“Alright boys, line up,” Kim seongsangnim ordered. “Be quiet so we can count all of you before you head onto the bus.” I yawned as Luhan and I stood in a line along with other guys in my class. Luhan nudged me.

“Excited?” He said, smiling. “This is our first excursion at this school after all.” I shrugged.

Somehow, I managed to stay at the school without being discovered for two months. Luhan and I had become really close friends now. It was almost as if I was still living as Haerin except the fact that I was surrounded by guys in all directions.

And now, we were waiting in line outside the school bus, waiting to head onto the bus and go to the arcade centre for our school excursion. As the line slowly shuffled forward, two guys fought around playfully and one bumped into me by accident, causing me to almost fall if not for an arm grabbing onto me and steadying me.

I looked up to see Tao and he let my arm go immediately.

“Thanks,” I said, grinning. He didn’t say anything and continued to move forward in line. Meanwhile, Luhan had my other arm.

“Are you okay?” He asked. I nodded and we went and sat inside the bus. I took the window seat and Luhan sat next to me, fiddling with his rubix cube again. All of a sudden, his phone rang and he picked up.

“Hello??” He spoke in Chinese, his face lighting up. I assumed they were his parents and decided to watch him. He continued to speak Chinese in a happy tone and suddenly his happy expression dropped and he fell silent. I stared.

Did anything bad happen?

After a long while, Luhan said something and then hung up, his face still not showing much signs of life as he once again fiddled with his rubix cube.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Hmm?” He turned to me with distant eyes. “Oh, nothing. Nothing at all.” I didn’t believe that it was simply ‘nothing’ but I decided not to probe further.

I hope everything is okay.

The bowling centre was large.

Let me rephrase that.

The bowling centre was enormous.

I gaped as I stared up at it. Everyone bustled in and we were assigned to each lane.

“Do you want to be a group?” Luhan asked me.

“Sure!” I grinned and then turned my head to see Tao just standing by himself, staring at everything.“Should we invite Tao into our group too?” Luhan looked across.

“Alright,” He nodded after a while. I beamed and went over to call Tao over.

“I’m joining you guys too!” Xiumin announced as he bounded over.

“Do you boys have a group of five yet?” Kim seongsangnim asked as he took a clipboard and a pen out. We all looked around and counted each other. So far we only had four people.

“Yes, we do!” A sudden familiar voice called out cheerily.

Oh no...don’t tell me...

A huge bright gleam in the darkness came bounding along and Kevin came and wrapped his arms around us from behind, giving that perfect white teeth smile.

“Seongsangnim! We’ve got a group of five!” He announced.

“Good,” Kim seongsangnim nodded and ticked us off his list. “Head inside and go to lane 11.” All of a sudden, Kevin seemed to be the only extra happy guy in our group.

“So, who wants to go first?” He asked all of us as he went to the switch board located near lane 11. “No one? Alright, I’ll go first!” We started the game and Kevin started to bowl first. At first, no one said anything but later on some of us found Kevin’s excitement amusing.

“Haebyun, it’s your turn!” He called. I stopped talking to Xiumin and nodded. So far, I had gotten three gutter balls and a few sevens which weren’t that bad. I took a bowling ball and heaved at how heavy it was. The lighter ones had all been taken by the other guys and only the heavy ones were left.

I brought the bowling ball up to my chin and was about to bowl it until a sudden loud blasting noise went off, surprising me and making me stumble forward onto the slippery bowling lane. The ball dropped onto my foot and rolled forward into the gutter while I continued slipping and sliding on the lane. Both my foot and hurt so bad as I fell onto the hard floor with a groan.

“Haebyun!” Luhan cried and got up immediately. Tao just stared at me, eyes widening. Before he could do anything, Luhan made his way safely to me, steeping on the non-slippery parts that separated the lanes from each other.

“Yah, are you okay?” He asked anxiously, helping me up from where I was. I winced as I stepped onto my bad food and onto the lane separator with him.

“Can you walk?” He seemed to notice how bad I limped. “Here, let me piggy back you.”

“N-No, it’s o-okay...” I stuttered, slightly turning red. Before I could protest, Luhan turned around and easily brought me onto his back. I yelped, scared that he was going to drop me or something. I turned red, noticing how many people were staring.

“Y-Yah,” I hissed. “P-Put me down.” Luhan shook his head and walked his way back to the others with me still on his back.

“I’m taking Haebyun to the first aid to get his foot and bruises healed,” He told them. “We’ll be back.”

“Are you okay!?” Xiumin asked me as he came over. “Those sunbaes were playing with the switches and the robbery alarm went off by accident!”

Ugh.

“We’ll be back,” Luhan said again and we went off.

“Are you really okay?” Luhan asked as we both sat in the first aid place. I nodded, looking at my uncovered foot which now had a big bruise turning a lovely shade of purple.

“Injuries,” The lady in charge muttered. “Why is there always so much here?” I grimaced.

“Sorry,” I said. “I’m a bit clumsy.” She turned and placed an ice pack onto my foot.

“That’s all I can do for now,” She replied. “You’ll have to wait for another few weeks until it fully heals. But don’t worry; some injuries from bowling balls can be more...horrible than yours at times.”

I wondered if that was a compliment.

The trip on the way back was completely silent as Luhan continued to piggy back me.

“Looks like you won’t be able to move around much these days,” He commented out of nowhere.

“I know,” I replied, making a face.

“How about I piggy back you from now on?” Luhan joked.

“No. It’s okay.” I said quickly. I already felt embarrassed because of this. We reached the doors of the main centre and Luhan paused.

“About the phone call before...” He said, hesitant. “Haebyun...I’m going back to China on Monday.” The whole world just dropped on me as he said that. I stayed silent, not knowing which question to ask first out of the one million questions that suddenly appeared in my head.

“Haebyun?” Luhan asked.

“Wh-Why?” I choked out. He turned away.

“My parents called me before and told me my grandma in China was very sick,” He said. “So I’m going back to visit her.”

“When will you be back?” I asked anxiously.

“I don’t know,” He shrugged. “It depends I guess. But don’t worry; I’ll try coming back as soon as possible.” He gave me a reassuring smile and then opened the door. Our group came back to greet us and ask me how I was but I wasn’t listening to any of them.

Luhan set me down onto one of the chairs nearby so I could sit and watch them go bowling. I didn’t say anything and continued to stare at his back as he went off with the other guys.

Again.

He was going to leave me.

Again.

I didn’t know which hurt more; my heart or my foot.

asfdhlgkkf

I haven’t updated in a while ; u ;

sorry! I’ve been kind of busy ; u ;

I might have to start updating a bit slowly too due to homework being its usual pestering self.

I’m glad you guys are enjoying the ff so far though!

I didn’t even know I’d be someone’s favourite author /cries a bucket