"How are you?" I worriedly ask when we reached the subway station.

Jungkook just gives me a faint smile before saying, "Don't worry about me." And when the train doors open, he let me go in first however instead of staying near me, he stood a little far from me.

Negative thoughts instantly plague my head but immediately shrug it off.

He's just sick. He doesn't want to infect me with his sickness.

That's just it, Chaeyoung.

Don't think too much about it.

Jungkook and I parted ways without even saying a word to each other.

He must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed.

"Hi." I greet Sejeong when I take the seat beside her.

She smiled at me, "Hey. How was your weekend?"

Just thinking about it makes my heart ache a little.

I know, I know. I shouldn't feel this way, in the first place he is sick. And, it was just a simple dinner for friends. "Just the usual."

"Oh, have you heard?" She suddenly says, "Mrs. Eun is going to take an indefinite leave from school because of her pregnancy. And I heard, we will be having a very good-looking professor." She utters dreamily.

I chuckled at her thirst for handsome men in our department. Well, according to her, she gets bored since our Department is full of women and lacks cute guys.

When my class ended, I hurriedly check my phone to see where Jungkook is waiting for me...

And for the first time in so many months we have gotten closer, there isn't any text message from him.

I pout my lips and then decided to take the initiative this time.

Me : Hi, my class is done. Where are you? ^^

There was no reply even after I get out of the building.

He must be busy.

Since I don't want to be a bad friend and leave him behind, I decided to just wander around the school as I wait for his reply.

I was walking when I noticed that there are athletes running in the field.

That's Lisa.

When she accidentally sees me, I vigorously wave my hand at her. She beamed at as she continues to run in the field. When she's done with her warm up exercise, she went to me.

"I miss you Chaeng!" She pouts but hesitates to give me a hug since she's all covered in sweat.

"So, how was the date last Sunday?" She wiggles her eyebrows playfully.

Unintentionally, my face curved downwards but immediately smile, "He got sick." I simply tell him.

Lisa then frowns comically at me, "There's still next time, I'm sure. Especially now that he has become a little bolder with his affection towards you."

'WH-AT?" I bet I am blushing madly due to Lisa's words. How did she assume that easily? "It's not like that... It was supposedly just a friendly dinner."

Lisa just rolled her eyes then pinches my cheeks, "You are too innocent for this world. I'll get going!"

What was that?

I waited for almost an hour for a reply, unfortunately, it didn't come.

Where could he be?

I sigh as I decided to just go home and just apologize for leaving him behind.

Before getting to the university gate, someone calls out to me.

"Chaeng!!!" That familiar voice.

I turn to the owner of the voice and a smile is immediately plastered on my face. It's been so long.

"Junhoe!" I greet back.

He wanders his eyes as if looking for something. "Where's that brat?" He asks.

I furrowed my eyebrows, not really getting what he is pertaining to...

Brat?

Oh!

"You mean Jungkook?" I confirm with him which he nodded his head in return.

"He's..." I lower my eyes, "I actually don't know. He hasn't texted me, maybe he's busy."

"What!!!!?" He yells, "He got the nerves to not answer your message? That arrogant idiot."

I laugh a little loud upon realization that this man in front of me never changed.

"I'll walk you until the subway, come on."

It has been a week now, since Jungkook and I stopped going to school and home together. Neither do we exchange text messages anymore. The last message I received from him is when he apologized for not being able to go home together, saying he has some matters to take care of.

And everything just naturally happened.

It's like we're back to being just neighbors again.

Or worse, just plain strangers.

I didn't try to persist on asking him what's wrong...

I just don't feel it's right to force myself in when he clearly doesn't want it at the moment.

"Chaeyoung, can you give this to the Jeon's? Shiho requested this before I came to Daegu." Dad asked me to bring the cheesecake he bought for Mrs. Jeon.

Since, I don't really have any reasons to decline, I immediately went to their house.

"Chaeyoung!" Uncle Dae-Joon welcomes me, he then shouts "Honey, Chaeyoung is here."

I go straight to Mrs. Jeon who's in the kitchen, as usual, baking some pastries.

"Hi sweetie." She happily hugs me the moment she sees me.

I then gave her the box, "This cheesecake is from dad." I smiled at her.

She squeals, "Thank you so much. The Parks are really the nicest persons on earth." she cheerfully accepts the cake and places inside the fridge.

"Oh, honey." She calls out to me with an instant reverse of her expression from a while ago. "Does Jungkook have a problem in school?"

I arched my brows in the middle, confused with her sudden question.

She then takes a seat, "Did he tell you anything?"

I gulp before admitting, "I... We're really not talking lately, he seems busy. And, he is a man of few words, he really shares only a few information."

Mrs. Jeon faintly nods with uneasiness still painted on her face. "You see, Jungkook stopped smoking since we moved here." She paused for a moment, swallowing the lump inside .

"But the other day, I found another pack inside his bag. And he only does that when he is in a real tough situation." She explains. She then forced a smile, "He started smoking when that happened. He was miserable, he was pitiful." She shakes her head slowly as she wipes her tears "I don't want to see him like that again." She then clenches her fist, "I don't want to see her again."

I bring Mrs. Jeon in my arms, trying to ease the pain she has.

Jungkook, what are you doing? Your mom is in pain.

The next day, I tried my best to catch Jungkook, however I didn't.

What time does he wake up?

"I'm almost done with this, just wait a second." Sejeong raises her hand to signal me to wait without even lifting her sight from the screen of her laptop.

I chuckled a little and pat her back, "Fighting, Sejeong!"

Since my seatmate has something else to do, I decided to bring out my class lecture to refresh my mind with the lessons from last time. After minutes, the girl beside me pokes the top of my head as she stretches her arms out.

"I'm done!" She proudly says. "You can check it now." I move her laptop screen towards my direction and read her work. I was focused on her work when she suddenly gasps.

"What is it?" I asked with furrowed eyebrows.

"I just thought I should tell you that I saw your boyfriend with another girl last week." She tells me. "Look, I don't want to make a big deal about it, I just thought I should tell you since you're my friend."

I cleared my throat as I try to compose myself after the sudden news. "He-he's not my boyfriend."

During the class, my mind was occupied with the thought of him and another girl.

Right after we're dismissed, I wasn't able to stop my mouth from asking "Sejeong, have you seen the girl?"

She was confused for a moment before finally getting what I'm talking about. "Ah, I'm not sure. I just saw her side profile. She's short, she has a pale skin and a beautiful side profile."

Okay, why did I feel my heart sink under the ground?

Maybe my expression shows the undeniable pain I felt, so Sejeong instantly says "Don't worry. I don't think they're in good terms. With the looks of it, they seem to be arguing, with Jungkook obviously mad."

Why do I have a bad feeling about it?

"So you mean to say he's meeting another woman?" Miyeon said after I relay to her what Sejeong has told me.

Lisa then exaggerately gasped, "Basically, Jungkook is cheating on you.." She frowns.

"Lisa, he's not! He's cheating on no one." How many times do I have to tell her that her ridiculous idea is simply impossible?

"But you were always together, he's extra sweet to you..." She counts, "Oh, and you went on a date last time and were supposedly to go on your second date! Chaeng, why can't you get it?" She frustratingly asked.

"That's not a date, okay? And friends are usually together. I'm just trying to say that, he's free to meet whoever he wants. I--- I just thought of telling you this, since you might be curious." I explain to them with an unexpectedly heavy heart.

Miyeon stared at me with sad eyes, "You sound sad, Chaeng."

I chuckled at her statement and immediately shake my head, "I don't."

Miyeon then placed her arm over my shoulder, "Yeah, I believe you."

Since the reason Jungkook has not been meeting me is his lovelife, I didn't try disturbing or running after him anymore. I don't want to ruin his romance with whoever that person is. After all, he suffered so much from his previous relationship that I think it's just proper for him to mend his broken heart.

"Chaeyoung, what news station do you prefer?" Saejong asks. We are in the middle of choosing the news station we'd like to visit and interview for our research paper.

She then adds, "I know someone from SB