The next day, I arrived alone to work. He was surprisingly absent from the subway station when I arrived that day, and further searching yielded no evidence that he had actually been there. I surmised that he had probably gone to work by car, but was gravely disappointed when I arrived only to find Kris twirling a pencil in his hand as he told me that he and I would be working together today. When I enquired further, he told me that Joonmyun couldn’t come because of some family matters.

I was also surprised to learn that he was absent this Monday too. I began to ponder if the excuse about family matters was actually a cover-up for the fact that he was sick, but then remembered the boy I saw riding in his car two days back, whom I guessed was a relative. I suppose I was going to have to live through another day without seeing Joonmyun, and truthfully, I wasn’t really looking forward to it.

As of now, I was sitting on the bleachers next to the soccer field with Hyunji and Jonghyun. We were having PE outside today together with another class –which coincidentally happened to be Yixing’s. We had different activities though; our class was supposed to be running the track while Yixing’s was supposed to be playing soccer.

I had been keeping a close eye on him every since I could make out his figure amidst the sea of bodies filing into the court, and not once did he bother to look at us to say ‘hi’. I didn’t bother trying to get his attention, but Hyunji did. She was standing up and waving to him, yelling his name twice before dejectedly sitting down with an annoyed huff.

“Why isn’t he answering?” she questioned apprehensively.

“Maybe he didn’t hear you,” I said consolingly, although I knew that that was far from the truth. I saw Yixing’s head turn slightly out of habit when she called him, but he quickly covered it up by turning away to talk to another classmate.

Right now, we had just finished running our laps and were sprawled all over the benches. Jonghyun had arrived with three bottles of water; one for himself and the other two for me and Hyunji. We idly started talking to each other then, complaining about our aching muscles and then relaying a quick summary of what we did over the weekends. I had given up on my attempts at trying to distance myself from Jonghyun for Yixing’s sake, and now I had no reservations about befriending him.  After all, he was a nice guy, and if Yixing had a problem with it, he should deal with it himself.

“You know, you’re getting a bad name by being friends with me,” Jonghyun commented out of the blue, running his fingers through his damp hair and gazing at us enquiringly. “So why do you?”

“For one thing, we don’t judge people from the schools they came from,” Hyunji said teasingly, quoting Jonghyun from our first meeting.

Jonghyun chuckled.

“And secondly, we don’t have much of a choice. You don’t seem to be able to leave Hyunji and me alone,” I added jokingly.

He laughed it off, but I noticed that his ears had turned red.

“I appreciate it you know,” he said as he leaned back, stretching his legs out in front of him. “I wasn’t exactly the guest of honour, so nobody wants to talk to me.”

“What about those friends of yours from WH?” Hyunji asked curiously.

Jonghyun shook his head. “They’re not my friends; I barely talk to any of them. The exchange thing was random, you see. They just picked the names of twenty students from a ballot, so none of us really had a say about it.”

Hyunji and I glanced at each other. We didn’t know that. I began to wonder how the selections were made for our band of students that had been shipped off to WH in replacement for theirs.

“But I don’t think I’m entirely unlucky,” Jonghyun added, his gaze resting on Hyunji.

“Really?” she asked softly. “Why?”

Jonghyun grinned, his eyes glinting playfully. “I was glad I get to see you again. You know, I never really got your number that day. I wanted to, uh, keep in touch.”

I wanted to smack my palm on forehead. Could he be any more obvious?

Hyunji seemed to take his playful tone to mean that he was joking. “Really now? And why would I keep in touch with you?” she said teasingly.

Jonghyun pretended to look hurt as he clutched his hand to his heart. “You don’t think I’m worthy enough to be your friend? How about this? I’m a fun guy to be around with; I promise I can make you laugh.”

He proceeded to make funny faces that made Hyunji and I double over in laughter.

“Alright, alright. Give me your phone,” Hyunji said, holding out her hand.

Jonghyun grinned and watched her eagerly as she punched in her number. I leaned back, content on just being the observer, but Jonghyun seemed to remember his manners then and asked me for my number too.

After I gave it to him, he scrolled through a few apps and directed his phone towards Hyunji, who was absently watching the soccer match in the middle of the field. There was a snap, and he grinned as Hyunji’s head whipped towards him.

“Hey, delete that!”

“Nope,” Jonghyun said with a laugh. “It’s for your caller ID.”

“It’s a breach of privacy taking other people’s pictures without their permission, so I demand that you delete that Kim Jonghyun!”

Jonghyun held his phone out of her reach as she tried to reach for it. Laughing, he hopped to his feet, holding the phone over his head and away from her every time she made a grab for it. Hyunji grabbed his arm to stop it from moving, but Jonghyun merely tossed the phone to his other hand while he held Hyunji at bay with his arm.

I was about to open my mouth to say something when a figure from the field caught my eye. Yixing, who had previously been running to retrieve the ball that was being passed around by his classmates, had paused in his steps and was staring at Hyunji and Jonghyun. I could see his brows knitting together, that angry frown marring his features as he glowered at the scene before him.

He was so engrossed in watching Hyunji and Jonghyun fighting over the phone that he didn’t see the soccer ball sailing towards his head.

“Yixing-ah, watch –” I winced as the ball hit him on the back of his head, knocking him onto his knees. “–out,” I finished with a sigh, before running over towards the field to make sure that he was alright.

“You gonna be okay now, Yixing?” Jongdae asked as he gently helped Yixing sit on one of the bleachers. The nice guy he was (and also partly because he felt guilty as he was the one who kicked the ball) Jongdae had immediately run up to Yixing to offer his assistance the minute he saw the ball make contact with Yixing’s head.

“I’ll be fine,” Yixing said, waving him off as he rubbed the sore spot on his head. He sounded bitter and upset, and I doubted it was because of the bump.

“You sure?” Jongdae asked, the corners of his lips twitching as he tried to suppress his smile. Although having a ball straight to the back of the head was undeniably painful, even I had to admit that the scene I witnessed was quite hilarious –and apparently Jongdae thought so too. He just had the courtesy to not laugh in Yixing’s face.

“Yeah, that looked like it hurt a lot,” Jonghyun said. He had followed both Hyunji and I as we rushed towards the scene and he looked genuinely concerned for Yixing.

“I’m fine,” Yixing said irritably, flashing a slight glare at his direction.

“Jonghyun can you go get an ice pack?” Hyunji asked, lightly touching his arm.

Jonghyun nodded and headed off towards the large cooler that the teacher had filled ice specifically for incidents like this.

“I don’t need any help,” Yixing said, almost bitterly as he frowned at the ground in front of him.

“Yes, you do. Now sit still,” she replied patiently.

“Do I look like I’m capable of going anywhere right now?” he questioned, not very nicely.

“Zhang Yixing,” I said warningly. I knew that Yixing can be quite caustic sometimes, but jealousy seemed to have sharpened his words even more.

Thankfully, it didn’t look like Hyunji took it to heart. “Exactly why I’m telling you not to move around.”

Jonghyun returned with the ice pack then. “Here you go, man.”

Yixing snatched it out of Jonghyun’s hand and winced as he gently pressed to his bump. The bell rang then, signalling the end of PE and warning us to get back to class. The coach was yelling that we’re going to play dodgeball next week while everybody was filing off to the locker rooms.

“Well, go ahead. No need to stick around for me; I can manage.” As he spoke, he refused to look at Hyunji and Jonghyun. I sighed and shook my head at him.

Jonghyun glanced at Hyunji, probably waiting for her to leave, but she was adamantly glaring down at Yixing. “I’m trying to help you!” she said in exasperation. “Why can’t you just let me?”

“Aeri! Hyunji! Jonghyun! Get back to class!” our coach yelled at us as he was leaving. I decided to use it as an opportunity to intervene.

“Go on, Hyunji. I’ll handle him,” I told her, giving her a slight push. Hyunji glanced back reluctantly, but I smiled reassuringly at her. “Don’t worry, he’ll be okay.”

She nodded hesitantly but took her leave, Jonghyun, as always, at her heels. I waited until the two were far enough before I turned to Yixing and gave him a look.

“You can’t be a little more courteous?” I scolded him.

“Go away, Aeri,” Yixing said with a frown. “When I said I don’t need any help from anyone, it includes everyone. Even you.”

“Geez, Zhang Yixing. I can’t believe you’re such a prick when you’re jealous.”

 “I’m not –”

“Save it. If you really aren’t jealous, you wouldn’t have been distracted in the first place,” I pointed out.

“What was he doing anyway?” he said sulkily. “Barely even a week of knowing her and he’s already initiating so much physical contact.”

I bit my lip to suppress a chuckle. Even though I was supposed to be mad at Yixing for acting like such an idiot, I had to admit that it was, to some degree, cute.

“Honestly, Yixing,” I said, bending down so that he and I were eye level. “Get your head straight and go win your girl.”

With a quick pat on the shoulder, I left him to ponder over my words.