Your POV:
You sit in your maths classroom, leaning on an elbow. Recently, you have dyed you hair jet black, permanently straightened your hair, and now you are wearing ice blue eye contacts. You weren’t wearing eye contacts for the sake of it, you were wearing it because your vision really did go bad. It got worse, from glasses, to ones with thicker lenses, until you finally decided that you would rather wear eye contacts. Your skin seems to be paler than before, making you seem even more like the ‘ice-princess’.

But many things have changed. People have started calling you, ‘the lone wolf’. You smirked, being so much happier with the new nickname. It seems that the only people haven’t really changed was Minwoo, who still wore his facade of gentleness, sweetness and cheer. Yes, now that you reflect on it, you still wear your facade. But Dae Hyun... is his facade the same as mine? Does he wear one? What is his true self...?

You glance behind you, were Maria should be sitting. Instead you see an empty space. You sigh, but smiling with memories. Bitter sweet, as they say. You had no other friends really. Dae Hyun and Niel was situated in another class, and Minwoo was a year above you, so having anyone to even converse with was out of the question. But this was normal to you anyway. The bell rings for lunch, and as everyone rushes out of the classroom the teacher’s voice calls out your name.

“Yuri,” she begins. “You’ve changed quite a lot.”
“How so?” you ask in a polite tone.
“I mean, Yuri is growing up to become a beautiful lady, who is smiling more often.” she explains to you. Your cheeks flush warm.
“Kasahamnida...” you reply, bowing to your teacher.
“Yuri-ah should smile more.” she says, before dismissing you with a wave of her arm.

You walk gloomily on the corridor, thinking deeply. Have I changed? You shook your head, denying everything the teacher said. You see Dae Hyun, leaning on the wall with his arms crossed, waiting for you. His eyes brighten when he sees you, and the heavy feeling in your chest dissolves as you walk towards him.
“Kaja.” he says, as you both walk towards the table you normally sit at. Who is Dae Hyun to you?

Minwoo sits at the table, flashing his usual smile whilst Niel leans back, with eyes closed. You glare at Minwoo, and you smile playfully at him, thinking how much longer you could toy around with him. That’s what he was to you, just a toy of a game that you play. Nothing more, nothing less. All you were seeking from him was trouble. Unknowingly, that was exactly what Minwoo was doing to you. You perfectly knew what Minwoo was to you, but you still thought about what Dae Hyun and Niel was to you.

The four of you walked home. As usual, Minwoo cheerfully blabbers on about the day and all his excitement, and you just smile to yourself. Niel follows you, and Dae Hyun walks next to him, both discussing something quietly. Both of you drop Dae Hyun to his house, and so Niel leaves, until only you and Minwoo walk alone to your house, next door. He sighs heavily next to you, indicating that he has dropped his facade.

“Look, you don’t have to push yourself to act happy all the time.” you tell him.
“You don’t have to seem so emotionless all the time either.” he replied, giving you an evil smirk.
He kisses you on the lips, and holds you by the waist. But it’s not a sweet kiss, but a troublemaking one. You let go and poke his cheek.
“I think Minwoo looks more handsome when he’s not smiling.” you flirt with him.
He smirks playfully, genuinely happy that you like his real personality.

“Are you serious with me?” he asks you out of the blue.
“What?” you ask, confused and a bit surprised at his serious question.
“I mean, are you serious about our relationship?” he asks again.
You pause, struck by the reality of the question. Truthfully, you weren’t. But you didn’t want to say anything that would hurt him beyond bounds. Silence fills the atmosphere, and the tension between you two starts to rise.
“I’ll give you time,” he finally says, with a bitter edge in his voice.

Later that night, you burst open into Dae Hyun’s room like you normally do. He sits casually in front of the glowing screen, holding a controller. He leaves room for you to sit next to him, and a controller sits patiently in that empty space. You sit next to him, shoulders touching, and you play silently.

In your mind, you think about your relationship with Minwoo. You weren’t serious about him when he wears a facade, but when he takes his mask off, you grew attached to him. Unknowingly, you started to love his non-facade self. But his non-facade self is only half of who he truly is. So do I only love half of him?

But what about him? Is he serious with our relationship? He has never actually seen your true self, not long enough anyway. Only Dae Hyun has, because you both mutually understand each other. You eyelids start to become heavier and heavier, until you fall asleep with the game controller in your hands.