“I know you are but what am I?” Jonghyun huffed.

“Still pathetic.”

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

This time, he was sure that he was insane. Crazy. But that didn’t stop him from actually having a good time with the girl in front of him.

He smiled at Jieun. She was sitting on the seat in front of his and had her body turned to face Jonghyun as she rested her head on her hands which were placed on his table. There was something about her that seemed familiar. “I can’t seem to get this out of my head,” He said. “But I feel like we’ve met before.”

“Really? Where?” She asked.

He simply shook his head and shrugged. “Somewhere...”

“Okay…moving on,” She chuckled. “How’s the love life?”

Jonghyun eyed her. She seemed to be very interested in his relationship that it scared him quite a bit. “Why do you always ask this?”

“Do I?” She asked. “Just wondering. Jinhee has told me that she’s kind of scared of you.”

“What? She did?”

Jieun nodded and sighed. “Maybe she’s not that into you.”

It has been a week since they’ve become ‘friends’ as Jieun would call it. She had been spending quite some time with Jonghyun in class and as much as Jinhee would like to deny it, both girls have spent some time together as well.

Jonghyun raised an eyebrow at her. “Why would you say that?”

She shrugged. “Not wanting to take a sort of big step in your relationship and all, maybe it just means she doesn’t trust you enough?”

“You’re one to talk about that,” Jonghyun scoffed. “Haven’t you been telling her that I’m cheating on her? If anything, I should be blaming you.”

Jieun’s lips parted almost as if she was shocked. “Me? I haven’t been telling her anything!”

Unexpected clapping was heard from behind her and their attention shifted over to Key standing by the door having overheard their conversation. “Come join me in drama class. You’d make a great actress.” He said putting emphasis on the word great.

“I don’t appreciate sarcasm,” She sneered.

Their eyes bore into each other’s as Key took a seat next to her and diagonally from Jonghyun. “Oh I wasn’t being sarcastic,” Key said. “You really can act. Just like how you’re acting innocent right now.”

“Keep your comments to yourself,” She huffed. “And that thing on your head is so last season.” She said, referring to Key’s Burberry beanie which he had on.

His jaw dropped and so did Jonghyun’s as he witnessed someone dissing Key’s fashion so blatantly. “So is your hairstyle little girl. Orange? Yuck.” He scoffed. “And for your information, this Burberry beanie is from the latest summer collection. Do some research before making a fool out of yourself.”

“Okay that’s enough now,” Jonghyun chuckled awkwardly while trying to calm them both down.

“Whatever.” Jieun muttered and grabbed her bag as she got up. “See you Jonghyun.”

Key smirked in satisfaction as he watched her exit the room obviously annoyed by him. When he turned, Jonghyun was staring rather intently at him. “What?” He asked.

“Why are you so mean to her?”

“She can’t be trusted.” Key said bluntly. “So you gotta stop this whole friendship thing.”

Jonghyun shook his head and heaved out a sigh. “Again with this. Look, even Jinhee’s been hanging with her. So everything’s cool okay?”

“Jinhee? No she hasn’t.” Key raised an eyebrow. “What makes you think that?”

“Jieun said so,”

“She lied,” Key scoffed. “Can’t believe you bought it. If you don’t believe me, ask Jinhee.”

__________

“Could we just…rewind time and wake up in Hawaii again?” Luna sighed while taking a sip of her lemonade with images of Hawaii and their vacation flashing through her mind.

The eight of them were having dinner together at one of the neighbourhood barbeque restaurant. It has been almost two weeks since they returned from Hawaii and they found themselves still attached to the place and wanting to be back there. Of course, who would want to be stuck with vocal trainings or dance practice or even soccer instead of being on vacation in Hawaii

“I miss Minhyun. And my cousin.” Aeri muttered.

“Yeah I miss your cousin too,” Jonghyun sighed. Jinhee flicked his ear causing him to jerk his head away but smiled and wrapped his arm around her after.

“I got a text from Hana this morning,” Aeri said. “Says they’re doing great there.”

“I’m so jealous,” Onew sighed.

“Why is everyone always sad?” Taemin asked. Everyone’s eyes darted to him happily eating his chocolate cake. He stiffened when he realised they were staring. “What? I just meant that we should all be happy since it’s summer and all.”

“Easy for you to say,” Onew muttered. “You have Luna. And you have Jinhee,” He said directing his attention to Jonghyun.

“Can just let that stop you from having fun right?” Minho said while he took a sip of his drink. “Where’s the cheerful Onew I remember? You can’t do this to yourself.”

“Yes I can.” He mumbled.

“Why don’t we all do something together then?” Luna suggested. Everyone else looked at each other as they thought about it. How else would their summer be spent if not with each other?

“Free practice starts next week doesn’t it?” Key said. “So we won’t have to come back to school anymore.”

“And we can spend time together. Having fun!” Jinhee said, shaking Onew’s arm which was resting on the table. Onew pondered over it, slowly starting to agree with their plan.

“Quick! Someone make a list of what we can do before grandpa Onew decides against it!” Key cried making everyone laugh except Onew who mimicked his sentence.

“Movies marathon!”

“Sleepovers!”

“Those are all girl stuff,” Jonghyun said, scrunching up his face. “Don’t tell me you guys are going to drag us to get manicures.”

“Well…” Aeri shrugged.

“Gross.” Minho huffed.

“Okay whatever,” Onew said. “I don’t care if we’re getting manicures or pedicures but everyone has to be there and no lovey dovey moments between couples!”

__________

“Poor Onew,” Jinhee said. “He misses Minhyun too much.”

Jonghyun nodded as they kept walking hand-in-hand towards Jinhee’s house. “Knew I should’ve gotten them together back in Hawaii.” He sighed.

“Nah that wouldn’t be fun!” Jinhee swung their hands back and forth. “The best part of the relationship is the chase right?” She giggled.

“You think so?” He smiled.

“Yeah,” She smiled back shyly and looked to the ground. “The flirting and stuff. It’s cute.”

They passed by a playground where a few kids were running around at and Jinhee gasped when she noticed the swing set was empty. She quickly darted her way there pulling Jonghyun along. She made Jonghyun sit on one of the swings while she sat sideways on his lap.

He started to move them back and forth using his legs while his hands wrapped around her and his head rested on hers. “Jinhee,” He said softly. She hummed against his chest in response.

“What did you say to Jieun about me?” He asked.

Slowly, she lifted her head to face him. “Jieun? Nothing. I haven’t told her anything. Why?”

“Really?” He raised an eyebrow. “She told me you guys have been hanging out.”

Jinhee scoffed and leaned against him again. “More like she’s been hanging around me.” She said. “She’s always around and then starts up a conversation with me. I don’t want to be rude so I just small talk…”

“I see.” He said. “Did you um, happen to small talk about our love life?”

“No, why?”

“She kind of told me that you mentioned you were scared of me or something,” He said cautiously, not wanting to sound like he was accusing her of actually saying such things. Of course he hoped that she didn’t.

“What?!” Her eyebrows scrunched together. “I did not say tha—oh..” Her voice trailed off with a hint of guilt in it.

“Oh?” Jonghyun repeated.

“Maybe I did say that,” She said softly. “But I didn’t mean it literally…She tricked me into saying it!”

“Calm down angry pants,” Jonghyun chuckled and pushed some stray hair behind her ear. “Tell me everything. Why am I scary?”

“Not sure if I should,” She stuck her tongue out. “This is girl stuff! It’s confidential.”

“Please?” He began to pout and kissed her cheeks playfully until she gave in.

“It’s not that you’re scary, just…” She sighed. “Whenever you get all excited and start doing things, well I’m not as experienced as you are and I get scared. But you’re not scary, I’m just scared. Does that make sense?”

“No.” He laughed, sending goosebumps down her arm just listening to his voice.

“You get what I mean,” She punched him playfully. His smile reached his eyes and he eyed her playfully.

“In short, you find me ually intimidating.” He snorted. He had never actually thought of himself as a frightening person and found it amusing how Jinhee did. She played with the collar of his shirt and pouted. “You know I would never force you into anything.”

“I know,” She nodded. “I trust you won’t.”

“Are you sure you trust me?” He side-eyed her and reminded her of their movie date night where she decided to go through his phone and text messages.

“I was just making sure.” She stated confidently. “Don’t you trust that I trust you?”

“Not if you don’t trust yourself to trust me.”

“But I do trust myself to trust you,” She said slowly. “It’s you who doesn’t trust me to...trust myself…to trust you.”

“Wait what?” He asked with a confused look.

She laughed and kissed him lovingly while her hands went around his neck. “I trust you.”

__________

“It’s that Jieun I don’t trust.” Jinhee sneered. Luna shivered just at the mention of her name. She herself couldn’t believe how close they were a few months back.

“She’s cunning I tell you,” Luna said. “She tricked me into becoming her friend!”

“Oh please you just thought she was cool at that time,” Key scoffed at Luna and stopped her before she could say anything else. “Anyway, I told her off the other day and she got angry. So there’s definitely something she’s hiding.”

“Any idea what it is?” Jinhee asked as she slowly took a bite of her apple. Their voices were soft, not wanting the conversation to be heard by the other few students in the unfilled canteen.  

“Not right now,” He shook his head and pouted his lips like he always does. “I don’t have a clue really.”

“Maybe I could get her to spill something about it?” Luna said. They both looked at her sceptically. Luna wasn’t one to lie and there’s a reason why she’s a vocalist and not an actress. “What?”

“You’ll totally ruin it.” Key stated bluntly, bursting her bubble. Luna rested her head on her palm in defeat. “I think she wants something from Jonghyun…” Key continued, trailing off into his thoughts.

“Or, she’s having an affair with him.” Luna muttered quietly. Jinhee glared at her and pretended she didn’t hear that.

“Yeah well today is Tuesday, and by the end of this week we won’t have to be in school…” She smiled excitedly. “And that means Jieun won’t have to meet with Jonghyun anymore.”

“Don’t get your hopes up about that.” Luna sighed. “For all you know, they could be meeting up out of school.” She giggled to herself until she realised neither Key nor Jinhee were laughing. “I was kidding.”

“That wasn’t funny Luna,” Jinhee said seriously.

“Geez sorry!” Luna cried and hugged her arm. “I was just kidding.”

“Don’t worry I bet Jonghyun’s avoiding her right now.” Key said.

__________

On the other side of the campus where it was even more isolated, Jonghyun gulped down some water before admiring his handsome reflection in the gym mirror.

He declined the gym bench as far as it could go, to about forty-five degrees and took his place on it. He secured his feet on the tabs in front and lay flat on the bench. He lifted his upper body all the way up and then back down again slowly, doing crunches.

While doing them in sets, he thought about what Jieun had said. Once again her words had managed to influence someone’s thoughts. What if Jinhee really doesn’t want to take their relationship to the next step because she doesn’t trust him enough? He thought.

“Maybe she doesn’t realise that she doesn’t trust me…” He unconsciously said aloud as his crunches got slower and slower and he eventually stopped, just lying on the bench. Suddenly snapping back to reality, he chuckled and shook it off. “I’m just thinking too much.”

Just as he was about to continue his sets, he heard a small shriek and faint whimpers. As far as he knew there was only one other guy in the gym and that surely didn’t sound like a guy. He went to the far end where the treadmills were and found a girl, seated on the floor clutching her ankle.

“Are you okay?” He asked carefully. The colour of her hair gave off her identity. “Jieun?”

She turned and Jonghyun noticed the pain in her eyes.

“I was clumsy and fell off the treadmill while it was still running,” She said quietly. “My ankle…it hurts.”

“You must’ve twisted it when you fell.” He went over to her side and examined her foot. “Uh…it doesn’t look swollen or anything.” He raised an eyebrow.

“Ah!” She cried. “Don’t touch it, it hurts.”

“Damn, sorry…” He said. He lifted her and sat her down against the wall and elevated her injured foot, placing it on his lap. He then tied a towel around the area. “That should help for now.”

“Thanks.” She sighed resting her back against the wall.

They sat there in silence. He hadn’t anything to say to her, and she wasn’t making any effort in initiating a conversation either. It seemed like he had stared at each equipment there until his eyes unintentionally drifted over to Jieun.

She was wearing only a sports bra with really tight and short black shorts. He gulped looking at how much it rode up with just her leg lifted slightly, placed on his lap. He almost felt ashamed to have her leg on him.

What if Jinhee walked in? What if someone sees them? He thought.

“You’re sweating,” She said.

“Well yeah I was working out,” Jonghyun chuckled. “That’s kind of what happens when someone exercises, Jieun.”

“But you’re not exercising right now,” She scooted closer and wiped the sides of his face with her towel. Their faces were only inches apart. “Are you nervous?”

“No,” He gulped, careful of the distance between them. “W-What is there to be nervous about?”

She stared deeply into his eyes. Her target was locked.

She took him by surprise when she abruptly closed the distance between them and kissed him.

__________

“Minho!” Aeri tapped his shoulder causing the younger boy to jump. She chuckled. “What are you doing?”

“Shh.” He placed his finger to his lips and ignored her.

Aeri frowned and watched as he continued to peek out the corner to the other side of the L-shaped gym. She slowly got annoyed by his attitude. “Yah!” She cried.

Minho panicked and quickly turned to grab her, pushing her against the wall as her stood in front of her and covered with his hand. “Quiet!” He hissed before subtly peeking out from the wall. His hand moved from Aeri’s mouth to her shoulders.

Aeri would have complained if not for the tingling feeling she felt inside when he pushed her against the wall and they stood body to body. He stared at his sturdy chest and mentally sighed.

“You’re not enjoying this are you?” Minho suddenly asked, breaking her out of her thoughts.

“No,” She scoffed. “What are you looking at? Let me see!”

“No!” He hissed. “Stay.”

He covered again knowing she’d answer back and chuckled softly before peeking out once again to observe Jonghyun and Jieun from far. As soon as he did, his eyes grew wide and his lips parted.

Aeri sensed something was wrong and gently pulled him back, afraid to even look at whatever he was looking at. “What’s wrong?” She whispered.

“Jonghyun,” He sighed.

“Huh?” She scrunched her brows together. “What’s with Jonghyun?”

Minho rested one arm on the wall and ran his free hand through his hair, sighing out of frustration. Aeri watched from underneath him as he did and sighed herself. “You look hot when you do that…” She muttered.

He opened one eye and looked at her, a smile forming on his face. “What?”

“Crap did I say that out loud?” She closed her eyes and hit the back of her head against the wall. She sighed when she heard Minho chuckle. “Whatever Minho. Now are you going to tell me what’s going on back there or not?”

“Yeah but, let’s go somewhere safe.” Minho said dragging her away by the hand. “Jonghyun might know that we know what he did if we stay here.”

“Know what? What did he do?”

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hi! Hope you liked this chapter, the interesting parts are coming soon lol. Anyway thanks for all the comments and such I love you guys :DD (yeah I saved it after editting thrice and it came out as 3 'different' chapters lol surry fixed it.)

And Jonghyun just got surgery done, hope he gets discharged soon. Poor guy had to spend his birthday in the hospital ):