The answer back came almost instantly. Like within the time limit on 2.6 seconds.

"It always is :)"

Arena leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling. "Sigh"

Naha's eyes rose from her phone screen as she inspected her friend. "Did you really just say 'sigh' out loud?"

Arena's head rolled to the side to look at Naha, her hair sliding and falling over her face and covering her hazel eyes. Blowing out a puff of air to get the hair out of her eyes, Arena showed the phone to Naha who grinned. Naha nudged Arena's arm and indicated to the phone, "They're backkkk," she whispered loudly, hoping that the teacher won't hear.

But the teacher in fact did hear and that earned Naha an angry glance. "Sorry." Naha pulled away and sat back in her chair, winking at her friend who only rolled her eyes in return.

Arena didn't reply to Kihyun right away, because the teacher decided that Arena and Naha were being too loud and had given them a few workbook pages to fill for punishment.

Arena's phone beeped 2 times more and she quickly tried to hide it. She dropped her phone into her Vans backpack which was sitting on the floor next to the desk.

It didn't beep again after, which made Arena a little quesy. She didn't know why.

"Hey, do you wanna grab ice cream after school?" Naha was already packing up her things as the schoolbell rang and class ended.

Arena merely nodded, too busy with stuffing her books into the bag and trying to find her phone from the bottom at the same time.

"So is that a yes?" Naha eyed her friend, ready to head out of the classroom being the only ones left already.

"Yeah sure," Arean slung her colorful bag over her shoulder and hurried out of the classroom, leaving Naha staring at her figure in the increasing distance.

"Ah seriously", Naha took off after Arena and soon found her putting books into her locker.

"Dude what the hell was that?" Naha was gasping for breath and leaned a hand on the locker next to Arena's. She was waving air with her hand to herself as she flipped her blue hair over her shoulder.

Arena looked up, shocked. "I thought you were following me."

Naha gave a look. You know. The -are you freaking kidding me right now- look.

Arena cringed and closed her locker quietly stepping closer to Naha and meeting her eyes with a look of her own. She shrugged, "Sorry 'bout that then. C'mon, let's go to math and then grab that ice cream you made me think about." Arena stepped back and smiled, holding out a hand to Naha.

"Kay," Naha may have had a suspicious look in her eyes but she still took her besy friend's hand and let Arena lead her to the math class.

Time to rake their brains with endless calculations.

***

That did not go so well as planned, Arena's thoughts kept spinning back to a certain someone, she wasn't able to focus basically during the entire class.

She kept repeating "I can't believe he contacted me again" in her head and it was slowly driving her to the edge of losing her mind.

As the excruciatingly painful math lesson ended, Arena looked to her friend with pain in her eyes.

"Can we please get out of here?" Arena whispered as Naha slung her bag over her slim shoulder.

Naha put her finger to her mouth and jerked her head to the door.

Shh, let's talk outside.

Arena nodded, took her own bag and out of the door they went.

"You wanna cut class?" Naha looked at Arena from the side as they strode through the hallways once again. Arena kept her gaze ahead, only nodding in response.

Naha sighed and pushed the exit door. "After you then."

It's not like cutting class was a big deal in their high school, since teachers rarely checked the absentees. Arena and Naha skipped their last lesson, Chemistry, which honestly was so boring that Arena fell asleep in at least half of the Chem lessons, with Naha having to nudge Arena awake every time.

They got into Arena's Kia and set off, not knowing where to go. "Your place?" Arena kept looking at the road as she rode and waited for Naha to answer.

"Mhm." She was on her phone. Naha raised her eyes to look at Arena, who had gathered her hair up into a high bun and some orange strands were spilling out. She had dyed her hair on the weekend, orange being Arena's favorite color. It made Naha think about her own fading blue hair.

"Why did you want to leave?" Naha was examining her hair ends, wondering if she should re-dye them soon.

Arena shrugged and glanced her fellow passenger, quickly looking ahead again. "School was just pissing me off, that's all."

"School always pisses you off."

Arena bit her lip, "True, but today it was kinda unbearable." She grinned at Naha, who got the message.

"Have you replied to him?"

"Nada. Here, you can look and tell me what he texted when we were in class." Arena fished her phone from the back pocket of her jeans and gently tossed it to Naha's lap.

"You know my passcode?"

"Who would I be if I didn't," Naha smiled and typed in Arena's password, opening the chat between Arena and Kihyun.

"OOh you have changed the chat backround. It's cute."

"Just read the messages."

Naha was quiet for a second as she scanned the screen, finally speaking again, "Okay so, he basically asked if you were ignoring him and that you'd text him back because he needs to explain."

"Explain what?" Arena looked at Naha who shrugged.

"Dunno, maybe he feels quilty for disappearing or something? Anyway I can quote him if you want to."

"Yes, thank you."

Naha took a breath in and read Kihyun's messages, word to word.

"Are you ignoring me?

Text me back, I need to talk to you."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"Hmm."

Naha sighed and closed Arena's phone, placing it safely in her lap, "I think you should text him back."

Arena thought for a while, "Yeah."

***

"What's up?"

Kihyun opened his eyes as Wonho's face suddenly appeared in front of him.

"God you scared me," Kihyun sighed and got up from the couch he had been dozing off on.

"Sorry, just wanted to tell you that we're gonna go in 30 minutes."

Kihyun scratched his head, remembering that they had recording and practice after. "Right, thanks." He the sleep from his eyes and grabbed his phone from the table, checking for new messages as he walked to their shared wardrobe for new clothes which he could practice in.

There weren't any messages from Arena, which made Kihyun worry that she was ignoring him for a reason and possibly mad at him, but there was a text message from Ms. Park.

Kihyun looked around to make sure no one was snooping around the corner like Hyungwon and Minhyuk liked to sometimes do. He opened the message and read :

"Looked over the dance auditions with the management and choreographers. Nothing certain yet but things are looking good for Arena. Just in case don't tell her yet. "

Kihyun smiled and typed in a reply :

"Yes, thank you for telling me."

He took his clothes and headed to the bedroom he shared with a few of his members. A ghost of a smile stayed on Kihyun's lips even as they practiced new choreographies late into the night.

Arena could actually become a trainee.

Here.

Kihyun would be lying if he said he wasn't hoping that it'd come true.

Because he really wanted to see her again, no matter how cliché that sounded.