Eunji was starting to realize that not everyone always showed up to the After School Club. She was currently sitting at an empty desk in the ever so familiar club room, checking her phone. The FaceNovel group chat had no new messages, and there was little on her Instagrain feed. The classroom was quiet, which was rare considering that Luhan, Kris and Kai were present. The three male students sat at different desks in the room, each of them doing their own thing.

Luhan was busy texting away on his phone, Kris was reading a book in Chinese, Kai had headphones in and was listening to music, Yixing was dozing off, Kyungsoo was on his laptop, and Minseok was working on his homework.

Finally, Eunji decided to speak up. “So, what are we doing today?”

Kris’s ears perked up at the sound of her voice, and he replied with, “Not sure.”

“Sometimes we don’t do anything,” Kyungsoo added. “Especially considering the fact that Suho-hyung isn’t here, I’m assuming today’s a free day.”

“You’re free to leave if you want,” said Kris.

“Oh well, I don’t really have anything else better to do. I don’t mind just chilling here for a bit,” she protested. Eunji didn’t want to make it seem like she wanted to leave or anything, even though she was starting to kind of get bored. She glanced over at Minseok, who was busy doing practice problems for Calculus. She decided that if she were to stay, she might as well make better use of her time. Eunji reached into her backpack and grabbed her Science binder out.

But seriously, who could focus on homework when she was in the same room as a bunch of attractive guys? Certainly not Eunji. She attempted to finish a worksheet, but gave up halfway when she noticed Kai in her peripheral vision. He lifted both his arms and locked them behind his head. In the process of doing so, Eunji noted how muscular his arms were.

‘God I love it when guys do that,’ Eunji thought, ogling over the sight. ‘But I hate them for doing it too because do they know how much of a tease they’re being?!’

After having stared at her classmate for a solid five minutes, Eunji decided that she wouldn’t be able to finish the worksheet by herself in her current situation. She gathered up some courage and approached Kai, wondering if he would like to work on the homework together. After all, she had joined the club to get to know the members better, and the first step to accomplishing that goal was to actually talk to them. In addition, this was the first time Eunji had seen Kai without Tao and Sehun nearby. She noticed that he seemed a lot more docile, so to say, without the other two around.

“Kai,” Eunji said his name and tapped his shoulder.

“Hm? What’s up?” he asked while removing his headphones and rested them on the back of his neck.

“Oh, I was just wondering if you finished the Science homework yet. If you didn’t, then I was thinking that maybe we could work on it together? If you’re done already then –“ Eunji started before she was interrupted by her classmate.

“Yeah, cool. I haven’t started yet,” Kai replied coolly.

“Cool,” Eunji said with a smile. A sense of pride welled up inside of her as she silently congratulated herself for having started a conversation with Kai.

“Uhh, take a seat then. What are you standing around for?” Kai asked with a raised brow. “Unless you want to do the work standing up.”

“Oh, no that’d be stupid,” Eunji sputtered out, then quickly taking a seat beside Kai. “Standing up, pshhh.”

‘Lee Eunji get your act together! Why are you being so nervous today?’ Eunji mentally yelled at herself.

Kai let out a shy chuckle before clearing to regain his composure. “We have to hand in this worksheet tomorrow, right?”

When Eunji didn’t reply right away, Kai waved a hand in front of her face, which instantly brought her back to reality. “Yeah, Mr. Jung said that at the end of class,” she replied.

‘Honestly, we get it. Kai’s hot. But that doesn’t mean you can make a total fool of yourself. And oh lord whatever you do, don’t start staring at him!’ Eunji thought to herself.

“Do I have something on my face?” Kai asked. It was then that Eunji realized she had already been staring at him. “Or were you admiring me?” he added with a smirk.

“I was looking outside,” Eunji quickly made up an excuse. “There were birds flying outside, and they caught my attention.”

“Yeah, yeah whatever you say,” Kai said through a grin.

“Don’t get so arrogant,” Eunji rolled her eyes. ‘There he is, same old Kai. But, he kind of seems a bit different today. Is it because Tao isn’t here to argue with him?’

Kai flipped his binder open and grabbed the homework sheet. He wrote his name at the top of the worksheet. Eunji stole a quick glance, wondering what Kai’s last name was but was surprised when she saw him write “Kim Jongin” on the paper. When Kai noticed she had been staring at his paper, he placed his forearm over the spot he had written his name on, covering his name.

“Your name isn’t Kai?” Eunji wondered aloud.

“Kim Jongin is what’s written on my birth certificate,” Kai replied, his tone firm.

“Why does everything call you Kai then?”

Kai let out a sigh, then replied to Eunji’s question. “Kai sounds cooler than Jongin, don’t you think? A cool name for a cool guy like me. I think it suits me better.”

Deciding not to pry further, Eunji simply nodded her head and focused her eyes on her own paper. The two worked in silence, occasionally asking each other questions when they were stuck on something. After fifteen minutes, they finished the worksheet. “Well that’s one thing down,” Eunji said as she stretched her arms out in front of her.

“Are you done math too?” Kai asked. Eunji nodded her head and said that she had finished it during the silent work time their Math teacher, Ms. Park, had given them after she finished teaching the lesson. “Can I see what you did for question five? I’m stuck,” he asked.

“Yeah sure, I don’t mind,” Eunji complied, swapping her Science binder out for her Math binder. She handed Kai her notebook, and in exchange he gave her a smile. As she waited for Kai to finish using her notebook, Eunji found a piece of scrap paper in her bag and was inspired to do some origami. She neatly folded each crease she made and within a couple of minutes, she had made a crane out of the paper. She set it in front of her, satisfied by her own work.

“Did you just make that?” Kai asked, his jaw hanging open and eyes widened in shock. Judging by the way he reacted to the crane, Eunji suspected that he had never seen origami before.

“Have you never seen origami before?” Eunji asked, genuinely surprised that there was someone who was unaware of such a popular activity. Kai shook his head, dropped his pencil and carefully picked the crane up with his hands. He suddenly shouted for the other guys to come see the crane.

“Oh, it’s origami!” Minseok exclaimed when his eyes landed on the crane. “A very well-made crane, I might add,” he added, causing Eunji to blush slightly.

“She made this three-dimensional object out of a sheet of paper!” Kai exclaimed, still in awe by the crane.

“Yeah, it’s called origami,” Kris sighed and rolled his eyes. “I honestly don’t know why you’re so surprised, Kai.”

“I’ve just never seen it in real life before, is all,” Kai replied, trying to make it seem like he didn’t really care for the crane. After a few seconds, his act fell apart and he could no longer hold back the smile that was tugging at his lips.

“Can you make other designs?” Luhan asked. “If so, I’d appreciate a private lesson sometime. Origami isn’t my forte.”

“Would you mind teaching me how to make that?” Yixing asked politely with a smile. The second-year was rubbing his eyes, and he let out a yawn.

“I wouldn’t mind learning either. Good thing we have construction paper in this room,” Kyungsoo added. “But if it’s a crane I’ll pass.”

“Sure, I wouldn’t mind! Would you like to learn too, Kai?” Eunji asked her classmate. Kai set the crane down on the desk and cleared . His eyes avoided meeting Eunji’s, and he responded saying that he wouldn’t mind learning how to make one or two if she insisted on teaching him.

.::.           .::.           .::.

“And then you fold it like this, and you’re done!” Eunji exclaimed as she added the final touches to her frog. She held up the final product for everyone to see and did a quick inspection of everyone’s product. Minseok was a fast learner and made a perfect copy of Eunji’s frog. Kyungsoo, who needed a bit more help and repetition of instructions, made a perfect frog as well. Yixing put in all his efforts and was proud of his frog, who he named Greenie, even though Greenie was somehow missing a leg. Kris and Luhan were both boasting about their “frogs” even though they had given up half-way through.

Then there was Kai.

Eunji sympathized with him when she saw how serious he had taken the activity. He listened attentively, and tried his best to complete each instruction. Despite his final product being rather untidy, his frog had both legs and he certainly had not given up halfway. ‘Unlike some people,’ Eunji thought to herself.

“Everyone’s frog looks great!” Eunji praised the club members. Kris let the comment get to his head and told Luhan that Eunji was obviously praising his masterpiece, to which Luhan scoffed and said that Eunji was obviously talking about his work. Minseok stared at the two in disbelief for a few moments before he yelled at the both of them, telling them that no one could even tell their pieces apart, let alone identify that they were supposed to be frogs.

“I think we should decorate the room with these,” Yixing suggested with a shy smile. Eunji was about to reject his suggestion, since she wasn’t sure how they might use their origami pieces as decorations, but she couldn’t say no to his dimples.

“That’s… a great idea, Yixing-sunbae,” Eunji let out a sigh in defeat. “How do you suggest we decorate the room?”

“I was thinking of drawing an image of a tree on the chalkboard, then we could tape our pieces to the branches to create an origami tree!” replied an enthusiastic Yixing. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement, praising the idea.

“In that case, we’re going to need more origami pieces! Alright, I’ll teach you guys everything I know!” Eunji said with a fiery passion in her eyes. “Shuriken, butterfly, cat face, cow, crab and dragon! We’re going to fill that tree up!”

“Yeah!” everyone shouted excitedly.

.::.           .::.           .::.

Suho sighed as he walked down the hall of the school’s third floor. He rarely missed an afternoon with the After School Club, and tried his best to avoid that situation to the best of his ability. However, life wasn’t so forgiving and being the only son of the President of the Kim Group meant he had responsibilities that other high school students didn’t normally deal with.

When he reached the club room, he opened the door and sighed when he was greeted by silence. ‘Of course, who would be here at this hour?’ he thought to himself as he looked through the windows. It was already past six in the evening, and the Sun was beginning to set. The sky was painted with rich hues of red and orange, which had cast a wash of warmth into the empty classroom.

Suho took a seat at a nearby desk, deciding that since he was already here, he might as well do some work. When he looked up at the blackboard, he noticed something that had not been there the day before. Someone had drawn an image of a tree using chalk, and a variety of different coloured paper were used as the leaves. Upon closer inspection, Suho realized that the papers had not been cut out in the shape of leaves, rather they were a variety of origami pieces. Next to the tree was written in bold letters, “WE GROW AS ONE”.

Suho smiled when he saw the message. He knew that none of the guys in the club knew origami (maybe Minseok, I mean the guy seems to know everything), so he came to the conclusion that Eunji had taught the other members how to fold the pieces. The message resonated with him, and his smile grew even wider at the thought of the club members working together to complete the tree.

He knew accepting her into the club had been a good idea.

A/N: What do you guys think of Eunji? Do let me know by leaving a comment. Also don't forget to subscribe and upvote if you're enjoying the story thus far <3 I really do enjoy reading through your comments and talking with each of you :D

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