"Saerin..."

"You're awake..." Saerin murmured, regarding her best friend worriedly, opening her half-closed eyes at the sound of her name.

Haknyeon was already regarding her with his big, expressive eyes... which were pooling with tears.

"What happened?" Saerin panicked at the sight of his tears. In all her years of friendship with him, she has never seen him as much as sad, much less cry. "Yah, Haknyeon, don't scare me!"

"Appa... I dreamt of him again..."

"Your appa? Why, what's wrong?" Saerin grabbed his shoulders in concern. 

Haknyeon's lips turned up, but his eyes shut as a silent sob wrecked his body. "He passed away when I was eighteen."

Saerin's eyes flew wide open and her jaw dropped. 

"I never told you... sorry..." Haknyeon's eyes remained shut as the tears streamed down his face. "I wanted to be strong in front of you. But I guess, I'm just a weak small boy..."

"Don't be silly." Saerin covered , squeezing his hand in comfort. "There's no weakness in that... I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you..."

Haknyeon suddenly closed the gap in between them and enveloped her tightly in his arms, taking her by surprise. Her entire body stiffened and she blinked hard as he rested his face on her shoulder.

They have hugged before, but somehow this hug feels... different?

Saerin started to pull away but then she heard a choking sob from him. Relax, Saerin, you should be there for your best friend when he needs you.

"Can we... stay like this for a while?" Haknyeon murmured into her shoulder.

"S-sure." Saerin patted him comfortingly on his back, trying to ignore the weird feelings stirring up from within her.

Ever since that incident at Haknyeon's home, things seemed to have changed between the two of them.

Haknyeon has stopped teasing her as much and has become even more attached and affectionate towards her, grabbing her hand randomly whenever they were walking together and resting his head on her shoulder when he's sitting beside her.

Saerin isn't sure what to feel about that. Sure, it's nice to not be bullied incessantly about her looks or her behaviour, but it's weird for their relationship dynamics to change so much. It's almost like having a boyfriend, and Saerin still has unpleasant memories from her first relationship.

It's the first practice for the inter-class competition and some of their classmates has stayed back to watch the trio (Jihoon, Haknyeon, Euiwoong) practice. Predictably so, the girls took up majority of the audience and there were even girls from other classes or even other levels who had come down, thanks to Park Jihoon President-nim's presence.

She was there in the audience since she was on the organising team representing her class and she wanted to support Haknyeon as well. The girls around her were raving about Jihoon.

"Oh my God, he's so cute!"

"He shot me a heart! I think I'm going to faint!" One of them exclaimed dramatically.

"No, the heart was for me!" Her friend shot back argumentatively.

Saerin suppressed the urge to roll her eyes as she glanced at Jihoon on the stage. He was indeed shooting finger hearts all over the place and waving at everyone as Euiwoong rapped. Seriously, what's the big deal about him? Those cute antics were so cringeworthy... they were more befitting of a toddler, not of a high schooler who was the Class President... She found herself getting more and more irked by him.

When it was his turn to dance, all the claps and cheers drowned o