006

IF KYUNGSOO were to be honest with you, he wasn’t sure whether you and Sehun would click or not. So, setting you up with one of his close friends was a huge gamble to take. If things went wrong, he wouldn’t know which side to take: yours (his best friend) or Sehun’s. But thankfully, the first date went well (Kyungsoo didn’t know the exact details but seeing how you guys were still talking, he assumed that it did go well). His thoughts were confirmed when you attended one of your Biology classes together, just a few days after your third date with Sehun.

(On the second date, he brought you to the movies to watch the latest Avengers movie. On the third, you brought you to this bar-arcade. Needless to say that it was the most fun you’ve had in a while). But Kyungsoo was starting to regret setting you guys up because he had enough of taking over your duties, and he also made a mental note to never ever tell you to shut up anymore whenever you complain about your workload. He only took over some of your duties for roughly three weeks and he felt like he was going insane. He couldn’t imagine just how Jongdae was able to handle this for two-thirds of his bachelor’s, and now he understood why you always looked like you wanted to murder someone whenever a council member skipped on their work: you were the one who had to complete their job in their stead. And that was exactly what Kyungsoo had to do, except worse since he also had to take over your workload (he also had enough of seeing the dean so many times in a week, and he wondered just how were you able to stand that old guy for so long).

In any case, you and Sehun had been casually dating for almost a month now, and surprisingly, things were doing well. Though, to your request, you asked Sehun if this casual relationship between you two could be kept on the down-low first. He seemed disappointed by your request but thankfully, he understood your reasons. However, there was no denying that things were getting a bit serious between the two of you and you didn’t really notice it until Kyungsoo pointed it out to you while you two were in class.

You guys were in Biology, aka one of the classes you couldn’t stand. So, when Kyungsoo noticed that you couldn’t help the smile from appearing on your lips when you’ve read a text sent on your phone, he just knew that something was going on. Since it was a three-hour long class, you guys had a fifteen minutes break in the middle of it, so that was when he decided to confront you about it.

“Are you texting Sehun, right now?” he asked.

“Mhm,” you hummed in response, a bit absentmindedly. “Say, Soo. How exactly did you and Sehun become friends?”

Kyungsoo shrugged. “I was bullied when I was in middle school and Sehun was the one who stood up for me, along with some of his other friends. He took me under his wing and that’s it. The only reason why you don’t see me hanging out with him much nowadays is that we’re not part of the same major and we both do different stuff for our extracurriculars. I might see him a few times if we share the same lunch break though. Otherwise, we barely see each other on campus.” He then sent you a look, finally noticing how fidgety you were being and not in a good way. “Why? What’s wrong? Did he do anything to you?”

“No!” you exclaimed and then bit your bottom lip. “It’s just… Sehun invited me to a party to hang out and also meet his friends but I don’t know if I want to go.”

Kyungsoo gave you a look. “A cheerleader with social anxiety, how ironic.”

You hit him in the shoulder; you didn’t like how sarcastic he sounded, especially since you didn’t actually have social anxiety. “No! I just– I don’t think I’m ready to meet his friends.” He raised a brow at you and you rolled your eyes. “You don’t count, Soo. We were already friends before you decided to set us up.”

“I still don’t get why you’re nervous,” he told you. “Sehun’s friends are all rather nice. I don’t think they will bite.”

You shook your head. “I’m not scared of his friends… I’m scared of where this relationship is going. Do you realize that me meeting his friends is almost as bad as meeting his parents?!” He was about to retort back that no, it really was not the same but you didn’t give him the time to. “This means that he wants me to be in his life, Soo, and I– I just don’t know whether I’m ready to put my whole heart in this.”

Kyungsoo stared at you in silence, not exactly knowing how to reply. He wanted to say that he understood your feelings—he did in a way—but he knew that empty words wouldn’t do you anything good. After all, this was something you had to conquer on your own. He couldn’t do anything except reassure you that Sehun was a nice guy, which he really was. Otherwise, he would have never set you up with him. You were too precious for Kyungsoo and he wouldn’t want to see you hurt again. However, he also had an inkling as to why you were so scared and reluctant to be in a new relationship.

There was a reason why you and Kyungsoo got along so well. It wasn’t because you guys shared the same major or you guys happened to take the same classes (he realized those reasons were pretty irrelevant since he knew you since you two were high schoolers). But because you two didn’t like attention (he also realized the irony of it when you two are part of the student council, an extracurricular activity that practically demanded you two to almost always be in the spotlight), but not more than necessary. You two weren’t simply a people’s person. Sure, you two can hold a conversation and speak comfortably in public (he has you to thank though since as the President, it was your job, so he didn’t have to speak in front of a public as much as you do), but you couldn’t compare yourselves to Sehun.

So, now that he thought about it, yes, it must be a stressful situation for you to be in. Sehun was known by everybody in school. And let’s face it, the university’s star athlete is definitely more known than the student council. In fact, if some were to ask the students whether they think the student council was doing a good job or not, he was fairly certain that they would reply with, “We have a student council?” You didn’t need more attention than necessary, certainly not from Sehun’s fangirls. Kyungsoo almost had shudders as he remembered his friend’s admirers. The male admirers were actually quite fine—they knew Sehun was straight so they knew they didn’t have any chance with his friend. The girls, on the other hand, were a completely different story, and he had his whole middle school era to prove it. 

But he also knew you very well. 
Too well, if you may add.

Because you were not much of a people’s person, it can take you a well to open up to people. Opening up to people meant being vulnerable. Although you may appear strong on the outside, you were a huge softie on the inside. Kyungsoo could vouch for that. You had problems that you just couldn’t share with other people. You didn’t have trust issues per se, but there were some things that were better left unsaid because you didn’t want them to treat you any differently as soon as they find out about the truth.

“Well, you’ll never know unless you try,” Kyungsoo ended up saying lamely as he rubbed the back of his neck. You smiled slightly at his good intentions; he simply wanted to bring your spirits up.

“I know,” you ended up replying and sighed. “It’s just… I know Sehun said that we could work this whole we’re-too-different-thing out, but to be frank, I still don’t think we are suitable for each other.”

Your best friend frowned, not really liking how you were behaving at the moment. “Don’t tell me that. Tell that to Sehun. Complaining to me about it won’t change a thing. And besides, have a bit of faith in him, would you? I get that you’re a bit worried because he’s really popular with girls and stuff, but it’s really not that bad.” You gave him a look and he winced at how fake his words sounded. He knew that Sehun was a ladies’ man but that was because his friend was just too nice for his own good. Sehun simply did not know how to say no and that was why he always ended up in messes that he never wanted to be part of.

“Fine, your worries are slightly legitimate–” You threw your hands up in the air in reply. “–but if you two are going steady any time soon, it’s better to not bottle up your feelings. It never ends well when you do.”

You bit your bottom lip at your best friend’s advice. He was right, though. You always had the tendency of keeping your feelings bottled up, either afraid to hurt others or yourself. And every time you did that, you ended up being a mess: either a crying one, a drunk one, an overly-happy one. Just a complete mess. You would rather not recall any of those moments; you were rather ashamed of them and would rather forget them all, if possible (especially when you were drunk, oh those ones were just really bad).

Your phone buzzed, reminding you once again that you had a text message to reply and an RSVP to confirm. You sighed when you saw that Sehun asked you for the second time (or probably third or fourth; you weren’t sure anymore because you were really good at avoiding the subject) if you wanted to go to this party that his friend had organized (to celebrate the start of a new semester, his friend claimed, even though it has been almost a month since the new school year had started). You stole a glance over at your best friend, who at this point, probably gave up on you because you were a helpless case. And he was right: this was something you could overcome only on your own. This confrontation between you and Sehun was necessary (confrontation sounded too… negative, but you couldn’t find a better word to suit the type of conversation you two would eventually have).

Hence, why you found yourself texting him back that you would attend the party as his date with a small smiley face at the end of your text before putting your phone away as class was about to restart.

[Sehun♥]: Awesome! I'll pick you up at 9 pm :)

Received at 3:47 PM

YOU GLANCED NERVOUSLY at the clock in your apartment as the big hand was slowly inching towards the number 12, and the small one towards the number 9. You hadn’t been to a house party for so long, you had a two-hour Skype call with Kyungsoo just so he could help you pick an outfit (he wasn’t much help though). And in the end, you settled for a maroon turtleneck dress with a skater skirt that arrived a couple of inches above your knees. Not too short, but not too long either. And since the weather had been getting colder, you decided to wear a leather jacket as well with a pair of Adidas Superstars.

Right as the clock turned 9, the doorbell rang. Sehun was right on time. You took a deep breath before looking at yourself one last time in the mirror and opened up the door. At Sehun’s sight, your knees almost buckled down because he looked that good. His dark brown hair was smoothly gelled up, showing a bit of his forehead. He wore a black turtleneck with a leather jacket, a black pair of ripped jeans and even had a weird white-pink-ish bandana around his waist instead of a belt (you kind of hated the fact that he actually managed to pull that off because what can he not do?) and a pair of black loafers.

He brightly smiled at you, his eyes taking in the visuals of you in something other than a tee-shirt and a pair of jeans (or your occasional formal wear for when you had to talk in front of the whole school). You swore there was a glint of appreciation in his eyes as he stared your legs up-and-down but you didn’t want to embarrass yourself even further, not when you had difficulty forming a coherent sentence just because you were blown away by Sehun’s handsomeness.

“Hey,” he said. “You look very pretty.”

“Um, um, you too.”

Oh God, you had never wanted to slap yourself so much before. Actually, that sounded like a great idea. Maybe a small slap would bring you back to your senses. But you were quickly pulled out of your slapping thoughts when Sehun chuckled at your reply, his eyes crinkling into a moon shape you will soon grow to love, and tilted his head towards his car that was parked in front of your building. “Shall we?”

“You’re driving?” you asked, a bit incredulously as you locked the door to your flat. You followed him and entered his car when he opened up the door for you. You had to wait for him to enter from the driver’s side and you almost felt irritated because you could have just opened the door yourself and he could have replied, but you then