The classroom felt emptier than usual, even if only one seat was unoccupied. Jongin rested his head on his table, staring at the empty table in front of him. According to the text from Hana, she caught a fever and was unable to come to school today. If he had known that earlier, he would’ve skipped school too.

He huffed out a sigh as he leaned on his chair. What ever would he do today without her? Thinking back, most of the things he did in school to entertain himself were with Hana. Going to lunch, doing group work, hanging out when the teacher isn’t in class; everything involved her. And usually with Sehun.

Shifting his gaze towards the brown haired boy beside the empty desk, he wondered back to the night before. Not only did Sehun interrupt their practice, but he seemed to be getting in the way between him and Hana every time they were next to each other. He knew that his friend had a crush on her but it still irked him.

Just as he was about to call out to Sehun, the homeroom teacher walked into the class, ordering the students to quiet down. She began taking attendance, calling Park Hana’s name three times before marking her as absent.

“Sehun,” called out Jongin, taking a seat at Hana’s desk. It was already lunch break for the students and most of them had gone out to the cafeteria to fill up with hungry selves. Luckily, Jongin could catch Sehun before he finished cleaning up his desk, “About yesterday, I forgot to tell you that Hana and I have a dance competition that we’re participating in. That’s why we were together yesterday.” He didn’t know why he felt the need to explain to Sehun on why he was with Hana the night before, but he did anyway.

“Yeah, Hana told me about the competition before,” replied Sehun nonchalantly as he arranged the books on his desk, “Sorry if I seemed like I was interrupting yesterday. I was feeling a bit down,” he apologised, giving Jongin an apologetic smile.

To be honest, the apology caught him off guard. He didn’t even think that what Sehun did was something that he should be asking forgiveness for. Nonetheless, he patted Sehun’s back and said ‘It’s okay,’ to him. Jongin kind of knew why his friend would feel blue on that night; Hana had just recently turned him down, who wouldn’t feel sad?

“Let’s go for lunch,” Jongin suggested, getting up from his seat. He figured there was no use in dwelling in the awkward vibe between them, so he had to break the silence between them. Looking at the boy in front of him, Jongin was glad to see Sehun smiling and nodding.

As Sehun was straightening the books in his hands by hitting the bottom on the desk, Jongin noticed a piece of paper slipping out of one of the books. Instinctively, he moved forward and picked the paper up to help his friend out.

It wasn’t a piece of paper but instead, it was a photo of what seemed to be a couple holding a baby in each of their arms. They were probably husband and wife and the babies would be their son and daughter, Jongin thought to himself as he stared at the picture.

“Hey Sehun, who are these-,” before Jongin could finish asking, Sehun snatched the picture out of his hands.

“Don’t! Don’t touch it,” Sehun warned, putting extra emphasis on the word ‘don’t’. If Jongin’s intuition wasn’t wrong, what he felt from Sehun was pure hostility and anger. It would’ve been a lie if Jongin was to say that he didn’t feel a bit scared from the way Sehun glared at him at the moment he shouted at him.

The moment Sehun inspected the photo as if to see if there were any damages to the picture, Jongin shifted his eyes to the wording at the back of the photo. Although some of the words were blocked by Sehun’s fingers, he could still make out some of them from his place.

Kim Ara + …. = Oh Sehun + …. (2000)

~.~

The sounds of students bustling out of the school building filled up the air; the sky changing to hues of oranges and reds as the sun slowly sets down the horizon, indicating the end of another long day of classes. Leaning onto the pillar by the gate, Jongin stared at the students walking by, hoping to find the familiar face of Sehun in the crowd. He might have missed him when Sehun immediately left when the school bell rang, but there was no shame in trying to catch him even if he left later.

As expected, Sehun was nowhere to be seen.

With a dejected heart, Jongin turned towards the exit and started making his way back home. He could’ve texted or called Sehun, but he kept thinking that it would be better if he asked and talked about it face to face with him.

As he made his way down the slope, a small hand wrapped around his arm. Surprised, he shifted his attention towards the source of the hand. It was just his little sister.

“You surprised me,” Jongin commented, a slight laugh escaping his lips. Hyeri replied him with a happy chuckle, glad that she had caught up to him. It was nice seeing his sister slowly returning back to her normal self; someone who was just full of spirit and answered everything with a smile. She may have not gotten back to teasing him at home or even her joking self, but at least this was progress.

As they walk side by side, Jongin noticed that they were about to pass Hana’s house. On impulse, he went up to the doorbell and rang it, hoping the girl would be awake at this time. With her being sick, he couldn’t help but be worried about her throughout class.

“Did Hana not come to school today?” asked Hyeri, curious at her brother’s actions. Before Jongin could give a nod as his reply, the front door of the small house opened, revealing a rather sleepy Hana. The corners of his lips curved upwards into a smile when he noticed Hana’s messy hair. Was that her bed hair?

“Cute,” he mumbled to himself, amused. Never had he thought that a day would come where he’d be able to see Hana in this kind of situation. She had always looked strong, mature, beautiful, outstanding, graceful and all those other synonyms, but this was the first time he could describe her as purely cute.

“W-wait. Jongin?” Hana stuttered out, her eyes widening from the surprise. Jongin put his hand up in a gesture to say hi. He waited until Hana had walked towards the gate to actually ask how she was doing.

“Oh? Hyeri’s here,” Hana said when she saw the shorter girl beside Jongin. With a smile, Hyeri said a short ‘hello’ and asked how she was doing. “I was actually sleeping when the bell rang,” she answered, combing her fingers through her messy hair.

“Yeah, like that wasn’t obvious,” Jongin snarkily teased, pointing towards the part of her hair that looked like a bird’s nest. Hana’s ears turned red at that comment as she tried to pull up the hoodie of her jacket in an attempt to hide her hair. He received a jab in his stomach from Hyeri for that.

“Don’t mind my brother. He’s wacky today,” said Hyeri, bowing apologetically and pulling Jongin by the arm to head home, “We’ll be going now, see you later!” She quickly added as she tried her hardest to drag her brother to their house. Jongin managed to do a ‘call me’ sign before finally giving into Hyeri’s force.

As Hyeri was rambling about how insensitive Jongin was about girls and their looks, Jongin was in the clouds, daydreaming about how cute Hana looked today. It definitely made up to the fact that she wasn’t at school. With a beaming smile, he ran home, leaving poor Hyeri behind.

Author's Note: So uhhh, hi, sorry for the lack of updates ksjfhdsjkhf