Instead, she felt a pair of arms around her torso and hot breath around her face.

“You can open your eyes now,” The voice said softly.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

My eyes were still shut tightly. Now I was more afraid of the guy who’s holding me in his arms rather than hitting the floor.

I know that voice. Of course I do.

Slowly, I opened one eye just to make sure I really hadn’t hit the ground. Then, I opened both eyes and slowly lifted my gaze to the boy in front of me. He was down on one knee and his hands were on my shoulders, preventing my upper body from falling.

For a moment, I stared into his brown eyes, the ones of which I’ve missed. Jonghyun.

His expression turned sour and a frown appeared when he noticed the tears in my eyes. There was already a stain on my cheeks from the teardrops before. “You’re crying,” He whispered.

I wanted so much to hug him and let wipe my tears away, but I knew better than that. Aeri would kill me if I did.

My gaze shifted to his hands which were holding on to my shoulders as I thought of how to get out of this awkward situation.

Wait—his hands were on my shoulders.

Then whose hands are around my waist?

Before I could even finish asking myself that question, I was pulled upright and onto my feet which were still trying to regain its balance. I tripped a few steps back but a strong arm around my waist supported me, allowing me to stand straight again.

“Minho,” I breathed as I looked up at him. “Hey,” He smiled and turned me slowly to face him. Taemin appeared beside me and tilted his head. “You okay? That would’ve been a nasty fall…” He commented, shaking his cute head.

Yeah, no kidding. The floor and my face shouldn’t meet under those circumstances. At all.

“I was walking a few steps away, and then I saw the guy running into you so I—“

“So he flew here and saved you,” Taemin grinned.

I smiled at the both of them, but more towards Minho of course since he saved me. “Thanks,” I said.

“No problem,” Minho smiled. “But Jonghyun hyung—“ His smile faded as he looked behind me. Following his gaze, I turned as well. But there was no Jonghyun there, only students walking in all directions, heading for their homeroom. 

But he was just there a minute ago. Hmm.

It was only then that I realise a few people were staring. Huh, of course they would stare; I was practically doing a stunt in the middle of a busy hallway.

“Where’d he go?” Taemin mumbled, scratching his head. I ignored the stares and turned back to the two.

Minho shrugged, “I was going to say that he saved you too,” He gave a lopsided smile and shrugged again. “Your head would’ve hit the ground if he hadn’t reached you on time.”

Well, he’s gone now. He didn’t even give me a chance to thank him. Maybe he didn’t want me to. Or he didn’t care at all.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Minho asked, observing my face. I had been staring into space. “Yeah,” I said. “I’m fine.”

The first bell rang, which meant we had five minutes before homeroom started.

“Oh,” Minho straigtened, “Gotta run to class. Literally. Bye.” He waved before running off down the hallways, heading for his class while Taemin and I walked to ours just a few classes down.

Taemin sighed into his seat and smiled at me. “What?” I asked, sinking down into mine and narrowing my eyes at him.

“Must be great,” He said to me. What must be great? Almost falling to the floor in front of everyone? I raised my eyebrows. “Must be great to have two guys interested in you at the same time.” He chuckled.

So that’s it. I rolled my eyes. It doesn’t feel so great right now.

“Yeah, it must be,” Taemin looked at me, confused. I blinked. “Too bad I only have on guy interested in me. Remind me to appreciate Minho more.” I removed my textbook from my bag and placed it on my table, flipping it to the page that we were on.

Jonghyun and I have barely, no, we haven’t talked at all ever since that day. He’s so happy with Aeri now. Kind of obvious that he’s chosen her over me, right?

Taemin stared at me the whole time. I ignored him for a while before I couldn’t take it anymore, it was getting annoying. Slowly, I turned my head to face him. “Yes?” I raised my eyebrows.

“You should’ve seen his face,” Taemin said. He was staring blankly at me. I tilted my head and furrowed my eyebrows, indicating to him that I didn’t understand. I really didn’t.

“You should’ve seen Jonghyun hyung’s face when you turned to Minho and forgot about him.” He pressed his lips together and turned his attention to his own book.

“Was he, okay?”

He glanced up from his textbook and gave me a slight smirk. “He was so jealous,”

Butterflies fluttered in my tummy. Jealous? He still likes me. I smiled to myself imagining the look on his face. It must’ve been cute. He always looks cute.

“Text him,” Taemin said. He grabbed my phone which I had placed next to my textbook and opened up a new text message for me. “Say thanks.”

I took the phone from him and started typing in my message. What should I write? I don’t want to seem too happy even though I’m practically jumping on the inside. Hmm…

Hey. Thanks.

Too short? “Is this okay?” I showed Taemin what I had typed.

He took a short look and nodded at me. “Short and not so obviously showing how very very happy you are,” He chuckled. I smacked him lightly and pressed send.

The second time I’m texting him ever since our ‘break’. I hope he replies. What will he say? I hope he says more than just a welcome or a no problem. I wonder if he’s received the text yet.

__________

AERI’S POV

As soon as the first bell rang we were already entering class. Both Jonghyun and I sat next to each other at the back of the class. We’ve been quiet for a while. He seems a bit down.

Probably from before. I saw everything.

Some messy dude ran into Jinhee and she lost her balance, heading for the floor, head first. Of course Jonghyun, being the prince charming that he is, decided to save his princess.

And he did. But he wasn’t the only one. Another guy, I think his name is Minho or something, helped too.

Basically, the girl has two prince charmings. How lucky…

I think Jonghyun’s hurt though. Emotionally, that is. When Minho picked her up and turned her to face him, they sort of talked for a while and I guess she forgot that Jonghyun was there?

He got up and started walking to class without another word and I followed behind. I knew she didn’t mean to forget about him, she was probably just dizzy and shocked from her almost fall.

I turned to the sulking Jonghyun on my right and punched his arm. He winced and grabbed his arm with his other hand. “What was that for?”

“For fun,” I shrugged. “You alright?”

He nodded and turned to face his table. I noticed he was pouting. Cute. Really cute. How I wish I could be the one coaxing him out of his sulky state. I've never actually seen this side of Jonghyun. He's always so manly and all, it's really rare to catch him being so cute.

But, I’m slowly accepting the fact that Jonghyun and Jinhee belong together. Look, just one harmless act by her, and he’s all pouty.

“She didn’t even say thanks,” He muttered, still pouting. I sighed and patted his head. “I’m sure she didn’t mean it. She’s probably thinking of you right now.”

“Right…” He mumbled, taking out his phone. His face took a 180 degree turn, a big grin forming and eyes wide. “You’re right!” He said.

I am? Ha. Of course I am. “Told you,” I said. “…So how am I right?”

“She just texted me!” He squealed and bounced up and down in his seat. He's just like a puppy.

“What did she say?” I peeked over to look. There were only two words.

“She doesn’t sound so happy…” His expression changed. “Maybe she’s still upset with me.”

Or she did that on purpose so that Jonghyun wouldn’t know how happy she really was. “Maybe she did that on purpose—“

“Hey guys!” A familiar voice said, cutting my sentence. We both turned to the front and saw Jieun and Luna taking their seats in front of us. Great.

“Hey Jonghyun. And Aeri.” Luna greeted, stressing on our names. Obviously not happy that I’m sitting with her best friend’s love interest. I don’t blame her. She doesn’t know anything. I’d be angry at me if I were her too.

She narrowed her eyes at us, going back and forth between him and me before turning around and settling in her seat.

“Hope you don’t mind us sitting here.” Jieun turned in her seat to face us. She was seated in front of Jonghyun while Luna was in front of me.

Jieun…she has a stage name, IU, but I prefer Jieun. Her hair was tied in a messy bun and her bangs were covering her eyebrows.

She rested her head on both her hands in front of Jonghyun, on his table. “Hi Jonghyun oppa~”

“Hey,” He replied, lips pressed together in a thin line. He’s obviously uninterested.

“Hmm, we haven’t spent time together in a long time,” She said. “Should we, sometime soon?”

Luna must’ve heard that since her head snapped in our direction at that time. “Of course you shouldn’t, IU. He’s taken.” She said through clenched teeth.

Awkward. It must be hard on her, thinking that Jonghyun left Jinhee for me and now her new friend his hitting on him. Wow.

“Eh..heh. Okay…” Jonghyun rubbed the back of his head and focused his attention back onto his phone.

Luna turned back around and rubbed her temples. I kind of pity her right now. She shouldn’t be hanging out with Jieun.

“Oh right,” Jieun chuckled. “He is, isn’t he?” She locked eyes with me and smirked, before turning back around.

I shivered. That was more than just a normal smirk.

__________

NORMAL POV

The school was buzzing with students once again, most of them rushing to the cafeteria for lunch, making sure they got seats.

Jinhee and Taemin waited out in class till the commotion had died down before exiting class and heading for lunch themselves. Grinning from ear to ear, Jinhee skipped all the way to their normal seats next to the school fountain. Taemin walked a few feet behind her, shaking his head at his childish friend.

“So what did the text say?” He asked. From where he was, a few steps behind her, he could see the smile planted on her face. The skipping stopped and Jinhee turned to him.

Don’t worry about it. I’ll always be there to catch you when you fall ;)

That’s what it said, what made her feel like she was on top of the world. A hint of blush appeared on her cheeks as she read it to Taemin.

“Ew!” He scrunched his face. “Hyung is so cheesy.”

Jinhee shrugged and continued her skipping, ignoring the looks she got from the few students in the hallway.

Sunlight spread through the hallway as Jinhee pushed the doors to the back of the school open.

“Ugh,” Taemin squinted his eyes. “It’s like freaking Narnia.”

Jinhee laughed. “That’s original.” She rolled her eyes. The sun was shining too brightly for her to open her eyes fully, so she squinted towards their table. There was a girl with shoulder length blonde hair there.

“Luna!” She yelled, running over to her best friend. “Hi!” Luna waved back and got up to give her a big hug.

“I feel like we haven’t met in so long!” Luna squeezed Jinhee’s cheeks and shook her face side to side.

Jinhee grunted and pulled out of her grip. “That’s cause you’ve been too busy with your new bff…” She pouted.

“Hi Taemin!” She waved to the boy walking towards them from behind. “Hey,” Taemin replied, rather unbothered.

He was still obviously upset about being ditched. It didn’t take much for Luna to realise; she knew he was bound to be unhappy about it.

“Listen,” She stood in front of him. He raised his eyebrows and waited for her to speak. “Sorry, about our failed movie date yesterday.” She bit her lip when his expression didn’t change and got only a simple nod as a response. “I’ll make it up to you!” She suddenly said, placing her hands on both sides of his arm.

“Really?” He asked, unconvinced.

She nodded her head enthusiastically. “How about this Saturday?”

“YES!” He replied almost too quickly, scaring Luna and making her lean back slightly. Jinhee’s giggles could be heard though she tried hard to suppress them.

“I mean uh,” Taemin rubbed the back of his head and smiled sheepishly. “Sure, this Saturday is fine.”

“Great!” She clapped her hands and turned to sit back in her seat.

Jinhee gave Taemin a smug look as he walked over, sitting down next to her. “Smooth move, Taemin.” She teased.

“Shut up.” He whispered a tinge of blush forming.

“Tell me,” Luna suddenly said. “How are you and Jonghyun?...” Her tone was weird and unreadable. It made Jinhee uneasy but she figured it was probably just her imagination.

“Getting better, surprisingly.” Jinhee said happily and taking a bite of her food.

Luna shook her head. “What do you mean, getting better?”

“Long story. He sort of saved me in the morning and I texted him to say thanks; he replied and it just seems better now,” Jinhee said, chewing on a small portion of food in . “Why?”

Luna’s expression changed and she bit her lip, almost hesitant to speak. It made Jinhee nervous, as if Luna knew something she didn’t about Jonghyun. “Luna, why?” Jinhee frowned. Taemin too felt the uneasy vibe Luna was giving off.

“When did you text him, this morning?” She asked. Jinhee nodded. “Yeah, first period…why?”

“You know, he was sitting with Aeri during first period,” Luna said, making Jinhee stiffen slightly. “We had combined vocal class this morning. And…he was with Aeri.”

“Oh…” Was all Jinhee could say. The happiness she had felt minutes ago had disappeared.

Taemin glared at Luna. “What?” She mouthed. He moved his eyes to Jinhee and then back at Luna, indicating what she had done. She winced and gave an apologetic smile.

“But you know,” Luna spoke up again. “Maybe they’re just seating buddies, right? Right?” She said, attempting to brighten the atmosphere, though it seemed almost impossible.

Jinhee shrugged. “Maybe. Or maybe something more…” Her words trailed off into a sigh. “It’s okay. I expected this. After all, he did arrive in school with Aeri this morning.”

“Jinhee—“ Taemin started, wanting to comfort her but was interrupted by a high-pitched, “Hi!” That voice was all too familiar to Luna. After all, she had spent most of her free time with Jieun recently; it’d be weird if she couldn’t recognise her voice.

“Do you guys mind?” Jieun asked, already taking a seat next to Luna. “Uh well..” Luna gulped. She wrecked her brain thinking of ways to let Jieun know how much of a bad timing it was to be joining them. “IU actually we—“

“Oh Jinhee, why do you look so sad?” She asked, placing a hand over as if she was shocked. “Must be Jonghyun, right?”

“You told her?” Jinhee glared at Luna.

“No!” Luna yelled, waving her hands in defence. “She already knew…”

“Yeah. I know everything.” Jieun said, with a tone that sent shivers down Taemin’s spine. “You should just forget about him. It’ll never work out.” She said insensitively, not even caring about the deathly glares from them.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jinhee asked, through clenched teeth. Her anger was boiling and her face was flustered. She couldn’t comprehend how insensitive Jieun was being and the more she smiled innocently, the more Jinhee felt like punching her in the face.

“Oh, don’t worry, it’s definitely not you,” She placed her hand over Jinhee’s as if to reassure her. “It’s him. Do you actually think he could commit to someone? No. He’s a douchebag and you’re better off without him.” Ending her statement with an innocent smile that made Jinhee furious.

“Don’t talk about him that way!” Jinhee yelled, slamming her hands on the table and pushing herself up from her seat. “You don’t have the right to.”

“Woah, chill,” She said. “I was just giving you advice. He’s not one to commit. It’s not like you don’t know that by now. He did leave you for Aeri.” Jieun shrugged.

“W-what? No, he didn’t. We’re just on a break.” Jinhee stuttered. Her face was burning and she felt weak.

Taemin and Luna could only watch. Neither of them moved a muscle nor made any sound. They had stopped eating as well, except for Jieun who didn’t even seem the least bit affected by this argument.

“That’s not what he told me,”

“What did he tell you?” Jinhee breathed, tears b in her eyes, threatening to wet her face.

“He said—“

“Enough.” Luna interrupted her and gripped her shoulder. “That’s enough. Just stop it.” Her eyes bore deep into Jieun and yet the girl still seemed unfazed by all this, as if she didn’t have any emotions.

“I was just giving some advice,” She replied.

“Well then that’s enough advising,” Luna’s tone was firm. She then turned to her best friend who was still standing. “Jinhee, sit back down and stay calm.”

“No,” Jinhee’s attention was still focused on Jieun. “Tell me, what did he tell you?”

“He said that you guys had broken up a long time ago. And that he’s with Aeri now. They’re together.” The words very smoothly flew out of , shocking the other three there; one of them, especially.

Her world was spinning and went dry as she gripped onto the edge of the table for support. Knowing something was wrong; Taemin stood up and placed his hands on both sides of Jinhee. “Maybe you should sit,” He said quietly.

She shook her head. “I’m not so hungry anymore…” She slipped away from Taemin’s hold and left, leaving her half-eaten lunch and her friends behind.

Taemin glared at Jieun, sending daggers at the superficially innocent girl before storming off himself.

“Nice going…” Luna muttered to Jieun, watching Taemin’s back as he left.

“What?” Jieun asked, lifting her palms. “What did I do?”

Luna sighed before getting up and running after her best friends. She pushed open the doors leading back inside but she didn’t go in just yet, not before turning around and glancing at Jieun who was now continuing with her lunch.

She shook her head and shrugged it off, running inside to catch up with Taemin.

“Hey,” Luna stopped next to him. “Where’d she go?”

“I don’t know Luna.” He said harshly, looking in every possible direction that Jinhee might’ve run to. “What happened back there?”

“I…I don’t- I don’t know,” Luna hung her head and tugged on the hem of her shirt. She was honestly confused about Jieun’s behaviour. Feeling somewhat guilty as well, she couldn’t bring her head up to face him.

Taemin stared at the girl in front of him. He knew it wasn’t her fault that Jinhee got hurt and he felt bad for being so harsh, but he also knew the only reason why Jieun decided it was okay to join them, was because of her. He sighed and shook his head as he walked away leaving Luna alone in the hallways.

JINHEE’S POV

I just wanted to get away from her. Whatever she said about Jonghyun and Aeri, I didn’t want to believe it; I couldn’t. How could I, when he had sent me such a sweet text just hours before?

Why would he send me something like that if he didn’t mean it? It’s not like he doesn’t know me well enough to know those kinds of words if said to me, means so much. Because he does know me. He knows me very well.

Taemin was following me, I know that because I heard the door swing open some seconds after I went in. So I ran up the stairs before he could see me. I’m too much of a burden for him, always having to deal with my problems.

I do feel bad, because I know he understands how I feel and it’s always him trying to make me feel better when he also has problems of his own and I barely do anything to help.

And Luna…I don’t blame her at all for what happened. It’s not her fault; she didn’t know that Jieun was going to be that way. Thinking back on what Taemin said to me earlier last weekend, I realised that maybe Luna did run to Jieun to substitute my place as a girl friend because I was with Jonghyun. 

I’m causing so much trouble for everyone.

I should just—OUCH

“Ah…” Great, I fell on my . I’d bumped into someone. Looking up, I saw that the person had a stack of thick books in her hold. She must not have seen me. Aish, why am I so clumsy, I didn’t even see her coming.

“I’m sorry!” She cried. “I’m so sorry! Are you okay?”

“Uh…yeah,” I replied. My was throbbing in pain. “Sorry about that, I should’ve looked where I was going.” I started to get on my feet again, rubbing my with one hand and supporting my weight with another. I heard a grunt and—

“Oh no!” The girl yelled as her stack of books leaned to one side and fell off, each making a loud thud as they slapped the floor right in front of me.

She sighed, kneeling down on the floor and picking up the books one by one. I looked at her from where I was standing and realised she had nice brown, wavy locks. Which I may have seen before…

“So sorry about that,” She suddenly said while still picking up the books. “I hope you’re alr—“ She lifted her head up to face me and the smile on her pretty face slowly faded as our eyes locked and she realised who I was.

I was stunned too for a moment, blinking a few times to make sure it really was her. Aeri looked down again for a while before meeting my gaze again and opening to speak.

“Jinhee,” She said softly. “Hi.”

I gulped. My throat felt dry and I pondered if I should reply her or not. Had I really went that far, all the way to the vocals department? Guess I hadn’t noticed with all those thoughts running through my head. And here I am, standing in front of the girl who apparently, is in a relationship with Jonghyun; the whole reason why I ran off….

She was still looking at me, waiting for a reply. Deciding not to be rude, I gave her a small smile and said, “Hi,” There was no reason to be rude since she is being nice to me.

I could see she was kind of shocked as she raised her eyebrows and blinked a couple of times. There was an aura of awkwardness surrounding us. Of course there would be considering the situation –both Jonghyun and books all over the floor situation.

After a while she turned back to the books in her hand and started reaching out for the others. I knelt on the floor as well, giving her a hand. She stared at me in surprise, accepting each book I passed to her till there were none left.

“Thanks,” Her voice was soft and she was biting her bottom lip as if hiding something.

I nodded and smiled at her. “No problem.” She returned the smile and then faced the books in front of her. We were both still on the floor and it was getting really uncomfortable. Both of us were silent.

“Yo!” A voice called out from a few metres behind me and both Aeri and I snapped our attention to the source. It was Key. I’ve never been so happy to see him. He’d break us out of this awkward situation.

As he got closer, his expression changed, realising who we were. His feet stopped right beside me. One of his eyebrows was raised and he looked back and forth between Aeri and I. “What’re you guys doing?”

I turned to Aeri for a moment and then back to Key. “Nothing,” I replied calmly. That wasn’t a lie. We were literally not doing anything.

“Nothing, right…” He said sarcastically and nodded his head with a fake smile across his face. I wanted to laugh because he looked kind of funny.

“Jinhee was just helping me,” Aeri spoke. “I dropped my books earlier. Jinhee saw the whole thing so she came over and gave me a hand.” I watched her the whole time she was talking. She is really beautiful.

“Yeah,” I said, smiling at Aeri. Her eyes drifted to me and she smiled back. She’s different; very different compared to when we met for the first time at that party. Almost like a whole other person. A nicer person.

I turned back to Key who now had a bored expression on his face. Probably couldn’t be bothered abou us anymore. “Whatever,” He muttered.

My thighs were hurting now they were going to give in any second. So I pushed myself off the floor and smoothed out my skirt.

“I’ll just get going now,” I pressed my lips together and waved to both of them before turning around and retracing my steps back to the main building, which was closer to our dance department.

“Wait!” Aeri’s voice echoed as she called out to me. When I turned, she was already jogging past the stack of books and Key, heading towards me. “I have s-something to tell you,” She stuttered.

“About?”

“About Jonghyun and our whole situation?” She said, wincing a bit.

I guess she’s going to tell me about them being together now and that I was officially dumped. But I already knew that. And I don’t feel like going through it again.

“Oh,” I tried to smile, but failed miserably. “I already know everything.”

“What?” Confusion took over her face and her eyebrows were wrinkled together. “You already know? How? Did Jonghyun tell you?”

“No,” I heaved a big sigh and smiled. “Someone else told me.”

“Someone else?” She looked away as if she was in deep thought.

“I’ll see you around.” I said and turned back into the direction I was heading. It was my only chance to leave. I already knew, so there was no point in her explaining it to me again.

“Wait,” She called out again. I looked over my shoulder. “Who told you?”

“Jieun.” 

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Being the fickle minded me, I couldn't decide between Jonghyun or Minho so there, both of them. Lol sorry if that didn't make sense but...kay. Anyway, HAPPY THINGS START NEXT CHAPTER.

School's started though ):