The first thing Jisung did when the teacher dismissed the class was to jump up from his seat and collect everything on his table so he could carelessly shove them back into this bag. He ignored the confused looks and cooing questions of the friends about his sudden rush of movements while he busied himself with pulling all the junk out of his desk drawer.

What he knew was that the teacher had dismissed the class two minutes ago and he could not be too sure if you would choose to wait by the school gate for him. He has to be quick, and he was.

After he flung his schoolbag over his shoulders, he bid his friends a hasty goodbye and ran out of the classroom. Speeding down the stairs, the way his backpack continued to hit against his back went completely unnoticed until he stumbled out of the front doors of his school. He could feel a stinging sensation at the back of his hips. He promptly ignored it.

The front path greeted him with fallen leaves and gusts of wind. Students swarmed around him to leave the school and his eyes skipped past all of them with only one goal in mind: you. His chest heaved with the flow of his gaze, mouth breathing rapidly as his eyes brushed off one after another person as soon as he realized that they were not you.

The dread that you might have left already consumed him with a sense of panic. Jisung gulped hardly at the thought of another round of late-night sensitive thinking about why you had not appeared for days, and whether he had chased you away because he asked one stupid question about those strings on your arm.

"You are being really tense."

He whipped around as his eyes widened. When he saw you standing in front of him, he exhaled in relief and touched his sweaty forehead with his possibly even sweatier palm. A chuckle left his lips when he saw you tilting your head to the side questioningly, and as usual, the first thing he said was a good old 'hello.'

You carefully observed his body, your intense eyes making him straighten his back. After a short moment, you looked up into Jisung eyes and you spoke, "You are still being really tense. Are you okay?"

"Me? Yeah, sure. Why would I not be?" Jisung laughed with a dismissive wave of his hand, the act causing his posture to be even more rigid than ever. He finally toned himself down when he saw your unamused expression, and he cleared his throat just in case his voice would crack as he speaks. "Nothing happened. I just... um..."

He was planning to tell you that he had a physical battle with his textbooks, ran all the way from the sixth floor, leaped through several flights of stairs just to make sure he gets the chance to talk to you again. But it seemed he thought better of it. It was quite dramatic, even Jisung had to stop himself from spilling all his effort out into the wind.

"I just ran a little." He nodded at you, comically waving his hand to dramatize his words so his slow-fading panting would not come to attention. "Nobody likes school so we try to get out of here as quickly as possible, and that results in me running down the stairs sometimes."

You stared at him skeptically but soon nodded with a shrug since you had no idea how to judge whether he was lying to you or not. Besides, should it matter if he was being tense or why he ran? It was nothing of your business.

"I know how that feels. I didn't like school either," you said casually. "At least when I was still attending one."

Jisung was still huffing out breaths to calm himself down but you could faintly hear a mini gasp amongst all of them. His blinking was rapid as he gave you a questioning noise, and you snorted a laugh at him.

"Well, of course I went to school once. How did you think I learn how to read? Albeit not as advanced as what you know, possibly."

You had decided to start walking as you speak. Standing in the middle of the road and forcing everyone else to swerve out of their way to walk past you two was not sitting well with you, especially when everyone seemed to be giving you both the sting eyes. Jisung had automatically followed you, matching his pace with yours as well as keeping his eyes on you to hopefully prompt a further explanation.

You understood what his expression meant and you pursed your lips with a gentle hum. A lot of things happened when you were in school but none of which you could reveal to Jisung due to how most of your learning material was related to magic. You were still unsure whether he would be able to handle the truth well. You have only just known him, after all.

You have watched him from the sideline for a while, though. Most people would call it stalking, but in your case it was not only to satisfy your curiosity but also to gather information. You felt the safest when you knew more about someone than they knew about you, and you could disregard their possible feelings of dismay because it was a known fact to yourself that you would never harm them.

Jisung appeared to be a cheerful person, also very caring and energetic. He did not feel to be the judgemental one with harsh opinions, but the thought alone was not enough to eliminate all the past mistakes of you revealing your identity as a magic-user to others who you thought would help you.

"Nothing very special happened when I was in school. I just knew I didn't like it." You shrugged.

"Well, I can agree with you on that." Jisung nodded. "High school is pretty fun if you have good friends with you."

"Do you have good friends? It sounds like it isn't fun for you," you asked as you turned to him. You kept a straight face as you asked the question, even though you knew the answer already.

Jisung has a lot of friends, but there were three he hangs out with the most. You did not know of their names, but their faces you could easily recognize: a calm-looking one, a good-looking one, and a cute-looking one. After having made that observation, you could safely conclude that Jisung was the loud-looking one in his friend group. And you didn't even know loud had a face until you saw him.

"I have good friends–of course, I have good friends!" Jisung spoke proudly. His hand reached up to his chest and he started to count off.

"Seungmin can be a little blunt but he is really smart and he lets me copy his homework all the time. Hyunjin is a little too good-looking and I feel awkward standing with him sometimes, but he also lets me copy his homework. And I might not be able to understand Felix half the time but he teaches me English and he plays games with me."

You laughed, the genuine sound descending lower and lower until Jisung could hear a hint of sadness seeping through. He piped down from his little ramble and blinked at you with concern, unsure if he had said something wrong again. Upon the sudden silence, you let your eyes peer over to his side and you raised your brows at the worried gaze he was giving you.

"What?" you asked innocently.

Jisung pouted before he looked away. He stared ahead at the road, speaking nonchalantly, "It's just... you looked sad, so I thought maybe I said something wrong again."

"Again?"

He nodded. "Yeah. First, it was about the strings. Come to think of it, you reacted a little too strongly for them to just be bracelets," he pointed out carefully. "But I thought I did something wrong because you haven't been around here for days now. It is like you are trying to avoid me or something. It bothered me a lot."

You were rendered speechless. You had not realized you left such an impact in his thoughts, seeing that he was happy hanging out with his existing friends. He has never seen you around the school before either, so it wasn't like he knew this was a common route for you to take. Yet, somehow, he knew when you were gone. It was a supernatural knowledge; Jisung could just feel it.

Now that the truth revealed itself to you, you did not know what to say. Kicking your feet harder against the ground, you rubbed your hands together nervously.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to avoid you."

"Oh, so you were avoiding me?"

His eyes were empathetic. It made you feel as if telling him the truth wouldn't hurt you as much as it would hurt him. It would be too much for him to take, though, and there was no way for you to let go of the cautiousness you have worn on yourself for years. The best you could do was to lay it down slowly for him to realize none of it was his fault.

"I was, but it is from a personal problem. I just..." Your eyes rolled up to the sky in thoughts, then you came to a stop when you found out you two have arrived at the main gate of the school. "I haven't met a friend in a really long time so I am a little rough around the edges when it comes to social interactions."

"Oh..." Jisung softened at your honesty. It was more affectionate than anything he could ask for to have you pour your heart out in front of him just to clear a misunderstanding.

It must have been hard for you to do so, he assumed. And it brought him a real joy to know that you chose to spill the beans despite the embarrassment that often surrounds the act.

"Thank you for telling me that," he said with a faint smile, soft as feather and light as the night.

The weight of rocks was lifted off your shoulders upon his smile. You exhaled gently, returning his smile. The wind blew but it never seemed to hit the both of you fully; it brushed past the tip of your hair as if to wave goodbye.

Under this almost sentimental atmosphere, Jisung recalled the first day he met you and how he had thought you were pretty. He almost forgot about that. He had been too focused on the emotional aspect of you to fully appreciate your features. And in all honesty, right now didn't seem to be the best time to do it either, but he was staring until you broke the silence.

You jabbed your thumb behind your back. "I am going to take my leave now. You should go back home too, Jisung."

"Ah–hey, wait! Wait!" Jisung reached out for you, his hand not retreating to his side this time as he let himself get a full grasp of your wrist. When you turned around to look at him, your eyes peering down at the tight grip of his hand and back up at him, he gulped down the knot in his throat and tightened his grip for courage. "I... I have something to say."

You turned around to face him, gently removing your hand from his. Jisung scratched the back of his head shyly then, letting out a long string of noise as he crinkled his nose.

"I... um," he started, "I just wanted to say you can stay over at my house. Please do! I already asked my parents and they are fine with it."

You scrunched your face immediately upon the absolutely incredulous news he spilled. You licked your lower lip after you have registered the fact, now surprised but also very appreciative of his kind gesture. "It's fine, Jisung." You shook your head and waved your hands in front of your chest politely. "I don't want to bother you and your family."

"They said it is fine though! I am okay with it too! It concerns me even more to think that you don't have a place to go home to!" Jisung exclaimed animatedly, clapping his hands together and squeezing them tightly in a praying manner. "You should be able to sleep at a house, you know? Not just a motel or something! Just come over! I already told my mom about it and I think she already made an extra portion for dinner so you have to tag along."

"She did?" You mumbled to yourself.

"Yeah! You bet she did!" Jisung nodded with a hearty smile. "She is tired of seeing my old friends over all the time, anyway! She is probably delighted to see me bringing someone else."

"I mean..." You gave him a doubtful expression, but his energy did not falter. When you asked again, your voice was as timid as ever, "Are you sure?"

"Yes! Don't even worry about it," he urged with a grin. His hand went up to give your arm a playful shove forward before guiding you out the school gate with him. "Come on, let's go!"

Pulling out his phone from his pocket, Jisung discreetly texted his mother to inform her of the unscheduled plan. You could break his lie when you guys arrived at his home, but he supposed anything is worth giving you a warm bed to sleep on and some nice homemade meal to eat.