It’s been at least an entire month since your best friend Maria abruptly left the school. And you had great plans to get Maria and Niel in a relationship. You sigh to yourself.

“What?” coldly asks Minwoo as he protectively holds onto your hand. 

You uncovered this as one of his traits in his real personality—extremely protective of others.

“Nothing.” you reply.
You were happy, because Minwoo wasn’t smiling cheerfully, because that was just a mask he wore. He had a serious expression, and it, in one way, scared you, but you didn’t mind it. As long as he was being himself. You were just playing around with him, of course. You weren’t actually serious about your relationship. Just a game, keep remembering that.

For once in a long time, you blush; revealing a bit of your real personality. You catch yourself, remembering not to trust anyone, but you were a bit too late.
“Saw that.” he utters next to you. 

He smiles, only it is different. The corners of his lips rose, revealing a foreign face to you. His smile is warm, and it makes you feel that it could melt ice. The sun shone against his flawless face, and you feel something restless stir in your heart. His smile was like a cherry blossom flower; fragile and beautiful, but impermanent. You were taken aback. Why were you so surprised? Was it because he smiles genuinely?

You quickly turned your head away from him, avoiding eye contact.
“I’m glad that Jung Dae Hyun bastard was sick today.” he says harshly. “Because I get to walk with you without him following behind. Why does he follow you around anyway?”
“I don’t know.” is all you can say to reply to his question.
But Dae Hyun is really nice to me.... Maybe I should help him get better, as a repayment to his kindness? He only lives next door anyway.

As you wave goodbye to Minwoo, you pretend to walk into your house until you can no longer see him. You quickly run over next door, and knock politely on the door. An old woman opens the door, and smiles at the strange young woman that is sweating, standing in front of her door.
“Ne? (Yes?)” she asks warily.
“Annyeonghaseyo,” you say while bowing politely. “I am Ga-yun Yuri, Jung Dae Hyun’s classmate. I have come to give him notes about today’s history class.”
You lied to her, you had no history class today, nor were you carrying any notes. You just wanted to see him. You smile fakely, and your cheeks feel strange, because you barely smile. Your creepy smile seemed to have scared the old lady, because she quickly dismissed herself, saying she had to go to the groceries and told you to enter as you please.

You walk inside, laughing to yourself at how scared and intimidated that woman seemed by your smile. You walk up the stairs, and hear someone muttering to themselves. Suddenly, the smirk wipes from your face, and you immediately slam open the door that is making those sounds. You see Dae Hyun sitting on the ground, wrapped in a ball, covering his ears. He is talking to himself, and his room is clustered and messy, as if a hurricane went right through it.

You knew what was happening. The exact same thing happens to you whenever you are sick. You would have a mental breakdown, and remember your mother’s suicide. You would endlessly mutter to yourself, until all you could hear was the silence and your raw voice. You would cover your ears to stop hearing the sound of the honking train, and you would shut your eyes tightly, so you wouldn’t see your bloody mother lying on the ground.

You quickly pulled his hands from his ears. Well, you tried. He was incredibly, strong, which was expected of him, since he was a guy after all. He was too resistant, so instead of fighting against his strong arms, you hug him. His grip slightly loosens, and with one swift movement, you pull his arms off his ears.

His panicked eyes widens, and his lips tremble in fear. His hair was muffled, as if it had been furiously tugged on, and your worry for him grows bigger.
“Shh,” you say in a soft voice. “Dae Hyun, it’s me. Yuri. It’s me. Remember?”
You can feel the pressure on his arms decrease, and instead of him being stiff, he starts to become weak and trembles slightly. You know he can’t say anything. You understand how he feels.

You drag him to his bed, and lie him down, pulling the covers to his chin while constantly making soothing sounds to him. Yet, his fearful expression remains on his face, and you do one last thing to try and make him forget. You smile. For the first time in years, you smile genuinely, attempting to assure him that he is in a happy place. He better imagine one damn happy place indeed, because otherwise I wouldn’t be smiling, you joke. He furrows his eyebrows, most likely confused, but at least not scared.

As you leave the room, he finally says something.
“Don’t,” he begins, trailing off his sentence. But he doesn’t need to finish his sentence, because you already know what it means.
“I won’t,” you tell him. “I definitely won’t leave you here alone.

For the rest of the day, you tend to him, feeding him food, changing the folded towel on his hot forehead and making him take medication. There was one last thing you needed to do. You slowly pulled the bed cover off his body, revealing his shaking state. His shirt is drenched with sweat, but he shivers as he were in Antarctica. You look at him with pity. I should do something...

You grab onto the ends of his shirt and pull it to his head. You tug on the collar, and with one swift and precise motion, you pull his shirt off of his body. You turn to a deep shade of pink, and you feel your ears burn hot. What to do, you panicked, looking around the room. You spot a small towel hanging on the door knob of his bathroom, and you take it in your sweaty palms. You rush to the sink and drench it in water, until it is dripping wet. You twist it, squeezing it. You use the towel to slowly wipe Dae Hyun’s body.

Dae Hyun POV:
You can feel something cold on your torso. You can hear someone’s soothing voice, saying everything was going to be okay. Eomma...? (Mum?) You slightly open your heavy eyes, and you see a blurry figure. A woman. Your eyes resist to open wide, so you just close them. Why is my mum here? I thought she was gone. But even with this reality, you convinced yourself that it was your mum tending to you.