I smiled again, waiting for him to reply my greeting. He just looked at me like he never saw me before. As if I was a stranger.

I fidgeted before pushing myself for another smile. “Good morning, Dae Hyun,” I repeated the sentence once again. Hoping that he will reply to this one.

“Morning,” he nodded and left, walking ahead of me.

Oh, well. At least today he said something. He usually would either just nod or ignoring my existence at all.

Whatever happened to my best friend.

I walked on the other side of the street while he walked on the side across me. He still had that posture when walking. Backpack he wore carelessly, hands inside the pockets, walking ahead while an earphone stuck on his left ear.

I smiled. I pulled out an mp3 player from my pocket and put the earphone on my right ear and played the music. We used to share the earphones when we were younger… when we were still friends. He will always put the earphone on his left ear and I will put another one in my right ear, and we would sit side by side listening to our favorite songs.

Now he was on his side of the street, I was on my side of the street, both listening on each side of our earphones. I listened to our favorite song, McFly’s You’ve Got A Friend while he listened to God know what.

I was unconsciously matching my steps with his. Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. I peeked a glance at him again, he still looked straight… too straight, his gaze was unmoving. This Dae Hyun was weird. The Dae Hyun I knew would never be so still, the Dae Hyun I knew was the one I though having ADHD for he couldn’t stay still. But I haven’t see that Dae Hyun for two years. Of course he’s changed. Don’t be a fool, Moon Jeong Ae.

We kept walking in silent as we finally walked in the same direction with more kids wearing the same uniform as us. When Dae Hyun finally met his friend, Yoo Young Jae , he finally gave a wide smile after the long twenty minutes of stillness on his face.

I couldn’t help a small smile when I saw him starting some joking fight with Young Jae. Now that’s the Dae Hyun I knew.

I jolted in surprise when a pair of arms hugged me from behind. I looked back to find my friend Seo Hyo Na smirking while she hugged me tighter.

“Morning, Moon Jeong Ae!” She greeted.

“Morning, Hyo Na-yah…,” I tapped her arms. “Where’s your usual body guards?” I asked her while looking around for her two best friends that usually always followed her every step like glue.

“Taec went to park his car someplace away and Si Wan was waiting for him,” she told me.

I lifted my brows, wondering where Taek Yeon would park his car, considering we are not allowed to bring cars to school. But Taek Yeon was always the bad boy he was.

“Then why are you here? Not waiting for them?” I asked as she circled her arm on mine.

“Why should I? They’re big boys already. Do I have to babysit them all day? We’re on different classes. My classmate is you, they’re just my crazy childhood friends,” she waved her hand in her usual tomboyish manner.

“I heard that!” Si Wan screamed somewhere behind us.

“It was meant for you crazy people to hear!” Hyo Na shouted back to them. “Gee, Im Si Wan, that boy really has super hearing,” she muttered as she gaze those big eyes to me.

I chuckled. “Childhood friends, huh?” I looked at Dae Hyun again. He was busy talking to Young Jae while they walked through the gate.

“I saw you staring at Jung Dae Hyun again,” Hyo Na nudged me.

“He was my childhood friend, you know,” I told her, I never told anyone in High School about this. My friends from middle school might know, but new friends didn’t.

“Really? Huh? You guys don’t even look as if you know each other. I thought you were having a crush on him or something,” She sounded genuinely surprised.

I laughed. A crush huh? Hmm…

“Nope. We were friends. But we drift away from each other. I didn’t even know why,” I looked back to where Taek Yeon and Si Wan were joking to each other. “That’s why I kind of jealous of you. You three are childhood friends, yet you still befriending each other up until now.”

“Until then… until later. They won’t be able to get rid of me,” Hyo Na chuckled. Then her eyes became soft, that sweet smile of her appeared. “Don’t worry, Jeong Ae-yah… You’ll get him back someday. Friends are not that easily disconnected.”

I hope she’s right.

***

Hyo Na might be in different classes with her best friends but still close to each other. I was in the same class with my ex best friend for two years, yet we never even exchange words. How silly was this world?

He was having a chat with the popular boy Lee Jong Suk and the new boy Kim Woo Bin, along with Yoo Young Jae as well. The class was a crazy convention room when those four met.

“You’re going to drill a hole on Jung Dae Hyun’s head if you kept staring at him like that,” Hyo Na whispered from the seat beside me.

I sighed and looked back to her. “I was just wondering why he acts differently to me but still being himself in front of other people. Was I at some kind of fault here?”

Hyo Na sighed. “No Jeong Ae. It couldn’t be your fault. You just need to talk to him.” She encouraged me.

“He’s avoiding me, Hyo Na. I have tried to talk to him but he turned me down. He acted as if I wasn’t existed. He hated me that much and I don’t even know what my fault is,” I fell to my desk and gathered my arms to cover my face.

“Is something wrong, Jeong Ae-yah?” Soo Joo, who sat behind me asked.

“Nothing’s wrong, Soo Joo. Just ignore me, please,” I raised my hand and sighed. Something is definitely wrong here, and it’s probably my brain. Or Hyo Na’s.

I lifted myself up and gazed back to Dae Hyun to found that he looked right at me. He looked startled. His adam’s apple bobbing as he gulped down then he looked away from me again.

What’s was just happened? He was clearly avoiding me.

I need to know why.