Not Alone | haobin

Twenty-Eight

Zhang Hao immediately closes the tab and with shaky fingers, he opens the website he was supposed to open in the first place, when he sees Matthew walking back into the library.

"Oh, did your computer not work?" Matthew asks him.

"Oh, I just forgot my password and had to submit something real quick. I hope you don't mind."

"Yeah, don't worry. If you need help signing in next time, just let me know and we can share the password."

"No, don't worry. It's just a one time thing. I'll go ask for my password again later." Zhang Hao tells him and quickly submits his work. "But why aren't you at lunch?"

"You aren't either." Matthew tells him.

"Yeah, I had to submit this really quick." Zhang Hao nods. "I completely forgot to do it last night."

"Well, I wasn't really hungry." Matthew tells him. "Plus, I have a lot of things on my mind. I'm not in the best mood, so I didn't really want anyone to see me like this." He sits down next to Zhang Hao.

"What's wrong? Do you want to talk about it?" He asks him, trying to forget about what he saw earlier. Matthew is really the one behind the NotAlone account? He was someone he would've never suspected.

"Not really." Matthew shakes his head. "It's kind of personal."

"Oh, okay. I understand." Zhang Hao nods. "But it's okay to not be happy all the time, you know? We're humans with many different emotions."

"Yeah, I know. I guess I just wanted to be alone for a bit."

"Oh, okay." Zhang Hao nods. "But if you need anything, you can trust me, okay?"

"Okay. Thank you."

Zhang Hao walks out of the library and instead of walking into the cafeteria, he sits down on a chair that's next to the door.

He can't believe Matthew's the one behind the account. It somehow makes sense, but at the same time, it doesn't.

After Chanwoo was stalking him, Matthew didn't defend himself or anything, but maybe the spiked drink really was his last straw.

Him seeing how Hanbin, his best friend, got hurt and seeing how Chanwoo intended to hurt Jiwoong, a close friend of his. That was probably his last straw and that's why he beat Chanwoo up that one time.

Zhang Hao feels his head spinning, not sure of what to think. He rests his head on the wall and sighs in frustration. He's so frustrated he can't tell anyone about this since he's not so sure.

"No, it doesn't make sense." Zhang Hao shakes his head. Judging by the video that was posted last night, it seems like NotAlone is a bit taller than Matthew. It can't be him. In the video, NotAlone was wearing all black clothes, plus a hat and a face mask. The viewers were only able to see his back, but he seemed taller. So why was Matthew signed into his account?

"Wait..." Zhang Hao thinks of something. "No way."

-

"Hao, why didn't you go to lunch?" Ricky asks him after school as he, Gunwook, and Taerae start walking home.

"Oh, I had to rush to the library to submit something." Zhang Hao tells them.

"Zhang Hao!" He hears behind him and he turns around to see Hanbin. "Can I walk you home?"

Ricky and the others immediately glance at each other and smirk. "Oh of course you can." Taerae tells him.

"Yeah, the three of us have somewhere to be. See you!" Gunwook rushes away from them, making the other two follow him.

"Let me get that for you." Hanbin takes Zhang Hao's backpack from him, then puts it over his shoulder. "Instead of going home, would you like to go somewhere else or are you busy?"

"No, I have nothing to do right now. Where do you want to go?"

"I was thinking we could go to-" Hanbin starts, but stops himself midway and reaches for Hao's hand. "No, actually, I want it to be a surprise. Is that okay?"

"Sure." Hao just nods, not really paying attention.

"Or if you want, I can tell you."

"Sure." Is all Hao says.

"We could go to the club and have a lot of drinks." Hanbin tells him once he realizes Hao's not paying attention to him.

"Sure." Zhang Hao nods.

"Hao, are you okay?" Hanbin asks, worriedly. You don't even drink. What do you mean 'sure'?"

"Huh?" Zhang Hao's interrupted from his thoughts. "Sorry. I just have a lot on my mind right now."

"What is it?" Hanbin stops walking and faces him.

"I'm just so confused right now." Zhang Hao sighs. "I know it probably shouldn't matter to me since I said it's better if they stay anonymous, but... I think I know who's behind the NotAlone account."

"What?" Hanbin asks, confused.

"I think Jiwoong is NotAlone."

-

Earlier that day

"So what did you have to talk to me about?" Matthew asks him once they're outside of the school so no one can hear them.

"I just want to be honest to you about something." He tells him. "We're really close and you're the one I trust the most."

"Really? You're the one I trust the most, too. But you're kind of scaring me. What's so important you can only talk to me about?"

"Matthew..." He takes a deep breath. "I'm... I'm NotAlone."

"Yeah, of course you're not alone. You have me and you have the guys and-"

"No, that's not what I mean." He shakes his head. "I'm the person who runs the NotAlone account. I'm the one who beat Chanwoo and Yoojoon up."

"What?" Matthew gasps, covering his mouth with his hands. "It's you?"

________________

Last chapter of the day <3 I hope you
liked the three chapters I posted today!
Thank you for reading 💙

Who do you think is NotAlone?

And again, Happy 𝓡𝓲𝓬𝓴𝔂 Day 🍓💗
Look at him 🥰