“Why are we here again?” Sehun asked his hyungs as they entered the Biochemistry department.

“To retrieve the files that Baekhyun misplaced,” Junmyeon answered with a mocking tone.

The 9 boys sighed altogether as they walked into the elevator. The second year of university had just begun for them and someone managed to screw up after a couple of weeks. Apparently, Baekhyun was in charge of handing in their ‘class choices’ file to their major department because he was the only one without anything to do on that day, but he accidently placed it in the Biochemistry slot. And now all of them have to retrieve it so that they can apply for the next set of classes.

“Don’t touch anything, especially you both” Minseok said, eyeing both Chanyeol and Baekhyun.

They entered to what seems like one of the labs in the department. There were a bunch of students there equipped with a variety of chemicals and tools. The senior administrator for the department had his main office in that lab so they had to go in there.

“Are you boys the ones that handed in the wrong class files?” someone asked, supposedly the administrator.

“Yes, we are. We’re very sorry for inconvenience,” Junmyeon said as they all bowed.

“No worries. Here you go,” the administrator said as he handed Junmyeon all 9 files.

They bowed again to the administrator before turning around.

“All we need to do is return these to the Music/PA department and we’re done,” Jongdae said happily as they started walking towards the door.

Suddenly a huge explosion erupted, knocking everyone off their feet. The fire alarm began ringing and water sprinkles were automatically . The administrator ran out of his office and started helping students up. He almost fainted from shock when he saw a pair of arms detached from its body laying on the table where the explosion had happened. There was a big fire on the left side of the lab, which could potentially cause another explosion if it touches the other chemicals. Because the students were conducting their experiments, the chances of the whole lab exploding were greater. Kyungsoo, who was standing the closest to the explosion, had a hard time regaining his hearing. The other boys also struggles standing up because of the shock and the extreme panic that rushed through them. There was a lot of screaming and crying in the room.

Evacuation officers started rushing into the lab and helped each of them out of the room. The fire got bigger and spread across the room. Sehun and Chanyeol could feel someone helping them up as they couldn’t stop coughing. One by one, the boys and the others were slowly evacuated. Black smoke covered the whole room so the evacuation officers weren’t sure if they got everyone out. They went in again to check for any remaining survivors.

Outside of the building, Junmyeon kept coughing while counting his friends. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. What? He counted again and again before realizing that they were missing one person: Kyungsoo.

“Where the is Kyungsoo?!?” He yelled while searching around the area frantically for his friend.

“What do you mean where is Kyungsoo?! Wasn’t he trailing behind us??” Yixing asked as he too started looking around.

Jongin ran towards one of the EOs and told him that his friend was missing.

“The smoke in that lab is pretty heavy. We’re trying to fish out the remaining survivors, but we can’t locate anyone with the smoke around.” The officer said, looking at Jongin apologetically.

Back in the lab, another explosion erupted close to him and he could some of the ceiling tiles fell on his leg. Kyungsoo had a hard time standing up because of that. He could feel the heat from the surrounding fire and tried to locate the exit. He could still hear the evacuating officers yelling for any remaining survivors. He wanted to yell back, but the smoke made it hard for him to speak. He was starting to lose any hope of getting out of there alive when he felt the heavy tiles on his legs being removed. He panicked and kicked whoever was doing it.

“Hey, hey, hey. Stop kicking, I’m just trying to help you,” a voice said as Kyungsoo was pulled up.

He could kind of make out the girl’s face before apologizing. The girl smiled in relief that he stopped panicking.

“I can kind of see the exit so just hold on tight, okay? We don’t want to touch the fire or any of the spilled chemicals. I’m Song Jaein by the way.” She said as she grabbed his arm.

“Do Kyungsoo, “ Kyungsoo replied as he thanked god that someone noticed him back there. He held on tightly to her arm in return.

As they were slowly walking towards the exit, another explosion erupted behind them causing Jaein to jump in surprise. He could hear her let out a million cuss words before slightly pushing her to walk again.

“We’re going to be fine Jaein-shi,” he whispered as they kept walking. He knew that she was scared out of her mind because he was too, but they needed to get out there.

They started coughing a lot before finally reaching the exit. The hallway leading to the emergency stairs were also covered in smoke, but they both made it across it and down the stairs where they were met with some of the EOs.

“Kyungsoo!” Chanyeol exclaimed as he saw his friend come out of the building with a girl beside him. He could see that he was in a bad condition, but the girl beside him looked worse.

Kyungsoo and Jaein were given oxygen masks as they walked to the ambulance, but Jaein fell to the ground.

“Jaein!” Kyungsoo yelled as he tried helping the girl, but one of the EOs told him to not worry and scurried to one of the ambulances.

Jaein could see the worried faces of the EOs as one of them lifted her up and ran towards one of the stretchers. Her vision went completely dark in a matter of seconds.

♦♦♦

The sound of machines beeping in the background woke Jaein up from her unconscious state. She realized that she was in the university hospital as the smell of disinfectant hit her nose.

“S-She’s awake,” someone said from beside her.

A doctor rushed into the room and readjusted her bed so that she was in a sitting position. Jaein didn’t know whom the 9 boys standing before her were, except for the one she helped.

“You’re finally awake Song Jaein,” the doctor said with a toothy grin.

Jaein knew the doctor because she’s one of the senior doctors Jaein’s under, Park Hana. The doctor gave Jaein a clipboard for her to read.

“I inhaled a lot of smoke, I presume.” Jaein said as she analyzed her data on the clipboard.

“A little bit too much for someone who has asthma. Your blood pressure was extremely low and your hemoglobin count was less than needed.” Hana said.

“I’m supposed to do a blood transfusion today after visiting the Biochemistry department, but the explosion happened and went a-wall. “ Jaein replied, giving back the clipboard.

“By the way, these boys didn’t want to leave until you woke up. They waited for 18 hours here. If you need me, just press the button,” Hana said before excusing herself out of the room.

There was an awkward tension between them before Kyungsoo spoke up.

“Thank you so much for helping me back there. You basically saved my life,” he said, bowing to her.

“We’re so grateful that you managed to get Kyungsoo out,” Yixing added as he too bowed, followed by the rest of the boys.

“You don’t have to be so polite. I’m just happy I managed to not pass out before we got out,” Jaein said.

“Are you a biochem student?” Minseok asked.

“No, I major in medicine. I was just there to take some tissue samples for my professor,” Jaein answered.

“We were there only to retrieve some files,” Jongdae muttered.

“I guess we were quite unlucky,” Jaein managed to say before letting out a small chuckle.

The boys introduced themselves and thanked her again for helping Kyungsoo.

“Would you like to eat dinner with us after you get discharged? We just really want to thank you,” Baekhyun asked.

“You don’t really need to thank me. I just did what any sane person would do,” she replied.

“Then take the dinner as a getting to know each other thing. I mean, I’m pretty sure we would be great friends,” Jongin insisted.

The others nodded along.

“Well, sure I guess. I’ll just change into some fresh clothes,” Jaein said as she pressed the call button.

Dr. Park came in and asked what was wrong.

“I’m pretty much okay right? My blood pressure is at its average and you probably already transfused blood to me,” Jaein asked.

“Your condition is pretty much stable so you can go. But just take things easy and consume a lot of iron. And take your asthma pills again,” Dr. Park replied before heading out of the room.

The boys gave Jaein a couple minutes to change and collect her stuff before they all head out to the nearest barbeque place.

♦♦♦

“So, is medicine really hard?” Sehun asked out of the blue.

Jaein settled herself down before nodding.

“What do you guys major in?” she asked, sparking up some conversation.

“We all major in music related things. Yixing and Jongin major in dance while the rest of us major in composition and vocal,” Junmyeon answered.

“We’re on our second year too,” Jongdae added.

“I’m on my second year of premed as well,” Jaein said.

“So we’re the same age then,” Chanyeol replied.

“I kind of entered here early so I’m probably a year younger?” she said.

“You must be really smart to enter into premed early. Your parents must be really proud,” Yixing replied.

“I applied to 2 majors, got accepted to both, but had to pick medicine because my mom wanted me to be a doctor,” she said as she took a sip of water.

“What was the other major?” Minseok questioned.

“Early childhood education,” she replied.

“Kindergarten teacher,” Junmyeon said, earning a nod from Jaein.

“Those are two very different studies,” Sehun pointed out.

“I actually just want to work with kids so taking premed isn’t that bad. I get to specialize in children anyways,” Jaein replied. 

“Getting into premed is really difficult, right? My sister applied but got rejected,” Chanyeol said.

“The international program is easier to get in for me since I studied abroad and took a more challenging curriculum,” she replied.

“You studied abroad? Where?? And for how long?” Baekhyun curiously asked.

“I lived in New York for most of my life and just moved to Korea when I started university. My parents wanted me to experience the country where they grew up,” Jaein explained.

“So your parents don’t live in Korea?” Yixing continued asking.

“Yeah, but they said we have a house here. I’m pretty much old enough to live on my own anyways,” she answered.

“You’re so lucky to have no one monitoring your every move. Our parents are pretty close to each other so we basically grew up together. Turns out we share similar passions and ended going to the same university,” Junmyeon explained.

“Junmyeon hyung’s parents own the university, so we stay in a dorm together,” Sehun muttered, earning a glare from Junmyeon.

“All 9 of you in one dorm?” she asked.

“Yeah. We got a pretty big dorm here,” Jongin replied.

“We’re pretty much hotshots around here. The big 9,” Chanyeol proudly added, earning a slap from Minseok.

“I apologize for his narcissism. Fortunately, it does not spread,” Jongdae commented.

 Jaein smiled.

When the cooked barbeque arrived along with some soups and sides, they all started eating. Jaein looked around the room and came to realization that one person didn’t talk at all.

“Kyungsoo-shi, were your legs bruised from the tiles?” she asked as the boys were happily eating.

When Kyungsoo heard his name slip from , his entire body went frozen. He was known to be quite shy around new people, but Jaein really made him nervous. Could it be because of the fact that she saved him from possibly burning to death? Or was it the guilt that resided in him because he knew well enough that if she didn’t help him, she wouldn’t have gotten more inured than she already is.

“N-Not really,” he simply murmured.

“Kyungsoo gets really shy around new people, but he becomes really bright and mean when he opens up,” Chanyeol said.

Jaein nodded in understanding as she took a sip of her soup. There was something odd about him and she thinks she knows what it is.

♦♦♦

At the end of the meal, they exchanged phone numbers and kindly escorted her back to her dorm (after her countless rejections to do so). Before they all left, Jaein pulled Kyungsoo to the side.

“You don’t have to feel bad for what happened earlier,” she said to him.

“W-what?” he replied, looking confused.

“I took psychology during high school so it lets me see your odd behavior and I kind of know about what you’re feeling. You feel guilty because I helped you and it resulted in me getting hurt,” she explained before continuing, “I don’t want you to feel that. It bothers me that you have to feel that way because I’ve experienced it and it consumed me in a negative way. I want you to be as comfortable as you want to be around me and understand that what I did back there was the right thing to do.”

Kyungsoo took in what she said to him. He didn’t know how she figured it out, but that talk made him feel a lot better.

“Thank you,” he said before flashing her a smile and returning to his group of friends.

“You’re smiling too much. Something good must’ve happened,” Baekhyun teased at his wide-eyed friend.

“Hyung, she’s way out of your league,” Sehun added, earning a couple laughs from the boys.

“Shut up,” was the only thing Kyungsoo could say.