Him

I opened my eyes from what felt like a week’s sleep and took a glance at my surroundings to identify that it was my apartment lounge.

“How’d I get here …” I mumbled to myself, placing my palm over my eyes where my finger tips felt a wet cloth material resting on my forehead.

As I removed it off, I forcefully pushed my weight from the couch to sit upwards and stared at the damp towel in my hands. Rubbing my temples, I tried to retrace back to what got me here in the first place.

Hyoyeon. Running. Angry. Fell.

“Were you hibernating that long, Monkey-boy?”

My thoughts were disrupted by Hyoyeon who was coming my way from the kitchen, and her presence was just adding more confusion to what actually happened. Although, she did look nice with that image. Her dark, blonde hair was tied up in a messy bun and the blue apron was exposing a fresher face, almost like the face of an ideal wife.

I widened my eyes at the sudden comment my brain had given and dropped my head into my palm.

“Argh,” I groaned. “What am I thinking?”

I heard her steps suddenly fasten towards me as she quickly kneeled down beside the couch, disposing my hand away and replacing it with hers.

Her soft, gentle, warm hands.

“That’s weird,” She spoke. “You looked fine a minute ago but now you’re burning up.”

I slapped her hand away quickly and cleared my throat.

“What’re you doing here?”

“Wow,” She furrowed her eyebrows inward. “I guess it’s not surprising that a stupid Monkey-boy like you would have short-term memory loss.”

“You’re right. I almost forgot you were a ert.”

Instantly, she threw a punch to my arm and I winced from the unexpected pain given from a small person.

“Don’t you ever look after yourself idiot?” She said as she took the lid off the bowl that she was carrying before. “When you’re hungry, eat. When you’re tired, sleep. When it’s night time, you should go home and rest.”

“Well, when I want to dance, I’ll dance—“

“—yeah, and then you fall sick and won’t even be able to attend the competition.”

Unable to have any counter arguments, I remained silent as she stirred the congee around with a spoon.

“Donghae told me about how you’ve been doing all nighters at the school just for this competition.” That big mouth tells everyone everything. “You may be smart in dancing and all, but the one thing you lack in, is common sense.”

She stared back up at me and raised the bowl up to the level of my mouth. Lifting      a spoonful of congee, she blew it a few times to discard the heat and then left it in the air.

“This isn’t a show idiot,” She stated. “I’m pretty sure you know how to eat, right?”

I hesitantly gulped the food and she smiled in satisfaction as she continued to feed me. After there were no more traces of congee left in the bowl, she began tidying up. I stepped off the couch and opted to help her but she pushed me with her shoulder and had already cleared everything.

“Just rest, you need it.”

“I think I’ve rested enough,” I said as I followed her into the kitchen. “Just go home, and I’ll take care—“

“—Stop caring!” She interrupted as she slammed the bowl down, fortunately, it didn’t break. “Look after yourself before worrying about others you fool.”

She turned the tap for the hot water at an unintentional high force and winced immediately from touching it. Instinctively, I grabbed her hand and caressed the reddening fingers.

“You okay?”

“I-I’m fine,” She stuttered and maybe it was just me, but I thought I had saw a hint of blush forming on her cheeks.

“Ironic, isn’t it?” I chuckled, still with my fingers entwined around hers, as I changed the tap to cold water and rushed our hands under it, where it might’ve stung her just a tad. “You keep lecturing me about looking after myself, when you yourself can’t even do that job.”

“T-That’s different …” She evaded her eyes from mine as she pouted and spoke with an ageyo voice.

My lips couldn’t resist but to curve into a small smile. “You’re no more different than me, Kim Hyoyeon.”

She looked back up at me with her big round eyes now, and blinked multiple times, battering her long eyelashes as she did so. I decided to end it by flicking her forehead with my fingers as I released them from her hand and turned the tap off.

“Don’t show me that stupid face.”

“Going.”

“What?”

“I-I should go home now.” She said as she took off her apron, collecting her belongings as she went and slipped into her runners. Just when she was about to exit the door, she turned back to me one more time and placed her hand forward, signalling me that she wanted something.

“What?”

“Give me your phone.”

I raised an eyebrow as I shoved it out of my pockets and placed it into her hand. When she had typed in whatever she intended to, she returned it back to me.

“That’s my number. Call me whenever you need to, okay?”

“Why? You want me to call you all the time?”

She scoffed at me in response and finally left.

I touched the screen and searched through my contacts, scrolling down to find a name titled, ‘The awesome Kim Hyoyeon.’

Sighing, I edited it to ‘Little ert.’

Would you like to save these changes?

Yes.

Her

I rushed out of the building, feeling the sudden rate of my heart beating at an abnormal level.

“You’re no more different from me, Kim Hyoyeon.”

His smile. His voice. What magical power did he use to send me that giddy feeling?

In the midst of my thoughts, I felt my phone vibrate and looked at the message that was sent from whom I assume was Monkey-boy.

Thanks for today ert. Donghae’s going to call you and ask what’s up. Don’t tell him or Hyorin about anything ‘kay? I don’t want them to worry.

Eunhyuk

Speaking of the devil.

“Yeah DongDong?”

“Hyoyeon? Is it really you Hyoyeon? OH HYOYEON!”

“Yes DongDong. When you call my number, it would obviously be me.”

“Where were you today? You weren’t at school~” He whined. “I missed you and Hyukkie, but Hyukkie said that he was busy with work and couldn’t come. What happened to you?”

“Me?” I repeated, trying to cleverly think of a lie. “I had to help my mum at the convenience store today.”

“Ah okay,” He replied. “Well you have to help me now Hyoyeon-ah! Hyorin’s going crazy and—what! Hyorin! No, ouch! Yah—“

The conversation then fell silent.

“… Donghae?”

“YAH!” To think that Hyorin would have such a beautiful voice even if she was to yell. “You were meant to help with the editing of the video today! There’s not much time left you know!”

“Oh that’s right! I’ll be on my way—“

“—don’t worry about it. Donghae oppa and I are almost done anyway. You just figure out how to get this video to the mother—OPPA, STOP EATING YOUR HEART SHAPE CHOCOLATES AND HELP OUT—so once we’re done with the video, we’ll call you and you better have found a way to send it to the mother or else—OPPA, GET UP ALREADY!”

She wouldn’t mind it if I hung up on her.

Okay, so five days left until Seoul’s Fine Arts Competition and the video is almost complete.

Meanwhile, in the editing room of the drama department of Gae In Arts University, there were two people cutting and pasting videos to try to create a successful film, adding in special effects when possible.

Donghae was forced to do the work now while Hyorin sat beside him and kept her eyes on the film. Her eyes in particular were focusing on the image of her rival on the computer screen as thoughts drift into her mind suddenly.

Donghae, feeling the sudden awkward silence from Hyorin, glanced back at her with concern.

“What’s the matter?” He paused the video, still with Hyorin’s eyes glued to it.

“Nothing, I just feel like everything’s changing so quickly.”

 “And is that a bad thing?”

She lets out a soft sigh and shrugs her shoulders while her eyes still fixated on the scene in the video.

“I just like how things are as it is now or maybe before …”

He patted her head with his hand and combed through the waves of her soft hair.

“Change can be a good thing though,” He tries to comfort, already understanding as to what Hyorin was actually worrying over. “We’re put in a different perspective, and can look for a greater future with this view. Maybe … even look at people differently …”

He muttered the last few words while looking at the tips of her hair that were dancing around his fingers.

The two stay in silent for a while but Hyorin keeps focusing on the imagery of Hyoyeon and Eunhyuk together. The scene is paused at a moment, where Eunhyuk is genuinely smiling with his full gums, and white teeth at Hyoyeon, who was pouting away from him. They looked compatible with each other, and although Hyorin tried to find flaws in the picture, she couldn’t.

For an unknown reason, it just looked right with them two. She couldn’t imagine herself in Hyoyeon’s position. Although she tried to refuse for her possible theory, a part of herself knew that the theory can be proved soon enough.

And she fears that. And Donghae fears that too, but he also wants to look at it as an opportunity.

Her

While waiting at the school garden for DongDong to show up, Monkey-boy’s sudden presence came to my attention.

“Hey!” I greeted as he walked towards my direction. “How are you doing?”

He tilted his head strangely and cocked an eyebrow. “What’s wrong with you? Why are you being so nice all of a sudden?”

I slapped his arm and huffed out a sigh. “As I was saying, are you feeling any better?”

“Mm.” He nodded while I took a closer look at him to ensure that he was telling the truth. Even so, he did look better than last night. His face wasn’t as pale as yesterday and his eye bags seemed to have lessened slightly.

“I should go to class now then.” He said coolly and began to walk off, but my hand acted only in reflex when it grabbed his arm to stop.

Surprised by my own action, I released my hand immediately as he turned around.

“D-Don’t work too hard, okay?”

“Don’t worry about me ert,” He let out a small laugh and turned his back towards me while walking away. “And stop with this Lee Eunhyuk obsession dear~!”

I bit my lip in irritation as I felt the twitches near my eyebrow going crazy.

What is he doing to me, seriously?!

“Hyoyeon-ah~!”

I turned back around to see Donghae rushing to me with a heart-shaped toast in his mouth.

“Did you bring it? Did you bring it?” I asked.

“Yah, why don’t you try, ‘oh hey Donghae! How are you?’” He scoffed. “Or ‘hey donghae, did you miss the bus and had to chase after it like a madman for it to stop?’, or—“

Before he could continue his ramble any further, I pinched his ear lobe tightly and he winced in pain.

“OW, OW, OW—“

“—Did you bring it DongDong?!”

“—YES, YES, I BROUGHT IT!” He surrendered and I removed my fingers away.

As he was rubbing his ear, he took out the DVDs and I jumped in joy as I snatched it out of his hand.

“YOU GUYS FINISHED IT!” I yelled and looked at the case, feeling oh so proud. 

“Of course we did!” He rebuked. “Took us the whole night to edit it you know!”

“But at least you got to spend it with Hyorin ay~” I nudged him with my elbow while he blushed and giggled like a little schoolgirl. “Now the hardest part of this mission.”

“What’re you going to do now?”

“I’m going to need your help for this.”

“Haven’t you always been asking for my help throughout this entire time?”

“You know what we have to do now, right?”

He exhaled a deep breath and nodded.

I wonder what it will be like, to meet Monkey-boy’s mother.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

a/n: Hello all! I am back with chapter 15! I hope you all have enjoyed this chappie, and I really do appreciate you all for reading it in the first place. Thank you to all of you guys who read, subscribe and comment! <3 It gives me that fluttery feeling as I’m thankful to those who enjoy it :3