Eun Hae’s POV

“I’m sorry,” I said. It was all I could offer. “But I can assure you that he asked me only today, like just now in the morning. I didn’t say anything. I didn’t say no and I didn’t say yes. He told me to think about it. He told me that just now when he hugged me before he walked away. You were there. You saw it.”

She gave me a hard look. “You know that he will be expecting an answer from you. And what are you going to tell him?” she demanded to know.

“No,” I replied. “I’m going to tell him ‘no’.”

“Do you like him?” she asked. “Tell me honestly.”

I looked down and began fiddling with the hem of my shirt. “I do have a bit of a crush on him,” I replied. “But I don’t like him so much. Not as much as . . .”

“Lu Han?” she guessed. When I nodded, she frowned. “You have a lot of guys falling for you. Yongguk, Kai Oppa, Zico, and now even this Lu Han guy —”

“B – Bwoh?” I spluttered. “Lu Han? He doesn’t like me.”

She gave me a ‘get-real’ look. “Oh, please,” she scoffed. “Why else would he so openly pretend to be your boyfriend? Why else would he like to tease you yet care for you? It’s obvious that he’s got a thing for you.”

I blushed a deep shade of red. “Anni,” I muttered. I looked at her. “Daeseul, I’m really sorry. I don’t mean to hurt you. I swear, if I could —”

Daeseul covered my mouth. “Eun Hae,” she said seriously. Then she hugged me. “I’m angry and upset over the fact that Kai Oppa likes you — but I’m not mad at you. In fact, I’m really glad you were honest with me and told me about it instead of waiting for me to find out.” She gave me a small smile. “This shows that I can actually trust you not to backstab me.”

I nodded. “You’re my best friend, Daeseul.”

“Although I am mad you didn’t tell me you were living with a cute guy.” She nudged me and I could tell that she was trying to forget about the pain she was feeling in having to hear that the guy she likes liked her best friend. And I’m so relieved she doesn’t hate me.

I gave a nervous chuckle. “What would you think if I did tell you?” I asked her.

“That you’re pregnant. I am just kidding, do not hit me please!” She ran a few meters ahead and I chased after her. She stopped as we reached school and I was panting heavily behind her. She turned to me and grinned. “By the way, was Zico good?”

I punched her. “You know we didn’t do anything.”

“Let’s just say that Lu Han didn’t come,” she said as we straightened our uniforms and our hair, “would you have given your v-card away?”

I thought about it. “I probably would have,” I admitted. “I was pretty drunk last night. Heck, I can’t even remember half the things that happened.” I looked at her. “You didn’t get drunk. What happened?”

“I only saw Lu Han coming in and taking you away, claiming that he was your boyfriend.”

“Oh.” I blushed. “Well . . . Zico was a good kisser.” I frowned. “You know, I’m confused about something.”

“What’s that?” she asked absentmindedly. She bent over to tie her loose shoelace.

“I got drunk and I vomited quite a lot last night,” I said and she made a face. “So how come I didn’t get a hangover this morning when I woke up?”

She nodded. “I was actually wondering the same,” she replied. “I was so sure that you wouldn’t be coming to school and was about to text you to feel better when I bumped into you and Kai Oppa.” She gave me a sideways glance. “You look fine.”

I shook my head. “That’s what confuses me.”

“Maybe you’re not affected by it! Maybe you’re like Bella from Twilight!” she gasped very dramatically and I rolled my eyes. “You know, cos she’s unaffected by some powers!”

“Very funny,” I grumbled and poked her side. “By the way, if you ever tell Changjo of my little episode last night, I’m dead. He’s going to kill me and give me noogies for the rest of my life.” I winced at the thought of my poor head being noogied by Changjo. I looked at the bulentin board, where the date of the dance was clearly printed on a flyer. I gestured toward it.  “Were you going to ask him to the dance?”

She sighed. “No use for that now,” she muttered. “He’ll want to go with you.”

I felt really bad. I took her by the shoulders and she looked up — or rather down — to me. “Hey, I’m going with Changjo, like I always do every year,” I reassured her. “If you want, you can ask Kai Oppa.”

“I don’t want to be his second choice.”

She’s got a point. But I don’t think that she’s his second choice. In fact, I think I am his second choice. For whatever reasons he decided to ask me first is totally beyond me because I believe that he really likes her.

“Why don’t you ask Lu Han to the dance with you?” Daeseul asked me slyly. “I mean, you like him. He likes you.”

“For the last time, he does not like me,” I said firmly. I looked at my watch. “I should go. It’s time for class.”

“Eun Hae, wait for awhile,” she said as I started to head over for my class. “Look, Kai Oppa is probably going to want an answer after school.”

I nodded. “I know. And that is why I already told you that I am going to say no to him.”

“Wait. I want you to say yes.”

I stared at her in disbelief. “Are. You. Mad?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Look, I don’t want to see Kai Oppa upset and all. I want him to be happy. Please, as my best friend, you have to help me fulfil this dream — to always see Kai Oppa happy — even if it means watching the both of you together,” she pleaded. “I know that it’s asking too much, but please. For me?”

I shook my head. “No way,” I replied. “I’m not going to play with a guy’s feeling like that. Especially not with Kai Oppa! No way. Flat out, no.”

“But what if you end up falling for him?”

“Don’t you think I would have done so a long time ago? Like if I really did like him, Lu Han would never have been in the way, even if he tries to?”

Her shoulder slumped. “So you’re going to say no to him?” she asked me. I could tell that she was upset but I couldn’t do this.

If I say yes, she will be upset and hurt because even though she was the one who told me to accept him, it’s going to be hard watching him with me. I don’t want to play around with his feelings back. He deserved to have someone who loves him for real.  Someone like her.

I nodded. “Anyway, bye!” I skipped to class before she could call me back.

Some people in my class smirked and some smiled at me the moment I walked through the door. I didn’t care. I was glad to be back into this familiar room, sitting at the back of the room. Ah, this is life.

Then Yongguk walked inside the room just as the bell went off. Everyone quickly got into their seats and he turned to us. “Teacher Yong is unwell so he has left me in charge of this class,” he spoke up. “I hope that I can be as good as a teacher as Teacher Yong is to all of you students here.”

Can my day get any worse?

Yongguk looked at me. “Ah, Jung Eun Hae, it’s nice to see that you’re finally back after two long weeks of suspension,” he spoke up, making heads turned toward my direction. I looked down, glowering at him, trying to bore holes through his body. “I hope you know that there are a lot of things we had learned for the past two weeks which means you have a lot of catching up to —”

The moment he said ‘I hope’ I had already gotten out all my homework from the previous two weeks and smiled, walking up to him and I handed him the papers. “All done,” I told him. “I hope I did it correctly.”

He gaped at me, wondering how I had managed to do that. “But — how — you — suspended — two weeks!” He shook his head incredulously. He flipped through my work and was even more amazed when he saw that I really had completed the homework for the past two weeks I was out of school.

It’s my little secret.

Everyone in class had gone silent as I turned back to my seat and sat down, looking smugly at him. He didn’t look happy but he had no choice to start teaching the lesson. I just smiled.

Justice finally paid off the hard work I’ve been slaying.

Kai’s POV

I was thinking about a lot of things while I was at the apartment I was renting. I didn’t have work today so I thought I’d just laze around. I thought about what I asked Eun Hae and about the kiss. Then my mind wandered over to Daeseul. I wonder, how will Eun Hae tell her?

Will she even tell her?

I didn’t want to ask Eun Hae to be my girlfriend but if I don’t do anything, Suho hyung was going to kill me. I don’t want to die. I’m too young to die. I’m sorry, Daeseul ah. I didn’t mean to hurt you if I had a choice. If I hadn’t just yet, I’m really sorry if I hurt you in the future.

“You’re really messed up, you know that?”

I jumped and turned. I found D.O standing in front of me. He sat down next to me on the couch. “I thought I’d just drop by to see how you’re doing.”

I raised an eyebrow. In the Game, they would sometimes do this. They would allow a member to come down and offer advice, no more than that. When they do that, it usually meant the invisible cameras had ran out of battery and needed to be recharged. Now that D.O was here, I’m guessing that was it.

D.O looked at me. “The battery is really dead so it looks like I’ll be around for awhile.”

I sighed. “Why, of all people, must it be you?” I grumbled.

He glared at me as he settled down on my chair and smiled comfortably. “You should be grateful that it’s not Sehun or Chanyeol,” he replied.

I shrugged and sighed, sitting at the opposite of him. “I would rather it be Baekhyun hyung,” I replied. “At least I know he’s the sanest among all of you.”

“And you’re very mean.”

I looked at him and sighed as he fell asleep on my couch. I have a feeling that with him here, it’s going to be really hectic.

Not only do I have to entertain him (especially since he gets bored very fast), I’m going to have to make sure no one meets this weird Dim-witted Object.

No One’s POV

Kris sighed when he noticed that the camera following Lu Han was starting to blank out. It was time to recharge it, which means someone from Exo-M has to go down to see how Lu Han is doing. He looked around. s were all there watching the Game as well. He studied each other of them, wondering who he should send.

“Sir? The camera is ready to come back,” Minion894 said. It turned to Suho. “Kyungsoo is already down there.”

Suho nodded. “All right.”

“Gege?” Tao asked Kris. “Which one of us will be going down?”

Kris nodded and decided on who he wanted to follow Lu Han in Earth. “None of you,” he replied. “Because I will be going.”

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Sorry, the title of the chapter is really lame. :/