School life was confusing Kijoon. Apart from her ease with academics she was stressed about her relationship with Wonwoo and Mingyu. Wonwoo had begun to join Kijoon and Mingyu at lunch every day. It was all going well until Mingyu stayed home sick from school. Kijoon tried her best to convince Mingyu she would skip a day to take care of him but he declined her offer and said he’d return as soon as possible. Now Kijoon was left to face Wonwoo alone.

“Is Mingyu not coming today?” Wonwoo asked picking Kijoon up from her third floor class. She hummed a ‘no’ and walked at his side. “So it’s you and I.” Wonwoo smiled matching her walking pace. Their conversation started as any other conversation would while Mingyu was around. They talked about their day, what dramatic incidents were happening around the school, what Kijoon’s day dreams were like lately.

“Mingyu stares at you completely entranced when you talk about your dreams.” Wonwoo said simply kicking his feet up on the table. “It’s kind of pathetic.” Kijoon knew where the conversation was going and tried to change gears.

“Today, my science teacher told me that for every one human being there are one million ants. I bet if you could structure those ants together you could create a miniature human body. He also sa-“ Wonwoo laughed,

“There you go again, avoiding your relationship because it’s me who is asking about it. Why can’t you just talk to me? You’ve been dating for four months now. I’m over it.” Kijoon shook her head,

“No I don’t want to talk about it.”

Wonwoo insisted about talking about Mingyu every moment the two of them were alone together. Mingyu had enough loyalty to Kijoon to not talk about their relationship with Wonwoo as much as he trusted him. After every meeting with Wonwoo Kijoon endured she would always end up returning to her thoughts about her relationship.

Mingyu took care of Kijoon. He was affectionate, he showed worry when she had a change of attitude, he helped her through hard times, but there was something holding Kijoon back. As much as she didn’t want to admit it to herself she believed Wonwoo had stated a point. She was worried about Wonwoo.

Why was she worried about Wonwoo? They were friends, best friends. She had no reason to worry about him, yet she did. Wonwoo had told her repeatedly that he would tolerate her relationship with Mingyu so that his two best friends could be happy, but of course, Kijoon wasn’t happy with this. She didn’t want to see Wonwoo only tolerate what was going on around him, so she hid their relationship some more.

Kijoon hid their relationship for four months and it did not benefit anyone. Mingyu isn’t exactly the jock of the school, or the nerd for that matter, but if there was one word to describe Mingyu’s high school status it was popular.

Constantly Kijoon was fighting an inner battle while girls fawned over Mingyu. She’d sit alone quietly watching them swarm around him and his friends from class. She’d grit her teeth and let out small growls every time one would latch onto his arm and whine to him. Mingyu shrugged them off ignoring most of their presence which was reassuring, but it still continued to make Kijoon jealous.

Wonwoo was relatively the same as Mingyu. He too had his own type of popularity, but his was to a different extent. Wonwoo is the type of person who will speak his mind freely and if he didn’t like you, he would tell you off hand to get out of his face. It was a trait not everyone could get used to. He was well known around the school for his tom foolery and sassy retorts. Some people loved him but about the same amount of people hated him.

Kijoon was stuck in the middle. She was reserved to herself, wasn’t liked but wasn’t disliked. Her existence was minor in her school, but she didn’t mind that. It was that her best friends’ existences were not like hers. People followed them around in packs and girls would beg to have a chance. Not to sound mean in any way, but the two boys were getting relatively good at shutting down girls when they asked them out.

Now, after all that had run through Kijoon’s mind she had made her decision.

“Can we take a break?” Mingyu’s heart dropped into the pit of his stomach. He lost his breath on its way to his lungs. “I need some time alone.” Kijoon bit her bottom lip looking for a response. “I promise you didn’t do anything wrong I just need to think things out about life.” The more Kijoon spoke the more Mingyu felt his heart being penetrated by a rusted knife. His jaw hung slightly open to answer but only air toppled from his mouth. “I’m sorry.”

Kijoon turned her back to Mingyu and walked up to her apartment alone. She fanned her hands in front of her face trying to dry the tears she knew were coming. She couldn’t imagine how Mingyu was feeling right now but she knew for sure she had broken her own heart.

The next day Mingyu didn’t show up to school. Kijoon hide her face from everyone. She left like the whole school had known what went down between the two of them, when really no one knew they were in a relationship. Kijoon carried on her day ignoring everyone’s inheritance.

Wonwoo carried on as usual climbing the stairs to the third floor to greet Kijoon. He waited outside the classroom watching the students file out messily, Kijoon often was the last to leave the classroom. He peered in towards her desk but only the teacher stood in the classroom. He scratched the back of his head awkwardly leaving the classroom.

Kijoon peeked one eye around the corner of the locker set watching Wonwoo leave the classroom. She sighed heavily turn around walking into the bathroom behind her. When she knew no one was in there she walked into the second stall and locked the door. She folded the toilet seat down and crossed her legs on the seat. She pulled out her lunch and began to eat. It definitely wasn’t the most sanitary place to eat her lunch but she didn’t want to face Wonwoo just yet.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket, Wonwoo. She flicker her thumb across the screen unlocking it and read the message waiting for her.

“Home sick? Is Mingyu taking care of you?” Kijoon swallowed the lump of food in and replied,

“I’m fine. See you later.”

---

“What do you mean you haven’t seen Kijoon today?” Wonwoo asked Mingyu a little worried. “You weren’t at school, I thought you were taking care of her. She’s sick.” His phone buzzed with static, Mingyu took a deep breath,

“She left me.”