Kris barely shot a glance at me from the rearview mirror. At seeing my unpleasant expression, his lips curved into a small smirk. Xiumin had chosen to sit up front with him as he was also one of the eldest in the group. Xiumin was a short but childish male, from how I saw him interact with his friends. In the back, Luhan sat next to me and in the back were Lay Chen and Tao.

I didn’t know much about Chen and Tao. From what I recalled, they were also in my grade. However, they didn’t interact with anyone other than the elders that graduated and Chanyeol. They didn’t look at me at all during the entire ride, though my eyes were constantly wandering and watching the boys in the vehicle with me.

“Where am I taking you?” Kris asked, and my head snapped forward. Kris was looking at me through the mirror again, though the smirk had gone and was replaced with a light scowl.

“The Black Pearl, please.” I answered, and with a slight nod, Kris continued driving. The Black Pearl was popular for High School and College students, though no one from the school paid attention when they saw me work there.

We had gotten there within minutes, and I watched with a glare as the rain finally disappeared, leaving clear skies as the van pulled up in front of the café. I expected them to drop me off and leave, but when the engine turned off and the other boys climbed out before I was allowed to leave, I stared.

“Are you coming?” Tao asked me, and I couldn’t help but gulp as I stepped out of the van. He wasn’t as old as Kris, but his personality was a perfect replica of Kris. If I hadn’t seen an angered Kris earlier, I would have called Tao the scariest.

I watched silently as the other six EXO members grouped outside of the café. I was confused as to why they suddenly cared so much about me, but before I could question them, they turned to me and returned my stare.

“This is the place, isn’t it?” Kris asked, and my eyes traveled from him back to the building.

“You don’t need to babysit me.” I muttered as I passed them, opening the door to the café and heading straight to the back so I could change into my waitress uniform.

It wasn’t much different, honestly. A white buttoned down and a pair of black slacks replaced my plaid skirt and black button down. An addition to my waitress uniform was the apron wrapped tightly around my waist.

After clocking in for my shift, I walked out into the café. For a small shop, there was always a buzz of people, but nothing like today. The EXO boys drew attention to themselves immediately, with the waitresses returning to them often to offer things to them.

I wanted to stand around and judge them, but when I noticed the dirty dishes sitting around and the various messes on the ground, I got right to work. It wasn’t the most fun, and sometimes the waitresses added on to the messes I had to clean, but it was a job and I was happy to be making money to save up for when I would be out of the orphanage.

“Myung Ji.” When my name was called, I looked up from the table I was collecting dishes at. The waitress had accidently spilled a drink on her way over to one of the tables the EXO members were sitting at. They were supposed to clean it up themselves, since they made the mess, but since I was around to do it, they didn't bother doing the cleaning themselves.

With a quick nod, I brought the dishes to the counter and knelt down to clean up the mess. As I was laying the towel down to clean it, however, someone had covered my hand and I looked up at Suho, dumbfounded.

“We won’t be staying long.” There was an apologetic smile on his face and I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow, because I didn’t recall asking any of them to stay there with me.

“I’ll send one of the youngers to come get you at the end of your shift-“

“Don’t bother.” I muttered, turning to clean once more, “I live nearby.”

“Are you sure?” With a disposable cup of coffee in his hand, Kris crouched down beside Suho and I. I glanced up at him, wondering why he had joined us on the ground when he didn't seem to care for me earlier.

“It might start raining again.”

“They have an umbrella in the back I can borrow.” I pretended not to notice the other patrons had been watching our interactions. I pretended that my cheek had stopped stinging even though it was. I pretended that EXO was being nice without having other intentions.

Without realizing why, however, I found myself watching their vans as they drove away. My coworkers asked about them, and patrons gave me weird looks, but I ignored everything and got back to work, because that was why I had been there in the first place.

“Myung Ji.” I suddenly found myself looking into the eyes of my boss. She had taken pity on me when I told her I had no way to support myself, and that was the only reason why I received this job. Despite how cold I was to the patrons and to the other workers, she treated me kindly and never overworked me. She never thought I was invisible.

I watched as she clasped a hand around my wrist and pulled me into the kitchen. I wanted to ask her about it, but when she smiled and looked up at me, I found that my voice disappeared.

“Is there something wrong?” I asked after I pulled my courage together again, because when people talked to me privately, they usually had bad news.

Her eyes crinkled in amusement and her head shook twice, “Nothing, Myung Ji. I was just going to tell you that you’ve been rewarded a paid vacation.”

After working at the café for three years, I knew how difficult it would be to pay someone for vacation. The shop was barely operating on its own, even with all of the students hanging around. This was the first time my boss had even suggested a thing.

“But the money-“

The woman waved her hand around, then clapped her hands in glee, “I was talking to someone on the phone earlier that wants to donate money to the shop!”

“Really?!” I couldn’t believe it. I was excited for my boss and also wondering where the donator had suddenly come from, but when I tried thinking about it, I was cut off by the boss.

“Now you don’t worry about what is going on here, okay?” The woman asked, and though I wanted to protest, she shook her head repeatedly.

“Take two weeks off to study and go on some dates! I saw twelve boys walk in with you before! It’d be a waste if you didn’t date at least three of them!”

I stared at her as she skipped off, wondering if she had meant to insult me by telling me to date the EXO boys. Maybe she didn’t know about them, but I knew them and I found no reason to trust them.

At 1AM, the café closed. It’s a late time, I know, but college students tend to study into the early morning from what I can tell. The boss trusted me enough to allow me to close up the café every night, and while the other waitresses grabbed their belongings and walked out without giving me another glance, I sighed and stepped in front of the window, watching as cars drove by.

“I should learn how to drive.” I muttered, turning around and cleaning off used tables. I stacked their chairs above them, imagining the next two weeks without work as I did.

When I turned from the table I was working on, I widened my eyes and stared at Kai. He was leaning against the counter with his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes following my movements.

“How did you get in here?” I asked quietly, though I really had wanted to ask him why he was there. I didn’t understand what EXO’s sudden infatuation was with me but I didn’t think it was a good thing.

“The door was open.”

I thought I had locked it, but when Kai smirked, I realized I had forgotten to lock it after all. Sighing, I turned to the last table, only to blink as I realized Kai had done it for me. With my eyebrow raised in suspicion, I looked back at him.

Everything else had been done, so I gestured for him to leave the café. He stared for a moment in confusion, but when I shut the lights off and headed for the door myself, he followed after me obediently.

“Don’t tell me you’re here to take me home.” I deadpanned, attempting to lock the door to the café. When nothing changed, I stared at the door and attempted to open it, confused to find it was already locked.

I looked back to Kai, who looked at my hand and at the doorknob before he gave me a helpless shrug, “It was slightly ajar when I got here.”

It didn’t make much sense, but I let it go because he looked like he himself was done with the conversation. Checking to make sure the door was locked, I turned and started walking towards the house.

When he followed, I stopped and looked at him with narrow eyes.

“What? Don’t tell me you’re upset. Come on, a handsome guy is walking you home after work.” He raised his own eyebrow as he watched me. Although he was full of himself, I couldn’t help the soft laughter that had left me.

“Wow, you can laugh, too!”

I glared at him for a moment before I shook my head and continued walking. I let him follow me, since it didn’t look like he was going to leave me alone any time soon.

“Say, do you hate us?” his voice was sudden, but when I looked over at him and found that he had ducked his head, I couldn’t help but wonder why he asked such a thing.

“I have no reason to hate you.” I answered, and his head raised towards me for a moment before it dropped again.

“Are you sure about that?”

He didn’t look up at me that time, either, but it didn’t seem like he wanted an answer for his question. I wasn’t sure of what it was, but there was an emotion hidden in his voice. When I realized I had become curious about him, I dropped my own head and sighed.

“Where do you live, anyway?” He asked, and I looked up to find that we had somehow already reached my street. The orphanage was a small house, beat up and old. There were only a handful of kids that lived there, myself included. I pointed out the house and he looked up at it for a moment before his gaze returned to me.

“The orphanage?”

There it was again, that hidden emotion. I didn’t know what it was since my life had been void of many emotions, but I patted his shoulder.

“Don’t pity me, Kai.” I muttered, and after giving him one last glance, I climbed up the stairs to the orphanage and left him alone outside.

I didn’t understand EXO or their sudden interest in my life. After years of not knowing my existence and keeping to themselves, it was weird to see them care for anyone else especially when it was me that they cared for.

Was it just a one-time thing because I had caught their attention today? I wasn’t sure of how they would treat me on another day. They hadn’t stopped the bullying, some of them only looked at me to glare, and there were too many eyes watching them for me to be comfortable around them.

Those thoughts plagued me as I lay in bed. Why did they care so much? Why did they decide I was suddenly going to stop being invisible? What made them decide I was going to stop being invisible? Was this new treatment only until they lost interest in me?

Would I ever go back to being ignored?