TIME SKIP~NEXT MORNING

~[HAEYOON]

I had a hard time to sleep throughout the night.

He literally asked me out to go to the arcade, treated me with pizza, gave me the huge plushies in exchange for nothing and above all...he hugged me.

I fucking slept like a deadass bitch in his room and he didn't get angry about it!

Instead he comforted me when I was afraid and crying.

I thought he would think of me as a complete psycho for wailing out like that but instead he became much more clingy towards me.

I mean, I ain't complaining about it though.

But how in the holy jesus am I gonna control my feelings for him if he continues being like this!?

'Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!' Screaming into the pillow I hid my face as I rolled over to my side.

"You tell me, is he just being fruity or is he really this much romantic ?" I talked to the bunny and panda plushies and slept with me the whole night and witnessed the whole sorcery of my crazy personality.

"Aish, Haeyoon you need to get yourself together."

I finally got up and glanced at my phone screen.

4:30 a.m.

"Should I text him?" I debated as I kept his chat open.

"I think I should." I typed a 'good morning' but still glitched over tapping the send button.

He might think me being corny..

After 10 more minutes of going through trials in my mind, I ultimately gave up on the idea of texting him.

"I'm gonna meet him at the café anyways." Consoling myself I went inside the washroom to get myself ready.

...for another war, I suppose.

...

It was 5 am sharp when I opened the café door. I've been arriving here a bit too early these days only to grab a few extra minutes of chatting with him. Though usually no one comes at this hour but it's just Seolhyun who destroys the mood of talking.

Grabbing the mop I began wiping the tables as I idiotly smiled at the thought of him.

From time to time, I checked the clock.

No sign of him.

"Missing someone, bestie?"

I froze hearing that voice.

"Are you missing that little boy of yours? What was his name again...Joshua Hwang, right?"

"Hong. Joshua Hong." I replied quietly as I continued mopping.

"Ah yes. Oopsie! Did I annoy you?" She laughed off hysterically.

"Your homework is done and kept over there if you came here looking for that." I still wasn't looking at her.

"Oh thanks sweetheart but I didn't actually come here for that!"

"Cut it out Kim. Just tell me what your demand is this time."

She suddenly stepped closer towards me that made me finally face her.

Chuckling darkly into my ears she said, "Well then since you asked for it, just tell me how was the night with your boyfriend-"

"What the fuck!?" In a reflex I slapped her and my eyes shot ablaze.

"Have you lost your mind-"

I lost my words as she suddenly gripped my throat and pinned me against the wall.

"What did you say just now huh?"

"Seolhyun you're hurting me-"

"REPEAT WHAT YOU SAID JUST NOW SLUTTY ASS!"

"Have...you...lost your...m-mind..?" I heaved out the words as my breathing was worsening.

She finally let me go. Dropping on the ground I coughed while trying to catch my breath.

"That's it honey. You're over now."

"W-what do you mean?" My voice was shaking in fear.

"Oh honey. How naive you are. Here, take a look at this." She showed me a picture on her phone.

My heart dropped a thousand feet down.

"No...th-this is not true... it's fucking edited?!"

It was a picture of me and Joshua hugging each other while sleeping.

Joshua will never do something like that, I know him.

"It is edited. But dear, who will believe you. Joshua? Ow.. but I don't think he'd look at you even after this."

"N-no no no no S-seolhyun please d-don't do this...w-we can resolve it among ourse-"

"Should have thought that before while slapping me."

"N-no I'm sorry. I won't do that again..please.." I was practically crying and begging at her knees.

"Aww. I feel pity on you. But too bad, I already sent it oops."

"Wh-what...?"

"Which part of 'I already sent it' you don't understand huh? Or are you impaired with the senses?" She spat.

My mind stopped processing.

One more rumour.

One more higher up in the level of the kingdom of hell.

One more level up in my miserable life.

"To whom..?" I asked her quietly as my back hopelessly slid over the wall.

"Shouldn't bother you but you'll see the results of it at your 'prestigious' school. Now get off me!" She kicked my hands off her knees and walked away.

I lost my will to work.

I lost my will to go to school.

I lost my will to go to school.

I lost my only friend.

I lost my urge to live.

Why does she always do this to me..

We used to be friends, right?

Life is really so... unpredictable.

I slowly picked myself up and went inside the washroom.

I looked at my reflection in the mirror.

I wasn't crying but tears were streaming down my cheeks.

If it weren't for the project, I would have skipped school and ended up doing something stupid but right now I just can't skip because attendance points will be added to our presentation.

And I need to secure that. Only for Jeonghan.

Harshly wiping my tears and cleaning my face, I changed into my school uniform.

"Wow I should really admire your guts to go to school even after this. Anyways, have fun." She said as she watched me going out.

...

My trauma and anxiety were increasing with every passing minute alongside my heartbeat as the gate of the school appeared closer.

I could literally burst at this point.

I felt gazes on me as I lowered my head and walked down the hallway.

"Booya-YAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!??!!?!!!!!!"

"YAH I DIDN'T SCARE YOU THAT MUCH!!!"

"I GOT SCARED OKAY!?"

"Aish, sorry madamé, didn't know you were such a big scaredy cat bwahahaha!"

"You said wh-"

I stopped as the thought of the end of the friendship with him crossed my mind.

"Hm, what were you saying?"

"N-nothing." I slid open the classroom room and directly sat on the seat beside Jeonghan.

"Huh? Why are you sitting there-"

"Project."

"Ah I see. Well then, I gotta sit in front of you."

He sighed and sat in front of me and began talking about various things.

While I kept on wondering whether he saw that photo.

"Um..Joshua?"

"What? All of a sudden?"

"Um....d-did you get any text this morning?"

"No? Did you send anything?"

"No no! I mean did you get any text from anyone this morning?"

"Nope either. Why are you asking though?"

"Just curious. Hehe."

"Okay then. So as I was saying, Nezuko was-"

My eyes diverted off to Jeonghan as he entered the classroom and Joshua seemed to notice it as he immediately fell silent and faced the front.

He quietly came up and sat beside me. He was a bit late today which was very rare for him to do.

Not wishing to face him, at least right now, I immediately put my head down until a few minutes later I heard our teacher's voice as she instructed us to do our projects during her class instead.

I sighed as I opened the laptop. Like always, he wasn't going to do anything so there's no point of asking his favour.

I typed onto the things as my mind prayed for the day to go smoothly.

|•|

~[JEONGHAN]

I watched her work diligently from the corner of my eye.

I wanted to talk to her so badly.

For a reason, I knew it wasn't her who mailed me the picture.

Firstly, because she never uses a kiss emoji. Haeyoon isn't the type to use that even though the text reads "From, your Haeyoon💋". I even heard her saying it's the most disgusting emoji on Apple.

Secondly, Joshua is Catholic. Even when it's only us boys, he glitches when we crack horny jokes. Never have I ever heard him open up about her even though, I know, he has a crush on her.

He likes her a lot. More than me.

Thirdly, the mail address read "[email protected]". I was almost about to mark it as spam had I not seen Haeyoon's name on the top.
Haeyoon had shared her mail id to me long back and it wasn't some cloud 9 cafe.

In conclusion, this wasn't her.

Whoever sent it was either trying to frame her again or manipulate me.

I was worried if other students had got it but the atmosphere of the class seemed pretty normal.

'...so it was only me I guess.'

I glanced over to her again.

How can you look so perfect in all your imperfections?

I eagerly waited for the day to end only to find out the truth.

|•|

~[JOSHUA]

'...she is being weirdly absent-minded today...'

So many questions were running through my mind.

I waited for the lunch time bell to ring to clear up my first questions.

...

I waited for the whole class to go vacant except for Haeyoon.

"Hey Jun," I called out for him.

"Yeah? Do you want lemon candies too?" he said as he chewed onto one of them.

"Aish no. Can you come with me to the rooftop?" I asked pulling him to the corner.

Raising his brows he gave me a questioning look as he said, "If it's for some gay shit, I ain't up for it-"

"Sherlock, it's not a damn gay shit. I'll explain everything over there. Now will you come?" I shot back.

"Argh, okay okay."

We were about to leave when I heard the bastard speak, "Seungcheol, take the guys to the canteen. I'm not hungry yet."

I held back Jun's hand as we watched Seungcheol and his gang leave.

Jeonghan finally darted his eyes towards us as he asked sarcastically, "Are you guys gonna spy on our project now?"

"More like spy on you." I spat.

We both stared into each other's soul like there's no tomorrow.

Had it not been for Haeyoon and Jun, our staring contest would have surely culminated into a fist fight.

"Hey Joshua, let's go." Jun dragged me out.

"What was that motherfucker doing on your phone yesterday?" I asked angrily as soon as he stepped on the rooftop.

"Jeez, calm down, he actually did it better than me-"

"I don't care who would have done it better! Why would he answer when I wanted to hear your voice and not fucking his!?"

"Okay man, calm down. He had come over to my house and I was busy searching for a kdrama to watch so yeah, he answered the call for me. But why would your dad question him or me or rather you like that? He's out of-"

"He came back yesterday and I was out that time."

"Oh. To where though?"

"Arcade."

"Oh you could have told him tho-"

"I was out with her, okay!?"

"I see."

"Did that son of a bitch ask you anything?"

"No. What would he?"

"I don't know..just.... nevermind."

"Okay then well, we're done here I guess. Now let's go back-"

"No wait. I've one more thing to ask."

"What now..I can't give you lemon candies any more if you ask-"

"What were you saying about his sister the other day?" I asked completely ignoring his talks.

The atmosphere fell awkwardly silent.

"Look Joshua I can't tell you that-" he turned around to leave.

"I need to know." I held his back stopping him in his tracks.

"Why?" He faced me again.

"Because I wanna know why he accuses my girl with no fucking proof."

A moment was gone in silence.

Letting out a deep sigh, he finally spoke, " 6 years back from today on 29th November, 2017, Jeonghan invited his best friends Kihyun, Haeyoon and Seolhyun to his sister Jiyeon's birthday. Jiyeon, Haeyoon and Seolhyun were like sisters...they were inseparable. At one time, during the party, Haeyoon and Jiyeon were sitting by the pool and chatting. Haeyoon had gone inside momentarily but when she returned she saw Jiyeon was drowning. Before she could even call for help, Jiyeon was gone. And to this day, Jeonghan blames her for his sister's death."

"Without any proof?"

"He said he gets traumatized recalling that day and that's why he refused to watch a video Kihyun had recorded during the accident scene. Since that day, he announced to the whole school that Park Haeyoon is a killer and everyone supported him. It was eventually fueled up by Yerin and her minions when she tried to commit suicide by jumping from the bleachers because Minhyuk rejected her."

"So you mean, Minhyuk didn't leave Yerin for Haeyoon?"

"The word 'accept' is more appropriate in this case. Haeyoon was innocently framed and got hate. Neither Minhyuk and Haeyoon know each other nor is Yerin Haeyoon's friend. She is just an imposter."

I sighed as I looked in some other directions. My mind was going blank because of the anger veining up inside of me.

"Do you have Kihyun's number?"

"No. But I think Haeyoon or Jeonghan might have-"

I didn't wait for him to finish as I started walking towards the door when I suddenly felt a grip on my wrist.

"Don't. Just don't ask Jeonghan about this right now-"

"Why not?! He is hurting her repeatedly over there and you're telling me not to ask him right now! Why!? Because it will open up his past? I don't fucking care. He needs to see the fucking truth for himself and stop imagining things! You can hold yourself back but I can't let him do whatever he wants, Jun!" I finally spat unable to hold the frustration any more.

"Joshua, I'm not saying we won't tell the truth, we will but not now. Because if we suddenly open up his wounds he might make a scene of it which will cost us a heavy price because even the teachers believe him. You are still a newbie Joshua, you need to know the politics of this so-called 'prestigious' school, which in my opinion, is the most corrupted school in Seoul. Just don't sacrifice yourself foolishly for your love when you're not so sure of it yourself." Jun told me in a calm tone.

I sighed finding no point to argue with him.

He is absolutely right. I can't sacrifice.

"....so what should we do then...?"

"Support Haeyoon in silence."

The bell rang. He pulled me out of the rooftop and headed downstairs.

I walked in to see her still working on the laptop while Jeonghan was writing something.

I swear I would've chopped off his hair right now.

However, I controlled myself somehow and quietly sat in front of him.

School hours should be reduced for real.

...

TIME SKIP~4:57 p.m.

I couldn't go to her in the morning because dad dropped me off at school and I must make up for it now.

"All done." I checked myself on the mirror one last time before going out and securely locking my house.

The bell chimed signalling my entrance into the cozy brown-themed café.

A smile had automatically curved over my face as I thought of visiting her.

However it disappeared as soon as I found it wasn't her on the counter.

It was her manager, Seolhyun.

Wait.

Seolhyun? Is she her childhood friend?

But they are so different-

My thoughts got distracted as I heard her squealing my name.

"Hi Joshua, it's so nice to see you again! What would you like to hav-"

"A normal cappuccino." I replied nonchalantly as I looked over to some random direction.

"O-okay. Anything else? We have a special-"

"No add-ons please." I said as I walked over to a table patiently waiting for my coffee, or let's say her.

From the corner of my eye I saw her walking towards my table as soon as I sat.

Gosh.

"You know, we could chat to kill-"

"I'm good." I said not looking up from my phone.

I heard her muttering something gibberish as she got up with a thud and stomped her way back.

Finally.

...

"Your coffee." I immediately looked up from my phone as soon as I recognized the voice.

Hold up.

Why does it look like she was crying?

"Sit." I motioned her to sit in front of me.

"Not now, I'm busy-"

"Are you ignoring me?"

"What?" She finally faced me, her cheeks displaying fresh stains of tears.

"You're being really weird today, you know. What's up with you?" I got up from the chair as I towered her tiny stature.

"Wh-what do you mean? I am normal-"

"Did he do anything again?"

"No! Why would he! He is not that bad as you think-"

The bell chimed signalling some customer. Our heads darted towards the door and to my utter shock, there stood the person I anticipated the most.

Yoon motherfucking Jeonghan.