“Yah, Byunbi, get up!” Someone was shaking Baekhyun by the shoulders. He groggily opened his eyes to find himself looking at Jungsoo. He rubbed his eyes and sat up; he had slept on one of the couches, surrounded by a number of sleeping juniors littered all over the floor. Jungsoo held up a pair of red, angry-bird-patterned boxers in Baekhyun’s face. For a moment, Baekhyun stared at the underwear, confused, but then, as his brain began functioning again, he remembered, and grinned mischievously.

“Hey look, this kid wears tighty whiteys!”Chulyong announced to the whole room obnoxiously, standing over a junior kid snoring with his mouth wide open, holding up a pair of very white underwear for everyone to see.

Baekhyun picked out a pair of yellow boxers patterned with smiley faces from the bag of some chubby junior sleeping with a leg propped against the wall. All around the room, senior boys were digging out juniors’ underwear; they were planning on giving the outside of the girls’ house a morning makeover with some new, colorful décor. After some more digging, Baekhyun was satisfied with four pairs of the most colorful boxers he could find. He and the rest of the senior boys then made their way outside, armed with tape and laundry clips.

They hung underwear all over the railings of the porches, on the windows, and stringed them on the front and back doors of the girls’ house. The colors and patterns of the garments actually sort of worked, at least, according to Chulyong, and Baekhyun and the rest of the senior boys had to hold in their snickers for fear of waking someone up before they were ready.

Sure enough, about an hour later, the scream of the first unlucky girl to open the house’s front door was loud enough to wake everyone.

The morning was slow and sluggish. People were hung-over and needed time to recuperate. Sora, acting as the mom of the group, was passing around plastic cups of coffee and warm honey water to groaning boys.

Baekhyun racked his mind, trying to remember the last few events of the night before. Someone had helped him vomit up his drunkenness and get to sleep, but he couldn’t remember who it had been. Only the words the person had said to him at the back door, and a faint light about their unclear frame. Baekhyun ran a hand through his hair, a rather unwelcome idea passing through his head. All he could remember about the person from the night before was light, and there was only one person Baekhyun knew who always glowed whenever he laid eyes on them. Naeun. But the idea of Naeun rubbing his back while he vomited, and then leading him to the males’ house like he was some helpless child, did not appeal to him at all. He was supposed to be impressing her, not grossing her out.

Amidst all his thinking, he had held the water balloon in his hand under the faucet for too long, and the excess water sprouting from the top of the balloon sprayed him in the face. He quickly pulled the hand-sized balloon away and tied it, feeling the water swish inside the rubber. He, Jungsoo, Sungyeol, and a few other senior boys had already piled high two large pails of balloons, a third one filling up just as fast.  

“Baekhyun sunbae!” someone called from behind. He turned to see Naeun approaching, and absently dropped the slippery water balloon from his hand. It exploded right as it made contact with the ground, splashing all over Baekhyun’s sneakers.

What if it really had been Naeun last night? What was he going to say? Baekhyun’s heartbeat was quickening at a maddening rate. All too suddenly, the girl was standing a mere few feet away from him, holding out a cup of coffee, the steam rising slowly from between her two hands. “I thought you might need this,” she said, “Are you feeling better this morning?”

He gawked at her, and how she always managed to have a glow around her every time he saw her. He couldn’t help but get the feeling that it had been Naeun last night. He wanted to slap himself. If it really did turn out to be Naeun, then he really was going to smack himself, hard.

“Uhhh… I’m doing great! Nothing wrong this morning!” Baekhyun boomed out, “Thanks!”  He accepted the warm plastic cup from Naeun, immediately bringing the edge of the cup to his lips.

“Owww! Hot!!” he yelled, when the sizzling coffee scorched his mouth. Baekhyun’s whole expression wrinkled into a frown, his eyes narrowing as he stuck his tongue out into the air, trying to cool it in vain.

“Oh my gosh, sunbae, are you okay?” asked Naeun, a look of concern etched in her eyes.

Baekhyun’s frown vanished, replaced by a gaping mouth and wide, disbelieving eyes. The emotion in Naeun’s face was unmistakably real and undeniably the most exquisite thing Baekhyun had ever seen. She was expressing worry in her perfect, flawless face, in the most mechanical, but most elegant way, it made Baekhyun want to burn himself more, just to see that display of beauty on her again. He was ing crazy, and he knew it all too well.

“I’m fi..fine! Totally fine!” he stammered, though his lips still tingled when he spoke.

“Hey! No underclassmen allowed here! This is strictly confidential business!” Some senior guy interrupted.

“Oh, sorry,” Naeun apologized, which Baekhyun thought was totally unnecessary. The water balloon operation could clearly be seen taking place from every direction of the MT site. By this point, everyone was expecting the water works, if not already prepared for it in comfortable, water-friendly clothes. Nevertheless, Naeun began to walk away, and Baekhyun followed her.

“Uhhh… Naeun-ah,” said Baekhyun, as they now walked side by side along the edge of a wooded area near the MT site, most likely very near the place Baekhyun had vomited the night before. “Umm… last night… was that you, who, uhh… helped me while I was… uhhh… throwing up? I… don’t really… remember...” He scratched his head, unable to look her in the eyes.

Naeun chuckled. She raised a finger and pointed a few feet ahead of them. “Yeah. I think it was over there, actually,” she said.

Baekhyun again felt the dire need to slap himself. “Ohh crap…” he mumbled, veering their direction so they wouldn’t walk toward the nasty sight, “sorry about that… and uhh… thanks.”

“I should be thanking you sunbae. You kept stealing my drink from me so I wouldn’t have to drink too much, right? If I’d had all those beers by myself, I would’ve been the one to throw up,” Naeun replied.

Baekhyun felt as if bells had gone off in his head. He grinned to himself sheepishly, feeling his ego puff up again. He sipped his coffee, which had now become comfortably warm. So he hadn’t screwed up that bad, after all. He still had a chance with this girl.

“So… you don’t remember anything else you did last night, after Changhyun won the beauty contest?” Naeun asked.

“No, only bits and pieces… wait, did I do something I should know about?” Baekhyun flashed through what memories he did have of last night. Then, he realized, that there was definitely a chunk of time in between when he and his friends had poured all the beer on Changhyun and his pink dress, until he vomited up all the alcohol and went to sleep, that he couldn’t recall, at all.

“Damn it, I didn’t do anything stupid, did I?”

Naeun looked at Baekhyun for a moment. Then, as a smile spread across her face, she lifted her eyes away from him, in a teasing manner, that made Baekhyun’s heart stop for a beat. “Ohh, I don’t know sunbae…”

In between them, Baekhyun and Jungsoo had secured one whole pail of water balloons, with which they were now bombarding a small group of juniors, amongst them, the cute baby-faced kid, Changhyun.

“Yah, Changhyun-ah~!” Jungsoo teased, as he aimed a balloon for Changhyun’s head, which the little kid managed to dodge with a shy smile.

“Wahhh!!!!!” Came the unified cry of Sungyeol and Chulyong, as Sungyeol, with Chulyong mounted on his back, showed up out of nowhere and ran straight toward Changhyun and the juniors. In Chulyong’s hands was a medium sized pale, filled with water, not balloons, just plain water. At the heart of the group of juniors, Chulyong emptied the contents of the pail, getting a kid with light purple hair completely soaked.

“Helllll yeah!!!” Chulyong screeched, as the duo ran off into who knows where.

With a loud snigger, Jungsoo scooped up three more water balloons from their pail. “So Baekhyun, did you have fun talking to Naeun this morning? Did she say anything to you about last night?” he asked.

Baekhyun furrowed his eyebrows intensely. “Urghh… yah, seriously, did I do anything stupid? I can’t remember anything, and Naeun wouldn’t tell me,” he said.

Jungsoo let out another, boisterous laugh. “Oh, you don’t remember? Haha, well, don’t worry dude, no one took you very seriously,” he remarked.

“Huh? What do you m..pftfftt!!” Baekhyun was cut off by a cold water balloon exploding right on the left side of his head. The water dripped all over his hair and face, and he looked around immediately to see who’d thrown the balloon.

Someone was laughing somewhere near him. She was glowing with that bright, magnificent light, even with her hair wet and drippy in places, even with smudges of water on her t-shirt; she was so perfectly beautiful. “Yah, Son Naeun!!” Baekhyun shouted, reaching for a handful of balloons from the pail.

Still laughing, Naeun her heels, fleeing from Baekhyun as he chased after her. She ducked and dodged one of Baekhyun’s balloons as it flew over her head, and returned him a mischievous grin, crying ahead of her, “Sora unnie!”

She ran and took cover behind Sora, who was also dripping with water from head to toe. “Yah Byun Baekhyun!” Sora exclaimed, “Do you seriously think it’s fair for you to be attacking girls like us?? And I’m still mad about that water accident from yesterday, you know!”

Baekhyun let out a sigh. He lifted the two water balloons in his hand, and squished both of them on top of his head, the water exploding above him and running down his hair. Thick strands of his wet hair stuck to his face, and with a defeated smile, he said, “There, does that make up for yesterday, and today?”

Naeun and Sora both clutched their stomachs and laughed at Baekhyun. While they were distracted, a balloon came flying toward them, hitting Sora in the leg. “Aaack!” Both girls screamed. Baekhyun saw Jungsoo trotting toward the three of them, lugging the pail of balloons in his arms. “I’m coming Baekhyun-ah!” he cried, his notably dry hair flying behind him.

Baekhyun knew that he didn’t have it in him to aim for Naeun. He was already way too head over heels for her. Just the fact that she was near him made him feel like he was floating. He couldn’t help but feel that everything was so perfect. So he just stood there, a little stupidly, watching as Naeun and Sora screeched and dodged Jungsoo’s water balloons. He was probably never going to stop losing his mind for this girl like this. So far, he definitely hadn’t been able to.

Baekhyun wanted nothing more than to make this girl his. And somehow, in his head, he knew what to do. He was going to make his move tonight.