Minah POV

I bury my head in my favorite fleece blanket, cringing. 

Chanyeol saw... everything. Everything that I’ve been trying to keep hidden.

He knows all of my secrets.

My modeling job, my poverty, everything.

I flash back to when he saved me from those horrible men, when he pulled me close to him and walked with me to the bus. How he took me to my house and hugged Won Bin. A strange flicker of emotion starts to rise up in my chest but I quickly dismiss it.

No, don’t like him, Minah. He’s one of those stupid typical douchey popular kids that’ll break your heart, I tell myself.

How will Chanyeol react after today? Will he act normally towards me? Or- god forbid- will he pity me? 

I don’t want to go to school on Monday.

But of course, my least favorite day of the week arrives after 2 days of doing nothing and I have to pack my backpack and trudge to school.

And of course, the first person I see there is Chanyeol, standing around the front door of building with his friends, casually on a lollipop. Our eyes meet.

His gaze is questioning, concerned. It looks like he’s about to walk over to me and talk to me. 

But finally, after a few more seconds, he breaks eye contact and looks down at the floor.

I hurry past him and the rest of Exo, blushing furiously for no reason whatsoever.

I need some Pokemon to take my mind off this situation.

After half an hour the morning bell rings and class starts.

I uncomfortably sit down next to Chanyeol, who has his earphones in.

“How are you?” he mutters when I take a seat next to him.

“Fine,” I reply curtly. I don't like how he's asking me about the state of my well-being. 

It's not natural and it's awkward. 

“You will be receiving your song today- the one the performance member of your team will be performing,” Mrs. Han announces from the front of the classroom. “You will have today and tomorrow to practice, Wednesday to rehearse in front of me so I can give you feedback, Thursday for your final practice, and finally, Friday will be your final performance.”

I’m scribbling down all this information while Chanyeol merely taps away on his phone, a goofy grin starting to appear on his face. I scoff. He’s probably texting one of his little girlfriends. 

“-and Friday will be the conclusion of your project.” Mrs. Han concludes. “Now, all the performing kids come and collect your lyrics.”

Chanyeol tucks away his phone in his pocket and swaggers up to the front of the classroom. Mrs. Han briskly hands him a few papers with measures of musical notes on them. After coming back to his seat, Chanyeol immediately starts studying them.

“Let’s go to a performing room and practice,” I tell him. He wags a finger.

“Not yet,” he replies. “I need some more time to study this song.”

“Some more time” turns out to be another 45 minutes; the total amount of time he spent poring over his stupid song lyrics.

“What are you doing?” I finally ask after another quarter of an hour passes.

Chanyeol looks at me and sneers. “You’re not an artist, so you don’t understand the art of feeling a song. It's the first step to do when you're learning a new song.”

“Well, could you feel a little faster?” I hiss. “We’re wasting time here.”

“Relax,” Chanyeol rolls his eyes. Suddenly, he spots a girl walking across the hallway. “Hey, hey, hey! How’re you doing, babe?”

I groan and punch his arm. “Chanyeol, can you please at least try and not-,” I abruptly cut myself off when he gives me a cold stare.

“Do you even know what this song’s about?” Chanyeol asks.

“No,” I reply hesitantly. “I didn’t get a chance to read over it-”

“Love. It’s about love.” Chanyeol exhales and runs a hand through his hair. “To sing about love, you have to feel love. Do you get it now? Or are you still going to act like I'm some stupid slacker who doesn't know what he's doing?" 

"What? I don't do that!" I protest. He lets out a humorless laugh.

"I already know that you think I'm crap. Honestly, I could care less. I just thought that you would hold a little more respect for me after... Friday." Chanyeol gives me a meaningful look. 

"I... don't think you're a piece of crap," I whisper. "At least, I don't anymore." 

"Yeah, right." Chanyeol throws down his music on the table and gets up. "I'm going to go find one of my friends." 

And he leaves me sitting alone, trying to swallow my sadness.

A/N: I'm sorry I haven't updated in so long :( I'm really going to try and devote more time to this fanfic. Thank you for reading!