“Howon!” Woohyun cried out in surprise, a little too loud such that everyone in the café turned to stare at the two good-looking teenagers.

Hoya smiled at his friend and went over to Sandy and hugged the golden retriever as well. Sandy, who was accustomed to Hoya’s touch, returned his affection by fondly the latter’s face.

“What are you doing here? Don’t you have school?” Woohyun asked his best friend.

Hoya turned to smile at Woohyun. “Well, I missed you. Hahahah. Nah, the teacher’s not here today so I thought I would just sneak out.”

Woohyun didn’t seem shocked like what Hoya would have expected. It was as if Woohyun had known that Sunggyu wasn’t in school.

“Anyway, where were you planning to go? Don’t you always spend your mornings here?” Hoya asked, realizing that the two were still standing up.

“Oh, I just saw someone I knew. So what’s the teacher doing, skipping classes?” Woohyun replied nonchalantly and proceeded back to his seat and sipped his coffee.

Hoya smiled and sat opposite his friend. “You think too highly of me friend. I’m not a location updater you know,” Hoya told his friend as he ordered mocha.

“Hmmm…” Woohyun considered Hoya’s words and gave a skeptical look. “Didn’t your little dinosaur update you? He should know shouldn’t he? After all, you two have been exchanging my and the teacher’s locations,” Woohyun grinned at Hoya.

Hoya’s face immediately turned dark after that.

“Woohyun… I…” Hoya opened his mouth and tried to explain but Woohyun simply shook his head, implying that there was no need for Hoya to continue.

“You don’t have to look like that. It’s fine. I said that you two don’t have to care about me didn’t I?” Woohyun smiled at his friend sincerely.

However, Hoya just looked even more upset after hearing that.

“I just happened to saw him on the streets. It wasn’t as if we planned to meet up or anything. And we only communicated through messages. We really are not… anything,” Hoya tried to tell his best friend, his expression sad.

Woohyun noticed Hoya’s change in expression and smiled. Only one person could throw this calm and cool Hoya off.

“I said it many times before. It’s fine. I want nothing more than for the two of you to get together already!” Woohyun said to his friend.

Hoya grinned after hearing that. He knew that Woohyun wouldn’t mind, but he knew he would never ever do it. He and that person both knew that he couldn’t do it; they couldn’t obtain happiness before Woohyun had his.

“Oh wait! Before I forget, you asked about the teacher just now right?” Hoya managed to change the subject and his usual smile was up on his cheery face again.

Woohyun didn’t bother answering and read his magazine.

“Were you actually concerned with what he’s doing?” Hoya continued pursuing, smiling even wider.

Once again, Woohyun ignored him and turned the pages of his magazine.

“Hey look! He’s there!” Hoya suddenly called out.

Woohyun instantly spun around to stare out of the café. However, there was no sign of the familiar figure. Woohyun frowned when Hoya burst out laughing.

Woohyun stood up and got Sandy’s leash, heading for the café’s door.

“Hyunnie… Oh my god… haha… don’t be angry. I just wanted to kid you. But I really didn’t expect you to react… haha,” Hoya chased after his fuming friend and tried to explain. However, it wasn’t helping as he couldn’t stifle his laughter well.

Woohyun ignored his friend and continued walking. He was determined never to believe Hoya again.

~

“Hey! Are you sure we don’t have to go visit Woohyun first?” Myungsoo tried to catch up to the tall Sungyeol, who was walking ahead at top speed.

“Yeah! We have to get him breakfast don’t we? Hurry Myungsoo before breakfast hours over and the coffee are all sold out!” Sungyeol didn’t bother stopping and shouted to the panting Myungsoo behind.

Myungsoo couldn’t understand why Sungyeol was so attracted to coffee and was so excited when it came to that.

He picked up pace, determined to catch up to his tall friend when he bumped into Sungyeol, who suddenly stopped in front of him.

Myungsoo immediately fell behind due to the impact.

“You! Why did you stop so suddenly!?” Myungsoo rubbed his as he scolded his friend.

However, Sungyeol didn’t reply and just stared ahead.

“What is he doing?” Sungyeol muttered.

“What’s wrong with you?” Myungsoo stood up and looked in the direction of Sungyeol. He was too shocked to see a familiar figure ahead.

~

“I’m sorry. I would like to ask if you knew of the old man that used to be a cobbler around here… I’m sure his name was…” Sunggyu tried to ask the market vendors.

“Ahh go away! You’re disrupting my business!” The person ruthlessly chased Sunggyu away.

Sunggyu carried on asking other vendors. However, as it was the peak period, everyone was too busy to care about Sunggyu and his questions.

Sunggyu sighed. He couldn’t blame them. He was indeed disrupting, he thought maybe he should come back later. After all, it was too crowded now and it was suffocating Sunggyu. His head was still aching since yesterday. Maybe it was because he spent too long in drenched clothing yesterday talking to Sungyeol.

He could check on other places. This wasn’t the only place that Sungyeol provided him with. Surely he could find clues elsewhere.

As he squeezed through the crowd of people to get to the end of the market lane, Sunggyu wondered if he was correct to skip lessons to find the old man. But surely they couldn’t proceed on if Sunggyu couldn’t find the old man.
‘Therefore, finding the old man was priority,’ Sunggyu assured himself.

As Sunggyu was about to reach the end of the lane, he felt someone push him as he fell to the ground.

“Hey!” Sunggyu turned to scold the person.

“You! Young man! If you’re not buying, then move out of the way and stop disturbing everyone!” An old uncle chided him.

Sunggyu’s face grew bright red. Sure, that was why he was getting out of the way now right? Why did that old man have to be so horrid?

Sunggyu immediately got up from the ground and was about to rebut when he was hit by a sudden head pain. His hand went over to rub his aching head. He was definitely not feeling well today.

Suddenly, he heard a familiar voice shout out “Teacher!”

Sunggyu spun around only to see Sungyeol and Myungsoo both in shock.

Sungyeol ran up to him. “What are you doing here instead of in school?” Sungyeol asked.

“I was looking for the old man,” Sunggyu replied honestly at his student’s question.

Then, he realized that something seemed amiss.

“Hey! That should be my question! What the hell are you two doing here instead of school?” Sunggyu found back his authority and demanded to know.

Sungyeol ignored his question and continued asking, “Why are you looking for the old man? I told you not to do it anymore didn’t I?”

“Wait, Sungyeol! You told him?!” Myungsoo, who was standing by the side shouted in disbelief.

‘!’ Sungyeol mentally cursed himself.
“I can explain another time Myungsoo… but that’s not what is important now…” Sungyeol tried to explain to his friend.

“I can’t believe you actually did something like that without telling Woohyun. Of all people you told this rotten teacher!” Myungsoo continued shouting loudly.

“Hey you!” Sunggyu once again tried to defend himself but Myungsoo’s voice was adding to his headache and he felt extremely weak.

“Myungsoo, this isn’t important now…” Sungyeol told his friend.

“What? How can it not be important?” Myungsoo rebutted his friend and the two started arguing.

That cause Sunggyu’s headache to worsen and he let out a sudden and pissed off shout.

Both students immediately went silent and stared at the raging teacher.

“If I find the old man, we can prove Woohyun’s innocence can’t we?” Sunggyu confessed his intentions to his two students.

“Who asked you to do that?!” Another familiar voice was heard.

The three turned to see Woohyun and Hoya. Obviously they had heard everything since the three were making such a huge fuss and big commotion.

Sunggyu scanned the expressions on his two other students. Woohyun’s face was dark and serious and anger was stark vivid in his eyes. Hoya on the other end was just enjoying the show with an amused expression.

Woohyun handed Sandy’s leash to Hoya and he moved forward to the teacher.

Sungyeol and Myungsoo stepped away immediately without a single word.

Sunggyu was indeed intimidated by Woohyun, especially the serious Woohyun now. Still, he stood tall and hid his fear.

Now, the student and the teacher came face to face and both stared intensely at one another.

“I’m sure I said this before, but you should stay away from us. We don’t need you. What you are doing now is useless. So stop it. Now,” Woohyun said sternly.

The tone of his voice scared even Sungyeol and Myungsoo who was standing by the side. They had never seen Woohyun so angry before. Hoya, on the other hand was simply shocked. He couldn’t understand why Woohyun was being so serious about this.

The cold and harsh tone of Woohyun scared Sunggyu. He had heard it before just yesterday when Woohyun told him he shouldn’t have come.

“No,” Sunggyu said, a little hesitant, but his tone was strong and firm. He shocked everyone, even himself. He seemed a little startled that he was this certain.

“I will find the old man and prove your innocence. I will bring 3D back their leader and help them to trust once again,” Sunggyu looked straight into Woohyun’s eyes and told him flatly.

Woohyun’s eyes widened a little as he continued glaring at Sunggyu.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Woohyun didn’t believe a single word that Sunggyu said.

“Sungyeol told me about you guys and the whole incident. Why would you allow that?! Nam Woohyun! You are the leader of all of them! How can you let the school accuse you something of you didn’t do?! How can you let them chase you out even when you hadn’t done anything wrong? As the leader, how could you allow the class to go without you?! Don’t you know how all of them would feel without you leading them?! They are all so insecure because their hero isn’t there anymore!” Sunggyu let out a confident outburst.

This time, Sungyeol and Myungsoo, even Hoya was startled. They didn’t expect their teacher to say something like that, especially talking in such a tone to Woohyun.

Still, Sungyeol seemed impressed. He couldn’t believe that Sunggyu understood what he was actually feeling. Surely, inside, Myungsoo and he and probably all of 3D were waiting for Woohyun to return. That’s what made Myungsoo even guiltier.

Woohyun stared for a moment at his teacher when he suddenly let out a chuckle.

“How nice you put it. When you all are the reason why we’re like this,” Woohyun smiled sarcastically.

That pierced Sunggyu into the heart and somehow it hurt. Woohyun was right and Sunggyu couldn’t say anything. It was indeed because of the teachers’ lack in trust that drove the students to be like this.

Sunggyu let out a pained expression, which shocked Woohyun. For a brief moment, concern and worry was plastered all over his face. Only Hoya managed to catch the sudden change in his best friend’s expression.

“Anyway, stop doing what you’re doing,” Woohyun told Sunggyu and turned around and walked away quickly.

“Hyunnie!” Hoya called after Woohyun and followed him.

“Teacher,” Sungyeol wanted to go over to the teacher but was stopped by Myungsoo.

“Come on. Let’s go. You heard Woohyun,” Myungsoo dragged Sungyeol and followed Woohyun, leaving Sunggyu there, all alone.

Sunggyu bit his lips. He thought about Woohyun’s words.

‘You all are the reason why we’re like this…’

‘So it was because of us that you lost all trust and hope, Woohyun?’ Sunggyu thought to himself.

On one hand, Sunggyu felt saddened to know that someone as young as Woohyun could already lose all hope in people.

On the other, Sunggyu was pained when he realized that he couldn’t understand Woohyun. He wanted so much to say something to Woohyun to comfort him, but still, he couldn’t say any reassuring words as he doesn’t understand what exactly caused Woohyun to be like this.

He felt pained as he was clueless and totally useless.

‘Just what should he do to get closer to this person’s cold heart? Just how can he understand this person?’ Sunggyu wanted so much to know the answers to these questions.

~

“Hyunnie!” Hoya continued chasing Woohyun, and even had to run just to catch up to Woohyun who was walking at top speed.

Then, Sandy barked and Woohyun stopped.

“Hyunnie!” Seeing this, Hoya ran up to Woohyun.

When he caught up, he didn’t understand the look on Woohyun’s face. It was a totally unreadable expression and something Hoya never ever saw on Woohyun.

It was rather similar to a look of confusion.

“Hyunnie…” Hoya tried again.

Sandy nudged her owner who froze and stood rooted to the ground.

Feeling Sandy’s warmth, Woohyun relaxed a little and his expression changed. He smiled slightly and bent to cuddle his adorable golden retriever.

Hoya was also relieved to see Woohyun’s smile again. Finally, the guy was back to normal.

As Woohyun buried his face into Sandy’s fur, Sunggyu’s pained expression surfaced in his head once again.

It bothered Woohyun. And for a long time, it didn’t fade…

Author's note: 
hahahas as promised. But always late ehh? hahahas im not sure whether i can update tmr bc im rather busy but i'll try? hahahahs ohh n ppl expecting Sunggyu to give the hug, SORRY!! IM SO SORRY! hahahas. i honestly thought it was obvious since Hoya is the only one in this story that is always having skinship with Woohyun. Well, I kind of hinted the Yadong relationship n explained a bit. but well, more will hav to be revealed quite later on cause for now i need to finish the old man thing before i can finally get into Woohyun's past. Well, i hope u guys enjoyed the update ^^ thanks for always commenting n supporting the fic!! im always always happy to receive comments! ^^ more woogyu moments probably in the next chap :D