The sun bid through the clouds and once again, the star's shine was gone. With the ray of the sunshine, the star always turned into any other ordinary person, hiding his actual identity for the night.

Jimbae sat on his bed and moved his body back and forth, his chin on his upright knees. His sleep was gone. Because the thought of not being the star of the night anymore tired him away. Being an ordinary person, not caring about other people, pretending to not know the people he knew for years was never who he was.

No matter how mad or upset Jimbae was, as much as he cared about other people, he wanted others to not worry about him as well so he always brushed it off and put on a wide smile to convince everyone and himself that he was fine. And he knew that that day, the minute he entered school, he'd think of Carrot, wondering how she was.

Though Carrot might not feel the same anymore, she might not think about Jimbae as much as he does but that was just who Jimbae was. The Jimbae everyone knew. The star.

As expected, that day, when Jimbae entered his class, the first thing his eyes went to was Carrot's seat next in the classroom. "You miss Carrot, don't you?" Asked Title.

And even though Jimbae, from outside, looked like the happiest person on earth, Title knew him well but Jimbae didn't have the energy to answer, probably because he knew that Title already knew the answer to the question.

Not long after, the teacher arrived. While taking attendance, a bunch of guys in university uniforms interrupted the class, barging in. "Teacher!" One of them yelled.

Turned out that they missed their school and were there to visit and meet the teachers. In the very back stood Joe. Noticing Joe, Jimbae totally forgot about what he was worrying about. It's like he had some kind of magic that led to vanishing Jimbae's memory.

The other university students, who were most probably Joe's friends, were busy talking to the teacher. "We miss this place.", "It's been a long time since I last saw you." Jimbae heard them say but neither him nor Joe was paying attention to the teachers or those guys. They were busy staring the soul out of each other.

Joe stood there, both his hands in his pocket and stared right into Jimbae's eyes as if throwing rays of love potion. "We'll go now."

With the sentence from one of Joe's friends, Joe came back to his senses. "Wait!" He shouted, not wanting to leave the classroom with Jimbae yet. All his friends turned to look at him. "Don't you have anything to give her?" Joe asked and everyone nodded.

Almost all of them handed the teacher different things: pen, flower, candy and Joe handed her a note, all while still staring at Jimbae. It's like his eyes were locked. He couldn't turn away no matter how much he tried.

After it was finally time to leave the room, there were no excuses left. Joe locked eyes with Jimbae for one last time before winking and turning away from the classroom. The wink made Jimbae almost melt. He could hear his heart beating very fast. Could he be actually falling in love already?

"Isn't that phi Joe?" Traffic asked from beside Jimbae.

"He looks so different now. So hot!" Title murmured. Jimbae didn't pay attention because his eyes were still busy following the sight of Joe through the classroom windows until he was totally out of sight.

"Jimbae? What are you looking and smiling at?" Title landed a hand on Jimbae's shoulder and asked.

"Don't mind him. He's always smiling," Traffic replied and brushed Title's hand away from Jimbae's shoulder.

Jimbae looked back at his open book in front of him as the teacher continued taking attendance. He sighed, his smile slowly fading for the first time in the whole day as if his cheeks felt tired. But the minute he looked up again, the smile was back.

Why did he smile like that all the time?

Because he was happy?

Happy after what he had to go through?

Not really. No one would be happy after losing one of the people they're closest to like that. Though Jimbae never realized that his love for Carrot was platonic and nothing that exclusive, she was still one of the people he was closest to, the person he shared his happiness with.

A smile never meant happiness to Jimbae. He just liked talking to people. It distracted him from everything. And that smile made him approachable. Smile was just an expression for him to try and ease his mind away.

Back At Home

Jimbae had his own room but that decision was made by Tian not long ago. Tian knew Jimbae liked to stay close to other people and act childish at times. He was always like that. But he still insisted on Jimbae to get a separate room. He insisted that Jimbae was growing up and it was time for him to have some privacy.

Though Jimbae was initially upset when that decision was first made, he understood the importance with time because as he grew up, he started wanting more and more alone time together. Unlike before, socializing with others began tiring him.

Jimbae laid on his bed, his mind wandering on every topic he could find to avoid the topic of Carrot and... Joe. But it's like those thoughts were chasing him like a predator and he couldn't escape. No matter how much he tried to, he couldn't.

He didn't understand his feelings. His teenage life had almost ended already then why was he now only handling the difficulties of being a teenager?

Jimbae missed Carrot. He had called her several times but it said she was busy. She had probably already found a new friend.

But was he really supposed to miss Carrot that much? His feelings were strong. But how strong? If he really had that strong feelings for her, how come he never wanted to get closer to her? Kiss her?

Carrot had figured out her feelings for him though it took 2 years but how come he still wasn't able to do that? Did he actually like her or not? Not even him could answer that.

Thinking all of that, before Jimbae could come to comprehend, it was already dinner time. But he didn't want to eat.

As Jimbae forced himself to sit on the bed, his body felt heavy as if the bed was gripping him tightly. He didn't want to leave his room but he knew that he would have to.

He forced himself up and took small steps towards the dining table where Tian stood, placing the food pot on the table. Jimbae silently sat down, his smile taking over his face again. His gaze averted to his toes under the table, not wanting to look his parent in the eye.

Tian served food and it took only a few minutes for Jimbae to finish eating. He wore that familiar fake smile on his face while all along not uttering a single word during the process.

Tian watched as Jimbae got up and walked back to his room, his face showing obvious concern.

Tian had known Jimbae his whole life. And Tian and Phupha were basically his everything. The only difference was that none of them gave birth to him, that's all. After Jimbae was born, he couldn't open his eyes. And the first thing he saw after being born was Tian's face. Therefore, Tian knew him even more than Jimbae realized. Only Tian was able to distinguish when his son was actually happy and when he was pretending to be.

After providing food to Jimbae's grandparents as well, Tian walked his way towards Jimbae's room. Tian knew him greatly. He knew that something was up. That smile wasn't enough to convince him that he was okay.

Tian knocked on the door three times and the familiar voice called from inside, "Come in."

Tian did as advised, opening the door and entering. Jimbae's face lit up with uncertainty the moment he saw Tian walking in. He didn't know who he was expecting but it was certainly not his pa.

Tian walked closer and sat beside Jimbae, landing a hand on his shoulder. He sighed and started with an assuring expression. "Ah, tell me what's wrong."

Jimbae's eyebrow furrowed in an attempt to convince his pa. "Nothing's wrong, pa," He murmured, putting on that same fake smile that Tian was already tired of seeing.

"I was not born tomorrow. I know you more than you know yourself ja. Tell me now," Tian replied, being sarcastically harsh on purpose. Boys Jimbae's age were usually very stubborn and so was Jimbae.

"Fine." Jimbae's smile slowly started wearing off as he looked down at his knees. "Carrot and I broke up," He blurted out.

"What? Why?" Tian asked, his brows furrowed in confusion.

To Be Continued.....

A/n: Everything is confusing for Jimbae. It's quite hard to be in the phase where just nothing makes sense. Your brain says one thing but heart says other.

What do you think about this chapter? Let me know in the comments.