Kris moved away from you and looked at you with a relieved and warm expression. He looked younger somehow, like the boy you met in middle school.

- Thank you, ______.

Your heart flinched at his words, they would only make your willpower waver.

- I need some time, Kris. Things won’t get back to what they were before just like that; I confessed what I had in my heart since years ago only to get shoved and glared at…

You saw his smile falling down slowly and his hands moving to his sides. You felt badly but a t the same time, it made you happy being able to stay true to your feelings.

- I don’t hate you. But let’s take thing slowly, okay?

He stayed still for a brief moment before getting off his knees and sitting next to you on the bed.

- So you’ve liked me for years? – his eyes opened a little bit wider.

- Not that many – you pushed back the heat rushing to your cheeks.

His eyes roamed your face slowly like trying to record every detail from your forehead to your chin.

- I need to be honest

- Yes, you need to – the answer came out naturally from your lips.

He took your hands in his, he was slightly shaking. It took him almost a minute to accommodate the ideas on his mind and put them into words.

- I guess it doesn’t matter how many times I apologize and I will probably have to live the rest of my life with it. But what you need to know is that I didn’t want to accept your feelings because I can’t give you the happiness you deserve. You know I will have to get married sooner than I expected and nothing I tried seems to convince my father to cancel the engagement. –he took a deep breath- When you confessed everything inside me crashed and the I had to held back the urge to look at you and answer you properly because I don’t want you to become my lover, I can’t drag you into that. Because I respect you and I love you…

The time stopped. All you wanted to hear had been said.

“But thinking like that didn’t get me anything good” he silently said.

- But let’s take things slowly, okay? – he mocked you with a grin, his breathe ghosting over your lips before placing his on a small, brief peck on the cheek.

He stood up and moved to the door.

- see you at school, tomorrow – he waved good bye and closed the door behind him before you could see his cheeks flushing bright red as well as his flustered expression.

You were left stunned.

- what the…

Leo walked around school looking for you with the phone in his hand for third time, eyes roaming every girl that looked like you not paying attention to their scared look when their eyes met his.

- Did you find her? – Hakyeon asked for the third time in a row.

- No – he sighed – what if something happened to her? That guy was following her…

- But that blonde seems to be her friend.

- A friend who would pull her wrist – his eyes rolled.

- If only we knew her class – his friend sighed and shrugged.

Some student appeared ranting about the teacher being sick, so they would have free time to hang out. Leo rolled his eyes again and leaned his cheeks against his desk, getting ready to take a nap, but something caught his attention and he immediately tensed.

- You fought again? – His voice sounded as mortified as he was.

- Can’t say “fight” when I just tried to dodge the fists – he answered with an anxious laugh.

His hand unconsciously moved to caress the purple mark appearing on his jaw line.

- He is my step-father after all so I can’t hit him back – the awkward smile appeared again

- But I can.

- You have plenty of bad fame for yourself – this time he seemed to have relaxed.

- But this time I would really hit him. Not like that time when I just pushed him away from you.

- Thank goodness he didn’t have you expelled from school.

- He is not stupid; if he had, I would have spread the word that the school’s board allowed their president to abuse his son. – his voice held and edge of pride.

- You know I am really thankful but sorry that because of me you became an outcast.

Leo made an indifferent gesture with his hand and moved back to his original position against the desk.

School was over and Hakyeon and Leo were walking home as usual.

- So you haven’t talked to mysterious girl in days? – he kicked a small rock in the way.

- No.

- And how are you feeling?

Leo chuckled anxious.

- Why are you asking that?

- Well, you seemed rather fond of talking to her. Like a little .

Leo pocked the skin bruised in purple making his friend flinch a little but still laughed.

- Maybe, you should ask her if she knows the owner of the phone.

The younger guy just said good bye to his friend and walked into his house where there was nobody but him as usual. He took the staircase to his room and literally threw his bag to the side so that he could crawl into the bed, resting his head on his arm and taking out the phone from his pocket with the other.

- should I? – he mumbled to himself, tilting his head while holding his phone on the air.

He rolled to the side, still staring at the phone.

“no, it would seem weird to talk again after I just told her to stop contacting me…but it was three days ago, maybe she doesn’t remember or don’t mind it at all…

His internal dilemma was interrupted by the sound of your phone ringing. He was surprised that it rang after three days. Of course he had been charging it in case the owner called back.

He took it out of his bag and the screen showed “sarcastic kid”.

- so weird – he giggled and answered the call – hello?

- Hello? Who is this? – a young man’s voice called from the other side of the line.

- Who are you?

- You have my friend’s phone – your brother huffed – if you want money I can give you a reward for it.

- Sounds tempting but no, thanks. Tell your friend I’ll the phone on the student’s service office by tomorrow morning; she can go get it there.

Those were his last words before he hung up the phone, leaving your brother with raised eyebrows.

- He said you can get it tomorrow morning at the student’s service office and he didn’t accept the reward.

- what? That easily?

Your brother answered you with a nod.

- Thank you for calling, anyway.

- You owe me

- I’ll buy you ice cream.

- You are so cheap – he rolled his eyes and walked away to resume his game that was paused on the TV.

- You…! – the words stayed in your mouth since you went really a person who swears at others.

“looks like life came back to her” the thought appeared on your brother’s mind but he didn’t show how anxious he was about you becoming a living corpse since three days ago.

Meanwhile, Leo his tablet so he could start his homework even though it was due to a week later.

The first thing that appeared after sliding his finger on the screen was his inbox conversations from his FB account. He stared at it, tempted to start typing.

True to his character, he analyzed every possible scenario after he sends the message, in all of them his pride ended up being trampled so he discarded the idea of sending a message without a reason. Instead, he pushed the app aside and started working it what looked like a history of art investigation.

He looked at the hour and realized that two ours had already passed and he hadn’t even completed half of the assignment. His eyes were dried up by the time he spent looking at the tablet so he narrowed them in order to get them wet; his arms hurt as much as his neck making him stretch out like a cat would.

A notification popped out.

HACK-YEON: damn report! My eyes huuuuurt!~ >:(

Leo: I know, mine too.

HACK-YEON: why don’t you ask mysterious girl for it? She must have it.

Leo: Never.

He typed down but the message didn’t appear on the screen because his tablet froze, unlike his phone, was a much older but he kept it because it was gift from Hakyeon when they were in high school.

He threw a tantrum and started pressing his finger randomly against the phone and shaking it before toss it aside.

A few seconds later he heard your phone ringing one single time; probably a message but he ignored as he could only answer calls because it was locked by a PIN code. He took out his own from the nightstand to message Hakyeon again.

His eyes widen the double of their size when he looked the message he supposedly sent to Hakyeon was in you conversation instead. To make it worse: it had already been seen.

User9011: Never.

User3021: I got it. I won’t so you stop contacting me, okay?

He panicked inside but regained his cool after a brief moment.

User9011: Sorry, wrong person.

Your phone was heard again right after he sent it. His heart leaped at the coincidence but his clear judgment took over him before panic.

User9011: -.-

He typed down randomly only to confirm his theory.

User9011: …

And he was positive: the phone vibrated again.

User3021: stop spamming!

- It’s her – he murmured.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

TUN TUN TUUUUUN! :O

He found mistryous girl!! Hakyeon is going to be happy! XD

Hope you liked this chapter, maybe I'll make a double update today if I have time.

Thank you for your support! You are the best :D