The door to Joe's apartment was pushed open. Entered Joe with his beloved junior Jimbae wrapped around his shoulder. The boy couldn't even stand up properly.

Joe rushed in and threw the boy quite roughly on the bed. The boy was tall and obviously a bit stronger and heavier than Joe. It's a blessing that Joe could carry the boy like that all the way to his apartment despite his less strength.

The boy whined out a loud hum while kicking his feet out of the bed to try to take his shoes off. Joe sat by the side, his lips automatically formed a smile as he looked at the whining boy beside him. He held Jimbae's legs so he wouldn't move with one hand while the other worked up to remove the shoes.

Jimbae crawled around the bed with his upper body, his legs still held by Joe once the shoes were off.

"Hmm... phi..." Jimbae suddenly hummed out, moving his body in a strange pattern. He tried to sit up but was too drenched.

"What is it?" Joe asked, hurrying off to hold Jimbae's arm.

"It's... hot." Jimbae pressed, still trying to get up. Joe held him by his shoulder, trying to help him up. "Hot..." Jimbae mumbled again and his eyes shifted to the figure next to him.

Jimbae's eyes locked with Joe's. His head tilted in a way that wasn't very comfortable. For a few seconds, he felt like he was forced to stop everything he was doing. His breath got heavier, his eyes roamed to the sweat dripping off of Joe's forehead. The more he stared, the hotter he felt. But he couldn't stop.

"Jimbae..." Joe's soft mumble got Jimbae out of the dripping addictive eye contact. He felt even hotter than before. His dreamy eyes roamed around the room, his lips forming a shy smile unknowingly.

"Do you want to take your clothes off?" Jimbae noticed Joe's eyes on his clothes which were almost drenched from sweat. Jimbae nodded, his condition too unstable to look the other man in the eyes once more. One of Jimbae's hands was fixed on Joe's waist the entire time though he didn't realize it.

Joe's hand roamed to Jimbae's shoulder in an attempt to lift Jimbae's hands. Another hand clutched the hem of Jimbae's shirt, taking it off steadily in one go.

Once the shirt was off, Jimbae dreamily threw his head back immediately on the pillow. Still not totally sober, he seemed exhausted.

Lifting his hips, Jimbae unbuckled his own pant's belt and insisted on taking his pants off as well. Though hesitant at first, Joe ended up just giving the boy a shaky smile before helping him with doing so.

After getting almost completely naked, the younger boy laid on the bed, finally satisfied with the amount of air that touched his body. His body began to cool down. His face, which was almost red from the heat, had finally returned to its original color. With a soft sigh of relief, the boy's eyes fell shut and he fell asleep.

Joe could guess how tired he truly was from the way he slept, so peacefully. But Joe couldn't sleep. The drunk boy next to him had already taken almost all the space on the bed. Joe crawled down the bed towards the side of the bed which was facing the balcony outside.

Through the dim light, he looked outside into the darkness of the night and light of the moon. Staring closely at the sky, he realized there wasn't a single star that could be seen in the sky. Maybe the star had fallen asleep. But the full moon shone deeply in the middle of the sky as if looking for its star.

* * * * *

Carrot didn't think she'd get along well with Hanah. But a few days back, Hanah sat next to her recognizing her from the other day. It was unexpected to Carrot for someone like Hanah to even notice her but after talking to her for a bit, Carrot realized that she had caught Hanah's attention on that day on the train.

"So... what's your name?" Hanah asked.

"It's... Carrot." Carrot mumbled. Her voice was not very audible. She felt embarrassed having such a name, especially saying her name to someone she met not long ago. She never felt embarrassed to say her name to her friends because they had similar names but Hanah? That's such a pretty name compared to hers.

"Callot? As in the vegetable? That's so cute!" Hanah exclaimed and giggled just a little. She wasn't able to pronounce the r sound and it made her sound even cuter. Carrot didn't expect that kind of reaction from her. She expected her to laugh hard at her name but she didn't. It gave her hope.

"I'm assuming you already know my name," Hanah claimed and with a nod from Carrot, she continued. "Well, now that we're not strangers anymore. Can we be friends?" Hanah smiled widely as she asked.

Carrot returned the smile though her smile looked more like she was grateful rather than happy. The doubt she had in the beginning about them getting along well disappeared in a moment. They might actually go well. Really well.

"Sure." Despite talking a lot and having a few bad friends, Hanah didn't seem like a bad person to Carrot. She was pretty but she considered everyone pretty. She paid attention to everyone. Everyone knew her but she also knew everyone in the class. Being close to her was not as bad as Carrot initially thought.

Back to the original day, Carrot and Hanah had gotten closer. In fact, Hanah had gotten closer to Carrot than her other so-called friends.

They started sitting together everyday in class and having lunch together during break. For a girl like Hanah, everyone found it strange that she was only a month into the new school and the one she decided to make her best friend was the quiet, nerdy girl.

As popular as Hanah had gotten, it seemed to Carrot that she was indeed different from the other popular girls, unlike them, she didn't have an attitude. In fact, she was really interested to know more about Carrot. For once till she joined that new school, Carrot felt seen.

"So you lived in Chiang Mai before? How was it there?" Hanah asked Carrot.

At that point, Carrot was already tired of answering all of her questions. Grabbing her own head in a bit of frustration, she realized who she had gotten involved with. The girl indeed talked a lot.

"It's still in Thailand. It's the same everywhere," Carrot replied, her eyes rolling just a bit. Hanah was starting to annoy her but for some reason, she didn't really feel bothered.

Hanah giggled. "Yeah, you're right."

Hanah talked a lot. She was annoying but there was something about her. A smile formed on Carrot's face as she looked up at Hanah from her book. The sound of Hanah's giggle was the cutest. It kept repeating in her mind.

"Callot?" Hanah asked, getting a hint that Carrot seemed lost for a second. "Don't you want to know anything about me too? Aren't we friends?" She asked, leaning on the study table.

What was up? They were in class but the teacher wasn't there. It turned out the teacher got suddenly sick so they got a free period. At the time when everyone was just gossiping around, Carrot was the only one sitting alone and reading a book so of course, Hanah noticed and went up to her.

As an excessive extrovert, Hanah found introverts interesting. She also found out last time by Gorya that there were different types of introverts. A social introvert was someone who didn't like to socialize and preferred staying on their own while a regular introvert did like to socialize but they just needed time for themselves once in a while to cheer up.

"What do you want me to know about you? You already told me everything I could ask!" Carrot replied and laughed out loud. It had been a while since she had been able to laugh like that.

"Right," Hanah chuckled. "I talk a lot, don't I? Am I annoying you?" Hanah asked, a smile still visible on her face.

No idea why but Hanah reminded Carrot of Jimbae. The always smiley, talkative, cute personality attracted her to the other girl a lot.

"You're not. It's actually... kinda cute," Carrot replied. The shift in Hanah's face was obvious as her smile widened along with her eyes. She seemed shocked and mesmerized at the same time. She probably wasn't expecting Carrot to say something like that but her smile surely showed that she liked it.

Hanah stayed silent for a few seconds, silently blushing and giggling to herself while turning away from Carrot. That was probably the longest Hanah had stayed quiet after she started the conversation. But Carrot didn't lie. She did seem like the cutest bean with that sweet personality of hers.

After finally turning to look at Carrot, a sudden glimpse caught Hanah off guard. Carrot was staring at her sneakily when she wasn't looking. It made her even happier inside but she decided to hide it. "So..." Hanah started but her sentence got cut off by the loud sound of the school bell ringing.

"I'm gonna go now. My dorm is a bit far away," Carrot said as she got up from her chair, hanging her bag on her shoulder. She landed a hand on Hanah's shoulder and gently tapped it.

Even though Hanah clearly didn't want her to go, she still nodded. She didn't want to hold her back from any urgency at the moment.

Hanah watched Carrot rush off outside. She stared at her the whole way but didn't utter a single word. Almost everyone in the class noticed Hanah like that but thankfully no one was nosy enough to poke their nose in her business like that.

To Be Continued.....

* * * * *

A/n: a big glimpse of the side couple. Joe and Jimbae didn't get enough in this chapter but it was enough to hint that they're both starting to fall for each other.

Please vote and comment if you liked this chapter. It encourages me to continue on ❤️