It was December 9. Two days had passed since the tutoring session and three since the Espresso Cafe incident, but Minho wouldn’t let that impair his emotions. He really never did anything on his birthday other than receive a quick ‘happy birthday’ or two from his mother and brother. This year was no exception, and even the clouds covered the sun, bringing a gray undertone to Seoul. Minho didn’t care, however, knowing that his family still loved him all the more.

While rising from bed, his phone vibrated. Peering over, he smiled. “Happy Birthday Minho!” The text message from Yuri read. But, the following message surfaced a frown on Minho’s face. “Meet me after school at the usual spot.”

“Aish!” Minho moaned to himself. If it weren’t for Sulli, he would be able to go out with Yuri. Picking up his phone, he sent multiple heart emojis, but then followed with a sad face. “Mianhe Yuri, but I have tutoring sessions with the devil after school until five.”

He dropped his phone on his bed as he gazed out of his single dorm window towards the sky. “Abeoji, how are you? You must be fine right? I’m fine as well and so is eomma and Yoogeun. Today’s my birthday. I can’t believe I’m 21 since it feels like yesterday when I was in your arms.” Pausing, Minho frowned. “It’s also been a long three days, and you’ve probably seen it. I’m sorry if I did anything disrespectful to Sulli but I just can’t help it. I’m sure you understand.” After finishing his daily talk with his father who passed away several years before, Minho threw on his school uniform and quickly packed his school bag before leaving the dorm room.

“Hey Minho, happy birthday!” Key, one of Minho’s old friends, ran up towards him.

“Thanks!” Minho greeted Key with their infamous handshake. When it ended, it looked as if Key was dying to say something.

Key nudged Minho on the arm with a smirk, transitioning the mood. “So,” he wiggled his eyebrows while looking at Minho while teasing, “You and Yuri doing anything special tonight?”

“Stop it Key!” With an exaggerated sigh, Minho rigidly replied, “Plus I have to tutor someone.”

“Tutor, you never told me anything of that sort. So, what’s this about that makes you look so angry.” Key loved to gossip and he knew what Minho was about to say next would start a gossiping session, so he mentally prepared himself.

Minho shook his head with pressed lips, “It’s not convenient to talk about in the hallways.”

“Oh come on, what are the chances that they’d hear. The school is huge,” Key pouted.

“Fine, have it your way,” Minho replied in annoyance. “So, this girl I’m tutoring happens to be Choi Sulli, which apparently everyone knows except for me.”

“Dude, you’re tutoring the Choi Sulli?” Key stepped back with his mouth gaping open.

“Yes, why does everyone overreact about her?” He continued with displeasure, “So long story short, I met her at a cafe, she made me lose my job, and now I’m her unlucky tutor. Why unlucky you may ask? Because she is the rudest person I have met.” Little did Minho know, but the young lady right behind him happened to be the culprit of their conversation.

“Frog eyed creature, what did you say?” Sulli’s lips were pressed together with a slight frown.

“Frog eyed creature?” Key turned around wondering if someone was referring to him, but then he watched Minho’s expression change. It almost looked like a wave of terror washed across his face.

Minho placed his face in his hands, letting out a low groan. “Key, what did I say about inconvenience in hallways!” Turning around, he slowly set his eyes on Sulli.

“I’m talking to you, frog!” Sulli demanded that Minho respond to her previous question.

Minho shrugged his shoulders as if what Sulli said didn’t matter. “I said you’re rude and you act like a brat, is there anything wrong with that?”

“Minho, don’t say that to Sulli!” Key harshly whispered to Minho.

“No Key,” Minho confidently assured, “I got this.” Minho made firm and precise movements as he spoke to Sulli. “You need to learn that not everything goes your way. You might be living in your own princess world, but in reality it’s not like that, so wake up.”

Sulli lifted up her hand, ready to slap Minho across the face, but then suddenly, her hand was left hanging in the air. She couldn’t do it, no matter how much she tried, her hand stayed afloat.

“You want to slap me? Come on, do it,” Minho tempted.

Key firmly nudged Minho, gesturing him to stop, but it didn’t work.

“Do you need help?” Minho placed his hand around Sulli’s wrist as he brought it to his face. Before Sulli’s hand reached his face, she pulled it out of Minho’s hold. Without another look back, Sulli disappeared out of his view.

“Minho, she looked like she was on the verge of tears!”

“So, I could care less. She’s probably crying about my insults. She’ll get over it.” Minho dismissed Key’s comment with a wave of a hand as he gestured for Key to follow him to class.

Key ran up to Minho, who was currently taking long and quick strides. “Hey, slow down dude!” Once he caught up with Minho, he couldn’t help but become nosy with the previous conversation. “What’s up with the nickname, like the frog creature name?”

“No clue, she has a weird mind of her own.” Minho grabbed a bottle of water from his backpack to take a sip, for all that arguing with Sulli made his mouth dry.

“Last time I heard girls giving guys nicknames means they like you.” Key mentioned nonchalantly.

Minho froze as he stared at Key with wide eyes, and then he felt the air get out of his lungs as he began a coughing fit.

“Yah calm down Minho, it was just a joke! No need to choke on your water.” Key then started to laugh as he realized one thing in particular. “Man, I see it now!”

Once Minho finished coughing, his eyes were watery and his face burned a crimson hue. “What do you see?”

“The frog thing!” Key happily exclaimed.

“What! I have water you know, and I can pour this down your shirt.” Minho threatened.

Key laughed at Minho’s threat, sending him a crooked smile, “Fine by me, I mean I feel pretty hot for this December weather.”

“You!”

“We’re almost at class, see you there!” Key quickly strode away from Minho, submerging himself with the other crowd of students.

As Minho took his time to enter the class, he couldn’t help but wonder, “She likes me?” Minho hit himself on the face a couple of times thinking, “No, what’s gotten into me lately? She’s not worthy to think about.”
____________________

“Krystal!” Sulli called behind. She could feel the fatigue of the previous night slowly eat her up, after studying for hours upon hours.

“What took you so long, I was waiting for you!” Krystal impatiently urged.

Sulli knit her eyebrows together as she grumbled, “Guess who I was walking behind.”

“I’m assuming since you’re face is burning with anger that it’s none other than Minho,” Krystal teased.

“De, and he was talking about me behind my back!” She crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes at the thought of him. “No one has ever dared to do that, and then to make matters worse he called me a brat straight to my face.”

“Sulli,” Krystal chuckled, “if I were a bystander I would’ve thought you two are like an old married couple arguing.”

Sulli pressed her lips into a thin white line as she went speechless. “Old married couple? Yah, Krystal do you want to be killed?”

Krystal burst into laughter, allowing the corners of her eyes to crinkle. “Sulli, you should see your face right now, it’s quite priceless.”

“Krystal!” Sulli stomped her foot, “Are you trying to turn into the frog eyed creature!”

“Ani,” Krystal pulled off an innocent look while waving goodbye.

Sulli stood astonished by Krystal’s attitude, unable to move her feet into the classroom until she felt someone tap her shoulder.

“Excuse me,” he politely regarded Sulli with a bright smile and flushed cheeks.

“Oh, right, I’m blocking the doorway.” Sulli moved aside allowing the unknown person to enter the classroom. As she followed from behind, she tilted her head, wondering how she didn’t know his name. She watched attentively to where he sat, and weirdly enough, he sat one row behind her. Something about him was different than everyone else, it was as if he gave her his attention all the while not looking at her. It was a weird sensation that shivered down her spine, something foreign to her.

“Class,” teacher Eun interrupted her thoughts with the beginning of class, “today we will work in partners to begin a new assignment that will last for the entire second semester. I have names in this hat right here, and I will pick them randomly for your partner.”

Krystal and Sulli automatically glanced at one another, hoping that they would end up together. Unfortunately, Krystal’s name was called along with someone else’s.

“Choi Sulli and Lee Taemin,” teacher Eun hollered.

Sulli furrowed her eyebrows, wondering who Taemin was. Turning her head around, she looked to see that everyone had a partner, except for him––the one that gave her chills. She watched as he cautiously approached her with fear written all over his eyes.

“H-h-hi Sulli, I’m your partner.”

Sulli slightly nodded her head in recognition of Taemin, realizing that he must be pretty shy, or extremely scared of her presence. “Hi, you must be Lee Taemin then.”

“De.” Taemin stood in a sagging position, noticing that Sulli did not previously know him. “It looks like we’ll be working together for some time, then.”

This Taemin person didn’t seem too bad, and unlike Minho, seemed to really respect her. Sulli nodded with a small smile creeping to her lips. “So, I was thinking since we have to create something that impacts the world, that we could create a business, preferably in fashion since that’s what I’m thinking of going into.” She waited for a retaliation, from the constant ‘no’s’ of Minho, but instead, she received a nod.

“Sure, we can do what you want,” Taemin obediently agreed.

Sulli raised an eyebrow at Taemin’s submissiveness. “Oh, then I guess we can tell the teacher our topic then.” She stood up from her seat, walking up to the teacher with natural confidence, something she didn’t know that caused her to have an admirer. When she came back, she beamed at the teacher’s approval of their topic, skipping back to her seat. “Teacher Eun agreed!”

Taemin grinned at Sulli while raising his hand to make a thumbs up. When Sulli turned her head, their eye contact locked. Sulli didn’t know if she was hallucinating, but she thought she saw loss and maybe affection in his eyes, almost as if he was yearning for something that he knew was out of his reach. She quickly ripped the gaze, feeling that weird sensation crawling up her back again.

“This business will be a partnership owned by us, and we’ll be co-owners of it.” Sulli declared as she took out a pencil and paper. Looking at the pencil reminded her of the incident at the library with Minho, so she quickly switched to a pen. “I’ll write down our ideas on this piece of paper and we can build off of this as we go.”

Taemin nodded, watching from the sidelines. “I have a name in mind, is it okay if I say it?”

“Sure!” Sulli sent him a sincere smile, while having no idea how much that smile meant to Taemin.

“Can we call it Taelli’s?” He hesitantly proposed.

Sulli slowly nodded, wondering where such a name came from. As if reading her mind, Taemin pointed out, “The Tae is from my name, Taemin, and the lli is from your’s, Sulli. I just combined our names.”

“Oh, that’s beautiful. The name also has a nice ring to my ears,” Sulli mused.

Taemin’s face was glowing with happiness. Never once had he thought someone like Sulli would pay attention to him, nor come close to accepting an idea that he thought of. “Thank you,” Taemin imparted with a slight bow.

“Of course, no need to thank,” Sulli giggled. “Why am I giggling, this is not me.”

From across the room, Sulli made eye contact with Krystal, and what passed through their eyes was equatable to an entire conversation. Krystal sensed Sulli’s loosened attitude towards Taemin, and couldn’t help but wonder if her friend was finally having her first crush, this time, with no intent of a joke. Sulli broke the eye contact first, returning her attention back to Taemin. “Hey, can I ask you something that’s not related to this project?”

Taemin’s heart raced, imagining what she would say.

“Are you a tutorer?”

“Huh?” Taemin’s heart dropped as he heard those words. He thought she was going to ask him something else, but realized how delirious he was to think so. “Ah, d-de, I am a tutorer. Why do you ask?”

Sulli shrugged casually, explaining, “I just think you’d be better at tutoring me than my current one.”

Taemin nodded with a faltered expression, receiving it as a compliment. “Who’s your current tutorer?”

“I don’t know if you know him, but be thankful if you don’t.” Sulli subconsciously lowered her voice as she revealed, “It’s Choi Minho.”

“Oh, hyung!” Taemin happily beamed.

“You know him?” Sulli wanted to verify.

“Of course. Hyung is the best and has always been my role model, I mean he’s the smartest junior in the university!” Taemin proudly declared as if he were the parent complimenting his child.

Sulli stammered at Taemin’s words, “H-h-he’s your role model?”

“De, and close friend. What do you not like about him?” Taemin innocently questioned.

Noticing Taemin’s protectiveness over Minho, Sulli croaked, “Just, something happened at a store between us....”

“Okay,” Taemin elongated his reply, still curious to what happened while noting in his mind to ask Minho. “Anyways, class is about to end so we should probably pack up.” Their notebooks and folders still lied open on the table when the bell rang a moment later. “See you around Sulli,” Taemin waved after replacing everything back in his backpack.

“De.” Sulli nodded in return. From a distance, she saw a nearing figure out of the corner of her eye.

“How’s your part