My two eyes lose focus, my heart has no feeling.
Our memories become fragments and spread about.
Hey, you dummy, it ended already. That person's gone.
The only thing left with me is longing. That person's gone.
How can I act like nothing happened without you?
- INFINITE, "1/3"
 

"Hey, are you okay?"

You stared into his eyes in silence.

"Hello...? I didn't hit you too hard, did I?"

You found yourself clenching your fists.

"I'm really sorry again. I should've looked where I was going. I was... sort of in a rush I guess. Here, come on, let me help you up now." Hoya reached out his hand and you stared at it blankly.

You shook your head quietly and finally stood up on your own. You looked down and dusted off the dirt from your uniform, not daring to meet his eyes again or you would just end up feeling... what is it exactly? Anger? Sadness?

Hoya awkwardly retreated his hand back and rubbed at his neck. "Uh, you're alright, right? You're not hurt anywhere?"

"No, it's okay, I'm fine," you replied, taking in a big, shaky breath as you put on a smile. "Thanks, Hoya."

"Ahhh~" Hoya flashed a smile. "So you know me from INFINITE?"

You felt your heart clench a little and you shifted your gaze away again. "Um... yeah, that's it." No... it's much more.

Suddenly, you remembered where you had to go and how much trouble you'd be in considering how late you were already. You checked the time on your phone. "Actually, I have somewhere I need to be right n—"

"LEE HOWON! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!"

"Oh ." Hoya grumbled and quickly looked down the street. "Dammit!" he cursed and suddenly gripped onto your wrist as he dragged you along, immediately running into a small, hidden alley.

"Hoya what are you—"

"Shhhh..." He put a finger to his lips, locking his eyes with yours as you became quiet and gave a tiny nod of understanding.

You both carefully peered out to the street.

"YAH! LEE HOWON! WHERE ARE YOU?! WHEN I FIND YOU AND THE OTHERS, YOUR ASSES WILL BE IN A HELL OF A LOT OF TROUBLE SO JUST GIVE UP NOW!"

"Is that your manager?" you whispered quietly.

"Yeah," Hoya withdrew his head back into the alley. "All of us escaped from the dorm earlier. We tricked Hyoan-hyung and managed to run away." He gave a small laugh and you softened at the sound. You really missed the sound of his laugh. Of course, you'd hear it on his interviews and shows, but in person, it was truly different. The sound rang through your ears like the sweetest melody in the world.

Hoya, I miss you.

"Something wrong?" Hoya's words snapped you out of your thoughts.

"W-What?"

"You were... staring at me a minute ago."

Your cheeks flushed a light shade of red. "Oh, i-it's nothing. Just... thinking." You looked down to your wrist and felt a little tingle go through your skin when you remembered How Hoya grabbed onto you earlier. Suddenly realizing something, you knitted your eyebrows together and looked up at him.

"What?"

"Why did you bring me with you?" you asked, suddenly feeling a sense of déjà vu wash over you.

Hoya raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Like, you didn't have to bring me to hide with you, you know."

"Oh... right, sorry," he flashed an apologetic smile. "It's just..." he started again and this time he was the one who knitted his eyebrows together, gathering his thoughts. "It feels... like some sort of instinct."

"Instinct?"

"Yeah... it's sort of hard to explain, but I feel as if... as if I should do it. It's like it's some sort of habit." He scratched his head in confusion and sighed. "Like I said, it's hard to explain."

You shook your head. "No, I understand. You feel as if you should be protective, like you should protect someone with you. It feels as if... you've done it before."

"Y-Yeah... exactly like that. How'd you know?"

"U-Uh, um, I—"

"YAH!"

You both instantly silenced in froze in place, hearing the sound of angry stomping become louder. You held in your breaths upon hearing the sounds stop near the alley.

"Running off when we're this busy with all these crazy schedules... those boys are totally going to get it when I find them..." you heard Hyoan mumble.

You both finally released a sigh of relief as the sound of his steps began to fade away. Hoya peeked his head out of the alley, watching intently as their manager walked farther and farther off, but you found yourself gazing at him again.

I know that about you because that's how you were before, Hoya. You were always so protective.

You blushed and a smile crept on your face as you recalled your moment of déjà vu earlier, suddenly remembering as to why it seemed so familiar because of the exact memory from years ago.

"Jinae~!"

You turned around hearing the sweet, sing-song voice of your boyfriend and found him running happily towards your direction. Hoya gripped his arms around your waist, lifting you into the air as he spun you around with a wide smile on his face. You let out a fit of giggles and he set you down, giving you a light kiss on your nose.

"Well someone's happy today," you smiled and adjusted the strap of your backpack comfortably on your shoulder.

"Why shouldn't I be when I'm here with you?" he replied as he laced his fingers into yours.

"But we only haven't seen each other for about an hour..." you said, pointing out how you both didn't have one of your classes together.

"I know. But I really missed you. I felt like I was going to die if I didn't see you for another minute," Hoya pouted cutely.

You raised an eyebrow. "Alright, what did you do this time?"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh come on Hoya, I know you already. You always become so overly greasy when you've done something."

"Uh, well, no, um... okay..." he whined, admitting defeat. He gripped tightly to his backpack strap and bit his lip. "Well, umm... I maybe-sort-of-might-have ditched class last period... and I maybe-sort-of-might-have got caught by the principal..."

You responded with a smack to his shoulder. "Hoya!" You rolled your eyes "Aish! This guy..."

"They didn't catch me though! " he said defensively. "I ran off before the principal could get me."  Hoya stuck out his lips. "And you still love 'this guy', right?"

You looked into his eyes and softened at the cute look in his eyes. He really never made it easy for you to stay mad at him. "Of course, you pabo."

He grinned an adorable eye smile and your heart fluttered, making you lean in, and just as you were about to give a soft kiss to his lips, a loud shout shattered the moment.

"FOUND YOU!"

"Uh oh..." Hoya muttered and quickly grabbed onto your hand, pulling you into the hallway and into the sea of students. You both looked back to see the principal scrambling through the crowd, but eventually get a little lost.

"Hurry, in here," Hoya tightened his grip on your hand to keep from losing you and hurriedly ran into an empty classroom, thankfully empty at the time. You two ran and hid behind the teacher's desk which was situated at the back of the room.

Hoya placed a hand on your head and brought it down to his shoulder as you relaxed your breathing and quietly sat with him. You played with his fingers still laced with yours and let out a small laugh.

"What's so funny?" Hoya raised an eyebrow.

"The fact that you're the one in trouble, yet if he finds us I'd also get in trouble."

He smiled. "How is that funny?"

"Because you're a crazy person, you know that?"

"What's so crazy about wanting to protect you?" He pouted and puffed his cheeks out.

"Protect me?"

Hoya turned towards you and held onto both of your hands, the front of your hands with his thumbs as he gazed into your eyes. "Jinae, as long as you're with me, you'll never have to worry, okay? I'll be here to protect you." He brought one of your hands to his lips.

"As long as you're with me, I'll always protect you."

"You're staring again," Hoya said, bringing you back to reality once again.

"Oh, uh, sorry," you replied and shifted your gaze away from him.

We had so many memories together, yet how did you choose to forget everything we had?

"Well, I think it's safe now..." he slowly stepped out of the alley and you followed soon after.

You pulled out your phone and checked at the time. Your eyes widened as you mentally cursed at yourself and stuffed your phone back in your pocket. ", now I'm really late."

"Hm?"

"I'm late for work," you sighed.

"Oh, well, sorry for keeping you for a while."

"No, no, it's okay." You shook your head and bit your lip.

"Actually, I've got to meet up with Sungyeol and Sungjong at Hongdae." He smiled. "I've got to go. Good luck at work. It was nice meeting you!"

"Thanks...you too..." you said quietly as Hoya turned and walked down the street.

At least I got to talk to you. Even if you don't remember me, it was nice to see you again.

~ ♥ ~

That was the last time you had seen or spoken to each other the past couple of weeks.

After being late (really late) to work that day (not to mention it being the fifth time you were late to work), your boss had given you extra hours and instructed you to close up shop for the next two weeks as punishment, which meant less free time.

As for Hoya, it was the same situation. When they had gotten home from their runaway that afternoon that day, they found an angry-looking Manager Jungryul and even more enraged Hyoan. The managers scheduled the interview to another day and the members were given a very strict lecture instead. They were all given more practice hours, working their asses off harder than ever.

Not only that, but they were always on 24/7 manager patrol. Unfortunately for the members having four managers, they were all watching over them. The managers would guard all possible exits, the seven of them waking up and finding Geonam standing at the entrance of their dorm with his arms crossed. When they would go out and go into the van, the managers would lead them inside the vehicle one by one with a firm grip on the back of their shirts, and the same routine applied to exiting the van.

The other members also didn't forget to give Sungyeol several smacks on the head, as it was  Sungyeol's idea to escape in the first place that lead them to this.

It didn't take long before the seven members were soon fed up with this kind of treatment, but they were too afraid to say anything. They knew they had really pissed off the managers this time to get them to be this way, so they unfortunately had to put up with it until the time being.

The seven INFINITE members were now at a rough session of dance practice, and with Sunggyu's growing irritation each day, he was nagging more than ever.

"Sungyeol! Your arm is spread too wide!"
"Lee Sungjong! You have to stay focused!"
"Woohyun, your moves have to be synchronized with us!"
"Dongwoo, make sure you don't get in someone's way when you rap!"
"Myungsoo! Your leg isn't far enough when you kick it out!"
"Hoya!... Uh, you're doing well, keep it up."

Hoya grinned and gave a thumbs up, tiredly collapsing to the floor of the dance studio as he breathed heavily. Sungyeol dragged himself to Hoya's direction and let out an airy laugh. "You're surely not our dance machine for nothing!"

"Yeah hyung!" Sungjong agreed as he came over and wiped the sweat from his neck.

"Thanks," Hoya grinned wider.

"Hey, by the way..." Sungyeol trailed off. "Remember the day we ran off? I forgot to ask, but what the hell took you so long?"

Hoya thought for a while and recalled that moment. "Oh, I ran into this girl after I escaped."

"Ooooh~" Sungyeol and Sungjong teased in unison.

"Not that way, pabo!" Hoya gave a light punch to both of their stomachs. "I mean literally run into her."

Sungyeol let out a big laugh. "Well did you at least apologize?"

"Yah! Of course! I'm not that cold-hearted!" Hoya returned his question with another harder punch to his shoulder.

"So what happened between you two?" Sungjong asked curiously.

"Hm, nothing much. Just talked for a little while." Hoya shrugged. "She was just another fan."

And with that, in Hoya's mind, you were forgotten yet again.

A/N: And here I am with another sort-of long update. I'm totally neglecting on writing my other fic (which I feel so bad about) but I've fallen in love with this story and I can't stop writing it. My precious readers, I love you all~ ♥