Well..I was spending the past few days only in my room on my bed because I had to study for the next exam I was going to write tomorrow. It was really so much to learn and I was so afraid to forget anything during the exam then. Hakyeon was really worried about me the last days because I hardly left my room and the other boys barely even saw me. He was coming into my room like every hour asking me if I was ok or if I was hungry or something else. To be honest, the exam wasn’t the only thing I was worried about. The topic for the next art project was online and this time it was “friendship” and I really had no idea how to draw friendship. Every idea I got was just so bad and my head really hurt because of all this stuff.

A knock on the door of my room made me look up. “Yeah?” My cousin entered the room and sat to me on my bed. “How are you doing, Sun?” “It’s really much stuff..but I can manage it somehow.” I smiled at him. “That’s good. Well, the boys and I are going out to catch a movie. Do you want to join us?” “I would love to, but I have to pass. I’m sorry.” I answered him and hoped that he wasn’t too disappointed now. “No problem. Study hard, ok?” He my hair and was about to leave my room. “Have fun, N.” I said and he smiled before leaving the room. A few minutes later I heard how the boys left the apartment. I continued studying for half an hour and then I decided to take a break.

I took my Ipod, put the earphones in my ears and started to listen to the song Hyde by my cousin’s band. Since N and I went shopping the other day I was really addicted to that song. It was so catchy..just like the lyrics and the dance to it. I listened to that song too often so I was able to sing along with it. Ok, my singing skills were not that good but yeah. While I was listening to Hyde for the 3^rd time my stomach made a loud noise and I decided that it was time to eat something. I haven’t eaten all day and the boys were gone anyway so I could cook something in the kitchen for me.

I left my room still listening to Hyde and walked into the kitchen. I opened the fridge and looked for something eatable. The fridge contained a huge amount of banana milk which made me smile because I knew my cousin. Seemed like he was still totally into banana milk like he was when we were little kids.

~Nappeun saram a-nin-dee…neoreul sarangha-neun-deee~ I suddenly started to dance along to the refrain of the song. I put my arm up and pulled it back and did the same with the other one. It was so fun to do this and I especially liked the part when you’re choking yourself in this dance. So..literally someone is standing behind you and pretends to be the other person in you…ahh..you know what I mean. When the refrain was I stopped the song and put my earphones out. I turned around and for a few seconds I forgot to breathe. Leo was standing in the room with his emotionless look and stared at me.

“How long have you been standing there?” I whispered and could feel my cheeks burn. “Few minutes. You couldn’t hear me and when I wanted to say something you started to dance and sing.” My face was red as a tomato and I looked on the ground. “I thought I was alone. I’m so sorry that you had to see this embarrassing thing.” I mumbled. “Embarrassing?” Wow, Leo was talking pretty much, I thought. “Ehm..yes..I know my singing skills are really bad and also I don’t know the dance well enough.” He stared at me and I wasn’t able to read his face. I was so curious what he was thinking right now but he seemed so untouchable.

“I was about to cook something. Do you want to eat with me?” I asked him and at first he seemed surprised but then he nodded. I opened the fridge again and then decided to cook gaeran mari which is basically a rolled omelette. I put out the ingredients and when I turned around Leo was standing next to me. I was shocked a little bit because he was so quiet but then I asked him if he could help me cutting the ingredients. Without saying a word he took a knife and started to cut the onions into little pieces. We didn’t say a single word but it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence with him. It didn’t feel awkward like it felt with other persons. While I was cooking the eggs then he started to set the table. After that he put the ingredients on the egg and I started to roll the omelette.

I put it out of the bowl and put in on a plate to cut it in little pieces. Leo took the plate and sat to the table. I followed him and he put two pieces of the gaeran mari on my plate. “I hope you like it.” I said and watched him carefully when he ate the first piece. His face was emotionless again at first but then he looked surprised: “It’s really good.” I smiled and started to eat mine, too. We also didn’t talk while eating. It seemed like both of us were in there own world thinking about their own things. But as I said before it didn’t feel awkward with him.

“How often have you watched the Hyde dance?” He asked out of a sudden. “Only once..” I admitted. “Why are you asking?” “You did a good job..just one mistake..but it was good..” He added and looked at me. Was that supposed to be a compliment? And what did he mean? I made a mistake? “What mistake?” I asked. “Nothing big but your hand wasn’t placed right when you did the choking part. I’ll show you.” He said with his calm voice, grabbed my hand and pulled me of my chair.

“Your left hand has to be on my wrist when my right hand is going to your throat.” He showed me the place on his hand where I should put mine and then stood behind me. He started to sing the first few phrases before the choking part started and I could feel his breath in my neck. My heart started to beat faster and I wasn’t able to breathe properly. What was happening here? He stuck his arm under my right arm and when he put his hand on my throat pretending to choke me I put my left hand right on the place where he showed me. When I touched his wrist he stopped singing and I stopped to breathe.

His skin and his hand were so soft. My heart beat really fast and I knew he could feel it because his hand was right on my throat. I closed my eyes and was unable to move. I didn’t let go of his hand and then I felt his head going down a little bit so his lips were about to touch my neck. His soft breath tickled me and I waited for his lips to touch my skin. We heard the entry door of the apartment and Leo immediately went away from me and started to put the dishes away. My cheeks were burning and I was confused.

“Yooo…we’re back!” My cousin shouted and he and the other boys entered the room. “You had dinner?” Hyuk asked and his eyes were searching for more food. “There’s nothing left.” I explained and he looked really disappointed. “I hope Leo took good care of you.” My cousin winked and I just stared to Leo who was looking emotionless as always. “Sun cooked.” And Leo’s answer made everybody curious so I decided to cook some more gaeran mari for the others, too.

Leo went back to his room without saying a word and so I just sat there with my cousin, Ravi, Ken, Hyuk and Hongbin. I watched them eating and they told me about the cool movie they watched and that it was so sad that Leo and I didn’t join them. After they were finished I decided to study one more hour and then go to bed because of my exam tomorrow. They wished me a good night and I went back to my room.

I really tried to study a little bit more but I couldn’t stop thinking about this thing with Leo. What happened there? And why did my heart started to beat so fast? I blushed again when I thought about this and decided to just lie down and get some sleep.

On the next day I woke up really early. I had one hour before I had to go to the university to write my exam. I changed my clothes and walked into the kitchen where the other guys were already waiting for me. “Good morning!” Ravi smiled at me when I entered the room. “Oh no!” my cousin shouted when he saw me, ran to me, stood behind me and closed my eyes with his hands. “You are not allowed to see this.”

Well..I had to close my eyes for an eternity until Hakyeon allowed me to look and when I opened my eyes my mouth fell open. They had decorated the kitchen with a banner on which the words “Fighting Sun” were written. Also they had prepared breakfast and I was really touched when I sat down. “Good luck for today.” Hongbin smiled at me. His smile looked like a “son-in-law-smile” I thought. “Yes, good luck, noona!” Hyuk shouted and Ravi laughed. “Since when are you calling her noona?!” Ken started to laugh too. Leo was quiet as always and just had breakfast like he was somewhere else with his thoughts.

“I have to go now.” I said when I looked at the time and stood up. All six members stood up and Hongbin was the first one wishing me luck. He hugged me tight and smiled at me. Hyuk gave me a high-five and shouted “Fighting noona”. Ravi and Ken just winked at me and said that we’re going to celebrate my exam afterwards. Hakyeon pulled me into his arms and hugged me so tight that I stopped breathing. After he released me I looked at Leo who was being without emotions again. “Good luck.” He said with his calm voice and I tried to read something out of his mind but it was impossible. He was acting so cold sometimes but yesterday it was different. I stopped myself thinking about this thing again and left the apartment.

On my way to the university I was really encouraged because of the surprise my cousin and his friends had made for me. They were all so different but also special in their own way. On top of that all of them were so different like day and night but still they were friends. I thought about them and then I had to smile because I just got the perfect idea for the art project. I would buy all the necessary things right after I was done with my exam and I couldn’t wait for it because the idea was actually really good this time.

The exam wasn’t as difficult as I thought and I managed to answer all the questions. After that I hurried and went into a shop to buy all the stuff I would need for the project. I bought a large piece of white and strong paper and then I bought seven markers in different colors and headed back home. The boys were really curious when I got home and asked me how it went. I told them that it was easy and then they smiled happily.

“Btw..what’s this?” Ravi asked when he saw the things I bought. “Can you remember the art project?” they all nodded and looked curious now so I continued and told them the idea I got. “Well, this time the topic is friendship and I wanted to ask you for your help..” I waited for an answer and looked at them. “What should we do?” N asked and showed me a big smile. “Draw..” I added and they all started to talk now. “I can’t draw”, “I don’t want to..”, “Ravi is skilled with graffiti..” It was a total chaos at first.

“It doesn’t matter.” And they all stopped talking when I said this. “Look, I bought different colors. Everyone gets one color and then just draw what comes to your mind. Just draw lines or a tree or a flower..it doesn’t matter.. but what really counts here is the fact that we are doing it together…as friends..and with the different colors you can resemble the different characters of each person.” “It would be a really colorful picture then..” Hyuk said and they all nodded. “Yes, that’s the point. Different colors, different persons but one picture…”

After I explained it they understood my idea and wanted to help me. Well..the start wasn’t easy because they started to fight which color they should get. I bought red, blue, green, purple, orange, yellow and pink. Leo took the blue marker right away and refused to let it go when Ravi started to take it away from him. N took the red marker, Hongbin the green one and Hyuk the purple one. Ken and Ravi started to fight then because I took the yellow one and they had the choice between orange and pink. In the end they were both rolling on the floor and Ravi successfully took the orange marker away from Ken. He looked disappointed at first but then we started to draw.

It was so interesting to watch them drawing on the big piece of paper. At first they were all drawing on a little spot but soon the situation escalated and Ken drew a big line across the whole paper with his pink marker right into the thing N was drawing. My cousin looked mad in a playful way and drew a wavy line over Ken’s line. Hyuk and Ravi joined the chaos and then everybody was just drawing everywhere except for Leo and me. Ravi who was sitting next to Leo started to draw a point into Leo’s picture which gained him a death stare. Without any emotions Leo drew a point on Ravi’s nose who was to slow to get away in time.

That started the whole thing then and N started to draw a red line into my face. “Hakyeon!” I shouted and tried to get the line away with my hand. Ravi started to paint Hongbin’s arm and Hyuk was really hyper, stood up and colored my cousin’s face which made him scream like a little girl. “Good idea!” Ravi shouted and then they all went down on my cousin to paint him. Even Leo took N’s arm and drew a blue heart onto it. After N it was my turn to get painted. Hakyeon hold my arms behind my back. I tried to escape but he was stronger so my face also got colored.  It was very difficult to color Leo though because he was really strong and violent. I felt a little bit sorry for him because you could tell that he felt uncomfortable so I just drew a little heart onto his right hand while the other guys still tried to color his face.

Well, in the end we all looked like rainbows but we had so much fun. The picture was a total mess of different colors but I was satisfied. We all cleaned our faces after we were done and then sat together in the living room.

 “When will you turn it in?” Ravi asked me. “Tomorrow.” I smiled. “Thank you so much for helping me.” They all smiled and told me that they really had fun. “Look. We even took a picture of us for our starlights.” N shouted and showed me the picture on his phone. All six of them looking like rainbows were smiling in the camera. Ok, Leo had just his normal expression on his face but the picture looked cute in some way. “That’s cool. But Starlights?” I asked them and they looked shocked. “Our fans..” Leo explained and the others turned their heads to him. “So, your fandom is called Starlights?” and they nodded. What a cute name, I thought. We started to continue talking about the picture and the funny afternoon we spent together.

I turned the picture in the next day together with the same explanation I gave the boys when I asked them for their help. I got the result one week later on my phone when we were having breakfast. I opened the message and couldn’t stop smiling. Oh my god! Hakyeon grabbed my phone away from me and then he started to scream. I jumped out of my chair and hugged him so tight. “No way! You got the 1^st place?!” Ravi shouted, jumped up and also hugged N and me. The other boys were also excited now and we made a big group hug. My cousin even pulled Leo on his shirt into the group hug and I could feel his soft hand tapping my shoulder which made my heart beat fast again. Damn, he seemed so insecure with group hugs. When the boys released me, my cousin made a suggestion:  “We should celebrate this! Let’s go out tonight, ok?!” We were all happy and agreed. Wow, we were really going to celebrate this together. I couldn’t wait for the evening to come and I also hoped secretly that I could find out more about Leo and what’s going on in his mind.