Nothing happened after that day. It was as if that kiss never happened. Like we never made out on Baro’s couch. The maid never caught us. We were never awkward after all that. The kiss never happened.

At least, I wish it was like that.

Baro and I never did mention the kiss after that day. But there was that awkward tension that hung in the air whenever the two of us were alone together. When we were with the other guys, everything seemed to be okay. The guys were able to distract us from being so weird with each other, but it wasn’t like they noticed anything in the first place. But once we were alone, it was like we were complete strangers towards each other. I honestly don’t like it at all.

The kiss became a memory that was quickly locked away, but obviously not forgotten and would crawl right back into your mind at the wrong time and at the wrong moment.

Jaehyun wasn’t making anything better either. After that argument we had in the library the other day, it seemed like Jaehyun was finally trying to give Baro a chance. He was actually trying to be nice to Baro, offering to buy him lunch, helping him with his homework, and even once asked if he wanted to walk home together.

(At the end they didn’t because Baro had after school detention that day, which I think is the only reason why Jaehyun even asked. He already knew he what the answer was going to be.)

I have no idea what they would talk about whenever they were alone, but it seemed like everything was going fine because the two actually do look like they’re getting closer.

Occasionally though, I would catch Jaehyun rolling his eyes or clicking his tongue out of annoyance when he was around Baro and it makes me wonder if he really wants to get close to Baro as friends, or if he’s just doing it all for my sake.

And because of all this ‘let’s be friends’ crap that Jaehyun is going through, he even tries to make all three of us hang out together and that’s just plain awkward. Only once have all three of us walked home together, and none of us spoke a word to each other except for the “it’s nice outside” and the “I have a lot of homework to do” and all that other small talk crap. Without Baro and Jaehyun at each other’s throats fighting for my attention, there’s nothing for all three of us to talk about.

And I’m not sure how to feel about that.

Apparently nobody had suspected anything yet about me and Baro, because nobody asked. You’d assume that they’d realize the awkward tension between us, but so far they haven’t. Jinyoung occasionally would give me a look whenever I would sit beside him instead of the empty seat beside Baro, but he wouldn’t go any further than just a look. It would be Jinyoung to be the first to catch on, though. That sly bastard notices everything.

It has been a little over a month since the kiss and I don’t know how longer I can keep up this whole “nothing happened” act. I know eventually we’re going to have to talk about it, for closure I suppose. But I don’t want to think about having that talk. Not yet, at least.

=

Sitting at the library table during our free period became a normal routine for the gang. Of course, the only reason we sit here is because I refuse to go to the cafeteria and I’m sure the rest of the guys would rather be down there where they could make all the noise they want and not get shushed every 10 minutes by that hag of a librarian. But it’s not like I’m forcing them to stay up here with me either.

I know any day now, the librarian will have enough of us, especially Gongchan and his loud mouth, and kick us all out permanently. When that day comes, I’m killing everybody in the group. Gongchan will be the first to go.

And speaking of Gongchan, the young male was scanning the table with a huge grin on his face, and I could already tell from that look that he was thinking of something I probably won’t like. Then again, I dislike most of the things that comes out of his mouth.

“Guess what next week is, guys?” You could see the excitement on his face and I wanted to punch it right off. Sometimes just looking at Gongchan pisses me off. It’s not that I hate the kid, but he gets annoying sometimes.

I tried to think of what could be happening next week that would make this kid so happy.

Okay, that was a lie. I didn’t try thinking at all.

Frankly, I could care less about whatever Gongchan had to say. Besides, I had other things to preoccupy my mind at the moment. Like how Baro was sitting a bit too closely next to me and after all these months of being his friend, you’d assume I’d be used to it. But after that kiss, I don’t know what to feel anymore.

“Really, guys?” Gongchan said when he realized nobody had any idea what the hell he was even talking about. “It’s the end of the first semester.”

Alright, I knew that.

I’ve been waiting for the end of the first semester since the first day of school. The end of the semester means the beginning of media art classes. Which means I can begin my vocal lessons, the only reason I ever agreed to come to this damn rich school. A middle class kid like me doesn’t belong here. Except for Jinyoung, but that’s because he’s actually a good student and deserves the full ride he got to attend here.

“Why are you so happy about that?” Namsoo questioned.

“Because,” Gongchan began, with a slight sign of annoyance in his voice. But I couldn’t tell if it was because of the question that was being asked, or if it was because Namsoo was the one asking the question. Ever since I pointed out how awfully close Namsoo and Jinyoung became within the first couple of days since their first meeting, Gongchan has been giving Namsoo a hard time and a icy cold shoulder. “The start of a new semester means that it’s already been four months since we finally completed the group!”

“What group?” Jinyoung asked. He was in the middle of reading a philosophy book and would occasionally glance up every now and then. He wasn’t even taking a philosophy class, so why the hell was he reading that book?

“This group. Our group.” Gongchan motioned his hands at all of us. “We have exactly everybody we need to make us a complete group. The group.”

“What exactly are you talking about?”

Gongchan rolled his eyes. “I mean, look at us. We have Jinyoung, the smart one. Baro, the loud one. Jaehyun, the funny one. Sandeul, the sarcastic one. And me, the handsome one.” Gongchan grinned at himself and this time I was the one who rolled their eyes. He still hasn’t realized the similarity he and Namsoo has. “We’re that group the school envies. That group everybody wants to be in but can’t. We run this school, point blank.”

Too bad hardly anybody knows who we are.

“What about me?” Namsoo asked. Gongchan obviously left him out on purpose. When is he going to realize that being mean to Namsoo isn’t going to make him Jinyoung’s puppy once again?

“You’re the popular one,” Jinyoung said, which was completely true. In the first week of being here, Namsoo managed to become very well known around here. A majority of the guys have already fallen for him and you’ll never see Namsoo alone in the hallway. But he still chooses to spend mostly all his time around Jinyoung. If it isn’t obvious about his feelings towards Jinyoung for him to notice, then Jinyoung probably isn’t as smart as he makes himself seem. Even Baro noticed it.

Gongchan muttered something to himself as he sent a glare towards Namsoo. I honestly felt a bit bad for Namsoo. It wasn’t like he purposely tried stealing Jinyoung away from Gongchan. Besides, I’ve told Gongchan plenty of times before that if he didn’t make a move on Jinyoung soon then somebody was going to eventually come and take him away. I just didn’t think it was actually going to happen.

“What’s so special about that, though?” Jaehyun asked. He was sitting on my other side and he suddenly rested his head on my shoulder. I would have normally pushed him away with a frown, but the yawn that Jaehyun let out made me not do it. I noticed the dark bags under his eyes since the moment he walked into the room and I could assume that it was probably the fact that he had to work at the deli after school and then stay up most of the night to finish his homework, it’s no wonder he doesn’t get enough sleep.

Jaehyun wasn’t the only one who looked like he was having lack of sleep.

Baro looked like he was going to faint any minute.

The bags under his eyes were three times worst than Jaehyun's. You can notice the way he would blink a bunch of time to refocus himself or else you’ll find him dazing out like he’s about to fall asleep at any second. He didn’t dress himself as well as he did before. Our school requires a uniform, but Baro would come to school with his shirt unevenly button or his tie not on properly.

I noticed how Baro glanced over at me, his eyes slightly focused on Jaehyun’s head resting on my shoulder. We made eye contact, but we both quickly turned our heads away.

“What’s so special?” Gongchan said in disbelief. “It’s something we have to celebrate! It’s not everyday where a group as awesome as ours is completed.”

“Celebrating doesn’t sound too bad,” Jinyoung said as he finally put his book down and smiled at the youngest person at the table. “Since our two-week break starts next week so we should all do something together.” It’s hard to believe that Christmas is just around the corner.

“We won’t be able to be hang out that much over the vacation since we’ll be spending most of the time with our families,” Namsoo added.

“Which is why I did the most awesome thing for us!” Gongchan pulled something out of his pocket and slammed a crumpled paper onto the center of the table. It was a flyer for a three-day street fair that’s was opening up next week. According to the paper, this street fair is one of the largest fairs they have annually, and you have to pay a pricy entrance fee just to get in. I can’t afford that if I wanted to go, which I don’t.

“My uncle owns the area where they’re doing this years street fair. All I had to do was pull a few strings and I managed to get us all free entrance passes.” Gongchan eyes narrowed towards Namsoo and frowned. “I even got you one.”

As much as I wanted to oppose going to this stupid thing, the look on everybody faces showed that they were excited to go. And who was I to be the only one to reject free stuff? Besides, a certain excited face made me think that maybe going to this street fair wouldn’t be too bad.

“This is so awesome!” Baro said as he grabbed the flyer off the table to get a better look at it. "It's been forever since I've been to a street fair!"

Jinyoung grabbed the flyer to take a look at it for himself. "Wow, it's during the same week we have school off."

"It's a few towns away but my uncle owns a vacation home nearby and he's even letting us stay there for a few days."

The paper was passed by around the table and it eventually came to me. I eyed the flyer before sending Gongchan a suspicious look. "What's the catch?"

Gongchan frowned. "What? Can't I just do something nice for my friends like invite them to a street fair?"

"It's going to be chilly," Namsoo commented, "Aren't street fairs usually during the summer?"

"This one is specifically for the Christmas season."

I handed Baro the paper just to get it away from me. I couldn't imagine going to a street fair with all these brats, but it sounded even worst that we'll have to sleep under the same roof for a couple of days together.

But Baro looked like this event was going to be the best thing ever. He couldn't keep his eyes off the flyer.

"So, what do you guys say?" Gongchan looked around at us hopefully, waiting for us to give him an answer.

Baro was the first to answer. "Obviously I'm going!" He practically shouted that the librarian had to shush him.

"I'm in," Jaehyun said right after, though he seemed a bit hesitant. "I mean, my dad was probably going to make me work at the deli during the vacation. At least now I can get a few days off."

One by one, everybody agreed to this whole thing, until all their eyes landed on me.

"Sandeul?"

I looked around and frowned. Of course, I had to be the last one to answer. I didn't want to go. Going to a street fair with these people sounded terrible. Being stuck with them for more than one day sounded like a drag and I didn't want to deal with it.

But the look Baro was giving me gave me no choice. I couldn't say no when he was giving me a look at the screamed yes. He was begging me with those eyes and I couldn't take it.

With a sigh, I said "Sure."

____

"Are you sure you have everything?"

"Yes, mom."

"You packed your clothes?"

"Yeah."

"Toothbrush?"

"Yes."

"Clean underwear?"

"Mom."

My mother snickered a bit as she wrapped her arms around me and gave me a tight hug. "I'm just worried. This will be the first time you're sleeping away from me and I'm so nervous."

"It's only a few days," I reassured her, "I'll be back by next week. Before Christmas."

"I know, but those days will feel like forever. I'll be so lonely."

I rolled my eyes.

My mother has gotten a bit better over the last month since her break with my dad. There was still no official announcement of a divorce, but I haven't seen my parents speak to each other face to face since the day my dad left. He'll call occasionally and they'll exchange a few words, but it'll never last longer than just a few minutes.

After her cleaning phase, my mom now became obsessed with talk shows. When she's not at work, she has her glued to the couch and all her attention to whoever is on the television yapping their mouths away as if anybody really cared about what they had to say. She hasn't cooked a proper meal since she began this craze and recently I've been spending more time calling take-out than I have actually eating. The apartment hasn't been cleaned either.

"You'll be fine. Just make sure you eat while I'm gone."

My mother pulled me away and gently smiled at me. "Fine. And you be careful, okay?"

"Of course."

It took ten minutes to get my mom off my back and another five to convince her that I didn't need her to come along with me. Eventually I finally managed to get out of the apartment and met up with Gongchan and the gang who were waiting downstairs for me.

Gongchan was the first to notice me but the only think I could look at was the minivan parked in front of my building. It was something that a soccer mom would drive around in and it was a little embarrassing to think we'll be driving in that.

"Took you long enough," Gongchan said, but he had a bright smile on his face.

"Sorry," I said as I dragged my luggage towards the back of the van. "It was my mom. Are we really going in this?"

"Yep." Gongchan patted the hood of the car. "My grandpa lent it to me for the trip."

You'd assume that a rich boy like Gongchan would've found something better for us to ride in. Like, a limo or a mustang or something that wasn’t a minivan.

After putting my stuff in the back with the rest of the luggage, I opened the side door and sighed at the sight.

A man, who I assumed what Gongchan's butler or something, was at the wheel. Gongchan had hopped into the passenger seat and was already prepared for us to leave. Namsoo and Jinyoung were sitting in the first row and the back seats were occupied by Jaehyun and Baro.

I wasn’t sure where to sit.

"Here," Jaehyun said as he patted the seat between him and Baro. "We saved you a seat."

The car ride was going to be at least a couple of hours long, and I didn't think sitting between those two was going to be a good idea at all. But it totally beats sitting between the two love boys.

With a sigh, I made my way to the back seat and sat down.

"Everybody ready?" Gongchan said as he turned his head to look at all of us. "It's going to take a while to get there so we'll take a couple of rest stops. And you two," he glared at Jinyoung and Namsoo, "Keep a distance between yourselves. I might not have my eyes on you, but I'm still watching."

With that, the driver set off to the vacation home.

"You took a while getting outside," Jaehyun said once I settled in, "Something happened?"

"My mom wouldn't let me go. You know how she gets," I muttered.

Jaehyun let out a short laugh and nodded his head. "I haven't seen your mom in a while. I think I'll go visit her when we come back."

I felt Baro slightly stiffened next to me, but I pretended that I didn't notice.

"She'll love that," I said, continuing my conversation with Jaehyun. "You know how much she loves you."

"Remember how she used call me her son whenever she would take us out?" Jaehyun laughed again. "And that one time she said you were the neighbor's kid that she was taking care of instead of me. You gave her the silent treatment for the rest of the day."

I rolled my eyes and pouted. "I wasn't mad about what she said. I just didn't get what she liked so much about you. I mean, you're nothing special."

"Hey. I resident that."

I chuckled and then it lead to a yawn. It was 7 A.M and I was dead beat tired. Gongchan claimed that, because of the possible traffic and all the rest stops, it was going to probably take the whole day just to get to the vacation home. The street fair doesn't begin until tomorrow so we were in no real rush to get there. Still, I just wished we didn't have to wake up so early.

"You can go to sleep, you know." Jaehyun said when he noticed my tired face. "I'll wake you up at the first stop."

"Alright, I will."

=

At the end, Jaehyun was the one who fell asleep instead.

It wasn't even 10 minutes when I suddenly heard him snoring right beside me.

Gongchan was the next to fall asleep. He probably had to wake up before all of us, since he had to prepare the car and make sure everybody was ready on time.

Jinyoung and Namsoo looked tired as well, but they were still able to keep their eyes open.

The only person who looked awake was the driver, and it made sense why Gongchan brought him instead of having one of us drive. Even though Namsoo and Jinyoung already had their license, they were going to be too tired to drive so early in the morning.

"If you get tired, sir," Namsoo said as he leaned towards the driver, "I don't mind taking over for a bit."

"Nonsense," the driver responded with a kind smile, "Besides, the next rest stop will be in about half an hour."

"I can't believe Gongchan managed to get this all to happen," Jinyoung mumbled as he took a glance towards the sleeping boy, "and all because of this so-called 'perfect group'."

"He's pretty amazing," Namsoo said with a chuckle.

Still, I couldn’t help but think there’s a bigger reason for this whole thing. Something that Gongchan is trying to hide from us.

I felt a soft nudge on my side and I slowly glanced over at Baro. He looked at me back before turning his head back towards the window. "Hey," he mumbled so quietly I barely heard him.

"Hi."

We didn't say anything else and if I could, I probably would've hit Baro with a stool. I hated how awkward it became between us after that stupid kiss and I hated it even more that I'm letting it be this awkward. Especially after I promised Baro that nothing was going to change between us.

"You and Jaehyun are really close, huh."

I almost missed that sentence, but I was lucky that I managed to catch it. "We used to be," I responded just as quietly, "I mean, we're not as much anymore."

Baro turned to look at me again and this time he didn't look away. I couldn't help but glance down at his terrible dark eye bags.

"I heard we're going to be sharing rooms."

I frowned. "At the vacation home?"

"Gongchan said so before we went to pick you up. He already made the room arrangements."

"So wait, does that mean..."

"Hi, roomie."

I slouched into the car seat and let out a low groaned. It seemed like Baro was thinking the same thing as me because he also let out a sigh. "Why us?"

Baro and I knew that this roommate thing was going to be bad. We could barely look at each other without feeling awkward, imagine sleeping together. It would have made everything better between us if we shared a room with someone else instead.

"They still think we're best friends, remember?"

That answer made me realize how messed up everything was. So, we're not best friends anymore? It that what it's come down to? I’ve been in this friendship with him for months and it only took one night to ruin all that.

I suddenly heard a light snore come from the seat in front of us and I took a peek only to see that both Namsoo and Jinyoung had fallen asleep as well.

It was just me, Baro and the driver now.

I let out a gentle sigh and leaned back into my seat. “You should sleep,” I mumbled to Baro. His eye bags were the worst comparing to everybody else and I could see him struggling to stay awake.

“No thanks,” Baro replied. His eyes were back towards the window.

We remained silent after that. The only noise that was heard with the light breathing from the sleeping guys. I kept my eyes locked onto the ceiling of the car, hoping that I could also go to sleep for a bit. But my mind was too distracted.

“Deullie.”

I turned my head towards Baro. Baro hasn't called me that in a while. “Yeah?”

Baro didn’t say anything as he just stared at me. Unconsciously, my eyes wandered a little down towards his lips, but I noticed that Baro was doing that same. I didn’t want to do it, but it was just an impulsive move. Baro looked just as nervous, but his eyes continued to stay locked on my lips. He even his own.

“I-” Baro began slowly and I noticed him leaning in. I didn’t realize I was leaning in as well until our faces were much too close than they should be. “I don’t think we-”

“Since when do we ever think anymore,” I mumbled. But I didn’t pull away. And I have no idea why.

“You’re right.”

Baro finally closed the space between us and I immediately realized something: I wanted to kiss him again.

I know we shouldn’t be doing this. I mean, the last time we did, not only did we get caught but it completely ruined our friendship. I haven’t had a proper conversation with Baro in over a month, and yet the first thing we do once we finally managed to get ourselves talking again is kiss. We still haven’t even reasoned why we did it the first time. So why are we doing it again?

But Baro gently grabbed my face and pulled me closer and I struggled to keep myself in a comfortable position, but I still didn’t pull away.

Why the hell was I doing this? Why the hell was Baro doing this? I don’t like Baro, I know I don’t. But why do I egerally want to kiss him, like kissing him was the only thing I needed at this moment.

I shouldn’t be doing this. I should be pulling away. But I couldn’t. I didn’t want to pull away. I didn’t want to stop this. And I could tell from the way his lips were moving against mine, Baro didn’t want to stop either.

It wasn’t until a low groan came from the seat in front of us that we both pulled away, Baro practically shoving me into Jaehyun.

Our heads quickly shot to the front, where Gongchan shifted himself in his seat but was still fast asleep. My eyes wander towards the rear view mirror. The driver shifted his eyes at me for a split second before putting them back on the road, but that one second was enough for me to know that he saw.

I turned my head towards Baro and Baro looked back. He gave me a nervous look, as if he was afraid I was going to yell at him for what just happened. Like he blamed himself for it all. But that wasn’t true at all.

“I’ll ask Gongchan to change roommates,” Gongchan whispered.

I slowly nodded my head in agreement.

The two of us didn’t look at each other for the rest of the ride.