Chan POV

I was about to call out her name. Just as she was passing by, I decided to bite my tongue. She did not seem like she wanted to talk. Her head was down and she had earbuds in. Her normally cheerful self was down in the dumps. I was debating on whether I should talk to her now or not. I guess I would have to wait. Maybe during gym.

The morning passed by and I could not seem to get her upset image out of my mind. All I wanted to do was make her smile. Make her happy. Finally, it was the third period and we had gym. Hurriedly, I went by Woojin, who seemed surprised at my eagerness, and ran towards the gym. There, I almost bumped into Haneul and Areum.

"Oh, oops, sorry." I bowed slightly and went into the changerooms to get changed. Soon after, I was done changing and out of the changerooms to wait for the girl in the younger class. She was out quicker than I thought.

"Chan!" She said cheerfully, running up to me, giving me a hug.

I chuckled as I embraced her too. "Long time no see Grace!" (A/N: I was going to name her Hannah but I realize that Chan's sister's name is Hannah...)

She ended up talking with me throughout most of the gym class. We were playing badminton as partners too. As the day went on, we did not see each other too much, but by the end of the day, we were chatting for a really long time. She was being perky and joyful as always, which brought a smile to my face. I had asked her what was wrong before, she told me that she was just homesick. She told me a whole bunch of reasons as to why. Being me, I gave her a hug, trying to comfort her. As I was hugging her, I looked up to see Haneul and Areum staring at us. Areum was a little surprised, and Haneul was shocked. I watched as Haneul ran off, back inside the building, Areum following shortly after.

~*~

Areum POV

"Haneul, wait!" I ran after her. "Haneul!!!"

She stopped running and looked at me. "What?"

"There must be a misunderstanding. Grace..." I looked back at the door. "We don't even know the relationship between those two. Come on."

"I think he likes her." She shrugged. "There's no way he'd like me anyways." She looked at me in silence.

"Come on." I took her hand, dragging her back out the door. "We can figure it out okay?"

She sighed and nodded. Grace and Chan had found a place to sit and were now talking. We walked past them, Chan looked up at us. Haneul refused to look at him, but I did anyways. He looked questioningly at us, but then went back to his conversation with Grace.

All I knew about her was that she was a transfer. She lived elsewhere in the world and had come by for a month in a transfer program. Somehow, Chan and she had a connection. Or perhaps they never did and just clicked on the first day they met. Whatever the reason was, I had to convince Haneul that she still had a chance. That she should not give up on liking Chan. After all, Chan does like her too.

~*~

Jisung POV

"Haneul!" I ran after her as she headed down the street.

It was early in the morning and both of us were headed to school. She lived close to Chan while I lived closer to Felix. Neither of them had come by yet and she was the first one I saw so I decided to join her. She stopped in her tracks and let me join her. She took out her earbuds and turned off her music, putting her phone and earbuds away in the process.

"What's up Jisung?" She smiled as we continued our walk towards the bus stop.

"Nothing much." I shrugged. "Just didn't want to walk alone."

"Oh, I see." She smiled at me and we walked the rest of the way, chatting about school and our friends. She began to ask me questions about Stray Kids, which I joyfully answered. She asked how we got our name and the meaning behind it. I told her about how we were all "stray" one way or another. I ended up confessing to her a little about why I was "stray."

"Oh... how did that happen?" She asked me since she was clearly intrigued.

"Well, I lived in Malaysia. That's one thing that makes me different." I explained. "And that's where I lost my mom," I said quietly. "She got sick there..." I mumbled, not wanting to continue.

"Oh, I'm sorry about that." She put her hand on my shoulder. "Sorry for asking too."

"No, it's alright." I shrugged. "We're all different one way or another right?" I smiled.

"Yeah." She chuckled. "You know, you have really remind me of a squirrel..."

"Is that a bad thing?" My brows furrowed.

"Of course not!" She laughed. "You look really cute."

"Oh, thanks." My slight frown turned into a smile. "Y'know, you make a really great Noona." I said as we got onto the bus.

"How so?" She stared confused as we sat down.

"Well, both you and Areum are great Noonas." We both put our bags on our laps as we talked. "But you're not as distant."

"Oh." She nodded, looking out the window. "I don't think she wants to be... she just... has to be." She mumbled.

"What do you mean?" Tapping her shoulder, I tried to get her to explain, but she refused. She said that it was not her place to tell, that I would have to ask Areum myself. In the end, I gave up on pestering her for an answer. I was left to wonder what the reason was in my own mind.

~*~

3rd Person POV

Areum had invited Haneul to a dance practice. Both girls watched intently as the boys showed them their next performance. Haneul was amazed at the boy's skills and at Areum's training skills too. The boys asked her for what she thought too, she just told them that they could use more stage presence. Which they really could; some of them were too focused on the choreo and singing right to be present on stage. They took her advice and decided to perform one more time, doing their best to do it all. Which they actually did pretty well. The practice ended and everyone went their separate ways home. Haneul had invited Areum for a sleepover since it was the weekend and Areum agreed. She had left to go get her things from home and she would walk over to Haneul's house after.

Haneul waited and waited for her. She texted the guys in boredom as she waited. Looking at the clock, she realized it was already 5 pm. She should have been at Haneul's place two hours ago. She texted Changbin to see if she was at her apartment still. He said no. Haneul went to check outside but she did not see Areum. She tried calling Areum, but she did not pick up. Hours passed by, but Areum never showed up. Where could she be?

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Alright, last chapter of the day and then back to regular updates.

Thank you to SophyWriter for supporting me as I write this book!

ugh lowkey, your girl is... depressed. I know that's a touchy subject and no, I'm not diagnosed with depression or anything, I is just sad. Maybe it's cause it's a girl thing (y'know what I'm talking about... I got mine ;-;) but I just feel down. As always, I'm doubting this story and seriously considering taking it down. Tell me your thoughts on whether I should keep it up or not. If you don't wanna say anything, that's okay too. 

On a lighter note, it's still our binsual's birthday (at least where I'm at) so here's some more pics that I've downloaded:

Happy birthday to this beautiful man. O... he's already 20 (21 in Korea)

I love him. <3

Oh wait... skz sees things that their fans post right... let's hope he doesn't see this cringe show of me downloading his pics XD

Alright, that's it for today! See you in the next chapters!