The time flew by and suddenly it was the day of the trip. Two large buses were parked in front of the school gates where Kris and you stood among the crowd, his eyes held an anxious look when he stared down at you.

“Don’t forget to visit or call my brother from time to time; he might burn the house down to ashes while I’m not there”

“I think that applies to you” he chuckled.

“Are you sure you are going to be okay? If I don’t remember wrong it’s the first time you go out of town”

The loud and hoarse voice of the teacher on charge of the bus you were assigned to make both of you turn your heads to him.

“It’s alright” you tried to convince yourself but the truth is that you were more nervous than him “I’ll call you when I get there”

“See you” he patted your head. You smiled but deep inside you expected something else.

“See you next week” you chose your words carefully, trying to make them sound as if it was going to be long until you met again; even though it was only three days. You weren’t lying; it was going to be a new week when you saw him.

As soon as you turned around you told apart the familiar silhouette of Leo going into the other bus.

“What? So he has a scholarship too?” You silently said because Kris could still hear you.

“Hey” your friend shouted before pulling your forearm quite strongly. You stumbled a few steps before his lips smashed against your cheek during less than a second until he pulled away “be careful” he lastly said; that time he turned away before you. You wanted to complain on how unfair he was and how you hated that everything he did, he did it coolly.

Little did you know about the feline eyes that were looking at you from behind the bus’ window. Leo’s jaw tensed at the same time his heart clenched when your cheeks started to burst bright red and mimic a fan with your hand to reduce the heat on your face before getting in the vehicle.

“Is somebody willing to trade a seat on the other bus? We don’t have enough room in this one” the instructor announced, capturing Leo’s attention immediately. He thought about it for a second and somehow, Hakyeon’s voice echoed in his mind effusively telling him to go.

“I am” he raised his hand to compensate the lack of energy on his voice.

“Leo? You?” the short and almost bald man couldn’t hide the surprise on his voice before clearing his throat “Well, thank you.

Leo nodded and took the backpack he had with him; he walked out the bus being followed by everyone’s stare. Mostly, fearful looks among surprised ones but nothing new to him.

Meanwhile, you were wondering why everything so unorganized, not that you were obsessed about order but how could such an important trip being so messy? Everyone was talking loudly, listening to music on their phones without earphones and there were empty seats in most part of the bus because they weren’t properly assigned and everyone had formed groups with their friends. Aside from that, you were grateful that you didn’t have to sit next to some random girl or guy in an awkward atmosphere.

It was then that you remembered that “him” was going to attend the conference as well.your eyes roamed every face nearby without popping your head out from your seat and there was only one man in the crowd. He was skinny and pale, his little face was framed by a thick pair of glasses; he had a book in his hands. The disappointment appeared too fast to avoid it but your better judgment said that he could be “user9011”.

Soon enough you found yourself typing down a new message.

You: what bus were you assigned to?

You waited for a minute but you didn’t hear a sound and the guy didn’t move; his attention was dragged to the book he was reading.

“What am I even doing?” you mentally scolded yourself as your eyes slowly closed. Your lids were heavy since you spent the whole night packing and checking nothing was missing.

Around two minutes later the buzz of your phone almost made you jump off your seat

User9011: bus 01 and you?

You: bus 02. Lucky you, it’s really noisy here -.-. It’s not like we are going to Disneyland for God’s sake!!!

User9011: it’s almost silent here, even though it’s packed. Want to trade busses?

You: tempting offer but I must refuse. There’s a free seat next to me and I hope it keeps being like that.

“Be quiet!” The hoarse voice of the instructor called out making everything to go silent before a few students passed by him; the man pointed his finger towards you.

“Leo, you go there”

Your eyes went wide at the tall guy walking with a poker face on towards you.

“Dammit” you huffed before he reached to the seat next to you.

“Hello” you said with a nod. Hiding the anger of having your plan ruined.

“Hello” he softly said.

“we keep meeting each other a lot lately. So you are an scholarship student?”

“yeah” he vaguely answered as he took out the earbuds and plugged them on his iPod, letting you know the conversation was over.

“okaaay” you rolled your eyes and looked outside.

The bus slowly started to move away from school and you could see Kris’ car in the school’s parking lot. You started to wonder if he was going to be alright without you, because he had been acting rather desperate around those days. What if his Father forced him to get married while you weren’t around? He wouldn’t. Would he?

You checked up on you phone but there was no sign of an answer. You were oblivious to Leo’s eyes side looking at you.

“You are being a creep. Jung Taekwoon” he silently said.

“I can’t fall asleep with a guy next to me…not again” you thought and flinched as he caught you glaring at him.

It was a 4 hour drive to the neighboring town, you spent most of the time looking out of the window; trying desperately to ignore the heaviness on your lids and yawning from time to time. You repaired on Leo being the antisocial, silent guy he has always been as he never unplugged his earphones. He had his eyes closed and his breathing was heavy but there was a slight sign of a frown on his face.

“He isn’t scary as they fear… or at least he doesn’t look like that”

You realized you had been staring for too long that it could have been rude when he opened slowly yet too fast for you to fake ignorance. And for the first time he let go of the earphones.

“Do you need something?” his voice hoarse and soft but his tone had an edge.

“What? Me? I mean, no” you babbled raising your hands and shrugging.

“Why were you staring then?” he didn’t look like it, but he enjoyed watching you having a mental breakdown

“weeeell, because you were snoring so loud and no one dared to say something about it” you came up with the first thing on your mind. Even though it was a lame excuse it was better than remaining silent.

Leo looked flustered for a split second but regained his cool instantly.

“No, I wasn’t”

You raised an eyebrow with a mocking smile; like asking him ‘really?. His composed face faltered again and now you were the one enjoying.

“Don’t worry, I won’t judge” you continued, breaking the growing tension between you two. He chuckled and send you a look questioning your mental health.

Everything fell silent after that; he didn’t plug his earphones back on but looked past you to the road. You were crossing a countryside town; there were cows, his eyes looked fascinated every time a heard walked by the bus.

You checked your phone but there wasn’t a reply this time either.

“Will I meet him at all?” you asked yourself when a new message from Kris arrived.

“Are you there yet? Hurry up and finish that quickly. I want to see you”

 “So do I, but I haven’t arrived, you’ll have to wait a little more”

 “I miss you already”

“Is everything okay?”

“No, but it’s nothing surprising coming from my dad”

“What is it? Did he push forward the wedding’s date” Your heart flipped at the thought.

“No, he wants to throw a party to announce the engagement; you know how that complicates things for us. And there is one more thing: the ceremony will be in the same town you are going to. That conference is going to be perfect excuse for it” 

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Im back after the longest author's block I've had!

I'm going to Music Bank!!!! can't believe it! and there's 2PM in Dallas but I don;t think I'm going

This is a not so long as I wanted (but it's longer than a usual chapter)  but I couldn't wait to update so I posted what I had

Hope you liked it and thanks for your support!