It was raining on Tuesday night when Yeonjun came home with Soobin. Yeonjun rode his bike to school that morning, but my mother wasn't about to let her favourite child bike home in the rain all by himself.

It seemed like Yeonjun might even be staying the night at our place.

We were having hotpot that night, and while mom and Soobin were downstairs preparing the food, I was studying for a math quiz I had to take tomorrow. It was tedious and I only pushed myself to go through with the studying for Mr. Hong's sake. I thought of his kind smile and kind words, and it was enough to make me decide that I didn't want to let him down. Who knows, maybe if I tried hard enough, I might even make one of the maths competition teams that were being assembled.

I was so focused in my studying that I didn't notice the shower in the bathroom down the hall go quiet. Shortly after, Yeonjun crept into my room in Soobin's clothes and wet hair.

I let out a yelp when he attempted to stick a cold finger in my ear but missed and touched my jaw.

"Yeonjun, what the heck?" I turned around abruptly and gave him a once-over. "Oh good, you're not ."

"You wish I was?" He raised his eyebrows, amused, which earnt him a slap against his arm.

"That's disgusting. Soobin is downstairs, by the way. Helping my mom with food preparation for once."

"Mhm."

"So are you staying over tonight or what?"

"Mhm... I think I am."

"Cool, but what about tomorrow? Do you have your gear for volleyball practice? Oh, but I suppose you could borrow from Soobin or something."

"Mmm."

I glanced up at the older boy and realised he was reading my work over my shoulder. I quickly covered my workbook with my hands, like that would help anything. He must've seen it all already. Yeonjun wasn't great at maths either, but he was still better than me. What if he was judging me?

But he wasn't even interested in how badly I was at maths, because he asked if I was in Mr. Hong's class.

Yeonjun pursed his lips and nodded, before finally tearing his eyes away from my desk and taking a few steps back to plop right onto the edge of my bed. "Old Hong's Soobin's homeroom teacher, I believe."

"Oh yeah? He loves Soobin, doesn't he?"

Yeonjun made a face that told me exactly how he felt toward Soobin's homeroom teacher. It was an expression no different to Kai's... but yet, there was something strange about the face he pulled.

He seemed to really, really not like Mr. Hong.

Before I could ask why, we were called down for dinner and we also heard the front door open and shut, followed shortly by my dad's voice. Yeonjun dashed out faster than I could've counted to three. He knew how strict my dad was with boys in my room. Dad even gave Kai a hard time for being in my room, despite the fact we had practically grown up together.

After dinner, Yeonjun and Soobin cleared the dining table to study there together as I retreated back to my room to do more math practice questions.

I was pretty proud of how hard I studied that night. I would usually get distracted after a couple minutes, and an hour at most. But that night, when I looked up to take a breather, it was already 11pm.

I grabbed my thermos and headed downstairs for a refill.

Turns out, Yeonjun and Soobin were studying just as hard as I was. I wasn't sure what I had in mind when I walked downstairs to where they were studying, but at the end of the day, they were seniors... and both of them were ambitious in their own ways. Soobin was hard set for pharmacy school and Yeonjun would surely get into business management or consulting.

"You haven't slept yet?" Yeonjun asks as I stop by the dining table next to Soobin to have a peek at his work.

Maths. Of course it was maths too. His chemistry textbook lay just out of arm's reach so I assumed he had been working on sciences too. On the other side of the table, Yeonjun had his laptop out amongst the required readings the seniors were assigned for Korean literature class.

I shook my head and pointed at my thermos, to which Yeonjun quickly emptied his mug and followed me into the kitchen. He placed his coffee mug in the sink and then poked around at the fridge in search for some water as I waited for the kettle to boil water for my thermos.

I must've let out a yawn because Yeonjun materialised himself next to me and attempted to stick his finger into my mouth, putting an abrupt end to my yawn.

"Go sleep if you're tired."

I nodded. "I will, I've worked hard today."

"Oh yeah? You like Mr. Hong so much that you try so hard to impress him?"

"Yes, actually." I shoot Yeonjun an annoyed glance. "Everyone else seems to hate him, but I actually really like him."

Yeonjun let out a scoff. "It's because he's freaking creepy."

"Hey!" I snapped back, raising my voice a little. "He's not. Why would you even say that?! He's nicer than you, at least."

"Soojin, you don't even know him that well."

"I know him better than you do."

He didn't agree with me, nor did he shoot back at me, so our conversation seemed to have ended there.

The water finally boiled. When the switch on the side of the kettle flipped back up, Yeonjun and I both watched it for a moment. Then, I unscrewed my thermos and started to pour hot water into it. I was aware that Yeonjun was watching me closely, as if wanting to say something. He didn't, and it bugged me.

As I screwed the lid of my thermos back on tightly, he slipped out of the kitchen without another word. When I walked out of the kitchen and through the dining room, Yeonjun was already seated again, and he was clearly not in the mood to talk to me anymore.

It was Soobin's turn to look at me. He asked if mom or dad were going to pick us up after school tomorrow and I shrugged with uncertainty. We had to see in the morning. He asked if I was going up to sleep, and I nodded. He then asked if I was alright. He must've overheard the conversation in the kitchen.

I shrugged. He glanced at Yeonjun for a second, as if wanting to ask him what happened, but then decided against it.

If Soobin knew something was up, he didn't pry. Soobin never did.

Unless our dad dropped us off at school in the mornings, Soobin and I usually went our separate ways. Mom would drop Soobin off and I'd catch the bus with Kai. But, when Yeonjun stayed over, they would always let me tag along and the three of us would always take the bus together.

So it kinda hurt when I realised the two of them had left without me the next morning.

I would see Yeonjun in the corridors, but he'd always be walking with someone. And I'd be with Kai, like I always was.

He must've seen me glance at him during lunch. There was no way he couldn't have seen me, because our eyes met at one point. He looked away first, of course. No waves, no smiles, no hi's. The worst thing was, I didn't even know why he was avoiding me. Did he really get mad because I liked Mr. Hong and he didn't?

Kai sat in the bleachers by himself that afternoon to watch my first session as a volleyball team member. I was a bit nervous before we started. Even though I never wanted to admit it, Soobin was actually right. I really can't play volleyball that well. I looked over at the boys' side of the gym, and saw Soobin spiking the ball to his opponent at full force. Then just to the side, Yeonjun was sitting on the bench, wearing a dark blue bib over Soobin's gym clothes and old gym shoes. I couldn't help but laugh. He almost looked pitiful, sitting there all by himself while the others were busy training.

"Soojin? What are you smirking at?"

Dahyun, one of the juniors on the girls' team whispered into my ear, causing me to jump. I looked back at my side of the gym, and realised they were waiting for me. When did they notice me drift off?

"I know the guys are cute, but eyes over here, okay?" Sana our team captain piped up, arousing a couple of giggles across the team. "You probably didn't hear this just now, but we split you, Dahyun and Jisu into one training group for this week, and Yuna, Chaeyong and myself will be on the other."

Jisu must've sensed my confusion, because she added in, "that means the three of us will be meeting every two days for fitness training. Y'know, cardio and gym stuff."

My eyes widened. This was good news. This just meant Jisu and I will definitely be spending more time together outside of scheduled practice times... and who else do I also spend a lot of time with?

My heart sank. This would have been the perfect opportunity to hook them up. I stole another glance at Yeonjun. He was standing up now, laughing at something that had happened with the boys. He looked so happy. He probably didn't even feel the slightest bit sorry for ditching me that morning.

But who cares.

"Yeah, that's cool!"

Sana nodded with a smile, and then we started to practice our sets and spikes.

Call me sensitive, but I felt Jisu's eyes on me throughout practice that day, but we didn't get to talk at the end of it, because when we finished at 7pm, Yuna had grabbed her for something, and Kai was waving stupidly at me from the bleachers. I almost forgot that idiot was still there.

And that idiot took photos of me. Photos that weren't all that flattering. Of course he would do that. We were on our way out of the school's sports centre when I caught a glimpse of his camera roll, which contained rows and rows of my face, close up.

"Don't you dare post that anywhere."

"When have i ever?

"Actually, I don't trust you. Give that to me."

I lunged for his phone, but he was quicker.

"Hey! Not fair, you're a tree!" I had to jump to even just swat at his forearm. Why did he have to be so tall?

"Not my fault you're not tall enough."

I was about to shoot a snarky comment right back at him, when someone brushed past me.

It was Yeonjun.

All of a sudden, I didn't feel like playing anymore. Who cares if Kai had my ugly pictures. He had a ton of them already. I wanted to go home.

"Kai, let's-"

"Why are you avoiding me?"

I froze. Me? Avoiding?

I turn, ready to disagree with him like I always did.

Yeonjun wasn't smiling. He didn't look very happy at all. The corridor was dark, so it was difficult to make out exactly what he was thinking. His arms were crossed, but he was stepping from foot to foot.

"You could've come said hi to me, why didn't you?"

"I didn't see you today."

"Liar, you saw me between third and fourth period. You saw me at lunch too. Why didn't you say hi? I thought you were mad at me."

Oh?

"And why would you think I was mad at you?"

Yeonjun shrugged, his eyes darting to the floor immediately.

"Soobin said you were mad at me."

Kai cleared his throat quietly. "Um, I can leave if you guys want... sounds like you guys have some things to-" I grabbed him before he could go.

"Stay. There's nothing private about this conversation anyway." I look at Yeonjun. "Unless there is?"

Yeonjun furrowed his eyebrows and let out a sound of exasperation. "Look, we don't have to talk now if you don't want to. I just want to... I just... I just want to make sure you're okay."

I wasn't sure how to feel. Did I read him wrongly? I thought I knew him better than anyone else. Turns out he wasn't mad at me after all, huh. So why was he so cold today?

"I'm okay."

The older boy stepped forward. "You sure?"

"Yes, I'm..." I shook my head. "No. No I'm not, I'm pissed that you and Soobin left without me. You guys always waited for me."

"Ah, that..." Yeonjun was in front of me now, and he was close enough to touch my shoulder. He didn't. "Soobin had to see Mr. Ahn before homeroom, so we headed in earlier than we would've. Sorry we didn't let you know."

"It's fine."

"So are we good?"

Albeit reluctantly, I nodded. After all, Yeonjun still cared about me. And there was no reason for me to stay mad at him.

+ Sorry, this was much longer than previous chapters (double the length, I believe)! I contemplated over splitting this into two, but I kept it like this because it seemed to work well. Not sure what is preferred, though... short or long chapters?