Together | SF9

12

Coming from the dance room, Taeyang happily skipped going back to his classroom. He surely enjoyed his short break again.

Suddenly, he saw the principal going out of her office. "Just tell me if something like that happens again." He heard the principal say.

He calmly stopped and acted behave before the principal sees him. He even prepared bright smile on his face.

But that quickly disappeared when he saw Nari standing beside Mrs. Kam. He quickly hid himself and tried to listen to what they're talking about.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Kam and please don't tell my mom what happened. She'll be worried and she might ask be to go back."

The principal smiled before patting the young lady's shoulder. "No problem. And you know me, I won't let the students think violence is okay, bullying is okay."

"I'll go back to my room now, Ma'am." Nari said before paying respect and leaving.

Taeyang quickly followed her behind and attempted to surprise her but Chani suddenly showed up causing him to hide himself again.

"Can we talk for a while?" He asked. Nari was surprised for a moment before nodding.

Taeyang ignored it and have decided to go back to their room on his own. But on his way, he met Inseong.

"Where have you been? You have class, right?" Inseong asked and Taeyang nodded.

"You have class too!"

"About that..."

"You went to Mina and checked on her again. Right?" Taeyang asked and Inseong shyly nodded. "Can I tell you something about Mina?"

Inseong remained quiet and just looked intently at Taeyang as he continued "She's done with you and you should be done with her as well."

"I'm serious -"

"I know but she wasn't. Just think that she has turned her interest on Youngbin because the news on being with you has already calmed down. She wants something new." Taeyang said.

Inseong was surprised upon hearing that. Only Youngbin and Rowoon say something serious. Jaeyoon rarely does. Zuho doesn't speak a lot though Inseong knows Zuho still try to understand things. He just tend to keep everything to himself.

•••

"Can you stay away from our group?" Chani started as he rubbed the back of his neck with his hand feeling embarrassed of what he was asking her to do.

"I honestly don't want you to get into trouble just like what happened before with Inseong. That's unavoidable as long as people thinks you are close to us. Just be like Deokhye. We are jus classmates. Not more than any of that."

"We can just be friends. I am not thinking of anything more than that, anyway."

"It's not as easy as what you think, Nari."

"You called me again by my name." She softly uttered.

"What?" Chani asked but Nari just shook her head.

Chani sighed before putting his hand on Nari's shoulders. He lowered his head to put his on the same level as Nari's. "I don't want to make Youngbin worry to. We all don't want that. But that guy... just keep on worrying about things even though it wasn't his fault."

Chani lowered his gazed to the floor causing his forehead and hair to slightly brush against Nari's nose. She could smell his hair and felt it was fluffy.

Chani raised his chin again and looked at Nari's eyes. "We can still go to your house and play there like we've always done. We can be friends there if you want. But here, there are a lot of eyes watching. We can't afford to make a mess before graduating."

Nari's lips were pushed together forming a straight line.

"That's allI want to tell you." Chani said. He patted the top of Nari's head leaving.