A/N: Are ya'll ready? A bit of a longer update because I love you guys <3 (also I didn't want to split this into 2 chapters).

Eunji looked to her left.

“Bunnies, mama! I wanna see the bunnies!”

“Hyung, but I wanna see the ponies first! Mama, we can see the ponies first, right?”

“Bunnies!”

“Ponies!”

Eunji looked to her right.

“I wanna see the alpacas, hyung!” Tao whined as he latched onto Kris’s shoulder.

“No, we’re seeing the llamas first!” Chanyeol practically screamed in protest.

“They’re basically the same thing,” Tao stuck his tongue out at Chanyeol, which caused the happy virus to ask, “If they’re the same thing then why can’t we see the llamas first?”

“Actually, llamas and alpacas are diff-“ Minseok started but was quickly interrupted by Yixing’s giggle when he read a sign advertising that you could feed the guinea pigs.

“Quiet!” Kai shouted. “This is my event so I get to decided where we’re going first! And I’m picking the sheep!”

“Aw but the sheep are boring. I don’t wanna go there first!” Luhan exclaimed with an unintentional pout.

“Eunji! Ahri!” all 12 boys shouted in unison. “Where do you think we should go first?”

Eunji glanced over at Ahri, who glanced back wearing an equally amused expression. To their left, two (young) brothers were bickering with each other. To their right, the girls witnessed a very similar scene, except the boys weren’t five or six years old. They were high schoolers, and there were twelve of them.

Eventually, after a very long and overly complicated game of rock-paper-scissors, Yixing’s wish of visiting the guinea pigs first was granted. A very happy Yixing skipped his way over to the guinea pig section, followed by eleven disappointed members.

“I thought you said the person in charge of the member-event had to pay for all expenses,” Eunji said to Suho, who was walking beside her. Suho explained that the member in charge of the event had to pay for decorations and prizes, should they wish to include them, but any other fees he would pay for.

“So, if someone wanted to make their member-event in England, you would buy the plane tickets for each person?” Eunji asked, exasperated at the very thought and trying to work her weak mental math skills into estimating how much the total cost would be for a round trip.

“Oh no, silly Eunji-ah,” Suho laughed and patted her back. Eunji sighed in relief as she had already speculated that the idea seemed too preposterous to be true. “I wouldn’t make them pay for that. Why would I when I own a private jet? I wouldn’t charge my friends for the jet fees. Actually, Kris’s event last year was going to Canada.”

“Did he just say…?” Ahri asked with a gulp and wide eyes.

Eunji sighed and shook her head, ridiculing herself for having thought otherwise. “Of course, it’s Suho-subae so what did I expect? He probably could lend a private jet to each of us and we could fly ourselves to the destination.”

“I would, except that no one in the club has a plane-driving license,” Suho said nonchalantly.

.::.           .::.           .::.

When the After School Club reached the guinea pig area, Yixing was the first to scream at the sight of the adorable, furry creatures. Everyone was startled because Yixing was usually very reserved, but they immediately empathized with him once they laid their eyes on the guinea pigs. A handful of members went to line up to purchase food for the guinea pigs, leaving a select few behind.

Ahri mustered up the courage to ask Baekhyun if he wanted to go buy guinea pig food (with her), and was delighted when he agreed to do so. After her friend left, Eunji scanned the perimeter to see who chose to stay behind. A few feet away from her was Sehun, who was squatting in front of a guinea pig pen. He was completely focused on the animals that he didn’t even notice Eunji tapping his shoulder from behind.

“Sehun! Earth to Sehun?” she asked as she poked his shoulder. When she didn’t a response, she waved her hand in front of his eyes, which brought her classmate back to reality.

He nodded his head to acknowledge her presence, and scooted over a bit to make room for her. She squatted down next to him and paid half of her attention to the guinea pigs while the other half was focused on him.

Yes, he was a very attractive human being, but for once Eunji had something else on her mind. This was the first time that she was alone with him. In a typical day, if Sehun wasn’t with Kai or Tao, he was with the other members of the After School Club. She genuinely wanted to learn more about Sehun, and was racking through her mind to think of some conversation starters…

…when she realized she had never heard him speak before.

She recalled the time when she had first joined the club; Sehun was the only one who didn’t introduce himself, and so Kai did it for him in his place. She had heard a couple rumours floating around school about Sehun being mute, and she was beginning to suspect that the rumours were true when he suddenly opened his mouth and said, “They’re so fluffy.”

Eunji tried her best to prevent her jaw from dropping, but the expression in her eyes gave it away. When Sehun noticed how she had been gawking at him, he looked down shyly and smiled.

“Oh yeah,” he said in a quiet voice. “I don’t think you’ve ever heard me speak before. I guess that debunks those rumours about me, huh?”

Eunji blinked her eyes slowly and processed what was happening. ‘Sehun is… talking? To me?!’ Eunji mentally screamed. She wanted to ask him what his favourite animal was, or his favourite colour, or favourite school subject even but she ended up asking, “Why are you talking?”

“Well that’s rude. I can talk, so why not?”

“No, I mean, why all of a sudden? You never talk, no offense.”

“None taken.”

“It’s all very sudden is all. I hope I didn’t come off as too rude.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it,” Sehun shrugged his shoulders and picked up a piece of straw and dangled it in front of one of the guinea pigs. “Your reaction is pretty much the same as everyone else’s, so it’s cool.”

“Are you just really shy?” Eunji pried further.

“I wouldn’t say that, it’s just that I don’t like talking to a lot of people. You know how they say everyone is both introverted and extroverted and just a bit more of one than the other? Turns out I’m more introverted than most introverted people tend to be, so I don’t like talking to others if I don’t have to,” Sehun explained as he played with the guinea pig.

Eunji nodded her head slowly as if she understood information, when in reality she didn’t fully comprehend it. “So, what makes you talk to others then?” she asked slowly, carefully choosing each word.

Sehun gave her a side glance while his lips moved into a half-smile. “If I’m comfortable being around that person.”

.::.           .::.           .::.

It turned out that the only place in the entire petting zoo where one could purchase guinea pig food was nowhere near the guinea pig area. A small stand near the kangaroo pen was the only place to buy the food pellets for Yixing’s favourite animal.

“They should have giraffes here,” Kris shook his head in disapproval as he and a handful of members stood in line to buy the guinea pig food.

“Or pandas,” Tao huffed.

“Tao, pandas are almost extinct. You can’t just put them in a petting zoo! They gotta be at special facilities,” Kris said with an air of confidence.

“Giraffes are becoming endangered too, you know,” Tao muttered under his breath.

“Aww, look at the kangaroos! Ahri look at the kangaroos!” Baekhyun exclaimed with glee as he pointed at the kangaroos like a child would. Ahri smiled, but didn’t speak in fear of saying something stupid again.

“They kind of look like…” Kyungsoo started.

“Like giant rabbits?” Jongdae completed Kyungsoo’s sentence.

“No, more like oh I don’t know… dinosaurs?” Kyungsoo said innocently. Too innocently.

Jongdae gulped and started scratching his neck nervously. “Wh-what m-makes y-y-y-y-you say that?” he asked nervously, but Jongdae already knew the answer. Ever since the incident at Minseok’s coffee house, Kyungsoo had become persistent in getting rid of Rex, despite not having made the public announcement.

Kyungsoo didn’t respond. He began humming a song and tapped his foot on the ground to the beat. Jongdae let out a sigh of relief when it seemed as if Kyungsoo had let the topic go. However, as Kyungsoo began to hum louder, Jongdae started to realize that the song sounded very familiar. When it dawned on him that Kyungsoo had been humming the famous OST from the epic film, “Jurassic Park”, Jongdae began to ruffle through his hair violently.

“Ah, waeeeee?!” Jongdae shouted, earning several questionable looks. Once again, Kyungsoo didn’t respond and he continued humming the song. His mouth however, had turned into a devilish grin.

Amongst all the bickering, squealing and screaming, one person stood in line in absolute silence. Kai sighed as he took one step forward when the line moved up. Despite his desire to play with the guinea pigs, the first year stopped himself from doing so because of one person; Eunji.

He mentally cursed himself when he recalled the events that took place at the recent karaoke event. ‘How could you be so stupid, Kim Jongin? What were you going to tell her? She wouldn’t care either way,’ he thought to himself. Kai sighed again, when a distant memory from the past started creeping its way to his conscious.

(10 years ago)

“Jongin, sweetie, meet our new neighbours, the Oh family!” Kai’s mother exclaimed happily as she gripped onto her 6-year old son’s small hand just a bit harder.

“It’s a pleasure meeting you, Mrs. Kim,” a slender woman with brown hair and a cute eye-smile said. Behind her leg stood a small boy who was clearly shy. “Come out, Sehunnie. This is Kim Jongin, and he’s going to be your friend!”

When 6-year old Sehun shook his head and hid behind his mother even more, Mrs. Oh laughed in amusement and said, “I’m sorry for my son’s behaviour. Sehun is really quite shy and he’s had some problems making friends at school. I’m sure as he and Jongin get to know each other better, they’ll become close friends.”

“My son is the exact same way!” Mrs. Kim exclaimed. “Jongin is so shy that I honestly don’t know what to do with him. He has this habit of stuttering when he talks, and I think that’s become his complex for not speaking. I’ve taken him to a speech therapist before, but it didn’t help. Then, I brought him to a psychiatrist, who told me it’s most likely a mental obstacle he needs to overcome.”

“Ah,” Mrs. Oh said while nodding her head in response. “They’re two peas in a pod then! I’ve always heard that boys tend to be more on the shy side.”

‘I’m not shy!’ Jongin thought to himself. ‘I-I can speak! I’ll prove it to mama!’ Jongin thought with determination. He was going to show his mother that he wasn’t shy, and that he could easily talk to anyone with confidence.

Jongin squirmed free from his mother’s grip and tried his best to walk confidently towards Sehun. When the other cowered in retreat, Jongin cleared his throat and swept through his bangs with a hand. “Hey, just call me Kai,” he said with a smirk, thinking that the action made him look extra confident. “Jongin’s too boring, don’t you think? Your name’s Sehun, right? I mean, I guess you’re cool enough to hang around me.”

.::.           .::.           .::.

As Sehun and Eunji continued to play with the guinea pigs, the two were beginning to wonder what was taking the other members so long to get the guinea pig food. “Too bad that Kai’s missing out on this. He loves animals,” Sehun sighed. “I wonder why he left.”

“Kai likes animals? Get out,” Eunji began to giggle at the thought of her arrogant classmate being affectionate with a guinea pig. At the mention of Kai’s name, Eunji’s chest tightened. She hadn’t forgotten what had happened at the last karaoke event. What had he tried to tell her? Although he didn’t get to finish his sentence, something similar to a mixture of exhilaration and euphoria were beginning to well up within Eunji.

“No, it’s true. Jongin loves animals!” Sehun protested. “I’ve known him for 10 years now, and he practically pounces whenever he sees a small, cute animal.”

“Why did you flip between the names just now?”

“Oh,” Sehun suddenly looked down as if he was being scolded by a parent. “You probably don’t know about Jongin.”

“It’s just his real name, right? I saw him write it down for our science homework,” Eunji shrugged and replied with a perfect poker face, when in reality her heartrate was being to quicken. After having learned something new about Sehun today, was this her opportunity to learn something new about Kai as well? That was when Eunji realized that she wanted to learn more about Kai, but in a slightly different way than usual.

“Well, yes that’s true,” Sehun began. He his lips and cleared his throat, all the while looking as if he were having an internal struggle. He continued, “But it’s more than that. It’s well, um… oh I don’t know. I don’t think I should be the person to tell you.”

“Tell me what?” Eunji’s ears perked up. Everything else that Sehun had just said flew out the window as she became fixated on the last line he said. What was he hiding from her? What did he want to tell her that day? Could it be a, dare she say it, a confession?

As several question popped up in her mind, Eunji’s heartrate sped up. Suddenly she felt like vomiting, singing, drowning her emotions in ice-cream, and shouting out in joy all at once. It was a complicated feeling; one that cannot truly be described in words, and as painful as the description sounded, the feeling was somehow pleasant. Then came the question, ‘If Kai confessed to me, how would I respond?’

“The guy we see at school all the time is Kai,” Sehun started to explain. “But that’s not the real him. That’s not Kim Jongin. Kai is a persona Jongin puts on because he’s actually really introverted as well. I’d even say that he’s more introverted than me. He gets so nervous in front of people that he rejects his true self, and that’s where Kai comes in. Kai is courageous, bold and cocky. Even though Kai might not have the greatest personality, it’s what comes Jongin’s to mind when he thinks about confidence.”

“Mhm?” Eunji hummed in response, expecting Sehun to continue his explanation. Something along the lines of, ‘And because he’s so shy, he wasn’t able to confess to you.’

“When I first met him, I didn’t know about Jongin. He simply told me to call him Kai. But during middle school, he was over at my house for a sleepover and he ended up telling me about it. We were pulling an all-nighter, so the sleepiness probably influenced him to tell me. When I asked him about it the next day, he couldn’t remember having told me about it, but he insisted that I keep the information to myself,” Sehun added.

“And?”

Sehun looked at Eunji in surprise. “And what? That’s it. Uh, don’t tell anyone else I guess?”

Eunji thought back to Kai during the night of the karaoke event, and how he seemed nervous and reluctant in telling her something. Now that she looked back at it, perhaps Kai wanted to tell her about his introverted self – about Jongin. Perhaps there was no confession after all. As soon as it dawned on her, the bubbly, inexplicable feeling she had felt earlier dropped to the pit of her stomach. Her stomach felt heavy, as if she had just eaten a rock. However, her heart felt even heavier.

“Ah, that’s it…” she said disappointedly. “Why did you tell me all of this? I thought Kai told you not to do that.”

“Because I’m comfortable around you,” Sehun said it as if he were stating an obvious fact.

“Ah, I see,” Eunji mumbled. ‘So if Kai didn’t tell me that day, then I guess it means he’s not comfortable around me.’

A/N: I am taking this Kyungsoo/Jongdae/Rex tension way too far #sorrynotsorry. But on a (somewhat) serious note, I can smell development; can you? I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Do leave a comment, and don't forget to subscribe/upvote if you wanna follow the After School Club's schenanigans.