Chapter 13

"Ahhh... So that is what happened," Sanghyuk said right after he took a sip from his juice. Since he cannot drink milk or drink coffee just yet, he was left with choosing between water and juice. In the end, he chose the orange juice. N bought it for him – a surprise treat that had never happened before (or at least that was what Sanghyuk teased N with). But since he did find it unusual, he thought that something must have happened. So then, he went ahead and asked N, but the latter just started talking about Leo. Some of his words, Sanghyuk was not even able to catch, yet he nodded his head anyway – "Leo-hyung does look like the type of person to not forgive easily. You tried apologising, right? And he still ignored you? Maybe you should give him some space...?"

"But what if I keep waiting and waiting and he doesn't talk to me ever again?" N asked, whining. He had not even touched the food that Sanghyuk got for him in return.

"Then, you let him go...? Hyung, you were the one at fault –" Sanghyuk stopped when he saw the look on N's face – "Kinda? Look, hyung, maybe some things aren't meant to be, you know? I mean... Like with Hongbin-hyung. He doesn't really like me, and yet, you keep forcing him to talk to me. I like him though, but there really isn't any reason for him to be talking to me. My guess is that at some point, he'll just stop answering my calls altogether and forget who I am. Not that I actually mind because I saw it coming –" Sanghyuk was cut off by N's heavy hand hitting his arm. He groaned and rubbed on the spot that N had hit. "You didn't have to do that, hyung!" He cried, pouting his lips. 

"Binnie isn't like that!" N argued. "I think that he likes talking to you, too. So don't say those things without knowing his feelings first, okay?" He looked up from biscuit crumbs that he had been playing with from earlier and saw that Hongbin was standing right behind Sanghyuk. N was going to open his mouth to say something, but because Hongbin greeted Sanghyuk, he just shut his mouth right after.

Once Sanghyuk answered him with his own greetings, Hongbin looked over at where N was sitting. He was careful around him, but did at least a bow to give respect to him. "Hello, hyung," Hongbin said very quietly.

N managed a small smile at Hongbin's direction. "It's okay, Binnie," He told him, first and foremost. "And I was just leaving so just sit over here," N said, standing up from his seat. "Don't worry, I didn't taint the chair or anything," He snickered, but Hongbin grabbed his arm when he was just about to walk past him. N winced and withdrew his arm at once, eyes wide. He looked away the second after, adding in soft goodbyes to both Hongbin and Sanghyuk.

Hongbin was going to apologise for grabbing his arm too, but N was already running for the entrance when he saw Seohyun's friends. He only let out a sigh and let himself sink to the chair that used to be where N sat.

"He doesn't hate you, hyung," Sanghyuk reassured him, as he offered the biscuits that N left on the table.

Leo took a slightly different route home that day. It would be far better if his lifelong friend does not find him and attach himself to him because he would not know how he would deal with it – him.

Sighing, Leo took his list of things to buy out of his pocket, scanned through it and found out that he was missing quite a few things, such as a new composition book. Finding a stationery shop just by the corner, Leo did not bother to ask one of the staff where they keep them. He would rather search for the composition book himself, and that way, he would get to see more from the shop and perhaps buy an extra 2 or 3 cute animal shaped erasers. It was not that too difficult to find things as long as one could read labels and directions anyway. Once Leo found the shelf full of composition books, he flipped through the pages of a random composition book that was neatly placed in the shelf. He took his time feeling up the sheets if they were of the right quality or if the cover was suitable enough (– or it could be that he really was just wasting his time to stop himself from thinking of a certain boy called Cha Hakyeon).

"I know what you're thinking. These composition books , don't they?" A person spoke up behind him. Then again, why would Leo pay attention to a stranger? – "There's this ot