“Hyesu” Jiho called out as a greeting, his hand was raised, waiting for me to hi-five him. I slapped his hand without a second thought.

“Hey Jiho. Hm, are you bringing a sleeping bag on the camping trip?” I asked out of curiosity. I wasn’t sure whether I should buy one or not because I didn’t know if my mom had one stored around the house in a hidden place.

“Yeah I am. Why don’t you have one?” He gave me a cheeky smile and his eyes twinkled, “That’s alright. I’d be more than happy to share with you.”

I gave him a disapproving look and rolled my eyes. “I think I’ll be fine. Besides, I would share with Min, not you”

Jiho made a blip of laughter and held his hand to his chest. “Ugh what is this pain in my chest? I’m insulted to be frank”

I scoffed as we continued walking to our class. “Good be insulted” I said heartlessly. It was fun having these little moments with Jiho. He truly made my day a whole lot brighter, as cheesy as that sounds.

“Hyesu” he whined, “Why are you so mean to me? A man has feelings too you know”

I laughed at him for a second before raising my eyebrow, “A man huh? I had no idea you had reached that stage.” Teasing Jiho was always fun.

His face tinged with a light shade of pink. “Yah. Why are you thinking dirty things?” He complained. I giggled louder at his remark. “I think you’ll find that you thought of it, not me”

Kris was near the end of the corridor. Our eyes met but I didn’t allow it to linger. I looked away from him, giving Jiho my undivided attention. If Kris wanted to be a stupid idiot with me then fine; I’ll just never talk to him again.

“I see you and Kris haven’t made up” Jiho stated aloud. I grumbled in annoyance, “Who cares about that overgrown buffoon of an idiot”

I was in a resentful mood because of Kris. Why couldn’t being with him be simple? Why did he insist on becoming friends? And why the hell did I agree to that?

Jiho and I went into the classroom and settled in our assigned seats. Jiho was in front and not a moment later, Kris sauntered into the room, placing himself on the chair beside me. I refused to look at him. We simply sat at our desk, staring straight ahead.

Kris cleared his throat and was about to speak, however the teacher came into the classroom with a girl in tow. The class had quietened down, although there were a couple of whisperings in the air, wondering if the girl was a new student.

It seemed so; her uniform looked so crisp and new. Everything about her screamed perfect and shiny, like a pretty doll in the toy shop.

“I’m sure you’ve all realised that we have a new student with us” the teacher announced. There was a whisper going around, saying that this class seemed to always harbour the new students. Well that was true, first Kris, then Jiho and now this new girl.

She gave a pretty white smile. That was the only to describe her: pretty. “Hi everyone, I’m Xi Mei Lien. But you can call me Mei!”

The teacher directed her to sit next to Jiho. I looked down at my book, letting the pen do all the work as I doodled in the margin of the paper.

“Jiaheng!” the girl announced loudly, in a thick Chinese accent, surprising me that I had to look up. Jiho’s body was slanted to look at Mei as well.

She was smiling brightly at Kris, who nervously smiled back, his eyes glancing at me. I curiously watched them interact.

“Aren’t you glad we’re in the same class? We get to spend more time together” She marvelled. Kris pursed his lips and nodded as well. “Mhm, lesson is starting Mei, maybe—”

“Hi I’m Mei” she waved at me. I looked back, still quite stunned. Jiho flicked my head, bringing me back to life. I whined in pain, frowning at the laughing boy in front of me.

“Ugh...I’m Hyesu” I greeted back, tearing my glare away from Jiho and smiled back at Mei. She was overly happy and held on the back rest of the chair in excitement. “Oh this is great. I have someone other than Jiaheng to talk to!”

I looked at her in a confused manner, “Jiaheng?”

“Oh sorry Kris...I’m sure he’s talked about me. I’m his girlfriend” she said in a cheery voice. She turned to smile at Kris at the mention of his name. I felt like scoffing. No, I felt like swinging a bat at Kris’s big, fat head. He had a girlfriend all this time.

Of course he did! Good things just don’t happen to me. He looked at him, a wash of guilt filling his eyes but mine were b with hurt and confusion. But the only thing I could think of was, why couldn’t it have been me?

Lunch time came. Kris hadn’t bothered to speak to me. Probably not with his girlfriend around. I can’t believe he would put me in this position; he was cheating on his girlfriend, with me.

We were all sitting together at a table. That included Chanyeol, Kris and Mei.

Min was fuming when she found out. She was ready to rip his head off when the three sat down but I stopped her before anyone could figure out what was going on. Jiho and Chanyeol were oblivious to everything going on, including the newcomer.

“So it’s really quiet...” Mei pointed out, really not liking the tense atmosphere. Nobody responded so I sighed and decided to strike up a conversation first.

“How did you and Kris meet?” I said in a normal voice. Kris looked at me in alarm, wondering why I would ask such a thing.

Mei’s eyes sparkled. “Oh it was amazing. Almost like love at first sight. Well, maybe I’m overly exaggerating a bit. We met at my mom’s fundraising party back in China and just hit it off”

I nodded in understanding as she continued to talk about their time together in China. “That’s really great.” I mumbled before stuffing my face with a forkful of chips. Let’s hope the chip fat gives me a stupid heart attack so I can somehow leave this table and conversation without seeming rude.