sorry,” he apologized and let go of Yongguk’s hand. He missed the warmth immediately.

“It’s okay,” Yongguk replied. For a moment they stood in silence. Yongguk’s mind swirled around what had just happened. He had punched someone. . That had not been the intention. He had just been so angry. Whatever the jackets had done to hoo-, no Himchan, to have such a thunderous expression, must have been bad. The way they had talked about Yongguk too, had been entirely disrespectful.

What had been going on, to make such an expression come forth on his friend’s face?

“What happened?” Yongguk asked, wanting to know.

“You just punched Sunghoon,” hoo-, no Himchan, replied and started laughing again. “You punched Sunghoon in front of his little friends, totally surprising everyone!” he laughed. He really had a likeable laugh.

“Yes,” Yongguk nodded, “but I meant before that.”

Himchan calmed down a little and looked at him with what Yongguk would call fondness. A weird fluttering erupted in his stomach, but he ignored it. He wanted to know what was going on.

“You still don’t know, do you?” Himchan asked.

Yongguk got even more confused. What was going on here?

“Why don’t you think about it, while we walk to your house,” Himchan suggested.

“Why doesn’t anyone want to tell me it straight up?” Yongguk exclaimed. Himchan was just like his other friends.

“What?”

“My other friends, they won’t tell me either, even though they probably know who you’re protecting from the bullying,” he explained, trying to keep calm about the lack of information he had, but failing.

“I’ll tell you when we get to your house, don’t worry,” Himchan told him. “But I’ll ask you, what does it say, that your friends know, even though they have never met me or anyone at school?”

Yongguk stopped feeling frustrated. It had something to do with himself. Exactly what, he wasn’t sure about. However, he would figure it out. So as they walked in silence, he thought about everything and what his role in it was.

Ooooooohhhhhhh, Yongguk is starting to think eh :P

Wherever will this lead!? No one knows...

okay someone has probably figured it out, and I know, but let's just say no one knows ;)

Also, short chapter, I know, but I figured after the longer one last time, this is fine ^^

hope you guys have a lovely day/night/whatever it is in your timezone

Peace out (^_^)v