Kai’s POV

            Sehun was with Sunhi again. And it looks like she actually was talking with him. He laughed a few times and she smiled once or twice.

            Treating this like a competition… maybe that was what’s holding me back. Not to mention Sunhi not talking to me anymore. She acknowledges me, but there’s no smile for me, no wave, only a nod and two seconds of eye contact.

            Everything seems like it’s all crumbled down to nothing.

            I swear… even EXO’s going crazy… or at least, three of them.

            Tao’s off chasing around Victoria, trying to get her to go on a date with him. Luhan’s been awkwardly staring at Sulli every time we see her, only to freak out when she looks over. And Kris… he’s just been freaking out in his own weird way over that new girl… Mitsuki, right?

            I understand why Tao and Luhan act the way they do. Tao’s been trying to get Victoria to date him for two years already, despite her saying that she’s into older guys. And Luhan and Sulli have liked each other since middle school, yet they’re too dense to realize that their love for each other is requited. But Kris is scaring me a little, considering how he’s never acted like this before.

            Senior year is nothing like I thought it would be. I never thought I’d want to get into a serious relationship until after high school. And I never imagined that I would meet someone like Sunhi. But I did, and so did Sehun. Which is where everything became screwed up.

            “Hey, Kris, there’s Mitsuki,” said Xiumin, nudging his arm

            Kris blushed, glared, and Xiumin jumped away, nervously laughing.

            “Ahaha… so, uh… what about that art class? Haha…” Xiumin ran away to hide behind Lay.

            “Come on. We’re gonna be late to our next class if you guys keep playing around like this,” said Baekhyun, dragging Xiumin out from behind Lay.

            “You okay, Kai?” asked D.O., rolling his eyes at Chen and Baekhyun trying to pry Xiumin away from hiding behind people.

            “Yeah. Just great.”

            “Sure.” D.O. sighed. “Whatever it is, you better put it aside. We’ve got a show soon, and our practice is gonna be hell, with Lay being the perfectionist he is…”

            I laughed. “Right…” Would Sunhi go to our show? Maybe… but probably only if Sehun or one of the other EXO guys asked her.

Sunhi’s POV

            It was an average day. Nothing new was happening at all, except for getting used to Mitsuki. It was interesting, being around her.

            When she was with a large group of people, she was quiet and shy. But when she was around just me or a few people, her confident, blunt side came out.

            Amber seemed very used to it, and teased Mitsuki a few times about it.

            Luna and Krystal enjoyed teasing her also, about how she’d react with Kris.

            But Mitsuki for some reason, took an interest in trying to find out more about me. It was clear that I wasn’t exactly the most comfortable around her. Yet, she persisted. I didn’t hate her for it. It just all seemed somewhat strange… that she was so willing to help me.

            Nobody wants to be depressed. Nobody wants to go through this. And perhaps that’s her motivation for trying to get to know me and talk to me so much.

            I pulled down on my sleeves out of habit as we walked to class, and I could see Mitsuki eyeing my hands for a second before resuming her conversation with Sulli and Victoria.

            When we sat down, I tuned out the teacher’s voice, allowing it to fade into the background. My mind’s been too occupied lately. With Kai’s news and Mitsuki’s attempts to give me advice, there’s so much I’ve been thinking about.

            How can I get back to the way things were with Kai before? Do I even want to? Would things be better or worse if I did?

            Should I trust Mitsuki? She didn’t seem like she was lying, but could she be? Is there any other reason why she wants to help me? Does she even really care?

            Questions kept flying through my mind too fast, and I couldn’t even stop one of them to answer them properly. It was like an endless test that I didn’t study for at all. I know, it’s an awful comparison, but that’s how it felt. And if not like that, then I felt worse. I couldn’t stop the headaches from coming and going as they pleased.

            “Sunhi, can you read sentence number seventeen in English?”

            I quickly turned to the front of the classroom, then desperately scanning my paper for the sentence and stood up quickly. Mitsuki, who sat behind me, caught my chair before it fell.

            “T-Thank you,” I said quietly, before reading the sentence as best as I could. The teacher seemed pleased enough by it so I sat down quickly, hiding my face.

            Mitsuki tapped my shoulder and whispered, “Don’t worry about it; nobody saw the chair tip. And don’t be so embarrassed either. Half of the class can’t speak English half as well as you just did.” She offered a small smile.

            I nodded once. “Thank you…” I couldn’t focus so much on Kai and Mitsuki. I really had to pay attention to class. Otherwise, grades would slip, and there would be more to worry about. Pulling a pen out of my bag, I started working on some of the English worksheets.

            There really wasn’t much I could do about Kai right now. And the least I could do was to accept Mitsuki. At the moment, I had to make things easier on myself. If I had to ignore Kai for a little while and try to at least put some trust in Mitsuki, everything would ease up just a bit for me.

            “So, what are you doing after school?” whispered Luna, keeping her eyes on the teacher to make sure we didn’t get caught talking.

            “Probably staying here. Why?”

            “We’re going to the mall with some of the guys. Wanna come?”

            “Sure,” I muttered, not really paying attention.

            “Great!”

            “Sunyoung, is there something you’d like to share with the class?”

            “N-No! Sorry…” Luna sheepishly smiled at the teacher and ducked down her head afterwards, eyes glued to her paper.

. . .

            “What do you mean you guys can’t come? We already planned this for two weeks,” said Krystal, pouting.

            “We’ve got a show to prepare for, Krystal. Sorry. Maybe they can go next time,” said Kris. His eyes flickered to Mitsuki for only a second, but a light flush could be seen on his cheeks.

            “We can get you guys into the show for free, to make up for not going with you today!” said Sehun, trying to compensate. He glanced at me and smiled brightly. I offered a half smile back.

            “Ugh… fine! But you guys are missing out!” said Sulli, swinging her two arms around Amber and me.

            “On what? Carrying around your bags?” Chanyeol shuddered. “No way are we missing out on anything.”

            Amber laughed. “Come on, let’s go. See you guys!”

            Everyone said goodbye, but I saw Kris walk next to Mitsuki, his hands in his pockets and his posture slightly bent so that he could say goodbye specifically to her. She blushed and said something back. Kris ran his fingers through his hair and nodded, walking backwards and almost tripping again. But he caught himself and Mitsuki tried to muffle a laugh as she waved. Kris waved and ducked his head down, turning away.

            Luna pointed towards them and insanely giggled again. I smiled. It was good to see that everyone seemed to be getting along well with Mitsuki. I guess I was the only one having trouble adjusting.

            “This is gonna be fun, Sunhi!” said Krystal, linking arms with me.

            “It’s my first time going to this mall… Of course, I loved it in Hong Kong, but it gets boring after going around the same places for years,” said Mitsuki, laughing. “It sounds ridiculous, considering Hong Kong is full of fashion.”

            “Same here. The only reason we still go to this mall is because every month, each store comes out with new things,” replied Victoria, sticking out her tongue.

            “Won’t it be your first time also, Sunhi?” asked Sulli.

            I shook my head. “I went once or twice with my mom. But otherwise, I haven’t really seen much of it.”

            “Grand tour of the mall it is!” said Luna, skipping in excitement.

Kai’s POV

            “Alright. 5, 6, 7, 8!”

            My body simply followed everybody else’s while we were dancing. A dance move here, a sharp spin there. Same dance moves. Just a different pattern.

            “Hey, everybody! Stop!” yelled Lay over the loud music.

            Suho, being closest to the stereo, turned it off quickly.

            “What’s going on, Kai? You look like you’re just marking the moves. Didn’t I saw we were going all out this time?” asked Lay. “And you’re usually the one to shout at people for not doing as well as they should.”

            “Something up, Kai?” asked Luhan.

            I shook my head. “Just tired. Sorry…”

            “Sit out for five minutes,” said Tao.

            “And when you get back up, give it everything you’ve got. We’ve only got a bit of time left before the show.” Xiumin pat my shoulder and gave me a cheesy smile before I walked towards the back of the studio, sitting down.

            I could see Sehun out of the corner of my eyes. He was smirking.

            Don’t get me wrong, Sehun was never a mean guy. But he can be when he wants to be. And I guess now’s as good a time as any for him to act like this to me.

            But everything seemed to be getting to his head. He was becoming too absorbed in this competition for Sunhi, and it was hard to tell whether he actually still liked her or was just doing this to beat me. Was this how he felt with Jikyung? When I stole her from him, did he feel this way?

            God, I feel like such a bastard.

            Sehun’s eyes darted to me once more before focusing on the dance, which everyone seemed to be doing just fine except for me.

            I didn’t want to think about Sunhi. I didn’t want to think about how I completely ruined my chances with her.

            I needed to focus on the task at hand, which was the show. And there was a dance that I still needed to learn and perfect, otherwise we’d look like fools up there.

            We were known for our crisp, smooth, and completely synchronized moves. If I didn’t meet up to those expectations, we’d fall down a complete level and it’d be my fault, which I couldn’t let happen.

            Before they were done with the repetition, I quickly stepped into my place, picking up perfectly.

            I could see Lay smile and nod as I got back into the groove of the dance. I forced all of my energy into them, using it to release my frustration, anger, and disappointment in Sehun and myself.

            The moves seemed more difficult, now that I actually knew what I was doing. I must’ve looked like an idiot earlier, performing simple moves while all of them were probably doing ace leveled moves.

            “That was a lot better,” said Lay, slapping me on the back.

            I flinched and rolled my eyes.

            “Got your priorities straightened out?” asked Chen.

            I sighed. “Just thought things through a bit. Let’s go over the dance one more time. I swear, I saw you lagging behind at the seventh eight count, Baekhyun.”

            “Was not!”

            “Actually, were too!” said Chanyeol, laughing manically.

            “And you couldn’t get the hand moves in the middle of the dance, Chanyeol…”

            “I did!!”

            “I think we all know that Kai knows what he’s talking about,” said D.O., patting me on the back.

            “Maybe we should all sit in a circle and make him tell us what we did wrong,” said Xiumin, rolling his eyes at his sarcastic comment.

            “Great idea. Come on, get in a circle kids,” said Lay, laughing as all the guys’ eyes widened.

            “You’re kidding, right?!” yelled Sehun, causing Luhan to hit him.

            “No, I’m not. It’ll be good for us to see what we did wrong. And then we can backfire and complain about how he danced like a retarded monkey last time around.” Lay smirked as I gaped at him.

            “Woot! Come on! Get into a freaking circle around him!” said Chanyeol.

            I groaned. About half an hour of practice ended up being dedicated to criticizing each other about our dancing in the piece. An hour was spent fighting with each other and trying to deny our imperfections.

            Xiumin and Chanyeol went into a screaming fight that was later joined by Tao. Kris, Lay, and Chen went off into a glaring contest. Suho and Luhan just stayed to the side, deadpanning at everyone’s fighting. Sehun was arguing and trying to get Baekhyun into a headlock. D.O. just stood beside me, asking me for more advice on his dancing. D.O…. the ever sensible one. He always seemed to be a good combination of calm and sometimes rash.

            “Sorry about all this, Kai…”

            “Not your fault… we’re all just idiot teen guys,” I said, deadpanning at Baekhyun getting hit by Xiumin who was trying to hit Tao, who was trying to kick Chanyeol but ended up kicking Luhan.

            That set off a huge train of beating up until it reached D.O. and me, with me getting punched in the face by Chen, and my head knocking back, sending both me and D.O. down.

            “Damn it! What the hell! If you’re gonna fight, fight. But leave the people who aren’t fighting out of it!” I said, getting up and glaring at everyone.

            “Yeah… not as scary as Kris,” said Chen, but he backed up a little anyways.

            I shook my head and grabbed my bag, walking out of the dance studio and leaving a bunch of quiet, idiot guys to themselves.

            My cheek began to throb slightly as it bruised and swelled a little. At least I didn’t start bleeding.

            I could see someone out of the corner of my eyes and I turned to see a girl running towards me.

            “H-Hi. I’m Kim Hana.”

            “Kai.”

            “Y-Yeah. I know!” She smiled shyly at me before suddenly giving me a letter and running off.

            A confession. That was the last thing I needed. I shoved it into my bag.

            If you’re gonna confess to someone, why do it with a letter? And why run off? How would she know what my answer was if I couldn’t find her?

            I groaned in frustration. I didn’t need a confession. I didn’t want to make a gentle rejection that was well thought out and all that .

            Starting off into a run, I tried to shake off all of the thoughts that were coming back into my mind. Dancing helped get rid of some of the frustration, but now it was flooding back as thoughts of Sunhi and Sehun’s sudden bastard personality flew through.

            I ran straight into someone, causing us to fall down. I looked down and realized I’d ran into Sunhi and was currently on top of her. !

            Quickly standing up, I saw that Amber was trying to help her up.

            “God, where were you going so quickly?” asked Amber.

            “Ah… home.”

            “Emergency or something?”

            “No… just wanted to run.”

            “At least watch out next time! If it weren’t us, you’d probably be yelled at for ages by whoever you would have bumped into,” said Amber. She then looked to Sunhi. “Well, we’re in front of your house anyways. I’ll see you two tomorrow, then?”

            We both nodded and I waved.

            She waved back. “Take care, Sunhi! Bye Kai!” Amber quickly walked away, leaving us alone.

            “Sorry, Sunhi…”

            She seemed slightly flustered, not knowing what to do.

            That’s when I realized… what was I apologizing for? The fall? Or that I kept the secret and finally told her and probably caused her days of frustration as bad as mine was?

            “Sunhi, can we talk?”

            She didn’t look me in the eyes but nodded, gesturing towards her house.

            I nodded, following her passed the gate and into her house.

            “Sunhi! Is that you?” Mrs. Choi came out from the kitchen and smiled. “Oh! Jongin’s here, too!”

            “Hi, Mrs. Choi.” I bowed.

            “Hello! Are you two heading upstairs to do homework? I’ll bring up some fruit for you guys, okay?”

            “Thanks mom,” muttered Sunhi, guiding me towards her room. She sat down on her bed, looking down at her hands on her lap.

            I took the seat by her desk and pulled it up to the bed. “Sunhi…”

            “What did you want to say?” Her voice was very quiet… almost like the first time we spoke.

            “That I’m sorry… for only telling you about it now… for confusing you. I’m really sorry if I made you lose any trust you had in me. It was stupid of me… And I can’t regret it enough.” I tried to brush away her hair from her face like I did before, but she slightly pulled away, so I pulled my hand back.

            “It’s okay… “ Her eyes seemed to flicker everywhere but to me. “Is that it, Kai?”

            I hesitated. Was this it? It couldn’t be. “What’s going on? Did I do something else?”

            Sunhi’s eyes then stopped and immediately met mine, surprising me so much that I almost jumped. They were sharp and full of hurt. “I… I don’t know… I’m just… I can’t bring myself to trust you as I did before.” She whispered the last part, but her eyes still strongly held mine.

            “I’m sorry, Sunhi…”

            She shook her head. “I’ve already forgiven you.” She tried to smile, but I could tell it was forced. “But… right now, everything’s just muddled up in my mind… Maybe we should just spend some time away from each other…”

            These sounded like the words of a break up. And it felt just like it. But I knew she just meant it as best friends taking a break from each other. I knew that’s what she meant. But she didn’t know that’s not how I took it. I could feel my heart slightly crack.

            But I nodded anyways, standing up and lifting my bag onto my shoulder a bit more. “I guess I’ll see you around, then…” I quickly walked out before she could reply.

            Everything I do, I seem to regret. I regret having talked to her today. But then I know that whether I spoke to her or not, we wouldn’t be the same as we were before. We would stay ignoring each other for who knows how long.

            It felt as if… everything was over between us.

Hehe fast update~ My dongsaeng was bugging me for it D: but I hope you guys like the chapter!

I might do a double update, but that's only if I write fast enough ><

I also apologize if there are any mistakes. I wasn't able to proof read it enough..

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Thanks so much for reading~

~DespisedSecret