I knew this would happen.

Ever since he arrived, Hanbin had been unusually quiet. Well, it was a normal thing that he was quiet around me, but this time he didn’t even talk much to his friends. Especially Jinhwan. It must have been really awkward for them since they were chairmates.

“Are you sure there’s nothing wrong?” Yunhyeong asked the same thing for the umpteenth time. He kept turning around whenever the teacher wasn’t looking at us, repeating the question like a parrot just to get another shrug from Jinhwan and silence from Hanbin.

“Stop bothering them.” Donghyuk turned Yunhyeong’s head back facing the board. “We can talk about it later.”

“You should know better than to bother someone who’s in a bad mood.” Areum remarked while copying down my notes in her notebook. “Maybe he woke up late and didn’t get to drink mommy’s milk this morning.”

“Aish– Areum!” I whispered loudly and smacked her on the shoulder. This best friend of mine really loved to add fuel to the flame.

“I think he didn’t hear that,” Yunhyeong whispered.

“He definitely heard that.” Donghyuk said. We turned our heads back and grinned innocently at the poker-faced Hanbin.

I felt awful seeing how Jinhwan was stealing glances at Hanbin. He looked so worried. Earlier he had told me that he had called Hanbin and explained everything the night before, but the boy hadn’t responded that much. Even Jinhwan was clueless as to why his friend was that upset.

And so, I took the initiative to have a face-to-face talk alone with Hanbin during break time. Jinhwan had talked to him and yet he still acted so cold, so I might as well give it a try. Even though I was pretty sure I was a nobody to him, trying to have a little talk about it wouldn’t hurt, right?

As everyone was leaving for lunch, I approached Hanbin and asked the other friends to go first. Hanbin began to fidget in his seat and avoided making eye contact with me once we were left alone in the classroom.

“Hanbin, what’s wrong?” I sat in Yunhyeong’s seat facing Hanbin, who kept his gaze locked on his fingers.

“…I’m upset with myself.” His straightforward answer got me surprised – I hadn’t expected him to open up right away.

“Why are you upset?” I asked. Talking to him started to feel like talking to a little boy, I didn’t know why but I just wanted to be careful with my words.

“I’m childish, aren’t I?” Kinda. I gave no response to that. He continued, “I don’t know what to do with myself.”

I couldn’t see where this conversation was going. Yes, what he said wasn’t wrong, it was obvious that he seemed lost. I just wished that he would tell me what the main problem was.

“So… Yesterday you went to Jinhwan’s sister’s café.” I started carefully. “Why didn’t you come and see us upstairs?”

It took a few seconds of silence until he mumbled, “I didn’t want to bother you and him.”

Well, on one hand, it was good that he hadn’t caught me practicing with Jinhwan’s help. We would have had more to explain if that had been the case. But you see, even in this situation we already had a lot to explain.

“And… Have you talked to Jinhwan since yesterday?” I asked even though I knew the answer, just to avoid causing more suspicion.

“He called last night. Told me his sister misunderstood his relationship with you.” Hanbin said flatly.

“That’s true.” I tapped my chin and thought of my next words. “It hasn’t even been a week, how is it possible to have such relationship? Right?” That was his point, wasn’t it? He remained quiet though, did he not believe me too? Maybe I wasn’t that good at convincing people after all.

“You know, he was just showing me the place where you guys usually hang out, and he said I should join you all next time. Spend time together, all of us.” I made sure to emphasize the last part. “Anyways, Hanbin, do you mind having me around you and your friends?”

You see, I asked that because at the moment I assumed it was the problem. I had spent last night thinking about this. I was a newcomer along with Areum and Chanwoo, and the other boys took us in rather quickly since the dinner that night. Maybe that was what made Hanbin uncomfortable.

But instead of answering my question, Hanbin confessed, “I was cold at Jinani last night because I didn’t believe what he said. About you and him. Now I don’t know how to start talking to him again.”

Oh, so that should probably mean he believed us now. He looked like a guilty puppy. I couldn’t help but think that Hanbin was really a pure kid. This image was so different from what I had had in my mind all this time; a cold and awkward boy who barely had any feelings.

“I think I can help with that.” I offered. “But you haven’t answered me yet. Do you mind having me around?”

Hanbin sighed and crossed his arms on his chest, frowning at himself. I was still waiting for him to look at me and not anywhere else. “Why are you even asking about this? Of course I don’t mind.”

“Then look at me, tell me why you’re not happy about Jinhwan hanging out with me.” There, I went straight to the point.

Hanbin froze in his seat, but quite surprisingly this time it didn’t take him too long to answer. He looked at me and said, “I just don’t think it’s right to be that close so soon. It’s not right for him because he wasn’t a naughty flirt to begin with, but he let himself follow some bad influence, and it’s not right for you to easily trust a guy, whoever the guy is.” Whoa, he didn’t even stutter. What changed him so fast, though? He couldn’t have possibly rehearsed that comeback, could he?

I took my time processing his words into my mind. So, that was really what it was all about? I had expected it to be something a bit more personal, considering how we had been since middle school. The more I thought of his reason, the more it made sense and I found that it was true, what he said. So I admitted it.

“You’re right.” Hanbin’s gaze was fast to return to me, his eyebrows raised in surprise.

“I am?” He asked like it was the first time someone said he was right.

“Yeah. Thank you for caring about us.” I gave him a sincere eye smile. However, deep inside I couldn’t believe that he would care about me, an old classmate from three years ago whom he had barely interacted with. I finally came to a conclusion that his main concern must have been the changes that he didn’t like in his friend, and I just happened to be in the frame.

“Now, let’s get you talking to Jinhwan again.”

I didn’t wait for Hanbin and made my way out, since my stomach was nagging to be filled. He caught up with me just after I was outside already.

“I don’t know what to say to him,” Hanbin said.

“Is it your first time being in bad terms with him?” I asked.

Hanbin thought for a moment. “No.”

“How did you solve it before?”

“He came to me first and cleared things up. The next day, everything went back to normal.” That blank innocent look on his face. This boy was really lost.

“Let me ask you something,” I said while we continued walking to the cafeteria. “Is Jinhwan important to you?”

“Yes,” Hanbin answered without any hesitation. “He’s like a brother.”

“Do you care about his feelings?”

“Yes,” he said again.

“Could you feel how he felt in the class earlier?”

“He seemed worried.”

“Do you want him to keep feeling that way?”

“No I don’t want.” What a good boy, answering all these questions so honestly.

“Then what are you going to say to him?”

This time he didn’t answer immediately. After thinking of the right words, he slowly answered, “He doesn’t need to worry about me, and, I understand he wants a girlfriend, but he should limit his flirting and not be too aggressive.”

Aggressive. I almost laughed at that. Come to think of it, that word was pretty accurate to describe it.

“Does he really flirt that much?” I asked out of curiosity. And what about that some bad influence that he had mentioned before?

“Yes, since the last three months of the freshman year. His classmate told him that he could be lacking height but should never be lacking charm. That taught him to flirt and even showed him dirty stuff.”

“Seriously?” An ironic laugh slipped out of my mouth. Apparently Jinhwan had picked the wrong person to be friends with.

“If you follow him around the school all day, you’ll know how many girls he flirted with by counting those who greet him. I’m not talking bad about him, it’s really the truth.”

An amused smile found its way to my lips, because of both this interesting new information about Jinhwan and the fact that Kim Hanbin could actually talk that much when it came to his close friend.

“What if he actually had feelings for one of them? Wouldn’t you support him?” I asked.

“Feelings…” Hanbin’s voice faltered as he sank into deep thoughts. “I never thought of it that way, because of how often he spent time with different girls. But...”

“But?”

“But if he really had feelings...” Hanbin paused and slowed down as we were getting close to the cafeteria.

I glanced up at him to find an unreadable expression on his face; it was rather gloomy.

“…I would have to support him.”

At times like this I wished I could read people’s mind. I wanted to know why his voice sounded so helpless and heart-wrenching.

“Hanbin.”

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