❝Chapter Thirty-Two

"He's not, I swear." Jae Hee gave the guy a light shove, annoyed by his persistence.

"But you wish he was, don't you?" he snickered, earning a light punch in the face. "Ow." He rubbed his cheek, frowning at her.

"You're annoying me," she spat at him, sticking her tongue out, before walking away.

"You know what?"

She stopped walking and turned to him, his aggressive tone making her curious, and seeing the redness in his eyes she couldn't help but guiltily flinch.

"I don't know why you're still mad at me," he whispered, staring deeply into her eyes, and his expression was so blank she couldn't read it at all. "It wasn't my fault she died."

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 "That is so lame."

They all looked at Baekhyun who had his face scrunched up.

"I think it's a great plan." Suho crinkled his nose a bit, slightly offended.

"Um, no." Baekhyun's face pretty much just had "acho, please" written all over it.

"It's romantic!" the grandpa argued, frowning at the eyeliner addict sitting across from him.

"It's cheesy," the rest of EXO-K corrected him, making faces at him.

"What do you think, Hyung?" Sehun looked at Taemin, nudging the older one's arm.

"Huh?" Taemin shook a bit, startled, and blinked at the EXO-K member.

"Are you okay, Hyung?" Sehun gave him a weird look. "You seem a little out of it."

"I'm fine," he smiled a bit, hesitantly glancing at Kai.

The rest of SHINee had all gone back to Seoul to attend their classes, and EXO-K and Taemin were all on spring break. They were all seated comfortably in the living room of Jae Hee's parents' house, scheming up plans to earn Kai a perfect opportunity to confess to Jae Hee.

Kai was just thinking of telling her the old-fashioned way by just... telling her. But nope, EXO-K decided to blow things out of proportions by coming up with all these disgustingly romantic ideas for how he should confess. And of course, since Taemin didn't have any classes, they had suggested he help come up with ideas, too, not even knowing how he also had feelings for that same girl.

"OH, I KNOWWWW!" Baekhyun suddenly squealed, throwing his bag of chips into the air.

"Yah!" Suho gasped and immediately started cleaning up the huge mess while Chanyeol just started eating them.

Baekhyun ignored the nagging grandpa before him and started babbling on, "You should take her to the beach and watch the sunset with her and-"

"That's lame." Kai rolled his eyes, making the older one gasp in an offended matter.

"Well, what are you going to do then??" Taemin asked, raising a brow, not bothering to hide the eagerness in his voice.

Kai shot his brother a quick glare before he turned away to face his friends. "Just give me a few minutes alone with her." He shrugged, thinking he didn't need to go to such extremes just to confess. For crying out loud, he was just confessing to her, not proposing to her or something.

"Yeah, but don't you want to romantic?"

"How'd you confess to her last time?" D.O asked curiously, wiping the chocolate-covered mouth of the maknae.

"Thanks, Umma..." Sehun grumbled lowly as he unwrapped another chocolate bar, earning a smack on the head from a flustered D.O.

"What do you mean?" Kai gave the mother of the group a weird look, earning confused glances from the rest of the guys.

D.O's eyes widened adorably like it always did whenever he was curious. "What do you mean what do I mean?"

The younger one shrugged and opened a bag of little candies. "I've never confessed to her before."

"You haven't?" Taemin furrowed his brows and tilted his head as he reached for a candy from the bag. "But you guys were dating, and even ended up engaged."

Kai blinked a few times before he realized that he was "engaged" to her just a while ago. "Oh, right," he cleared his throat, straightening up his posture. "I-I..." He seemed a bit flustered, making the others a bit worried. "Just let me handle it, okay?" He waved the subject away and grabbed a bottle of soda to open, and just as he opened it, the door creaked open.

"I'm back..." A gloomy Jae Hee entered the house, kicking her shoes off.

"Welcome back!" Kai grinned and shot a look to the rest of the guys.

"Well, we have to go!" Baekhyun hopped up to his feet, accidentally stumbling a bit, but not falling thanks to Chanyeol.

"Where?" Her eyebrows pinched together a bit as she walked over to the guys, and then glaring at them when she noticed the giant mess of snacks on the table.

"Um." Suho awkwardly gathered the pile of ripped candy wrappers, empty bags of chips, and random trash. "We just feel like exploring Busan," he explained casually, carrying the trash into the kitchen, as D.O followed behind him, picking up the falling pieces.

"Oh." She grabbed a lollipop and unwrapped it. "Should I show you guys around?" she asked quietly, half-heartedly.

"Nope!" Baekhyun yelled, already running out the door, and before she knew it, the five members of EXO-K were already gone.

Confused, she looked at Taemin who was biting his lip and staring at the ground. He looked up at her and was about to say something, but Baekhyun suddenly ran back in and dragged him out of the house, making Jae Hee even more confused.

"Why are they in such a rush?" she wondered and then looked at Kai.

Feeling awkward, he continually avoided her gaze. *.* He couldn't force the three simple words of confession out of his mouth, realizing how much harder it was than he originally thought.

She shifted her feet around, humming to herself as she looked around. She furrowed her brows at him, wondering if he was going to talk to her or something. *Is he mad at me?* She scoffed a bit and rolled her eyes, "I'm going to go check up on Jiyoung."

"Wait, but I like you." And then he facepalmed himself. *Aish. Yah, Kim Jongin! Couldn't you have been a little more romantic?* He cursed at himself, hitting himself on the head again.

She spun around, staring at him with wide eyes, and he couldn't help but find her adorable as the lollipop hung in . "You what?"

"I..." He bit his lip a bit, "...like... you," he said it slowly, giving her worried looks between each pause. "Actually," he smiled nervously, but hopefully, "I love you."