“Hey, stranger.”

Sooyoung looked up from the book she was reading, arching an eyebrow. “What? What’s with the nickname?”

“Stranger is my new nickname for you.” Jonghyun replied as he plopped on the bench beside her, peeking at the book in her hands. “You got The Casual Vacancy already? Awesome.”

“Hey!” She easily ignored his obviously intentional change of topic. “Why are you calling me ‘stranger’?”

“Because you’ve really been such a stranger lately.” The dark haired man pouted, folding his arms over his chest for effect. “You’re always busy and doing so many things and you don’t hang out with me anymore.”

“You are such a big baby, you know that?” Reaching a hand to pinch his cheek playfully, an idea popped into her mind. “Well, cry baby, do you want to play Resident Evil 6 with me after class?”

His eyes widened as if he had won the lottery. “No way! You have it already? How?”

“I’ve got my ways.” She replied vaguely, laughing when he pouted again. “Stop doing that! It looks bad on you!”

Jonghyun dropped the pout, raising his eyebrows in a challenging manner as she burst out in laughter. “You’re going to regret that.”

“Uh…” Her laughter quickly died down at the sly look on his face. “I was kidding, Jong.”

He snorted. “Seriously?”

“Well, not really.” Sooyoung stuck her tongue out at him before she dashed off the bench, running as fast as she could.

“If there is one thing you can’t do to save your life, Choi Sooyoung, it’s to run.” Jonghyun chuckled under his breath, counting silently until ten before he chased after her.

Pearling laughter escaped Sooyoung lips as she ran as fast her legs would allow, trying to avoid getting caught. Jonghyun slowed down, trying to give her a little advantage before he continued in his usual speed, easily closing in on her. Their school’s garden was relatively large and there were so many directions that she could head to whenever she wanted. But then again, running was never her forte.

“Gotcha.” Jonghyun snickered as he wrapped an arm around her waist, lifting her off the ground and swinging her around.

“Lee Jonghyun!” Sooyoung screamed in between her laughter and pants for breath. “Put me down!”

He shook his head as he laughed along with her. “How about… No.”

“Jong, we’ll be late for class!”

“Then I’ll carry you to the classroom!”

“What? No!”

Standing by one of the entrances to the school’s main building, Kris clenched his fists. He didn’t like it – specifically he didn’t like what he was seeing and how he was feeling about it. Kris gritted his teeth, not quite understanding this new feeling that was coursing through him. He had never felt like that before and he couldn’t quite wrap his mind around it.

“What are you doing there, standing like a pissed off bull?” Xiumin followed his friend’s line of sight and saw what he was looking out. “Kris…”

“What?” He snapped his attention away from the two to look at him and Luhan.

“Are you…” Luhan prayed to the heavens that he would not get hi