BGM: Byul - I Think I

"Mimi, can you do me a favor?"

Instead of a flirty greeting or a cheesy remark, Luhan started the phone call with a simple request. His voice, you also noticed, sounded serious and impatient, with no hint of humor whatsoever. Something was up, you figured, but you decided not to ask him about it yet.

"As long as it isn't illegal or demoralizing, then sure. What is it?" you responded.

You heard Luhan take a deep breath. "Can you-," he paused briefly, as if he was carefully stringing words inside his head before he says them out loud. "Can you please prepare a cup of chocolate bubble tea for Sehun in advance?"

"What?" you asked.

"Chocolate bubble tea. For Sehun. We'll be dismissed from today's practice in a few minutes and I would really appreciate it if there's a cup of chocolate bubble tea waiting for him when he arrives there," Luhan repeated, in the calmest voice he could manage.

Slowly sitting down on one of the black stools on your side of the counter, you switched phone ears so you could properly listen to Luhan. "Why? Did something wrong happen?"

"Just... just..." he hesitated, "-just do it for me, please?"

Even if you were perfectly aware that he couldn't see you right now, you still nodded, assuring Luhan that you're willing to do the favor even though you don't necessarily understand what it is for. "Okay. Is that all?"

"Yeah." Luhan was about to bid you goodbye and hang up the phone when he remembered one more thing to say to you. "And oh, Mimi-"

"Hmm?" you murmured.

Luhan didn't answer right away. Although you couldn't see him right now, you could almost picture him rapidly blinking as he mustered the courage to say whatever it is he wanted to tell you. He then took a deep breath, and in a very soft voice, almost like a whisper, he said, "Please wait for me."

"Pardon?"

"Please wait for me," he repeated, his voice much louder and sweeter this time. "It's Wednesday today and I still have Korean lessons with Jiaheng, Yixing, and Zitao after this. Don't leave with Jongin yet and wait for me. Okay?"

Taken aback by the straightforwardness in Luhan's words, you tried evading his latest request by mumbling an almost incoherent "And why should I do that?" instead. His answer, however, only left you speechless:

"Because I have yet to see you today."

Although she appeared to be totally engrossed with the tiger pattern she was embroidering on that long strip of black silk that would be used as a hogeon for the drama club's next production, Jihye was intently listening to every single word that came out of your mouth as you talked on the phone with Luhan, carefully observing the facial expressions that go with them.

"So, who was it?" Jihye asked as soon as you hung up.

Without looking at your best friend, you carefully hid your handyphone in your pocket and quickly uttered "Luhan" before heading back to your work station. Ever since Luhan's unexpected visit to your house last week, Jihye has been pestering you about the baby-faced Chinese boy, insisting that you still haven't told her a full account of what really happened because she was quite convinced that there was something you've been hesitating to share with her and just like always, Jihye was right.

"Is everything okay?" she questioned.

"Yeah. He just asked me to prepare bubble tea for 8g of fat beforehand," you replied, taking an unused plastic cup for grumpy Sehun's favorite drink.

Not letting go of the long strip of black silk that was sandwiched between two wooden embroidery hoops, your best friend took a seat on one of the stools near the counter and started sharing her theories behind Luhan's sudden request. "Sehun-ah probably had some trouble with the trainee evaluation today," she assumed.

"What trainee evaluation?" you asked.

"Didn't they tell you? They are having a trainee evaluation today," Jihye started, looking back on the pattern she was trying to embroider. "It's sort of like an exam where the trainees are judged based on how much they have improved on singing, dancing, acting, winking-"

"Winking?!?" you interrupted.

After considering the chances of a winking class being real for less than a minute, Jihye just shrugged and said, "Who knows what sort of classes they take in SM anyway? For all we know they have 'Winking 101 with Kim Kangin' lectures or 'How to do Aegyo with Lee Sunny' courses."

"That's ridiculous!" You made a quick trip to the tiny kitchen to get some milk and chocolate from the refrigerator while you waited for the black tea to brew. When you got back, you found Jihye's embroidery project sitting on the counter, temporarily abandoned as your best friend busies herself with another one of her lists.

"What is it this time?" you asked.

Without looking up from what she was jotting down on her snowflake-embellished notepad, Jihye answered, "I'm making up a list of the possible trainee classes that only SM Entertainment offers. Later on, I'm going to ask the boys if they really exist."

Taking a peek on what your best friend has written so far, you slightly browsed through her list of 'Unique Idol-Skill Enhancement Classes for SM Entertainment Trainees':

1. Winking 101 with Kim Kangin

2. How to do Aegyo with Lee Sunny

3. Bbuing Bbuing 101 with Jung Krystal

4. How to be an Evil Maknae with Shim Changmin

5. Eye Smile 101 with Hwang Tiffany

6. How to Spot the Camera with Kim "Key" Kibum

"Ji, I don't think they hold such classes in SM," you commented, gently patting your best friend's shoulder. "You're free to suggest them, though, if you want. I'm sure Lee Sooman is open-minded enough to listen to your ideas."

When she noticed you rummaging through the drawers on your side of the counter, Jihye asked, "What are you looking for?"

"A marker-," you answered, and almost immediately, you finally laid eyes on the black permanent marker hiding beneath Ahjummeonie's hoard of Happy Bubble notepads. "FOUND IT!"

"Why do you nee- OH!" When Jihye saw you writing on the unused plastic cup that is yet to be filled with tapioca pearls, she somewhat understood why you searched for the marker in the first place. "Isn't that a bit too sweet, though? Leaving a note on a boy's cup of bubble tea?"

You put the tiny cap back on the marker and placed it back on the drawer. "I only wrote in a simple 'Hwaiting' for encouragement and drew a little smiley face with crescent moon eyes that looked like him. It's not like I included a declaration of love on it or something," you defended, carefully scooping fresh tapioca pearls for Sehun's chocolate bubble tea.

"Did Luhan also ask you to add in an extra scoop of pearls?" Jihye teased.

Placing both hands on either side of your hips, you stared at your best friend disbelievingly. "Geez. Does every nice thing I do need to be interpreted with an underlying romantic intention?" you questioned. "I mean, can't it be purely out of thoughtfulness?" 

"It can," Jihye answered. "Unless it involves a boy."

"TWO CUPS OF HONEYDEW BUBBLE TEA WITH BLACK BRICKS, PLEASE!"

As soon as they stepped inside the Happy Bubble Tea Shop, Moonkyu immediately placed an order for him and his best friend, Jongin. Noticing how each one of them dragged themselves towards their seats hinted that the trainee evaluation did not go as well as they expected.

"Make that three, please!" Chanyeol added, settling on the pseudo-twins' favorite bubble tea flavor as he wasn't in the mood to come up with something different.

"Okay. Three cups of honey pie-"

"JAEMI~" Knowing perfectly that you said 'honey pie' instead of 'honeydew' on purpose, Jongin got up from his seat beside Moonkyu to settle on one of those black barstools near the counter. Then, he extended both of his arms and pinched your cheeks as if you were the most adorable thing he has ever seen in his life.

You tried to get Jongin to pull his hands away from your cheeks, insisting that you meant 'honeydew' and not 'honey pie', but since you were neither a good actress nor a convincing persuader, your subway chingu knew that you were only making fun of his 'honey pie' outburst while you were dubbing over the conversation of the NBT couple.

"Ah~ if you don't let go of me right now, I'll have a permanent cheek tint," you complained, only to feel Jongin's fingers squeezing your cheeks a bit tighter. As a form of revenge, you suddenly pinched his nose.

"Ya! If you don't let go of me right now, I'll definitely be Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer for Halloween," Jongin retorted, making you laugh out loud as the voice that came out of his mouth sounded funnier than usual.

The childish banter between you and Jongin was suddenly interrupted when Sehun, who was looking crabbier than most days, loudly cleared his throat to announce his presence. "One chocol-"

As soon as your cheeks were freed from Jongin's hands, you immediately placed the pre-made chocolate bubble tea for Sehun on the green-painted counter. With eyes almost as wide as Kyungsoo's, Sehun stared at you in wonder as he tried to figure out why you prepared a cup of chocolate bubble tea for him in advance.

"Just... just drink it, okay?" you insisted, slightly pushing the cup towards his direction. When you noticed Sehun reading the little 'Hwaiting' note you wrote on the cup, you immediately turned around not only to start collecting plastic cups for the other boys' bubble tea orders, but also to avoid an inevitable eye-contact after he sees the smiley face at the end of the note.

Usually, when Sehun receives his bubble tea, he would retreat back to one of the chairs in the corner-most table of the bubble tea shop, so he could quietly observe whatever ruckus his hyungs have in store for the day or listen to whichever topic you and Jihye are interested in at the moment. Today, however, he decided to sit down on the barstool beside Jongin and carefully watched you work, much like the very first day he saw you with a Happy Bubble apron on.

"So how was the trainee evaluation?" Jihye suddenly asked. 

Nobody answered Jihye's question right away. As soon as they heard what your best friend was asking about, the boys quickly exchanged looks only to avoid each other's gazes about a second later. Some of them even pretended they didn't hear her and just went on to check their mobile phones for non-existing missed calls and text messages - or, in the case of Chanyeol and Youngho, admired their reflections by switching the built-in cameras on.

The one who eventually answered Jihye's question was Minseok.

"Well, none of us really did well in all of the exercises," he admitted with a shrug. He slumped on the table, hugging his backpack, his gaze still fixated on your best friend. "I failed the rapping exercise. Joonmyun failed at dancing. Chanyeol failed both in singing and danc-"

"I think she already got the idea, Hyung," Chanyeol interrupted with a tight-lipped smile. "I don't think there's a need to delve into the details."

Kyungsoo walked towards the counter and settled on a seat beside Jongin. "Luhan hyung passed all of the exercises, though," he informed, catching your eye. He then looked at you teasingly and smiled brightly. "He seemed really inspired these past few days. I wonder who's responsible for it."

Not wanting to be teased again, you just retreated to the kitchen, using the quick trip to the refrigerators as an excuse to evade Kyungsoo's teasing. Your thoughts have been confusing you since last week and the last thing you need right now is for someone to constantly tease you about Luhan.

"You know who else did well today?" Before anyone else can reply, Moonkyu already provided th