"Why are you crying again?"

Worried tone.

"B-B-Because...!"

Sobbing.

"Hey, calm down. I won't be able to understand you if you keep crying..."

Panicking.

"N-No one wants to be my friend...!"

Louder sobbing.

It felt like something thin yet sharp had pierced him as he twisted around in his sleep before he felt his pajama top go moist. Minhyun groaned before getting up and wincing, taking off his blanket to see that a deep crimson had soaked into his side.

Right, I was suppose to change my bandages... Minhyun sighed before getting up to turn off his phone before it went off. He cursed when a sharp pain went to his waist when he stood up and put his weight onto his hip. Throughout his morning preparing to get ready, he continue to mumble curses, not even bothering to grab any sort of breakfast before he was met with the sight of familiar blond hair.

"Wha...?" Minhyun was speechless, confused as to why- how Ren was even here, standing right at his house with that same old stoic face.

"C'mon, let's go," Ren said, turning and signalling for Minhyun to follow him.

"... I thought yesterday was a one time thing," Minhyun stated coldly, putting up a defensive front, slowly closing and locking the door behind him. After all, he had to do that. He needed to do that.

"You agreed to listen to everything I said, remember?" Ren asked nonchalantly before holding up a brown paper bag that he kept hidden from Minhyun's sight before promptly shoving it into Minhyun's chest, the latter holding onto it on instinct as Ren lets go of the bag.

Minhyun blinked at the blond before looking down to the bag in a dumbfounded manner before opening the bag and being met with the sight of two old-fashioned doughnuts that were still warm and held that familiar sweet and warming scent. He looks back up to Ren, who says, "Eat those while we walk to school," before turning and beginning to walk.

He could have made a million complaints at the moment but when the androgynous boy stopped a couple meters away and stared at him, he knew that he had no other choice than to follow after him.

A promise was a promise after all.

The walk there was silent, a bit too awkward for Minhyun, glancing to the blond boy in front of him every now and then, noticing how those headphones that would usually blast music that could've made Ren deaf by now hanging around his neck instead.

Weird... Minhyun stuffed the last bit of his doughnut into his mouth before crumpling up the brown paper bag and shoving it into his bag to recycle later.

"Did you chew on the other side of your mouth?"

He realized that Ren suddenly spoke up without looking back before humming a quick, "M-hm," as his answer.

"That's good."

He continued to stare at the back of Ren's head, wondering if he could figure out how the blond's head worked. Why he was like this, why he was acting like this to Minhyun, just why. Minhyun couldn't help but feel a bit pissed off because it seemed like Ren knew how everything worked for Minhyun whereas he didn't know anything at all about Ren except for the fact that the latter liked sweet stuff. He didn't like the idea that the blond could possibly even know all of his weaknesses.

Ren suddenly stopped in his track when they reached the gate to their school before looking back slightly, "I...Is there something in my hair?"

Is he... embarrassed? Minhyun was surprised at the sight of faint red coloring his cheeks and how his voice was lower than usual.

"Eh~ You came earlier for a beating~."

On the inside, Minhyun cursed as he suddenly realized his grave mistake of mindlessly following Ren. He did his best not to show that he was afraid now that he knew quite well that they could possibly beat him to death. When their gazes flicker over to the blond boy in front of him, he had to admit that he was indeed worried about what they were thinking about doing.

"Yah this place isn't for girls," one of Seungcheol's lackies- Wonwoo if Minhyun bothered to remember correctly- stated with that deep voice of his, looking down on Ren.

"I'm not a girl. If you're that go find some other person to ask, but I doubt they'd even want to look at you," Ren had quickly returned to quicker and degraded the situation to something even worse than before as everyone who was eavesdropping was immediately quiet and wide-eyed with the situation, a few snickering escaping from here and there. Obviously, the blond provoked him as he raised his fist, aiming for a punch at his face when a hand came out and paused the punch.

"I don't wanna deal with this crap in the morning."

There was an irritated and threatening tone in his voice before Minhyun realized that it was Baekho, a loner student who was number one in their school's kendo team but unlike Minhyun, he was strong and no one dared to have contact with him with such an image.

Immediately, everyone cowers, even Seungcheol and his lackies as they slowly back away before running off, a proof of Baekho's infamous status. He turns and glares at Ren, making Minhyun fear even more for the latter's life before the kendo student lets out a sigh.

"You can't ever learn to keep your mouth shut," Baekho said in a tired manner.

"But you'd save me," Ren said with ease. Baekho's eyes narrowed at the androgynous boy's statement before he turns to look at Minhyun.

"He's with me. We're gonna stop by your practice today, by the way," Ren said as he grabbed Minhyun's wrist and pulled him along to the school building, leaving Baekho at the school gate.

"You... know him?" Minhyun asked, to which Ren shrugged nonchalantly, answering, "We're acquintances, I guess. I bother him from time to time."

"Oh," was all that Minhyun could answer with before the blond opened the door to his classroom, everyone in the room pausing and looking over to them as the room went completely silent.

"What are you staring at?" the question from Ren made everyone turn away and try to awkwardly return to normal. The blond turns to Minhyun, asking, "Where do you sit?" and after he points to his seat at the back, he pulls him along before sitting in the empty desk besides his.

Minhyun suddenly realized how odd their situation was when he took his seat and Ren pulled up his headphones. He stated with narrowed eyes, "You're not in my class."

Ren only shrugged.