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How long has it been?

Haerin even checks on the calendar in her phone.

In two days, it’ll be two months since they agree to do this fake relationship.

She never knows a lot could evolve in the time of 60 days, one of them is her friendship with Baekhyun.

He is from the least close friend in their circle of friends into, she could say, the closest one now.

“Why do you keep checking your phone?” asks Jongdae, who sits next to her at the moment.

It’s lunch break and the kids are sitting at their usual table. Usually, Haerin’s right seat is occupied by Baekhyun, but because the said boy isn’t attending school, she asks Yeri to sit next to her instead. She doesn’t even finish her meal and leaning her head on Yeri’s shoulder, eyes and hands busy with her phone.

The others were pretty surprised to see Haerin arrived by her own this morning because they clearly didn’t know what had happened. Baekhyun seems to be so busy that he doesn’t tell any of them or on their group chat too, so Haerin tells them instead. And after that, she has to be honest that it has been a pretty slow day without that annoying fake boyfriend of her.

“Are you waiting for Baekhyun?” Kyungsoo chimes in when Haerin doesn’t answer.

She darts her eyes away from her phone screen to Kyungsoo. Doesn’t know why she’s feeling embarrassed to admit, she shakes her head, then pockets her phone.

⏩

When she gets back to her class, she realizes something is not right. She eyes her desk, her chair, and under the desk. She tucks her hair behind her ears so that it won’t block her vision when she bends her body to look inside the drawer. When she straightens up, she starts to look around, her eyeballs start to shake in panic.

“Jongdae, my bag is missing,” she says loud enough so the boy could hear her from a couple seats away.

“What?” she hears him reply but doesn’t turn at him as she still tries to look around her seat.

Not two minutes later, she feels a presence behind her. When Jongdae doesn’t see her bag too, he starts to shout at the class and asks about it. But everybody is shaking their heads that they don’t know and looking at them in confusion too. Most of them aren’t even in class when it is lunch break.

“Lucas!” He one of the few people who usually stays in class. “Do you see Haerin’s bag?”

Unfortunately, Lucas shakes his head and puts up his arms. “I was sleeping, sorry.”

Some of their classmates get closer and murmur with each other, clearly confused where her bag is. Jongdae and Haerin looks at each other when the bell rings for ending their break. Haerin’s eyebrows furrow in worried. The crowd around them breaks when their teacher comes in and yells at them to get to their seats.

“What’s wrong?” Teacher Park asks when he sees his students’ worried faces.

Haerin steps closer and explains about her missing bag. She asks for a permission to look for her bag which Teacher Park denies at first because that means she’ll miss her lesson. But Haerin is persistent because who knows where her bag ends up later if she finds it after school ends. In the end, Teacher Park relents and shoos her. Then, Jongdae asks to keep her accompany. After a few minutes of argument with their teacher, she finally kicks the two of them out to quickly of find Haerin’s bag.

“You just don’t want to attend Teacher Park’s class, right?” Haerin asks when they’re outside the class.

“No. I just don’t want to leave you alone,” Jongdae whines and denies, which Haerin doesn’t believe and just give him the look.

When Jongdae can’t stand at her stare already, he rolls his eyes. “Fine. Mathematics bore the hell out of me, kay?” And Haerin laugh at him before hitting him in the arm.

The two of them start their searching—the cafeteria, the library, the toilets, every floor and every space that could be a hiding place. As the clock ticks by and they still haven’t found her bag, Haerin feels her blood boils. Jongdae would come up by her side and rubs her arm soothingly a few times to keep her emotion in check.

“Rooftop?” Jongdae asks and Haerin shrugs her shoulder.

When Haerin opens the door to the rooftop, the cool wind hits her face that makes her shuts her eyes for a moment. And when she opens them, what she sees is the blue sky, trees, and grey tiles. Her shoulders slump in defeat when she doesn’t see her bag like what she’s hoping for because this is the last place they can think of. There’s no way her bag grows a pair of legs and runs away from her.

Then, she doesn’t realize Jongdae has made a right turn. And when he’s far enough, his eyes widen and he calls for her. Haerin quickly pads her feet to his way. She halts when her eyes spot a familiar cream colored bag with the zip is open, some of her books are on the floor with pages fluttering open because of the wind.

“What the actual ?” Haerin whispers.

Wasting no time, the two of them run to pick up her books and bag. When she has all the books that on the floor in the first place, she goes through everything to make sure nothing is missing, but she finds that some of her papers aren’t here, probably the wind has taken them away. Though, fortunately, none of them are important.

“Wait,” Haerin halts, staring at Jongdae in confusion. “Am I being bullied? This is something like bullying, right?”

Jongdae merely blinks at her question for a few seconds. He tilts his head to the side, “Well, whoever did this surely has balls to bother you.”

Haerin scoffs and one end of her lips curls up, but there’s no real amusement found. She zips close her bag and Jongdae follows her when she gets on her feet.

“Who do you think it is?” he asks, making Haerin stops from taking a step.

She has one specific name comes up in her mind as soon as Jongdae asks that question, but her lips stays shut. Though, she doesn’t actually need to answer Jongdae because they are clearly in the same page. Because there’s just no one else beside that person.

“You should tell Baekhyun.” When Haerin doesn’t give him any respond, Jongdae looks at the girl in disbelief. “You’re not going to tell him?”

Haerin doesn’t dare to make eye contact with her friend when she sees the look at his face. She chews at her lips a few seconds and after she thinks of a good answer, she says, “It seems like Baekhyun almost got her back. And this is just a childish unimportant harmless—“

“—what? Are you waiting for her to drag you to a shady alley and beat you up?” Jongdae cuts.

Haerin glares at him for cutting her in the middle of sentence. “I’m just saying—she only did this because Baekhyun’s not at school. Everything will be fine as soon as he’s back.”

“Why are you being nice?!”

“She’s just being a stupid girl who is jealous of me!”

“And that gives her the free pass to bully you?” Jongdae his eyebrows at Haerin.

She rolls her eyes, “No.” Suddenly, she feels very tired of this conversation.

Seeing Haerin sighs, Jongdae controls his own volume. “Whatever the freaking reasons are or what you think—this is wrong. I suddenly don’t get your stupid fake relationship plan with Baekhyun. And I don’t want Baekhyun to get back with his ex who did this to my friend just because she’s being a stupid girl who is jealous of you.” Jongdae says with so much sass that Haerin is itching to just smack him in the head.

“If you’re not going to tell him, I will,” Jongdae threatens when Haerin is still silent.

Haerin turns her head to stare at her friend. It is clear in both of her eyes that she’s contemplating with herself in the inside. She doesn’t want to make a big deal out of this but Jongdae doesn’t seem to be like backing down. Jongdae lifts one of his eyebrows at her once again, his face asking.

Haerin tries again. “But Baekhyun and—“

She stops in the middle when the boy before him put up his palm in front of her face to make her to stop talking.

“You seriously want Baekhyun to get back with her? Do you think she deserves Baekhyun? After what she did to you, his friend?” Clearly, Jongdae doesn’t ask that for a serious answer comes out from Haerin’s mouth. He continues his speech. “You know what? What about you imagine that it’s not your bag that being hidden, but Sooyoung’s or Yeri’s. Will you agree for Baekhyun to date back with that girl?”

Haerin tilts her head, When you say it like that.

⏩

Haerin directly goes straight to her room when she gets back home. Passing her mother and murmuring she’ll skip dinner. She throws her bag in the middle of the floor before crashing down onto her mattress. It feels like her bones melt down when they touch the soft surface. She leans on her side, her palms become her pillow as she stares at her bag. It’s been a few weeks that she always feels tired whenever she comes home from school. She closes her eyes, thinking there’s no one to blame except herself. She wishes that Baekhyun will come back soon so that she can end all of this.

Talking about Baekhyun, that guy hasn’t called or even texted her. On one side, she’s worried about him. On the other side, she feels like she wants to strangle him. But, she remembers Jongdae’s words then. In the end, she promises him that she’ll tell Baekhyun, but, honestly, she’s still not sure about it. Maybe it’s better that Baekhyun doesn’t call her so she has an excuse for Jongdae.

But, speak of the devil, her phone rings then and she sees Baekhyun’s name on her screen. Whisper out a curse, she changes her position i