4—

The next day when JiJi entered the classroom he froze upon seeing Hyun, who on this very rare occasions, was awake and currently staring out the window.

When Hyun heard footsteps coming towards his seat, he abruptly shifted his eyes to look at the person and their eyes met but almost immediately JiJi averted his gaze.

JiJi felt complicated in his heart. He didn't know why but he kept being reminded of how Hyun had treated him as air yesterday. He couldn't meet Hyun's eyes. One of JiJi's old habit has always been to pretend everything was fine even with people who made his heart hurt.

Jiji hated feeling like he was being a burden to someone, he was self-aware that he was the one who wanted to be friends with Hyun, and Hyun had always kept a distance from him.

It would be too abrupt to stop speaking to Hyun all of a sudden. JiJi did not want to show Hyun that he was affected by yesterday's happenings. He thought he would try to slowly decrease the amount of conversations and it would reach a dead end with them having nothing to do with each other yet again.

With this in mind, JiJi forced out a smile at Hyun as he took at seat. "Hi" he said, a light smile placed on his lips. JiJi had always been extremely good at pretending. The place where he grew up, this skill was a must to survive.

Hyun saw through his pretense at once. Even though he avoided talking to JiJi, he was always aware of Jiji's expressions and behaviours. He knew JiJi was only pretending to be fine and he must be affected by what happened yesterday as JiJi's smile just then had been a bit duller and his eyes a bit unfocused.

Looking at him like this made Hyun's heart constrict. He knew what he did yesterday was wrong. JiJi's face today was much better than yesterday but the scratches were still there, it looked like it would take some time for them to fade. His hands were bandaged and he was still walking with great efforts because of his ankle.

Hyun realized that he could not ignore JiJi even if he wanted to. Even when he tried to resist, JiJi still unknowingly secured a place in Hyun's uneventful life.

On this rare occasion, Hyun replied with a low "Hey". Hearing his reply for the first time, JiJi froze and his mind blanked. Fortunately the teacher entered the class at that very moment which made JiJi think that he must have misheard, so he put this matter in the back of his mind.

The classes went on one after the other. After the fifth bell rang, most of the students either made their way to the school ground or to visit a friend from other classes or they just sat in the classroom, chatting with their friends and eating snacks.

JiJi got up to buy snacks at the snack counter. Earlier during the class, he felt a little dizzy and the pain in his ankle became more and more prominent. But as he was hungry, he still went ahead to buy his snacks.

Hyun, who became aware of JiJi getting up from his seat, looked up only to see JiJi's pale face. His eyebrows instantly furrowed and he asked "Where are you going? Are you in pain?" He immediately became aware that he spole too abruptly when JiJi looked at him to meet his eyes, his face held an obvious shock.

"Its nothing, I'm not in pain", Jiji said calmly even though his mind was completely shocked at Hyun's words. JiJi's already dizzy head hurt even more so after saying what he needed to, he moved towards the snack counter.

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