Have I mentioned that I tend to skip time a lot? o-o I-I do that a lot since I'm not good at spending time with the complete, slow process of how it goes... (also when I say "days left" I'm including the weekends too)

Day 1 of trying to be on talking-terms with my group mates... okay, I can do this! Sewoon internally cheered himself on as he opened the door to his classroom without Gwanghyun and Jaehwan by his side since they were already there for a planned working during lunch with their groups. The desks were already set up for groups assigned by the teacher but at the sight of his supposed group the cheer immediately got bulldozed over when he saw that Daehwi was already sitting in a group where his other friends were whereas Dongho and Minki were no where present in the classroom.

Great... Sewoon internally sighed, his gaze drifting over to Daehwi's laughing friend group. He would have asked Daehwi about working on the project since he was the only one present but 1) he was an introvert and 2) Daehwi had a very large friend group: introvert + large group of people = does not compute

"Yah, what are you doing standing at the doorway for."

Sewoon froze before turning around and seeing Minki gazing at him with that frigid stare with Minhyun and Jonghyun standing behind the blond like bodyguards or something. He stutters, "S-S-Sorry-"

"Hey, aren't you my group mate or something?" the blond tilts his head in an innocent manner.

"I'm Jung Sewoon... and yeah, we're in the s-same group..." Sewoon really shouldn't be stuttering considering that he wasn't talking to a large group of people but that gaze of Minki's was pretty but also intimidating or maybe it was Minki's fanboys and bodyguards that were staring holes into the back of his head.

Minki takes a look around the classroom before turning back to him, "Aren't you gonna sit? We should start on the project before we fail this dumb class."

Oh... that turned out better than I thought it would... Sewoon could only nod before turning and walking to a desk group fit for his amount of group mates, sitting down at it and surprised to see Minki sitting in front of him like yesterday. He was also surprised to see Daehwi standing to his left, nervously smiling, "Um- are we working now...?" Sewoon nods slowly, wondering why the popular boy was so nervous being by them.

"Okay, so the topi-"

"Er-" Sewoon tensely watched Daehwi freezing before continuing to stutter, "I'm sorry, b-but shouldn't we wait for Dongho...-ssi?" Yup this kid was definitely afraid of the school rebel is he addressed Dongho formally even if Dongho was probably no where close to being on the school campus.

However, Minki huffed indignantly, "No way is that f*BLEEP*tard gonna be here."

Wow that escalated quickly and it escalated even more when Minki turned to Daehwi and actually glared at the youngest, "What? You want him to be here or something?"

"W-What?! No- wait- um- n-n-no!" Daehwi looked like he'd actually cry which is never a good sign. Minki lets out a sigh, standing up from his seat, "Forget it. Even the idea of him being in the same group as me is nauseating." and he left the group to go hang out with Minhyun and Jonghyun yet again.

"I-I'm sorry..." Daehwi apologized to no one in particular as he held his head down as though he should be ashamed of something.

"It's okay. We can... uh..." Sewoon stumbled around in his mind for something because he was not the best at cheering someone up.

"At least begin the project?"

"Y-Yeah, at least begin the project! M-Maybe at the library after school..."

Thank gawd the bell rang for their next class to save him from embarrassing himself further.

"Sorry for the wait," Daehwi greeted with a polite smile as he takes a seat across from Sewoon, who looks up from a book that he grabbed while waiting for the younger. He takes a look around before asking, "Is Minki-ssi and Dongho-ssi not coming...?"

More like I couldn't talk to Minki and I couldn't find Dongho, Sewoon restrained himself from saying that, instead shaking his head, "No. How about we start the project before splitting up the work to give to them?"

"O-Oh..." the younger looked slightly disappointed for some reason, making Sewoon ask, "Is something wrong...?" At that, Daehwi jolted, awkwardly smiling, "A-Ah it's nothing too i-important, haha..." but he was only more concerned for the younger. Honestly speaking, Daehwi was a lot more shy and awkward than Sewoon thought he would be what with all of the rumors that he was 'greedy for attention', 'unfair', and a 'teacher's pet'- not to mention his large friend group- so really he had all the wrong impressions about him. The boy in front of him looked like he couldn't even do harm to an ant.

Daehwi changes the subject, "A-Anyways, what topic should we choose?"

Right, we're meeting up for a project, the quiet boy nearly forgot. He pulls a notebook out of his bag to make the fact that he forgot that they were only groupmates less noticeable, saying, "Well I was thinking that we could choose music as our topic."

"Music?"

"Er- unless you don't want to. I was just thinking since I have an interest in music..." Sewoon murmured before Daehwi frantically interrupted, "No no no, I-I wasn't complaining, I-I was just wondering... I don't know, I w-would like that topic too... um- don't you play an instrument, Sewoon-ssi?"

"Hyung is fine," and he silently hoped that that didn't sound too casual or make it seem like he's forcing the younger, "And yeah, I play the guitar some times."

"Really?" Daehwi looked at him with eyes of adoration, "That's really cool! Could you teach me how to play?" Before he could answer to that the boy flinched, looking like he realized that he made a terrible mistake, returning to a meek attitude yet again as he avoids eye contact by keeping his head down and looking at his lap, murmuring, "N-Never mind, th-that was really rude of me."

"It's fine," the boy across from him looks up in surprise and he tries to reassure him with a small smile, "I don't mind teaching you." Sewoon was actually quite pleased with the idea that Daehwi had an interest in the guitar.

50 days left until the presentation.

Sewoon was certain that he became acquainted with Daehwi by now as they had taken time during every lunch to teach Daehwi how to play the guitar with a couple minutes after school for extra work time on the project together. Some times they would plan for time periods on the weekend days to meet at the park for some more guitar practice. The younger has stopped stuttering and being nervous and shy around him with the lessons, more free and relaxed as they spent more time with each other. By then, it felt like it was more-so a paired partner assignment since no signs of Minki nor Dongho were seen for the past couple days.

Well maybe it was also for the fact that Daehwi seemed less crowded by his friends lately. It wasn't really a factor that bothered Sewoon personally, but it was obvious that it bothered the younger as some times he would glance up from the area that Sewoon hid behind where practicing the guitar went unnoticeable by other students. Daehwi always seemed disappointed when he caught sight of a friend of his who passed right in front of them but would pay no attention to him.

It was only until recently that Sewoon noticed that every day at a different period of time Daehwi's friend group changed each of those times he would see the younger.

It was only until recently that he realized that the "bright and cheerful" Daehwi was so awkward and seemed gloomier compared to the first impression.

*SNAP*

Both of them flinched as a guitar strings had snapped loudly from the younger trying to tune the instrument and tightening it too far. Daehwi turned to Sewoon with a panicked and guilty expression before he gapes instead, "H-Hyung, y-you're bleeding..."

He follows Daehwi gaze and looks down to his arm, a small cut on it right beneath his short-sleeved dress shirt's sleeve as the weather had been warmer lately. Honestly Sewoon wasn't playing attention to the pain more-so the sound of the string whipping through the air, but now that it's been pointed out the cut does sting; however, he's more worried about the younger since he knew that snapped strings caused more damage than what people think, "I'll be fine, are you okay?"

Daehwi meekly nods as he stared down at the broken string, "I-I'm sorry about your string... what are you going to do about it?"

"I needed to replace the strings this week anyways so don't worry too much about it," Sewoon smiled reassuringly as he grabbed his bag to find an adhesive bandage lying somewhere between his notebooks and folders, "We'll just stop practicing for the day."

"O-Oh... then should I l-leave since your friends probably want to hang out with you..." Daehwi was about to pick up his stuff before Sewoon interrupted with, "It's okay. They're working with their groups so you can stay," as he managed to find an adhesive bandage to peel and stick over his cut.

"A-Are you sure...?" the younger's eyes reflected feelings that showed that his happiness was being contradicted by guilt.

"Yeah, it's fine. Again, don't worry about it too much," Sewoon softly pulled his guitar away from Daehwi, putting it into its case before clicking it shut securely.

"Um- thanks. I was worried that I was bothering you, hyung."

"Why would I be bothered?" he really wasn't since it wasn't like Daehwi's large friend group was crowding around them or anything and it was easier to talk to the younger now so he had no problem.

The boy in front of him looked at him unsurely, fidgeting with the hem of his dress shirt, nervously saying with a quiet voice, "People hate me and say that I give off a weird vibe... How else am I suppose to react to that? I mean, doesn't hyung think that too...?"

Sewoon was confused as to what Daehwi was talking about before thinking about a group project beforehand where students were randomly picked and they could pick their own groupmates to create a presentation that would be graded depending on another group who had the same topic as them. The younger was the first to go with whispers spreading across the classroom that he went first because he was the 'teacher's pet'. He picked the most popular students that were a part of the same social clique as him, worsening the whispers. Rumors spreaded like wildfire after they got the better grade of the group they were against even though that group had better results, leading to Daehwi being called 'greedy' and was automatically shunned by plenty.

"Ah, are you referring to the first group project of the year?" and when Daehwi flinched, Sewoon realized that he got it spot on, carefully wording his next sentence, "Well, I do admit that I didn't exactly like you either after all of that and the rumors and opinions of other students didn't help much either, but... I realized at one point, that you're still pretty young and at this age, you make plenty of mistakes. It couldn't be helped that your friends at the time were 'popular' and 'teacher's pets' too, but..." he saw how small Daehwi looked by now, noticing that he was still hurt and scared so he could say his next words with confident.

"You've learned from your mistakes, and it shows that you're not as greedy and overconfident as others say."

Daehwi looks up to Sewoon, his eyes wide with shock.

"Obviously it's tiring to hear about you every day from every mouth possible, but when I got to know you better, you're just like any other person: you want to succeed, you have dreams, you have interests, you're scared of something, and you want people to like you. You can get hyper and you can get lonely at any given time. You're... not at all as bad as anyone talks about- no, in fact, you're completely normal but you have a postive attitude that's really nice and likeable," Sewoon at this point realized that he might have overstepped the boundary line between stranger and acquaintance with the younger's comfort zone, panic setting into him as he stutters, "M-My bad, I-I think I went too far..."

But Daehwi suddenly cried.

With a smile.

He was crying while smiling, "Thanks hyung, that's... really nice of you. No one has ever told me that... Everyone that I met- I thought that they would be my friends until the end of time but they always... always left me behind for someone else... and I find new friends only for the cycle to start over again. With you, it feels like I'm not that lonely with these lessons since I know that you'll always be there... it actually feels like my life isn't stuck in a cliche about 'popular kids'."

Sewoon was surprised that the younger felt lonely but it did made sense as even though his friend groups were large, their connections weren't necessarily secure. He was about to search through his bags for tissues or a handkerchief when he was suddenly hugged by the younger.

Daehwi was sobbing now.

He... He's held a lot in, hasn't he? He's suffered from a lot more things than I thought... Sewoon carefully hugs back the younger softly, rubbing his back to try to soothe him, "It's okay... I wouldn't leave you..."

It's then he realized that rather than overstepping the boundary lines between stranger and acquaintance, he overcame the boundary lines between acquaintances and friends.

31 days left until the presentation.