“Maybe you should call your parents tonight,” Zico suggested when he and Hani arrived home that afternoon.

“Probably should,” Hani nodded.

“Did anything happen with Junhong?” Zico asked, trying to sound casual.

“Nope,” Hani dumped her bag on the ground. She'd seen him glancing hopefully at his phone occasionally but nothing more. “What's for dinner?”

“I was thinking pizza,” Zico opened up the fridge.

“Hmm... How about I cook?”

“Can you?”

“I used to do food tech... I can probably make pasta.”

Zico's stomach grumbled. “Please.”

Hani spread out the ingredients on the counter and surveyed them.

“Can I call my parents before dinner?”

“Sure!” Zico called from the music room. Hani reached over to the phone and searched through her bag to find the piece of paper with their new number on it. She punched the numbers into the phone and held it to her ear, waiting patiently.

“Hello?” a voice came from the other end.

“Hi, it's Hani!”

“Hello, dear! How are you? How's Jiho? Is everything okay? We were getting worried!” Hani's mother gushed.

“I'm fine, mum,” Hani sighed. “He's called Zico, though. Yeah, everything's good, I just thought I should call you.”

“Well, it's a good job you did, because we need to discuss Christmas!”

“It's only November.”

“Never too early to plan!” Hani's mother squeaked excitedly. “You're going to come over here on the train, yes? And stay for about a week?”

“I- I guess,” Hani nodded, forgetting no one could see.

“You can invite Jiho. I'm sure he'd love to come.”

“Zico, mum. Doesn't he have someone he can visit?”

Walking out of the music room, Zico heard his name. He turned towards Hani who was standing with her back to him, running a hand through her hair.

“Zico, mum. Doesn't he have someone he can visit?”

Zico's casual grin dropped as well as his gaze. He hadn't thought about his family for months. His parents had upped sticks after the third time bailing him out of jail, and had left Korea without a trace. The rest of his family, he'd just lost contact with. He hadn't been arrested since they'd left, which was a considerable feat for someone like him.

“Okay, I'll invite him... Only one double bed?! No. No, I'll sleep on the sofa or something. We'll come down on the 20^th or something. You're going out for dinner tonight? It's Thursday, though. Every night? Okay, well, I have to get our dinner ready... See you. Yeah. Love you too. Bye, mum. Bye.”

Hani put the phone down and ran her hands through her hair again. Talking to her mother was so stressful. She put the pasta in a saucepan and began to heat it up, then waited until it was done to put the sauce she'd been making on it.

“Dinner's ready!” she called, startling Zico. He jogged through to the kitchen and stopped in surprise.

“It looks great,” he praised, then picked up a fork and ate it quickly. Hani blew a strand of hair out of her face and ate hers, too.

“I'll wash up,” Zico said, taking their plates.

“Thanks, I'll go do my homework,” Hani ran upstairs and sat down at her desk.

Hani had no homework, she'd done it all at school. She just needed to think. Was Junhong really serious? She guessed he was, trying to get her attention like that. Should she say yes, or just wait for him to forget about it? She'd only ever had one boyfriend before, and he was just a disaster waiting to happen. She was fifteen, he was seventeen, a bad boy. He'd taken an interest in her only to break up with her in front of everyone, smirking at her tears. He was the main reason she didn't trust people as soon as they met- she was comfortable with Zico because she'd known him since she was born. Her first boyfriend's name was Bang Yongguk- a name she couldn't forget, as much as she tried.

“Nini? Ni... oh.”

Hani had been thinking all night and had fallen asleep at her desk. Zico gently moved her onto her bed and left quietly. She'd been unusually silent tonight, apart from talking to her mother on the phone. He frowned and returned to his room. Was there something he was missing? Flopping onto his bed, Zico reviewed the situation. He gave the ceiling a particularly hard stare as he thought about the possibilities- there were none, really. He'd just have to cope with just... existing. He could do that, he'd been doing it for the last two years. Only it might be harder, living with Hani.

Hi~ sorry i haven't updated for a while. i'm just finishing the next chapter so it should be up soon maybe hopefully??? see you then<3