On Monday, Kyungsoo arrived at the table before anyone else. He casually left the corner chair empty. When Junmyeon and Jongdae arrived Jongdae went straight for the corner chair but Kyungsoo pulled it in and he received a puzzled look from Jongdae.

 

“Oh, um, it’s dirty.”

 

Kyungsoo lied and Jongdae sat next to Junmyeon but still looking at Kyungsoo with suspicion.

 

Yifan and Tao arrived next. Tao sat across from Junmyeon and started conversing happily with him. Yifan sat next to Tao and way closer than it would be an appropriate distance. He rested his elbow on Tao’s chair; it was a very possessive move. Kyungsoo looked at them and a smirk appeared on his face, he knew everything!

 

Sehun, Luhan and Jongin arrived together. Sehun and Luhan sat across from him and Jongin made his way to the empty chair next to Kyungsoo.

 

“That chair is dirty!”

 

Jongdae shouted at Jongin. Damn you Kim Jongdae, why do you have to be such a good person?!

 

“It’s clean! It’s clean now.”

 

Kyungsoo said with much more force than intended and started ‘cleaning’ the chair before Jongin sat down. Just across, Sehun was looking at them with curiosity in his eyes. It became apparent that something was going on when both Kyungsoo and Jongin looked shyly at each other, smiled and looked away, both of them blushing.

 

A light bulb went on in Sehun’s head. He turned to Luhan and gave him a peck on the lips. Luhan smiled at him. Sehun then looked at the two sitting in front of him and saw as they swallowed hard. Kyungsoo started looking towards the ceiling away from Jongin and Jongin turned the other way playing with the collar of his shirt. An evil smile formed in Sehun’s mouth.

 

Quite a ‘knowing’ triangle they had here.

 

 

On his way out of school Kyungsoo saw Chanyeol coming out of the music room carrying his guitar as always.

 

“Oh, hello!”

 

Kyungsoo greeted happily.

 

“Oh, hi Kyungsoo. I haven’t seen you in a while. How are you? Did you get the guitar?”

 

Now that Kyungsoo thought about it, he hadn’t tried escaping Jongin to see Chanyeol anymore.

 

“Ah, no, not yet.”

 

Kyungsoo smiled at Chanyeol a little embarrassed. He lied about the guitar and had yet to convince his mom to get him one.

 

Kyungsoo felt as someone grabbed his arm and pulled him back forcibly.

 

Jongin.

 

The old Jongin was back.

 

“What are you doing? I have been waiting for you.”

 

Jongin was talking to Kyungsoo but was looking at Chanyeol; his tone was dead serious and borderline scary, still holding Kyungsoo’s arm.

 

“Jongin let go of my arm.”

 

“Um, I’ll see you later Kyungsoo.”

 

Chanyeol noticed Jongin’s possessive attitude and he left the scene since this wasn’t his place.

 

Jongin stared until Chanyeol was out of sight.

 

Kyungsoo managed to get out of Jongin’s grip.

 

“Why do you have to behave like this?!”

 

Kyungsoo was angry at the scene Jongin made in front of Chanyeol.

 

Jongin ran a hand thru his hair, looking desperate as he turned towards Kyungsoo.

 

The look on his eyes was enough to make Kyungsoo back up until he was against the lockers and Jongin right in front of him.

 

“Why are you always trying to run away from me?”

 

Jongin said with anger.

 

“What?”

 

“Why are you always trying to make me feel like nothing?”

 

“What are you talking about?”

 

Kyungsoo asked but was interrupted when Jongin kissed him. But this kiss was forced, imposed, there was nothing romantic about it, it was the entire opposite.

 

Kyungsoo pushed Jongin away.

 

“What’s wrong with you?!”

 

There was silence for a moment.

 

“You really don’t like me, do you? You win, I won’t bother you anymore…”

 

Jongin’s last words were filled with sadness.

 

Kyungsoo saw him as he walked away.

 

 

Everything happened so fast. Kyungsoo sat on the floor of his room, his mobile at hand. He wasn’t sure if he was waiting for Jongin’s text or if he should text him first. Maybe he needed time to calm down. Maybe tomorrow they could talk about it. Jongin’s last words kept sounding in his head; something about them really bothered him.

 

The next morning Kyungsoo lingered in front of the school to try and talk to Jongin first thing. But Jongin was nowhere to be seen and Kyungsoo had to make his way to class.

 

He was counting the minutes until lunchtime, but as he kept looking at his watch the time seemed to slow down. When lunchtime came he was one of the first in the cafeteria. He sat down at the table and played with his food. Junmyeon and Jongdae arrived next. Then, they saw all the popular kids making the food line (Jongin wasn’t with them yet) but when it was time to sit down they went to their old table.

 

Junmyeon was smiling, expecting them to join and looked confused when they didn’t, he immediately looked at Kyungsoo who had a similar look on his face.

 

“So it’s true, you guys aren’t together anymore.”

 

Jongdae spoke and his words were like a slap at Kyungsoo’s face.

 

“What are you talking about? Where did you hear that?”

 

Kyungsoo asked.

 

“Everybody is saying it.”

 

Ouch, everybody knew they broke up, except him. He looked back towards the table and Jongin was joining them, he made brief eye contact with Kyungsoo but turned his head and joined his friends as he usually did. His look was cold.

 

Kyungsoo felt so angry. He stared at his plate for a moment and then stood up without another word and left the cafeteria.

 

Whatever, he should be happy now. He was free of Kim Jongin and his absurd game. He got what he wanted.

 

“You really don’t like me, do you? You win, I won’t bother you anymore…”

 

Jongin’s last words kept coming back to mind. He wasn’t even sure what he meant by that. Although he was afraid he knew exactly what he meant by that.

 

Kyungsoo found himself in front of the library. He had no clue how he made it here. He decided to go in. Perhaps if he saw Chanyeol he would feel better and remember whom he really liked.

 

Chanyeol wasn’t there. He didn’t think he saw him at the cafeteria. Where could he be? Perhaps, the music room?

 

Kyungsoo made his way to the music room and as he got near he could hear a piano being played. Kyungsoo peeped thru the door’s glass and saw Chanyeol. But Chanyeol was sitting with someone else. He recognized the other as Byun Baekhyun; he was in the school choir. They were playing the piano together and they looked really happy. They only had smiles for each other. Kyungsoo had never seen Chanyeol smile so brightly. It was obvious they were having a moment.

 

Strangely Kyungsoo didn’t feel jealous, He was happy for Chanyeol. But he suddenly felt really sad, like something was missing, like something was taken from him. Kyungsoo burst out crying non-stop. A teacher found him crying in the hallway.

 

“Student, are you ok?”

 

“Hazflwkpogsqofkntkpyt.”

 

Kyungsoo couldn’t even speak properly and since the teachers weren’t sure what was wrong with him they sent him home.

 

 

The following day he decided to brave school. His friends looked concerned when they saw him having lunch with them, talking about video games as if nothing had happened. Kyungsoo ate and talked but there was some palpable emptiness in his eyes and his smile looked forced.

 

Even in home economics he kept going like all the time he spent with Jongin didn’t really happened. Still, the atmosphere felt different whenever Jongin walked pass their workstation.

 

 

Days went by and Kyungsoo kept basically the same attitude, although some days he was just angry. He looked like he was just barely holding everything together. He felt like an idiot. Like Jongin said, he wanted this and now he was acting very unlike him. He was mad that Jongin had affected him so much and that not having Jongin was even worst. He hated feeling like this.

 

 

One day the unexpected happened.

 

Kyungsoo, Junmyeon, Jongdae and Minseok were eating their lunch together when Jongin’s friends joined them. The four friends looked very confused. Everyone was here, except Jongin.

 

“Jongin is not here, he missed school today.”

 

Luhan pointed out trying to clear the confusion. Sehun followed saying:

 

“Actually we have been wanting to come talk to you for a while now. We don’t know why you guys broke up but you should get Jongin back.”

 

“I don’t want to.”

 

It was Kyungsoo’s answer.

 

“Look, Jongin is like a zombie right now. He barely talks and doesn’t want to do anything else, the only possible answer is that he misses you.”

 

Yifan pointed out.

 

“That is his own fault. He decides by himself that we are going to date and also by himself decides that we are breaking up. He never asked me about it.”

 

Kyungsoo answered bitterly.

 

“Wah, so you like him that much!”

 

Minseok said.

 

Kyungsoo looked at Minseok ready to object but could not bring himself to deny it so he simply closed his mouth again and started playing with his food.

 

“This brat doesn’t even deny it now!”

 

Junmyeon said with a smile on his face.

 

“This is stupid! This is all stupid! If you like each other just be together.”

 

Tao burst out. It was the most eloquent and smartest thing everyone had heard him say.

 

“The point is, that if you like him, it’s your turn to get him back.”