It's not unusual, but it has been a long time since the last he's seen her cry.

He walks inside her room and finds the slightly younger girl sitting on the foot of her bed, knees pulled up to her chest where she buries her face, shoulders shaking as almost inaudible sobs fill the empty room. Of course, he knows the reason, but he guesses that it's better to hear it for himself. After he closed the door, he takes a seat on her bed.

Krystal lifts her head up from her knees, startled by the creak of her bed, and through her watery, blurred vision, she sees him. "Taemin? What are you doing here?" she asks, rubbing a hint of tear in her eye.

"Duh, it's your room. Am I supposed to be in Jessica noona's room?" It isn't a smart answer, Taemin realizes, but he's never been much of a good speaker, and he knows that Krystal doesn't remember calling him to come and has been immersed in her emotion for a while until he came. "Um, you know, your make-up's smudged and you have really awful eye bags.."

Krystal realizes that he was right when the tip of her fingers touch the lump under her eye. "Yeah. Yeah – I've been crying," is all she says, getting up on her feet and wipes the rest of the tears with a tissue from her desk.

"I know, I saw," he sighs. "Minho again?"

Instead of answering, she plops beside him on the bed, grabbing the butterfly pillow – one of the many insects he hates, despite how beautiful it is – and sighs as well. "I don't know, really, I thought I was over him."

"And?"

"I mean, with the lack of interactions we have now, and his new relationship with Yuri, I thought I was ready to let go."

Taemin holds his breath.

"But I'm not. He's too nice. He's too charming. He's too handsome. He's too cool. He's just too attached to my heart. I just can't stand it. I want to stop feeling. I want to move on," she says, and turns to him. "Help me, how do I even do that?"

"I can't blame you if it's hard," he says. "But he's given you too much false hopes. False. Fake. Fiction. Lies."

Krystal cannot argue because she knows Taemin is right. Lies. It's all there is to it. Just like how she had said that she would stop loving him? It's all lies. Minho is nice to every girl, and he makes them feel special with his caring words and gentle yet burning round eyes. Krystal was one of the unlucky ones that got close to him. It was hard not to – she was a new student, he was being nice to show her around school and introduce her to some friends, help her with studies and befriend her, but that's it. And nothing more.

"He's an . I know you'll find someone better," he says, playing with one of her dolls. "Someone who will treat you in the most special way incomparable to other girls."

She lets out a small smile. "Yeah. Thanks, Taemin."

Being the introvert he is, Taemin can't even describe how much he hates school. Girls hitting on him every single time on the day he's standing in front of his locker, the dumb teachers and their I-explain-you-pretend-to-get-it attitudes, the idiotic jocks, freaky nerds, over-dramatic theater kids, sappy choir members, and the mob of lunatic he calls 'school-friends'. So he only hangs out with Krystal, because she's the only one who doesn't think of him as an 'icy dancing prince'. He thinks, sometimes it's better to be ugly and talentless, as long as he lives a happy school life without dealing with these mentally deranged people.

One of them is Choi Minho, and he is one of the factors which got Taemin popular, and he kinds of despises him for that. Also, he had hurt Krystal too much.

Like today.

Lunch is over, but Taemin and Krystal still remains unmoved in one of the cafeteria tables. He's blasting music through his mp3 player, and she's playing tetris on her phone, both of them completely ignoring the fact that the school bell has just rang. It's not until the cafeteria lady tells them that they realize they're ten minutes late for Biology. Both of them could care less though, since they never been so school-oriented. After picking up their books in their lockers, that just happens to be right next to each other, they leisurely walk through the hallway.

"Have you done your homework yet?" she asks.

"I got Jinki hyung to do it, I was at your place last night, remember?"

"No fair! I thought you didn't work on it too, because I didn't!"

"Don't worry, Mrs. Hwang won't even look at it anyway. I'll let you copy it at home, if you need it."

"Okay."

It's already fifteen minutes into Biology, and they're still walking pass the eleventh grade classrooms that are empty because the students are gone for P.E. class. Krystal is talking about an american drama that her sister keeps watching and how crappy it is, and Taemin laughs at that, his eyes crinkled up to crescents. Once he opens them, though, she isn't on his side and he realizes, that she's behind him a few steps back. Krystal stands still, with blank eyes, head cocking to the side as she stares into an empty classroom.

He takes two steps back to level with her, and regrets it right away. Taemin can almost hear Krystal's heart breaking – like porcelain cracking. He can see it from the corner of his eyes. Minho, and Yuri, inside the empty classroom, kissing, and a heartbroken Krystal, that was just besides him, now taking a sprint away, heading for the stairs.

He curses, and runs after her. One of the advantages of having long legs, he catches up to her in no time, and they end up at the roof of the school building.

Krystal settles down, knees pulled up to her chest, like last night in her room. But she isn't crying, or at least, not yet. Pulling out her phone from her blazer pocket, she opens tetris and fixates her gaze on it. Taemin just watches as she plays, pressing the buttons so furiously. And when her heart can't take it anymore, the device slips out of her hand, hitting the ground with a thud, and a tear escapes her eye with a sob. Krystal buries her face in between her knees and cries. Taemin can feel his heart ache with every hitch of her breaths.

"Soojung.."

He calls her with her birth name, and not the name given by her friends in the States, because apparently, he's the only one here and he's her friend now. Taemin sits cross-legged next to her, and, even though a bit hesitant to do it, puts an arm around her. It's completely new to him. Krystal never asks of him to comfort her, or give her advices, and he doesn't bother doing it anyway, because she says having him around is already a comfort to her.

But now he feels that he has to do something more. "Soojung, please don't cry."

In his chest, she nods, trying to control her sob. But her efforts go wasted and she breaks in tears again, her wails muffled by his shirt. And he just sits there, patting the slightly younger girl's head, whispering to her reassuring words about how she shouldn't be crying over some jerk, and that he was here.

Taemin and Krystal end up skipping Biology class, and the classes after that, in the roof, holding each other until the last bell rings.

"Dude, what happened to your shirt?"

Minho's question about Taemin's completely soaked uniform goes completely ignored, because the asked keeps staring daggers at him, and the basketball in his hands, and back at his round eyes, one corner of his lips tugging up into a smirk. "Let's play a game, shall we?"

"O-kay.." slightly confused, Minho throws the ball to the other boy, and jogs up to guard him.

Taemin manages to break his defense, and as he dribbles towards the ring, he shouts, "Congratulation with you and Yuri!" and throws the ball into the basket.

0-1.

"Yeah, thanks," the ball bounces and lands in Minho's hand. He smiles. "But, you're kind of late, don't you think? It's been a week since we started going out."

"I know," Taemin trails Minho's quick steps as he runs to the ring, does a lay-up, and scores.

1-1.

"But I didn't congratulate you right away on purpose though."

Minho catches the ball, and walks up to Taemin. He's puzzled at first, but then smiles. "Are you planning like, some kind of surprise for me?"

"I've always known you're over-confident, but.. yeah, you can say that," and he receives the bounce-pass from Minho.

"Okay, what is it then?"

"You know that Krystal likes you, right?"

Minho's brows raise in surprise, or bafflement, but he can't say he hadn't seen this coming. "I know."

"Do you know how she feels when you and Yuri went out?"

"She must be heartbroken."

"Oh, she is. Completely ed up," Taemin shrugs. "Answering your previous question, my shirt here is drenched in tears out of, like, three periods of Krystal crying."

"I'm.. really sorry."

"No, you're not. Tell me, Minho, do you feel happy playing with her feelings like this? – Wait, I forgot, you are. Because you're dating your so-called love of your life since freshmen year."

"Hey, Taemin, don't drag my girlfriend into this," Minho raises his voice. "I'm sorry, okay? But, I don't love Krystal."

"That's your fault right there," Taemin points out. "If you don't love Krystal, or any other girl, stop acting so nice to her. Stop carrying her books, stop opening the door for her, stop helping her up when she falls, stop texting her 'get well soon's when she's sick, stop smiling, stop being by her side, stop giving all these false hopes that she's been mistaking as love. Because it's all a lie!"

Minho stares at the other boy, trying to digest the accusing words that were just spat out of his mouth. He sighs. "Taemin, I was just being courteous.."

"Well, stop that. Be rude if you have to, because by being nice to her, you're ruining her."

Guilt creeps up his spine. Minho knows Taemin is right. But he's not the only one.

"But.. don't you do that too?" he says, and Taemin raises a brow at him. "You're nice to her, and you're always by her side, but you don't love her too, do you?"

To his surprise, Taemin lets out a scoff. He turns, and shoots the ball right into the basket, before shooting a dirty look at him.

"Even though I'm nice to her, I care for her, and I'm always there for her, Krystal doesn't look at me the same way he looks at you."

The game ends with a score of 1-2. Taemin storms out of the room in victory, leaving Minho in his defeat. 

But somehow, and he doesn't know why, Taemin feels like he lost.

"You know, you should stop that," Taemin snatches the can of beer away from Krystal's hand and drinks it for himself, chugging it down until it's empty and throws it into the trash can. "Where did you get all of these anyway?"

"Because your brother gives them to my sister, you asshat," she spats and decides to make coffee instead. It's only the two of them in the house that afternoon, because her sister is going out with a friend (which is Taemin's brother) and her parents are always gone. "Do you want anything?"

"No, thanks, but I should be the one asking you that, really," he says, and takes a wooden spatula.

"Can you cook?"

"Standard dishes. Do you have milk?"

"I guess.."

"Okay. I'll make you milk risotto," he says, and walks over to the fridge to grab a fresh carton of milk.

Krystal admires his back as he cooks, and his strawberry-blonde hair. His freakishly long and skinny limbs that are ridiculously strong compared to hers. His baby-blue shirt that goes well with his shorts. He's humming tunes to what sounds like Howie Day's Collide (she's surprised that he knows, but he figures his brother might've influenced him on English songs). Krystal forgot how she meets him, but she knows that Taemin has been a good friend for as long as she remembers. He doesn't hover, and he doesn't talk a lot, like girl friends. Just him being like this, quiet and cold, makes her comfortable, and she thanks him for that.

Drowning herself in his voice, she looks inside her mug, filled with black bitter coffee. Bitter, like how she feels right now.

"I think I'll try moving on," she mumbles.

"Don't think, you should really do it."

"We're graduating soon.. and maybe I'll find someone better than him, out there."

"I know you will."

A few minutes later, Taemin turns around with two plates of risotto in his hands. He puts one in front of Krystal, and takes the seat across the table.

"It smells nice," she lets out a small smile, and he returns the gesture. 

Taemin rarely smiles, at least to other people (he doesn't even find it necessary for courtesy), but he does, sometimes, laugh when she's with him, and it's only now that Krystal realizes that Taemin has a lovely smile.

"Eat," he says, or more like orders. "Believe me, there's no better way to cure a broken heart than warm foods, great movies, and a good company."

She fakes a sigh. "Too bad I only have you.."

"Shut up and eat."

Krystal laughs along with him, and spoons the risotto into . "Taemin, have you ever loved someone?"

It's silent for a while, until he lifts his head up from his plate, and nods. "I have, actually."

"Who is she?"

"She's just this completely freaky girl," he shrugs. "I hate people, you see, and–"

"I thought you were just a frigid ."

"Do you want to know or not?" Taemin raises a brow at Krystal, and she falls silent. "I hate people, so I have no friends. It's cool though, I don't want one anyway. But my cold appearance is just somehow mistaken as 'cool' by girls, and so they started hitting on me, not that I care," he hears her giggle, and continues. "One day, I was tearing off the love notes and letters on my locker, and this strange girl, who's apparently the owner of the locker next to mine, started talking to me."

"You sure have a lot of fans."

I raised a brow at the tall girl next to me. She had chestnut colored hair, skin as pale as a ghost, sharp features, and deep brown eyes. Her expression was hard to tell, but I think she was smiling.

"Tell me you're not one of them," I said, and opened my locker to find another pile of love letters.

"I'm not," she said. "I was just asking."

"Okay, whatever."

"You're so rude, I wonder what those girls see in you."

"I have no idea why too."

She chuckled. "You're funny. That's one quality."

It's the first time someone has ever called me funny. I wasn't trying to joke and yet she said I'm funny. I didn't know if she was weird, or if she had a lame sense of humor, or just crazy, but I felt kind of.. I don't know, happy?

"Um, okay. Sorry, but I have to get to class," after taking my Biology books, I slammed my locker shut and walked away from the locker.

And as much as I wished that I would never meet that freaky girl again, I kinda wished I will.

Krystal stares wide-eyed at Taemin. "And then what happened?"

"After that, she became a friend.. but, just a friend, though, never more."

"Why? You never made a move? I knew you were a frigid !"

He rolls his eyes at her. "Whatever. But it's not because of that," he says. "It's because she likes someone else."

At that moment, Krystal can see herself in Taemin's eyes. He's been through something that she's going through right now, and yet, he still smiles for her despite the bitterness of the last sentence he's just said.

"Oh. I'm sorry," is all she says, before taking another spoon of risotto into .

"It's okay, we're still friends anyway," he shrugs and puts his empty plate in the sink. "Now, let's get on to the second cure for a broken heart. Do you have any good movies?"

"Jessica keeps some sappy romance movies in her room, I could take some, I guess."

Krystal finishes her risotto and grabs a pile of romance genre DVDs from her sister's shelf, putting them on the living room table for Taemin to pick.

"You pick. I don't really watch movies," she says.

He goes through the pile and plops in When Harry Met Sally inside the DVD player, before slumping down next to her on the couch.

"An eighties movie? Dude, it's 2012."

"Jinki hyung is into classics a lot, just like your sister and her vintage dresses? My brother and your sister likes the same stuff, maybe that's why they're such good friends," he shrugs. "Unlike us. We just.."

"Collide?"

"Good choice of word."

Taemin presses the play button on the remote, and the opening credits play. They don't say anything to each other during the movie, instead she just leans onto him and he leans onto her, and they sit on the couch, shoulder to shoulder, his head on top of hers, two cups of coffees left untouched on the table.

She doubted it at first, but halfway through the movie, Krystal decides that her sister's choice of movies isn't really bad at all.

"I don't have to take this crap from you."

"If you're so over Joe, why aren't you seeing anyone?"

"I see people."

"See people? Have you slept with one person since you broke up with Joe?"

"What the hell does that have to do with anything? That will prove I'm over Joe? Because I somebody? Harry, you're gonna have to move back to New Jersey because you've slept with everybody in New York and I don't see that turning Helen into a faint memory for you. Besides, I will make love to somebody when it is making love. Not the way you do it like you're out for revenge or something."

"...Are you finished now?"

"...Yes."

"Can I say something?"

"Yes."

"...I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

Krystal giggles at that part. And she realizes, she needs to move on too. Of course, not by sleeping with someone, that's just ridiculous. Krystal needs to see other people. 

But before that, she needs to see the closest.

"Hey, Taemin, do you think I –"

Once she turns, a sleeping Taemin greets her. His head is tilted to the side, and she can hear the soft snores emitting from him. She pokes his cheek, and his brows furrow, but his face soon becomes peaceful again as he continues his slumber.

"Stupid," sighs Krystal, smiling at how cute her companion looks when he's sleeping. "Thanks for being a good friend. How did we meet anyway?"

And then it clicks in her mind.

"The first time we met, we hated each other."

"No, you didn't hate me, I hated you. The second time we met, you didn't even remember me."

"I did too, I remembered you. The third time we met, we became friends."

"We were friends for a long time."

"And then we weren't."

"And then we fell in love."

Once again, Krystal smiles.

She had forgotten how did they met, but now she remembers again.

"At least I'm not the one who told a story about a completely obvious confession to the boy I'm crushing on, you frigid ," she mumbles, and then leans in to kiss Taemin's cheek. "I'm glad I met you."

Later at that night, when Jessica comes home, she finds Taemin and Krystal sleeping on the couch, leaning against one another, the only sound coming from the DVD that is playing the menu all over and over again since the last three hours.

Instead of going furious because her beloved romance movies are scattered on the table, Jessica grabs the remote and turns the TV and DVD player off, before covering her sister and her friend with blankets, and turns off the light.

As she climbs the stairs into her room, she dials a friend's number.

"Jinki? You're brother's here, with my sister, and you're not going to believe what's happening right now!"

After Jessica disappeared into her room, Taemin shifts in his sleep, the corner of his lips unconsciously pull up into a smile, as he adjusts himself in comfort on Krystal's shoulder.

But, I did meet that crazy girl again.

Actually, she was walking behind me when I was heading to my Biology class.

I abruptly turned around, and eyed her down. "Will you stop following me, please?"

"Who said I was following you? I'm heading to Biology too."

And then I remembered. She was the chestnut haired girl that always sits in the back of the class, doodling something on paper with her glittery blue pen. Actually, she's not only in my Biology class, she was in History, and Science, and Literature, and in Music too.

"I'm sorry, but do I know you?"

"I don't know, but I think I've seen you somewhere before, our locker is right next to each other, and I think  you're pretty cool. Rude, but cool," she shrugged, and then stuck out her skinny hand at me. "I'm Jung Soojung, but my friends from the States call me Krystal. And you are?"

I eyed her from head to toe, before shaking her hand, hesitant. "I'm Taemin. Lee Taemin."

"Okay, Taemin. Let's be friends."

I remembered regretting it once she dragged my hand towards Biology that day, but today, I kind of don't.

Even though she's stubborn when I'm compliant. Even though she's so noisy when I'm quiet. Even though she likes singing when I like dancing. Even though she complains about everything I do, when I clearly don't do what she does. Even though she's a and she thinks I'm an . Even though she likes somebody else when I like her. Even after our bumps, differences, arguments, and bad-sayings about each other.

I just somehow find, me and Krystal, collide.

© hellopsr stories, 2012