Today’s the day he’s going to ask her out. I haven’t been getting a lot of sleep last night – not after I hung up on you. You tried to call me back – once – but I didn’t pick up. Honestly, I was going to pick up if you called for the second time, but you didn’t. That made me so restless and today I woke up with bags under my eyes and a heavy heart.

Taemin asked me to help him choose an outfit for his date tonight. I dreaded to go and I was almost tempted to tell him no, but I went with him anyway. I wanted to see how hard he was trying to dress himself in order to impress that other girl.

I felt especially bitter today. I guess it’s because I haven’t talked to you since last night and unlike every morning, I didn’t receive a text greeting me a good morning. I know Taemin did, because when I appeared at his dorm at around noon, he was texting you. I knew you were still texting him since this morning when you left to Suwon for your class trip.

I followed him to his room where his personal closet was. He showed me two or three potential outfits, and I just stared at them but I wasn’t really evaluating his choices. My mind was stuck on the buzzing of his phone and how his fingers quickly tapped on the screen as he sent a text message back. Sometimes he’d smirk and smile, and I’d clench my jaw tightly. You were texting him. Not me.

“So, what do you think?” He asks, breaking me away from my thoughts.

“Huh?” I automatically reply.

He gestures at the outfits that he laid down on his bed. “Do you think this sweater is alright? What about these jeans? Are they the ‘too tight’ ones for a date?”

I scratch the back of my head, trying to find something to say. Should I be polite? Or should I really tell him that that sweater is hideous and those jeans make his look ten times bigger? I bite my lip.

“Yeah, I think you should wear that sweater. It looks nice. And those jeans looks good on your figure, too,” I lied bluntly. I don’t care if I lied and I don’t care if Taemin will walk out of here looking like a trainwreck. I honestly don’t care.

“Really?” His eyes light up so fervently, I begin to feel a little guilty. Still, I remain encompassed with trying to persuade him.

“Sure,” I nod. “She – whoever it is – will like it.”

Taemin’s not listening to me. His attention is diverted to a text message on his cellphone and I wait with frustration as he replies back to you. However, instead of seeing him quickly type down his reply, he stops and sits down, staring at his phone.

“What? What happened?” I ask him. His face is frozen with shock, almost. He doesn’t respond to me immediately, and that’s when I take the initiative and grab his phone away from him. He doesn’t protest, because he’s still trying to contemplate whatever it is that he saw or read on his phone.

And that’s when I saw it. I read the messages you two were exchanging.

Taemin, don’t do this.

Why not? I really like her.

Are you sure she’s going to return the feelings?

I don’t know. But it’s worth the try, isn’t it?

Taemin, you just can’t. Please don’t do it.

Why not?

Just don’t.

Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t.

And then I reached the last message. The one that caused Taemin to stop and think. The one that caused my heart to break.

Because I like you. A lot.

I gripped his cellphone tightly, before throwing it onto his bed. I’m so angry. My heart hurts and I can’t breathe properly. I can’t believe that you – you who’ve always held your head up so high – had actually stooped down to a level that low and confessed to him. You shred all of your pride just to try and stop him from asking another girl out. How could you?

“D-do you think I should do it?” Taemin asked me all of a sudden. I lash my head around to face him. He’s still flummoxed with the text you just sent him. I can’t believe that your simple words actually got to his head so quickly. “Should I still ask Krystal out?”

Krystal. He was going to ask out Jung Krystal – my ex-girlfriend –but you stopped him.

“I – I think you should,” I told him automatically. I felt no need to even try and reconsider my words. I didn’t care about Krystal anymore. I cared about you and the fact that you blatantly stopped him from pursuing my ex. “She’s ten times prettier.”

Ten times prettier. I don’t know if I am even speaking the truth here. Krystal is indeed a goddess and I have yet to meet a boy who wouldn’t fall as hard for her as I did, but I like you. I really, honestly do. And I’m hurt that you’re groveling, begging Taemin to pause and think about his efforts to ask her out.

“What if she won’t – I think she – Krystal is still – ” Taemin’s words are coming out all chopped up and incomprehensible. I want to slap him in the back of the head just so he can make a proper sentence. And also just so I can let out all that anger in me.

“What?” I pressed on. “What about her?”

“She… She likes Se Hun.”

And that’s when I burst out laughing. I honestly couldn’t hold it in. Krystal likes Se Hun, and Taemin likes Krystal, while you like Taemin, and I like you. The irony couldn’t appear in a more inappropriate moment.

“What?” Taemin glares up at him.

“It’s nothing,” I say, trying to compress my laughter. “Nothing.”

I sit down on the bed next to him, as Taemin tries to compose himself and reply back to your text message.

“You should definitely ask her out,” I tell him again. I’m not giving up on this. I’m not.

Taemin bites his lip. “But… Hye Rin’s been telling me that…”

My heart is beginning to quake with such ferocity again. You had to bring up the fact that you liked him. What are you implanting inside his head? He was so ready to ask Krystal out, but you just had to ruin it for him – for me.

“Forget what Hye Rin said!” I snap suddenly. “It’s about you, it’s not about her! You are the one who has feelings for Krystal, not her.”

“But – but,” Taemin’s eyes are blinking a mile a minute, “she told me she liked me.”

I stare at him. I’m dumbfounded because he’s saying that as if I didn’t just tell him yesterday that I liked you. I want to yell. I want to scream out and ask him why the hell it matters if you liked him. I want to shake him until he gets it, until he realizes that he needs to ask Krystal out because I like you.

But I remain quiet. Just like all the other times when I should’ve said something.

The digital clock on his bedroom desk flashes the 15^th minute of the 11^th hour that day. He was supposed to meet his date at around noon at the coffee shop a block from here.

“It’s almost 12,” I tell him, gesturing absentmindedly to the clock. Taemin whips his head around to look at the clock. He sighs as he goes through his phone.

“I’m going to cancel out on her,” Taemin said. I jump up and look down at him, my eyebrows furrowing.

“What? Why?” I almost yell. “You were so excited for this! You planned this out, you’ve been waiting for this moment for the longest time. You keep telling me about your crush and saying that you’re going to ask her out, going to ask her out, going to ask her out. And now what? You’re cancelling out on her in the last minute because Hye Rin – a girl you hardly know, someone who’s not as famous and pretty as Krystal – told you she liked you? You’re trading Krystal for Hye Rin?”

I’m sorry. I’m so incredibly sorry. I didn’t mean to sound so selfish and I didn’t mean to make you sound like you’re nothing compared to Krystal. You’re everything and more. But you have to understand that I can’t stand to see Taemin going after you when he clearly knows that I want you. Or, at least I thought he knew.

“I don’t know, okay?” Taemin retorts back exasperatedly. He runs his hand through his hair, gripping the strands and then letting it go, making them stand up in the most random places all over his head. “I’m so confused. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“Get yourself together! You like Krystal. What else must I spell out for you?”

Taemin remains quiet as he stares at his feet. He’s probably deep in thought. I resume my seat next to him on the bed again, waiting for him to say something.

Finally, after a long minute of maddening silence, he speaks.

“It’s just… that… Hye Rin actually cares about me. And I haven’t realized it until now. You’re right, she’s not like Krystal. But she has enough heart in her to ask me about my day. She makes sure that I eat and sleep well, and when I’m feeling down, she tries to cheer me up.”

My world feels like its spinning as I’m hearing him say these things. He’s telling me things that you do to me, too. You always ask me about my day, you always make sure I eat and sleep well, and you always try to cheer me up when I’m feeling down. I always thought that I was the only guy you cared about in that way. I was clearly wrong. You two-timed me.

 My heart is shattering, piece by piece, but he continues, “She’s funny, she’s really smart, and even though she’s not as pretty as Krystal, she’s still really cute.”

I don’t know what to think anymore. Yesterday, he thought you were “alright”. Now, he’s retracing his steps and rearranging his words. I want to punch him so badly in the mouth.

And not because he can’t make up his mind. Because he’s betraying me.

***

To be honest, sometimes I think Lu Han can be gay – “can” being the keyword here. I mean, I know he’s completely straight, but there are some aspects of him that really makes me question his masculinity. Whenever we have to do a photoshoot or a video filming together, he really does take quite a long time staring at himself in the mirror. Maybe he’s a bit insecure, but then again, with a face like that, I don’t see any other reason to be staring at the mirror than the fact that he’s probably just ogling himself. And then there are moments – like now – when I accidentally (and stupidly) let it slip that I have a huge, heart-wrenching crush on you.  He takes it and brings it beyond all nine yards, trying his hardest to become my matchmaker.

“Taemin’s your sunbae,” he’s telling me, as if I’m clearly not aware of that fact. Mind you, I had to tell him why I’m not pursuing after you and why I haven’t confessed to you yet. It’s mainly because you like Taemin.  

And I guess I can’t blame him with the fact that he’s trying hard to be my matchmaker. Management at SM wants us to be “close” (or at least appear that way), because we’ve got several promotions that we’re doing together and they want the general public to know that everyone in EXO (K or M) was “close”. Which wasn’t entirely true, honestly.

But at least Lu Han is trying. He’s just trying too hard.

“I know that,” I tell him blankly. He’s in our dorm, flipping through the channels on the TV. He and I are perched on the living room couch. Se Hun and Jino* have gone out for awhile, Joonmyun* and Moonkyu* are in their rooms taking naps, while Chanyeol* is in the kitchen preparing an afternoon snack for himself.

“So, you shouldn’t feel threatened. He’s older, therefore he has more advantages with the ladies than you have.”

“And what about you?” I turn to him, crossing my arms over my chest. “You’re older, but I don’t see you making moves with the ladies.”

Lu Han stays quiet, until he grunts and says, “That’s beside the point.”

I roll my eyes. “I don’t see how it is that you entitle yourself as my ‘love guru’ when you clearly have no experience.”

“And you have?” Lu Han ripped his gaze away from the television to send me a sharp look.

“Of course!” I said. “I went out with Krystal.”

Lu Han snorted. “For what? Like 3 weeks, right?”

“At least I had a girlfriend.”

“I had girlfriends, too.”

“Right.”

Lu Han sighs irritably, and I smirk at him. I think it’s safe to say we’re close enough for me to pick on him whenever I like.

“Anyway,” he says, after finally stopping at a channel where an afternoon Korean cooking show is playing. “That girl you like – her name’s Hyo Rin right? – is she going to ask Taemin out herself?”

I prop my elbow on the armrest of the couch and lean my cheek on my knuckles. “Her name’s Hye Rin, and I don’t know. I stopped talking to Taemin after I left his dorm earlier.”

“Was he still texting her when you left him?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“And what about Krystal?”

“What about her?”

“Is Taemin still going to ask her out?”

“I don’t know.”

Lu Han looks like he wants to slap him on the back of my head. Am I always this hard to deal with?

“So if she likes Se Hun, and Taemin likes – or at least he liked – her, and Hye Rin likes Taemin, and then that leaves you. You like Hye Rin.”

“You figured out the mystery, Sherlock Holmes. Let me get your prize. Out of my .”

Lu Han disregards my statement like a cute, innocent boy that he is. “So now all we have to do is make Taemin like Krystal again. That way, he can leave Hye Rin, and she’ll be so devastated she’ll have no one to turn to except you. And because of that, she’ll be more comfortable around you and then… well, it’s all happily ever after from there.”

He sits back on the couch and folds his arm across his chest, like he just discovered the cure for AIDS.

That plan is not ridiculous, but I feel hesitant to even attempt it. Despite the fact that it kills me to see you go after Taemin and choose him over me, I can’t bring myself up to the challenge of prying Taemin away from you. All those nights of hearing you cry because of Taemin, I’m still not used to seeing you feel so broken. Even if it does break my spirits, as well.

I feel like I’m tripping over myself and going nowhere with this situation. I don’t want to see you get hurt, but that means I will be the one to carry your wounds. Does that seem fair? I don’t really think so.

“Lu Han,” I say, sitting up quickly. “I’ve got an idea.”

His eyes brighten as he anticipates what I’m going to say.

“You know how in those movies about love triangles and girls trying to win guys over, there’s always that one girl that dates someone else in order to make her main prospect jealous, but then it gets all haywire because they end up falling in love instead?”

Lu Han looks out into space for a nanosecond to think, but says, “No.”

I tsk’d at his response. “Anyway, there are movies like that. And I have this idea wherein we’d ‘help’ Krystal ‘win’ Se Hun over by telling her to do just that!”

“Do what?” Lu Han asks.

“By making her go out with Taemin! That way, Taemin will go out with her and Hye Rin won’t be able to say no.”

Lu Han’s eye brows scrunch a little bit. “Isn’t that a little unfair for both Taemin and Krystal? You’re just using them for your own personal gain.”

“It’s not!” I shake my head vigorously. “Taemin will go out with Krystal because I know he’ll do anything for her, and Krystal will go out with Taemin just because she wants to make Se Hun notice her… but along the way, she’ll eventually gain true feelings for Taemin and it’ll be a win-win situation!”

“And what about Hye Rin?” Lu Han taps his chin. “You’re just going to let Taemin throw her out in the dust like that?”

“It’s not going to be so bad if I’m there to catch her, right?”

I smiled at Lu Han. And for the first time in a long time, I feel good about myself.

*These are the other rumored members of EXO-K. Since they are not confirmed by SM, names are subject to change.

A/N: It's actually very hard to write a fanfic for a group that hasn't fully debuted yet >.< You don't know their personalities too well, so it's mostly just a hit-and-miss thing for me right now. And it that Lu Han isn't part of EXO-K. Ughhh I would love to incorporate him more into the story, but realistically, I doubt he and Kai are close like that. But this is fiction, so I'll write it however I want! :P He's such a cutie, it's too hard to not include him.

And to be honest, angst gets boring. So that's why I've decided to "liven" it up just a tiiiiiny bit. You know, just to keep the readers a little more enthused. :) And forgive me for using Krystal as the "other girl that Taemin likes". I was thinking of using an OC, but ugh. That takes too much work. Besides, I loooove Krystal haha *_*

Oh, and for anyone having trouble reading Hye Rin's name out loud, "Hye" is actually pronounced "Hae" (as in Donghae), yeah and not "Hee-YE" :)