"How was your day at school?"

The older lady asked sweetly as the boy plopped on the couch, throwing his bag beside him and smiled widely at the elder.

"Good!"

He chirped shortly. The lady smiled back and continued speaking.

"Did you make any friends?"

The lady chuckled, looking at the boy from the reflection in the mirror, pouting at her.

"You know!"

He whined, making the lady giggle harder. Jungkook left a giggle when he heard her laugh. It was something he liked the most out of all the things he saw and experienced in a day.

It is indeed really boring to just sit idle in the class, unable to speak out your discomfort. Selective mutism really sucks.

"Alright, alright. I'll get you some snacks. Go freshen up yourself."

She chuckled and shook her head, heading out of the room. The teenager quickly did what was said to him and changed up, putting on some fresh clothes plopped himself down the bed.

"What should I do now?"

He murmured to himself and looked around the room.

A smile crossed his lips when he spotted a small dairy-like book on the corner of his study desk. He picked it up and turned it to a new, fresh page.

It was a blank note book where he spends his time drawing. He mostly draws in it when he's stressed. Some people like to write about their days on small diaries. But he draws an imaginary picture that explains his day. Wording down things sound boring.

He bit the back of his pencil, thinking about all the tings that had happened from the dusk when he woke up, till the current period of time.

"Let's be friends!"

His eyes lit up and a smile beamed on his face.

"Should I draw her?"

He thought. Suddenly, his face fell. He had been really bad to the girl. He regretted it really bad now. The girl just wanted to be friends with him and that's all. But he let his social anxiety take control of him.

"I was so rude to her today."

He thought in his mind as he started too draw an outline of Yuna's face out of what he remembered.

"I can give her this to apologize."

He drew the eyes. When he first looked at them, they held so much care and happiness unlike his own dull ones. Then then nose, Yuna had a small nose with a well defined nose bridge. And then her pretty, hear-shaped lips.

He smiled at his drawing. He realized just realized how beautiful Yuna is, when he examined each of the details of his portrait of Yuna. He was also proud of how good he drew it.

It may not be identical, but it can be understood very well.

"Yes!"

He exclaimed happily, extremely pleased with himself and jumped out of the bed. He tore the page from the note book and folded it, putting it inside his school uniform's pocket.

"Ajhumma! I'm coming!"

He said energetically and ran down the stairs. It was one of those rare time when the boy was so happy that he didn't want to miss school at all. He was very well excited for the next day and wasn't like the one where he would lock himself into the bathroom or fake sick to skip school.

His day rather went nice, his excitement at his peak. He wanted to be friends with the girl and forgot about his anxious mind completely.

"Don't pack me tiffin today, Ajhumma. I'll have it in the canteen!"

His Ajhumma gave him a suspicious look, but respected his decision, the boy had never been so excited and she wondered why. She smiled, thinking the boy may have found a buddy to spend time with. But her happiness was soon replaced by worry. What if his friend gets to know about his condition and leaves him too? What if it happens, and it puts a great effect on him?

These 'What ifs' kept bothering her all the time after he had expressed his excitement for school. She knew that the boy had lost friends a lot of times. She knew that he had been isolated because of his damn condition for a long time. She knew that the boy would have probably gotten used to it by now.

But he was still innocent and naive. He couldn't help but feel hurt by people moving away from him, especially when it takes so long for him to open up to certain people. After that he would spend hours locked up in his room, his anxious mind giving him several negative thoughts.

Am I a whimp?

Am I coward?

Do I not deserve to be loved?

Is my condition a disgusting thing?

After every single time somebody would leave him, he would cry for nights into his pillow. The sweet lady, his aunt, tried to tell him that they weren't worth of his tears. She was hurting to see her only nephew, the little boy whom she had raised up as her own child, suffering like that. She tried to explain him that in life, as many people as he'll meet, he may lose twice as many people.

But for him, getting along people was hard. But when he did, he made them very close to himself. And after he had already opened up so much to them, it left a deep wound in his heart when they just vanished.

There would be endless night where you would see a young lady cradling a boy in her arms and whispering,

"I'll always be there for you."

Nevertheless, she realized that the boy was growing older and as much as it hurt to accept, she needed to slowly start to leave him to be independent.

"Be nice at school."

She smiled and handed him a backpack. The boy showed her a thumps up with his signature bunny smile that made the older laugh. And then ran off.

"Be safe!"

The oldest screamed at the boy running in the busy streets. She sighed, convincing herself that he'll reach safely.

"God knows what had gotten into him."

She shrugged, but smiled. It was the first time that he was the one to approach someone first.
_________________

He stepped in the class and sighed, glad to have found it almost empty. That is the type of silence he liked. He sat at the back corner sneakily, as if stealing something from a shop and pulled out his drawing of Yuna, staring at it.

His eyes went to the bottom of the paper, where he had written a small apology.

"I'm sorry for being rude."

It made him think back of the day, when he had shooed the girl away as if she was a miserable street dog continuously following him for treat. He felt scared.

What if she hates me now?

The thought itself made his anxiety return. He sighed, putting the drawing back in his pocket with shaky hands. His eyes were stuck at the door. More students started to pour inside, but he was searching for only one person.

He anxiously looked over at the clock, the school gate was about to close. Is she not going to come today? But she's not the type of girl to miss school so often. Is she still mad? Sad? Hurt?

He remembered those hurt eyes that he had ignored the previous day. He thought back about the sketch he had made.

How can I give it to her?

His thoughts were interrupted by the the sound of the annoying school bell. He groaned and stood up for the morning assembly. (Do they have assemblies in schools in Korea?)

It seemed to go by rather quicker. But still, no sweet girl with ponytails appeared infront of the classroom door. By this time, he was certain that no more students would be allowed to enter anymore. With a heavy feeling in his heart, he sat back quietly at his bench at the command of his teacher as the lecture began.

He couldn't really focus. He kept staring at Lia. He figured out that Lia must know something, since she was Yuna's best friend. She didn't seemed bothered about her friend's absence at all.

He wanted to ask Lia about the girl. But he knew his courage won't take his side for that. He eyed the empty bench beside Lia, where Yuna was suppose to sit. It was Saturday, which meant he'd have to wait till Monday to meet the girl. It's just a day, he can wait, right?

Dawdling with the pen on the back of his copy is what helped him pass his time in the class without getting in trouble with the teacher. He figured out that he couldn't focus in class anymore and it pissed him off. There were six more classes to attend, each of almost an hour.

Soon, it was lunch time. The class hurried to the canteen, pushing their ways through the corridor. It was a complete World War III. He remembered how he had told his aunt to not pack him food. He regretted it now. He forgot to bring money, so he can't buy food from the canteen either.

He groaned, putting his head on his desk. He had refilled his water bottle two times already. His stomach made weird noises. He wrapped an arm around it. Yes, not bringing any food was definitely a bad decision.

Suddenly, someone tapped his shoulder. He felt himself shiver as he slowly looked up. But before he could catch a proper glance, the person placed a tray of food on his desk. It was Lia.

The smell of the food hit his nostrils, making his mouth water. He had never tried the canteen food. It looked really nice and smelled nice and delicious too.

"I saw you didn't eat anything. So I brought you these."

She said bluntly and made her way back to her desk with her food. He wanted to ask her a lot of things. She was still near him.

How can I pay you back for these? I didn't bring any money.

Why are you being so nice? I shooed you away that day.

Where is Yuna? I wanted to give her something.

He wanted the answers to a lot more questions. But there flew his courage outside the window. Slowly nibbling at his food with the fork, his hands shaking, he blurted out a blunt 'thank you' which could've barely been heard by anymore, had not the class been empty.

He didn't know why Lia was here in the class, when all the other students eat in the canteen.

"Yuna has gone for a vacation, if that's what you are thinking."

His eyes widen. How did she know? He never told anyone. He never even talked to anyone in the class about Yuna. How did she know he was searching for Yuna?

His ears turned into a dark shade of red from the embarrassment. He quickly gulped down his food and ran out of the classroom to return the utensils. What he didn't see was Lia smirking at him when he left.

"Let's see how you do what you want to do."

1883 words-

Posted this series after almost four months. I don't even know if there are any readers of this-😂😂😂😂😂

alright, anyGAYS-

I think I'm improving pretty well looking at how well I can now describe my characters' feelings and how much my word count had increased. I hope it will be worth your time to read as well.

Thanks for opening this book and reading it. I really appreciate it. I really hope you've liked it!

Lob chu!
Baiii!
*Flies away-*