As soon as Maya saw Seungmin she picked up her pace, not wanting to interact with him. He knew this, of course, it was quite clear since she had been ignoring him for almost a week. This frustrated him a lot. He needed to solve the case soon before someone else did and Maya was being anything but helpful.

"Maya," he called but she brushed it off as if it was just the howl of the wind. Seungmin rolled his eyes at her before picking up his pace to catch up with her. The girl was aware that the boy wasn't far behind her and was getting closer each second but she didn't care. If he did manage to catch up, she would just pretend he was invisible. She knew ignoring him was making it hard for him to do his job so that's why she did it. I mean that's all he wanted from her anyway.

Maya took a sharp turn and headed for her lockers but before she arrived, the boy grabbed her wrist and gently pulled her back. Since his grip wasn't too tight, it was easy for her to get out however, he was quick to block her way. She was now staring directly at him, right in his eyes and she could see he was losing his patience – something she wanted. So, she just pushed past him but as soon as she reached her locker, Seungmin pinned her harshly onto it. Maya winced in pain, catching him by surprise. Clearly, he was unaware of his own strength.

"Maya-" he started but the girl cut him off.

"What? What do you want so badly from me? If it's something to do with Liv or her case then forget it," Maya snapped.

"I don't want to talk about the case."

"Then what do you want to talk about, hm? Face it, all you want is information about Liv. You don't care about me or how I feel. Once you find out who did it, you'll just leave like nothing happened, am I right?"

"Maya-"

"That's a yes, right?"

He could see the hurt in her eyes and couldn't help but pull her into a hug.

"No, it's not. I promise I would never betray you like that."

Maya still didn't hug back. A question was stuck in her throat, she didn't know how it would sound out loud though. Would she sound desperate? Or would it sound like a genuine question? 

"You okay?" Seungmin asked, pushing her away from him.

"What did you want to talk about?" She just couldn't say what was on her mind so instead, she asked another burning question.

"I wanted to ask why you were avoiding me."

That's exactly the opposite of what Msya wanted to hear. Why? Because it was what her question was about.

"I thought you were using me." 

It wasn't a lie. She felt that but it was only because he had completely ignored her for a day just to hang out with Tzuyu. That was the question on her mind: what was their relationship? But she didn't want to sound as though she liked him because she didn't...or at least that was what she tried to convince herself. That was the only reason she was so bothered by how all he wanted was something on the case. 

He gave her a reassuring smile.

"I would never do that."

Those words alone warmed her heart but she knew it was a lie.

"What's your relationship with Tzuyu?" She regretted it as soon as it came out and she saw him smirk at him, a beautiful yet intimidating sight. "I mean because you hung out with her all day the other day and... don't look at me that way!"

He chuckled.

"We're just friends, okay? No reason to stress yourself out."

"I-I-I wasn't stressing m-myself out."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Then you wouldn't mind us being more than friends?"

Maya's mouth gaped and she stared at him with wide eyes.

"Th-that's n-not...I mean I-I...It's just that..."

"Just that what?"

The bell rang at that moment and more students began walking through the hallways. To avoid any rumours spreading, Maya immediately let go of Maya and took a step back. She straightened her uniform up quickly before looking him in the eye again.

"Date her if you want, I don't mind," she shrugged before opening her locker and taking out her books.

Seungmin was surprised at the statement. He had only meant it as a joke to see her reaction. Once again, he was so caught up in his fantasies that he took everything in a different way than they were supposed to be.

Once again, he thought there was something special between them, that maybe just maybe she liked him back.

Once again, Maya played with his heart without realising and once again, he was hurt. He abhorred the thought of Hyunjin being right but he had to admit, the boy knew what he was talking about when he warned him. If only Seungmin wasn't so cocky then he wouldn't have gotten himself into this mess but now he did and he knew getting himself out would be ten times harder than getting in.