Just Getting Used to It

Guts


A week passedby quickly since Hyerin’s get–together with the boys and everyone was beginning to get occupied with their own activities. Aside from their training four times within the week, they haven’t received new missions and were not as busy as they usually were, with the exception of Chen and Luhan who have been researching day and night about their current targets.

Since they had more free time than usual, the young agents focused more on schoolwork and other activities. The athletes of the pack caught up with practices  with the exception of Kyungsoo who was still under Lucy's spell. Lay, Sehun, and sometimes Kai would meet up frequently to rehearse their dance routines. Chen helped the vice-president, Lee Jinki, to keep the school in order, while Suho busied himself with the dance that was coming up. Tao spent time alone to practice his wushu while the seniors—Kris, Xiumin, Lay and Luhan—used whatever time they had for exam prep, club activities, and volunteer work to put on their university applications.

Hyerin started to hit the books herself when she realized she was lagging behind her classes because of M-LX. She hasn't seen her father lately either, but if she did have the chance to talk to him, she wanted to at least give him happy news, like his daughter actually making an effort in her academics.

After most of the complicated projects and papers Hyerin had to do was finished, she sought out Tao to help her destress.

“Okay, now close your eyes. Stay like that for a good ten seconds,” Tao instructed.

Hyerin did what she was told, folding her legs underneath her and running her fingers through the grass on the ground. She knew what the others meant when they said she was easy to lose her temper. She knew it was her weakness. So what was better to do than learn to meditate with Tao?

“Now,” Tao started, breaking the silence, “breathe in, hold it for three seconds, then slowly breathe out.”

Hyerin did as he instructed.

“Good. Now relax,” he drawled. “Don’t think about anything. Free your mind. Just let go.”

Hyerin bit the inside of her cheek, trying to clear her mind.

About thirty seconds passed, and she couldn’t do what Tao instructed her to do. Free your mind? Just let go? Impossible. How can you not think at all? Isn’t willing yourself to not think also a form of thinking? So what was he talking about? How can you clear your mind of any kind of thought? Think of complete darkness or think of a blank sheet of paper? What does ‘nothing’ look like anyway? How do you think of ‘nothing’?

As she was troubled with these thoughts, the boy flicked her in the forehead.

“Ow!” she cried, rubbing the sore spot. “What was that for!?”

“You’re not freeing your mind,” Tao deadpanned, glaring at her with folded arms.

“How do you even ‘free your mind’? How can that even work out? You can’t possibly just sit here and completely not think about anything. That’s impossible!” 

“That’s because you’re not letting loose.” Tao rolled his eyes. “You’re troubling yourself too much on how you can free your mind when in the first place you shouldn’t even be thinking at all.”

“How is that even possible? Even willing yourself to think of nothing is still thinking! Argh, this is so stupid,” Hyerin huffed. “I hate this! I hate meditating!”

“You haven’t even lasted for five minutes.”

“I guess that’s because I don’t have a sense of peace in the first place,” she sighed. “This is ridiculous.”

“Well, it really isn’t for you then. You’re just not the type to stay still for a second.” Tao shrugged, leaning back on his elbows.

Hyerin shook her head in disappointment. “This .”

“Nah, you’re fine. Don't worry about it. It's not for everyone.” He grinned, lifting his hand up for a high-five. “At least you tried.”

She gave him the high-five and rolled her eyes good-naturedly.

Just then, her phone began to beep. She fished out the mobile from her skirt pocket and saw that it was Sehun.

From: OhMiJa

ur wit tao ryt? go 2 the ballroom were doing sumthing and we need ur help

da others r here 2 :P

hurry chanyeol huyng and diyo hyungg r being annoying!!!1!

c u <3333 :)

Sent Dec 21, 2012, 1:35 PM

Hyerin raised a brow at the text before turning back to Tao. “They’re asking us to go to the ballroom.”

Tao shrugged. “We better go or else they won’t stop bugging us.” He stood up before helping Hyerin to her feet as well.

“This better be good for them to interrupt our little session,” Tao added, winking at the girl before making their way to the ballroom.

---

Hyerin!” the boys greeted in chorus.

Hyerin glared pointedly at the boys.

“What? I don’t get a warm welcome, too?” Tao asked.

“Nah, screw you.” Chanyeol stuck his tongue out before running to the girl. “Hyerin! Ugh, I missed you so much! This has been such a hell week! We didn’t even get to spend time with each other!” he said, crushing her into a hug.

She pried him off her before asking, “So what is this about? Why is everyone here?”

She scanned the big fancy ballroom and looked at what the boys were doing. Kris and Kai were standing on stools as they hung up banners, while Baekhyun and Luhan were seated on the floor, drawing on large cardboards. Xiumin, Kyungsoo, and Sehun were cutting out strips of fabric for the artists to draw on while Suho concentrated on his clipboard, sharing his ideas for the program with Chen and Lay. Seeing that Chanyeol ran up to her so easily, she assumed that he was doing nothing, probably annoying the others as they set up the place.

Suho looked up to flash her a smile before turning back to writing on his clipboard. “We’re preparing the venue for the ball, Hyerin.”

“Ball? What ball?” Hyerin asked, picking up a piece of confetti that Sehun was cutting out. "Oh, right. Suho's ball."

“Always oblivious to everything around her. Classic Hyerin,” Kai teased as he turned away from what he was doing to grin at the girl.

Hyerin flipped him off.

He chuckled before going back to hanging up banners.

"It's not being oblivious. It's voluntary disengagement. I choose to be ignorant of anything that happens in this place."

But Hyerinnie,” Kyungsoo cooed, sneakily wrapping his arms around Hyerin’s waist from behind. “You need to go! Kyungsooie needs a date for the ball!”

“Hell no! Who’re you calling a date? And hands off, lover boy,” Chanyeol scowled, storming over to them and pulling the boy away. Kyungsoo pouted as Chanyeol dragged him away from Hyerin.

“Are you coming to the ball?” Luhan asked.

She shrugged, randomly opening a box full of Christmas ornaments. “Probably not.”

“Always, always, always the party pooper!” Sehun frowned, crossing his arms. “Don’t you want to spend time with us!?”

Hyerin raised a brow. “Don’t we spend enough time together already?”

“But this is the formal dance!” Xiumin whined.

“So? It’s just a fancy little party with awkward teens in pretty little dresses and bowties! What’s so special about that?” she snorted, completely oblivious to Suho who was good-naturedly chuckling at her comments.

“Oh, just let the queen of boring be. She doesn’t know what she’s missing,” Kris mumbled, giving Hyerin a pointed look.

“I swear if you keep this up you’re going to live forever alone with a load of cats in your apartment,” Baekhyun added, sticking his tongue out.

“That won’t happen if I’m here, though! Right, Hyerin?” Chanyeol wiggled his eyebrows at her.

Hyerin ignored him and sighed. “I really don’t care at this point. I just don’t want to go, okay?”

“Psh! Suit yourself,” Sehun harrumphed, bumping into Hyerin’s shoulder purposely as he was grabbing the glue gun from the table.

She laughed at his childishness. “What the hell? What are you, five?

“Guys, let her do what she wants. It’s her choice if she wants to go or not. And as for you, Hyerin,” Suho winked at her playfully, “make yourself useful and help us out.”

---

The rest of the day was spent setting up the ballroom with only the thirteen of them and a few student council members helping out. They were excused from their classes since they were the ones that Suho picked out to help, giving them more time to spend together.

Although Hyerin disliked anything that had to do with art and decorating stuff, she figured it was better than sitting in class. Plus, the boys were there with her to keep her company.

Hyerin walked out of the bathroom after washing her fithly hands. Although claiming it was an accident, she knew Sehun purposely toppled over the bottle of Elmer’s all over her hands to show how upset he was that she wasn’t going to the winter formal. She merely laughed at his childishness and figured that buying him lunch the next day would make up for it anyway.

Hyerin was absentmindedly dusting off her blazer when she heard a familiar voice just around the corner.

“I told you I don’t want to, okay?”

Curious as to who it was, Hyerin quickly hid behind the lockers just next to the women’s bathroom and peeked out. It was Kai standing with his back to her, a hand placed on his hips and the other holding his phone against his ear.

He let out an exasperated sigh. “Look, this isn’t the right time to talk about this–”

Hyerin’s brows knitted together as she watched him lean against the lockers and tiredly rub his eye.

“Okay, I’m sorry, alright? I’m sorry that I’m not what you expecte–what? What did you just-” He bristled, straightening up as he shifted from one foot to another. “What the he–why would you even say that? Okay, let me tell you this,” he started heatedly, “you are not in control of me and don’t even try. I’m not going to let you tell me what to do so stop it. I don’t want you in my business. Hell, I don’t want you in my life!

He paused briefly, combing his fingers through his hair before sighing. “Look I just...never mind. Goodbye, dad.” With that, he hung up, shoved his phone in his back pocket, and walked back inside the ballroom.

Hyerin’s gaze dropped down to the floor in shock. She had never seen Kai that mad before, and even more surprising that it was his dad that anger was directed to. Kai was always playful and mischievous, but never angry.

Hyerinnie!

Hyerin jumped and turned to see Kyungsoo standing behind her with a grin on his face. She put a hand to her heart, leaned back against the wall and glared at him.

“What the hell, D.O.!?”

“Who was Hyerinnie spying on? Is Hyerinnie hiding?” Kyungsoo asked, staring at her with his round curious eyes.

“No. I wasn’t. And geez, D.O., can you not sneak up on people like that? It’s getting really annoying.” She folded her arms. “What do you want anyway?”

He placed his hands behind him and shrugged, swaying from side to side. “Nothing! I just wanted to see if Hyerinnie was okay because she took so long to get back!”

“I wasn’t gone that long, you know.” She rolled her eyes. “And stop talking in third person! It’s annoying!”

D.O. pouted adorably as he looked down at his shoes, rocking back and forth. “Why does everything I do make Hyerinnie mad?”

“I’m not mad. Just irritated. There’s a difference,” she corrected.

“But I don’t want Hyerinnie to think that about me! Hyerinnie’s always irritated! I want Hyerinnie to feel happy when she’s with me,” he mumbled, looking up at her through his eyelashes. “Just like how I feel when I’m with Hyerinnie,” he whispered.

She met his eyes and softened at his words. This new kind of Kyungsoo was nice and less irritating than the real Kyungsoo, but sometimes, there were instances when she just wanted the latter to be back. The only reason why he’s saying all these sweet things to her was because the ‘love’ potion made him do so, and all she wanted was to not be affected by it.

But she was getting used to the boy being this way and it was a huge problem. She may be annoyed today, but when the time comes that they had to bring him back to normal, she might actually find herself missing this Kyungsoo.

Hyerin sighed, dismissing the thought, and smiled at the boy. “I’m sorry, Kyungsoo. I’ll try not to be too hard on you next time,” she said, offering her hand. “Let’s go?”

Kyungsoo happily took her hand in his and dragged her back inside the ballroom, a big endearing smile on his face.

---

“What about this?” Hyerin asked, taking a medium-sized canvas from the wall and turning to look at Baekhyun. “What is this one about?”

After setting up the venue for the ball next week, the gang quickly cleaned up and decided to go back to their home at Gangnam with Hyerin tagging along. They were going to have a movie night, but Baekhyun had to get his paintings that were left at his old apartment, so the others went along their way home while Hyerin decided to help the boy pack up his stuff.

Baekhyun looked up from stacking his canvases inside a bag. He squinted a little and adjusted his glasses to take a good look at the painting. It was a picture of a stage in a dimly lit bar with the spotlight hovered over a mic stand in the middle.

“Oh, that,” he mumbled before going back to what he was doing. “That was the first stage I’ve ever performed in. I couldn’t take the image of it out of my head, so I painted it.” He shrugged, taking another bag to put the canvases in.

Hyerin looked at the bottom right corner of the painting and saw the date roughly written. 04/18/2009. He’s been doing this for a long time now.

 She placed it down on the floor beside Baekhyun and picked another one. “What about this?” she asked, holding up a picture of a little boy and a little girl playing in the snow.

"You're in a questioning mood lat-" Baekhyun looked up, and his expression contorted into an unreadable one.

“Oh it’s just,” he paused, shrugged, and then continued, "it’s just me and Yoona when we were kids. We were childhood friends so…”

“Oh.” She scratched her temple before gawkily putting it down on the floor.

Sensing her discomfort, Baekhyun chuckled. “You have a hard time dealing with awkward situations, huh?”

“Am I that obvious?” Hyerin asked, cringing as she gave him an uncomfortable smile.

“Yup.”

She sighed. “It’s just that I don’t know how to handle stuff like, you know,” she made circling motions with her hands as she tried to come up with the right word, “stuff like this. I don’t think I’m that much of an introvert, but my communication skills make me think otherwise.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I’m not the greatest talker in the world either,” he said, taking down the last canvas on his wall. “What is it with my ex-girlfriend that makes you so uncomfortable anyway?”

“Nothing!” she exclaimed defensively. “It just so happens that topics like love and all that crap make me...I don't know. I don't know! I just don't get it," she groaned, collapsing on his bed. “Maybe if you enlighten me with yours then I can understand a little?”

The bespectacled teen snorted. “Please. You’re just saying that ‘cause you want to pry into my love life.”

“Well,” she rolled her eyes, “that may be one reason, but hey!” She held up her hands in defense. “Aren’t we all ‘family’ now? I mean, I do need to know more stuff about you.” She grinned, folding her legs underneath her.

“How about no.” Baekhyun deadpanned, zipping all the bags closed.

“Oh, stop being a whiny little .”

He gave her a warning look. “You really need to stop with that language. You swear more than a sailor! Are you really a girl?”

“I am a girl!”

“Then start acting like one!”

“Uh, I am?”

“No, you’re not.”

“And who are you to have a say on how girls should act? I think I’m pretty okay at being a girl,” she said. “I just don’t act…appropriately. I guess.”

“Then you better start acting like you are.”

“And if I don’t?”

Baekhyun whipped around to face her, expression playfully challenged. He stormed towards her and placed his hands on both sides of her. He leaned in, making the girl back away.

“Then I’m going to have to make you,” he whispered coyly, eyes glinting with mischievousness.

Her eyes grew and she swore her heart stopped for a second before she finally got to her senses and kicked Baekhyun away from the bed with her foot.

“You !” she exclaimed, watching Baekhyun collapse to the ground from laughing too hard. “Try pulling that again and I’ll break your limbs and shove your body parts into a meat grinder!”

“You should have seen your face!” he laughed, clutching his stomach.

“Yeah don’t stop laughing and I’ll ruin yours!” she hissed in embarrassment, getting up from the bed with a flustered face. She lifted two big duffel bags out the door. “Let’s go before I really couldn’t help myself and kill you anyway.”

Baekhyun was about to retort when his phone rang. He was still chuckling when he answered it, but his face quickly turned serious as he listened.

Curious as to who it was, Hyerin walked up to the painter. “Who is it?” she mouthed.

Baekhyun nodded, before bidding the caller farewell. He shoved his phone into his pocket before saying, “It was Kris. They said to go straight to M-LX and not go to the penthouse anymore.”

“Is something the matter?” she asked worriedly.

“Yeah,” he nodded, taking one bag from her before ushering her out the room, “they finally figured out how to bring Kyungsoo back to normal.”

---

A/N: BELATED MERRY CHRISTMAS AND ADVANCED HAPPY NEW YEAR! WOOHOO! It's been a great Christmas for me, and you know what are one of the reasons? Over the days that I haven't updated, there's been a big increase of subscribers and really guys, I'm just ecstatic! I found out that one of the reasons why is because I got into the 'Most Popular Stories Today' section and oh my god guys! Just look omg

Like, you guys are the reason why this happened and I'm so so thankful! I love you all so much and to the new subscribers, thank you so much! I hope you stick with me till the end! <3

I LOVE YOU GUYS! /BIGHUGS I'm looking forward to your comments! Tell me what you guys think! You guys are really really sweet with your comments, and I love all the reactions to bits! You're all such darlings, really. <3 I'm trying to reply to every single comment! :D

 

 

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Comments

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idk----
#1
thank you for the story!
multifandomized #2
miss your works author-nim :((
shonwanigop
#3
💙🥰
Pxnellyxq #4
Chapter 50: but i want kai to be happy with her ?
Pxnellyxq #5
Chapter 36: Holy a screenshot of OG AFF
multifandomized #6
Chapter 71: I AM STILL WAITING FOR AN UPDATE,,, GOD KNOWS HOW LONG WE HAVE BEEN WAITING,,,,, i didnt know u also put your story here, since the last time i read this, it was on wpad,,,,, anyWAYS PLEASE COMEBACK ㅠㅠ
Thosemine01 #7
This is soo good
blackstardust
#8
Chapter 34: Hey, i have been following this story for so long as i can remember. And then i also remember trying to look for this story but was unable to find it. This week i just clicked the link to this story that i bookmarked years ago and i am so surprised that i found it again. I love love love this!!! Thank you for writing this!
DobuOnew
#9
Chapter 69: AHHHHH MY HEART!!!! I can't handle this .
DobuOnew
#10
Chapter 56: Ah man! The ending of this chapter! I really ... ugh. It always makes me cringe and feel shocked, powerless and desolated all at the same time. It's frustrating really, but it gives this story originality and life! I mean, damn never was I expecting this turn of events in the first place. And, every single time, I just feel so damn sorry for that little squishy!!!!