“I’m such a brat. I can’t even last without Aron hyung beside me” Jr finished.

Jr sighed in despair and leaned his head again on the table.

Minhyun looked back, completely hearing what Jr just said. He smirked devilishly. Oh yeah, his plan is totally at work now. This will teach those two idiots how life works. Nothing would happen if no one will volunteer to work it out, right? They should even be very thankful that Minhyun is there to ‘help’ them.

He turned to Aron and continued dragging him to the line together with the other students, waiting for their turn to be asked what food they want.

Aron released his hand from Minhyun’s clutch and crossed them in front of his chest. He glanced back at Jr for a sec and saw him leaning his head on the table while his eyes were closed.

“This’ll be over before you even know it, Jonghyun-ah.....” Aron thought while staring at Jr. He has to forget as soon as possible. He has to. It’ll hurt Jr more if he acted this way for a very long time. This has to be over as soon as possible.

“What is it that you want to talk about?” Aron turned his attention back to Minhyun and raised an eyebrow. He’s totally clueless about what was it that Minhyun has to say to him. They’ve already settled the matter with Jonghyun yesterday, right? What’s more to talk about?

Minhyun mimicked him and crossed his arms in front of chest as well, giving him the ‘i-know-you-know-what-i-want-to-say’ look.

“Well? Aren’t you going to say anything?” Minhyun questioned.

“What am I supposed to say?” Aron asked back, totally clueless.

Minhyun sighed and continued asking again. “Hyung, did you really pass at New York University? You were just lying, weren’t you?” Minhyun squinted his eyes a bit.

After hearing what Minhyun blurted out, Aron immediately pushed him hard on the shoulder making Minhyun stumble back a few steps. “Yah!” Aron shouted. “I’m not a liar” He defended.

Minhyun just nodded his head, never releasing his stare at Aron. “really?” Minhyun asked again, analyzing Aron’s face if there’s a possible hint of lying. None, he thinks. Aron doesn’t really lie. Well, sometimes but they were just white lies... mostly to get Jonghyun out of trouble.

There was a time during their elementary years when Jr already came home at 8 o’clock in the evening. He was out with his other classmates, playing at the arcade. Jr loves playing at the arcade when they were still little. Aron, being the good kid, refused Jr’s offer to come with them and had gone home early.... but when he called Jr, he was startled when Jr was still in the arcade....so he escaped from their house and brought Jr home, telling Jr’s parents that Jr was with him while playing in the park at night and staring at the stars. Aron had done many things for....even getting himself in trouble sometimes.

“Is that what you were going to ask?” Aron said, putting his hands back down.

“Aniyo” Minhyn shook his head. He walked forward a little bit, following the line.  

“Then what is it?”

“Hyung, do you know the difference between ignoring and avoiding?” Minhyun randomly asked.

“Yah. Don’t tell me you’re that dumb that you don’t even know what those words mean! Of course I know” Aron laughed heartily.

Minhyun shook his head again and went straight to the point. “Then what the hell do you think you’re doing to Jonghyun?” Minhyun asked, making Aron stop from his laughing spree and display a serious face.

Aron cleared his throat and bowed his head down. He doesn’t know what to say. He doesn’t know how to answer Minhyun, especially since they’re talking about Jonghyun.

“Hyung, I told you to avoid him not ignore him like he’s someone who is invisible. All you do is just cut him off and ignore him all the time. If you do it like that, then even your friendship will be over in a matter of time” Minhyun lectured. Heck, who knew Minhyun was such a preacher?

“Yah. So you’re a pastor now?” Aron joked laughing awkwardly.

“Aish. Hyung, I’m serious here”

“Okay. Okay. I know. But I just don’t know how to approach him.... you know... especially now when... when I’m trying to get over him” Aron whispered the latter part. He didn’t dare raise his voice especially when they’re inside the cafeteria. People might hear. People might talk and he doesn’t want that. He doesn’t want Jonghyun to be involved in any of these.

“Hyung-ah” Minhyun started in a gentle voice, sending shivers to Aron. Minhyun’s voice doesn’t normally sound this way especially when he’s talking to Aron. Maybe they’re close friends already that gentle voices weren’t needed anymore. “Just go be the way you were in the past. Just try not to be with Jonghyun all the time” Minhyun continued.

Aron nodded his head.

“What do you like?” The cafeteria staff asked them, distracting their attention from the ‘man-to-man talk’ that they were having.

Minhyun lightly tugged Aron’s arm and smiled. Aron looked back at him and smiled too.

Aron never thought he’d ever actually say this but..... “it’s so good to have a friend like Minhyun”

Aron and Minhyun ordered their food and thanked the staff. They left the line carrying two trays, one in Aron’s hands and the other in Minhyun’s. They quickly got back to their seats and placed the trays on the table.

“Jonghyun-ah, here’s your food” Aron smiled and brought the food in front of Jr. He arranged the food out of the tray and sat.

Minhyun also arranged the food out of the tray and sat on the seat in next to Aron. He looked at the two and smirked. “I’m such a genius” He thought.

Aron stopped eating and turned to look at Jr. “Wae?”Aron asked when he saw Jr looking at him. Jr didn’t even touch his food yet. He was just looking at Aron the whole while.

Jr blinked his eyes, totally wondering why Aron suddenly became kind to him. Well, Aron had always been that kind to him so what’s new, right? “N-Nothing” He stuttered. Jr slightly tilted his head and frowned. Oh well, at least Aron’s back to his sweet side already. A smile was suddenly visible to Jr’s face when he realized that Aron was back to the usual him.

“But why is he not setaing next to me?” Jr thought. He just shrugged the thought out and was juts thankful that Aron talked to him again already.

“Aron hyung” Jr was about to ask about that ‘matter’ that Aron asked help to Minhyun for but he thought that maybe it’s way better if he doesn’t talk about him anymore. What will he do if Aron suddenly turned cold to him again? He’ll be out of his mind thinking again why Aron was acting that way.

“mmm?” Aron mumbled while chewing his lunch.

Jr turned to Aron and smiled. “It’s nothing” He said and tasted the food. “Wah! This is heaven” He blurted and closed his eyes, feeling the heavenly taste of his favorite lunch.

Aron laughed after seeing Jr’s expression. “You’re so cute” Aron pinched the side of Jr’s cheek and smiled.

Jr smiled at him, making Aron hastily retreat his hand back after realizing what he had done. He had to forget about Jr now and the ‘pinch-the-cheek’ thing is not on the list of to-do’s. He turned his attention back to his food and awkwardly continued eating.

“Get you mind straight, Aron” Aron thought.

Meanwhile, Minhyun was looking back and forth at Aron and Jr the whole time while eating. He sighed and mumbled a few words. “Guess i’m the invisible one here now. Life when you don’t have someone”

..........................

Baekho stood in front of the mirror inside the comfort room. He was washing his hand that was slightly bleeding because of the hard punch on the door a while ago. He didn’t mind the pain. It was as if the pain wasn’t even there. He’s thinking of Ren. He’s thinking why he suddenly did that thing. He’s thinking why he suddenly kissed Ren.

“Do I possibly like him?” Baekho thought.

“Ayyyyy. It can’t be. I like girls. Girls. Girls. I like girls.” He shouted loudly inside the bathroom.

Unfortunately, someone suddenly came in and heard his shouting extravaganza about his ‘love’ for girls. The person eyed him weirdly and laughed a little. He immediately went inside the bathroom stall, wishing that Baekho didn’t hear him laugh.

Baekho blinked his eyes from shock and immediately cleared his throat, totally embarrassed. He washed his hands and quickly got out of the bathroom, wishing that he’d never meet that person again. Well, he’s still holding that hope since there is a total of 500 students in their highschool. It can’t be possible to meet a single person out of those 499 students, excluding him of course.

He then suddenly realized something that broke that hope. “Hell, like this world is even big. I even met Minki after what happened in the grocery store when there are millions of people here in South Korea” 

Baekho sighed. “He surely hates me more now” Baekho mumbled with a gloomy voice. He was walking out of the bathroom when he bumped into someone.

Baekho looked at the person and immediately recognized him. “He’s that seungcheol”

He’s not going to say sorry. Hell, no!

“Did that guy just glare at me?” Baekho asked himself, as his eyes followed sungcheol who was walking away from him already. He saw Seungcheol eyeing him from head to toe and even smirked as the guy walked away.

“What an arrogant guy. I don’t even know why Ren is friends with him. hmmpp!” Baekho taunted and walked back to the classroom. He went inside and immediately spotted Ren sitting on his seat with arms crossed on his chest. Annoyance is visible in his girl-like face.

Baekho slowly strolled back to his seat behind Ren, staring at the blonde haired guy the whole time. He passed by Ren and sat on his seat.

He stared at Ren’s back and decided to make Ren notice him. Well, at least he can explain about ‘that’.He stretched his hand out and tapped Ren on the shoulders, making the latter shrug in annoyance. He tried again but earned nothing as a response. He continued tapping on Ren’s shoulder several times, hoping to get noticed for a bit.

“Yah” Baekho whispered as he tapped Ren’s shoulder. He waited but Ren didn’t even reply. Ren just sat there with arms crossed. Baekho tried again.

“Yah” He whispered a little loudly this time.

He was shocked when Ren suddenly stood up from his seat and turn to him with glaring eyes.

“Don’t disturb me!” Ren shouted and angrily stomped out of the classroom leaving Baekho shocked with eyes wide open on his seat, the eyes of their classmates feasting on him. He got his composure back and followed Ren out of the classroom.

He looked from left to right and spotted Ren walking beside the lockers. He ran out of the classroom and walked beside Ren, panting.

“Where.... Where are you going?” Baekho asked, gasping for air.

Silence

“Yah. Where are you going?” Baekho asked again.

Ren just glared at him and the corner of the hallway.

“I’m talking to you so answer me” Baekho shouted this time and forcefully clutched Ren’s arm, making the latter stop.

“I don’t like talking” Ren finally answered, tugging his arm back.

“Well, you don’t have a choice. So answer me”

Ren raised his eyebrow and smirked. “I said DON’T-DISTURB-ME” Ren said, emphasizing the ‘don’t disturb me part. Baekho was about to confront him more when a voice was heard on the corner, calling for Ren.

“Minki-yah!” Seungcheol shouted and ran to Ren. “Yah. I was looking for you but I can’t find you anywhere”

Ren’s angry face turned to a ‘nice-looking’ one. “I was just in the classroom” Ren answered in a sweet voice, totally different and exactly the opposite on how he talked with Baekho.

Baekho watched the two and hissed. “Blah Blah Blah” He wisphered while glaring at Seungcheol.

Seungcheol rubbed the back of his neck and frowned. “Eh? I already looked for you in the room but you weren’t there”

“Ahhhh that.... ahh.... whatever!  Let’s go! I wanna skip the next subject. Let’s go to the rooftop and have some fresh air. I wanna cool my mind from something that was poisoning it” Ren glared at Baekho when he said the word ‘something’. Ren doesn’t usually skip class but, hell, he doesn’t want to see Baekho right now. He turned back to Seungcheol and hooked his arms around Seungcheol’s neck, dragging him away to the rooftop.

“Yah! Yah! We’re still talking here! Yah!” Baekho shouted when he saw the two walking away from him.

Seungcheol slowly looked back at Baekho and beamed a fiendish smirk at him.

Baekho widened his eyes and pointed at Seungcheol. “Yah. Yah. Yah. Did he just smirk at me?” Baekho asked in disbelief while watching Ren drag Seungcheol away and Seungcheol trying to get away from Ren’s clutch on his neck. 

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Finally, sorry for this crappy chapter... I rushed to finish it.... :(