Zaion’s POV:
The next day was Sunday. I got the medicine I needed. I signed the release form myself with a bit of convincing to the doctors and made for home.

I walked home joyfully and happily, glad to be out in the open from a week of confinement. I reached home in almost no time.

I quickly put my key in the lock and opened the door.

“Baekhyun!” I called out.

“Baekhyun!”

I shrugged.

“Maybe he and Su-Young are out for the day.”

...with all their stuff...

I admit it, I was delusional (...a bit delirious, too-I took the new medicine and was still getting used to it). I didn’t want to believe that he was really gone. Let’s face it, the sad reality of was that he was gone.

I sighed and ran upstairs. What I needed was a nice hot shower. I picked my red angry bird tee and baggy black sweats.

Being in my own shower felt nice. I hope he listens to me tomorrow. Alright, I just couldn’t help but think of him. He was heavy on my mind and I got lost in it. My mind wandered back  to Baekhyun no matter what I thought of.

I turned of the now cooling water and got dressed. Not wanting to put up with the emptiness of the house, I decided to go to bed early. Sleep was imminent.



Baekhyun’s POV:
“Baekhyun, after you finish with those tables, do you think you could handle the bathrooms?”

“Yeah, sure, Charlie!”

Okay, so it had been a week since I’d last seen Zaion. I decided it’d be best to find an outlet. Why not an outlet that earned me a bit of cash? I got a job bussing tables and doing whatever extra task was left at a nice cafe in the city marketplace. It wasn’t very busy so it was easy to work with. My boss, Charlie, even let me bring Susu if I needed to.

I handled the last of the table, that was a breeze. The bathrooms, however, were another story. The men’s bathroom, easy stuff. My problem was the women’s bathroom. The smell was awful and there were things on that floor that no guy should ever have to see.

“I didn’t know that girls could be so gross”, I sobbed to myself.

I cleaned the bathroom anyway and gagged only...oh...I don’t know...A MILLION AND ONE TIMES!!!!!

When I left the restroom I couldn’t even look at my sister the same.

“What are you staring at?” She asked innocently.

All I could do was look.

“Nothing”, I mumbled.

After my shift ended, it was about 7 pm. Su-Young and I walked to the motel we were staying in. Usually when people think of motels, they are crummy, shady places with bad service. No, no. As long as I had Su-Young with me I was gonna have to take it a few steps further. The place I got was decent and fairly priced.

I slid my key card and opened the door.

“Susu, I want you to get some sleep since we have school tomorrow.”

She said  nothing but flopped down onto the bed. Almost immediately she drifted off to sleep.

While she went to sleep I went to take a shower. I was feeling a bit grungy.

I stood under the water, lathering my body in soap mindlessly. I couldn’t help  but think about Zaion (If you get the wrong idea, stop now. It isn’t even like that). I just didn’t understand why she hadn’t given me a reason. Something just didn’t add up.

Sigh.

I rinsed myself off and put on a grey t-shirt with flannel pajama bottoms. I laid on the other side of the bed and instantly went to sleep.



Zaion’s POV:
Monday morning I woke up kind of sad. I just wanted this to be over.

Since my walk to school wasn’t too far, I turned down Vianey’s offer to walk with me. It was sort of like my life before Baekhyun, dull, boring, and lonely.

I was really, truly nervous about seeing him. I was literally shaking in my combat boots. I was nearing the building and my heart was thumping hard.

“Hello, Zaion”, Principal Greyson greeted me at the school’s entryway.

I gave him a salute and walked through the huge double doors.

Immediately, I spotted Baekhyun. We made eye contact but he didn’t hold it. I walked over to my locker, four down from his. It was extremely awkward. He avoided all my glances. He was about to leave but I stopped him.

“Baekhyun, can I talk to you for a second?”

“We don’t have anything to talk about.”

“Quite the contrary, there is a lot to talk about.”

“Okay then, maybe next time.”

I sighed. I could have gone about this a different way but I didn’t think and I took advantage of the situation. Maybe I wouldn’t been in this mess had I made the right choices.

“No, Baekhyun, we’re doing this now.”

I grabbed his arm and dragged him toward the janitor’s closet.

“What are yo-”

“Shut up”, I hissed.

I shoved him inside and closed the door behind us. I the light and again, we made eye contact.

“Alright, you have me in here, what’s up?”

I took a moment to stare into his beautiful brown eyes, trying to read him, but his poker face was too good.

“Zaion, don’t waste my time. I could have been in class.”

“Like you care. We’ve missed so many classes before, what’s one more?”

“Okay, get to the point.”

“Baekhyun, you didn’t give me a chance to explain why I asked for a break.”

“You had quite enough time to explain, but you didn’t.”

I understand that we all get angry sometimes but he was having a major attitude issue...just like I did when we first met...

“How could I explain to you when I was only caught up in worry? I tried to find the easy way out!”

He looked at me for a moment and something flickered across his face. It was gone just as quickly as it appeared.

“What are you talking about?”

I explained to him pretty much what I explained to Vianey two days prior.

“Zaion, you could have told me. We could have work it out a different way. We were supposed to be in this together.”

“Yeah, well”, I looked at my feet, “ my plans aren’t always foolproof and I should not have decided to wing this one.”

He smiled.

“I kinda feel dumb now.”

“Don’t I was feeling that way, too.”

“I guess we could have both handle this differently.”

We both laughed. It grew quiet and he looked me in the eyes. His face had kindness and apology all over it. Of course I sent an even more apologetic look to him.

He traced his fingertips from my jaw and under my chin.

“I’m so glad that I don’t have to try to ignore such a pretty face.”

I smiled and looked down at my feet. Since when had I been so afraid of compliments?

Since you started getting them.

“It’s amazing how fast you can go from being super mad to dishing out compliments.”

“I wasn’t exactly mad. I was mainly confused and frustrated. After a week, anger doesn’t stay if you truly care. Heck, it can go away after the first few minutes. I said it a million times before and I’ll say it again, I love you. I couldn’t stay mad no matter how bad it hurt.”

There he is making my knees turn to jelly.

“Stop it or I’ll giggle”, I said while hitting him playfully.

“But I wanna hear it! Giggle for me, pleeeease!”

I shook my head.

“Please, it’ll make me happy.”

“Nope.”

“Okay then. I’ll just have to tickle you!”

“Erm...how about not doing that? It won’t make me giggle, it’ll make me cackle like a witch on Halloween.”

“Giggle, cackle, same difference.”

He proceeded to step closer. I backed up. As I did so, he got even closer.

“Baekhyun, no!”

“Yup!”

“Nope!”

“Oh yeah!”

I tried to back away even more but I hit the wall As soon as I did his fingers practically attacked me with tickles. A horrid wheezy, snort, laugh thing emitted from my throat and nose. It was loud and embarrassing.

“B-baek...bahahahahahahahahahaha....*snort*...Baekhyun.....S-s-stop...haha *wheeze*..*snort* *snort*....ahahahaha..stop!!”

“Yeah, no! This is too much fun.”

“Bae-baekhyun, s-stop *snort* we m-m..haha...m-might g-g-get...hahaha...c-caught!”

He stopped and we both wore big smiles.

“I want you to come back to the house. I miss both you and Su-Young.”

He pulled me close and he was warm and soft...and he smelled nice.

“Okay. I don’t want you to be lonely. Susu also misses her eonnie.”
I smiled and looked at my watch.

“Well, it’s almost lunch. We’ve been in here for quite some time. Let’s go. We can make it to the cafeteria before everyone else after we stop at our lockers.”

Baekhyun smiled and nodded.

We left the janitor’s closet and headed back to our lockers. Our books were put away and we were gonna walk to the other side of the building but we halted at the sound of muffled voices.

I was thankful for my bat-like senses because I could just make out what they were saying.

“CL, I really love it! It’s beautiful!”

“Only the best for you! Now c’mon, it’s almost lunch.”

Vianey and CL walked out from their hiding hand in hand. They hadn’t seen us so we saw them smooching in the halls.

I cleared my throat to alert them of our presence as they got a bit too...touchy.

“This is a school you know.”

They smiled. Vianey came rushing toward me.

“But, Z, look what he got me!”

She held out her wrist to show a silver bracelet with blue sapphire charms.

“Oh. My. Gawsh.”

We happy jumped while I caught Baekhyun wiggling his eyebrows at CL.

After our little happy fest, Vianey and I ran over to our guys and held their hands.

“Let’s go. I don’t want to be caught in a crowded lunch line”, I said to Baekhyun.

In the cafeteria, we all sat at a table near the window. We chatted and ate. The girls (me and Vi) gushed about how wonderful our guy were while they sat there with big heads and newly egos.

Around the end of the day, Principal Greyson called Baekhyun and me out of class.

“What’s this about, Principal Greyson?”

He looked almost shocked that I was speaking to him properly.

“Well, I called you to remind you  of the punishment.”

“Er...Principal Greyson...what punishment?”

I honestly didn’t know what he was talking about at the time. I turned the punishment into my own personal gain. I let it evolve from a burden to the best thing that ever happened to me.

“Well then, Zaion, since you can’t even remember, there is no point in keeping you punished. Plus, you haven’t been to my office since. I will wipe your records clean and you two are free to live your lives.”

When we didn’t leave, Principle Greyson looked at us with question.

“Anything else?”

“I am just going to say that, it’ll be hard to go back to my old life since Baekhyun has become a big part of it. I never thought I’d say these words and, to be honest, I’ve never been happier. I want to thank you.”

“No thanks needed. It was up to you to make the choices you did, not me.”

I nodded and smiled. With that, I left his office, Baekhyun following behind.



“You wanna know why Principal Greyson seems to care so much?” I asked, breaking the silence as Baekhyun and I walked to pick Su-Young up from school.

“I actually have been wondering that.”

“He was the neighbor who brought me to the hospital. He knows everything but I told him I’d solve it on my own and he trusted me to do that. He saw it all in the raw.”

“So in a way, he’d know your reasoning for things and maybe that’s why he gave you the punishment in the first place.”

“You’re so smart.”

“Well that explains alot.”

When we reached Su-Young’s school, picking her up was a breeze. Even so, I could see how tense Baekhyun was.

“What’s wrong?”

“You noticed how easy it’s been to pick her up?”

“Yeah.”

“I am scared out of my mind. I don’t know when they-my parents-are going to pull something.”

“I could say the same about mine. I’m wondering when they plan on executing whatever scheme they have.”

I looked at Su-Young who gripped my hand happily.

“That reminds me, where are you staying so that we can get your stuff?”

“Moonridge Motel.”

“Nice choice.”

“Thank you.”

We got all of his things and walked to my house. He insisted that I only carried his backpack while he got the-ahem-heavier things. I let him to protect his “manly pride”. (Eye roll).

We got to my house and Baekhyun put his things away upstairs. Su-Young told me to sit down because she had big news for me.

“What is it?”

“Okay, drumroll please!”

I gave her a drumroll and she signalled for me to stop.

“Okay, the big news is...you’re my favorite eonnie! I even made you a card!”

She reached into her backpack and pulled out a card covered in purple glitter. She gave it to me and I read it aloud.

“We will always be friends, eonnie, and even Baekhyunnie can come with us too!”

I smiled when I saw the crayon drawing of us all at the bottom. (It was pretty neat for a 7-year-old)

“This is beautiful, Su-Young. I’m going to put this in a frame and hang it up in my room!”

I gave her a big hug and she smiled.
I rushed to get one of the empty frames and set to work putting it up. Never  had anyone done anything like that for me. When I showed her where the card hung and she beamed brighter than the sun.

“This is the start of something wonderful”, Baekhyun said while pulling me in and laying my head on his chest.

“It truly is.”





A/N: I finally gave ya whatcha been waiting for! I have a confession for you all. I didn’t edit this chapter. I have been slaving away in front of a computer screen and typed non stop (that was hard since I can’t focus) and my fingers cramped up. I did it because I love you! ^3^ Okay, Comment, subscribe, and vote. This is the second to last chapter unless you wanna count the bonus chapter I plan on adding as a real chapter...oops, I’ve said too much! *smirk* Catch ya on the flip side. I’ll work on chapter 16 and the bonus chapter, it’s almost over. *sobs*

Annyeong!!!