Like all couples, we had a honeymoon phase. It was sweet and romantic, like one would expect. It was great because I got to see a side of L that I haven't seen before; a side that he doesn't show to others. And that made me feel special, like only I knew the other part of him that he keeps a secret from the world.

I had really thought we'd be great. 

We had common interests, and similar personalities. We were nicknamed the Ice Couple as well due to our cold exteriors. Personally, I thought that L looked scarier and more intimidating than me to the public while I was told to appear harsh or emotionless. I guess that was true, since I didn't like to smile in front of strangers. I guess that's what made us attracted to each other.

He was hilarious and had surprisingly incredible aegyo; I never would've thought he even DID aegyo, but that was just one of the surprises of getting to know each other better in a relationship, right? To bond closer until you know each other head to toe, inside and out?

I wish everything was like that now.

When we were stable into our relationship, L seemed to have calmed down a bit and I thought that it was reasonable, because I had started to calm down a bit as well. But then, when he started to contact me less and less, I knew that there was a problem going on. He became more and more immersed in music and academics and soon, it felt like we were losing the original spark we had. We stopped going on dates every other week, and sometimes would on go once or twice in a few months. We stopped chatting everyday, whether it may be in class, lunch or after school. And I started to worry more.

What was happening to us?

As if the concern I had with Sungyeol wasn't enough, now L is added to my pile of neverending problems.

I tried to prevent too much distance to occur in our relationship by constantly trying to talk to him and make him smile, but he would start to smile less and less; he started to clam up a bit more to me and kept most of his thoughts to himself. This has been going on for about two months now, though it was subtle, so the group didn't notice. He started to snap at me more often and get annoyed easily. I loved him, but  he kept hurting me over and over again, even with small actions.

Today, at lunch, we were sitting together as usual and the group was still teasing us, even after two years. Instead of laughing at them and showing me physical affection as per usual, he just ignored them with a slight frown and continued picking at his lunch. I tried to lighten up the mood by poking his side.

"L-ie oppa, Dongwoo oppa just called you a pabo in love! Aren't you going to defend yourself?" I laughed, poking him again. He scoffed. "Ani, because Dongwoo hyung is exaggerating." My pokes faltered and I stared at him. Exaggerating? What is he trying to say?

I tried to ignore it and continued poking him. "Wae L-ie oppa? Scared to admit it?" I tried to laugh lightly and tried to get some sort of reaction from him again. He stabbed his fork into his food and whipped his head around to face me, brushing my hands off of him roughly, eyes blazing. "Geumanhae! I don't care what hyung says okay?!"

The table suddenly went quiet and all eyes were on us. I looked at him with hurt and confusion in my eyes, but he just stared back at me, visibly irritated. "M-mianhae oppa..." I uttered softly, slowly retracting my hands from him, still shocked at how his sudden outburst. In the past, even if we did get into fights, he would've never raised his voice like that at me nor would he do it in front of others. He would always pull me to the side before talking to me, and I would do the same too. This time, he didn't seem to care that people were watching.

The group caught on to our uneasy atmosphere and tried to break it up. "Arasso, relax, L-ah, she was just joking." Sunggyu said, putting a hand on my shoulder to comfort me. I stayed silent and continued to stare at him. L stayed impassive to what Sunggyu said and continued to glare at me.

Dongwoo got up and put a hand on L's shoulder. "Yah, I was just kidding, I didn't mean to get you mad. If you're going to be mad, then be mad at me, not Hwayoungie. She didn't do anything." He switched his glare up to Dongwoo and shurgged his hand off of his shoulder irritably. "It's fine, just leave me alone."

He turned back to his lunch and quietly finished it, completely ignoring me the whole time. I continued to stay quiet, and just looked down at my food, appetite lost. Woohyun and Hoya looked worriedly at each other before looking at Sungjong, and a silent conversation passed between their eyes. Sungjong leaned over the table and tapped L's hand.

"Hyung, gwenchana?" L looked up, showing Sungjong the cold and emotionless face he showed to strangers. "I'm fine." He got up and threw away the take out box, and strolled out of the cafeteria, instead of coming back to sit next to me.

I watched as the doors closed on his back and suddenly felt a pang in my chest. Why did he do that? I always like that and he'd always try to bite my fingers playfully...

Hyorin moved to sit next to me. "Hwayoung-ah, don't worry, he's probably just in a bad mood today." She patted my back consolingly. I nodded once, still mute. I was skeptical of that, because he's been like this for the past month already. He was just more subtle with his actions before. Bora coughed and said, "Maybe he just went to the washroom." 

Twenty minutes later, he still didn't come back. Of course he didn't just go to the washroom. I sighed and got up, throwing away my lunch. There was no point eating if I was just going to be unhappy. I sat down and stared into the distance, worrying about L and our relationship. During this time, Sungyeol, who has been a bit more quiet with me since L and I started dating two years ago approached me and put a cup of tea in front of me. I thought that he didn't want to be as close with me like before in fear of L misunderstanding us. It was considerate of him, but it still was a blow; he'd be almost like the usual when he was only with me, then when L comes, he just kind of keeps a distance between us and goes quiet. I looked up at him in surprise and he smiled softly.

"You'll feel better." He flicked his eyes towards the doors that L exited and glared a bit.

Reluctantly I held the cup to my lips and took a small sip. I felt the warm liquid leave a trail of heat down to my stomach and felt just a little bit warmer. L's absence still stung, but the hot tea did comfort me, even if it was just a little bit. I smiled weakly at Sungyeol. "Gomawo, Sungyeol oppa. It's nice to have you back." His eyes widened a bit and he opened his mouth to say something but got interrupted by the bell. I sighed. L had ditched me. It wasn't the first time, but it was certainly the harshest.

I got up and started to walk to Science alone when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turn to see Sungyeol looking at me. "What do you have now?" I blinked. He's stopped asking me that two years ago. "Science, how about you Sunyeol oppa?" He smiled a bit. "Math, but I'll walk with you to your class." 

"But math is on the other side of the school, you might be late!" His eyes softened and he gently pushed me forward so we started walking. "I think you need a support right now, and I don't mind being your support." I turned around to face him.

"Oppa. We need to continue this after school today. Meet me at my locker?" He looked at me, about to say no when he looked at my eyes. "Jebal, oppa..." He sighed. "Arasso. See you then." When I arrived to class, I felt slightly better and more secure than I've ever felt in the past two months.

♫~◄~♔~►~♫

After impatiently waiting for the last class to be over, I practically ran to my locker, hoping to see Sungyeol there. As promised, he was there, leaning against my locker with his earbuds in, on his phone. I silently breathed a sigh of relief and walked over. "Oppa." He didn't hear me so I reached over and pulled one of his earbuds out.

"Oppa." He looked up and smiled softly at me. "Hey, Hwayoung. What did you want to talk about with me? Are you feeling better now? Gwenchana?" I quickly packed my bag and pulled him out the door to the field behind the school. "An important matter, oppa."

After we reached the field I sat down on the grass with him under a tree and took a big breath. I looked him in the eyes and started.  "Oppa, what did you mean by me needing a support?" He glanced at me before sighing."Well, things haven't exactly been a utopia for you and L."

I widened my eyes and took a sharp intake of breath. "How did you know?" He looked away and softly muttered, "How could I not know. I've seen the way he used to act around you and how you would both look at each other with love. He's been building a mental wall around himself for the past month, keeping you out. I see how hurt you are every time he snaps at you or acts impassive towards you, Hwayoung-ah."

Speechless, I just continued to look at him with a small o. He glanced at me before turning to fully face me. "I know L has been one of my close friends for years now, but I cannot stand by him when he makes a dumb mistake." His gaze hardened and he leaned into me.

"Hwayoung. Think about your relationship logically: do you think the two of you are really working out right now? Are you still happy with him?" I looked down at my hands in my lap.

"I still love him, oppa, I can't deny that..." He sighed and leaned back against the tree trunk. "Hwayoung-ah, right now your mind isn't in the right place. Are you still as happy with him now as you were with him then?" I slowly shook my head.

"Ani. Not anymore." He got up and looked down at me. "Just think about it Hwayoung. Don't hurt yourself any further than you have already."

And that was what I thought when L suddenly decided that he needed to talk to me. He brought me to an isolated hall after school before stopping. He looked at me, and when I met his eyes, I saw no sign of love of affection in it like I saw just a few months ago. He shifted his weight from feet to feet uncomfortably while my heart beated madly against my chest. Subconciously, I knew what he was going to say; I just didn't want to believe it. A small part of me still clung onto that tiny sliver of hope that maybe he called me over because he wanted to make amends to our relationship.

"Hwayoung." No Hwayoungie or Youngie-ah.

"Ne, oppa." He winced when he heard the word "oppa" leave my mouth and that was when I knew that what he wanted to talk to me about wasn't good.

"I want to have a positive relationship with you, but I don't think it's working out right now." I felt my vision go blurry and I looked up at him. "Oppa, you don't mean...?" He nodded his head gravely.

"Mianhae Hwayoung. I think we should stop dating."

Stop.

Dating.

The tears that has collected in my eyes finally fell and I felt a short, ugly sob escape me. "Wae, oppa..." He flinched at those words and reached a hand out to wipe my tears, but stopped midway. Thinking better of it, he retracted his hand and let it swing down to his side.

"I just don't think it's working out. I think we'll be better off as friends, Hwayoung." I looked at him through my blurry vision, hot tears escaping down my cheeks. "But you've never told me anything..." He shook his head.

"I don't think I can like you as a girlfriend anymore, Hwayoung. I think we can only work out as friends. I'm really sorry, Hwayoung, but I can't go on like this anymore."

I slowly backed away from him, hurt at the words he said. He lost feelings for me? I guess we've been too comfortable with each other... I realized that after the initial honeymoon phase, we've been treating each other like best friends rather than a couple. I wanted to mentally slap myself for doing that, but it was too late. I shook my head at him.

"No...oppa...I don't...no."

I couldn't make out any sentences as the words he just said flooded my mind. I spun on my heels and ran away. I heard him call out to me, apologizing, but I didn't look back and kept running madly with no sense of direction or destination.

I wiped furiously at my tears as I tried to supress my sobs. I ran into a body when I reached the field and nearly knocked us both over. I tried to shake off the person's arms to continue running, but the arms tightened around my shoulders and I heard a familiar voice.

"Hwayoung?" I looked up through my tears to see Sungyeol standing in front of me, concern written all over his face. 

"What's wrong, Hwayoung? Why are you crying?" I lost it. I completely broke down in his arms, unable to hold in my sobs any longer.

"Y-you were...r-r-right, a-about L....oppa..." I sobbed into his shoulders as he held me in his arms, guiding us to sit on the grass. He rubbed my back gently and just stayed quiet as I tried to say the words I couldn't say before.

"H-he said...we s-should only be...friends!" I said that word with disgust and contempt as I continued to cry. He nodded and finally spoke.

"Hwayoung-ah, you'll always have me by your side. I'm sorry I haven't been there properly for you in the past two years...but I'll be here now. I'll always be your support, Hwayoung-ah." I hugged him tightly as I screamed into his chest, screaming away all the hurt and confusion I had been bottling up for the past two months. He rocked me gently on the grass and tightened his hold on me.

"You'll always have me..."

Annyeong readers. So, I've finally gotten much more into the plot. It wasn't easy writing this, but I managed to pull through it. My mood hasn't been the happiest lately, and this chapter was a great way to express my feelings. I am genuinely pouring my feelings into this, and please continue to support this fanfic because this will definitely get more interesting. Also, special shout out to my latest subscriber LeendyaL. Thank you very much, and please upvote and subscribe. I will see you in the next chapter.