Seonwoo blinked, before letting her hands fall to her sides, “I don’t know who you are, anymore.” he wiped the tears off her face with one hand, before quickly bringing it back to himself, “I don’t see anybody who is worthless in front of me, right now. I don’t know who this worthless person you speak of is, because I know that the Sua I met, who decided to treat me and Bunny to a meal, who hung out with Alleah and I for no reason at all is not someone who is worthless! They are kind, caring, and patient. I’m not a naive little child, Sua! I know a good person when I see one. I know you’re stressed. I know you want to fall down, and lean on someone, you want someone to support you! You aren’t worthless, Sua! You are my friend! Okay? When someone wants to help you, because they care about you, LET THEM!” he screamed. “I didn’t become friends with someone who doesn’t let their friends help them. I want to help you, and I’ll be there for you, Sua, because we’re friends, that’s what we do! So stop saying you’re worthless. Stop saying you can’t be loved. Just let me listen to you when you have problems, and troubles, okay?” he dropped his head, and looked at his feet, “I’m sorry.”

Sua was shocked. She didn’t know he could think this deeply. She wanted to hug him, tell him that it was okay, that she wasn’t mad at him, but that wasn’t true. She was mad at him, it wasn’t okay. She had no idea who he was, and he had no idea who she was, and yet… He didn’t want anything from her. He didn’t want her body, he didn’t want her money, he didn’t want some connection with her father from her. He just wanted to be friends. Friends. She didn’t really have any of those. Sure, she had Levy, but she wasn’t really somebody she’d call a friend. She was just her editor, and someone who ran the bookstore that her published works were sold at. He wasn’t like that Dragon who wanted her because of her body, he wasn’t like her father, who discarded her because she couldn’t give him what he wanted. He wasn’t like any of the men she had met because she wasn’t willing to sell herself for their own perverted desires. He was different. She had known that since the moment she first saw him, it was probably why she didn’t think twice when inviting him to lunch came out of her mouth.

“I apologize, I didn’t know I was hurting you.” she mumbled.

“Hurting him?” Haejun’s voice broke through her moment with Seonwoo. “Sounds to me that you’re a lot more hurt than this idiot, here.”

She had forgotten he was there. “I appreciate the thought, Haejun, but trust me. I’m fine.”

“No you aren’t!” Seonwoo yelled, grabbing her arms, “stop saying that! You aren’t fine! You aren’t fine, Sua, you aren’t!”

“Did what Seonwoo said get through to you at all?” Haejun asked, “Maybe it’s because he’s an idiot, but let me translate his idiotic message to you: Bottling up your feelings, and worries, is just making it tougher on yourself, so share your burdens with your friends. That’s what they’re for.” Haejun sighed, “Let go of her Seonwoo.”

Seonwoo released her arms, before sighing, himself, “As much as I hate to admit it, Haejun’s right, that is what I was saying.”

“You don’t even know me. You know nothing about me or my family, so why do you even care?” Sua asked, rubbing her arms from where he grabbed them.

“Do I have to know about your family to call you my friend?” he asked back.

She didn’t have a response to that, he was right. She hung her head in defeat, and stood still, and silent, letting the occasional breeze waft through her hair. She didn’t know how long it was that they stood there together. She was certain, she heard Haejun mumble about leaving them alone, or something, but she didn’t pay any attention to it. She just stared at Seonwoo’s sandaled feet in front of her, not saying anything. Did that mean that he wanted her to tell him about her messed up father? No. Was he going to tell her about his family? No, probably not. And she knew time was ticking by, and her eyes were tired. She hadn’t slept at all, really, and it was already six o’clock in the morning, she was certain.

After not being able to handle the silence anymore, she looked up, in time to see Seonwoo fall backwards in his sleep. He had just fallen asleep standing up. Was he really that tired? She didn’t wake him up when she called him, and he had said he had gotten up to eat food. But falling that hard on the concrete, if he wasn’t fully asleep when he fell, he was probably unconscious right now.

“Seonwoo, are you okay?” she asked, rushing over to kneel by his head. There was no blood, so he didn’t hit it hard enough to bleed, but a concussion was still on the table. “Hey, Seonwoo?” she asked, shaking him slightly, concerned, until she saw his chest rise and fall, and the congestion in his nose. He was sleeping. But she couldn’t just leave him there in the middle of the park.

***

Sua took a deep breath and looked up the steps to the second bus of the morning: the 6:30 bus. Seonwoo’s weight against her was heavier than having five packed backpacks, and the steps up looked really intimidating. She felt his hair shift against her neck, as his shirt brushed against the nape of it.

“You two getting on?” the man asked, eyeing her, as he tapped his finger against the wheel.

“Yes, yes, I am. Sorry.” she replied, before taking one step up into the bus. She grimaced when she heard Seonwoo’s legs hit against the metal step, she really hoped it wouldn’t bruise.

Having found two seats next to each other, away from the priority seating, she let go of the man’s arm, and he flopped into the seat. After squeezing passed him to the window seat, she leaned her head against the back of the seat. She heard a faint groan beside her, before she stiffened with the feeling of his head resting against her shoulder.

Why did I do this? She asked herself, as she turned to face the window. Of course she couldn’t just leave someone as famous as himself in the middle of the park, sleeping, with a possible concussion. Her eyes glanced over to him sleeping against her, and wandered to the back of his head. Cautiously, she brushed a hand over his head, before dropping it to her lap, once she noticed someone staring at her. She honestly had a hard time believing that she just happened to bump into some famous person in the way that she did.

“Excuse me,” the person stated, as they climbed up from the priority seating to her. It was a girl with midnight black hair. “But, is this Phoenix Dragon?”

“What?” Sua was utterly confused. Sure she had only just found out that he was the real Phoenix Dragon, but she had just found out. She had thought that that dark haired man with the tattoos was Dragon, so how could this woman know that Seonwoo was Dragon. To make matters worse, she abruptly remembered that he was sleeping against her, with a frown on his face, and she was just some writer, of which didn’t deserve to be with somebody as famous as himself. She didn’t have that right, she never would have it.

“Dragon.” the woman repeated, and pointed to Seonwoo’s sleeping figure, “that’s him, right? The real one?”

Sua shifted her shoulder, so Seonwoo’s head lifted, and rested momentarily against the seat, “I’m not sure,” she lied, “He just happened to sit next to me on the bus.” There was nobody on the bus when she had gotten on, so she must have gotten on at the stop they had just passed.

“Are you his girlfriend?” the woman asked, with a smirk, yet hopeful eyes, as if she wanted Sua to say no.

“No, I’m not.” Sua responded, earning raised eyebrows, and a delighted smile. Seonwoo’s head fell back onto her shoulder, and she noticed his brows furrow slightly.

“Can I switch places with you, then?” the woman asked, one hand grabbing onto the pole, as the other clasped at her shirt.

“Sure.” Sua answered, and got up. Seonwoo would wake up soon enough, and besides, why would he want to sleep on a girl like her, when there was such an elegant person asking to take her place.

Sua took a seat at the back of the bus, and leaned against the window as she watched cars pass by them. In her peripheral vision she could see the woman delicately brushing her fingers through Seonwoo’s hair. She frowned, and turned her attention to the sun as it rose. She was tired, she wanted to go to sleep, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t go to sleep on this bus. She had fallen asleep too many times before on buses, so why not this one?

At a red light, she noticed Seonwoo raise his head, and looked around, she smiled, he must be doing fine, then. He stood up abruptly, and the woman beside him jumped, “When the hell did I get on a bus!” he exclaimed, before slouching against the seat, “and where’d Sua go.”

“Sua?” the woman asked, rubbing a hand against his back. Sua flinched.

Seonwoo turned his head to look at her, “Who are you?”

“Lilly,” the woman responded with a smile, “you fell asleep on me almost immediately after you sat down.”

Lies. Sua thought to herself, causing her eyes to widen.

“But I wouldn’t get on the bus in the first place.” Seonwoo sighed, “I must be really tired.”

“Why not sit down and continue to sleep.”

“We’re on a bus.” Seonwoo stated. “It’s gonna move, isn’t it.”

“It’s a bus,” the woman giggled.

“I’ve gotta get off now!” Seonwoo murmured, as he tried to get up, but the woman kept her hand on his back.

“Why not just rest a little more.” she smiled, obviously not wanting him to leave just like that.

“Why not just take a car?” I asked, but his expression soon afterward made me wonder if I had said the wrong thing.

He looked sick. Like that was the worst thing to ever come into existence. “You’ve gotta be kidding.”

“It’d be faster-” I began but he held up his hand to stop me.

“That’s the worst option. I’d rather walk.”

“Why?”

Alleah pulled on my shirt, earning my attention, “Seonwoo hates cars.”

“He does?”

“Oh crap!” Seonwoo practically whispered, as the light turned green, and folded himself over in the chair.

“Are you okay, Dragon?” the woman asked, earning Seonwoo’s groan in response.