The first day of classes, Ara gave up on her Starbucks to run away from golf ball eyes.

And Yoonjo.

She had been in a good mood, humming a melodic IU tune, early enough to grab coffee before her morning class and still have some time.

The minute she pushed the heavy glass door in, she met eyes with a certain pair of huge, white irises. He sat at a small, two-person table, with an immediately recognizable carrot-haired girl across from him, familiar peach purse and all.

Ara her heels, and ran.

Too bad in Physics, her first class that day only twenty minutes after, golf ball eyes came up to her with her missing Vanilla Latte in hand.

“Why didn’t you join us?”

Ara feigned a smile she thought was pretty convincing, trying to reject the expensive drink from golf ball eyes. He just put it on her space of the lecture table. It wasn’t like she could slap it away and make a mess five minutes before class started.

“You know, instead of trying to refuse, you could just buy for me tomorrow.”

Ara couldn’t find a way out of that one.

“Do you even drink Starbucks every morning?”

Golf ball eyes blinked, taking extra long seconds because of his huge eyes.

“No. But you don’t either.”

Ara was adamantly against making any sort of plans with golf ball eyes in any sense. But her conscious was badgering her, warning her if she didn’t repay him, she would never live with it.

“You know what, I’ll bring it to you Thursday, beginning of this class. What do you want?”

He looked at her for a few long minutes before he finally answered.

“The same thing.”

He smiled, and finally left her alone, going down to where he sat near the front with Hyunshik.

English, Anatomy, Physics, Physics Lab. Were the classes she had with golf ball eyes this semester. All but English, she also had with Hyunshik.

Ara had no idea why she ended up agreeing to go see Heavenly Voice’s first performance of the new semester with Yoonjo.

Wait, she knew why. Her roommate still claimed it was awkward to confront golf ball eyes without Ara. And by now, it was getting more and more difficult for Ara to ignore Yoonjo’s crush on Kyungsoo. Almost fifty percent of their conversations in their dorm room consisted of him.

The group was somewhat a campus celebrity now. Small patches of excited fans – all female – waved balloons and their phones with lit up screens or names.

The performance took place in the campus common ground, an open, but intimate space. The group and their sound equipment took the center of the ovular outdoor ground, and the audience sat in an arc around them, on the ledges and benches around the grounds, on the bricked pavement with blankets, or standing.

Ara really couldn’t deny how much she enjoyed a duet performed by the two older members of the acapella group. Dongwoo and Jinho covered IU’s ‘The Night of the First Breakup’. Ara mouthed the words to their soft harmonies, taking in the full effect of what voice could do to relax and release.

The way she softened up and forgot about school, working hard, and all of that, even got her to loosely enjoy Kyungsoo and Hyunshik’s duet of Na Yoonkwon’s ‘Expectation’.

Yoonjo gawked at the two’s vocals, emphasizing how it was her favorite song of the night.

For a solo show by the group, it went for a short amount of time. The evening was still nice and cool, and Ara was in a good mood.

Neither she nor Yoonjo expected it when golf ball eyes and Hyunshik showed up right in front of them, leaving behind giggling fans.

“Do you two wanna join us for a hang out at Dongwoo hyung and Jinho hyung’s place? It’s… sort of like an exclusive encore show… it’s less people, more chill, with refreshments and stuff.”

Ara just couldn’t refuse right away at Hyunshik’s shy invitation. Yoonjo was all for it, putting it out right away that it was Ara to convince. Her roommate practically knotted her arms along Ara’s forearm, in full on talk mode about the benefits of going.

Hyunshik and Kyungsoo laughed and chimed in with Yoonjo’s ridiculous argument points. Ara glanced at the other two members of the band, gathering their sound equipment loosely, chatting with some people helping out casually. It all seemed so relaxed, so unlike her habitual hardness.

“Okay, sure.”

It was probably the third time Ara had alcohol in her life. Just two cans of beer. But they made the mini encore show feel better, more enjoyable.

The four members would sit around and start on songs without even having them practiced out, finding mishaps in the middle and just stopping, to move on to another part or just start over, or even start another song.

Ara found their squeaky, unpracticed version of 4men’s ‘Confession’, incredible. Hyunshik’s soprano rang so beautifully in the living room where just a small group of guests were gathered on sofas or chairs. Jinho carried out strong melodies with clear lyrics. Golf ball eyes would sometimes forget lyrics here and there, too absorbed in what the melody felt like, eyes closed, keeping the beat with his hand, smiling and then letting his voice loose again.

Yoonjo tapped Ara with held breaths, marveling at golf ball eyes for whatever he did that she found so attractive.

The group didn’t sing the whole night, getting up for drinks and conversations. Ara got to catch up with Hyunshik a bit, telling him how she actually liked him singing in the group.

“I’ve always known you could sing, but you really enjoy it, don’t you? So much that it almost makes me wonder why you didn’t just choose to major in music.”

He seemed more taken back by the question than Ara expected.

“Why I didn’t just major in music? That’s… well, you know. Music is everyone’ personal form of escape, no matter if you can sing or not. I love singing, I do, but, it’s not as much about letting other people hear my voice, as much as me just singing for my own sake, you know? Plus, I don’t really have the face to be a singer.”

Ara laughed, genuinely, waving Hyunshik off.

“Come on, you don’t always have to be handsome to be a singer!”

Hyunshik just shrugged.

“You should really be asking why Kyungsoo didn’t major in music. He loves singing. He gets into it. And he even has the face too! The kind of face both girls and guys like.”

Hyunshik glanced around. When he turned back to Ara with a relaxed smile, she figured he’d made sure golf ball eyes wasn’t around.

“The kind of face that both girls and boys like… you mean 50% eyes and 50% skin?”

Hyunshik’s bewildered reaction threw Ara into a fit of giggles. How many times a year she actually got to laugh like that, she had no idea.

Then Hyunshik had the nerve to defend golf ball eyes’s facial attractiveness against Ara. She just gawked, then huffed, shaking her head to herself. Hyunshik was easy to talk to, friendly, good company to have. He knew Ara well; they had grown up together. In a way, she found it endearing that the guy had been kind enough to befriend golf ball eyes so comfortably. Annoyingly perfect or not, moving to a brand new school midway through senior year must have been hard.

“Ara, about what happened in high school with Kyungsoo, were you… you know, mad about it? Are you… still mad about it?”

Ara just stared at Hyunshik - the rigid features of his face – letting the question sink in a little too long. She maybe moved a bit. But she couldn’t answer. She hadn’t ever told anyone. Had she even told herself?

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”

And thankfully, passing off the question apologetically and offering Ara refreshments, Hyunshik casually led her over to the kitchen. While Hyunshik went for another beer, Ara reached out for some chips.

“Ara, do you want another one?”

She jumped at golf ball eyes’ voice. She hadn’t even seen him, or Yoonjo next to him.

“It’s okay. Two was plenty good for me, I think.”

Golf ball eyes nodded, sticking the can back in the cooler. Yoonjo seemed to be sipping her third can, suddenly perking at a thought.

“So now that we’re all here, coincidentally, I actually wanted to ask. What was Ara like in high school?”

Hyunshik looked at Ara and laughed nonchalantly; golf ball eyes smiled.

“Just like she is now,” Kyungsoo finally said.

“What?” Ara raised her eyebrows.

“Exactly. Still the hard worker, perfect grades, perfect student,” Hyunshik gave Ara a nudge.

Yoonjo put her chin in her hand, narrowing her eyes.

“So… nothing in particular I need to hear about? No, interesting or problematic stories?”

Hyunshik looked from Ara to golf ball eyes.

“Well…”

Ara frowned, then shot Yoonjo a friendly glare.

“No. Yoonjo, you know I’m just boring me.”

“Who knows, I might hear something different from someone else who’s known you!”

Yoonjo waved her beer can in front of her for help.

“She was class president and student body president,” Golf ball eyes added.

Ara scoffed, mumbling about how long ago that had been, reaching for more snacks. Her roommate didn’t exactly seem content with the answer.

“Of course you were, Ara. How could I expect anything else.”

And the three of them laughed, while Ara went on inspecting the snack choices.

Ara had a break between Statistics and Anatomy, deciding where to go for lunch.

Near a more secluded outdoor dining area, just on her way into a café for salad, Ara saw a flash of orange hair.

She would’ve popped in on Yoonjo without a blink, if it hadn’t been for golf ball eyes.

Ara didn’t mean to snoop, but she ended up backtracking a bit, watching them.

They stood separately from the general sitting area, under a shade. Facing each other, golf ball eyes talking calmly.

Yoonjo had her hair in a long ponytail, casual button-up shirt and tights. Golf ball eyes in a t-shirt and jeans. They actually didn’t look too bad together.

Ara unconsciously stood there for too long, watching the two converse briefly, Yoonjo smiling slightly. Kyungsoo put out a hand, which Yoonjo shook curtly. She left first, leaving golf ball eyes to linger for a second before grabbing an empty table near the shade.

And Ara decided to go eat somewhere else, knowing she would ask Yoonjo about what she saw as soon as she got the chance.

Ara found Yoonjo in their dorm room, cross-legged on her bed, box of tissues in her lap, crying.

“What happened?”

Her roommate looked up with puffy eyes, a forced smile.

“I got ahead of myself.”

Ara immediately sat across from Yoonjo on her own bed, bewildered.

“Which means..?”

“I confessed. To Kyungsoo. And he told me he liked someone else. It was so rash of me, I don’t even know him that well. How dumb do you think I look to him now?”

And Yoonjo went on blowing her nose with a fresh tissue, letting the used ones scatter around her on the bed and the floor. Ara would have to clean those up later.

“No, you don’t look dumb. You’re honest about your feelings. That’s all. If he likes someone else, that’s his loss.”

Her roommate gave a chuckle.

“I am way too honest sometimes, huh? I’m sure he likes someone pretty amazing. Who wouldn’t want to be liked by a guy like that?”

“That’s not what I meant, Yoonjo! But for once, let me be as honest as you right now. I would never date those golf ball eyes.”

That made Yoonjo really laugh.

“Golf ball eyes? Is that what you guys used to call him in high school?”

“…no, that’s just what I… in high school all the kids used to call him heart lips.” Ara stuttered, her phone.

Yoonjo nodded, sniffing.

“He does have heart shaped lips…”

“Okay enough talking about Kyungsoo! Yoonjo, I’m gonna go buy us some ice cream, and we can have a fun movie night. I’m not gonna study here obviously with you all sniffing and getting tissues all over the floor.”

Yoonjo nodded dramatically, making a pretty good puppy face.

“Bring back a lot of ice cream, okay?”

Ara grabbed her phone and wallet and slipped out. When she walked out of the elevator, the sun just about finished setting, she realized she was fuming. Why those golf ball eyes had a way of sneaking into her life in more than one too many unpleasant ways, she really wanted to ask in person.