Chapter 7

^{You were on the train heading to Do Young’s house to finish the last bit of the project when someone suddenly sat down next to you. You jumped a little and looked at the guy before sighing in relief. But seriously did you have to meet him even on the train? It wouldn’t even be called exaggerating now when you say you always see him.}

^{“What are you doing here?” he asked you.}

^{“Why can’t I be here?” you asked him.}

^{“I dunno, don’t you live on the other side?’}

^{“Oh… Um… I’m going to someone’s house…” Then suddenly you just remember. He lived next to Do Young. Did that mean that Ten and you would have to go back together?}

^{“Do Young’s house?” you eyes widened at his question. You nodded.}

^{“I see…”}

^{I was silent for quite awhile since, you guys weren’t talking and there wasn’t too many people on the train. It’s the first time it was this awkward with Ten, usually he would be making fun of you all the way or at least be talking about something weird, you started to wonder wether he was okay.}

^{“A-a-re you okay?”}

^{“Huh? Oh… Yea… I am… Why?”}

^{“Nothing… You’re just really quiet…”}

^{He nodded and it just went back to silence again. You guys got off the train at the next stop and started to walk towards the estate, it was about a 15 minute walk from the station. Since he lived there, he knew the shortest way to get there and took you through a ‘sortcut’.}

^{“Hey I’m about to ask you something REALLY serious okay.” he looked really serious.}

^{You nodded.}

^{“No laughing…”}

^{You nodded again.}

^{“What do you do when…” Ten started to ask you something, but looked really hesitant about it. “…when you like someone… but they hate you?”}

^{Obviously you were curious when he asked you some kind of question like this. “Wae?”}

^{“Huh? Oh… I’m just curious…”}

^{“You like someone?”}

^“Yah-“

^{“I didn’t know someone like you would like someone” you jokingly cut him off but his face suddenly became unreadable. You were really joking, well obviously who wouldn’t like a guy as good looking as him, but you didn’t think he knew that you were joking since he looked really hurt after you had said that. “I was just joking!” He didn’t seem like he believed you though since he didn’t ask you any more questions.}

^{After thinking for quite a while you spoke up wanting to continue with the conversation. “Who’s the girl you like?”}

^{“Nevermind-“}

^{“You made me all curious now~ so you should tell me”}

^{“It’s nothing…”}

^{“Why does she hate you?”}

^{“Uh… I guess it’s because I a lot?”}

^{“Oh… then if you like her, you stop teasing her, so she would stop hating you and yea… Take it slowly though, don’t change too quickly or it might scare her…”}

^{“But what if you think she’s going to hate you forever?”}

^{“I don’t know… you’re not telling me who it is, everyone is different, it would be easier for me to help you if I knew who it was” thats the truth though, you weren’t saying it for the sake of finding out who he liked, actually you wanted to help him, but if he wasn’t going to tell you then you just had to respect this privacy. “Are you even sure she hates you?”}

^{“No… I don’t know…” he simply replied.}

^{“Then why do you think she hates you?” he froze and looked at you blankly.}

^{“I feel like she does…” you nodded your head not wanting to argue with him, he probably knows her better than you anyway.}

^{— — —}

^{You found yourself standing in front of Do Young’s house. Ten was starring at you, probably wondering why you weren’t ringing the bell and the truth was, you didn’t know why either. Seeing you stand there awkwardly with your head down, Ten pressed the door bell that was in front of you to Do Young’s house. You immediately shot up and looked at him with widen eyes.}

^{“What?! Oh my-“}

^{The doors open and you saw Do Young there looking at Ten confusingly. Ten smiled and greeted him.}

^{“Then I’ll get going~” he said before ruffling your head. What. Just. Happened?}

^{Do Young and you both watched as Ten took his keys out and unlocked his front door before closing it and disappearing from your site. Do Young gestured you to go into his house and before you knew it you found yourself sitting on his sofa.}

^{You stared blankly at his table and turned your attention to him when he coughed.} 

^{“Are you still sick?”}

^{“Huh? Oh… Um… No” “Hee Yeon ah-“}

^{“We should finish on our project quickly or we’re never going to” you cut him awkwardly scratching your head.}

^{Do Young headed into his room and collected the things that you guys needed for your project and your existing work. Because it was due in next week you guys really didn’t have anytime to play around and waste time.} 

^{Through out the hours of working, not many things were said between the two of you, unless it was related to your school work.}

^{“There~” you sighed, finally finishing the last touch on your project. You turned to face Do Young as he shut the lid of his laptop and pushed it to the side, refusing to look at it. You did the same, it was actually a time where you really didn’t want to look at your laptop, spending a few hours non-stop working and then printing things out and sticking them on to a board.}

^{You didn’t realise that he had been keeping an eye on you the whole time you were working, he would go back and forth refilling your glass of water when it was finished, he would go and switch on the air conditioner when you were sweating, and when you started to get cooler when the sun went down he took out a thin blanket for you. You were so concentrated you had no idea all that had happened.}

^{You looked out towards the window and clicked on your phone. 6:23pm. It was already that late? You were concentrating so hard that you didn’t even realise the sun outside had already gone down.}

^{Do Young looked at you and laughed. “Babo”}

^“Mwo?” 

^{“Eat dinner here tonight before you leave” he smiled before heading into his kitchen.}

^{“Aniya, it’s fine, I can grab some food on the way home”}

^{“It’s late already, aren’t you hungry? You’ve been working so hard the whole afternoon… Just eat before you leave”}

^{Do Young went through his fridge to find some things to cook for you and himself, within no time he started cooking.}

^{“You can switch on the TV if you want~”}

^{“It’s fine” you went into the kitchen. Well it wasn’t exactly a kitchen, it was more like a open spaced between the living room and the area he used to cook in. You sat down on one of the chairs in front of him and just decide to wait until he had finished cooking.}

^{“Do you want any help?” you asking him tilting your head a little.}

^{“Ani ani, it’s fine, don’t come any closer.” you looked at him confusingly as he said that, you weren’t sure wether he was saying that because he didn’t want you to get hurt or wether he wasn’t comfortable around you being in such close contact with him. He probably noticed your expression since he decided to give you an answer. “It’s not like that, I-I just don’t want you to get hurt”}

^{You nodded in agreement but you were thinking otherwise. Honestly, you missed his company, it wasn’t just his love, it was just friendship in general. Your relationship was like a strong bond, a really tight and new rubber band, but as time went by it got stretched and eventually broke. Rubber bands that break are usually thrown away since they were no use anymore, but they would be thrown away together, just like other people’s relationships, both sides giving up and finding a new one, however you two where different. You guys weren’t thrown away, instead you were separated, each side put into a different situation and have to restart from scratch to build on your relationship, even if it was just friendship. You wouldn’t say you regretted it though, since you perfectly understood that everything happens for a reason and what ever that reason was, it would lead on to something else.}

^{“I’m done!” Do Young said happily while laying out a plate in front of you before putting the other one in front of himself. “Eat~”}

^{You picked up the fork and spoon before picking some spaghetti up and putting it into your mouth. Do Young watched you carefully, “Is it okay?”}

^{You couldn’t yep but let out a small smile, “Mm~ It’s really good”}

^{He smiled back at you before putting some into his own mouth.}

^{“How do you know Ten Hyung?” he said suddenly causing you to choke on your food. “Are you okay?!” he immediately dropped his fork and leaned over to help you. You didn’t know why either, but some how hearing his name like that sounded kind of weird, but it was weird in a nice way. What? Nice? What am I even thinking about?}

^{“Hu-hh? Oh- Uh, Yea… He’s oppa’s friend…”}

^{“Ah… He’s Johnny’s friend?”}

^“Yea…”

^{“Are you close to him?” Do Young asked but this time instead of choking from the sudden question you thought about what he asked you. You didn’t know. Where you close to ten? Would Ten call it being close or how else would he think of your ‘friendship’. It was something you wanted to know yourself too, wether you were close to Ten or not. If it was for you, you wouldn’t say that you guys weren’t close, since you’ve been out with him a few times and you often ‘greet each other’ but yet again you didn’t know wether you guys were really that close since you could tell there were still some things he would try to hide from you, such as the thing about having a crush he asked you before earlier in the day.}

^{“I don’t know” you decide to reply him simply, also because you didn’t know yourself so it would be the best just to keep things simple. You didn’t even realise you were sitting there staring at your food, thinking ever so deeply about things until Do Young put a spoonful in front of your lips. Before you could even think about anything else you suddenly remember the time when Ten was teasing you by pretending to feed you. “Ah~ Are you not going to eat it?” you snapped back to reality and ate off his spoon.}

^{After you guys finished the meal, you offered to clean the dishes for him but he said he would take you home first.}

^{“Aniya… I can go home alone, it’s fine.”}

^{“Hee Yeon ah~ It’s late…”}

^{“It’s fine, I’ll just be careful”}

^{“I know it’s uncomfortable around be but-“}

^{“Aniya. It’s not as uncomfortable as before. I just don’t want to trouble you…” you had to admit you were proud of the both of you to make it this far today, eating together alone, sitting face to face. It was the truth that you were still a little uncomfortable around him, but it was a lot less than before, you were now up to a point where you believed that you two would be able to be close friends again, and that’s all you wanted.}

^{“It’s not troubling me…” he walked closer to you. “Okay you can go yourself, but make sure to tell me when you’re home arrasseo?” You nodded.}

^{Author's note}

^{Sorry for the late update ㅠㅠ
I didn't have much time to write this week >< I'll try to keep updates coming~
Enjoy!}