-^* Are we clear? *^- | Haobin

-^* 8 *^-

Once I made it to my studio, I sat on the floor with my back against the large mirror and stared at my phone. I had Hao's number pulled up from our work group chat, my finger hovering over the call button. If he caught a flight this morning, there was a high chance he'd still be on it now. I wanted to call him so bad, but at the same time I was scared to. I still partially felt distant from him despite our past, since I couldn't recollect it myself. Not only that, I felt like it would be overbearing for me to call him like this while he's clearly dealing with something over there. And yet, I felt this jealousy rising within me.
Who was Yuxuan... that was what I wanted to know.
I swiped off the contact screen and onto Instagram where I searched the name in Hao's following list.
There he was. His profile picture was an old photo, pixelated and hard to see. However, you could make out two young figures. I was almost positive it was him and Hao. I clicked on the profile and went through the posts. Every single one had at least one photo with Hao, or something relating to him. Whether that was a screenshot of their messages or simply photos taken in the same locations that Hao's posts were taken, it all seemed to be about him in some way. He was tagged in almost every single one. His highlights were mostly of himself or his family but scrolling along he had one titled with the panda emoji. I clicked on it to find picture after picture of Hao and him. Looking closer, his face did spark some recognition, but for the life of me I couldn't recall anything.
As I delved deeper, I noticed a new story pop up. However, before I could click on it, I was woken from my trance by a knock at my studio door. I turned my head to see one of my students.
I'd completely forgot about teaching...

Thankfully I had only missed around five minutes of lesson time, and quickly ushered all of the kids in.

Once I'd taught the kids the lesson I had planned from prior to my fall, I saw them off and wandered up to the private studios upstairs where I practiced for a while.

Once lunchtime rolled around I grabbed my lunch and sat down, finally checking my phone again to see a new notification.

1 new message from 'Zhang Hao (work)'

I clicked on the notification with anticipation.

Zhang Hao: Hii, I had to fly out quickly this morning. Don't worry it's nothing serious so I should be back in a few days I'm just staying over at a friends and visiting my mom.

I stared at the message for a bit, unsure how to reply. My brain was still fogged trying to search for memories of this Yuxuan guy.

Me: It's okay. Be safe and let me know when you're on your way back. Also why did you fly out?

I wanted to hear from him what was going on.
The message sat unopened for a few moments before he finally started typing again.

Zhang Hao: Just visiting a friend. He needed some help with something.

His answer was ambiguous. To me, it felt like he'd purposely left details out. Usually it wouldn't bother me, however, recently due to what had happened, I was gaining a real pet peeve for things like this.
I closed my phone and left it face down on the table as I ate my lunch. I hadn't even noticed that Jiwoong, Taerae and Kyungsook were all sat around me until I finally was awoken from my tense frustration by Jiwoong.
"Are you alright, Hanbin?"
I lifted my head, slightly startled and peered around at the trio.
"Ah- yeah- I'm fine just...eating." I stuttered with an awkward chuckle.
"Is it about Hao? Don't worry seriously, he'll back soon anyway. Whenever this happens he's never gone for long..."
So it's happened before. In fact, it happened enough for Jiwoong to say 'whenever'. Frankly that just made me feel worse knowing that he was flying out somewhat regularly for this guy.
"And they're just friends, right Jiwoong? Childhood friends." Taerae reassured, looking to Jiwoong for support on his claim.
"Mmm, they've been friends for years, they're just close. And I'm sure whatever tension you had with him in high school wasn't that serious."
I nodded and took another bite of my sandwich.
"How about we just don't talk about it anymore, I'm sure Hanbin can talk to Hao about it himself." Kyungsook sighed.
I was grateful she'd said that, now that I understand the situation somewhat, the only person I could fully understand it from was Hao himself. And since he was preoccupied, I didn't particularly want to think about it all.
Taerae and Jiwoong nodded in agreement and began to eat their lunch whilst chatting about their mornings.
"On another note, I found a replacement for me today, so I can finally leave for good!" Taerae beamed. I smiled brightly.
"A new hire, I won't be the new one anymore...it's a little bittersweet," I chuckled.
"Aww Taerae we'll miss having you around like this..." Jiwoong added.
"What's their name?" I asked, intrigued.
"Hmmm, it's a surprise." Taerae smirked in response. I nodded with a laugh and we continued to eat our lunch.

I stayed late at work, preparing all the lessons I needed to since I'd missed a day of work. Once I left, it was beginning to become dark and the breeze was blowing with an icy coldness.
I sat at the bus stop and watched the cars go by, my mind clear for the first time in a while. I was ignoring the issues I was facing, I didn't want to let it bother me more than it had been already.
I sighed and pulled my phone out of my pocket before a chirpy voice interrupted me.
"Hanbin hyung!"
I turned my head and placed my phone back in my pocket, spotting Gyuvin plodding towards me.
"Oh Gyuvin, hi!" I waved with a smile. He stood in front of me and peered down.
"How's work been?" He asked.
"It's alright, how's school?"
"Tiring, final exams are coming up so I'm swamped with work. I'm just coming back from cram school." He sighed, taking a seat beside me.
I nodded and placed my arm around his shoulder.
"Any plans for after? Are you planning to go to university?"
"Actually...I wanted to tell you before you find out from the company but...I applied for a job at the studio!"
The new hire was Gyuvin. I was pleasantly surprised considering the fact that I thought he had much bigger plans.
"Oh? I thought you'd go to some big university and go into modelling. Why the studio?"
He shrugged and leant his head back against the bus shelter window.
"It's just that...I wanted some time to figure it all out and I thought getting some experience would be the best route for me right now."
I nodded and smiled with admiration.
"Wow Gyuvin, I'm impressed."
"I also just wanted to work with you, I miss seeing you at the cafe." He pouted, turning to look at me again.
I leant my head into his shoulder and let out a deep sigh.
"What's wrong?" He asked gently.
"Life's been complicated recently, I missed seeing you too. I miss the simplicity."
I did miss the simplicity. I liked understanding what I did now, but the complexity of it all was weighing on me, reminding me of how blissfully ignorant I'd been to it all before. I suppose this is what Hao was scared of though, he was scared of me feeling like this and I felt guilty that I did. That fact weighed on me too.
"How about we go out for drinks some time? I'm free on Friday if you'd like?"

You have 1 missed call from 'Zhang Hao (work)' 7:39 p.m.

You have 1 new voicemail from 'Zhang Hao (work)' 7:40 p.m.

"Hey Hanbin-ah, how is everything back there? Honestly I've been thinking about you all day. I'm worried about you over here, it was all too soon and I'm sorry I left so quickly. I'll be back on Friday evening so I was wondering if we could meet up? I have a lot to talk to you about. Anyway, sweet dreams. Bye bye..."

Author here hey guys let me know what you think! I'll have some more time on my hands in the coming weeks so chapters should become more regular. :)