When Areum entered the classroom, Minah and Yura both gave her suspicious looks. “Where have you been?” They asked the girl. “Outside,” she replied, eyes narrowing at their suspicion. “Drawing.” She shrugged her shoulders.

Yura crossed her arms. “I think I saw you and that strange guy walk to the school building.” Areum's eyes widened involuntarily before she quickly glanced at the window, realizing that there was a perfect view on the courtyard. “You were with that Baekhyun guy, weren't you?” Areum didn’t like how hostile Yura sounded when saying his name'. “Yeah, so what?” She retorted, her voice more annoyed than she wanted it to sound like.

“So what, you say? We're your friends and that guy is no good, I tell you.” The two girls nodded their heads firmly. “He's so weird. No close friends, and no one really knows something about him and he got into trouble with teachers quite often. Do you really want to hang out with someone like him?” And Areum wondered when those two began acting so shallow. She knew they were in a way worrying about her, but at the same time they were already pushing Baekhyun in the category one doesn’t want anything to do with, without having ever spoken to him once.

“You guys don’t know him,” she mumbled, too lazy to continue because she wanted to avoid a fight. “Then go to that guy,” Minah almost hissed. “We were just being nice because we've spent so much time together already, but if you don’t appreciate our help.”

And with that the two girls turned away, leaving Areum alone at the back of the room.

An uncomfortable twisting spread in her chest, and she knew that although she hadn't regarded Minah and Yura as really close friends, it somehow felt weird to have them go away. Unusual and uncomfortable; emotions Areum always liked to avoid.

A heavy sigh escaped her lips as she slowly walked to her seat. Slumping on her chair, she stared at the table.

Damn.

-

The next day there was this uncomfortable silence between her and Yura and Minah, but Areum didn’t feel like breaking it. Besides, she wanted to avoid a fight, and that would most-likely happen. She wouldn’t be able to simply accept it when the two girls talked rubbish about Baekhyun. As his name crossed her mind, she remembered something. The thought of Baekhyun telling her a little story today cheered her a bit up and a small smile lit up the girl's face. At least a piece of good news, she thought. During lunch time, she ate alone, her gaze on her lunch box. She didn’t want to look over to Minah and Yura.

As the break finally began, she almost jumped off her seat. For one because she couldn’t wait to go outside and listen to Baekhyun's little story, and for another because she wanted to get out of the classroom where her classmates were throwing weird glances at her and her friends. As they were usually seen together, the question 'what's up with them' would most-likely come up.

Once she arrived at the tree, Baekhyun was already sitting there, comfortably leaning against the tree bark. “Hey,” she greeted as she sat down. At the sound of her voice, he opened his eyes and grinned at her in response. “Ready for the story?” The girl nodded weakly before she leaned against the tree as well, a little sigh slipping from her lips. Somehow the uncomfortable feeling of having had a fight with Minah and Yura didn’t want to leave her; even here.

“Is something wrong?” She suddenly heard him ask. Eyes round, she stared at him. How come he was able to see that something was bugging her right away?

After a few seconds of just staring at him, she shook her head