There was nothing free in this world. Jisung at least knew that and that was exactly he had to carry boxes on top of another even though he wasn't strong enough to do so. He broke some sweat here and there yet nobody seemed to care as everybody had their own duty. He could only stare at Ryujin in despise but could never truly hate her since he brought this upon himself.

  He just didn't know that the 'favour' he was supposed to do was going to be some heavy labour like this. What worse was that he didn't get to see Hyunjin's rehearsal because he was carrying some props behind the stage. By the moment he came out from the backstage, Hyunjin and Seungmin was already going down the stage.

   "Hey, I asked you a favour, not trying to kill you. It's fine to take a rest. Just put the boxes in front of the stage. We're using it for decoration later", Ryujin patted his shoulder and he sighed in relief when his class rep told him to rest. He didn't know if he could keep doing all these work if they didn't let him rest.

  Once he glanced at the stage, his eyes lit up when he saw Hyunjin had not yet left the school hall and was watching the next rehearsal. Seeing how focused Hyunjin looked, he curiously tilted his head towards the figures on the stage and gapped his mouth in awe. They were doing some street dances and slowly walked towards Hyunjin. He didn't know if Hyunjin noticed him or not but Hyunjin wouldn't complain since he hadn't said anything and it only seemed like he was interested in the rehearsal.

  Jisung dropped the boxes on the floor, his nose tingling when some dust were flying around and sneezed. Hyunjin took a glance at him before looking away. "The performance is great, right?", Jisung said as his hand reached up to his eyes, rubbing them when some dust were caught in his eyes.

   Hyunjin said nothing, instead he held Jisung's hand and pulled it away from his eyes. "Don't do that. It's a bad habit", The frown on his face was contrary to his action, he pulled out a pack of tissue and a bottle of water, giving them to Jisung who politely nodded at him.

  Letting the water seeped into the white tissue, Jisung started wondering if Hyunjin was going to get his scholarship or not. It really depended on how he would do but history won't change that easily. Jisung was sure he will get it.

  Washing his eyes with the water felt better then rubbing it and later maybe causing irritation.

   He put the bottle and tissue away, now came another problem. An hour ago, he tried talking to Hyunjin but he was dragged away by Ryujin. Bringing up the topic was difficult since he didn't know how the young Hyunjin would react. Lost deep in his thought, he started biting on his nail which Hyunjin quickly slapped his hand away.

  Surprised, he looked up and saw that Hyunjin had the same expression of him and that was of shock. "Why?"

"Don't do that. It's bad habit", Jisung didn't know whether to laugh or not because he sounded like a broken old record that kept repeating the same word.

   A sudden cheekiness arose in Jisung as he bit his lips, Hyunjin twitching at the sight of it. "Don't do that too... it's bad for you"

   "What about this?", Jisung asked, scratching on a dried blood on his arm that he had injured a few hours ago. "Stop"

   "Then this?" , Jisung asked, slouching in his seat and Hyunjin groaned. "Jisung!"

At this, Jisung started laughing— his first genuine laugh after waking up from death.

   "You're such a mom, Hyunjin" he was holding his stomach as he laughed uncontrollably. He didn't know why he was so happy. It wasn't that funny until he would be bursting his lung but for some reason he was happy. "Why do I never know this?"

  Hyunjin rolled his eyes, annoyed. "Like you ever know anything about me, Han", Jisung straightened his back and raised an eyebrow at Hyunjin. "Are we back to first name basis, Hwang?"

  Hyunjin only froze, his mouth was opened and close to say anything but the confidence look in Jisung's eyes were making him feel a bit weird, maybe a bit nausea. "I can't talk to you at all", Hyunjin shook his head, snatching his bag away from Jisung's clutch and strutting out from the hall with his grumpy face.

  Jisung fell back into the seat and continued watching the rehearsal. He didn't get to say what he wanted to say but at least he knew it wouldn't be bad to interact with Hyunjin sometimes. Hyunjin wouldn't suddenly start cursing at him or anything and it didn't seem like he would jump on Hyunjin. At least, that was what he had seen so far that he been following Hyunjin around.

   "I'm acting like a creep", he rubbed his face, looking around at the same time. It's true, even if he tried to change anything the future won't be easily change which mean somebody would stop Hyunjin from going oversea no matter what.

   He hadn't been following Hyunjin for nothing, he had been observing the people around him. To his dismissal, there wasn't anybody that had shown any malice towards Hyunjin. "Hey, not following Hyunjin anymore?", Ryujin sat next to him and he rolled his eyes. "He's not a kid. He can go home by himself"

   Ryujin laughed, shaking her head, "I'm pretty sure you know I'm kicking you out since there's nothing to do anymore. Go home early, don't say I'm not letting you rest"

   "Ryujin. I come here to help", he bluntly said. Even if his main priority was Hyunjin but now that Hyunjin was gone, he was really going to stay and help with what he could. He wasn't someone who would selfishly go home when Ryujin and the others were working hard. To be included in this ballroom with them, it was a bit unfair since a lot of people tried to enter just to take a peek at the rehearsal but he who had only done a few heavy labour managed to see everything.

   "That's why I'm kicking you out. So, you won't see anymore performance", Ryujin tried to come up with an excuse. In all honesty, she didn't want to see the fragile Jisung going around carrying heavy boxes. It wasn't like she didn't know he had collapsed a week ago.

   "No, where's the next box?!", Jisung insisted and Ryujin gave up. Jisung was Jisung indeed. The little stubborn guy who would do just as he said like few months back when he said he will punch Hyunjin and he did.

   Nobody questioned his changed behaviour though. If before he was trying to kill Hyunjin, now he looked like he was afraid Hyunjin would fall and snap his hand or something even though people know that was impossible.

  Jisung was carrying a bag of garbage out from the school hall. There was a lot of decorations from the past events that bad started rotting away in the storage and nobody...I repeat NOBODY who seemed to care about that and he just happened to hear some participants complaining about changing in the toilet since it smell foul.

   Since nobody seemed to care about that, he just took the liberty to throw them out and didn't think of the consequences if he will get scolded or anything like that. Though he thought most likely nobody would want a rotting decoration around.

   "Thanks for coming today", Jisung's ears perked up, this was a familiar voice and familiar faces. On instinct, he hid behind the school incinerator, hoping the rustles he made with the garbage bag wouldn't be heard.

  Jisung sighed, crouching down on the floor. He just remembered that the parents-teachers meeting was today and he actually forgot that his homeroom teacher was supposed to meet his mother today but he was just a bit in qualm. Out of all place why must they talk near the garbage site of the school? It wasn't like they were doing anything shady. Well, technically a relationship between a student's parents and a teacher was indeed shady but they were both single.

  He plopped his cheeks on his arm, they must have their own concern. The school could start a humour that will hurt them and most probably they were afraid to hurt him. He took another peek at the pair and shivered. Stalking Mr.Myeon SeungHo and Mrs.Han Jinmi really wasn't something he would like to watch. He retreated and sighed again. They just met and they're already in a scandal like this? What if the teachers see them?

   "Well, next time we can meet somewhere in a restaurant maybe? It's more comfortable than here at least", Jisung gapped his mouth. This Mr.Myeon was really brave and so upfront. They met just a day and he already asked to have a date with Jisung's mother. "Thank you. I will text you later then, teacher"

  The mother bowed at the teacher and left soon after. Jisung heaved out another sigh, received he could finally stop hiding as it was starting to get hot and his palm was sweaty since he hid behind the incinerator.

  "Is eavesdropping your hobby now, Jisung?", Jisung yelped, the bag of rotten decoration was let go from his hand as he jumped in fright, Mr.Myeon holding his shoulder so that he wouldn't fall. "I wasn't eavesdropping!"

  He snapped and pushed the old man away from him. Even so, his ears were already turning red from being caught snooping around. He dusted off his shoulder and crouched down again, picking up the bag "I'm throwing this"

   "Oh, right you were helping Ryujin with the talent show", The old man gave him a thoughtful look but he didn't say anything about being caught with Jisung's mother maybe because he didn't really think it was anything big to talk about. "If you excuse me", Jisung stood up, he didn't really want to talk to this teacher because as far as he knew, albeit being a nice man he was some of the people who questioned him and Hyunjin's relationship.

  "Jisung, can you come with me for a second?", Jisung was in no place to reject but since he just got caught snooping around, he didn't want to talk to the teacher since he knew his mother will be brought up, so he intended to just make a dash out of it.

   "Sorry, teacher! Talk later!", And he ran after throwing the bag away. Once he arrived at the school hall, everybody was setting up the stage for the talent show that was held the next day. "Jisung? I thought you went home"

  This time it was Yeji who had approached him and he only replied to her with a smile. He pointed at the storage. "I think the girls can change in there. I think the boys won't mind changing in the toilet"

  Yeji clasped her hands together. "Why didn't I think of that! But we need to clean it first"

  "Don't worry. I already threw what needed to be thrown. It just need some tidied up and... there's some props on the shelves inside. I don't know which one to throw.", He wanted to throw them but he couldn't just mess around, he didn't know which one could still be used and which one not.

   "I will bring them out.", Yeji just nodded since she also still need to help overlooking the stage decoration, Ryujin was busy checking the equipments.

   He thought he could bring some of the boxes out himself but he overestimated himself. He totally had forgotten how his teenage body and adult body was different despite being the same person.

  Long story short, he just called another unfortunate event upon himself.

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Hope you guys love the update! I'm getting lots of inspiration nowadays just that I don't get enough energy to write them sjanak-hunny