Lost in the Cloud

Lost in the cloud
Titles	Cloud (Paskim) En la nube Потерянный в облаке 云端之恋 클라우드
Languages	Korean, English, Chinese, Spanish, Thai
Genres	Psychological, School Life, Slice of Life, Drama, Romance, Shounen-ai
Print
Chapters	102
Manhwa Seasons	3
Released	November 20, 2020 -
Author/ Illustrator	Paskim
Publisher	Lezhin

Lost in the Cloud is an ongoing manhwa written and illustrated by Paspaskim. First released in 2021, It has been published and serialized by Lezhin. It is currently ongoing and the author plans for it to have 3 seasons.

The first episode was released on November 20, 2020, with its Season 1 finale released on March 11, 2022. An Epilogue was released a week afterward to answer some questions about Season 1. Its first official English episode was released on March 17, 2021, with the season 1 finale releasing April 15, 2022, and the Epilogue released a week later. Season 2 started on November 4, 2022 on the Lezhin Korea site, while the English version reprised on November 25, 2022.

Synopsis

Skylar has a secret hobby - taking photos of his crush, Chan-il. But when Cirrus stumbles upon Skylar's cloud storage with its impressive collection of Chan-il's photos, things escalate pretty quickly. At first confident his secret is safe with Cirrus, Skylar continuously finds himself in compromising situations, making him question Cirrus' true motives.

Manhwa Seasons

1. Seasons One: 54 Chapters + Review (1~54)
2. Season Two: 37 Chapters (55~91) (Complete)
3. Season Three: Chapters (92~)

Characters

Yeon Skylar

The main character of Lost in the Cloud, along with Baek Cirrus. Originally, he lived in Pohang with his mother and sister. However, during his last year in middle school, he faced abhorrent bullying led by his former best friend and crush Choi Minwoo. After learning about it, his family moved once he graduated. During his time as a freshman in high school, he developed romantic affection for his classmate Chan-il. This affection leads him to take secret photos of Chan-il up until his current senior year. This hobby of his is stopped due to it being found out by another classmate, and close friend of Chan-il's, Baek Cirrus. This starts a manipulative relationship between Skylar and Cirrus. Eventually, for reasons not known to Skylar, Cirrus stops the harassment. As the series progresses, Skylar realizes his feelings for Chan-il are not truly for him but are more or less caused by remnants of his affection for his former crush, Minwoo. Through this realization, he tries to distance himself from Chan-il to help move on from his past. Recently, Chan-il and Skylar have started to hang out again, along with two of Chan-il's other friends: Jiwon and Yoochan. While being harassed by Cirrus, it is revealed Skylar is being treated for PTSD caused by his past with Minwoo.

Baek Cirrus

He finds out about Skylar’s secret hobby of taking photos of his friend Chan-il. While at first, he was going to tell Chan-il about the behavior, he thought he could find amusement in harassing Skylar, so he chose to do the latter. For the entirety of season one, Cirrus harasses Skylar, revealing his more sociopathic side, which he hides in public. As the series progresses, it is shown that Cirrus has familial complications and it's hinted that he might have a personality disorder. After an incident where Skylar separates himself from Cirrus, he realizes he "needs" Skylar and develops a strong attachment to him. Through this realization, he stops harassing Skylar and treats him more like a close acquaintance in hopes that Skylar will grow attached to him as well. Currently, it is shown that Cirrus has hostile jealousy toward Chan-il for being close to Skylar.

Seong Chan-il

A childhood friend of Cirrus and the crush of Skylar. He has been in the same club as Skylar since their freshman year, and he held great admiration for Skylar due to his great photography ability. While Skylar and he started out with an incredibly rocky relationship, Chan-il even thinking Skylar hated him, the two eventually became friends as Skylar let his icy persona down. Chan-il is not aware of the relationship between Cirrus and Skylar, nor is he aware of Skylar’s crush on him.

Yang Ri-In

A friend of Cirrus and the sister of Da-In. It’s been hinted in season 1 that her contact name in Cirrus’ phone is “Gorilla”. Cirrus trusted her and told her about Skylar and him taking photos of Chanil.

Choi Minwoo

A former childhood best friend of Skylar and his first crush. Minwoo saw Skylar as his brother and had no idea that Skylar was developing feelings for him. Therefore, he wasn't aware that he seemed to be giving mixed signals to Skylar. After an incident where Skylar kissed Minwoo while thinking he was asleep, and Minwoo retaliated with making a classmate kiss Skylar while the latter was blindfolded, their relationship broke off. After shaming Skylar for his sexuality and wishing death upon him, Minwoo began spreading rumors and led people to beat Skylar up. He continued this behavior toward Skylar until adults got involved and handled the situation quietly. Currently, he goes to Jangmyung Science High school.

Skylar's Mother

Skylar's mother and Skylar have shown to have a strained relationship with each other. Over time, after his parent's divorce, his mother put different kinds of pressure on him, which infuriated him and caused him some stress. While currently their relationship seems less strained, there still seems to be tension and mistrust between them. She also worries a lot about Skylar's well-being, but thanks to Cirrus, her worry for him has calmed a bit.

Jisu

Jisu is the current and fifth step-mother of Cirrus. Currently, Cirrus is trying to kick her out of the house, causing a manipulative contest between the two to show superiority.

Ha-Yeon

Ha-Yeon is the younger sister of Skylar. She has a scar on her thigh due to her burning herself when she was younger.

Story

Season 1

Before Skylar heads off to school, he tries to convince his mother that he is okay to stop going to his doctor's appointments for his mental health . However, this causes his mother to start worrying that something is going on, so Skylar drops the subject. However, unbeknownst to her, he had already stopped taking the medicine for some time .

Skylar's photos that he took without the consent of Seong Chan-il, a crush of his, were found by Chan-il's best friend, Baek Cirrus. At first, Cirrus was going to tell Chan-il about the pictures, but upon realizing he could do more "entertaining" things with them, he decides to use them to his advantage. First, he messages Skylar under the name "hi" and tells him that he has the pictures. The following day, he messes with Skylar more by sending the pictures Skylar had taken of Chan-il, while Skylar is talking to Chan-il. Skylar opens the image in public, however, he’s able to hide the image from Chan-il. As Chan-il and Cirrus are leaving the classroom, Cirrus whispers to Skylar that he should hide his expressions better, lest he gets found out. Due to this, Skylar begins to realize that Cirrus is "hi". As school is ending, Skylar grabs Cirrus to talk with him in the hallway. Cirrus manipulates Skylar into a trap, using the basis that he won't tell Chan-il about the photos as long as Skylar tells Chan-il himself and apologizes for it. Skylar, believing him, messages him later that night, thanking him for not telling Chan-il about them, and that he's willing to do whatever Cirrus wants.

The following day, during the ten minutes of free time in gym class, Skylar goes to the bathroom. Upon seeing this, Cirrus decides to mess with him more, and he brings his friends to the front of the bathroom door. As Skylar is about to get out of the bathroom, he hears Cirrus talking and decides to eavesdrop on their conversation. He can’t hear much, but is able to make out the words "Chan-il" and "secret". Upon hearing this, Skylar believes Cirrus to be talking about the events of yesterday and begins to panic. Eventually, Cirrus ends up explaining that he had won a bet that Chan-il and he had made: If Cirrus won at least one out of the ten games they would play, Chan-il would give him one wish. After a bit, the trio leaves the area.

Realizing the situation was a false alarm, Skylar calms himself down and leaves the bathroom, where he comes face to face with Cirrus. Cirrus explains he had forgotten his water bottle and asks that they return to class together since they're going the same way. Skylar obliges, and the two walk together in silence, with Skylar walking a little ways behind Cirrus. It is from this situation that Skylar began to question Cirrus's actions and his true motive. However, he never voiced them due to him being too scared to, as he thought it would break the promise they made.

During their lunch period, Skylar goes to meet Chan-il so they can do their photography session. They do these sessions during the lunch period, and it involves Skylar teaching Chan-il how to take proper photos. It was only those two that were involved in these sessions, however, Cirrus decides to join them. While hesitant at first, Skylar allows Cirrus to be in the session, and the session goes well at first. Eventually, Cirrus decides to finally mess with Skylar and puts him in a situation where he will need to show Chan-il and him the photos saved on his camera. Skylar, having no idea if his camera still had the images of Chan-il saved on it, tries to wiggle out of the situation. However, Cirrus quickly makes the situation inescapable for Skylar by stating that he just wants to see them out of curiosity. With no way out, Skylar begins to hand his camera over to him. Luckily, Chan-il steps in and hands Cirrus his camera instead, explaining that Cirrus can look at his photos as he's been getting taught by Skylar. Cirrus becomes annoyed at Chan-il's intervention, and "playfully" ridicules his photos, to which he leaves the pair after. Chan-il leaves Skylar shortly after as well, upon realizing he has gym class. Once Chan-il is gone, Skylar’s demeanor completely changes, and he runs to confront Cirrus. His suspicions were confirmed, and he now knew Cirrus’s true motive. While Skylar confronts Cirrus to get a reason as to why he’s getting harassed, Cirrus basically tells him that there isn’t a tangible reason for wanting to harass Skylar, other than pure selfishness. Which rendered Skylar speechless.

While the Photography Club was cleaning after a meeting one day, Skylar helps Chan-il with taking out the trash. While doing so, Skylar tries to find out more things about Cirrus and asks Chan-il about him. The only thing he discerns from their conversation is that Cirrus hides his sociopathic side from the public.

As Cirrus enters his home, he finds their maid pulling his dog Candy. He rushes toward the commotion and frees his dog from her. The maid tries to explain her actions, only for Jisu, Cirrus's current stepmother, to interrupt her. She explains that she’s the one who told the maid to tie the dog up because Candy had ruined her shoes. Cirrus warns Jisu to not touch his dog again or she’ll pay. Angry, Jisu throws her shoe at Cirrus, which hits him in the back of his head. The two exchange some more heated words before Cirrus goes upstairs.

At school, Cirrus is taking the names of the groups of people for the class’ upcoming school trip. He notices that Skylar, along with a few others, is missing. Cirrus realized he’s never seen Skylar with anyone who really treated him like a friend. However, he quickly dismissed the thought, deeming the situation as none of his business.

Cirrus joins his friends in the Photography Club room where they tell him Chan-il and the others are singing for the talent show during the trip. While everyone else is talking, Cirrus finds yearbooks for the club members. He finds their Freshman yearbook and flips through it till he finds a photo of a group with Skylar in it. He notices how lonely and crestfallen he looks. He asks Chan-il about Skylar, which causes Chan-il to ask if there is something going on between the two of them. He tells Cirrus that Skylar had asked about him as well. Intrigued, Cirrus asked what Skylar had said about him. 

Meanwhile, with Skylar, his friend Dongsik is asking him once again if he can borrow his gym clothes. Skylar lends it to him but warns him that he’ll pay if he has to retrieve it from him again. As the two are talking, Cirrus asks Skylar if they can talk. Skylar quickly dismisses Dongsik from the conversation, and Cirrus hands Skylar the group form for the class trip. He informed him that he'd need to sign his name in the last group. As Skylar is signing his name, Cirrus asks him if he should return the photos back to him. He then proceeds to invite Skylar to his house.

As the two young men make their way to Cirrus's house, Skylar freaks out silently when he realizes how rich Cirrus is. After steadying himself in the restroom, Skylar enters Cirrus's room, where he playfully pats Cirrus's dog, Cotton Candy. After Skylar embarrasses himself, Cirrus gets to the point, and referencing the message Skylar had sent to him, he explains that he wants Skylar to do things for him. For every action that Skylar does for him, Cirrus will delete the number of images he feels correlated with the deed. He also adds that he saved all the images on a flash drive. After hesitating for a moment, Skylar agrees to the deal.

In honor of them forming the deal, Cirrus deletes some of the photos of the flash drive and Skylar watches as he does so. Cirrus begins to make a speech about trust and how it is necessary for a deal. As he is doing so, Candy distracts him, and Skylar takes the opportunity to take the flash drive and run. Once Cirrus turns around, he sees Skylar has run out the door, and bolts after him.

Eventually, Cirrus catches Skylar, grabbing the collar of his shirt while on the stairs. In doing so, Skylar trips, and the two fall down the stairs. Luckily, neither of them ended up with serious injuries. After scolding Cirrus for nearly killing them, Skylar asks Cirrus why he is doing this to him. Cirrus answers his question honestly, explaining that he wants to know what it is like to be gay. However, Skylar doesn’t believe him. Cirrus then proceeds to barrage Skylar with questions, and he asks a specific question that triggers him to have a flashback: Is Chan-il the first guy he ever loved? After having a brief flashback, Skylar hysterically asks him if he thinks he’s a joke and tells him that he can’t help him with that, so he'll have to think up another reason. Skylar then storms out of the house.

Days later, Cirrus replays in his head what Skylar had told him in response to asking those questions. He begins to wonder about Skylar, his intrigue increasing as he takes out Skylar's medicine that he dropped when falling down the stairs. As he is musing, their maid comes in and tells Cirrus his father is home. Cirrus hesitantly goes to greet his father, who happily and lovingly greets him back. Jisu comes out of the room to greet him, while also expressing her love for Cirrus. Cirrus responds to her expression passive-aggressively. Then, the family has dinner, where Jisu and Cirrus continue their charade of a loving, son and mother relationship in order to not make his father upset.

Later, Jisu visits Cirrus in his room and teases him about their fake relationship, going as far as to ask him why he didn't introduce his friend to his "mom". Cirrus tells her to get out, becoming sick of her antics. Jisu's normal attitude returns and she begins to patronize Cirrus, applauding the act they displayed and telling him to keep it up so they don't make his father upset. She continues by telling him that she can leave whenever she wants, however, Cirrus is a different story. She then finally leaves him alone. Overrun with anger, Cirrus calls Skylar and tells him to meet up with him tomorrow.

The next day, before Skylar goes to meet Cirrus at the spot, he thinks about his past with Chan-il and how it lead up to the situation he’s in now. Then, he meets Cirrus at the meeting spot. Cirrus explains there is a woman that lives with him and his father that he really doesn't like. Apparently, she has been stepping out of line recently, and Cirrus thinks it best to give her a warning. Skylar asks why he was called to help out with something like that, but Cirrus just tells him to play along when the time comes. The two walk around till dark, which causes Skylar to silently complain. He also soon realizes that they are walking around in circles and tries to confront Cirrus about it, but Cirrus doesn't respond. This annoys Skylar, but Cirrus suddenly stops, which causes Skylar to bump into him. As he is lecturing him to not stop suddenly, Cirrus quickly grabs his hand and pulls him in front of him. Cirrus quickly introduces Skylar to his step-mother.

Skylar soon realizes the woman is the one Cirrus had talked about that lived with them. As Skylar is thinking this, Cirrus suddenly pulls him close and explains to Jisu that Skylar is the friend he brought home the other day. He begins to passive-aggressively remind his stepmother that she was "super disappointed" that she didn’t get to meet him. Skylar stands there, watching in silence as Cirrus passive-aggressively antagonizes his stepmother with his fake persona. Revealing to her friends that she is married to a man that has a son, and therefore, she is a mother. Eventually, Jisu tries to dismiss the confrontation and tells Cirrus to have fun with his friend. However, Cirrus responds that they aren't friends, and feigns embarrassment, as he explains that Skylar and he are dating. He goes as far as to intertwine his fingers with Skylar’s, and kisses his hand. This causes Skylar to become uncomfortable.

Jisu replies that he is going too far by humiliating her on the street with such nonsense. She pulls out a card and tells Cirrus to go and buy dinner for his friend, then go home. Cirrus smacks the card away, and continues the charade of their relationship. She ends up noticing Skylar is uncomfortable with the situation, and arrogantly tells him that he should’ve gotten his friend on board with his plan if he wanted to fool her. Cirrus finally notices how uncomfortable Skylar is, however, in response to her, Cirrus makes out with Skylar without his consent. This ends up triggering Skylar.

Jisu, now completely in shock, walks away without saying anything. As she leaves, Cirrus goes back to his usual self and begins laughing about the situation. As Cirrus is in the middle of asking Skylar if he would like to get something to eat, Skylar blows up at him. He is enraged and overwhelmed. In tears, he screams at him to not do things like that in front of a crowd. As he tries to continue, he has a dizzy spell and has flashbacks to the sexual assault he had experienced in middle school. In response, he vomits. Seeing this, Cirrus becomes agitated, as he thinks Skylar vomited due to them kissing. He asks Skylar if he thought he was dirty or a disease. Skylar tries to explain that isn't what is happening, but Cirrus cuts him off. He tells Skylar he can cry and vomit all he wants when he gets home, but he shouldn't ruin his good mood like that. With that, Cirrus leaves him.

That night, Skylar has flashbacks of Minwoo, and wakes up in a cold sweat. He becomes nauseous and runs to the bathroom to throw up, which wakes up Ha-yeon, his sister. She goes to the bathroom to see Skylar retching. Concerned, she tries to go tell their mother so they can get him to the hospital. However, Skylar pleads with her to not tell their mother, and explains that he’ll be okay once he takes his medication . Ha-yeon asks if he's having a relapse, to which Skylar responds with silence. He instead tells her that he’ll be alright, and asks her to leave him alone. Reluctantly, his sister does so.

After he stops puking, Skylar takes his medication. He thinks about how he hasn't thought about that time in his life for a long time. He thought he had forgotten about it. As he's musing over that, he unavoidably thinks about the dream again, and when Cirrus kissed him. He becomes agitated and begins biting his lip till it bleeds.

The next day, Skylar doesn't eat before taking his medication and experiences the side effects while in school. However, that day is the midterm test day, and he isn't able to focus because of the effects. He feels drowsy, and rests his head on the desk and falls asleep.

A few days later, as Skylar is on his way to gym class, his homeroom teacher asks to speak with him. He takes Skylar to the teacher’s lounge, where he shows him his midterm exam answer sheet. He tells Skylar that he had marked off the rows by one, and he wanted to ask him if the sheet was truly his. Skylar confirms that it is. His teacher asks if something has been going on with him for the past few days. Skylar replies that there hasn't. After he voices his disappointment, he dismisses him. Skylar goes to sit down on the stairs and begins to cry. After calming down, he goes to gym class.

As he enters the gym, the teacher assigns Cirrus to instruct Skylar for the next performance assessment. Cirrus explains the next assessment is in badminton. He hands Skylar a racket, which he takes after a moment. Skylar doesn't hear Cirrus’s explanation as thinks about the lecture the teacher gave him, along with what Cirrus told him the previous day. He compares Cirrus’s actions the other day to what Minwoo had previously done to him. This causes Skylar to become irate, and he imagines beating Cirrus with the racket before he is jolted out of the daydream by Cirrus calling him. Cirrus asks Skylar what was wrong with him. Skylar stops himself from doing anything rash, and walks away. He goes to the gym teacher and explains that he isn’t feeling well and would like to go to the nurse’s office. The teacher allows him to do so.

After gym class is over, Cirrus is walking with someone, when he notices Skylar walking up the stairs, and calls out to him. He leaves his friend to go talk to him, however, Skylar doesn't look at Cirrus, even though Cirrus tries to make eye contact with him. Cirrus explains that Skylar had hurt his feelings when he threw up after he kissed him. Skylar doesn't respond and keeps walking up the stairs. Cirrus then tries to tease him by asking Skylar if that was his first kiss. He gets in front of Skylar and tries to make eye contact again while continuing to tease him. He asks if he wanted his first to be special, and if that is the case, then he should forget about what happened, since it didn’t mean anything. Provoked, Skylar punches Cirrus and pushes him against the wall.

While the school bell rings, Skylar attempts to explain his frustration with the midterm results. He explains that Cirrus had triggered him, which caused him to have trouble focusing on the test. He had sacrificed so much because it was the only hope he had for going to college. Cirrus teases him some more, asking Skylar if he had enjoyed the kiss so much that he couldn’t study. If that was the case, then he was flattered. However, he would forgive the sudden strike due to the fact that he had kissed Skylar without consent. Cirrus moves on to showing Skylar his bleeding mouth, prefacing that Skylar had punched him hard just then.

Skylar became more irritated due to Cirrus’s desultory reaction. He confronts Cirrus about this, asking him if he cares at all how other people feel. Cirrus drops the fake persona he had, as he asks Skylar if he was thinking about Chan-il’s feelings when he took photos of him. In response, Skylar punches Cirrus again. Just as irritated now, Cirrus pushes Skylar up against the wall and is about to hit him back, when he notices two students coming down the stairs.

He quickly falls into his false persona; smiling, and patting Skylar on the shoulder. He tells Skylar it is dangerous to run on the stairs and they should go since they're late to class. He tries to leave, but Skylar grabs him, and tells him that he isn't done talking. Cirrus removes Skylar’s hand and tells him they shouldn’t cause a scene at school, and tries to leave again. However, Skylar calls Cirrus out on his fake persona. He tells Cirrus there is something wrong with his personality, and sarcastically compliments him. In his compliment, Skylar tells him that it is impressive Cirrus can act nice and fake smiles, as he would be too ashamed to do such a thing. Skylar adds that he feels bad for him. In response, Cirrus grabs the collar of Skylar's jacket and pulls him forward. This causes Skylar to slip, and he leans too close to Cirrus’s face. Anxious that there is about to be a repeat of previous events, Skylar reaches up to try and push him away, but Cirrus grabs Skylar’s wrist before he can. Cirrus leans forward, and Skylar turns his head away in response. After a moment, Cirrus pushes Skylar away. Skylar immediately backs up while covering his mouth. Cirrus calls him a liar; he doesn't feel bad for him, he's scared of him. With that, the two of them part ways.

The next day, Cirrus goes to hang out with his group of friends: Chan-il, Jiwon, Yoochan, Ji-Gyeom, and Seung-yeon. He worries that they'll be concerned about his face, as he had put a patch over his bruise. He begins to think how he underestimated Skylar, as he hadn't thought he could be so violent, therefore he believed him to be easy to control. As he thinks about what he wanted from Skylar, the conductor announces his stop, and Cirrus goes to meet up with his friends. As he walks to the meet-up spot, he is deep in thought, till Chan-il calls him out of it. He looks up at his friends, and they greet him. He remembers what Skylar had said about there being something wrong with his personality. In his head, he tells Skylar that there is nothing wrong with him and that he is the weird one instead.

The group goes to get something to eat, and as they're talking about the upcoming class trip and the subservient talent show, Cirrus is deep in thought. Ji-Gyeom asks him why he isn't eating, and Cirrus explains that he ate before, so he wasn't hungry. In his head, he curses Skylar for making him unable to eat, and that he likes nothing about him. He looks at Chan-il and begins wondering what Skylar sees in him. He wonders if Chan-il had kissed him instead, would he have reacted differently? Cirrus silently becomes agitated, rapping his finger against the table, as he wonders what Chan-il has that he doesn't that causes Skylar to like him so much.

Chan-il notices Cirrus's staring, and asks if he wants to trade food, believing him not eating is because he didn't like it. Confused, Cirrus tells him "no". He then goes back to thinking about Skylar, believing that he still needs him, so he'll need to figure out a way to get on his good side. Instead, he thinks of doing the opposite of the violence he's been doing to Skylar as a way to trick him into trusting them.

At a gaming café, the group decides to compete to see who sleeps where, since there's only two beds and six of them. Seung-yeon, Yoochan, Ji-Gyeom, and Cirrus lost. Seung-yeon begins to urge for a rematch, due to him not wanting to smell Yoochan's feet. He tries to get the others who lost to join in his rally, however, no one else does. He asks Cirrus if he doesn't care about Yoochan's stinky feet, to which Cirrus explains that he probably won't, as he is no longer in their group for the trip. He had switched himself out to be in Skylar's group, as he thought it would be amusing.

During the school trip, as the group is getting situated in their rooms, Skylar gives Cirrus a death stare upon realizing that he is now in the same group as him. Cirrus just responds with a happy smile. Ji-Gyeom, seeing this interaction, immediately asks Cirrus why he's in the room with Skylar and tells him to ask the teacher to change his room. However, Cirrus tells him that the groups are already set and that he can still hang out with the group during the trip. As they're talking, Skylar tries to go inside the room, and Cirrus tries to help him carry his bags. However, Skylar doesn't let him and tells him to leave it alone.

Ji-Gyeom uses this as more fuel for his argument as to why Cirrus should come back to their group, especially since Skylar used to be hostile towards Chan-il. The teacher quickly stops Ji-Gyeom from speaking anymore and tells him to go to his room. Cirrus and Skylar head inside, where Cirrus continues to offer Skylar help. Skylar, who was already suspicious of the courteous behavior, asks him what he wants from him. Cirrus just tells him he really does just want to help. Skylar replies that he knows he doesn’t mean that, and leaves–leaving Cirrus kind of stunned. As Skylar is out in the hallway, he tells himself he should just ignore Cirrus, as talking with him will only make things worse.

Back at home, with Skylar’s mom and Ha-Yeon, his mother decides to clean his room. As she’s tidying his desk, she finds a test in which he failed. As she’s looking at it, she feels something underneath and moves some pages to find his medication. In shock, she moves the rest of the books off his shelf to find packs of his medication that he has not taken. Worried, she tries to contact Skylar.

On the trip, the young men in Skylar’s group decides to combine the beds to make a bigger bed, so they can all sleep on them. Cirrus, uncomfortable at the thought of having to sleep in a pile of six men, tries to dissuade them by proposing that one of them sleeps on the floor. However, none of the other men seem to want to do so. As Cirrus is about to let them continue their plans, Skylar pitches he’ll be the one to sleep on the sofa, and he leaves the room. Due to this, the young men keep the beds where they were.

That night, Cirrus is unable to sleep, due to his bedmate snoring loudly. He tells him to hush and then lays back down. However, as he does so, his bedmate wraps himself around him tightly. Uncomfortable and irritated, Cirrus leaves the room. He notices Skylar sleeping, and walks up to him. He stares for a moment before choosing to wake him up. He tells him to go sleep on the bed instead. Skylar gives him a death glare before doing so, making sure to not answer him as he leaves. Cirrus warns him about the pervert he was sleeping beside and wishes him goodnight. Skylar still doesn’t reply.

Cirrus lays down, realizing that Skylar is giving him the silent treatment. He asks himself how he’s supposed to be nice when he’s given this kind of treatment. Cirrus then silently challenges Skylar, wondering how long he’ll be able to hold out. As he tries to sleep, Skylar’s phone begins buzzing due to Ha-Yeon trying desperately to contact him. Cirrus looks at Skylar’s phone and sees the messages Ha-Yeon is sending him. She warns him that their mother is furious because she found out he wasn’t taking them. Cirrus begins to wonder if this is about the pills Skylar had dropped, and wonders even more what the big deal is about them.

The next morning, as Skylar is in the bathroom washing his face and getting ready, Cirrus enters the bathroom and antagonizes him a bit, vying for a reaction. However, Skylar leaves the restroom without responding to him, which completely shocks Cirrus. During the rest of the trip, Cirrus and Skylar hang out separately, with Cirrus hanging out with his friend group, and Skylar hanging out with Dongsik and Jeong-hoon. Skylar doesn’t pay any mind to Cirrus and has fun with his two friends. Cirrus watches him from afar and notices how happy he looks, while Cirrus instead looks lonely.

That evening, the teacher goes to Chan-il’s room to find Cirrus, who’s there. The teacher tells Cirrus that he told him to stay in his room after dinner, and eventually gets him back to his room. Now, in his room, Cirrus informs his groupmates they are ready to leave twenty minutes before seven-thirty (7:30), due to the talent show being that night. As he’s doing so, Skylar is looking through his phone and realizes his mother has found out he hasn’t been taking his medicine. Without saying a word, he gets up and leaves the room, trying to get some privacy. However, Cirrus takes this as Skylar continuously trying to avoid him. He becomes annoyed and goes back to Chan-il’s room. While there, he wonders what’s wrong with him, as he used to be violent towards him whenever Cirrus annoyed him, but now he was being completely avoidant. As he’s thinking of Skylar’s angry face, Chan-il interrupts him from his thoughts by asking him how his new hairstyle looks.

Later, everyone is getting ready to go to the auditorium to watch the talent show. As Cirrus is counting, he notices Skylar is missing and goes to tell the teacher. The teacher explains that Skylar stated he wasn’t feeling well, so he let him stay in the room to rest. Cirrus, wanting to see Skylar, asked if he could go to the restroom. Meanwhile, with Skylar, after texting his worried friends, he calls Ha-yeon and asks how the situation is at home. Ha-yeon explains their mother has become frantic because she thought he was having a relapse. Skylar tries to explain that is not the case, and Ha-yeon tells him she’s scared the two will start arguing again. Skylar reassures her that won’t happen and that he’ll try to explain things to her when he gets home. Then, he hangs up the phone. After he finishes talking to her, he thinks about how and when his life began to fall apart. As he does so, he scratches his finger. He thinks about it for a while, and the only conclusion he comes to is the middle school incident. He thinks about his hatred for Minwoo, and accidentally peels a piece of his skin off in the process. As he’s staring at the blood, he realizes that even though he still hates him, he still loves Minwoo. After he wipes the blood away, he falls asleep.

Cirrus enters the room, to find Skylar sleeping. He sits down on the floor next to him and notices how peaceful Skylar looks when he’s sleeping because he usually only sees him when he’s frowning. Cirrus silently rants that it’d be nice if Skylar was always this calm and quiet, however, Skylar has to win every argument, which gets him worked up in the process. Messing with his glasses, Cirrus wonders how bad his eyesight is, and he puts them on. He quickly finds out that they’re not prescribed, and calls him a weirdo. A bit later, Cirrus wakes Skylar up and asks him to come with him.

Cirrus takes Skylar to a private, backstage, balcony view of the assembly hall, where the talent show is taking place. As Skylar asks who’s about to perform, the announcer introduces Chan-il and his band to the stage. Skylar, thinking that Cirrus is trying to pull something, gets irritated quickly at him. Cirrus tells him to calm down and asks that Skylar stay to watch the performance. After giving a frustrated sigh, Skylar sits down a few steps away from Cirrus.

As he watches Chan-il perform, he realizes he hasn’t interacted with him much lately. He begins to muse over his life: his relationship with Minwoo, the middle school incident, his meeting Chan-il, the two of them becoming acquainted, and him starting to take pictures of Chan-il. He slowly realizes he had been projecting Minwoo onto Chan-il and had unknowingly been using him as a way to get rid of his guilt over Minwoo. He had run away from Minwoo but kept dwelling on the past. Skylar begins to silently cry as he realizes this.

After the performance is over, Cirrus yawns, silently happy that it’s over. He reaches for Skylar, telling him to get up, but freezes when he realizes he’s crying. He retracts his hand, completely dumbfounded that Skylar was moved that much by the performance, and believes that Skylar is completely head over heels over Chan-il. As the two are walking back to the room, Cirrus teases Skylar, telling him to thank him, as he got to see Chan-il because of him. Skylar doesn’t respond. Cirrus asks Skylar if he likes Chan-il enough to tear up just by seeing him. Cirrus adds that he doesn’t understand how anyone could have such strong feelings for a stranger, and it’s stupid to feel such a way. Skylar replies that Cirrus should tell him what he wants with him, and he doesn't mind what it is. He’d much rather do whatever it is that he wants than have Cirrus around him.

Skylar returns home, and his mother takes no time yelling at him. She screams at him, asking him how he can be so selfish, and that she never nagged him about grades and scholarships, all she wanted was for him to get better. Skylar doesn’t respond. He instead thinks about how nothing has changed since his time in middle school, and he can’t escape no matter what.

The next day at school, the teacher passes out the report cards for the midterms by the test score order. The first person he calls up is Cirrus, not Skylar, which surprises the entire class. He didn’t even make the top 10. At the photo club meeting, Skylar is extremely distant, lost in thought as he clicks a pen. A student touches him, which startles him. She informs him that it’s almost time to end the meeting. He tells the club members to think of some ideas for the festival by the next meeting, as no one has thought of any. Later that night, Chan-il asks his Photography club members if they want to hang out on the weekend. Jeong-hoon and Skylar both decline, while Dongsik states that he can. Chan-il notices Skylar’s answer and becomes worried that he must be disappointed in himself. He wishes he could help Skylar in some way, as Skylar has helped him out.

The next day, Chan-il is at a bookstore, buying books for music composition. While there, he notices Skylar. He goes to greet him, where Skylar tells him he’s there to buy some workbooks. Chan-il notices the books that he’s holding, realizes he’s studying extra hard, and worries for him. Chan-il tries to help him get his mind off studying by telling him that they haven’t had a photography lesson in some time. Skylar hesitates before requesting that they stop doing the photography lessons. He apologizes, but Chan-il tells him not to worry about it, and thanks him for the lessons. Skylar tells Chan-il farewell and begins to leave. He silently tells himself this decision was for the best, as now he can try and move on. However, Chan-il grabs him and asks him if he can return the favor for all the lessons Skylar gave him. He asks if they hang out the upcoming weekend.

Three days later, during the weekend, Skylar is at home, figuring out a way to tell Chan-il that he had canceled their plans. As he’s texting him, Chan-il messages him that he’s on his way to the meeting spot. Realizing it’s too late now, Skylar heads out. As he leaves the house, he tells his mother that he’s going to study but she doesn’t respond to him. As Skylar is waiting for Chan-il, he makes plans to go study at the library before returning home, as he wants to avoid running into his mother as best he can.

As he’s thinking, Chan-il arrives and the two greet each other. Chan-il decides they should go eat something first, and the two head to a restaurant. While eating, Chan-il shows Skylar the pictures he took during the school trip. He takes a look through the photos, complimenting Chan-il on how much he has improved since he began teaching him. Skylar gets to a photo of Cirrus and loses his excitement. He hands him back his phone at the sight of it. Chan-il decides they should move on, and the two hang out till around early evening.

Resting on a bench, Chan-il asks if they should go grab dinner, however, Skylar decides he should leave. After reminiscing a bit, Chan-il tells Skylar he had fun, and they should hang out again. Skylar doesn’t respond. He instead thinks about how he doesn’t know if his feelings for Chan-il are genuine, or if they’re still remnants of what he had for Minwoo, as Chan-il resembles Minwoo. As the two get up from the bench and begin walking, Skylar muses over his life once more. He silently pledges that someday he’ll apologize to Chan-il for taking his pictures, and he quietly tells him he’s sorry. However, he knows Chan-il will never smile or think of him the same way once he does that, and therefore he asks if he can just be a little selfish for a bit longer.

During a school day, the class needs to do a performance assessment in the form of a presentation. They will work in groups of four, and she divides the class up depending on where they are sitting. She gives them a two-week deadline. Skylar and Cirrus get put in a group together. Cirrus takes charge, and explains that they should assign the responsibilities. Skylar states he’ll do the research, along with another student. The other student gets the responsibility to make the slides, while Cirrus gave himself the responsibility of presenting.

In Cirrus’s house, Cirrus does a physical check on Candy. While checking her, he gets a message from one of the group members, stating that she needs help. Cirrus just tells her that he’ll deal with the rest of the work that she’s having trouble with. He then gets to work. As he’s scrolling, he realizes the information is lacking and asks the other member that was doing research if he could send his research to him. The member explains that he already sent the information in the group chat. After scrolling through, Cirrus finds that the member just plagiarized off a website, and goes to look at Skylar’s information, hoping that he didn’t do the same. However, not surprising to him, that Skylar didn’t do that.

Cirrus thinks about what Skylar had said to him about telling him what he wants from him so Cirrus doesn’t need to be around him anymore. This causes Cirrus to get out the flash drive that has the photos saved on it, and he thinks about what he wants from Skylar. He then tosses the flash drive away and tells himself that he wants nothing from Skylar.

Cirrus asking for his friend’s whereabouts

Cirrus goes to tutoring school, where he finds out that his usual friend is not there. The other students tell him that she has special training for a competition, so she won’t be coming for a while. Cirrus goes to call her, and she tells Cirrus that she won’t be back till around October. She asks Cirrus why he called her, due to Cirrus having never called her before. She then asks if he wanted to talk about the dude he talked about the other day. His friend then proceeds to ask him if he got turned down, and Cirrus explains that it isn’t like that. His friend then states she thought he was interested in Skylar because Cirrus had stated he wanted to be friends with the guy.

Cirrus explains that he changed his mind, that the guy is a “total wacko”, and that he’s antagonistic. His friend asks him what he’s going to do about the photos, and Cirrus explains that he got rid of them. Cirrus continues that her advice has screwed him because now it’s awkward being in the same class as Skylar. Soon, his friend is called away, and she tells Cirrus to give her all the details when she gets back. Cirrus then begins to head to class but bumps into two young men on the way. The lemonade he was holding spills onto his clothes, however, Cirrus immediately falls into his false persona and forgives the two. As the two walk away, praising Cirrus, Cirrus silently curses at them.

Cirrus arrives home to find Jisu blasting music, drunk, and talking to someone on the phone. He just makes a note of the situation, and heads upstairs, quietly calling her a psycho along the way. He gets inside his room to not find Candy. Scared, he frantically runs around the house, searching every room and calling her name. He soon realizes how loud the music is, and tells Jisu to turn it off. She doesn’t, and in a fit of rage, Cirrus throws a vase. He goes to look for her outside but still can’t find any trace of her. He decides to question Jisu. However, Jisu doesn’t respond, which only agitates him more, and he yells at her. She tells him to shut up, and that the housekeeper left the front door open, and the dog ran away. She tells him that she thought about stopping it, but she didn’t want to get in trouble for touching his dog, so she left Candy alone. She proceeds to tell him to not worry, and that Candy will come back if she’s smart enough.

Cirrus calls her a liar because Candy never goes outside by herself. However, he still calls the housekeeper and asks if she went up to his room, and the housekeeper explains that she never did. He apologizes and hangs up the phone, while Jisu laughs at him. In a fit of rage, he knocks down the bottles that are on the counter and demands she tell him where Candy is. Jisu asks him if he really thinks she would want to help him and tells him to leave her alone. Cirrus, desperate at this point, begins to plead with her to tell him where she is, or at least where she last saw her. Jisu, becoming more sadistic, tells Cirrus to get on his knees and beg.

For humiliating her in front of her friends, and being insolent, he must beg for her forgiveness, then she might tell him. Cirrus does so hesitantly. Having more fun, Jisu tells him that it won’t be fun if he’s so obedient. Cirrus, completely done at this point, yanks her hair, and warns her that he won’t continue to put up with her if she keeps crossing the line. He then calls her a parasite. Suddenly, Cirrus’s father grabs him and beats him badly. He only stops because Jisu forces him, and she defends Cirrus, explaining that he didn’t know where Candy was and he must’ve been scared. She tells Cirrus that she dropped Candy off at the vet.

Cirrus’s father insults him for being attached to a dog at his age and tells him to get out. Bloody and bruised, Cirrus runs around to various veterinary clinics to find her. Finally, he finds her, and he breaks down, stating that if he ever lost her, he really couldn’t. He’s glad he found Candy but realizes he can’t go back home and needs to take her somewhere safe. He decides to leave her for a few days at Da-in and Ri-in’s apartment.

Sitting on a bench, Cirrus decides to sleep out in public, and change into his gym clothes when he gets to school. As he’s resting, the police call out to him, and they notice his injured face. They ask him if he would like an escort home, and he states that he lives in a nearby apartment building, unbeknownst to him, that apartment building is Skylar’s building. Cirrus then takes refuge in a playground slide, and wonders where he should go, as he doesn’t have money. He thinks about calling for help, and scrolls through his contacts. He thinks of calling Chan-il, but not wanting Chan-il to see him in his current state, he calls Skylar.

Skylar meets him at a playground near his apartment. He kicks the slide Cirrus is in, and angrily reminds him that he told him not to call out of the blue. Cirrus stands up and begins walking towards him, which worries Skylar a bit. Skylar holds up his arm to stop Cirrus from getting closer, but Cirrus grabs his wrist. Skylar, worried that Cirrus is about to assault him, braces himself, however, Cirrus haunches over and tells Skylar he’s starving. The two make their way to a convenience store, where Cirrus fills up a basket with snacks. Skylar watches him, irritated, wondering why Cirrus wants him to accompany him while he buys items. He sighs as he thinks about wanting to go home and sleep. Suddenly, Cirrus tells Skylar to get something. He caves in and gets some candy bars. At the check-out counter, the cashier waits for someone to pay. Neither of them begins to pay, which confuses the cashier. Skylar tells Cirrus to pay for his food, but Cirrus tells him he has no money. Cirrus explains that he wouldn’t have called Skylar if he had money. After putting multiple of the items back, Skylar pays for the total, which causes him to become broke.

Sitting at an outdoor table, Skylar begins to leave, however, Cirrus tells him to wait until he finishes eating. He tells him, no, but Cirrus begs him to stay. Skylar decides to stay and takes the opportunity to study while there. As Cirrus is eating, Skylar notes Cirrus’s appearance: bruised face, bloody shirt, lack of money, and he isn’t going home–even though it is late. He surmises Cirrus probably ran away and called him because he didn't want his friends to think less of him. He realizes Cirrus might want to try and sleep at his place till morning, but it’s not his concern if Cirrus sleeps on the street.

Cirrus notices Skylar looking at him, and asks if he wants to eat something. He pushes a sandwich toward Skylar. Skylar tries to ignore him, but Cirrus pushes the sandwich against Skylar’s cheek, which causes the sauce to get on his face. Skylar yells at him, but Cirrus tells him he was worried Skylar was hungry. Skylar tells him no and puts his backpack on, getting ready to leave. He tells Cirrus to leave and he’ll clean up the table. Cirrus tells Skylar he was kicked out of the house. He begins to ask Skylar if he can stay at his place, but Skylar immediately tells him "no". Skylar tells him to sleep on the outdoor table since it’s summer, so he won’t freeze. As Skylar leaves, he hears Cirrus talking to someone on the phone. Suddenly, Cirrus states Chan-il’s name, which causes him to freeze. He hears Cirrus tell Chan-il he found something interesting. Cirrus places the phone next to Skylar’s ear, and Skylar hears Chan-il's voice on the other end. Cirrus tells Chan-il he wants to show it to him now and asks if he can come over. Chan-il replies that he can and asks if Cirrus wants him to come to get him. With no other option, Skylar allows Cirrus to sleep at his house.

They enter the apartment, and Skylar tells him to not make any noise, as his mother and sister are sleeping. Cirrus complies, and asks where the bathroom is, he ate too much and now feels sick. Skylar points him to the bathroom. Skylar realizes how filthy he is, and he doesn’t want him in his room like that. He tells Cirrus to take a shower while in there, which Cirrus does. As Skylar makes his way to his room, he thinks about how he has to kick Cirrus out before his mother wakes up.

As Cirrus is taking a shower, he thinks about how his dad looked at him. He remembers it was the same expression he had when his mother died. He becomes angry at the thought and scratches the wall. He wonders why his father looks at him that way, and that his father, least of all, should not be looking at him like that. He’s interrupted out of his thoughts by Skylar knocking. He hears him whisper that he’s leaving a change of clothes at the door for him, as he’s not allowing Cirrus to sleep in his room with dirty clothes. Cirrus then opens the door, naked, with only a towel on his head. He tells Skylar to give him the clothes. After staring in shock for a moment, Skylar quickly, and violently, shoves Cirrus back into the bathroom with the clothes. He lectures that his mom or sister could have seen him. Later, the two are in Skylar’s room, with Cirrus on his bed, and Skylar on the floor. Some time has passed, and Cirrus still can’t sleep. He begins thinking about how everything he just went through proved how pathetic he was.

Skylar is trying his best to sleep as well when Cirrus suddenly calls him. A little frustrated, Skylar responds. Cirrus suddenly begins explaining that the woman he saw, the one he called his stepmother, is his fifth stepmother. Cirrus continues that less than a year after his mother passed, his father brought home a stranger, and told him that she was his new mother. At the time he was eight and he took the situation hard. Living alone with that woman in the house made every day feel like hell. When he got older he kicked her out as a form of protest. A way of telling his dad that no one could replace his mother. However, as soon as he was able to kick one out, his father would bring in another woman as his stepmother, until his current stepmother, Jisu took up the spot. As Cirrus is explaining his situation, Skylar covers his ears with his pillow. Eventually, Cirrus realizes he’s doing this and confronts Skylar about it. Skylar explains that he didn't ask, nor was he curious about Cirrus’s life. Skylar tells him to go to sleep. Cirrus tells Skylar he’ll stop talking about himself, however, he proposes Skylar talk about himself instead.

Cirrus puts on Skylar’s glasses and asks him why he wears non-prescription glasses and why he takes medication. Skylar walks toward Cirrus and lists off the things he's doing for him that night: he came out late at night because he asked him to, he took him to his apartment because he told him he had nowhere to go, and he listened to Cirrus’s life stories even though he didn’t care. He tells him to stop asking him to do things. He reaches for the glasses, and as he does so, he sees Cirrus shed a tear. Skylar hesitates for a moment, then takes the glasses off him. Skylar quickly tries to play off what he saw by telling Cirrus his situation is hard enough without him adding problems to it. As Skylar lays back down, he tells Cirrus to not tell him about himself, as they aren’t friends. Skylar also reminds him that he needs to leave before six (6).

Cirrus returns home around daybreak to see his father’s valet in front of the door. The man asks where has been, and that Jisu had been worried all night. Cirrus asks why his father was home, and the valet explains someone had a death in the family, so his father decided to stop by the house on the way to the funeral. He had called Jisu about it, but she didn’t tell Cirrus.

Cirrus enters the house, to see his father waiting for him on the couch. Later, when everyone was awake, Cirrus apologizes to Jisu for being rude to her. He asks for her forgiveness. Jisu explains that she was worried about him when he didn’t come home, but now she’s relieved he’s back safe. She even apologizes for putting Candy in a clinic without telling him. She strokes his face, and her demeanor changes ever so slightly, as she tells him that she forgives him for embarrassing him the other day. She urges them to get along like they used to.

Cirrus, angry over what just happened, throws around objects in his room, as he realizes that Jisu had set everything up so he could get beaten. He warns her that he’ll throw her out eventually. He then thinks about the flash drive and goes to find it, stating that he can’t lose it. He finds it, and stares at it, as he muses that Skylar was the first person he ever told about himself. He wonders why he did that, and slowly realizes that Skylar doesn’t care and is not interested in anything about him. Therefore, he has no expectations and won’t be disappointed in him. He now understands that Skylar is the only person he can be himself around. That’s why he went looking for him, why he was so angry when Skylar tried to keep his distance, and why he was relieved when Skylar showed up. From this, he decides that Skylar will always have to stay by his side.

The next morning, during school, Skylar is laying at his desk, exhausted from the lack of sleep. He looks up at Cirrus’s desk to see he isn’t there. He thinks to himself that he knew Cirrus wouldn’t come, but he shouldn’t worry about it. He has to nap if he wants to make it through the day. As he’s getting ready to sleep, a student suddenly calls Cirrus’s name. Skylar opens his eyes to see Cirrus has entered the classroom, a mask on his face. Cirrus explains that he has a cold, and he had to go see a doctor on his way to school, which is why he was late. In response, one of the students gives him a lemon vitamin tablet. As Cirrus is taking it, he notices Skylar is looking his way and seems to smile. This shocks Skylar, and he immediately turns away, questioning why Cirrus did that.

A few days later, Cirrus installs cameras in the house, and if he ever catches Jisu messing with Candy again, it’ll be her last day in the house. As he’s thinking this, Skylar sends him the money back, because Cirrus gave him too much when he repaid him from the convenience store. He laughs and decides that it’s time to go do his errand. Meanwhile, with Skylar, as he’s studying at the co-studying space, he thinks about how he can’t fail the finals. He realizes, however, that even if he does well in the finals, his GPA won’t recover to what it was before. He begins to think about how he should only apply for early admissions, but he tells himself no. He has been working too hard for three years to let it go to waste. He pumps himself up as he begins to study harder when suddenly, he gets a phone call from Ha-yeon.

He takes the phone and answers it outside. Ha-yeon seems to be excited a bit as she explains to him that a tall, handsome man, who has claimed to be his friend, has come to visit him. Confused, Skylar is about to tell her he doesn’t have any friends. He catches himself before he says so, and asks instead what his name is. Ha-yeon explains she didn’t ask for his name, however, he looks like Kay. Confused, Skylar remembers Kay to be the K-pop idol she liked and thinks about which person he knows that resembles him and knows his address. He quickly realizes it’s Cirrus and becomes extremely worried. He yells at Ha-yeon to lock the door, telling her that is not his friend. Ha-yeon explains he’s already in the living room, talking with their mother, which causes Skylar to worry more. He tells Ha-yeon he’s on his way home, he’ll be there in ten minutes. He adds they shouldn’t believe anything he says–it’s all a lie. With that, he hangs up the phone and tries to contact Cirrus. Skylar decides to take the bus home, however, he quickly realizes it was a mistake, as there’s traffic. He ends up wasting 10 extra minutes on the bus. Worried, especially since Cirrus has not responded to him, he decides to get off and run the rest of the way home.

Meanwhile, with Cirrus in Skylar’s house, Cirrus is in Skylar’s room. He finds the yearbook that he had in middle school and works his way through it. He finds Skylar in his last year and becomes disappointed at how he hasn’t changed his appearance all that much. Then, he finds something, and wonders if it’s Skylar.

Skylar bursts through the door, shouting his arrival, to see his mother and Cirrus sitting in the dining room. The two greet him, and upon seeing Cirrus, Skylar becomes irritated and passive-aggressively tries to tell Cirrus to leave. Cirrus takes the hint and tells Skylar’s mother he should be going, which relieves Skylar. However, Skylar’s mother asks him to stay for dinner, to which Skylar shouts “no”. He quickly tries to cover up his sudden aggression with an excuse; Cirrus has something else to do, and he’s has to go do it now, or he won’t make it in time. Cirrus helps add to the cover-up, by explaining he is having dinner with his parents, and he should be on his way.

Skylar’s mother lets him go, and Cirrus says his farewell. Skylar wastes no time in pushing him out the door, explaining to his mom that he’ll walk Cirrus out. As the two exits the apartment, Skylar sits down, finally relaxing, and asks Cirrus why he came to his house without telling him. Cirrus requests they take a walk. As the two are walking, Cirrus explains that Skylar’s mother had spotted him as he was leaving his house. Cirrus continues by stating he remembered Skylar had told him to make sure his mother didn’t see him, so he was worried she had seen his face. He came by his house to make sure she hadn’t. He asks Skylar if she said anything to him.

In his head, Skylar wonders why she didn’t say anything about it, and he hopes she doesn’t think anything weird is going on. He asks Cirrus if he said anything “absurd” to his mom, and Cirrus reassures him he didn’t. As the conversation is ending, Skylar realizes the two are having a normal conversation and thinks how weird it is. Worried Cirrus is about to do something, he tries to send him away. However, Cirrus states he isn’t finished talking and pulls out the flash drive. Cirrus tells him to take it and snatches the flash drive out of Cirrus’s hand. As he’s putting the item into his pocket, he asks Cirrus if he kept a copy. Cirrus tells him no. Skylar tells him that he won’t be doing any more favors for him. Cirrus says okay. Skylar tells him they are basically strangers now. Cirrus says fine. Suspicious now, Skylar asks Cirrus why he is giving the flash drive away. Cirrus teases him by stating that it was probably because they spent the night together, which causes Skylar to cringe. Cirrus tells him he was kidding, and leaves. Skylar watches him leave, confused.

Cirrus goes to get Candy, and thanks Da-in again for taking care of her. As he’s walking home, he notices a leaf resting on Candy's head. He laughs a bit as he finds it cute, and he makes a note of how nice the day is. He thinks about how excited Skylar must be to have the flash drive.

Meanwhile, Skylar is destroying the flash drive. First, he puts it in water, breaks it open to get the memory card, and unwraps the card. After all that, he throws it away. He realizes that it might fall out of the bag, and pushes the memory card far down to the bottom of the bag. As he’s doing so, Ha-yeon asks him what he’s looking for. Skylar immediately drops what he’s doing and walks away from the trash bag, explaining that he thought one of his mechanical pencils was in there. As he’s walking away, Ha-yeon asks him if he’s close with the friend that came over, and that he should give her a warning before he comes over. She explains that she looked like a “bum”, and it was embarrassing. Skylar laughs and tells her that his friend is never coming over to their place, so she shouldn’t worry about looking like a bum. She should just be her normal self.

While at school, Skylar is holding the last meeting in the photography club before finals. He explains that the festival is taking place right after finals and that they do not have much time to prepare. He asks Dongsik if he brought the photos for the festival, as the first years wanted to start getting ready for the exhibition today. Dongsik explains that he forgot to bring them, however, he did print them. Skylar stares at him for a moment, before requesting that he bring the photos tomorrow. Dongsik sighs in relief, and quietly tells Chan-il that he thought he was going to be in trouble. Chan-il tells him to not forget to bring them tomorrow. Chan-il looks at Skylar and notices he seems to be in a good mood.

The next day, as Cirrus is getting ready for school, his maid greets him. He greets her back and realizes that both of them are working. Upon questioning her, she explains that Cirrus's father asked them to both works from now on to make sure that Jisu is as comfortable as possible. Cirrus then asks where Jisu is. While Jisu is eating, Cirrus antagonizes her, however, she doesn't respond to him. Eventually, Cirrus throws juice all over her food, ruining it completely. He patronizes her by telling her to enjoy her breakfast. Seemingly angry, Jisu gets up and heads to her room.

A few days later, Skylar and Jeong-hoon search through Dongsik’s locker for an item that he had let him borrow. He doesn’t see the item in the locker and realizes Dongsik must still have it on him. He complains to Jeong-hoon, who tells Skylar he’ll get the item from Dongsik, then bring it to Skylar next period. As Jeong-hoon is telling him this, Cirrus walks up behind Skylar. However, Cirrus doesn’t say anything. He only stands there, staring at Skylar, as if waiting for Skylar to notice him. This creeps Jeong-hoon out, but he doesn’t say anything to Skylar. While Jeong-hoon is creeped out, Skylar complains more to him. Skylar requests that Jeong-hoon tell Dongsik he won’t lend him any more things if he keeps not returning them. Jeong-hoon stares at Skylar worryingly. Skylar looks back at Jeong-hoon, confused when suddenly a small strand of his hair is pulled. He hears Cirrus tell him that he has gray hair.

Skylar freaks out as Cirrus begins counting the number of gray hairs on his head. Skylar tells him that he’s lying, and Cirrus tells him that he’s right, it was lint. Cirrus tells him to hold still, so he can find more, but Skylar tells him that he’ll just shake it all out. While the two are talking, Jeong-hoon watches their banter. He becomes too creeped out and walks away. After he has left, Skylar turns around to request that he tells Dongsik something. However, he stops mid-sentence, realizing Jeong-hoon has left.

Cirrus asks Skylar if his friends ever come up to him for anything else other than to borrow his things, and he doesn’t understand why Skylar keeps humoring them. Skylar replies that he’s not humoring them. He lets them use his stuff because they’re his friends. Skylar asks Cirrus why he’s conversing with him, as their business with each other is done. Cirrus teases him, asking him how he can abandon him after seeing him naked. Skylar, in his head, tells Cirrus that he was the one who came out of the bathroom naked. Then, Skylar realizes he has nothing more to do with Cirrus and he doesn’t need to keep conversing with him. Skylar grins evilly and tells Cirrus he could care less what he thinks of him. Then, he leaves Cirrus alone.

Dongsik, Jeong-hoon and Skylar go to the bathroom after eating lunch to brush their teeth. There, Jeong-hoon asks Skylar if he’s good friends with Cirrus, and Skylar immediately tells him "no". Jeong-hoon then asks him why he was with Cirrus so late at night. Jeong-hoon explains they weren’t doing anything in particular, just sitting at a table in front of the convenience store. Skylar relaxes as he realizes he didn’t see anything. Skylar lies to Jeong-hoon, explaining he was coming home late from the library and ran into him there. So they chatted for a bit, and Skylar had gone home shortly afterward. Jeong-hoon goes on to state he doesn't want Skylar to be friends with Cirrus. Jeong-hoon explains he went to the same elementary school as him. While they weren’t in the same class, he had heard plenty of rumors about him. Apparently, one of Cirrus’s stepmothers had come to one of the school events, however, she looked too young to be his mom. Not only that, but a different woman would appear as his mother at school events every year. People began to speculate he didn’t have a mother.

There was a kid, Hyungsik, who would harass Cirrus about the situation. Jeong-hoon felt bad for him because of it. Then, one rainy day, Jeong-hoon left his umbrella in the classroom. He had run back to get it, and as he was running there, he saw Cirrus and Hyungsik in a confrontation. However, he couldn’t make out what either of them was saying. Hyungsik turned around to go down the stairs when Cirrus pushed him. Jeong-hoon explains he’ll never forget the way Cirrus stood there and watched as Hyungsik cried in pain before going to get the teacher.

Years later, in high school, when he saw him again, he almost didn’t recognize Cirrus. He looked and acted completely different. Jeong-hoon explains the way Cirrus acts feels fake and unnatural to him somehow. Jeong-hoon tells them that they can’t tell anyone else. Skylar explains he won’t and he isn’t close with Cirrus anyway. They’ve only talked a few times since Cirrus sits in front of him. With that, the trio return to class. Unbeknownst to the group, someone was listening in on their conversation.

As Skylar is in class, he scribbles in his notebook, not paying attention to what the teacher is saying. Instead, he thinks about what Jeong-hoon had said and silently tells himself the stories mean nothing to him since he has no more business with Cirrus. He thinks about how he shouldn’t have let Cirrus into his room, then he wouldn’t have had to learn about his business. Skylar recalls noticing Cirrus shed a tear when he tried to take his glasses back. Then, he recalls something peculiar Jeong-hoon said: Cirrus acts like a completely different person. Skylar remembers how he was back in middle school and how different he was compared to now. He looks up at Cirrus, and silently states no matter how hard you try to live like you’re someone else, you can’t change who you are.

During lunchtime, Yoochan and Jiwon get into a discourse over how Jiwon took the bread Yoochan had been wanting the entire morning, just to spite Yoochan. Jiwon asks Chan-il and Cirrus if they understand the feeling of wanting to take what someone else wants, and the two immediately tell him "no" in their own way. The group continues talking, however, Cirrus stops listening to them as he hears Dongsik's voice. He listens to him complain about his mother gatekeeping him from buying new earbuds. As the two passes by him, Dongsik trips over Cirrus's foot, embarrassing him completely. Dongsik, believing he didn't fall by accident, turns around to see what could have happened to him, but doesn't see a thing. He wonders what he tripped over.

While in his classroom, Skylar is approached by two freshman students that are in his photography club. They inform him that Dongsik still hasn’t given them the photos they need. He apologizes to them and tells them that he’ll get the photos from him, then bring them to them himself. After teasing him a bit, the two girls leave Skylar. Skylar heads over to Dongsik’s class and lectures him about the photos. He reminds him not to forget to bring them tomorrow. However, as he’s lecturing him, Dongsik seems to be preoccupied with his arm, and he gives a halfhearted reply. Skylar hesitates before he leaves, wondering if Dongsik truly heard him.

Later that day, Dongsik goes to give Skylar the photos but sees no one in the classroom. However, the door is unlocked, and he makes his way in to leave them at Skylar's desk. As he sets the photos down on the desk, he notices a wallet there as well. He wonders if it's Skylar's and is about to put it away for him. However, he gets curious to know how much money he has, and searches through it, finding a fair bit of cash. Completely dumbfounded, he takes the money he needs to buy new earbuds, believing that Skylar wouldn't notice a few missing bills. As he's doing so, Cirrus catches him in the act.

The next day, Skylar arrives at his desk, to see the photos on them. He delivers them to the freshmen students. During lunchtime, he sits down as Dongsik and Jeong-hoon are in the middle of a conversation. Skylar asks his two friends what they're talking about. In response, the two men stare at Skylar, then drop the conversation that they were having, telling him that they were conversing about a game that he wouldn't be interested in. Skylar notes how odd their behavior is, and that they have been leaving him out of their conversations recently. He begins to become anxious, as he wonders what could've caused them to become distant suddenly.

On a rainy day, Skylar asks Dongsik if he is mad at him. Dongsik tells him "no", however, this only reaffirms Skylar’s suspicion that something has changed. As Skylar is walking home, he tells himself he isn't dense. Even if they don't say something is wrong, he knows when there is something wrong. He knows that they're trying to distance themselves. He wonders what he did wrong, as he thought he was getting along with them well enough. Then he begins to wonder if maybe the problem is that there's something wrong with him. As he thinks this, he remembers when Minwoo and he had fought. Skylar begins to cry, confused as to what to do.

The next day, Skylar arrives at the photo club room. He stands outside of it and freezes as he hears Jeong-hoon and Dongsik talking. He begins to have a panic attacks, not knowing what to do. Suddenly, Chan-il touches his shoulder, and he asks Skylar if he's ready to go inside. Skylar grows nauseous as he asks this, and runs to the bathroom. He tells Chan-il to go into the clubroom without him. In the clubroom, instead of getting ready for the festival, Dongsik is playing a game he just bought. Jeong-hoon, and another clubmate named Minjae, are watching him play. Chan-il scolds the three of them and gives them orders to go and help prepare for the festival. He turns to Skylar, who's looking at photos. Chan-il wonders why Skylar didn't scold them, as he usually would.

During lunchtime, Skylar eats outside instead of in the cafeteria. While he's eating, Cirrus sits down beside him. Cirrus asks him why he didn't eat in the cafeteria, then he brings up Skylar's friends. He states he hasn't seen them hanging around him lately, and he asks why they stopped showing up. At the topic of his friends, Skylar becomes crestfallen. Upon seeing Skylar’s reaction, Cirrus asks if something happened between them, but Skylar doesn’t reply. Cirrus tells him they weren't good for him anyway. They were like parasites and Skylar is better off without them. As Cirrus finishes talking, Skylar thinks about when his mother had decided to cancel his doctor's appointment.

Skylar was studying at home when his mother came into his room. She had asked him why he wasn't at the co-studying space and sat down on his bed after receiving an answer. Skylar had asked if she needed something, to which his mother hesitantly brought up his next doctor's appointment. She had told him they could cancel it, which surprised Skylar. His mother had stated that if Skylar truly wanted it, then he didn't need to go anymore. She had explained she thought he was still struggling with the past because he wasn't talking much and still seemed depressed. However, she had brought up her talk with Cirrus and explained Cirrus had told her he was smart and friendly. Everyone got along with him, and the teachers were fond of him as well. She had asked Cirrus if that was true, as Skylar hadn't told her about any of that, kind of suspicious. Cirrus had told her that he doesn't talk to his parents about those kinds of things either and that it was a common occurrence for a lot of kids to do that sort of thing.

Skylar is awoken from his thoughts due to Cirrus tapping him with a can of lemonade. He tells Skylar to take the lemonade, as he doesn't understand how Skylar can eat a sandwich without anything to drink. Cirrus gets up and tells Skylar that he's going to head inside. He adds that Skylar shouldn't stay outside too long. Before he leaves, Skylar hesitantly thanks Cirrus.

As Skylar is leaving the Elite co-studying space, he silently vents his frustration about how difficult it is to get a seat. Since he has time to spare, Skylar decides to go study at the library. At the library, Skylar muses over a particular question, finding the method used to solve it difficult to understand. He lays his head down and begins to nod off, however, he catches himself and decides to go get some air. While out, he buys some food. he hears someone call him. He turns around to see his two classmates, Jiwon and Yoochan. He starts to become a little nervous as they begin a conversation with him.

Jiwon asks Skylar if he's studying at the library alone, to which Skylar replies "yes". Jiwon states that Skylar is smart, as now he can study without distractions. Yoochan asks Jiwon if he's calling him and Chan-il distractions. At the sound of Chan-il's name, Skylar becomes even more nervous. Yoochan calls out to Chan-il and tells him that Jiwon called them distractions. Chan-il turns around and sees Skylar, who he happily greets. Skylar nervously greets him back. Chan-il asks if they can study together. He also adds that Skylar should have dinner with them afterward. Jiwon agrees as well. Skylar hesitantly agrees.

Back at the library, Skylar mumbles to himself, calling himself stupid for letting them study with him, as now he feels awkward. Jiwon notices Skylar mumbling to himself and hears him berate himself. He's a little shocked, wondering how difficult the problem he's working on is. He goes over to Skylar, unbeknownst to him, and looks over his shoulder. He asks Skylar if he's having trouble, pointing at the problem Skylar was previously having issues with. Skylar tells Jiwon "yes". He sits down next to Skylar and helps him. After he's helped Skylar, Skylar silently gawks, surprised at how much better at math Jiwon is compared to him. He thanks Jiwon, who tells him to ask him if he ever needs help. Yoochan asks Jiwon why he's never that nice to him, and Jiwon tells him that it’s difficult to be nice to a dumb person. This causes the two to start some banter, which Skylar mistakes for insults. Chan-il tells Skylar that's just how they talk to one another since they're so close. This causes Skylar to think about Minwoo and him, and how it's been two years since he's hung out with people.

Once the group is done studying they go have dinner together. They walk around after dinner, and Skylar trails back a bit from the group. He hesitantly brings up that his house is in the opposite direction and he needs to get going. As he begins to leave, one of the young men tells him to eat a snack with them, but Skylar hastily tells them that he has things he needs to finish doing. The group lets him leave. As Skylar is turning around, Jiwon calls out to him and invites him to study with them again. He informs him that they're meeting up at 9. The trio of young men begins to leave, saying their farewells to Skylar, Chan-il adding that he'll call him tomorrow. Skylar watches them leave, a surprised look on his face, as he tells them that he'll see them tomorrow.

Late at night, at his tutoring spot, Cirrus thinks about how Skylar thanked him. He smirks and silently states, "Yeah, that's more like it". At lunch, as his friends are talking about various things, Cirrus asks Jiwon where Chan-il is. Jiwon explains that he's eating lunch with Skylar till it's time for the festival. Then, he proceeds to tell Cirrus about how the four of them have been studying together at the library. Cirrus then leaves to go looking for them. Cirrus dashes frantically throughout the school looking for Skylar, almost similar to how he was looking for Candy. He eventually stops, not able to find them in any room he looked in. As he's walking down the hall, he spots them outside. Cirrus immediately flings open the window and watches Skylar as he smiles and beams as he walks with Chan-il. Cirrus scratches the wall in complete irritation, similar to what he did in Skylar’s bathroom. Seemingly seething, Cirrus darkly asks why "it has to be Chan-il".

Nearly a week later, it's the day of the festival. Cirrus finishes reading the instructions the groups are supposed to follow, then leaves to go to his club room. However, he is stopped by two classmates, who ask him if they can help promote their booth. They perm his hair and draw heart marks on his face. Cirrus goes to the club room while covering up the markings. He asks that Yoochan takes his bag so he can go to the restroom. However, Yoochan instead forcibly removes Cirrus's hands from his face to see the markings. He tells Cirrus that it isn't a big deal, as they put one on his arm. His other members tell him that it looks too festive to remove, and proceeds to urge him to hurry and put on his apron, as other groups have already started. Cirrus obliges and grabs his apron, however, as he does so, the entire soccer club watches him. Confused, Cirrus unfurls the apron, to see it's a traditional maid apron. Yoochan explains that they're short on aprons and that the apron he's supposed to wear is their last year's manager's. Cirrus decides to take off his uniform instead of wearing the apron, however, his club doesn't let him. They grab Cirrus and force him into the outfit.

Meanwhile, with Skylar, his club advisor informs him that she won't be able to be with the club during the festival, so they should head to the teacher's office if there's any trouble. With that, Skylar makes his way to his club room. While making his way there, he meets Chan-il in the hallway. Chan-il explains that he's headed to the snack shop so he can break a bill. Skylar informs him that the shop is closed due to the festival. In response, the two come up with a plan to go break the bill at the soccer club.

Now by himself in the club room, Cirrus is struggling to take the apron off. He's eventually able to do so, however, Skylar and Chan-il open the door. The two young men stare in shock for a moment until Skylar looks away, and Chan-il apologizes for not knocking. Then, the two close the door and leave. Completely irritated now, Cirrus throws the apron into the trash.

Outside the school gate, Ri-in tells Cirrus that she won't be coming to his festival, however, she's actually about to go inside with Yeonji.

Character Episodes:

Seong Chan-il (1-2):

Before going to meet Cirrus at the meet-up spot, Skylar thinks back on the circumstances that lead him to become friends with Chan-il, and eventually to take pictures of him. The episodes are titled “Seong Chan-il” and there are only two of them. These episodes are later expanded upon in the “Yeon Skylar” episodes with added backstory and more in-depth reasoning behind Skylar's choice to take pictures of Chan-il.

Story

At first, Skylar thought Chan-il to be annoying and dorky, and he wanted nothing to do with him. Chan-il was horrible at taking pictures, and someone called Chan-il cute for it. Skylar silently replied that Chan-il was just vying for attention.

One day after school, as Skylar is putting his photos on the board, Chan-il compliments him on his photo-taking skills. Them having never spoken to each other before, Chan-il introduces himself and explains that he remembers Skylar’s name because it is unique. Then, he proceeds to compliment him. This behavior gets on Skylar’s nerves, and he audaciously tells Chan-il to not bother him. They don’t have to be friends just because they're in the same class. Chan-il is incredibly shocked by his sudden attitude change, and can only stand there and watch him as Skylar leaves the club room.

Over the following meetings, Skylar noted how Chan-il befriended everyone in their club but him. He states he was scared of socializing with people and would make up excuses just to get away from people. However, Chan-il would always notice Skylar. Eventually, Skylar decided to put his photos into contests outside of school and won a good some of them, it ended up impressing his home teacher at the time, who is also the club advisor.

One day, Skylar was walking home, happy with himself as he had won a contest and received prize money, when suddenly, Chan-il calls out to him and congratulates Skylar on his win. Skylar quickly thanks him and tries to walk away, however, Chan-il follows him. Skylar then blows up at him, asking him why he was following him. Chan-il lies that they were just going in the same direction. Skylar then requested that he not walk so close to him, which Chan-il does. Chan-il then asks Skylar if he hates him, to which Skylar states that he doesn’t. Chan-il goes on to explain that he’s glad Skylar doesn’t hate him and starts to compare Skylar’s photography to that of a famous photographer’s work he admired. He calls them special which seems to make Skylar pissed. Skylar tells Chan-il to leave him alone once more, however, much more uncivil this time, with Skylar even cursing. With that, Skylar walks away, leaving Chan-il too shocked to respond. Soon after Skylar leaves, Cirrus and Ji-Gyeom come up to him. They ask him why he ran away all of a sudden, and that the cafe is in the other direction. He then asks his two friends if he’s unlikable.

Back at home, Skylar is looking up the famous photographer Chan-il had compared him to, which is coincidentally the same photographer he likes. He deems it annoying, but he’s still surprised, and kind of intrigued, that Chan-il reads those kinds of books. He thinks back to when Chan-il called his photos special and gets angry at him for saying that. He assumes Chan-il to be stating mean things about him to his friends.

Meanwhile, with Chan-il, he tells his friends about Skylar, which causes Cirrus to laugh hysterically, while Ji-Gyeom curses Skylar. Cirrus tells Chan-il that he understands where Skylar is coming from because he had already told Chan-il to leave him alone before. He asks Chan-il if he’s trying to befriend Skylar out of pity because Skylar is alone all the time. Cirrus continues that if that’s the case, then Chan-il shouldn’t do that, as it could be annoying from Skylar’s perspective, especially since he had already told Chan-il to leave him alone. Chan-il then feels guilty about his actions.

Presumably the next day, Chan-il asks Skylar if he wants to join the club group chat. Skylar annoyed that he’s trying to continue his antics, tells him “no” sternly. Chan-il immediately backs off, and tells Skylar to let him know if he changes his mind. This surprises Skylar. Chan-il continued to behave that way towards Skylar: timidly asking him a question, then completely backing off and leaving him alone.

One day, the photo club orders some food with the leftover money they had from the festival. Chan-il is busy talking to people, which causes Skylar to become more annoyed with him, as he can’t grasp why Chan-il continues to try and befriend him. He realizes that he finished his drink, however, the bottle is all the way on the other side of the table. Skylar doesn’t want to disturb others’ conversations, so he decides to forget about it. However, Chan-il seems to notice and asks them to pass the bottle over. Chan-il pours a cup and hands it to Skylar, all without looking or talking to him. Skylar is moved by this.

The next time Chan-il and Skylar interact is when Chan-il asks Skylar if he wants to come to the festival wrap-up party. Skylar subverts his expectations by stating “okay”. Chan-il then begins to freak out, thinking he phrased his question wrong, and Skylar reassures him that he didn’t, and reaffirms that he’s okay with going to the party. This shocks Chan-il even more. This causes Skylar to finally smile and laugh. This then causes Chan-il to become happy and he gives Skylar the details of the party.

After that, the two started talking more comfortably, with Chan-il becoming an important part of Skylar’s life. Skylar eventually grew feelings for him, and he wanted to keep a tiny part of Chan-il for himself, thus he started taking pictures of him. However, because of this bit of selfishness, he’s now in this situation with Cirrus.

Yeon Skylar (1-12):

During his hang-out with Chan-il in Episode 26, Skylar muses over his life once more. He thinks about his past with Minwoo, where their history with each other is shown. This takes place throughout 12 Episodes and is titled “Yeon Skylar'' with corresponding numbers.

Content Warning: These episodes contain scenes that involve bullying, beating and self-harm.

Before Moving

Skylar explains that he first met Minwoo when he was about 8 years old, and they became best friends almost instantly. In his middle school life, his parents got a divorce, and he was originally supposed to live with his father, while Ha-Yeon lived with their mother. Skylar, upon realizing he wasn't ever going to see his mother and sister anymore, chose to live with them instead. While living with his mother, she put large amounts of pressure on him as he was "the man of the house". In retaliation for this pressure, Skylar stayed at home less and hung out with his friends more frequently. He'd stay out late, wouldn't tell her where he was and would lie to her. This caused the two to get into frequent arguments with each other. These arguments and pressure only increased when Ha-Yeon became injured because of Skylar’s neglect, and when his mother found out Skylar smoked.

The day his mother found out he smoked was one of their worst arguments, and it caused Skylar to run out of the house to Minwoo's house. Minwoo comforted him and the two moved on to talking about their future plans together, and how they'll go to the same high school and such. The two began to tease each other, and Minwoo got a little too close, accidentally kissing Skylar on the cheek. Due to this, Skylar began to realize he might have feelings for Minwoo. However, he never acted upon them. As time moved on, Skylar’s feelings for Minwoo only increased, and his attitude only got worse.

In their last year of middle school, Skylar and Minwoo joined the soccer team of their school, but Skylar was a menace on the team. He was exceedingly aggressive towards new players, one particular player that he antagonized, both on and off the field, was a young man named JoonHo. One day, Minwoo invited Skylar over to his house to play a video game on his brand new console, also his parents weren't home. Due to this, the boys decided to drink some of Minwoo's father's whiskey. While the two didn't plan on drinking the entire bottle, they ended up doing so and became incredibly intoxicated. Minwoo had seemingly passed out on the couch at some point, while Skylar kept drinking.

While he was passed out, Skylar, in a drunken haze, let his feelings get the better of him, and kissed Minwoo. Unbeknownst to him, Minwoo was awake when it happened. After getting into an argument, Skylar left Minwoo's house. While he was running home, he reflected on the situation, realizing the possibility that he could be gay, but not wanting to accept that, he tried to blame it on the alcohol. Although, he knew he wasn't fooling himself.

The next day, after school, Skylar tried to apologize to Minwoo about the sexual assault, blaming it on the alcohol. Minwoo replied that he didn't dislike the kiss, which startled Skylar. Minwoo then asked Skylar if he would like to try it again, this time conscious and sober. Skylar, excited at the fact that he could be reciprocating his feelings, decided to do it.

Minwoo blindfolded Skylar beforehand and kissed him. At first, Skylar enjoyed what was happening, however, the kiss started to become aggressive and uncomfortable for him. Skylar asked him to stop, but he didn't. As Skylar resisted, he suddenly heard Minwoo's voice behind him. Skylar immediately took the blindfold off and turned around, to see Minwoo sitting complacently behind him. He faced forward to see a fellow classmate in front of him. The classmate apologized and claimed that Minwoo made him do it. Skylar broke down, as Minwoo ridiculed him, explaining that he, essentially, just simulated what Skylar did to him. As he left the classroom, he thanked Skylar for faking their friendship all these years.

That night, Skylar visited Minwoo and asked him why he did that to him, and if it was fun making a fool out of him. Minwoo responded that he considered Skylar to be family, but that he had ruined that image. He explained that during all the time they've spent together, the thought that Skylar was feeling something completely different made him want to vomit. He wanted Skylar to feel what he felt. In response, Skylar struck Minwoo, and Minwoo hit him back. Before Skylar could respond, Minwoo brought up that he truly wanted to believe Skylar's apology was real. However, his test only proved that Skylar had lied to him. Skylar, feeling guilty, tried to explain that he was confused about his feelings, but as he was doing so, Minwoo told him to shut up. In tears and in a rage, Minwoo told Skylar that he hopes he dies. Seeing Minwoo's face, Skylar realized how much he had accidentally hurt Minwoo, and felt even more guilty than he already did.

From that day on, Minwoo started spreading rumors, and it did not take long for misleading ones to spark, such as Skylar was getting sexual with a much older man, that he had posted pictures on a gay website, or that he had asked out JoonHo, but got turned down. Skylar reacted violently toward these rumors and usually attacked JoonHo if he caught him fueling them. Due to this, he commonly got into fights with JoonHo and his group.

Soon after the rumors started, Minwoo had the bullying move on to assault. He would command a group of people that hated Skylar to beat him up, JoonHo was included in this group. Due to this, Skylar developed a strong hatred for Minwoo. The bullying continued till fall, and at some point, Minwoo had the group only beat Skylar in spots that wouldn't show normally, such as the stomach or the legs, so that way his mother wouldn't find out. At some point, in the middle of washing his clothes, his mother found bloodstains, and she became suspicious. She tried to interrogate Skylar, but he refused to give her any information. Eventually, she talked with one of Skylar’s classmates who revealed to her that Skylar was being bullied and that it was all started by Minwoo, and that Skylar is supposedly gay.

In response, she sneaked into Skylar's room while he was sleeping, and checked his stomach, revealing blood and bruises, confirming what she was told. This woke up Skylar, and the two got into another argument. His mother wanted to understand why Minwoo had caused such trouble, but Skylar refused to tell her and instead insisted that the bullying had nothing to do with Minwoo. Eventually, his mother asked him if he was truly gay, revealing that she already knew the reason. Skylar didn’t deny or confirm her question and instead started to cry. Seeing his reaction, his mother decided that they should go see Minwoo right now, so they could get some answers, which caused Skylar to panic. He refused to go and continued to insist that the bullying had nothing to do with Minwoo. Their argument became so uproarious, it woke up Ha-yeon. She entered Skylar's room to see their mother trying to force Skylar out the door. Skylar pushed her away and ran toward the balcony. He leaned out and threatened suicide if she went to Minwoo's house. His mother quickly obliged, and Skylar got down.

After that, his mother handled the situation privately with Minwoo's parents, and the bullying subsided. However, Skylar was still alone for the rest of the time till graduation. After he graduated, they moved so he could start a new life and begin treatment.

After Moving

After the situation with Minwoo, Skylar decided it is best that he did not make any friends, and he chose to be reclusive. He was scared of socializing with other people. However, it was mandatory to join a school club. Not knowing what to join, and not truly wanting to join a club, he decided to join his homeroom teacher’s club, as he’d also have a chance to make a good impression on her. As Skylar arrived in front of the club room, there was a group of people already there, blocking the way. As Skylar tried to get through the group to talk to the president, Chan-il turned around, and Skylar mistook him for Minwoo, which nearly caused him to have a panic attack. However, Skylar realized he had been mistaken and was able to calm himself down.

Sometime after joining the photography club, while Skylar was putting his photos up on the board, Chan-il commented on them. He complimented Skylar’s photos and took the opportunity to introduce himself. While he was doing that, Skylar realized that Chan-il resembled nothing of Minwoo, yet he still kept seeing Chan-il as Minwoo. Due to this, Skylar told Chan-il to leave him alone, speaking bluntly and almost impudently. After that exchange, Skylar went to vomit in the bathroom.

He was able to make a good impression on his homeroom teacher and would submit his photos to contests, both in and out of school. He would win a fair amount of them, and earned some prize money in the process, albeit not a lot. One day, as Skylar was walking home, Chan-il spoke with him. He congratulated him for winning a competition he was in. Skylar thanked him, quickly dismissing the conversation, and began to walk away. However, Chan-il seemed to follow him, which caused Skylar some stress, as he eventually asked him why he was doing so. Chan-il explained they were just going in the same direction. Skylar then requested that he not walk so close to him, which Chan-il obliged. Chan-il asked Skylar if he hated him, to which Skylar said no. Chan-il goes on to explain that he was glad Skylar didn't hate him and started to compare Skylar’s photography to that of a famous photographer’s work he admired. He called them special, which triggered Skylar again. He pushed Chan-il away, reiterating what he had told him before, which was to leave him alone. However, Skylar was much more blunt this time, even cursing at him. With that, Skylar walked away, leaving Chan-il too shocked to respond.

However, no matter how much he tried to push Chan-il away, the young man kept getting closer to him, and Skylar didn’t hate him. At some point, he developed romantic feelings for Chan-il and started taking pictures of him due to a conversation between him and his sister.

He was aware his methods of showing his interest were wrong, however, Skylar didn’t want to become a bad memory to Chan-il as he had become to Minwoo.

Images

Cirrus attempting to harass Skylar by making him show them his photos

Cirrus about to give Skylar the flash drive with all of Chan-il's pictures.

Cirrus in class