“So tell me again. Why did you do it?”

I heard Baro sigh on the other line, a couple of fumbling sounds, and then another sigh.

“It was just a kiss, Deullie. Don’t make such a big deal of it.”

“It was my first kiss.”

“So?”

It was my turn to let out a sigh. I rolled my eyes, glad that I was on the phone and Baro couldn’t see.

“Whatever,” I muttered, sitting up on my bed and frowning on the wall. Baro chuckled and then came some more fumbling sounds. “What are you doing anyways?” I asked with curiosity.

“Uh, nothing,” Baro said with some slight hesitation. Obviously whatever he’s doing isn’t ‘nothing’ but I choose not to ask any further. Knowing how weird Baro is, he was probably doing something stupid.

“How long have we been talking on the phone?” Baro suddenly ask once the fumbling sound completely stopped.

“I don’t know. Since seven?”

“It’s almost about to be midnight.”

I glanced over at the clock and raised an eyebrow. It was 10 minutes ‘til midnight, which surprised me. I’ve been talking to Baro for 5 hours straight.

We’ve suddenly updated from texting to actually talking on the phone. Well, Baro was the one who wanted to try talking on the phone instead of calling. But it was still a bit odd to me that we were able to naturally talk on the phone with each other without having it to be too awkward. Though, Baro did do most of the talking.

“Aren’t you afraid about the phone bill?” I asked. I put the phone down, putting it on speaker, so I could get ready for bed and talk to Baro at the same time. Multitasking, my friend.

“I should ask you the same question.”

“I’m not,” I answered honestly, “Ever since my parents started fighting, they’ve stopped paying to everything I do. I could probably be caught robbing a bank and the most they’ll probably do is take my phone away for the day. Which they’ve been doing a lot lately.”

“Is that why you’ll suddenly stop responding to me? And never respond back.”

“Yeah. Sorry about that, I guess. I usually get in a dull mood whenever they argue, so I tend to forget about a lot of things.”

“Knowing that you forget about me so easily like that hurts my feelings,” Baro said with something slight teasing in his voice.

“Don’t make me choke you.”

“Alright, alright,” Baro said now laughing, “I got it. I forgive you.”

“I still haven’t forgiven you for that kiss.”

“Come on. I told you, forget about it.”

I rolled my eyes. Once I finished getting ready, I jumped back into my bed and quickly placed the phone back beside my ear, “But seriously, why did you do it?”

“I don’t know,” Baro mumbled through the phone, “I just did.”

“You shouldn’t go around kissing people for the hell of it. Kisses are considered special, you know.”

“I don’t go around kissing just anyone.”

“So why did you kiss me?”

“I don’t know,” Baro snapped, annoyance clearly shown in his voice, “Can we stop talking about this already?”

“Fine, whatever,” I muttered, “ I’ll forgive you this time. But if you do it one more time, I’ll kill you.”

“Yeah, Yeah. Whatever,” Baro said with a chuckle.

I was quite for a while, nether one of us saying anything. I sort of liked it when it becomes quiet between us. It’s not an awkward quiet. It’s quite comfortable actually.

“Haejung asked me about her offer again.”

“The offer to be her boyfriend?”

“Yeah,” Baro mumbled, “I still don’t know whether I should accept it or not.”

I remained silent as I stared up at the ceiling. I guess Baro was expecting me to say something because he didn’t say anything. I sighed and stared over at my window, “Well, if you like her then you should take it, I guess.”

“I do like her,” Baro mumbled, “But I don’t know. There’s this weird voice in the back of my head that’s keeping me from actually accepting her feelings.”

“I see.” I blinked a couple of times and went back to looking at the ceiling. I honestly don’t know what to say. I’ve never been in a situation like this, so I can’t really help through experience. In fact, I never had any sort of situation with a girl before. I know nothing about love or whatever you want to call this.

I sighed, for what felt like a twelfth time that night, “Maybe if you spend more time with her then you might be able to figure out your feelings straight.”

“You think?”

“I guess.”

There was another silent moment before Baro spoke again, “Alright. I guess I’ll give it a try. Hey, it’s past midnight already. We should go to bed. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Oh hey, we should hang out on Friday or something.”

I nodded my head, even though I knew Baro couldn’t see it, and glanced at the clock. “Yeah.”

“Alright then. Good night, Deullie.”

“Yeah. You too.”

--

I rolled my eyes as I watch Gongchan purposely drop his pencil just so Jinyoung could pick it up for him. The moment he bent down, Gongchan quickly took a look at Jinyoung’s computer screen before sitting back again when Jinyoung sat back up to hand him his pencil.

Gongchan stood up from his computer and walked over to my table, sitting down with a sigh. “I don’t get it, Junghwan. It’s been a week and I still haven’t learned anything about Jinyoung.”

“For the last time, it's Sandeul. And exactly what would you learn from him by making him pick up your pencil?” I asked, raising an eyebrow and resting an arm on the table.

“I don’t know. Something. Anything! As long as I get something to prove that he’s a robot, I don’t care what it is.”

“Instead of trying to look for proof, why don’t you just ask him?” I suggested, sitting back in my chair and raising an eyebrow, “Maybe then you’ll figure out he’s not a robot and that there’s just something wrong with your head.”

“There’s nothing wrong with my head,” Gongchan snapped, “And how do you expect me to ask him a question like that?”

“Like this.” Without a second thought, I turned my head and looked over at Jinyoung, who was still sitting at one of the school’s library’s computer. “Hey, Jinyoung,” I called out.

He turned around and blinked at me, confusion written all over his face. I don’t blame him. This is the first I’ve ever spoken to him. So he’s probably wondering why I’m calling to him all of a sudden.

I motioned for him to come over, and he hesitated a bit before getting up and walking towards us.

“What are you doing?” Gongchan whispered as he watched Jinyoung getting closer and closer.

“Shut up.” I motioned once again at Jinyoung to come over, which help speed up his pace a little.

“May I help you?” he asked once he reached Gongchan and I. He still looked confused as ever, but he was able to cover it up a bit by flashing us a bright smile.

“What grade are you in?” I asked. I was actually very curious to know since I’ve never seen him in any of my classes. The only time I see him is in the library.

“I’m a 3^rd year.”

“Ah, so you’re an upperclassman,” I glanced over at Gongchan and blinked. “Isn’t there something you would like to ask him?”

Gongchan blinked before quickly shaking his head and tried covering his face with a book he grabbed from the shelf close by.

I sighed before looking over at Jinyoung again. “Are you a robot?”

Jinyoung simply blinked. “What?”

“Are you a robot?” I repeated, hoping he’ll just answer and we can get this whole thing over with.

Jinyoung blinked again and raised an eyebrow. “No?”

“Good enough for me.” I reached over and grabbed the book away from Gongchan with no expression shown on my face whatsoever. “Now you know he’s not a robot and you can give up this whole stupid thing.” I placed the book back down on the table and stood up. “Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to go pee.”

I noticed the bright blush that was covering Gongchan’s cheeks and the still confused look Jinyoung was giving the both of us, but I choose to ignore both as I turned around and headed out the library exit. I didn’t miss the “I can explain!” that Gongchan let out at Jinyoung before I fully left.

Idiots.

--

I pressed the call button next to the familiar number and calmly placed the phone against my ear. I watched as cars and people went by as I waited for the other person on the line to pick up.

“Hello?”

I frowned. “Where are you?”

“Uh,” Baro hesitated for a quick moment before clearing his throat, “Where are you?”

“By the public library. Where you told me to meet you.”

“When did I tell you that?”

“Half an hour ago.”

There was a long silence on the other line, until realization suddenly hit Baro right across the face. “Oh my god. I’m so sorry, Deullie. I completely forgot about us hanging out today.”

“How the hell could you forget so easily?” I asked with annoyance obvious in my voice. I wasn’t annoyed at the fact that Baro forgot, I was mainly annoyed at the fact that I had to walk over all the way over here.

“I’m sorry. Haejung called at the last minute and asked if I wanted to hang out. I couldn’t say no, you know.”

“No, I don’t know,” I snapped, “We made these plans to hang out days ago.” Ok, I so lied about not being annoyed. I was complete annoyed at the fact that Baro suddenly forgot about me. But that’s because that idiot is always the one making plans to meet up, and this is the first time he’s actually cancelling on me.

“I’m sorry. Look, I’ll make it up for you tomorrow, ok? We’ll hang out all day tomorrow, from morning till midnight.”

“That doesn’t sound fun at all.”

Baro sighed through the phone, and I hated the fact that I couldn’t just punch him at this moment. “I’m sorry, Deullie. I really am. But I can’t cancel on Haejung now. She’s already on her way over.”

“But it’s okay to cancel on me even though I’m already here,” I muttered. “Fine, whatever. Have fun with your date.”

“Come on, Deul-“ I pressed the end button before Baro could even finish his sentence. I frowned at the screen before stuffing my phone in my pocket and letting out a long sigh.

There was no point in going home now. One of the reasons I even left was because my mother was in the middle of another rant on how useless my father was and I didn’t want to be stuck home listening to it.

But since I’m already out, might as well make the best of it.

Other than Baro, who else can I ask to hang out? Shinwoo is an idiot, so he’s automatically off the list. Gongchan and I never spoken to each other outside of school before, so it’d be awkward to suddenly call him up. And Jinyoung is not an option since I don’t know him well enough, even though he started hanging out with Gongchan and I after the whole robot thing was cleared out.

I suddenly blinked and frowned.

Wow, I need more friends.

-

Well, there’s still one person. But I’m not actually desperate enough to go to him out of all people, right?

Oh, who am I kidding? Of course I’m desperate enough. I might hate practically everyone in the town, but that doesn’t mean I want to spend the rest of the afternoon mindlessly walking around alone and bored out of my freakin mind.

So really, I don’t have much of a choice, do I?

It took some time, but I finally found myself standing in front of the familiar deli building.

I’m totally going to regret doing this.

With a loud sigh, I placed a hand on the door and slowly pushed it open, peeking my head inside. The building was empty, not one single customer could be seen. I hesitantly took a step inside, and looked around with a frown. Where the hell is everyone?

I took a couple of more steps further inside, the frown on my face growing more. “Hello?” I called out and looked around, hoping to see at least one customer. “Anyone here?”

The sudden sound of the entrance door opening caught my ears and I quickly turned around to see who came in.  

“Deul?” Jaehyun blinked in confusion, staring at me like if this was the first time he ever seen a human before.

“What did I tell you about calling me that? It’s creepy.”

Jaehyun blinked and then suddenly chuckled. “At least I know it’s you and not some kind of robot.” What’s with everything thinking about robots these days?

“You know, you shouldn’t be leaving the store unsupervised. What would happen if somebody comes in to rob you guys?”

“Oh please,” Jaehyun scoffed. He walked over to the counter and glanced over at me, “Who’d want to steal from an old deli anyways? Besides, I’m not even on my shift right now. My dad is the one who sound be at the counter. I wonder where he is,” Jaehyun looked around a bit before shrugging his shoulder already giving up that easily.

I quietly hummed and glanced down. Jaehyun was holding onto a couple of papers. Jaehyun must have noticed what I was staring at because he put the papers down on the counter, “I came back from getting a copy of my transcript.”

“Transcript? Why? Are you planning to switch schools or something?”

Jaehyun nodded his head. “I'm switching into an all-boys school. Apparently, father thinks girls are becoming a big distraction which is why my grades have been falling down recently.”

“Oh yeah,” I mumbled, leaning onto the counter, “You continued going to a co-ed school after middle school, right?”

“Yeah. If I didn’t, I’d probably be in your school right now. Now imagine that.”

“I’d rather not.” Jaehyun chuckled and I felt a little relieved for some strange reason. “So what school are you planning to go to?”

Jaehyun shrugged and thought for a bit, “I don’t know yet. There aren’t really any good boys schools around here. My parents are still thinking about it.”

“I see.”

Jaehyun glanced over at me and a grin slowly began to grow on his face. I knew what he was thinking, it was obvious. This idiot. “My oh my,” he said in a teasing voice, eyeing me up and down, “Now that I realized it, what are you doing here? I thought you hate me.”

“I don’t necessarily hate you,” I mumbled under my breath, avoiding eye contact. “I just don’t really like your presence.”

“Is that so?” Jaehyun chuckled. He went behind the counter and grabbed a nearby apron, which I guess is his uniform or something. “Then why did you come here? Are you planning to buy something?” he smirked as he put on the apron and then looked up, “If so, what can I help you with?”

I rolled my eyes and stood up straight again. “Shut it. I only came because I had nowhere else to go.”

“So you’re using me?” He let out a fake gasp and clenched his chest. Talk about drama queen.

“You used me. I used you. That’s the circle of life.”

The smirk on Jaehyun’s face was immediately replaced with a frown and he sighed. “You’re still not over that, are you?”

“What do you think?”

“I don’t know what you want me to say?” Jaehyun whined, “I’ve said sorry a bunch of times already. I even offered to forget about our 5 year friendship and start fresh again.”

I bit my bottom lip and looked away. Even though I told everyone that I never considered Jaehyun as a friend, I was lying. Jaehyun was the first person who ever bothered to try to be my friend. Sure the first time we met was by forced because of our mothers, but he still came by to play even when no one told him to. I tried to push him away but he’d still come back. I admit I sort of liked him for that.

Now that I think about it, Baro is sort of the same.

“I really am sorry about everything,” Jaehyun said with a frown. “Please, at least forgive me.”

And then he did it. What he does every time he’s truly sorry about something. He bit his bottom lip.

It was a habit I noticed from him. Whenever he was apologizing for something, you’ll know he’s being sincere when he’ll bite his bottom lip and his gaze will fall to the floor. It was his way of saying ‘I’m sorry and I feel really guilty’ without really using words. The only times he’d bite his lip was whenever he was apologizing to his mother after having a fight with her, or when he forgot his ex-girlfriend’s birthday and had to apologize in front of all her friends.

It was a habit that Jaehyun himself wasn't even aware of. So I knew at whenever he did it, he was being serious.

“So what do you say?” Jaehyun mumbled, his eyes now fixed to the floor. “Will you forgive me?”

I glared at him for a second and then finally sighed.

“Alright.” Jaehyun’s head quickly shot up and his eyes widen with excitement. He opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him off, “But that doesn’t mean we’re friends, alright?”

“Yeah,” Jaehyun said, still smiling like a creep. I didn’t think forgiving him would make him this happy. “Yeah, I totally understand. We’ll start fresh again, I promise.”

“Alright,” I mumbled.

Jaehyun held out his hand and flashed me a bright smile. “Nice to meet you, I’m Jang Jaehyun.”

I glanced down at his outstretched hand and slightly frowned. But looking back at that smile on Jaehyun’s face, there was really no choice but to grab his hand and sigh.

“Lee Junghwan. But I prefer Sandeul.”

Once again, I have no idea what I just wrote orz. Anyways, I want to take this time to thank all 100+ subscribers ;___; Seriously, this means a lot to me. What I'm really glad is how some of you are saying how realistic the characters are, so I'm quite proud of that ^^ So, thank you for the comments and I apologize if this chapter wasn't to your liking. orz.