Outside were the shadows that were cast by the trees as the sun started to lower in the horizon. It had been a long day and he was ready for it to be over and get some much, needed, rest. If he was completely honest with himself he really wouldn’t get much rest in the form of sleep but more of sitting on the couch playing video games. It was hump day and the next day he was excused from most of his classes due to a soccer match at another school. Minho groaned as he stretched. Maybe he would skip playing and go straight to an ice bath. Their coach had been ruthless but he could only blame his teammates. They had partied on the weekend of the boy auction. They thought that they had gotten away with it but it seemed their coach found out anyway.

Minho gathered his things, closed his locker and headed towards the exit. He did not expect to see Hyunwoo waiting for him. They never talked or were any kind of bad term with each other but back when he had had a glorified infatuation of Sulli and he found out they kissed, a rift grew between their otherwise normal teammate relationship. Seeing Hyunwoo was a sort of nice surprise. Sure, he spent longer on the field and in the showers, due to having hordes of fangirls that sprung out of nowhere, always waiting for him. He figured the longer he took the less there would be or none due to having to move on with their lives. So Hyunwoo was nice, why he was there, was confusing. So while he adjusted his bag on his shoulder he spoke, bringing Hyunwoo’s attention to him from the ground.

“I thought you left with everyone else.”

“I did but I needed to get something off my chest.” Hyunwoo had stopped leaning against the wall once Minho had spoken. He squared his shoulders and seemed determined. “I want to talk about what happened months ago when you found out I kissed Sulli. I never understood why you would care so much when you had Krystal. I mean, Sulli isn’t your sister and the way you looked at her and still sometimes look at her is not a way a sibling looks at another sibling.”

“Are you pointing out that you think I have feelings for Sulli?” Minho only smirked and shook his head. Now, more confident than ever in knowing he did not like Sulli that way. “No. I mean I guess I did but it was more of the fact that I couldn’t have her and now it’s like the curtain lifted and she is a precious person to me. I also wanted to ask you, why did you lie to Taemin about having slept with Sulli?”

Hyunwoo smiled and something told him this was exactly what he was trying to get at. “I got played into someone else’s game who was extremely jealous of the relationship Taemin and Sulli had.”

“Their friendship?”

“You really don’t know, do you? Well I guess that is the price I got for keeping their secret. Not getting a good beating by Taemin for having kissed Sulli. He loves her, you know.”

He knew that much he didn’t understand why the mirth in Hyunwoo’s face wasn’t going away or why it seemed like he was in pain. “I know that much. Taemin told me at the same time he told me you slept with Sulli and called her a . It kind of ended their friendship or whatever relationship they had.”

“Of course it would end their friendship! The only person to ever touch Sulli like that was Taemin and he believed what Naeun said. Look, I saw them. I walked in on them one day as I was putting sports equipment away. Even if they wanted to say it wasn’t what it looked like, it was hard to try and deny with how I caught them.” Hyunwoo stopped and looked at Minho wo didn’t seem to believe him. “I only lied after Naeun gave me the answers to the test in chemistry. I needed to pass the test or I would be off the team until my grade went up. I took the opportunity not knowing why she cared due to that having happened before she and Taemin got together.”

“Why are you telling me this now? It happened and it’s done with. I’m not as surprised as I should be because I always knew there was something going on between them.”

“I feel, used. Just last week and everything was going down, Naeun decided to ‘repay’ me in a sense for the help I gave to her. I thought it was enough with the answers to the test. She seduced me and seeing her paly innocent is rubbing me off the wrong way. She’s after something and you may not be talking to Taemin now but she is using him. I wanted to come clean, is all.”

Hyunwoo picked up his bag and walked off after bowing to him. Everything left him confused. He never liked Naeun for Taemin but back then he didn’t want Sulli for Taemin either, even though he knew perfectly well how his friend felt for the girl. He had been a horrible friend and now he needed to do something about it. He needed to try to salvage some part of the broken friendship, even if it meant having to man up and face Kai. Taemin may be on their bad side but to stop another hurt person like Krystal from those that want to use them, he would put his pride behind him.

His pride was already breaking regardless. He noted when he just wanted Krystal back but at the same time he couldn’t forget what it felt to feel so betrayed. He felt back stabbed. Part him did know that Krystal was not all at fault. If he didn’t, maybe leaving Kris alone would have been an option, but it wasn’t. He wanted to murder Kris whenever he saw him. How dare he touch Krystal? He never wanted to push her. He never even got the chance to claim what was his because she wasn’t ready. But one drunken night and a conniving Suzy with a desperate Kris was what took her chastity. She wasn’t even aware really. She did lie to him. Did he lie to her? Yeah, he had been an for going behind her back and kissing Sulli, but he wasn’t stupid to not know she did the same with Kai. Oh how he wanted to hate Kai. But Minho gave Kai credit, he never once crossed that line. He respected at least her decision to stay with him. Oh, Kai did not respect him and he knew that. He didn’t care much for Kai’s respect. Except maybe now. He didn’t want to be the reason as to why Kai stopped talking to his cousin, especially now that he needs his help.

Kai, like everyone else probably thought that now was his golden chance to try and woo Sulli with no hurdles yet it wasn’t. He didn’t feel like wooing someone. He just wanted to realize what it was he truly felt. His longing for Krystal and feeling so alone after the breakup meant he cared deeply for her. No, he loved her. Love couldn’t be so easily erased. Yet Sulli, was she really just so much more tempting to get when she wasn’t obtainable. He rarely knew her but the more he got to know her the more he noticed that she wasn’t who he painted out to be. He expected a delicate petal not realizing the real delicate one was Krystal. He thought her pure and white but with what Hyunwoo and what he had overheard her maids gossiping about once, that was quickly erased from his thoughts. What Sulli meant to him was not his highest priority. He didn’t have to look far. It was right there all the time. She was his friend, a close friend, almost like a sister that he saw grow up in front of his eyes. Sulli, was what was keeping him steady from doing anything drastic.

Oddly enough, he felt like he had taken a glimpse of his future not so long ago. It had been the moment that Sulli came over to his home with her sister Sooyoung in tow. A lapse of judgement or lack of communication saw Sooyoung facing Changmin again. Seeing them was like seeing his life play out in front of his eyes. Only he didn’t cheat on Krystal one drunken night and got a girl pregnant, ending the relationship that was supposed to end up in marriage. It was strange seeing as Sooyoung happily gave Changmin his wedding invitation. That happiness was obviously fake when she had sneered out for him to bring Victoria along and how her fiancé so badly wanted to meet him, mainly to thank him.

Minho shook his head, finally walking away from the locker rooms and towards the direction of his car. An ice bath was needed but he also needed to do his science homework. The only class he had with Sulli. The one class he hated being her partner because if the work was not equal she would nag at him and threaten to tell the teacher, lowering his perfect GPA. He laughed at remembering the way he had reacted. It was as if Sulli had told him that he was forbidden from every playing soccer again. His laugh seemed to have bounced off and gone to someone else. On the bleachers were two distinct figures laughing at who knows what. He was happy really. The last time he had seen Amber smiling so brightly that her eyes shined was when Kris had asked her out on a date. To see Key being the reason made him smirk. He was still struggling to get Key to talk to him more. Not even when he gave him Irene’s number so she could tutor him in math seemed to have helped his case.

When he had first heard of Key he didn’t know how to react. Krystal looked like a small child receiving a new toy. Key was that new toy and he was not happy about it. He felt jealous on how much Krystal talked about Key during their time together. The only way to shut her up about him was to kiss her and then she would blush and mention how she missed him. But having watched Key for the majority of his first weeks in math made him grow more curious about the boy that everyone talked about. When he found out that he was friends with Amber, his curiosity grew. Amber, the one friend that would play with the boys on their pick-up game of basketball had found a friend and that was Key. Now they were a couple and his smirk only grew.

He remembered how Amber, besides Sulli, was the only one that was able to make Krystal stop being her y self. He felt bad for not being able to side with Amber when the fall-out happened. He had been in a sort of probation with Krystal. She believed that the reason as to why she was not with him the night she had been with Kris was due to him being with Amber. But he wasn’t. He had no clue what he and Amber were supposed to have done. He only knew the moment Amber called Krystal out in front of the school and dropped the necklace that only she, Sulli, and Krystal had, down on the ground meant he friendship was over. It had shattered the same way the necklace had shatter. Both for reasons he did not know until now. Amber knew of what Krystal had done to her, while Krystal believed a lie to make-up for her guilt, made Amber her number one enemy. He digressed, focusing on what he was going to do in the first place.

Ignoring the fact that Key would probably not be happy with his next decision or that Amber would probably not know how to react, Minho made his way up the bleachers as silently as he could. The couple in front of him were talking about what Amber was planning on doing now that the school newspaper wasn’t going to be taken down. It kind of raised a weird red flag inside Minho’s head that he could not pinpoint. Had the newspaper been in danger? How was it going to be saved when he didn’t remember anyone pick up the paper? Then he remembered, the gossip was always stuck inside the paper. Did Key and Amber know who it was that wrote about their daily, personal lives? Minho shook his head, Key and Amber were also victims of being one of the major characters to the said gossip.

Forgetting his previous thought, he watched as Amber slapped Key’s arm for something he said. The said girl then proceeded to soothe his arm as Key just talked about how all she does is just hit him in the arm at random times. Amber could be heard mumbling something along the lines of “I only do it to those I am comfortable with.” Rolling his eyes, he was now directly behind Key. They weren’t paying attention to him approaching and he doubted they would the moment that Key whispered something into Amber’s ear, making the latter smile and lean in to kiss him. The display of affection he was witnessing helped with him jumping over the first bench and running up behind them as he hung his arm around their necks. It broke their kiss apart and he settled himself between them, while he pushed them from side to side to make room. They were now looking at him with perplexed looks.

“Beautiful sunset isn’t it? It’s perfect for a date … oh wait, did I just disturb something going on here?” Minho spoke cheekily and looked from Key to Amber who was blushing and covering her cheeks as she looked away.

Key was the first to react by shrugging his arm off of him and pulling him away from Amber. Minho smiled at how Key just pulled him enough that he settled in between him and Amber. “Yah, what are you doing here acting so chumming towards us?”

Amber side-glanced Key but didn’t say anything, she only clung to his arm. Minho only lifted his hands up in the air. “Look, I come as a friendly person coming to talk to his classmate, who he hopes is now his friend and to try to rekindle a lost friendship that should have never been lost. How you doing Amber?”

Minho nudged his head at Amber, Amber only looked at hi