Chapter 8

N had immediately put on a smiling face when he arrived home. More than anything, he hated being bombarded with questions whenever he was not smiling. His family was used to him being a cheery person in contrast to a gloomy one so N wanted to maintain that reputation – he had to. His smiling face, however, disappeared once he reached his bedroom. N closed the door behind him and just lied down on the bed, hoping that no one would bother him. He stayed still, merely staring at the plain white ceiling above his bed when his mother suddenly called his name out, "Hakyeon! A friend of yours is calling!" Her loud voice rang through the entire house.

N his bed, curled his body, and took a deep sigh. "Tell him that I'm in the shower!" He answered her before burying his face on his pillow. No one was even meant to know his phone number. He had never even given it to Sanghyuk so he thought that perhaps the current caller was just someone fond of doing prank calls from his school. Hakyeon was used to it since students from his school were branded as troublemakers –

"He said that his name is Jung Taekwoon. He wants to talk to you immediately about something!" His mother shouted once again, interrupting with his internal monologue. Upon hearing his lifelong friend's name, N jolted and instantly sat up straight. His heart began to pound inside his chest out of nervousness and a lot of questions came to occupy his mind,

'How did he get my number?'

'Who gave it to him?'

'Why does he need to call me?'

"Taekwoon says that he'll be coming over! He said that he's on his way now!" N's mother added. And with that, N sprung up from his bed and quickly changed from his school uniform to casual clothes. He planned to just meet Leo outside and nowhere near his house since he absolutely cannot have his lifelong friend meeting his mother.

Once he was finished with at least changing his top and trousers, he sprinted down the staircase, past the kitchen where he saw his mother earlier. N caught a glimpse of her jumping from surprise when he ran and he thought that he saw her frowning because of what he did. He simply shook his head to hurry to the door. There was no way that he would let Leo come anywhere near his house. Not only was it a very small house, there were also plenty of things that N did not want Leo to discover in there.

After successfully putting his shoes on, N suddenly heard three soft knocks on the door. He rushed to open it, telling his mother that he would be the one answering it just in case. And as he feared, it was indeed his lifelong friend that stood in front of him, still wearing his school uniform. "Yah! W-What are you doing here?" N demanded from Leo, crossing his arms in front of his chest to pretend that he was upset – Well, he truly was upset that Leo was there when he absolutely did not want him to be.

Ignoring N's words, Leo simply invited himself inside the house and took a good look around him. He observed that N's house was so much simpler than his and that the atmosphere was somewhat different. "Excuse me for intruding," Leo said, bowing down when he saw a woman emerging out of one of the rooms. He assumed her to be his lifelong friend's mother so he greeted her as his mother taught him to do whenever he would visit someone else's house.

"You must be Taekwoon," The woman started, smiling at Leo.

Her smile reminded him of N's smiles except that his lifelong friend's would make him feel at ease – The woman's smile, in comparison, made him feel anxious for a reason that he could not quite figure out. Leo dismissed his thoughts when he could not explain what he was feeling with the most appropriate words. He instead nodded at the woman and introduced himself to try and shake off the anxiety that he was feeling, "My name is Jung Taekwoon."

Before she could respond to his introduction, N had cut in and grabbed his lifelong friend's wrist. "We're going out for a while!" He announced and instantly dragged Leo out of his house. "What are you doing heeeeeeere?" N whined softly, locking the front door. "You're not meant to come in here! I don't even know how you were able to find –" He abruptly st