Jisung stood awkwardly in the cafeteria, his  lunch tray in his hands, and looked around for Aera among the numerous people sitting and eating, spilling more food than they were actually eating. Instead of spotting Aera, he saw Chenle bobbing his head up and down while waving his hand, motioning for Jisung to join them there. He looked around the cafeteria once more, not seeing Aera anywhere. He walked up to Chenle sat down beside him, noticing Renjun, Jaemin and Jeno already sitting at the table. He furrowed his eyebrows, noticing Haechan's absence.

"Where's Haechan hyung?" Jisung asked, taking a bit of his apple. 
"~I'm hereeee~" Haechan sang, slipping into the empty seat beside Renjun. "Sorry for being late guys, the girls were just simping so hard over me. And you know how I am, gotta give the public what they want. Day 1 and all the girls are already after me. This is the life." 
Renjun rolled his eyes, listening to Haechan boasting about himself, while Jeno drank an enormous amount of water and Chenle cleared his throat, ready to go into another big lecture. 

"Haechan. I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but those girls weren't simping over you. They were simping over Jeno, the guy sitting beside you in class. It's alright to think that they were all simping on you, these things happen. You just need to be careful about these things in the future. You don't want to gross the girls out by showing off too much, now do you?" Chenle explained, looking smug.

Haechan faked a smile and turned around to see the girls still staring at him and waved at them. The girls screamed and kicked the floor, one going as far as fainting. Haechan turned back to Chenle and smiled brightly. "You were saying?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, wiping the smile right off Chenle's face as the latter took a bite out of his apple in frustration. 

"All of y'all, shush!" Jaemin shushed everyone. "Where's Aera? Why aren't you with her? You're supposed to be with her!" he interrogated Jisung.
"She told me to fuck off." Jisung spoke, taking another bite of his apple. 

Aera's words didn't matter one bit to Jisung. He had one mission, and that was to get close to her. And he would complete it no matter what. After all, in his eyes, no one but NCT was a person. They were all objects for him. Objects that had meaningless lives and opinions. 

His hyungs gasped, Haechan being overdramatic and dropping his chopsticks. Jisung looked up at them in confusion. He didn't expect them to react like that. 

"Jisung." Jaemin breathed out. Jisung hummed in response. 
"Are you telling me, that after raising you to be a gentleman, and a respectable human in general, you didn't apologize to her?!" He asked angrily, slamming his hands on the table, looking at Jisung in disbelief. 

"Uh... hyung?" Jisung murmured, looking at Jeno for help. 
Jeno shook his head, and spoke, "Don't look at me kid, you brought this upon yourself." 

"You're apologizing to her right now!" Jaemin exclaimed. 
"But I didn't do anything wrong!"
"Why did she say that then?" Renjun asked. 
"She asked if me if I wanted to be friends with her, and I said maybe, and she told me to fuck off, cause she doesn't have friends and doesn't need any friends." Jisung explained. 

"You're still apologizing because you're my child, and my child apologizes to any girl who he may have troubled because I raised my child to be a gentleman." Jaemin concluded.

"Now?" Jisung uncertainly asked. 
"Now." Jaemin confirmed. 

"But I'm eating!" Jisung exclaimed. 
"Apologize. To. Her. Now." Jaemin spoke, enunciating each syllable so as to make the message clear to Jisung. 

Jisung grumbled, and got up. He walked out of the cafeteria, thinking of places where Aera might be at. Jisung might be apologizing to her, but he wouldn't be meaning it. He was only doing it because Jaemin told him to. Jaemin's opinion about him mattered, along with the rest of NCT.

NCT was his family, no one outside of NCT had anything special about them that marked them to be a human. Everyone was an animal, that only cared about themselves above everyone else. Jisung learned that the hard way.

⩽⨝⩾

Felix was busy eating food with rest of his friends. He looked perfectly fine to his friends, but he was not. He was internally panicking, not being able to spot Aera anywhere in the cafeteria. There was a group of boys sitting around the table at which she normally ate, and one of them just left the cafeteria. 

His eyes searched the crowd once more, a siren going off in his head as he couldn't find Aera's familiar face anywhere. 

She couldn't have gotten expelled already?!

One person tapped on his back, making Felix and all of his friends quiet. Felix turned around to see the girl who tapped him. "Yes?" he asked sweetly. 
"I couldn't find Aera anywhere today. Could you please tell her I'm grateful about the changes in food here at the cafeteria? The food wouldn't have gotten any better had she not rebelled against it." she spoke, knowing that Felix was probably the only one person that Aera was close to in the entire school. 

"Will do."
"Thank you." the girl bowed and walked away. 

"Where is Aera anyway? I haven't seen her anywhere today." Hyunjin questioned, waving his chopsticks in the air.
"I saw her in class. Some new guy went and sat with her. Made quite the scene." Jeongin spoke, taking a big bite of his ramen.

"Really? I hope she's alright; she really hates socializing." Felix murmured, worried for his friend.
"Yeah. How'd you even manage to become her friend? She's scary." Han asked. 

"I've just known her for really long. She wasn't always like this. She used to be so nice and sweet and innocent and cute, but now, she's been forced to change." Felix spoke, smiling as he remembered the times when Aera was still kind. 
"Who forced her to change?" Seungmin questioned. 
"Life. I'm gonna go check in on her; she'll probably be at the rooftop." Felix spoke, walking out the cafeteria. 

Felix was in a hurry, bumping into someone else. "I'm so sorry." Felix bowed repeatedly to the person and ran towards the staircase. 

⩽⨝⩾

Jisung was left standing at his position, dumbfounded. A person with a deep voice just bumped into him, apologized, and walked away before he had the chance to say anything. But something in his gut told him to follow the boy. So, without putting much thought into it, Jisung took off, going down the same path he saw the boy take. 

He followed the boy onto the rooftop, making sure he wasn't seen. Jisung spotted Aera sitting on the ledge, her feet dangling off the rooftop, staring at the big bustling city in front of her. Jisung immediately jumped behind one of the walls, out of Aera's view. 

"Aera. Why are you here?" Jisung heard the boy ask. 
"Felt like going for a smoke. The weather's just lovely. Dae would have loved it." Aera replied, leaving Jisung surprised with her straight answer.

"Smoking's bad for you. Don't smoke." The boy spoke, walking up to Aera and sitting beside her, keeping his feet on the rooftop side. He pulled the cigarette out of Aera's mouth, and threw it on the floor, stepping on it. 
"Why'd you do that Felix?!" Aera whined, tilting her head back. 

So that's his name, Jisung thought.

"Because I'm your friend and I care for you." Felix replied, flicking Aera's forehead as she stuck her tongue out at him. 

I thought she said she didn't have friends!

"Why do you have to sit so high up?" Felix asked, looking nervously downwards. 
"You scared, Lix?" Aera teased, lifting one eyebrow.
"No, it's just, you can fall so easily from there. At least get up and stand here. On this side. Where your feet aren't dangling over a 30 foot drop. Just don't sit on that ledge." Felix nervously spoke, glancing downwards repeatedly. Aera got up and stood on the ledge as she turned around and jumped back onto the rooftop.

"Are you okay Aera? I heard some dude sat with you today and created this whole scene." Felix asked, looking at Aera with worried eyes. 

ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT ME?!

"That's not what happened. How do you even know- oh wait, there's that guy from your friend group in my class. Jugin, was it?" Aera asked, her eyebrows knitted together as she tried to remember. 

Felix chuckled, hearing his friend's interpretation of Jeongin's name. "Jeongin" he corrected. 
"Same thing. Why was he talking about me? Doesn't he have anything better to do?" Aera asked, looking irritated to Jisung. 

Why does it irritate her so much that someone else was talking about her?

"Oh no, I was worried that you got expelled or something. So I asked the guys if they saw you anywhere." Felix explained, saving his friend's ass. 

Aera hated it a lot if she found out people were talking about her. She'd always beat that person up if she ever found out they had been talking about her behind her back. She hated people whispering about her, it always brought back memories of the way people behaved around her when Dae had died. 

"Oh. Okay." she softly spoke, looking down at her feet. 
"So? What happened with that guy? Are you okay? I know how much you hate socializing." Felix quietly asked, always looking out for Aera. 

"I'm fine. He's actually a nice guy. He asked me if I was okay with him sitting beside me before he actually sat with me. And me being me, I said no. But then he was like, it didn't really matter to him what I said, he was still going to sit with me. I mean, I don't blame him, the only other empty seat in the class was beside Mirae. And who'd want to sit with her? Anyway, he said that he'd like to be friends with me. And I told him to fuck off. He's a good person, and doesn't need to destroy his social life by becoming friends with me." Aera spoke, looking at Felix. 

So she was actually looking out for me? Why couldn't she have just told me that?

"Aera. You need to try making new friends. Friends are helpful." Felix remarked, turning around to face the view of the city. 

"No. Friends make you vulnerable. Friends are weaknesses. Friends cloud your judgment. Friends influence you. Friends are anything but helpful." Aera spoke firmly, her hands forming fists.

"I'm a weakness, then?" Felix asked. 

"Yes. The only reason I'm still friends with you is because you were the only person outside of my family that Dae and I were very close to."

"You need to move on with life Aera. It's been 2 years since Dae's death, and you're still stuck on it as if he died yesterday. You can't keep living in the past!" Felix requested, desperation dripping from his voice. 

"I AM NOT LIVING IN THE PAST! DAE WAS VERY MUCH REAL, AND EVERYONE CAN JUST CHOOSE TO FORGET HIM, BUT I WON'T!" Aera shouted, slamming her hands on the ledge. 
"I won't forget him, Felix." she said, her voice cracking.

Who's Dae? 

"I didn't forget about him Aera. I chose to move on with life, letting him rest in our memories." Felix quietly spoke, turning to look back at Aera.

"Go. Away. Felix." Aera seethed, looking out at the horizon, paying Felix zero attention.

Felix looked conflicted, between not wanting to leave Aera alone, or having to leave because she wanted to be left alone. He ended up choosing the latter and walked back towards the staircase, stopping before he descended. "I only want the best for you Aera. Remember that." he spoke, and went down the stairs.

Jisung got out of his hiding spot and went over to the staircase, standing there to make it seem like he had just arrived. He put on a confused face. "Aera?" he called. 

Aera turned her face 90 degrees, looking at Jisung through her peripheral vision. "It's you. Jising, isn't it?" she asked, turning back towards the city. 

"Jisung." he corrected. 
"Whatever. Why are you here? This place is out of bounds for students." she spoke, taking out another cigarette and lighting it. 

"I could ask you the same thing." Jisung replied, walking up to Aera and standing a few metres away from her, resting his elbows on the ledge and his face in his palms. 

"I don't see why I should explain myself to you." Aera spoke, letting out smoke from her mouth. 

"Neither do I." Jisung replied, a silence overcoming the two. 

They didn't talk to each other after that, just standing in each other's presence. And the silence wasn't uncomfortable, it was comfortable silence. The only sounds they could hear were the endless honking from the city, and students' laughter echoing in the air.

"So" Jisung spoke, breaking the silence. 
"What?" Aera asked, looking annoyed. 

"We've been paired up together for the science assignment." he muttered. 
"Oh. You can do whatever you want, I'll do all the work myself. I don't need any help." Aera spoke, pulling out her cigarette and letting out smoke from her mouth. 

"But I want to help. It's my assignment too." 
"Then you can do all of it." Aera replied, determined not spend any extra time with any schoolmate after school. 

"Then I won't do anything. We have to do it together." 
"Fine."

"Where do you want to meet?" Jisung asked. 
"I dunno... You tell." Aera spoke, turning to face Jisung. 

"How about at that café near school? 6:30 sound good?" Jisung asked, looking back at Aera. 
"Yeah that sounds good." 

⩽⨝⩾

i love Felix.