16

Again?

Hayan reluctantly picks up the letter on the ground that fell when he opened his locker and stared at it. The envelope is color lavender with cute little dots on it. He actually forgot about this and only remembered it now that he received one again.

And as usual, the letter said the same thing.

I like you, cheer up!

"Good morning." Red greets as he put his arm on his shoulder. "Is that the letter you mentioned to me last time?"

"Yeah. I thought it was you so..."

"Hmm..." He grabs the letter from him and inspects it. "You really have no idea who sent this to you?"

"N-no." Actually, I don't care anymore. I think it's much better if I won't know their identity.

Red opens the letter. "It's handwritten. Not familiar to you?"

"What do you mean?"

He shrugs as he gives back the letter to him. "Nothing. I just thought you would recognize the handwriting. I mean, the sender probably gave away their identity."

"I'm actually bad at memorizing things, let alone handwriting so..."

"So, it doesn't matter, right?" Red smiles at him and drags him to walk. "By the way, what are your plans this coming foundation day?"

"Our class plans on doing snack booth."

"I'm asking about your plans, not your class."

"I... I don't have a plan. Maybe go with Sean?"

They both stopped at Hayan's classroom. "I finished the song. Do you want to hear it?" He nods. Red stares at him before caressing his face and sighing.

"Why?"

"I really don't like seeing you this way. I should've said yes when you ask me out last week."

Hayans eyes widen as he recalled what he did last week. Red sensed his panic and grinned at him.

"I know, it was just the burst of emotion. But still, I could've taken advantage of it." He leans closer, not leaving his sight. "I can take care of you, make you happy, and even make you fall for me."

"R-red..."

Red smiled at him as he poked his nose lightly and backs away. "I've gotta go. See ya."

Hayan stared at him walking away.

I wish it was that easy to forget this feeling. It might be good falling in love with you, Red.

He took a sigh as he entered the classroom and the first thing he sees is Hajin talking with his classmates. It's been a week since they last talked with each other. He's sure that Hajin knows that he's avoiding him. He doesn't even know what to say to him anyway. And it seems like Hajin is busy with something else as he always rushes away after the class ends.

I think it's better this way. The less we see each other, the more I can forget about him.

He listlessly walks towards his seat. Sean is still not around. He sighs again as he tried to focus on reading a book.

I wonder how they are now. They must be going out just fine. Hajin's a good boyfriend, that's for sure. I wish... He shakes his head to remove that thought. I shouldn't be thinking about that. It's disrespectful to his g-girlfriend. I'm sure she wouldn't like it if she founds out another person is fantasizing about his man.

He secretly glances at Hajin and almost gasped in surprise when he finds him looking too. He covers his face with a book in surprise feeling his heart beating fast.

It's bad. Why is he looking at me?

"Hayan!"

Sean's loud voice boomed the classroom. He then felt a heavy thing patting his back.

"What are you doing?"

"H-ha? No-nothing."

"Are you hiding?"

"Can you lower down your voice? Y-you're so loud."

"My voice is really like this, though? I can't lower it down!" Hayan sighed in defeat. Sean leans closer to him and whispers. "He went outside. You can stop it now."

He peeks through the book and puts it down on his desk when he confirmed Hajin is not around.

"You know that what you're doing is useless and foolish, right?"

"I know... But, I can't really look at him. I... I feel like if I don't see him that much I might forget this feeling."

"But we're in the same class. Avoiding him is so impossible."

Hayan went silent, unable to answer. It's true anyway. He just looks foolish trying to hide. He's just making it real obvious that he avoids him.

He probably feels bad too. I just avoided him all of a sudden. But what can I do? Everytime I look at him, my heart hurts like this.

"Where are you going?" Sean asked as he stand up.

"I feel sleepy. I'll just wash my face."

"Oh. Okay. Be quick, the class are about to start."

Hayan just nods and walks outside the classroom with his head down. It won't be that long till he bumps into someone.

Wait. That perfume...

"Are you okay?"

He slowly looks up and sees Hajin staring at him full of worry written on his face.

"H-hajin..."

"Are you okay?" He squeezed his arm gently as he tried to support him up. Hayan just kept on staring at him, unable to speak.

It's been a while. I...

Hayan saw from the corner of his eyes a girl going outside the classroom. He immediately removes Hajin's hands away and almost runs to the comfort room.

His girlfriend almost caught us.

He slowly walks towards the sink and stares at his reflection in the mirror. He can even tell how gloomy and sad he looks right now. What more to other people's perspective?

They must pity me. Looking so sad like this.

He opens the faucet and washes his face while preventing his tears from falling. Then he gives up and cries silently covering his face using his hands,with the faucet still running.

"Hey, that's enough." He heard someone say as they turn off the faucet. "Stop wasting water." He remained on his position until he grabs him and hugs him tightly.

"I said that's enough."

"S-sean..."

He gently moves him away and wipes his face using his coat.

"You really like a puppy when you cry."

"I'm sorry..."

"What for?"

He shakes his head, unable to continue as he could feel his tears again. Sean sighs.

"Let's just skip class."

"Huh?"

He grabs him by his wrist and pulls him away. "Let's go."

Sean peeks on the door to see if any teacher's on sight and when he didn't saw anyone, he grabs Hayan again and exits the comfort room running to the school exit.

"A-are we really going to skip class?" Hayan asks in panic as he look back on their school.

"Yap. I can't let you go back to that room. Who knows what you might do if you ever see him again."

"B-but..."

"Cmon, be a bad student just this once! You won't be a student forever, so we should experience this, okay?"

"Where are we going?"

Sean stops, making him stop too as he still holds on to his wrist.

"Right, where should we go? We can't go to the mall because we are in uniform, not the arcades too... Hmmm..."

"The beach is near here, right?"

"Beach?" He nods. "We can walk from there. Do you want to go there, Hayan?"

He nods once again. Sean gives him a big smile as he slides his hand on his hands and squeezing it lightly.

"Okay then, let's go to the beach."