Juyeon was a couple of steps behind Chaerin and Kevin as they climbed back to their classroom, they finished lunch a little early, and they wanted to get some books from the library before class commenced.

“Hey,” He felt a tap on his shoulder as Ahyoung hopped beside him, he blinked at her and smiled.

“How was lunch?” He asked her as the girl hooked arms with him.

“It was okay, I didn’t know they put walnut in the salad.” She made a face as she glanced up, seeing Chaerin.

“I’m a little worried about the presentation later, Changmin is way too confident about it.” Juyeon began as they reached the floor.

“Then, if…it’s not working out well, we just wing it, Lee Ju.”

“Lee Ju?”

“Everyone says Juyeon, and Lee Juyeon is too long. Lee Ju is cute.” She chuckled in reply, Juyeon made a face at her.

“Seatmate was better.” He supplied, Ahyoung smiled as they entered the library.

“Chaerin and I made plans for the weekend, there’s this new movie I want to see.” She casually said, Juyeon nodded as they took their seats, the other two were already walking towards the shelves.

“Do you think it will be okay if I ask my brother to drive us? I don’t want things to get awkward, he’ll just be there to drop us off and pick us up again.”

Juyeon tilted his head, Ahyoung had no idea. Hyunjae’s sister, also Chaerin’s close friend, did not have a single clue.

“Why would it be awkward?”

“I kind of got the feeling that Chaerin and my brother…aren’t vibing well.”

“Vibing.” Juyeon repeated with one of his killer smiles, the other female students in the hall couldn’t help but pause.

“I don’t know. Just that.” She muttered as she leaned back on her seat.

“About this weekend, can I come too?” Juyeon spoke, the girl nodded at him, then paused.

“My friends from my old school will be there too. So, it’s kind of a…girls’ day out.” She informed him.

“Cool.”

“Huh.” Ahyoung blinked at him, then they returned to their usual comfortable silence.

“You just wanted to meet new girls, huh?” She suddenly spoke, realizing things. Juyeon grinned at her and shook his head.

“Don’t you even deny it, Lee Ju.”

"I don't mean to~"

"Juju Bear." Ahyoung chuckled before shushing him.

Chaerin drummed her fingers on the desk, their period after lunch was supposed to be with Professor Ko, but he was absent. So, their class was given a free period, she went straight back to the library to get some work done with one of her essays.

But, she was kind of stuck now. She had no more words to type. Nothing.

“I knew something was off with that salad.” She muttered under her breath, still tasting the bitter aftertaste of the walnut. She looked up and saw Chanhee chatting with some of their classmates, the girl glanced around, Ahyoung was probably off to get something to eat. Juyeon, well, Juyeon probably went with her. Chaerin smiled to herself, something was up with her best friend.

“Hi.”

She froze and slowly peeled her gaze from the laptop, Ahyoung’s older brother was smiling down at her.

“S—Sunbae,” She blurted out.

“Is this seat taken?” Hyunjae asked as he pulled the chair across her and sat down. Chaerin pursed her lips and smiled back at him.

“Are you on free period too?” He asked as he set his backpack down on one of the empty seats, Chaerin mentally grimaced, he was going to stay and sit with her.

“Yes, our teacher is absent. How..about your class, sunbae?” She asked as she spotted Jacob and Younghoon stroll in.

“We’re given an hour to study for our finals.” Hyunjae grinned at her as he took out his laptop. Chaerin nodded back at that, unsure of what else to say. Her eyes went to her laptop’s screen, and she started typing again.

"So, Chaerin-ah, have you thought about which schools to apply to?"

Chaerin blinked at him, the older male was looking at her expectantly.

“I—I have, sunbae.”

It was quiet again, Hyunjae chewed on his lower lip and puffed his cheeks.

“Schools here? Or are you flying abroad?”

“Just here, my parents aren’t comfortable with me flying to another country by myself.” Chaerin replied, and Hyunjae smiled at the long answer.

“That…sounds reasonable.” He stated, Chaerin looked at him and the girl smiled a little.

“Why?” He blurted out, Chaerin pushed her books away before speaking.

“Ahyoung said the exact opposite. She wants me to just enroll and tell them afterwards.” Chaerin chuckled.

“Typical Ahyoung, she does things first and thinks about it later.” He continued. Chaerin glanced at the time.

“I kind of have to get back to class, sunbae. G—Good luck on your exams.” She carefully said while gathering her things, Hyunjae nodded and helped her with the books.

“I’ll~”

“I can return these.” He stood up as she did, Chaerin paused, a little taken a back with his proximity, but the older male was smiling.

“S—Sure, thank you, sunbae.”

Hyunjae gave her a small smile, he left the desk, taking the books with him. Chaerin let out a low exhale before hurrying away from the table.

“You have that other game next week.” Chanhee said, Juyeon looked up from his phone.

“Right?”

“Yeah.” He replied as he crossed his arms and leaned against the desk. Their classroom was empty except for a few students milling about, the others were at the cafeteria or library.

“It’s still quite funny how Ahyoung went the other one last week.”

“Funny?” Chanhee looked at Changmin, Juyeon’s brows rose briefly.

“Well, we played against her old school.” Changmin replied, Juyeon scanned the room, Ahyoung was seated on her desk, browsing through one of their textbooks.

“Ah, right. Do you think she knew~”

“And, she also just witnessed her ex being totally crushed at that game. No big deal.” Changmin let out a laugh, Chanhee’s brows went up and Juyeon eyed the other male. He wasn’t sure if Ahyoung shared that with their other friends.

“Her ex?” Chanhee repeated, he glanced at the girl briefly.

“Well, I didn’t know if she mentioned..but the captain, that Jung Jaehyun.” Changmin shrugged as he popped another chip in his mouth.

“She dated the team captain? Wow.” Chanhee mused just as one of their classmates came rushing in the room, she was holding a brown paper bag.

“Ahyoung-ah,” She walked to her desk, Ahyoung looked up from her books.

“Hyejin, what’s up?”

“This arrived for you just now, one of the custodians asked me to hand it over to you.” She said as she placed the bag on the table, across the room, Juyeon’s went to the girl.

“Ah, did he tell you who’s it from?” Ahyoung asked as she stood up to look at the bag’s contents, Hyejin shook her head. Ahyoung thanked the girl before studying the bag again, she noticed the tag and she halted.

“Well, they were good together for a while, and…end of story.” Changmin mused, Juyeon nodded along, his eyes went to Ahyoung again.

Ahyoung reached inside the bag and then she felt the familiar soft material of something she had thrown away months ago. Her chest tightened as she dropped the item back.

The girl was frowning at the bag, and then she carefully arranged her books on the desk, grabbed the bag and walked out of the room.

“Oh, they…would have looked so good together.” Chanhee commented carefully, his eyes went to Juyeon.

But their friend had already left.

Ahyoung landed on the pavement with a loud thud just as the male reached his car, he paused as he saw her.

“A—Ahyoung-ah,”

“How dare you?” She spat as she tossed the bag towards him, the polar bear plushie landed right at his feet. Jaehyun halted, stunned.

“I just wanted to give it back to you since it’s yours.”

“In case you didn’t notice, I told you to throw that away.” She replied, her tone cold. Jaehyun exhaled and picked up the bear.

“We need to talk, Young. How things ended between us~”

“There’s nothing to talk about. You’re an unreasonable prick, that’s why we broke up.” Ahyoung shot back, Jaehyun grimaced and ran his fingers through his hair.

“I…I didn’t mean…That was never my intention with him, Young. I only wanted to~”

“What? Scare him off? Mind you, Jung Jaehyun, he was already a part of my life before you came!” Ahyoung pointed out, her lower lip quivering.

“I know, I know. And I’m sorry if~”

“You’re not. I know you’re not sorry.” Ahyoung said, Jaehyun tried to reach for her hand but another thud made him pause. Jaehyun’s eyes went past her shoulders and his forehead creased.

“If…If it weren’t for you, I would have never lost him. He would have never walked away from me.” Ahyoung said softly as she stared at the bear.

“Ahyoung, please.” Jaehyun took her hand in his, but the girl recoiled. Ahyoung slowly shook her head and kicked the bag away from her.

"Please, what? He's never coming back to me. Hell, I don't even know where he is. The one person....The one person who never.." She trailed off, her voice was already shaking, and she did not want to cry in front of him. Not Jaehyun. Not ever.

“Just..leave me alone. I already transferred schools so that you’d get out of my way, why didn’t you get the message?” She replied, Jaehyun pressed his lips together.

“One more chance to make things right, Young. That’s all I’m asking for.” He said, Ahyoung glanced behind her, Juyeon was standing steps away, casually leaning against the wall.

“You good?” He mouthed at her, Ahyoung exhaled and winced in reply.

“I can’t give you that.” She turned to Jaehyun again as she slowly stepped away from him.

“Ahyoung-ah, please~”

“Drop this, please. I chose you and I lost way too much in return.”

“So, you’re going to do this again? Drop me for another guy? Because you have history with that.” Jaehyun pointed as she reached Juyeon, the latter’s brows went up.

Ahyoung let out an inaudible groan as she looked at Jaehyun again, she felt Juyeon’s fingers circle around her elbow, as if securing her in place.

“You know what, I’d drop you for him.” Ahyoung stated as she crossed her arms over her chest, Jaehyun paused.

“I’m not even surprised, Lee Ahyoung.” He stated, Ahyoung felt Juyeon’s grip tighten around her elbow, then his fingers slid down to her hand.

“Surprise.” Juyeon finally spoke before tugging the girl with him.

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