somewhere only we know | huang renjun

006 | you can keep walking.

!you can keep walking.

MY FEET DRAGGED AS I PULLED MYSELF ALONG THE FOOTPATH. renjun walked beside me, shoulders slumped with his heavy bag weighing him down.

we got nearer and nearer to each of our houses, and i started to panic that renjun and i might be seen walking home together. pulling a lame excuse from thin air, i purposely stepped on my shoelace, undoing the knot and letting it unravel to give me a reason to fall behind him. i stopped in my track, crouching down to my shoe. my last-minute plan proved not to be fool-proof though, as renjun stopped walking only a metre in front of me to wait as i redid my laces.

"you can keep walking," i said, fluttering my hand as if to shoo him off.

renjun scoffed. "i'm not just going to leave you, why would i do that?"

"we're nearly home anyway, don't worry," i insisted. "i know the way, i can get back on my own." i tried to reassure him with a smile, but the boy wasn't convinced. he screwed his nose up, seeing through my lie.

"are you sick of walking with me or something?" he laughed. "just do your laces, you could've finished it by now and we'd be walking again already."

it felt strange to wish someone wasn't so friendly.

i huffed through my nose quietly as i obliged, tying my shoes and standing myself up again to continue walking. as we walked, my imagination persisted in trying to come up with any viable plan that would allow me to subtly walk up to my house alone.

"oh no!" i exclaimed after another few steps, unconvincingly. "i just realised, i left my english book in my locker," i shook my head. "i better walk back to school to get it. you go home though, you don't have to walk back with me," i insisted, trying again.

"just leave it, we don't have any homework today," renjun assures me.

i had to admit, there wasn't much of a way out of this one.

"well..." i stuttered, pleading my imagination to help me out a little. "i just like to take it home anyway, i want to..." i paused to think, "go over the new content we learned today. it was kind of confusing," i explained.

"just come over to mine and i'll explain it to you, you don't really need your notes for it anyway," renjun offered.

why does he have to be so nice?!

"no, no! really, it's fine. you go ahead." and with that, i turned myself around and started to walk the opposite direction as quick as i could to avoid him giving any more completely reasonable advice.

"y/n," he chuckled. "what's going on?"

i stopped walking. i figured i would have to tell him eventually – it looked like we'd be walking home together regularly and i couldn't make up a different excuse every single day. reluctantly, i turned back to face him.

i looked up to the sky, trying to find words to say while i avoided eye contact as best as possible.

"my dad is just kind of strict," i begin. "if he sees us walking home together, he'll think..." i trailed off, leaving renjun to figure out the rest.

i watched as renjun's mind turned, and i could tell he was remembering what he had seen the night before when we were caught talking through our windows.

"it's fine, i get it. you could've just told me."